Part Three
Chapter Twenty-Six
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Akemi Homura
"BROTHER!" Teruhashi lunged from her chair and toward the stage. Kusuo was half a step behind, but the strange girl on stage was already turning. Her serene smile faded to an annoyed frown, her charcoal hair floating around her as she moved with deliberate, terrifying grace. Her lavender eyes fell on Teruhashi and narrowed just a fraction.
"How annoying." She raised her left pistol and squeezed the trigger. Panic flared within him, and Kusuo tapped into his spirit energy on pure instinct to propel himself forward and tackle Teruhashi around the waist. They went down hard, but Kusuo twisted at the last moment so his back slammed against the black-skirted stage at the same moment Teruhashi's chair back exploded.
The dense, terrified silence that had settled over the audience broke at once as people screamed and scrambled from their seats. Men and women trampled over one another as children shrieked and cried for their mothers. Kusuo watched it all with gritted teeth, hoping the girl wouldn't snap again and start shooting into the frantic crowd. Unfortunately, he had little time to spare a thought for everyone else; Teruhashi was writhing in his arms, screaming for her brother and demanding release.
"Let me go, please! Brother!"
"Teruhashi!" Kusuo wrapped his arms around her, pinning her flailing limbs to her side. "Calm down!"
"But Brother and—" She gasped, going shock still and tense. "…Yuu-chan…"
"Teru—"
"Yuu-chan!" Teruhashi leaped forward again, almost catching Kusuo by surprise before he dragged her back. "Let me go!"
"Teruhas—!"
"Yuu-chan!"
"Kokomi!" Kusuo spun her around in his arms and shook her, glaring into her shocked, teary eyes. "Calm down!"
"B-but…"
"I'll get him, you know I will, but you can't go charging off like that. You'll get yourself killed!" His grip tightened on her upper arms, and he leaned in closer. "Stay here. I can't save Yuuta if I'm worried about you too."
"O-okay." She swallowed hard and clutched his shirt in both hands. "Be careful."
"Yeah." He moved Teruhashi off his lap and extracted her hands from his shirt so he could peek over the edge of the stage. The dark-haired girl had turned away from the panicked crowd to focus all her attention on Yuuta, who stared at her with wide, frightened eyes while clinging to Blue Minion with all the strength in his tiny, trembling fists.
"Madoka," the girl said, sliding her gun into the round shield braced on her left forearm. "Don't be afraid. It's me, Homura." She took a step forward, her arms held out. "Don't you recognize me?"
Yuuta flinched away from the girl—Homura?—and buried his face in Blue Minion's chest.
"Hey now," Blue Minion said, his voice shaking as he took half a step back. "That's close enough."
Homura frowned at him. "Who are you? What are you to Madoka?" She took another step forward, her arms still held out. "You have no right to keep her from me. Give her to me, now."
"Look, you must have the wrong person." Blue Minion looked around with frantic, searching eyes as he backed away from the approaching girl. "This kid is a boy, you know? A boy."
"Madoka is Madoka. The form she takes has nothing to do with the soul the body houses. Now give her to me."
Kusuo slapped his hand flat on the stage and used his arm to propel himself upward. He landed on the stage edge on the balls of his feet and rose slowly, his sudden appearance attracting the attention of both Homura and Blue Minion. More of that artificial wind rippled at Homura's hair and skirt, and somehow, the rustle of fabric seemed to echo throughout the amphitheater despite the chaos still raging amongst the scattering audience.
"Cyborg Cider-man #2!" Yuuta shouted, releasing his death grip on Blue Minion's power suit to reach for Kusuo with both hands. "I don't like this show anymore, Cyborg Cider-man #2. I wanna go home!"
"Calm yourself, Madoka," Homura said, turning just enough to offer Yuuta a soft smile. "We'll be home soon enough. As for you." Homura's narrowed eyes shot to Kusuo, and she took a single step to the side to face him head on. "Amamiya tells me you have been quite the nuisance, Saiki Kusuo. He says you are the reason I haven't been able to find Madoka these last six years."
