Chapter 40

"Alright, bitch," Kyoko growled as she shoved her spear further into the shoulder of the Magical Girl that had just tried to attack them. "Let's play a game of Bad Cop – Worse Cop. I'm both."

"W-what?"

Kyoko fired a Gandr straight over the girl's head, tearing off a good chunk of hair in the process.

"Aah!"

"Sorry, that was Bad Cop," Kyoko replied.

"Not Worst Cop?" the girl asked, trembling, though that might've been from the pain of having a sharp metal object being forcefully inserted in between the joints of her shoulder.

"Worst Cop wouldn't miss."

"I just needed a Grief Seed alright!" the girl started shouting with her Soul Gem a bit dark for comfort. It didn't take long for either Kyoko or Madoka to figure out what that meant. "And I saw that she was holding one and well…" The Magical Girl glanced at Madoka who was standing nearby and sporting a new cut on her shoulder.

There was a reason why Kyoko had stabbed where she had. The wound Madoka received was shallow thankfully, but it still rankled Kyoko that the Pinky got the injury while under her watch. Honestly, Madoka wouldn't even have gotten that cut in the first place if she just shot the Magical Girl the second she showed up.

But no, Madoka had to try and reason with the girl while getting stabbed at. Sometimes she was just too nice for her own good. It didn't help that Kyoko wasn't in a good mood either. Not after what she had seen last night.

At this rate the stress would be giving her white hairs of her own.

"So, you thought you'd go for an easy target, go for a pair of girls who aren't even Magical Girls," Kyoko growled.

"Y-yes," the Magical Girl admitted.

"And then you went for pinky here first because she looked tiny and weak."

"Well…"

"She could've turned you into a pincushion if she wasn't so busy being nice. Me on the other hand, I always wondered what having a living Pinata would be like."

"Eeep!"

Kyoko was about to pull the spear out and fulfill her promise when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and found Madoka looking at her pleadingly.

"Kyoko, it's fine. Let her go," Madoka said.

"Let her go!?" Kyoko shouted and started waving the hand that wasn't keeping her spear firmly embedded in the Magical Girl's clavicle. "She just tried to skewer you!"

"Because she needed a Grief Seed," Madoka replied as she looked at the girl's Soul Gem, concerned.

"So, you just want to let her go? Let her heal up and attack us again or worse Witch out on us!"

"So, you know too…" the Magical Girl said quietly. Her face, her eyes, it was something that Kyoko had become far too used to seeing. A person who had their world upended right in front of them, in just a single moment.

"How did you find out?" Madoka asked.

"My cousin. We were close and we hunted together." Tears began to drip down the Magical Girl's eyes. "I saw her… turn into one of those things. I… I was supposed to protect her."

"That… sucks," Kyoko admitted as she made sure to turn away from the Magical Girl's face. "That doesn't mean we can forgive her for trying to kill us."

"J-just kill me please," the Magical Girl began begging. "I couldn't… I wasn't strong enough to do it myself. Just please, don't let me become one of those things."

"We don't need it, Kyoko," Madoka said.

Kyoko looked at the crying girl, Madoka's pleading face, and then back to the crying girl. "God damn it."

Kyoko pulled her spear out and stepped aside so that Madoka could use the Grief Seed on the girl's Soul Gem. "Just leave. Don't show up here again."

"But- Why?" the girl asked Madoka.

"Because I don't want to see that happen to you. I don't want any Magical Girl to turn into a Witch," Madoka replied.

"But- I will anyway," the girl sobbed. "There aren't any more Witches where I live. If I can't get any more Grief Seeds."

"Witches are being gathered in Kamihama," Kyoko informed her without even turning to look in her direction. "Lot of them. There's also an organization trying to help out the Magical Girls there. Probably won't lead to anything, but it's better than sitting around and turning."

"But my parents, I can't jus-"

"Would your parents prefer you missing for a bit but come back alive? Or being gone forever because you Witched out. Actually, you could be the one that ends up killing them if you do."

