Chapter 42

Feeling Things Out

"Alright, let's see it," Kyoko said, stopping in a convenient alleyway.

"Um, see what?"

"Your stuff."

"My stuff?" asked Madoka.

"Her stuff!?" demanded Sayaka.

Crimson eyes rolled as the older girl let out an exasperated groan. "Show me your stuff. What you're made of, Kaname Madoka." Kyoko looked at the two girls watching her in confusion, and shook her head sadly. "Transform? Get ready to do battle, and all that shi-" The red-head broke off, noting her girlfriend's suddenly narrowed eyes. "Stuff. You know, Witch hunting?"

"Oh!" Madoka said, beaming. She'd thought so long and hard about her outfit, and was hoping for a reaction less horrified than the one Homura had given her. Grinning, she willed her costume into being, a pink glow seeming to radiate behind her. She did a little pirouette, rising in the air for just a moment, feeling the somehow comforting warmth of her outfit wrapping around before she stopped spinning. With a broad, hopeful smile, she finished by giving a little curtsy, holding the frilly edges of her poofy little skirt with dainty, white-gloved hands.

Sayaka was staring, open-mouthed. The pinkette giggled, turning to the older girl to check her reaction. Kyoko was wearing an incredulous grin, looking, in Madoka's opinion, amazed. It warmed her heart, seeing that look of almost admiration in the veteran's eyes, although there was something strange to the expression...

"Mah-Madoka," Sayaka began, trying to find words. She probably doesn't realize how much of her "stuff" she just showed off, there.

"That was awesome!" Kyoko exclaimed, and Madoka felt herself flushing with pride. "I thought I was daring, but I don't get half as naked as you got-"

"What?!" cried the pinkette, glancing at Sayaka, who could only nod her head sadly in confirmation.

But, honesty was not necessarily always the best policy. "You… you can hardly tell, with, um, that flash of... pink," Sayaka tried in an effort to encourage her suddenly very crestfallen-looking friend. She carefully kept the wince off of her face, but somehow it seemed like she could still hear it in her voice. "Right, Kyoko? You can hardly-"

"Do it again, Madoka," Kyoko asked, with an expression of wide-eyed hope... until she felt Sayaka give her arm a friendly punch while wearing a very convincing angry face. Staggering back a few paces, Kyoko shrugged her shoulders, both to express her wonderment and to make certain nothing had been dislocated.. "What? It's a complim-"

"Madoka, you're outfit… it's just like the one you drew in your notebook! I can't believe it; it looks incredible! Doesn't it, Kyoko?" the blunette finished leadingly. Kyoko blinked, then nodded with a grin.

"Hell yeah, especially how short that skirt is, wow! Hope your panties are up to the task." Madoka was blushing quite furiously, and Sayaka noticed the tell-tale sparkle within her eyes. "That… corset, or whatever you're wearing, that is very nice. Right up there with battle-brassieres, seriously. And those poofy sleeves sewed on, accentuating the fact that your upper chest is as bare as Sayaka's… nice collarbones, by the way." Heedless of the pinkette's reaction to her words, which had been to bury her face in her hands, Kyoko's gaze was drawn to the girl's feet. "And red shoes! Nice! Wha… some kinda ballerina shoe with heels? Crazy… and all those bows and ribbons! Almost like you're some kinda naughty little present..."

"Kyoko!" the blunette whispered dangerously. The red-head in question turned, looking puzzled and raising her hands in a What is it this time? gesture of helpless innocence. Following the girl's eyes back to the pinkette, Kyoko noticed the petite shoulders shaking as she cupped her face in her hands. Jesus H. fucking christ, the red-head thought to herself. It was a compliment!

Deciding to be proactive, knowing that if nothing else Sayaka would be all over that sort of thing, and consequently all over her, possibly… Kyoko approached the younger girl, not knowing what to say but imagining that it would just come to her. Slowing her pace, noting the frank disbelief on the face of her blunette from the corner of an eye that only seemed to be entirely focused on the pinkette, the veteran was suddenly aware of the gentle, weeping sobs that the younger girl was producing. Suddenly uncomfortable, she turned around for some reason, finding herself staring into a pair of encouraging azure eyes. Smiling and nodding, Sayaka gestured for her to continue. Continue what, though? She still coulnd't think of anything to say. Didn't even understand what the problem was, anyway.

