Chapter 6 –

Bonding

Homura watched Raphtalia diligently hunt down the variety of balloons in the field around them. Her technique and form still needing refinement but much better after about 30 minutes of proper training, she was at least a lot less likely to hurt herself and or lose her weapon.

"Raphtalia," she called over to the girl who had started to get a bit away in her new exuberance for hunting. When the little girl had turned around and noticed, she squeaked and quickly returned to her side. "I'm sorry Mistress Homura." Raphtalia muttered while looking down at the ground.

"It is alright, you are young and eager. That is good. But remember that it is harder for me to protect you the farther away from me to you are." Homura gently chastised. Glancing at her party status, she saw that Raphtalia was already level 2, and progressing well towards level 3, while Homura herself was now about a quarter of the way to level 4. Leveling was so much easier with a party member that was willing to fight.

Getting a nod from the raccoon girl, Homura looked toward the forest, contemplating. "I do not want to push your illness to much. Do you feel comfortable with pushing into the forest a bit more? We are starting to receive less experience from these balloons, and there are likely to be stronger monsters into the forest."

Raphtalia looked scared for a moment at the thought of fighting stronger monsters, before firming herself and nodding. "I can handle it Mistress!" she claimed resolutely.

Homura regarded the girl for a moment, who was staring up at her imploringly, trying to project her confidence. Finally giving a small sigh of acceptance, Homura nodded. "If you are sure then. But please try to stay close to me. I do not know how much stronger the monsters will be."

Getting a nod of understanding, she led them into the tree line of the forest. For a bit, it was just more balloons, but it wasn't before long that they came across something new.

"Is that…a mushroom?" Homura couldn't help but ask, bewildered. It looked like a large stereotypical mushroom, mostly white in color, and had a face similar to the balloons. It's name popped up above it, Loomush.

Definitely a monster then. Homura couldn't stop her eye from twitching. It felt like a joke. Like the entire world was just playing a joke on her. Granted she had fought weirder minions while hunting Witches, it was the point of the matter. They were manifestations of a magical girls despair. These were monsters that attacked people in another world.

"Raphtalia, please…just kill it to save my sanity." The little girl looked confused before doing as ordered. It was sliced up in a manner remarkably similar to a normal mushroom. It did not protect Homura's sanity.

With a sigh as she slowly began to accept that her sanity was not going to be saved anytime soon, she knelt down and absorbed the sliced-up mushroom pieces.

{ Mush Shield conditions met. }

{ Mush Shield

-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Plant Appraisal +1 }

Homura looked at her newly unlocked shield's ability. That would be useful if she was going to continue making medicines. Which if she was being completely honest with herself, she was unsure of. But it would be nice to make something other than bombs for a while.

Standing up, she looked at Raphtalia who was keeping an eye out for other monsters, having gotten used to the sight of Homura absorbing things into the shield fairly quickly. Both of them hearing a rustling, turned around and saw a few Bluemushes and Greenmushes. Homura cursed this world once again, before directing Raphtalia to kill them, while absorbing their remains.

{ Blue Mush Shield conditions met. }

{ Green Mush Shield conditions met. }

{ Blue Mush Shield

-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Simple Compounding Recipes +1 }

{ Green Mush Shield

-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Apprentice Compounding }

Homura narrowed her eyes at the ability pop ups. Did this mean that she would learn how to make some simple items if she equipped these shields? Almost immediately after that thought, she received the notification sound that her Slave User Shield I had finished unlocking. Quickly changing to the Blue Mush Shield, which looked like a 2D cartoon version of the monster she got it from, Homura blinked rapidly as it felt like the information on how to compound a few simple kinds of medicine seemed to just imprint into her brain. Deciding to test out her theory, she changed to the regular Mush Shield, and had to hold her head for a moment when the knowledge seemed to just disappear while she had been trying to think over it.

Wasn't that such a weird feeling. With a sigh, she changed back to the Blue Mush Shield, hoping it would be the most immediately useful and would not take long to unlock. Tapping her fingers on the edge of her shield in thought for a moment she looked around. She stopped when she found some place that would work for her plans.

"Raphtalia."

"Yes Mistress?" the little girl seemed to appear right in front of her once she was called for. Homura had to blink in slight surprise. "I am going to go sit over there," she gestured to the spacious enough, mostly flat area around a large tree, "and work on making some medicine. I am going to trust you enough to stay close enough to me if you need anything, while you continue to hunt monsters in the area. Retreat back to me if you see anything other than Loomushes or Balloons, or if you become overwhelmed. Do you understand?"