"No!" The girl shouted angrily. "I won't! I can't do that to them!"

Anger. Good. Channel another emotion into that Soul Gem apart from despair. Keep yourself going that way.

"Then go. Live. And maybe you'll be able to see them again," Kyoko replied.

"Al-Alright." The Magical Girl got up, the wound in her shoulder already starting to heal. "I'm sorry for hurting you and thank you… for saving me."

Madoka gave her a reassuring smile. "You're welcome."

The Magical Girl left; to whatever was going to end up happening to her in Kamihama.

"Kyoko," Madoka said as they watched the girl's disappearing figure. "Thank you."

"Sure. Fine." Kyoko put her spear on her shoulder. "Spend half a day tracking this Witch and we don't even have a Grief Seed to show for it."

"But we helped someone, at least."

"For now," Kyoko sighed. "Alright let's go home so that your parents can freak out about your shoulder."

"Madoka Kaname!"

Kyoko immediately jumped, along with Madoka, before she quickly took a stance with her spear and pointed it at the source of the new voice.

"What are two doing!?" Hitomi shouted at them. Next to her was a boy that Kyoko had never seen before.

"Hitomi!? Kyousuke!?" Madoka shouted. "What are you two doing here?"

"Kyousuke was finally let out of the hospital so I'd thought we would visit you so we could spend time together like old times," Hitomi replied. "Only to find you doing this!"

"I-I can explain!"

"I leave you alone for a few days and suddenly, suddenly,"

"Hitomi-"

"You've become an otaku!?"

Both Kyoko and Madoka blinked, blankly, as their mind tried to process what Hitomi had just said. "What?"

"You're going around and roleplaying with girls cosplaying as Magical Girls," Hitomi accused them. "No wonder I had such a bad feeling about Emiya, she was corrupting you!"

Kyoko pinched the top of her nose. "Okay first of all, nothing wrong with having a hobby, and secondly is that really what you think this is!?" Kyoko began to wave her very sharp and very real spear around for her to see.

Seriously, how does a person come to that sort of conclusion?

"I don't think this is fake," Kyousuke commented. "That… Magical Girl? Wouldn't have been able to jump around like that if it was."

Thank you! At least someone around here was making sense!

"It could've been special effects… or maybe rockets in her shoes," Hitomi argued.

"Just listen to your boyfriend over there!" Kyoko pointed to the lone boy among them.

"B-boyfriend," Hitomi blushed and looked away. "We haven't, I haven't. Not until Sayaka comes back so that I can talk to her."

"What was that?" Kyousuke asked.

"Nothing!"

Kyoko sighed as she created a fireball in her hands and flung it at the ground. She made sure that it left a nice burnt mark on the ground to show that all of this was actually real. "Ok, so the short of it is that magic is real, these weapons we use are real, and we need to keep all these things secret from people that don't have magic. That includes you two. Normally I'd go for a mind wipe or get rid of the witnesses," Kyoko looked at Madoka, "But I don't think that's a viable option this time around."

Hitomi looked at the burnt mark on the ground in shock before looking up at Madoka's shoulder. "Wait does that mean that cut there-"

"Yea that's real," Kyoko replied casually. "Actual blood. Because Madoka's here is too nice to actually defend herself against a murderous Magical Girl."

"Madoka!?" Hitomi shouted in worry and suddenly ran up to the pink haired girl. She quickly began to fawn over the girl's injury. "This looks really bad! You could bleed out, it could get infected, we need to take you to the hospital!"

"It's fine, I've had worse," Madoka replied.

"Worse!?"

"Um."

That was unfortunately the wrong answer, and Madoka was soon dealing with a screaming and frantic green haired girl grabbing onto her. It was almost amusing, in a chaotic sitcom sort of way.

"I'm Kyousuke by the way," the boy introduced himself to Kyoko and held out a hand.

"Kyoko Emiya," Kyoko shook it and watched as Hitomi continued to fret over Madoka. "Is she always like that?"