She slowly extended a hand towards the weeping figure. Madoka had that, well, touchy-feely girl vibe. Not the kind Kyoko was quickly becoming reacquainted with, but like… hugs and stuff. So, stealthily, the older girl reached out an arm and patted the girl on the shoulder. The sobbing, for a moment, stopped, and a hesitant pink glance could be seen between the short girl's fingers. Her face rose, just a fraction, and she stared up with such wide, yearning eyes, Kyoko had to once again glance back at Sayaka. The blunette gave her a thumbs up and a big, stupid, completely unhelpful grin. "Uh, don't be upset, there, Pinky-" Ooops. "Madoka, heh, Madoka, it's… it was a compliment?" Seeing the girl's eyebrows furrow, Kyoko tried to figure out how to reassure the girl. "Um, you look really hot in that!" The eyebrows rose, and the girl's expression showed equal parts discomfort and alarm. "Cute, in a good way. You know, pretty?" Kyoko gave up, shoulders sagging as Madoka backed away.

"I… ah, th-thank you, Kyoko-chan," she began uncertainly. "I… I'm not, um, like, well…" She glanced shiftily between the red-head and the blunette, wiping away at her red-rimmed eyes.

"Kyoko's right, Madoka-chan," Sayaka grinned, putting an arm around her classmate's shoulder. The pinkette looked up at her in surprise. With a knowing smile, the blunette winked exaggeratedly. "That outfit does make you look amazing. I can think of at least one boy whose head would turn if he saw you in that…" When Madoka stared at her blankly, waiting for her to finish, Sayaka felt a burst of affection for her friend. She completely ignored Kyoko's obnoxious snort.

"That dress is adorably cute, and more than that, it's so elegant! I happen to know a local musician who is very fond of dressing up himself…" Now Madoka's eyes were alight with possibilities, and Sayaka didn't feel bad in the least about not bringing up the shortness of the skirt or the rather suggestive nature of her top… even though you didn't see that kind of thing at Mitakihara Hall, she figured that if Kyousuke had a masculine bone in his body, he'd probably like it for that very reason.

Every time Sayaka did something that seemed to encourage Madoka's intentions towards the former object of her affection, she noticed Kyoko would suddenly be standing a little taller, and that swagger, already a lot to begin with, got even worse. The blunette couldn't help but smile to herself, enjoying the reaction immensely.

Kyoko quickly grew annoyed with the dreamy looks both girls were suddenly wearing. "Don't we have something we're supposed to be doing?" she prodded. Sayaka gave her what was quickly becoming known to her as one of those looks.

"Yes, you're right, Kyoko-chan." The pinkette's timely agreement drew the attention of both girls. "We should keep going, this is right around where Homura-chan told us it would be…" Looking at her phone, she shrugged and handed it to Sayaka. "Hmm. We're not any closer. I'm no good with maps," she muttered bashfully. Then why did Homura give you the directions, and not me? Kyoko wondered, in the back of her mind beginning to come to terms with the shabbiness of her device.

She patted her pocket fondly, somehow liking the thing more for being a piece of crap. Better than having the same damn thing everyone else had. Except… it had been so nice, listening to music on Sayaka's phone! Even if her tastes left something to be desired. Guiltily, she glanced at the blunette, remembering how it had begun beeping, annoyingly increasing in frequency, and then abruptly died.

"I think it's this way," Madoka was saying, but her blunette was shaking her head, eyes squinched in concentration. Sayaka's serious thinking face was something Kyoko found irresistibly adorable. Almost like she's in pain or something.

"We're not far, but… Madoka, you realize that this map is always facing north, right? It's not pointing at where you're looking." She drew the girl's attention to some nearby landmarks, then their position on the screen.

"Oh, I wondered why it looked like we were moving backwards!"

"This way," the blunette sighed.

When Sayaka and Kyoko transformed into their magical outfits, Madoka had stared at Kyoko in horror.

"You're saying, when I do that I look more naked that you?"

