Sunday evening was everything but calm. Originally, Homura had planned to use it for the creation of more pipe bombs, but since Lilly was restless the whole day, she offered to help her and was quite competent when she was allowed to. This way, they used up the materials way faster than the time traveler was used to and thus, neither of them had anything to do. It was around nine, so Madoka should go to bed soon. There was no reason to check on her at this time, especially when Lilly had done so just an hour ago- and ate another three Kyubeys.

Right now, the Witch was pacing through the spacious living room, bopping her head against the pendulum at the ceiling from time to time for no reason. She strode around the various couches, glancing at the map on the table once in a while. Even when it looked more like boredom, Homura became more capable in reading her body language and knew that she was nervous. Though it had been rather easy to understand once she realised she had to look for the signs she herself displayed. This slight movement of Lilly's jaw, the fingers that unconciously moved to twindle her hair but were forced back almost instantly. Those were just small signs, but Homura knew them well. Therefore, she could now understand the Witch at least a little better. She inherited not only her memories and body, but also her antics.

However, even the stoic Homura was getting annoyed by someone wandering around all the time at this point, but there was not really anything she could do. Even then, it was reassuring that even a being like her could be nervous about her first day at school.

While she thought this, her "sister" stopped and closed her eyes for a moment, then went for the door. "I'm going out for a while. I should be back around half past ten, though."

The statement had Homura cock an eyebrow. "And where exactly are you going?"

The Witch shrugged while continuing to walk. "Checking up on Madoka again, looking for interesting information, maybe hunting a Familiar or two."

Lilly paused for a moment over hearing her next question: "Why are you only hunting Familiars when there are Witches around?"

In response, she turned around and showed her a devious smile. "Not even Kyubey believes a Familiar to be a valuable resource except if it's fed. Were I to kill Witches, Tomoe Mami would notice. She might wonder why some Familiars are simply vanishing, but not question it that much. Less work for her, after all. How should she know that I'm gaining quite a lot from eating them?"

"While we're at it...", Homura continued the questioning, now with real interest, "how much energy do you have by now? You have been eating ever since you were born."

The smile became brighter now. "Let's see... with what I have, I should be able to take on Tomoe even without using time magic. I would be burned out afterwards, but I could defeat her fair and square."

While she turned around to leave, she added something that had Homura cringe on the inside: "Not that I would fight her like this, though."

With that, she was out of the door and left the Magical Girl wondering just why again she did not despise this girl. Maybe it really was because they were similar.

. . .

Just outside the door, Lilly went with a purposeful stride. She wanted to experiment with something Homura did not need to know about yet. Besides the point that it would be embarassing to be seen failing. That was definitely not her main intention, though. Really.

Illuminated only by the light of the moon and the occasional streetlamp, her feet led her towards a mostly abandoned area not too far away from home. On her way, the people she encountered either did not notice or did not care about her. It made no difference anyway because none of them was likely to recognize her.

This was a part of the construction site, although it was not yet and would not be teared down within the next two months. Bureaucracy was slow.

After looking around for a few minutes, she found a good place: an alleyway with a lot of rubble lying around in it. Humans were barely able to see in here and even her enhanced senses could not deliver much more information. Just that it did not stink, so there were no humans around and had not been for a while. Now to the difficult part, namely experimenting with something she thought she was capable of but not how to make it happen.

I should know how to do it... but even then...
She decided that a single heartbeat worth of power was more than enough to practice for a while. Not enough for Homura back at their flat to notice or to tip Mami and Kyubey off, either. And this time, she would rather use it all up instead of swallowing two thirds of it back down like last Friday.

When there was one thing about this body Homulilly hated with a passion, than it was that she could not mobilise as much energy as she wanted, but had to release a set amount. This was one of the downsides of her Grief Seed being a part of her heart: a heartbeat that released magic would always release the same amount. And when there was something left after she was done, she had to either keep it active -which made her detectable-, discard it -which was a waste- or swallow it again. And even when the last of those options was the best, it was also nauseous. If she had to explain it to a human, she might compare it to eating one's own vomit. The mere thought made her shudder.

However, before the memory of this disgusting taste that was even worse than a human crowd could make her empty her stomach in this street, she focussed on the task at hand.