Raphtalia looked a bit startled before nodding resolutely, "Yes Mistress! I'll make sure to kill lots of monsters for you!" Homura nodded. "I hope so Raphtalia. And please make sure you bring back all the monsters you kill. We do not want anything rotting or drawing in other monsters." She got another nod in answer, if slightly confused.

Walking over and sitting on the ground, Homura leaned back against the tree behind her. Pursing her lips, she pulled out the book she was given from the apothecary and her letter chart. When she went to open her book, she noticed a new icon was illuminated in her [Status Menu]. Tilting her head to the side curiously, she noticed it had a symbol like a hammer and anvil. Deciding to see what it was she opened the window.

{ Crafting Menu

Available skills: [Artificer], [Compounding] }

Homura blinked in confusion, but noticing that the skills were selectable like in her [Help Menu], she clicked on Compounding since that was the one she was trying to work on.

{ Compounding Menu LV 1

Available Recipes: [/Medicine/], [/Healing Medicine/], [/Basic Cold Medicine/], [/Nutritional Supplement/] }

Crossing her arms as she glared at her menu, compounding book in her lap, she looked over the selections in front of her. They had markings similar to her [Time Manipulation] that was currently sealed, but unlike that skill which was greyed out, these were still lit up and selectable. Glancing down at her shield, she had the thought. Didn't her Blue Mush Shield she currently had equipped give Simple Compounding Recipes? Maybe that's what she was seeing here, she could only use them while she was using this shield or learned them herself.

Deciding to select the general medicine as a practice, it pulled up a list of the required materials, the amounts of said herbs she had in her inventory and in what qualities. Below that it listed the steps to make it. Then right below that it had another selectable option, { [Craft] x _1_ ? }.

Hesitantly she selected the craft option, she flinched slightly when another pop up startled her, asking to select the desired herbs to be used. Selecting some of her poorest quality herbs just in case, she confirmed her choices. A progress bar replaced the [Craft] option and after a minute the bar disappeared and returned to normal and got a new pop up.

{ Medicine successfully created! }

{ Medicine: quality: normal, helps cure sickness although not very effective on serious sickness. }

Homura was interested at this. Opening her inventory, she located the newly created [Medicine]. Apparently, her shield could create things for her. But she wanted to test it out. Navigating back to her crafting menu, she selected a couple of her better herbs. If her shield could make normal quality medicine out of poor herbs, what could it do with excellent ones?

{ Medicine: quality: normal }

Testing it one more time, this time again with poor herbs.

{ Medicine: quality: normal }

It appeared that her shield could only output crafted items at normal quality. That would be useful for using up her poor-quality materials. But would that mean that she could make better ones herself. With a sigh she pulled out the crafting items she was given by the apothecary that the recipe said would be required and used some of her normal quality herbs for a practice. Fairly confident in her skills after years of repeats in making bombs.

{ Medicine: quality: good }

So she was right. Sighing at the fact that she'd of course have to put in the work to get the best results, she noticed something slightly curious on her [Crafting Menu]. A bar had appeared at the top of her menu and had filled in just the tiniest bit with her crafting the medicine herself. Was that experience, but for her [Compounding] skill?

Once again testing it out, she crafted another medicine, this time only getting a normal quality. The bar had increased, but not as much as the previous one. So quality effected the amount of experience her skill would get.

What was it that Kyoko was always complaining about why games like this world sucked? Grinding? If this feeling of wanting to improve it for some since of pride and efficiency despite the sheer scope of the effort required was what motivated people into grinding, she could understand Sayaka's stance on it. And wasn't that a thought that she would ever deny having.

Sighing once more she opened her book and painstakingly set her mind to translating at least the titles of all the recipes, slapping down notes of the translations in Japanese to save her time later while she was still learning the language.

Turns out the book had several recipes in it that her shield didn't unlock yet, and she made sure to mark those as important.

It was a while later, when she was preparing to call for Raphtalia, having been keeping a vague eye on her, watching her experience tick up steadily that the next bit of excitement came in for the night. Raphtalia was running back towards her, carrying a large leather bag filled with various monster bits, a panicked expression on her face and chasing behind her was…an angry rabbit with red glowing eyes?

"Mistress! Help me!" the little raccoon girl cried out. Running to hide behind Homura, the magical girl caught the rabbit midair by it's ears. Homura glared distastefully at it, some vague part of her being reminded of the Incubator. "Raphtalia."