"Who are you?" Kusuo demanded. He stood still, though everything inside him screamed at him to run to Yuuta and make sure he was safe. But doing that would focus her attention back on Yuuta. And as long as she was focusing on Kusuo, Blue Minion could continue his slow retreat off stage, taking Yuuta to safety. "What do you want with Yuuta?"
"I have no need of the boy," Homura said, her arms hanging loose at her sides. "It is his soul I need. I have been searching for her for a long time; many, many lifetimes. I won't lose her again."
Kusuo's blood ran cold. "You're saying you plan to kill him?"
Homura waved a dismissive hand. "Bodies come and go, but the soul is eternal. I shall extract it from the body and keep her close to my heart. Never again will she be lost or threatened or hurt. I will ensure that to my last speck of light."
"Your Madoka is gone, Homura," Kusuo said, inching left so she would adjust her stance to follow, taking Yuuta and Blue Minion out of her line of sight. "She's been Reborn. The person Yuuta used to be has nothing to do with the person he is now. Yuuta isn't Madoka. He's just Yuuta."
Homura's expression darkened, angry lines forming between her brows and beneath her eyes. "You're wrong! The soul is immortal, and it always remembers! Whether in this lifetime or the next or the next or the next, Madoka will always be Madoka!"
She vanished, then. Disappearing from view so completely, Kusuo couldn't catch even a flash of her white uniform or charcoal hair. Then, just as suddenly, she reappeared right in front of him. She stood less than a foot away, her right hand extended all the way up so the gun she held pointed squarely between Kusuo's eyes. He threw himself backward—the gun had somehow already been fired despite the lack of sound—and he barely dodged death as the bullet burned across his forehead from eyebrow to hairline.
Dropping to the stage, Kusuo rolled backward and came back to his feet at a crouch, his whole body tensed for a retaliatory strike, but she was gone again. His head jerked left and right, searching, when a flare of instinct made him look up. Homura fell from above, both guns in hand and pointed his way. Kusuo threw himself aside, dodging each soundlessly shot bullet—how was she doing that?—by a hair or less as he raced across the stage. Homura landed surefooted despite the impressive height she'd dropped from and swung her weapons around to follow him, firing all the while.
Needing cover, Kusuo swung himself around a nearby building, though the cheap plywood and thin plaster wouldn't do much to stop a .45. At least it took him out of her view for a second or two. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Kusuo's rapid-fire brain to analyze the situation and scramble for a counter.
"Wait, girls! Don't!" Matsuzaki's voice rose above the last remnants of the evacuating crowd, drawing Kusuo's attention. Uncertainty clenched his stomach as he ducked around the back of the half-constructed building and through the lattice of support beams that held it up from behind. He settled himself to the right of one of the large, plastic-paned windows just in time to see Matsuzaki's twin nieces take a running leap up onto the stage.
You have got to be kidding me.
"Hey, you!" Reiko shouted, pointing at Homura with one hand, the other propped on her denim clad hip. "Who do you think you are coming in here and shooting the place up? Are you stupid, or something?"
"She's probably sad, Rei-Rei," Yuuko said, fingers laced in front of her as she cocked her head at the older girl. "Old people get sad a lot, and she's really, really, really old."
"Yeah, but old people get cranky too." Reiko shifted her pointing arm to her other hip and leaned forward with a smirk. "What about it, old lady? You cranky cause you missed your nap?"
Homura frowned at the girls. "I have no business with you, demons. Be gone."
"Ooo, did you hear that Rei-Rei? She called us demons!" Yuuko giggled. "You think she knows, or was that just a lucky guess?"
"She probably knows," Reiko said with a shrug. "After all, it takes one to know one."
"Yuuko-chan! Reiko-chan!" Yuuta's sudden shout made Kusuo start, and his eyes snapped around to see Yuuta hanging over Blue Minion's shoulder where the man had stopped mid-sneak. They were almost gone, damn it!
"Cyborg Cider-man #2 will handle that mean old lady! You guys run away quick before you get hurt!"