"Sorry kid. My red glare hides some of mine… your pink glow, however, just kind of… I dunno, accentuates it?" Madoka noticed the considering, far-off look in the older girl's eyes. "Accentuates, yeah…"

Sayaka was looking at the red-head quizzically as her outfit came into being, largely hidden behind that white swirling cape. Suddenly Madoka was overcome by an intense feeling of being watched. She glanced around nervously, pink orbs darting to and fro. "You okay?" Sayaka asked, noticing the girl's sudden unease.

"Yeah, fine," Madoka assured. "Just… do you feel like, um, we're being watched, or something?"

The blunette looked at her strangely, shaking her head, but Kyoko was already bounding up between the walls, ninja style. A few moments later, she returned to street level, shaking her head. "Nobody up there, not that I could see, anyway." She looked up, scanning the rooftops, almost like she didn't quite believe her eyes.

Madoka shrugged, but she couldn't get rid of that nagging feeling of a presence, or more accurately, presences, around her.

And they were not happy.

A couple of blocks later, they heard it.

"Heeheeheeehooohoohaahahahaha."

Giggles. High pitched, ridiculous giggling echoed through the alleyway.

Madoka abruptly broke out of her daydream. She saw the two taller girls, walking just ahead of her side by side, share a glance, then look back at her. "What? What is it?"

"It…" Sayaka began, a little disturbed.

"Sounded like you," Kyoko finished.

"A little," amended the blunette, proving she could finish her own sentences.

What? I don't sound like that at all! "It's a familiar!" she realized; now that she was alert, it was so obvious. "Can't you feel it?"

Sayaka and Kyoko looked at each other again, and Madoka couldn't help but sound exasperated. "Let's go get it!" The other two had no choice but to follow as she bounded ahead eagerly, wondering why that Familiar felt so, well, familiar…

Sure enough, the pinkette was right. Kyoko even recognized the strange, cartoony scrawl, a bunch of ragged lines forming a small toy plane, buzzing along the alley wall. In its trail it left what looked like scribbled chalk lines… lines that Kyoko realized were beginning to take on the shape of those hated runes.

"Requesting permission to kill that there familiar, Captain Kyoko," Sayaka said, her face annoyingly serious as she looked at the red-head with a stiff-armed salute that definitely would have raised eyebrows in Europe or America. The veteran shrugged, trying not to glower. Always with the reminders.

Madoka was looking confused. Kyoko was beginning to think that it was her default expression. What is special about this girl? I mean, she's really, well, nice… but aside from that. Homura's convinced she's the most powerful Puella Magi ever? Kyoko had her doubts. The pinkette had cried more times tonight than Kyoko had in… Hmm. Well, it had been a rough week. But still, the girl was just so soft. Akemi's mind is clouded around Madoka, that's for sure.

Sayaka, now she was badass. She was going to be an outstanding Magical Girl. Just like her ass-kicking teacher is.

Her eyes were drawn to the blunette for a moment. "Remember the first time we met Kyoko?" Sayaka was asking her classmate, moving slowly to a position where she had a clear path to the thing. "This is the one she let get away." Heedless of the lazy, buzzing loop-de-loops, Sayaka got down in a runners stance, pushing off-

Pew! "HeehoohooohooohooaaaAAAAHHH!" The scribbles seemed to vibrate in the air for a moment, the familiar's shape bending slightly, taking on a sleeker, rocket-like form, before bursting apart in a shower of pink fireworks as the glowing bolt of energy slammed into it.

Sayaka stood up, halfway between a sigh and a smile. "Nice shot!" she praised, and Madoka rubbed a toe in the dirt, hanging her head bashfully but wearing a big smile nevertheless. Settling her cape over her shoulder with a flourish, the blunette felt the faintest hint of regret. It would have been nice to be the one to finally take down that thing.

"Witch," Kyoko muttered, surveying the alleyway. Sayaka noticed her glancing up almost as often as she glanced around, like she was searching the rooftops. Then she felt it, the sense of unease, a wrongness. Something always felt off, around a Barrier, but this felt particularly weak. Almost… hazy. Faint, and far away.

"I can barely feel it," the blunette admitted, casting around but finding nothing besides that miniscule trace of something sinister. But the pinkette was already running down a branch in the alley, her little arms held up, wrists limp and flapping as her limbs pumped awkwardly. Madoka had always run like such a girl, Sayaka acknowledged. She felt slightly embarrassed at Kyoko's incredulous grimace, looking like she'd just seen something vaguely disgusting.