Slowly, Lilly went towards a small stone about the size of an eye and picked it up. Then, she let her magic flow and concentrated. Unfortunately for her though, she underestimated the force of her mind; instead of slowly rising from her hand, the stone shot into the sky like a bullet, far out of her sight. It happened so fast and unexpected that she lost her grasp on the little thing due to the surprise.

Great...

While mumbling something inaudible about plans and reality, she took a few steps back and hid in an entranceway until the impromptu projectile came back down, almost right where she had it shoot upwards. In hitting the surface, it cracked the ground and shattered in the process. Once again, the Witch looked upwards.

Just how high have I thrown it?

Even when she would never know the answer, she had noticed that she lost her grip also because of the sudden increase in magical power she needed to hold on to the stone. Since she only provided a small amount, the connection was lost. This gave her an interesting insight: the farther away something she wanted to grab with her mind was, the more magic she needed to sustain said grip.

Hm...

Lilly decided to take a larger stone and used less power while focussing on it. At first, it did not want to budge, but a slight increase in the energy she used had it lift off from the ground at last. Slower than she actually wanted, but this was better than another unwanted projectile.

She would need to practice a lot more if she wanted to make the best out of this ability. For now, she had the boulder hover in place, then slowly moved it around. While she did the latter, she noticed that it was shaking and slightly lost or gained altitude, so she tried to strenghten her grip. Apparently, that needed adjustment as well; once she applied more force, the boulder cracked and shattered into a lot of pieces that fell to the ground. The sudden change of the object had confused her.

Dust rose and engulfed the Witch as well. She coughed and went out of the cloud, then turned around and assessed how much energy she had left while brushing the dust off her clothes.

Enough for another try...

She had not been efficiently using her magic these past few minutes, but that would come later. First, she had to learn. Unfortunately, her beloved ability could not help her with something no data existed on. It tipped her off about maybe being capable to do this while browsing through an article about science, though. A single sentence sparked the idea:

Time and Space are practically the same.

She could manipulate time, so if this was true, she should be able to manipulate space as well. And as she just proved: The ability was there. Maybe even Homura could do it, but Lilly highly doubted that. As her Witch, her magic was further developed than that of a Magical Girl could be. Even Akemi Homura, who achieved more than any girl before her. That was mostly because a Magical Girl was a human that used magic while a Witch was a being of magic, though.

Enough philosophy... back to work.

A slightly smaller boulder than the last one rose up and went on a journey towards the second floor of this building in front of her. She had it stop right in front of a window without glass, then fly in the other direction back to where it started. Before hitting the ground, it changed direction and began swooping towards a larger pile of rubble, crashing into and obliterating some of it. The rest fell in place of what was now mostly debris while loud rustling filled the air. Another cloud of dust rose, but she was out of its range this time.

Maybe not my smartest move, but whatever. There's no one here anyway.

She learned fast. Though the whole crash had been due to her magic running out a second before she could stop the boulder, it felt pleasant to just use brute force on something. This was a strange thing anyway, a being that preferred hiding and observing liked to be brutal. Maybe this was because she could act freely in those seconds of pure force and did not need to act in a certain pattern to remain unnoticed... yes, she liked to be free.

Unfortunately, Lilly had no watch. So she just hoped her little adventure did not take too much time and started walking back, shaking her head as to get rid of the dust that was still in her hair.

Maybe I should have used my hands to direct the power...

She would experiment with that some other time. For now, she just needed to get home, maybe take a bath and go to sleep. At least the anxiety went away. Not that she was anxious before, though.

. . .

.

First Act: Start

.

. . .

The tiles on the floor had a nice, bright colour, she noticed. Right now, she was following her "sister" towards their classroom and she used the time to gather as much information as possible. After all, parts of her memory were still fuzzy and she needed to close the gaps quickly.

So while she looked around, noted the walls made of glass and the classes that were starting right now, Homulilly successfully suppressed the urge to vomit. The students here did not stink that badly like the people in the streets, but it was still gross. She thought about acting shy to avoid them, but that wouldn't work in the long run. She was anything but shy and not that good of an actress to fool so many people.

While the two girls came to a stop in the hallway, the ranting of their new homeroom-teacher could be heard even outside of the classroom they stood in front of. Though this might also be because of their enhanced hearing.