The twins each slapped a hand over their faces and groaned.
"Yuu-kun," Yuuko said. "You know we were distracting her, right? Now she remembers you're there."
"Remember?" Homura scoffed. "I never forgot."
Again, she disappeared only to reappear a second later in front of Blue Minion. Her gun was at his forehead. "I'm done playing games."
"Hyaa!" Reiko cried, appearing above and behind Homura to sweep a backward roundhouse kick at her head. Homura ducked and lashed out with the heel of her palm, catching Reiko in the chest hard enough to shove her backward and through the wall of a nearby building. Reiko shrieked.
"Rei-Rei!"
Damn.
No time to think, Kusuo launched himself through the building's open door and into the abandoned street. He scooped a fallen book from the ground where one of the extras had dropped a backpack that split open in their rush to escape Fairy Floss's sugar attacks. He didn't think, didn't focus, just had a subconscious, repetitive need for this to work. The book began to glow with a pale red light, and Kusuo launched it at Homura, who had turned her gun on Yuuko. The corner of the book slammed into Homura's left temple hard enough to lift her off her feet and into the air before she slammed against the stage almost two meters away.
Still running, Kusuo shortened his stride just enough to scoop Yuuko up by her waist and tuck her under his arm. He jumped through the hole Reiko's little body had made in the prop wall, just barely clearing the broken plaster on all sides. He landed hard, crouched on one knee with Yuuko still under his arm, and looked around. Reiko had flown all the way to the support beams at the back of the building, cracking two of them and turning the entire structure unstable. Her little body was draped over another beam, and Kusuo choked on his heart as it thudded in his throat.
There was no way she wasn't dead.
"Rei-Rei!" Yuuko wriggled and pushed her way out of Kusuo's grip, which surprised him because even without his psychic powers, he was much stronger than normal humans, but Yuuko had escaped him with relative ease. "Rei-Rei! Are you okay?"
Reiko groaned, nearly shocking Kusuo out of his skin, and levered herself up on the beam beneath her stomach. "That…hurt…"
Her voice was choked and there were tears in her eyes, but she wasn't dead.
Why isn't she dead?
Kusuo shook his head. He'd deal with that insanity later. "Stay here, understand?"
Both girls looked up at him, their expressions differing levels of shocked. "But—!"
"Stay!" Leaving the two behind, and hoping they would listen rather than expecting them to, Kusuo sprinted from the building. Against logic, Homura had climbed to her feet. Blood slid down her cheek from the gash in her temple, Kusuo could see a dent in her skull, but the injury didn't seem to bother her at all. Blood dripped from her chin, staining her uniform in spatters, and she glared at Kusuo as he stepped back through the hole. She stood between him and Yuuta, and Blue Minion didn't look at all interested in escaping because Homura once again had a gun pointed at his head.
"I didn't think you would be so much trouble without your powers, but I suppose you had them for too long to not be altered, even as an ordinary man." Her dull eyes narrowed. "How annoying."
"You never answered my question," Kusuo said, trying to figure out a way to get that gun pointed away from Yuuta. "Who are you?"
"Akemi Homura," she said. "I am a magical girl from another world."
Kusuo's eyebrows shot up. "A magical girl?"
"Yes." She cocked her head, an almost amused look on her face. "Does that surprise you, Former Psychic-san?" The amusement on her face evaporated. "You have been keeping her from me for years, Saiki Kusuo. Shielding her from my senses with your uncontrollable aura. I hate you for that, but I suppose I owe you as well. If you hadn't removed your powers when you did, it would have taken years more before I found her again."
"Who was this Madoka to you? Why are you looking for her?"
"Why does anyone search for someone they've lost? I swore that I would protect her, that I would save her from the pains of this world. I won't let anyone stand in my way. Not even her new self."
The second gun reappeared in her left hand, and she aimed it at Kusuo. "And especially not you."
With Homura's attention diverted, Blue Minion turned to run. The gun cracked, and Blue Minion's head explode, spattering the stage with blood and brain matter. Yuuta screamed.