"It's right here!" the retreating pinkette called. Kyoko was the first to follow, and found the short girl standing near an old, boarded up building, the brick and mortar seeming to crumble before her eyes. "Can't you feel it yet?" Madoka asked, perplexed. It was right there!

Kyoko shrugged; it didn't feel any different to her, just that nagging feeling that had begun at the other end of the block. Sayaka glanced over, looking uncertain as well, but her head jerked around when Madoka reached out and touched something-

The gateway coalesced, the Barrier obvious now, radiating waves of unreality. The wrongness seemed to intensify. Everything inside looked… scribbly. That was the best description Kyoko could think of. Even the border of the doorway was squiggly lines. She stepped forward, but Madoka was the first to enter, wearing a look of nervous determination. The red-head allowed herself to feel a tiny bit impressed, and followed after her girlfriend, casting one last look back at the rooftops above them.

"Can't you feel them? They're right by us!" Madoka cried in a shaky voice. Kyoko shushed her angrily while Sayaka looked completely baffled. "Someone's right by us!" The girls, looking around, still saw nothing.

Madoka, taking a deep breath to still her racing heart, closed her eyes. Turning… there! She opened her eyes, looking right at a shock of blue hair, held back tenuously by a golden hairclip. Sayaka looked at her in confusion, palms up and with a helpless shrug.

Something's not right… "There's… more than one. Three? Three people, Sayaka-chan, like they're standing right next to you! But, only, invisible," Madoka finished, despairing of ever communicating exactly what she was sensing. All she knew for certain was that something was definitely wrong.

Kyoko poked the blunette, whispering something in her ear. Really, whispering? thought Madoka, a little offended even through her unease. But then Sayaka reached into her cloak and pulled out three glowing, crystalline eggs, and the pinkette knew instantly that these were the unquiet presences she'd been feeling ever since Sayaka had donned her combat attire.

They were definitely not happy. "They're not happy," she began, then stopped. "What… How-?"

At Kyoko's insistence, the partners explained the situation to Madoka as they continued their way into the heart of the Barrier.

"And that's why we're pretty much outta Grief Seeds," Kyoko finished, not accounting for her own secret stash.

"We do have one left," Sayaka corrected.

"I said pretty much, didn't I? And one for you means none for me, which is the same thing."

Sayaka was looking rather miffed. "I said you could have it-"

"No! We talked about this already-"

"Um, girls?" Madoka interrupted, uncomfortable with all the friction in the air. "Could we, ah, keep it down?" She couldn't help but smile as the identical blushing, guilty looks seemed to spread across both girls' faces.

The scene confronting them was headache-inducing. The grimy alleyway at the entrance had stretched off into the distance, but everything was composed of long, chalky lines, and each seemed to move, ever so slightly. The effect was disorienting. They were now inside of some vast playroom, approaching a series of stacked cubes, and Kyoko noticed that large piles of the blocks dotted the immense room in front of them. Squinting, she noticed that they each had a European-style letter on its face.

"So, they were in the Barrier, huh? And a Witch had them. That's pretty creepy." I wonder for how long, the pinkette wondered, still feeling the waves of dark, simmering emotions radiating from all three presences. "And, you… cleaned them? With Grief Seeds?" Madoka sensed Sayaka all over that decision; she got the feeling the red-headed veteran was not all that pleased with the situation.

"With the Seeds we got in Motogawa, in one night! Three Witches, four, if you count-" Sayaka broke off, slamming her mouth shut.

"Yeah, well," Kyoko commented, picking up the slack. She drew the pinkette's attention away from her girlfriend, who she'd been staring at in puzzlement. "What do you think, Madoka?"

Madoka took a deep breath. It was hard to admit, but… "I'm not sure, exactly, but I can feel how, um, upset they are. I don't… you need, like, a body or something to come back to, right?" She almost stopped there, but felt compelled to let her friends know. "I… think they're dangerous. At least, they're not healthy, anymore." Sayaka tilted her head in confusion. "Mentally. Not healthy."

