Madoka is Love. Madoka is Life. Love for the Love Goddess. Hope for the Hope Goddess. Everything will make sense in time.

My son, my son,

My life for my son

Your breath escaped,

And you were gone

My darling little son

You always were so beautiful

And I shall bring you back

My son

Chapter 20: Truth and Delusions, pt. 2

"Do you think that he received the message?" Kojima took off the red-tinted spectacles and sighed, replacing them with his regular glasses. Glancing over at Kotoko, who was removing a thin golden band from her wrist, Kojima tried not to groan audibly. Using his artefact was actually very tiring, and he wondered if Kotoko was feeling as drained as he was.

Kotoko shrugged. "I'm pretty sure. The image of him wasn't very clear, but I think Takeda-san understood our message."

"Great, good," said Kojima in relief. "Then that means our work is done."

"Abeat," said them both at the same time. The glasses and the golden band both turned back into cards.

For a moment, Kotoko gave Kojima a slightly amused look. This was the second time in weeks that they had said things in unison, and it was quite funny to see Koji-kun get embarrassed at that fact. It wasn't as if she were trying to make them synch up, but this cute little coincidence did make her feel like she was growing closer to him.

He had been studying magecraft ever since Kokubunji and Lee-Young had introduced him to the world of magic, and Kojima wouldn't let it show, but he was gradually getting better every day due to his studies. In fact, ever since their contract, she could feel the flow of mana between them steadily increasing as time went on, so that was a good sign. All these new sensations flowing through her processors were so exhilarating.

The fact that they actually did kiss was interesting in itself.

Blushing violently at the thought of that day, Kotoko resolved not to bring up that memory file again. Whenever she did, her processes, including the ones dedicated to walking, refused to work properly. First opportunity she got she was going to put a monitor on those memory blocks to ensure she didn't slip up and think about…the kiss.

She hoped Dr. Takeda would arrive soon. After they rescued Kokubunji and his friends, she wanted to book a therapy session with the odd mage. He probably would know how to help her sort out these…feelings.

Kotoko had wondered if it would have been faster simply to call Dr. Takeda, but considering many factors, one of them being that they forgot to exchange numbers—this was much faster. Besides, his actual phone number was unlisted, due to much of the negative publicity he and his wife had gathered in the past.

He arrived quicker than they expected. Yuzuki permitted him to enter, and bowed slightly when he stepped into the manor.

"So what can I do for you kids?" asked Junji good-naturedly, his hands in his pockets. "Minako will be here in a few minutes. She was hung up with a little…complication, earlier, but it's fine now, I'm sure."

The complication was ….well it was Dita again. But Minako had a bigger surprise for her that time.

Yuzuki, followed by the other maid Persocoms, escorted Junji to Minoru's office, where Kotoko and Kojima were waiting. Chii and Hideki had arrived only three minutes prior, so they were there as well.

In response to his question, no one said anything.

Junji wondered if he misunderstood the message. "Er...I'm sure you all called me here for a reason, right?"

"About that," said Kojima, "we need you to help us find Kokubunji, Garrett, and Lee-Young."

As Dragonfly quickly learned, his artefact could track down anyone for whom he knew the face. However, as he explained to Junji, he couldn't find any of the three missing persons.

"I don't understand what's wrong," said Kotoko. "I admit that magic is strange, but it still follows set rules, from what I have observed so far."

"So you all need help storming the castle, huh?" Scratching the back of his head, Junji thought over the possibilities. "But first we have to find it..."

"Chii," murmured the Chobit in agreement. "Chii had searched for Amber earlier, but there was no signal from either her or Garrett."

"Then they're probably in a location shielded from scrying. That's one clue. But places like that are often small, about the size of a room. Maybe we don't even have to search for them, specifically."

"That's right," muttered Kojima, placing a hand over his chin.

"Did I miss something?" asked Yuzuki, giving Junji a pleading look. "How would you go about doing that?"

"Yeah that's..." Hideki looked askance. He didn't even begin to understand. "I don't get it."