"Freaking out over things after coming to the weirdest conclusions?"

"Yea."

"Then, yes," Kyousuke admitted. "She worries a lot, in a weird and old-fashioned way."

"How's your arm? I heard it got hurt in an accident."

"Fine now. It was a miracle when it started healing all of a sudden. The doctors couldn't believe it, they thought the damage was permanent."

A miracle healing. Like a wish.

Kyoko looked down at his arm suspiciously. "You know a Blue haired chick?"

"Sayaka?"

"Yes."

"Well, yea. We've been friends for a while now, with Hitomi and Madoka. She and Hitomi were there for me when I was still at the hospital… I need to see her. I have something I have to apologize for, and I also need to thank her for everything."

Well, that just confirmed it for Kyoko. Of course that idiot had to make a wish to heal a boy, couldn't even be damned to use it for herself.

"You better thank her," Kyoko grumbled.

"Girls Can't Fight Monsters!" Hitomi shouted.

"And I should probably do something about that," Kyoko sighed before going to separate Hitomi from Madoka before that bear hug she was giving ended up choking the girl to death.

Kyoko watched warily as Hitomi drank tea calmly as she sat on Kaname's couch. It was almost unnerving how quickly the girl could go from frantically unhinged to poised elegance in a moment's notice. And very little of that wasn't an act, her mood just swung that much. Kyousuke on the other hand was persistently nervous about the whole situation, though he seemed to do his best to try and act like he was fine.

"Aah."

Kyoko flinched as Hitomi finally put down her teacup, though Madoka and her father seemed entirely used to the girl's… eccentricity.

"Thank you for the tea Mr. Kaname," Hitomi said politely. "It's as excellent as always."

"You're welcome," Tomohisa replied. "Do you need another cup? Perhaps a snack."

"… I have something to ask of you actually. And I apologize for what I'm about to say, but it needs to be said."

"Go on."

"How could you let your daughter place herself in danger like this?" Hitomi asked. "Isn't it the duty of a parent to protect their child?"

Ooph. Straight to the heart. Even Kyoko had to be wary of how sharp this girl could be with her words.

"It is," Tomohisa admitted. "Protecting my child is a significant part of being a father… that I am unable to fulfill."

"What do you mean?"

"Tomohisa used to have abilities," Archer replied. "He no longer has them though and his children have inherited them."

"I know most of all what they go through, and there's nothing I can do to help," Tomohisa gave Hitomi a sullen and guilt-ridden smile.

"You could at least stop her from putting herself in danger," Hitomi continued, undaunted.

Madoka gasped and opened her mouth to say something. It was only Kyoko putting a hand to her shoulder that stopped her.

"To be honest… I assumed that my children would be able to live regular lives and didn't think to prepare them for this. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. There's still time for Tatsuya but Madoka… She's already too old for me to protect her. Now… she has to make her own choices."

"So… you're fine with Madoka going out there?" Hitomi asked.

"I'm no longer capable of helping her," Tomohisa clasped his hands. "And trying to keep her at home while her friends are in trouble… I couldn't do that to her."

Hitomi stared at Tomohisa for a brief moment before bowing her head. "I apologize again. You clearly care about your daughter, and know more about her than I." She turned to Madoka. "When your father says friends though, does he mean Sayaka and Homura?"

"They're Magical Girls," Madoka admitted. "They went to find Mami and I haven't heard from them in a while… That's why I'm going to Kamihama to look for them."

Kyoko's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, what?"

"This is the same place where Sayaka, Akemi, and Tomoe disappeared," Kyousuke commented. "Won't the same thing happen to you?"

"Which is why I'm going with Archer and Kyoko. They're going to go there anyway."

"Didn't your friends tell you they needed someone to keep an eye on the city?" Kyoko argued.

"You and I already hunted most of the Witches here," Madoka replied. "There's nothing else I can do for them here. I need to go to Kamihama to help them."

"What about your parents?" Kyoko waved her hand to Tomohisa. "This is different from fighting Witches, Kamihama is seriously dangerous and crazy."