Suddenly, Homura broke the silence. "We should have about two minutes until she calls us in."

"Alright, Onee-chan!"

After a short discussion, they had decided on Homura being the older twin, just in case someone asked. And Lilly would definitely tease her with that, but not right now. At least... not more than she already did.

"Alright then. Today, two new students will join us", the teacher's voice carried through the glass, now with a somewhat happy note that had not been there a few seconds ago. "Come on in, both of you!"

They exchanged a glance, Lilly somehow managing to suppress her smirk. While both girls began to walk, she started to show the same distant expression Homura already wore, just a little softer by having the corners of her mouth point upwards.

When they walked in, the whole class was looking at them. This in itself was against Lilly's nature, seeing that she used to hide and observe unnoticed. Yet she managed not to give in to the urge to shy away from them. Especially since she was not shy.

Murmuring started, she could make out some girls gushing over how beautiful they were and an overall air of surprise and admiration filled the room. It could have been a worse smell, so she would not complain. Besides, Lilly noticed Madoka and her friends looking at them in surprise, apparently recognizing the two girls from last Friday.

"It is unusual to put siblings in the same class, but the school made an exception for these two since they were hospitalized for a long time."

After the short explanation by Saotome, Homura started to introduce herself. "My name is Akemi Homura. I am looking forward to working with you."

While the teacher wrote down their names, Lilly took over. "And my name is Akemi Yuri. I hope that we will get along."

Both girls bowed while most of the class looked at them in stunned silence. There they stood, two mysterious beauties, distinguishable only by one of them wearing her hair in a ponytail, so this was to be expected. Lilly noticed that her "sister" was starting to focus her gaze on Madoka; however, she stopped when the Witch slightly tapped her feet without anyone noticing.

"Well, let's see... there is a free seat next to Nakazawa-kun and one behind Kaname-chan, so feel free to choose."

The brunette woman looked at them with a smile while the two girls exchanged a glance without saying anything. The class watched in amazement as they nodded at each other and got moving.

What looked like communication without words was actually just them having agreed on what to do beforehand, though: Homura would take her usual seat and Lilly was to take whatever was available.

Then, class started and while she was attentive at first, it did not take long for her to get bored. She understood all of this with the first explanation, there was no need for examples or the like. Though all those humans around apparently needed them. Badly, that was in some cases.

The true horror came with lunchbreak, though; small crowds of girls formed around both Homura and her, asking a lot of useless questions about where she lived before and... and... what shampoo she used?!

Lilly was used to humans being stupid, but this... why would you even ask someone about their shampoo? At this point, the Witch really pondered kissing all of those girls for a few precious seconds, then suppressed the thought. First, this was a bad idea when Tomoe Mami was not that far away. Second, she had a human body, so a kiss was an actual kiss. And she doubted that especially Japanese people would just let her get away with kissing them.

I should remember to test whether I actually can control people with my kiss.

She highly doubted it and after a while of sometimes answering those stupid questions, she sighed and put a hand on her forehead. "Sorry, I'm feeling a little dizzy. I should get to the infirmary to take my medicine."

One of those girls offered to walk her there, but Lilly shook her head. "I appreciate the thought, but this should be left to the person in charge."

While Homura apparently said something along the same lines and rose, Lilly was closer, so she bowed at the pinkette that had been stealing glances at her "sister" all the time. "You are Kaname-san, right? The class-list said that you're the health-representative, so would you mind bringing my sister and me to the infirmary?"

While she asked, Homura had been closing in on them and now stood patiently behind Madoka, who seemed not to have noticed her yet. She was nodding at Lilly. "Of course. Um... please follow me, then."

Lilly had the same stony expression, so even when her voice had contained at least some warmth, it upset her new classmate. Knowing that made her cringe on the inside. She did not want to upset Madoka, not at all. But there was nothing she could do about it, this was her nature. Though she would not mind changing it if it was for the girl she loved. However, Lilly could not do that before the pinkette was saved from her fate.

Then, when said pinkette turned around and had the same purple eyes meet her gaze again, she almost jumped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there... Akemi-san..."