"But, how could you know that, Madoka-chan? Don't they… don't they deserve a chance? We rescued them from that Barrier-"

"And, probably, from a fate worse than death," Madoka finished. "Which is, I think, the best thing you could have done for them, Sayaka-chan, Kyoko-chan," she nodded respectfully to each. "But, I think what they want, now, is… rest? Peace. They're so mad, I think, because it's still not over."

Sayaka was looking at the girl like she had no idea who she was. "Madoka-chan, are you seriously saying we should just… just kill them? Smash their Soul Gems? They're girls like us! We should be trying to save them!" Deep in the back of her mind, a dangerous thought squirmed within the cage she'd constructed around it. If they couldn't be saved, there was another way they could be of use...

Madoka shrugged, uncertain of how to convince the blunette. "You can only save someone who wants to be saved, Sayaka-chan. At least, that's what my mom told me." She sighed, melancholy. It was difficult enough having to feel those seething, angry presences without Sayaka's good-hearted protestations.

The conversation abruptly died as a Familiar buzzed into their midst, a whirling helicopter that sounded like it was making farting noises as it spun through the air. Sayaka flicked her wrist, feeling the blade whip across the distance, slicing the thing in two. A puff of blackish smoke and even its remnants had disappeared.

"Game on," Kyoko said, only a little annoyed that Sayaka had gotten the first kill. Familiars only count inside barriers, that was the red-head's rule.

"Hmm. Let's try… this!" Madoka exclaimed, pulling back her bow and shooting a blazing pink arrow at the boat-like Familiar swimming across the ground ahead of them. Kyoko gave a start, putting a hand to her chest. The strange resonance seemed to hum through the air, and Sayaka watched as the arrow-beam split apart, dozens of brilliant pink neon spikes leaving fiery trails through the air as they engulfed the area in a brilliant, deadly glow.

The only thing left was a lot of little craters. And broken, smoking stuff.

Holy shit, thought Sayaka.

"Holy shit," muttered Kyoko.

"Wow, pretty cool!" Madoka was grinning widely. "That was really, really neat, wasn't it? And do you want to know the neatest thing of all? Kyoko-chan, my arrows didn't split apart nearly as much when I fought alone, or with Homura-chan. She made everything slow down, so I could shoot a lot, but this is fun in a different way!" She rubbed her chin, suddenly thoughtful. "Sayaka-chan, can I borrow Kyoko-chan for a minute? I want to try something."

Sayaka nodded, not noticing the suddenly sour expression her girlfriend wore. "She's all yours," the blunette said, flashing a grin. Trade me around like I'm a piece of meat, will ya? the red-head thought, which made her remember something. Stubbornly-crossed arms dropped, a hand fishing underneath the frill of her dress and slipping several strips of bacon into her mouth. Chewing, she contemplated a suitable vengeance.

Oh yes, she thought, chuckling evilly. That would do. That would do nicely.

"Gwahahahaha!" The low, evil laugh was unlike the maniacal giggling she'd become accustomed to from the scribble-toy Familiars, but Sayaka glanced around just to be sure. She found herself watching the diminutive form of her pink-skirted friend hopping to keep pace with the long, graceful leaps of her partner.

A seething mass of carelessly scrawled shapes awaited them beyond the next stack of toy blocks, meter high letters spelling out VERSTECKEN SPIELEN. Gibberish. Kyoko had a sudden urge to kick the damn things down, but Madoka was motioning her forward.

"Okay, Kyoko-chan, we're going to take down those ones," the pinkette explained, as if the veteran needed to be told what to do. Kyoko had already cracked her knuckles and tilted her head to the side to crack that, too. She began advancing, only to feel the other girl's hands on her arm. "No, wait… let me try this. Can you, um," she paused, searching for words. "Draw your power or something? Like, hold on to it, but don't shoot it out or whatever?"

Kyoko nodded, wondering where this was going. Some sort of combo-attack? She'd played a few tag-team fighting games in her day. Intrigued, she readied herself.

Sayaka remained vigilant while the other two pressed forward, slicing down an errant cartoonish rocket ship in a few brief moments of total focus, before turning back to glance at the scene ahead. Kyoko's spear was shimmering with a glowing crimson aura, and Madoka had her bow raised… pretty much straight up.