"I already talked to my Mama and Papa. As long as I go with you and Archer I can go. You both have been in the city already and you're both strong enough to protect me."

"A favor to watch over our daughter in exchange for the favor Archer has for us," Tomohisa replied. "I can't go there myself, but I know that Archer will keep her as safe as needed."

"And Ren and Ereshkigal are coming here tonight to escort us to Kamihama tomorrow," Madoka argued. "I'm not going there alone like Mami and I'll be going with so many other people that can support me. People that know the city and have survived fighting in it."

Kyoko looked at Archer who simply shrugged.

Well, when you put it like that…

"Fine," Kyoko conceded. This girl wasn't an idiot, not like Blue, but she was just too nice for her own good. "We'll do our best to keep an eye on you but if things go to hell-"

"I know," Madoka nodded. "You, Archer, and Yuma need to focus on each other first. I'd never ask you to sacrifice each other for me."

"Did you already forget?" Kyoko asked. "Yuma's not coming with us. She's staying here where she's safe."

"What!?"

Oh shit.

Kyoko turned and finally noticed Yuma standing at the front door, a bagful of groceries in her hand and Madoka's mother standing right next to her. Apparently, they just got back from grocery shopping.

Something in the bag shattered as Yuma dropped it to the ground. "What do you mean you're not taking me!?"

"Y-Yuma I can explain."

"After you and Archer left without me!?" Yuma screamed.

"We were going to tell you before that."

"You guys are leaving tomorrow!"

"I uh…" Kyoko immediately turned to her Servant. "Archer?"

"Don't hide behind him!" Yuma shouted.

"We were going to tell you tonight," Archer said calmly. "It's the best choice for all of us."

"Should we be here for this?" Kyousuke whispered to Hitomi as Archer continued to try to calm Yuma down.

"I don't know, it feels weirdly domestic," Hitomi whispered back. "Are we complicit with this if we don't speak up?"

"Just let them fight," Tomohisa whispered to them. "Emiyas are always a source of drama. At least there's a low risk of someone getting stabbed or shot here."

"What do you mean you've been thinking about this for a week!?"

"Probably."

"Did we come in at a bad time?" Ereshkigal asked as she and Ren sat down at the dining room table.

Ren was wondering the same. The atmosphere seemed… tense, even more so than the last time they were here.

She glanced at Madoka and immediately winced. The black lines were becoming much harder to ignore now. They were becoming more numerous and were now showing up on nearly all the people or objects that Ren looked at.

Living people had black lines scattered on their body, servants had fewer but larger lines, the dead were practically covered with them, and Magical Girls only had them on their Soul Gems which essentially showed as black balls to Ren due to how dense and tightly packed the lines were there.

It didn't take long for Ren to realize that the lines had something to do with death after the first time they started showing up on Rika's Soul Gem. She was afraid to try anything to confirm it though.

Madoka's were especially strange. For some reason the lines she had were deeper and darker, like they were constantly overlapping at the same point for some reason.

"Yuma just found out her family is planning to leave her behind," Mrs. Kaname explained. "They're upstairs, arguing."

"Well, that would do it," Ereshkigal commented.

"How is she?" Ren asked. Yuma had been so excited that she could fight alongside her family so being told that she would be left behind, well it wouldn't go well with her.

"Mad. Enraged even. I've only seen a few people explode like that, much less a little girl," Junko shook her head. "She's been holding a lot in. They all have I think."

"Oh…" Ren replied. She knew things might've been tense when they came back, but to think it would get this bad. There was nothing she could do though, apart from be there when it was over.

"Hitomi, Kyousuke, this is Ereshkigal and Ren," Madoka introduced her friends to them. "They're going to escort us to Kamihama tomorrow."

"Us?" Ereshkigal asked as Ren exchanged a polite greeting with Madoka's friends. "I can't imagine Robin Hood would be excited about that."

"Robin Hood?" Kyousuke asked.