"Look," explained Junji, "they can't hide a whole house from scrying, unless they used a certain charm I know, but even that's highly complicated. The most they can probably do is hide them in a small, undetectable room. I highly doubt that the kidnappers and their targets all are holed up in the same tiny space."

"So," cut in Kojima, "that means that in the case of the captors, we can search for them, instead. It's genius!"

"But one problem," Kotoko furrowed her brow, "we don't know what they look like. Yuzuki didn't even get a glimpse of them, or anything." The manor's security network hadn't even caught them on camera, either, so it wasn't like Yuzuki could have searched for them.

"We did," said Hideki, raising his hand. "But I don't have a good recollection of what they looked like. I mean, what with the flying concrete and razor-sharp strings—,"

Chii waved her hand around in the air. "Ooh, ooh! Chii remembers! Chii can send Kotoko a picture!" She smiled enthusiastically and closed her eyes.

Kotoko looked at the slight blonde skeptically. "Wait, Chii, you don't even know my email. Besides I thought you couldn't..."

She didn't even finish the sentence. Kotoko hit the floor, her eyes dark and blank.

…

Shinji. That was her son's name. He had an odd habit of dressing up like a girl, but even so...

He was Melinda's most cherished person.

The last time she saw him he had dressed up in one of his cutest dresses, and was going to an "IRL-meet," whatever that was. With glee shining in his eyes, he had told his mother that he was meeting a girl who was interested in cross-dressing as well. She wasn't disgusted by his hobby, and was just as serious as him when it came to dressing as a male. Melinda was shocked to hear when Shinji had claimed they were in love.

"You'd love Yuma, mama. She's so cool!" Shinji had told her while blushing.

When he arrived at the cafe, the girl named Yuma was there, yes, but...someone devious had been watching them both from the shadows.

That someone killed both of those children.

Melinda...painted the street with that murderer's blood.

But it didn't bring back her son. Nothing would.

Nothing, except for The Game.

Picosoft Panes 8, Rebooting...

Starting in Safe Mode

System Crash Report:

Data Overload, Emergency Shutdown—Success

Disk space used: 30%

…

She was surprised. Last he checked, this body's storage space was only 2% full.

"Kotoko?...KOTOKO!?"

Ah, someone was calling her. She recognized it was Kojima, but she was still rebooting, so her eyes weren't able to open just yet. Her sense of touch was loading, now. It was... different than usual, but it did feel familiar. Kojima's arms were cradling her, she could tell.

The last of her start-up processes finally finished running, and she opened her eyes.

Immediately, though, in the back of her mind, she could see the file Chii had sent her. This wasn't a picture. Not really. It was a full blown movie file. The detail, though, was incredible.

"Woah," said Kotoko. How many colors could someone pack into an image? Her software didn't come with a filter that detected ultraviolet, but somehow withthose two extra colors that Kotoko noticed in the playback, she identified them correctly.

Was this how Chii saw the world?

"Thank goodness," sighed Kojima. His eyes were teary, but he didn't even bother to wipe them away. "Kotoko, are you okay? "

What an odd question. Kotoko scrolled her eyes around the room. It looked...so much richer than before. The sensations from her sensors were all deeper, if that was possible.

Without speaking, Kotoko rose to her feet. She stared at everyone for a moment before smiling.

"I'm fine, Koji-kun. Actually, I feel great." She took a deep breath. Kotoko could have sworn that the air was even different somehow, too.

A certain little Chobit stepped forward with a guilty look. "...Chii is sorry about hurting you, Kotoko-chan."

Kotoko rolled her eyes. "It's alright, Chii. Just don't do it again, okay?" Honestly, though, this was pretty neat. She felt like a totally different person. "And you didn't send me a picture. That was a whole video file. It worked, though." She placed a hand on Chii's head and fluffed the blonde locks. "You mind if I use your printer, Yuzuki?"

"O-okay," said the blue-haired maid. "I'll admit you to the network."

"Good. Because I got a good look at those troublemakers." Kotoko shot Chii a sly grin. "A very good look."

Save me a spot

So when I get there

I'll be next to you

For always and always