The blunette couldn't help but stare for a moment as Madoka released her arrow, a brilliant spear of pink energy that shot up. Nowhere near any Familiars. Maybe it slipped, Sayaka wondered doubtfully, seeing the pink beam get smaller, and then suddenly flash-

Kyoko saw the giant beam of energy shoot up into the sky. What the hell? she had time to wonder, before there was another amazing pink flash, and suddenly the sky was freaking raining spinning pairs of white-hot triangular blades connected by pink chains of laser beams. She contemplated getting the hell out of that shitstorm for a split second, before noticing that everything was impacting the area in front of them, where the toy Familiars had been playing. The spinning, bladed arrow-chains pierced, wrapped, sliced through the toys, which seemed to let out a collective moan, until the veteran realized that what she was hearing was actually a series of detonations…

Sayaka felt the ground shift slightly underneath her feet. What the-

Madoka clapped her hands together in excitement, the bow vanishing after the tertiary detonations had finally finished. Kyoko, a little jarred from the almost firework-style explosions, let her hands drop from her ears. "That was… impressive, I have to admit," the veteran said grudgingly, waving at Sayaka to get her to come over. The pinkette grinned at her, excitement adding a sparkle to her eyes as she wiped sweat from her forehead.

"We did it together, Kyoko-chan!" She paused a moment, collecting her breath. "When Homura took me hunting, we found that the things we did kind of, well, worked together. Better. She makes stuff slow… you make things get stabbed, wrapped up and, I guess, explode!"

Sayaka joined just in time to hear the the comment. "She certainly does," she said, with a knowing glance Kyoko didn't fail to interpret, what with the waggling eyebrows and everything. Far from turning the tables and embarrassing the red-head, Sayaka was annoyed when the older girl just grinned with that smug look on her face. Man I suck at this. "My turn! See you later, wrapper-upper and exploder." The blunette was hoping her attack would do something really cool, like maybe summon a bunch of spinning monomolecular-edged sword-arrow wheels of death that would fly around chopping the shit out of things and getting all electrical…

Five minutes later, she was thoroughly disappointed.

"I don't understand," Madoka was saying, confused. Sayaka felt wilted, glum from the failure. She'd sucked in a jolt of magical energy, feeling herself crackling with deadly power… and Madoka's arrow had just kind of fizzled out.

"I can't help but notice that her arrow was so much, well, bigger with me," Kyoko said, snickering. "Don't worry about you're, you know, failure to perform. It's okay, it happens to a lot of guys, I hear. Maybe next time-"

"Kyoko, just… shut up." Sayaka was in no mood. Not at all.

Rolling her eyes, Kyoko approached. Madoka had volunteered to scout ahead. "Buck up, Buttercup." That got the blunette's attention; one of the many secrets Kyoko had wrestled from her girlfriend was which Powerpuff Girl was her favorite. "So you can't make a bunch of crazy arrows rain from the sky. Big deal, it's not even fun! You don't get to do anything." Seeing progress in the slight softening of the girl's azure eyes, the veteran continued. "You still can slice shit in half, and summon all those exploding glass swords from the sky anyway, so what's the big deal?" Close, Kyoko thought, watching her girlfriend slowly recover. "And of course, you got me, which trumps just about anything, I'd imagine." Now that she had the blunette smiling, she switched tactics. "Does anything include an outrageous combo attack that kills things before blowing them up not once, not twice but three times?"

Easily dodging the blunette's punch, Kyoko laughed. "That's the spirit! Now, I've got a little consolation prize for you, on account of that horrific failure a few minutes ago." She glanced around, making sure Madoka was still ahead of them. "Quick, take off your glove."

"What?" Sayaka was confused by that particular request. "Um, okay…"

"Now gimme your hand."

I trust her, Sayaka thought. Mostly. Tentatively, she held out her hand, wincing.

Perfect, Madoka thought, turning back once she felt the presence of the Witch lying ahead. She saw the girls in the distance, facing one another and apparently talking. They make an interesting couple, that's for sure. I feel bad for feeling surprised, but it seems like they're actually pretty happy together.

But Madoka knew, courtesy of her mother's infinite wisdom and the inexhaustible pleasure the woman derived from imparting it, all couples had a honeymoon period, where everything went pretty smoothly because of, well, hormones or something. She didn't completely get it, but she knew that the two would have a lot to deal with in the future.

She waved, but they didn't seem to see her. Shrugging to herself, she headed back towards them.