"Madoka's father."

"What!?" Hitomi swiveled her head to Madoka. "How is that even possible?"

Madoka scratched the back of her head nervously. "It's a lot to explain."

"Well," Hitomi crossed her arms. "I'm ready to hear all of it then."

Something told Ren that this was going to be a very long night for everyone in this house.

"The Kaname's have a nice place. They're a good family. They'll take good care of you and Robin Hood could probably help out with some of your training even if he doesn't have any magic," Kyoko justified her decision to Yuma as they sat on opposite ends of the bed.

Yuma continued glaring at her and Archer. She had calmed down a bit but she was still breathing a bit heavily. "I don't want to be with them. I want to be with you two."

"I want to be with you too, but I don't want you to get hurt. It's better if you stay here so that you don't get caught up in whoever or whatever's going after me and Archer."

"Archer and I."

Cheeky brat.

"This isn't the time for games," Kyoko said more forcefully. "These people are out to kill us, to take Archer. I'm not going to have you involved in that. It's my problem not yours."

Yuma's gaze remained undaunted. "What if I want to make it my problem too? You two already did so much for me. Helping out is the least I can do."

"We're dealing with Servants. You can't help."

"Like that Servant you and Archer fought. The one that I beat up with a hammer when she captured you?"

Kyoko froze. She didn't like being reminded of that and hadn't expected Yuma to just bring it up like that.

"You don't have to worry about me," Yuma continued. "I can protect myself. I can protect you too."

"You blindsided a Servant who didn't expect you," Archer replied plainly. "Even then you only disoriented them for a brief moment and almost crippled yourself in the process. Are you going to do that every time a Servant shows up? And that's assuming you'll even get another chance like that, which you won't."

"I still saved Kyoko, didn't I? Then there's no reason for me to stay behind. I can help!"

"Yuma you almost burnt your body from inside out helping us," Kyoko argued. "You almost died using a single spell. Witches, Magical Girls, and Servants don't go down with a single blow. You'll just get yourself killed attacking them."

"Then I'll figure something out, I have you two there too. I'll just… make sure I come in at the right time."

"You should take the time to learn a bit more. Train in a safe environment. You've only started learning to be a Magus for less than a year, it took me much longer than that before I could start fighting Witches by myself."

Didn't stop you from trying, Archer commented.

"But I can't train without you two," Yuma argued as she held a hand out towards Archer. "He was there for you when you were learning to fight. You told me that you learned everything from him? Why can't I have you two help me?"

"Because the situation changed," Archer replied. "As much as we'd like to curse what happens around us, we have no choice but to adapt to that change. Kyoko's upbringing could be considered sheltered, compared to yours. We were never threatened, or rather aware of such a threat to us, until now. We're all having to suffer for this, not just you."

"So, I'm being selfish then," Yuma finally looked away from them and at the floor. "That's what you're saying?"

Archer closed his eyes and then opened them. "No. But we can't give you everything that you need, everything that we want to give you. Learning to compromise, to give up on what we might've wanted, that is what it means to be family."

"And yet you want to take away the only family I've ever had," Yuma replied bitterly.

"We will do our best to come back to you. When all is said and done."

Yuma scoffed. "You can't even promise that you will come back, because you don't even know if you will."

"The world is like that Yuma," Kyoko said. "We just have to learn to cope with it."

Yuma remained silent, her breathing becoming steady over time. She had finally calmed down. She was starting to understand why they wanted her to stay here.

That's good. It's nice to know that Yuma would be safe and happy with the Kanames.

Yuma took a deep breath and sighed. Her eyes were placid, her breathing calm. "When I was with Mama and Papa, I thought I was a bad girl."

Kyoko and Archer listened to her in silence.

"I thought they hit and starved me because I deserved it. That was what life was supposed to be like. A bad girl getting punished by her parents because they loved her."

"After a Witch killed them, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I wanted to live, but I also thought that maybe it'd be better if I died. If this was what life was supposed to be like. Then Kyoko found me. She gave me food. She screamed but she didn't hit me when she was angry. It was so weird, I didn't know what to do."