Hearing her Mistress call for her, she fearfully looked up, cringing when the angry rabbit attempts to lunge at her. Homura frowned at the scared little girl, before it hit her like a speeding truck. This was a little girl, who had probably been an orphan, been in slavery for who knows how long and had probably never fought before today. And here she was, about to ruin that shred of innocence, to force this girl to stain her hands with blood because she herself was no longer allowed to.

The smell of gun smoke. The flash of the muzzle. The shattering ping of a broken soul gem. The pouring rain, washing off their blood.

Her scream of agony as she watched her best friend's soul disappear by her own hand.

Homura frowned deeply at herself. 'Stupid. Dumb. Stupid. Useless. Stupid. Worthless. Stupid!' "Raphtalia," she said as gently as she could, "look at me."

The young girl fearfully looked up at her Mistress, shaking as the rabbit thing tried to get at her. Homura made sure to keep an extra firm grasp on the monster. Homura felt like absolute scum, for what she was about to do.

"Raphtalia…I hate to ask you to dirty your hands for me. I…regret keeping you as my slave even though it was your choice. If I were able to do this on my own, you would not have to fight. However…this Shield, this World, has decided to force me to have to rely on others. I sensed something in you, something that made me seek you out in that tent and bring you under my wing. I trust and believe in you, Raphtalia. But I promise you again, that if you serve by my side as my Sword, then I will keep you safe as your Shield. So please," Homura hesitated for a moment, before holding the rabbit, the Usapil her status said, closer to Raphtalia. "Trust me and help me. Start by killing this Usapil for me."

Raphtalia's eye grew wide and watery with fear. Just as Homura thought she wasn't going to follow through, Raphtalia stabbed the Usapil right in the heart. The Usapil gave a sharp squeak and jerk before falling limp in her hand. When Homura looked down at Raphtalia in surprise, she jerked slightly at the blood covered, teary face that stared up at her.

"I'm sorry Mistress! I promise that I'll fight for you! I'm sorry I was so scared, but I promise that I won't hesitate again! Just please! Don't leave me!" Raphtalia began crying in earnest. Fisting her hands into the edges of her skirt.

Homura blinked in shock before slowly kneeling to be eye level with the girl. Setting the dead Usapil down, she reached out and embraced the crying girl, stroking her hair gently. "I won't leave you Raphtalia." She muttered.

It took a while longer, but eventually the girl stopped crying and eased into the occasional sniffle. "Come on Raphtalia. Let us go find a river or something to rinse off in before we head back into town." Getting a nod, she helped the girl stand up and began to head off towards where she remembered the map showing that there was a river. Making sure to bring the Usapil and the bag of monster parts with her for the moment.

As they neared the river, Homura set the Usapil and bag down next to a tree. "Go wash your face real quick, then come back here. I want to teach you how to prepare a kill. As tasteless as I find it, you may need this knowledge in the future." The raccoon made a bit of a face, not completely sure what Homura was talking about, but listening to her instructions.

Watching the girl walk off to do as asked, Homura knelt and carefully extracted the knife from the Usapil. It had been a while since she had needed these skills, since that one timeline where she had been labeled a nutcase and had to survive on the run. That had not been a fun timeline.

Setting Raphtalia's knife to the side, since it needed a good sharpening, she pulled out her rarely used hunting knife. Hearing approaching footsteps, Homura looked up at the girl, whose face was looking a bit green at seeing the usapil. "This is going to be a bit…uncomfortable for you, I am not going to lie. But it is important you pay attention and learn. Understand?" Getting a nod in answer, Homura proceeded with her lesson.

P-*-*-*-H

After her lesson and helping her clean the blood out of their clothes, Homura finally noticed that apparently the usapil kill had been enough to push her to level 5. And with that came a large variety of shields that had apparently been waiting for that level, on top of all of the monster parts she had absorbed from Raphtalia's bag.

{ Companion Shield II conditions met. }

{ Slave User Shield II conditions met. }

{ Small Medicine Shield conditions met. }

{ Small Poison Shield conditions met. }

{ Egg Shield conditions met. }

{ Blue Egg Shield conditions met. }

{ Sky Egg Shield conditions met. }

{ Usapil Shield conditions met. }

{ UsaLeather Shield conditions met. }

{ UsaMeat Shield conditions met. }

{ … }

The list continued for a while, as several shields that she had copied from Erhard had also been unlocked. Looking over most of the shields made Homura frown more and more progressively. While some of the skills like Poison Resist and more advanced versions of Stat Up shields were welcome, other ones that increased her Cooking of all things?