Sayaka felt her hand placed somewhere very surprising, but her initial reaction to jerk her arm back faded instantly once her brain was able to process what her fingers were feeling.

Which was: Smooth.

Oh my god, she thought, glancing right into her partner's crimson eyes, eyes that shone with an almost malevolent satisfaction, mirrored by the feral grin. She moved her hand just a little, feeling how smooth everything was… and then Madoka was behind her talking and she yanked her arm back, spinning around.

Uh oh, Madoka thought. The pair looked upset, red-faced and uncomfortable. If they were fighting, at least they were quiet, she acknowledged. Time for a distraction. "Hey girls! The Witch is up ahead. Let's go get her, so we can get out of here."

"Yes!" the girls agreed in unison, which made each girl smile. Madoka smiled right along with them, turning around to lead the way. It was so fun being part of a team!

Sayaka stood still for a moment, thinking of soft, velvety, and various other synonyms for smooth.

"Sayaka-chan? Are you coming?" Madoka asked, politely but with insistence. They had a job to do.

"Keep your head in the game, rookie," Kyoko stated loudly before heading off to join the pinkette. "Don't let yourself get… distracted."

This Witch was a bitch, Kyoko thought darkly. Mostly, it had been hard to track her down. They'd seen her, at a distance: solid, unlike everything else in this bizarrely scrawled portrait of madness. A creepy-looking doll-like figure. She'd sat on the floor, wearing a red dress with black buttons that matched her soulless eyes. Blonde, with two huge poofy pigtails jutting from the side of her head, the thing had begun scribbling something in what appeared to be thin air. The shape began to form, a little wind-up toy, which began to march towards them as soon as she'd finished. Those cold, dead eyes seemed to blaze for a moment above the doll's turquoise-blushed cheeks.

By the time Madoka had shot the Familiar, the Witch was long gone.

Kyoko had found her, finally, after angrily kicking down a pyramid of the alphabet blocks that were one of the only features of the landscape. Screeching, the blonde doll took off again. Kyoko had lept after her, eyes focused on the blurred legs, one of which wore a rainbow striped boot, while the other was covered in blue hose with yellow starbursts and a mismatched shoe.

Again, the doll Witch disappeared, this time drawing a door midair, which disappeared once it had traveled through.

Brow furrowed in concentration, Madoka tried to feel for the Witch, focusing on one pile of blocks after another… "Over there!" she pointed. Scribbled Familiars seemed to ooze out of the stack, heading in their direction.

"This time, let me try something," Kyoko's tone made it clear she expected total compliance. "Madoka, take off your gloves."

"What?" Madoka murmured.

"WHAT?!" Sayaka spat.

Smiling, Kyoko grabbed ahold of the pinkette's diminutive hand with her own, almost engulfing it. And my hands aren't even that big, Kyoko thought. "Okay, now this time, you gather your power, and, ah… push it through me." She thought that was the right idea. It felt right, anyway. She met her blunette's skeptical look with a reassuring grin. "You'll get your turn next."

She meant it like, your turn with Madoka next, but that's not how Sayaka interpreted it.

The Witch, still in hiding, was furiously scribbling toys into existence, squiggly boats chugging along the pavement, sketched helicopters whirling unsteadily through the air. The giggles were beginning again.

Kyoko focused herself, readying a spring. She gave the pinkette's hand a squeeze, summoning a cluster of giant magic spears-

"This may have been a mistake," Kyoko muttered, feeling something not unlike a shiver of cold seem to pass through her body, from her hand inward. The ground shook as titanic, building sized monstrosities erupted from the ground, climbing into the air.

It's like twenty Eiffel Towers, Sayaka thought, her head craning up and up. Of course, she'd never seen the famous structure, or had any idea of its real size.

A tiny voice said, "No. Stop." But the toy Familiars had stopped giggling and begun to make noises of alarm, and Kyoko only heard the blood pounding in her veins.

The hand in her grasp almost slipped, so the red-head clamped down harder, eyes ablaze with the glow coming off the immense spikes surrounding the Witch and her Familiars. The older girl guessed the barbed, wicked-looking things were at least three stories tall, and satisfyingly thick. Fascinated, she gave them a little push, unchaining their potential. Each of the nearly two dozen things erupted in a whirlwind of chains, like a frayed rope coming apart but with much more spinning violence and destruction. The chains scythed through the air, angled down and lashing at the ground, splitting toy blocks, Familiars and the Witch in a rippling swarm of clattering razor-edged steel, tearing a tremendous gouge into the ground.