"I learned. Archer taught me too. I realized that life wasn't just about getting beat for being a bad girl, that I shouldn't have felt so lonely back with my Mama and Papa. They never loved me. We never were a family. They hated me and I was just doing what I could to live... They deserved to die."

Kyoko wasn't going to argue with that, but for an eleven-year-old to come to that conclusion…

"I should've died with them," Yuma continued. "But I didn't. Because Kyoko saved me."

Yuma looked at them again.

Kyoko didn't know why she almost shivered in that moment, why she felt like leaning away from that gaze.

Yuma's eyes. That look she was giving them. It wasn't right. There was something there that freaked Kyoko out. And she couldn't figure out why.

I know that look, I've seen it before.

"Yuma," Archer suddenly glared at the girl, his eyes becoming steel itself. It was a gaze that Kyoko had become wary of and one that she never imagined Yuma being the one to receive. Neither did she ever imagine that Yuma would meet it without moving a single inch. "What you're about to say next. You better make sure you're ready, or I will tear your resolve apart and leave you here with the pieces."

Yuma didn't hesitate. She looked Archer square in the eyes and said what she needed to say. "I will never let myself be lonely again. If that's what the world is like, then I'll fight it as hard as I can."

"Even if you die?"

Yuma's gaze never faltered. She never retreated. She would withstand pain in order to hold onto something, the one thing that she finally had in her grasp. "Even if I have to walk into hell. No matter what I'll be with you, I'll fight with you… I'll die with you. I don't want to go back to that life ever again."

Archer closed his eyes and bowed his head before letting out a weary sigh. I could argue with her for days, tear apart everything she knows with logic and reason, and her answer would never change. She's set on her path.

Are you sure? Kyoko asked. Can't you keep trying? She'll have to give up eventually.

If you told me to stop helping people when I was a young boy. What would I have done?

Kyoko simply stared at Yuma no longer concealing the terror in her own eyes. She was finally starting to see it; the extent of which Yuma was broken. Or perhaps Yuma was never whole in the first place. The abuse she received from her parents, then seeing them getting killed by a Witch right in front of her eyes, on top of everything else that had happened to her recently. Those things, all of that together, it was about strong as any raging inferno could be at defining a person.

She really is an Emiya, Kyoko commented.

Broken beyond measure… and possibly insane, Archer agreed. There were signs that she wasn't right in the head, times when she became unhinged around you.

B-but she's eleven! I'm sure Madoka's parents will be… be able to help her.

An eleven-year-old with newly acquired Reinforcement magic and a manic determination against a pair of powerless civilians. How well will that go?

… What do we do then?

If we extract that Magic Circuit of yours that we implanted in her, then the Kaname's could possibly keep her in check. But she could still make a wish. If she's with us, then her wish is granted. Without us though, then the Incubator will be happy to give her what she wants. Dooming her soul is a simple enough price for a child to preserve or achieve the only thing they've known for most of their life. I know the lengths I once took to acquire that singular wish to achieve my dreams.

"I really do love you two," Yuma smiled. "I love you Kyoko. I love you Archer. So please, let me be with you."

That resolve she has, it's not something we can get rid of easily, Archer commented. Not unless we want to destroy her, break her and cause her to fall apart… Sometimes it really is like looking in a mirror whenever I'm with you girls. I wonder if it was my fault… or if it was always meant to be this way.

You couldn't save anyone. You can't protect her.

Kyoko grabbed her head.

"Are you ok?" Archer asked.

"Fine, just a small headache," Kyoko lied. "Just stress."

"I can get you an ice pack if you need it," Yuma offered.

"We're not done talking about this," Kyoko growled.

"I know, but how I feel won't change. I won't leave you two."

Insanity really was a part of this family, wasn't it?

If we take her, things will go bad in Kamihama. Then what? Kyoko asked Archer.

Then she'll get what she wants in the end, he replied.