Homura nodded slightly and took a step aside to let Madoka pass. Once the smaller girl took the lead, they followed her out of the classroom.

While walking, Lilly started to giggle quietly. "You know, it would be confusing if you called both of us 'Akemi-san', so you should just use our first names."

She got a surprised stare at her words. "Um... so... Yuri-chan and... Homura-chan?"

Her "sister" nodded again. "What is it?"

They were currently walking behind Madoka, so only the Witch could see the other girl's expression become sad for a moment. She bit her lip and suppressed it quickly, though. Apparently, the loop took effect once again and in this moment, she was glad that her memory was still incomplete.

"Well... I just thought that your name sounds really cool... soo... ah, the infirmary is this way."

She went around a corner and the twins followed, exchanging a glance. Lilly shook her head somewhat violently, but Homura's stare had her give in. It would not change the outcome that much anyway.

Both of them stopped and so did Madoka after realising that they were not following her anymore. She turned around and looked at them in concern. "Is something wrong? Um... Do you feel sick?"

In response, Lilly shook her head while Homura started: "Kaname Madoka, do you value your current way of life? Your family and your friends... do you think dearly of them?"

At first, the other girl was at a loss for words, staring at them wide-eyed.

"Um... I... I do... my family and friends, I love them. They mean a lot to me."

She even started smiling at the end and so did the Witch while placing a hand on her "sister's" shoulder, stopping her from replying. "That's good then. You should stay true to those words."

Again this confused look, but now it was directed at her instead. She wanted to tell that girl what was going on, but she must not. And with that knowledge, the Witch fought back the urge and suppressed it.

"Um... what do you mean with that?"

She kept her grasp on Homura and continued: "Strange things will start to happen soon and people that are not what they seem will try to lure you into events you should not take part in."

"Huh...?"

By now, Lilly's smile had vanished again. Homura on her part freed herself of the grip and went past Madoka. "If what you just said is true, then stay the way you are. This will be enough."

The Witch nodded and started moving as well. "But just in case..."

While she went past the pinkette, she placed a piece of paper in her hand. "If something strange happens or you want to talk to someone."

She had prepared this just in case, writing down both the numbers of their phone at home and Homura's cellphone. Then, she bowed slightly and headed off, leaving a stunned Madoka behind.

.

. . .

.

In the afternoon, a group of three girls sat in the mall to eat, listening to their friend's tale while they did.

After Madoka finished speaking, the other two looked at her, thoughtful green and angry blue both fixed on her.

"I can't believe it! Who do they think they are?!"

Sayaka underlined her statement by pounding her head on her arms that were lying on the table. "Is this mysterious stuff what they think is cool!?"

The other girl still pondered what she had been told. After a few seconds of no one really answering, the blunette looked up from her arms somewhat curiously and spoke in a much calmer way than before: "What do you think, Hitomi?"

"Hm... while this is certainly strange, they really might be worried about you, Madoka-san. Did anything happen as of late?"

To that, the smallest of the group slowly shook her head. "Sorry, Hitomi-chan. There was nothing I would call strange or even unusual..."

When Madoka was honest with herself, she was confused to no end. On top of that, Homura's gaze somewhat scared her due to the intensity she thought she felt behind it. She looked so cold, yet went out of her way to warn her about whatever this was. And while her twin's presence was a bit less overwhelming, the pinkette felt uneasy especially when Yuri was around. Something about her was odd, but she could not put her finger on it. She just did not feel right.

That was why she looked up from her fingers. "Say, have you noticed something weird about Yuri-chan?"

""Hm?""

Both of her friends looked at her, then at each other. Sayaka shrugged. "You mean except for what she said to you? Nope, nothing."

"Neither did I. Why would you ask something like this, Madoka-san?"

She giggled sheepishly while looking down again. "I don't know, something about her is just... not right. I don't know how to describe it, though..."

Hitomi waved it off with a smile. "Maybe she is a type of person you have never seen before, so you do not know what to think of her yet."

To that, Madoka slightly nodded. "Now that you mention it... I really have never met someone like her before... and no one like Homura-chan, either..."

So this might really be it.

"Oi, Madoka...", her athletic friend called out to her, looking somewhat mischievous. "Knowing them for a few hours and already calling them by their first names? Could this be romance? And two of them at once, you naughty girl..."