"No! No, no, no! I wanna go home! Home! Cy-sa-ani-ni!" Yuuta sobbed, having clearly lost control of his voice, and that caused a sharp pain in Kusuo's chest. The boy was terrified. "Aniki!"
Kusuo jolted at the title. From the moment they first met, Yuuta hadn't never called him anything but Cyborg Cider-man #2, but there was no doubt in Kusuo's mind just who Yuuta wanted, and there was no way he would let the boy down.
Homura looked down at Yuuta, a discontented frown on her lips. Kusuo took advantage of her distraction to begin channeling spirit energy into his finger. It was easier than the first time, but Kusuo also noticed that the amount of energy he managed to gather wasn't at the same level as before.
Is it because of the book?
"I don't understand," Homura said to herself. "Why is she so afraid?"
"Akemi Homura!"
Homura turned at the sound of her name, her frown transitioning to a full scowl. "What, Saiki Kusuo?"
Kusuo raised his glowing finger and pointed squarely at her chest. "Spirit gun."
As before, saying the words aloud squeezed the mental trigger, and the energy bullet shot forward like a pale red comet. Homura's eyes widened at the sight, her head cocking as if in fascination.
And then she disappeared.
Kusuo's energy bullet kept going, plowing through the plywood set before arching up at an angle and breaking through the ceiling to disappear into the atmosphere.
Damn it! He felt completely drained after shooting off so much energy. He could barely lift his arms anymore, and his legs were so weak they'd gone numb. What now?
"I'll admit that I am impressed, Saiki Kusuo," Homura said from behind Kusuo's back. " I didn't think you would discover your spirit energy so quickly or manage to control it so easily."
Kusuo spun around, but Homura was already gone.
"I feel like I should know you, Saiki Kusuo." Again, she spoke from behind him, and again, she was gone before he turned. "Your soul pulses to a familiar rhythm, and yet, I cannot place it."
"Maybe we were enemies in another life," Kusuo said, turning again and missing her again. "Because I can't imagine we would have been friends."
"I don't have friends."
"Oh?" Kusuo didn't move this time. What was the point? "Then what was Madoka, then? A tool? A possession?"
As he anticipated, Homura reappeared right in front of him, her face twisted ugly with rage. "Madoka is mine."
Having predicted where she would be, Kusuo was already throwing a punch with the last of his minuscule energy. Homura didn't disappear this time, she flickered. One second, Kusuo's fist was aimed perfectly for the dent in her head, but in an eye blink, she was a full step backward and out of range. His follow-through dragging him off balance, Kusuo stumbled to his knees. Panting, he braced himself with trembling arms and ordered himself to stand. He would not lose! He couldn't; not when Yuuta needed him!
Once again, the barrel of a gun was pointed dead center at Kusuo's forehead. Homura didn't look triumphant or pleased; she didn't look like anything. Her face had returned to its empty expression, her lavender eyes narrowed just slightly but without any emotion to give them life.
"Good-bye, Saiki Kusuo."
Kusuo squeezed his eyes shut. Damn.
"No!"
Yuuta?!
Eyes flying open once again, Kusuo was shocked to see Yuuta attached to Homura's leg. He was crying—sobbing, even—with his green hair uncovered and wild. He had blood and brains on his shirt, and his skin was streaked as if he'd tried to brush the mess off his arms and legs. His shoes and socks were gone, though Kusuo couldn't imagine why.
"Don't hurt Aniki! Don't!"
Homura's dead eyes softened as she looked down at Yuuta before looking away with a sigh. "You always did have a soft heart, Madoka."
Homura shot one last look down at Kusuo, debating, then slipped her gun into the shield on her wrist. "Fine. For Madoka's sake, I'll let you live. For now."
Bending down, she lifted Yuuta into her arms and gently patted his back as he sobbed, arms around her neck, and begged her not to hurt his Aniki.
"Until next time, Saiki Kusuo."
And then Homura darted away with Yuuta in tow.