Better make sure. Kyoko became aware of Sayaka standing before her, yelling something. She couldn't hear, there was a tremendous ringing in her ears as she channeled more of her power into-

Reeling back, the veteran crouched into a fighting stance. Sayaka was staring at her in bewilderment, rubbing her fist. "What are you doing?" the blunette asked, sounding shocked. What am I doing? What the hell are you doing? Kyoko wondered through a red haze of anger, breathing heavily.

It was then that she heard the weeping. Blinking, she saw the labyrinth shimmer, fading back to the alleyway they'd entered. Right next to the boarded up building, just as it should be, Kyoko thought, a little dazed. Looking over, she saw the pinkette on her knees, sobbing gently. "What-"

Sayaka sidled up to her, still looking at her funny. "Why didn't you stop?"

"Huh?"

"Whatever you were doing, it was hurting her, Kyoko," Sayaka whispered. "She was telling you, screaming, at the end, to stop. It was… horrible."

"What? I don't…" Holding her breath, Kyoko approached the girl, who's sobs had begun to fade. "I had no idea, I thought, well, I didn't mean to hurt you, Madoka. Chan," she added opportunistically, and was rewarded with a tiny grin as the younger girl looked up. "I didn't hear anything, If I had, I promise I would have stopped. Even ask Sayaka," she added, deciding she may need backup. The blunette loyally and mostly truthfully nodded. "I… In spite of the, er, first impression I may have given, I don't go around hurting people for the fun of it." Not usually, and usually not unless they deserve it, she silently amended. "Especially not my… friends."

Suddenly, Madoka was looking less like a wounded animal and more like an adoring puppy. Wiping away her tears, she sniffled and grinned and blinked her watery eyes. Friends! "It's okay, I know you didn't mean it. It was just… really painful."

"What happened," asked Sayaka, thankful at least one of her friends had an easily forgiving nature.

"I did what Kyoko-chan asked, and it was like something grabbed it inside of me and kept yanking it out. And I couldn't slow it down, or make it stop." Shivering, the pinkette let her outfit fade away. "I… I don't think I want to do that again."

Kyoko had a far-off look in her eyes, but blinked and came back to the conversation as Madoka finished. Watching Sayaka bend over to pick up the Grief Seed, she absently said "We should start heading back."

"Oh, just a second," the pinkette said, flustered as she pulled out her phone. It was probably her mom, wanting to check in, and if she didn't pick up by the third ring-

"That's strange," Madoka muttered to herself after staring at the screen for several moments. Sayaka tried to catch Kyoko's eye, but the red-head was busy scanning the rooftops. Paranoid, the blunette thought fondly, turning to her classmate.

The pinkette held out her phone. "I just got a message from Homura-chan," she began, holding the screen for her friend to see.

Akemi Homura: How is the hunt going? When will you be back? Lots to share!

Sayaka shrugged, not understanding. "What? That she's checking in on you?"

Madoka blushed. "No, she's done that before, although not recently… but, look at the last part!"

Kyoko, unable to help herself, broke off her surveillance and peeked over the blunette's shoulder on the tips of her toes. She let out a little grunt of surprise.

Sayaka was annoyed; what was everyone else seeing? And how did Kyoko know what to expect from Homura's texting, anyway? The message, the sentiment, everything seemed perfectly normal… which, in a way, was rather strange when the transfer student was concerned, but-

"The exclamation mark," Kyoko whispered behind her. Glancing around, she saw the older girl scanning the alley innocently. She turned back as her classmate tapped out her response.

"The… exclamation mark?" Sayaka asked Madoka, feeling stupid just saying it-

"Yes! Exactly! She's never, ever used punctuation like that in our conversations before. Let's go!" The pinkette bounced in place, clearly unable to contain the sudden excitement she felt at the thought of returning home.

Just in case, happy holidays. Hopefully I'll be wishing you that a few more times before it's over.

As always, your comments are amazing and appreciated. Thank you!