Madoka felt her cheeks flush violently and shook her head furiously. "It's not like this, Sayaka-chan! Really!"

Before the blunette could make it worse, Hitomi politely coughed to gain their attention. "This is not an anime, Sayaka-san. Something like this does not happen in real life."

Now her expression became far more serious. "Besidesof that, two girls can not love each other. That would be..."

Her eyes fell on a nearby clock and she did not finish the sentence. "My, look how late it is already. I have to leave now."

As she gathered her belongings, Sayaka continued on those lines: "What it is today? Japanese dance class?"

The well-mannered girl slightly shook her head. "No, just tea ceremony. But it really is bothering, especially with exams coming up soon..."

"Phew, I'm glad that my parents aren't rich...", the blunette added in. Then, the other girls got up as well.

They parted at the escalator. Madoka and Sayaka went to the music store now without any words said. The pinkette knew her friend wanted to come here and she did not mind. After all, this way she had an excuse to browse through the music as well. Especially a few singles of this one group sounded interesting. Dark, but full of hope or... at least something like that. Not what she usually heard, but Colorful and Magia really had something on them. As she thought about it a bit more, she realized that the feeling of hearing these songs was similar to that of being around the Akemi-twins. It was a bit scary and mysterious.

However, when she pondered which one to buy, a high-pitched voice called out in her head:

'Help me!'

Startled, Madoka looked around but did not see anything that voice could have come from. Nothing else happened, either and the call for help did not come again.

Maybe that was just my imagination...
Then, Akemi Yuri's words from this morning came back; strange things would start to happen.

Is this what she meant?

The music was forgotten as Madoka pondered what to do. Either believing this to be a strange occurence and asking the twins about it or not saying anything to anyone. If this was just her mind playing tricks on her, she would embarass herself a lot. But if it really was as dangerous as Yuri said?

What should I do...

Sayaka came to mind, but she would definitely just make fun of her. So that was not an option.

For a while, the pinkette stood in front of the shelfs without doing anything but thinking. She was curious about what that was, if it was real. But besides its initial call, it had not said anything. She could not search for it even if she wanted.

In the end, Madoka decided to at least ask someone who might know more, so she quickly waved her cellphone at Sayaka, indicating that she had to make a call and for her not to worry. Once the blunette noticed and nodded at her, she left the store and took a few steps to the side to have some space.

Where did I put it...
After rummaging through her bag for a few seconds, she found the note she had been given earlier this day. For a moment, the girl wondered why only Homura's cellphone number was written down, then discarded the thought. She could ask about that later.

First, she dialed the number of the Akemi-residence. At this time of the day, someone should be at home. However, no one answered the phone and after letting it ring for a minute, she hung up and dialed the other number. This time however, it took about five seconds until she got a response:

"Akemi speaking."

"Um..."

She did not know what to say at first, calling out of the blue like this. But on the other end, her voice apparently had been recognised. "Kaname Madoka?"
"H-Homura-chan?"

She supposed that was Homura, seeing that Yuri referred to her as 'Kaname-san'. But on the other hand... how did she recognise her by but a single noise she made?

"How may I help you?"

"Huh... um... you see, about what your sister said earlier..."

Madoka still did not know how to adress this topic. Would it not sound strange to say 'There was a strange voice talking to me in my head, did you mean that with "weird things"?'

However, Homura seemed to catch onto that at once.

"I see. What exactly happened?"

For a moment, the pinkette thought about what to say while leaning back against the wall, her upper body slightly bowed and her free hand playing with the hem of her skirt.

"A strange voice called out to me, asking for help. But only once and I couldn't see where it came from... you... did mean something like that this morning, right?"

No reply. Then a sigh. "Yes. Please do not follow this voice, even if it is to call out to you again. Where are you right now?"

"At the mall, on the second floor in front of the music store. Why would you ask?"

"I will come over there to sort things out, then. Yuri should be around already. You should keep your eyes open for her."

That was... surprising. She did really not expect a reaction like this.

"O-Okay. Thank you for your concern, Homura-chan."

"There is no need to thank me, but I appreciate it."

Then, she hung up and Madoka slowly lowered her arm to look at the screen.

What exactly had happened right now?