Homura took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There was nothing she could do about it but to accept the cards she was dealt and try to make them into something useful. As absolutely frustrating as it was, she didn't know enough about the Rules to begin trying to break them.

Hearing Raphtalia begin to start coughing made Homura realize roughly how long they had been out here in the field. While it was considered good to do moderate exercise to help your body break up an illness, no good ever came from pushing to much through it. Especially for a young child like Raphtalia.

Frowning at the item description of the Medicine, she decided it was worth a shot, but she wasn't sure if the girl's illness would be considered "serious" or not. Pulling out one of the medicines made by the shield, she handed the small bottle to Raphtalia. "Drink this. Make sure to get it all down, as unpleasant as it is."

Raphtalia made a face, remembering the disgustingly bitter medicine from this morning. But knowing better than to argue with her Mistress, did as she was told. She managed to get it down, albeit with a struggle. Homura gave her a soft smile and an awkward pat on the head for getting it all down, still not sure exactly on how to treat a little kid that was technically her slave.

Sighing softly at remembering that yet again, she brushed some of the dirt off of her skirt as she stood up. "Come on Raphtalia. It is getting dark and we have not eaten in a little over four hours. How about we go find some dinner?"

Raphtalia looked up at her, eyes wide as her tail started to wag slightly, her stomach making it's opinion known to them both. Homura couldn't help but smile softly at the frankly adorable sight.

Heading back into to town, Raphtalia nervously held Homura's hand while sticking close. Homura frowned slightly, a little uncomfortable with the contact, but figuring the little girl had earned this much from her. Walking down the main street towards the castle, the magical girl ended up picking a tavern mostly at random but trusting her what her sense of smell and intuition were telling her.

The place they entered was a little beat up, and the waitress looked at them slightly confused while leading them to the thick but small wooden table. Overall, the place had a home-y kind of atmosphere that even Homura could appreciate. As they approached the table, she saw Raphtalia eyeing a small family with a kid chowing down on a rather extravagant kid's plate, her eyes full of envy.

Before the waitress had a chance to leave, Homura spoke up. "If you can bring me a fish meal with some rice and vegetables, I am not picky. This one will have what that kid is eating at that table." She gestured towards the family.

"What?!" Raphtalia exclaimed while staring in shock. The waitress raised an eyebrow before nodding. "Very well ma'am. That will be 10 bronze pieces." Nodding at the more than reasonable price, Homura reached into the small pouch of 100 bronze she began keeping on her belt this morning since people gawking when she pulled money from her shield made her feel uncomfortable. Handing the waitress the 9 bronze, she got a nod before she left.

"W-why?" she heard Raphtalia mutter softly after a little bit. Turning her attention to regard the girl for a moment, she decided to answer. "You need to eat to get your strength up. You will need food in order to get healthy. You also more than earned yourself a plate of good food today."

Tapping her fingers on the table for a bit, she continued. "If you are worried about the cost, do not worry. The king has given me plenty of funds for the time being, and I am sure we can sell the materials we gathered hunting today for some additional money. If you keep up the good work, things like this will be the smallest rewards I could give to you. Understand?"

The little raccoon girl looked like she wanted to cry, but Homura got the feeling it wasn't from sadness like she thought at first. Soon the girl nodded, "Yes Mistress! I promise to do my best!"

"Good." Homura responded. Almost immediately after that, the waitress returned with a tray holding their food and some water. Setting the large plate of food in front of Raphtalia, while Homura had several small plates set in front of her. "Here you go, I hope you two enjoy." The waitress said with a small bow before walking away.

As Homura began to eat her meal, she stopped and looked at Raphtalia after a couple of bites when she hadn't started eating. "Are you going to eat, Raphtalia?" she asked.

"Can I?" she asked back hesitantly.

Homura bit back her sigh and tried her best to keep the frustration off her face. "Yes. Now please eat. I want for you to get better, and you can not do that if you do not eat."

Hearing her order, Raphtalia quickly reached out to grab a handful of rice with her bare hands.

"Stop." She snapped without thinking.

Raphtalia instantly did, her hand just a bit away from the rice. Her body began shaking slightly, expecting to be punished for believing she would be allowed to eat.

Homura winced seeing the little girl's reaction, letting out a small sigh. "There are utensils right next to your plate." She began. "Please keep in mind that you are my companion, and your actions will reflect on to me. Please use your utensils to eat with."

Raphtalia looked at her with wide eyes, her shaking slowly stopping. 'She was…still allowed to eat?' hesitatingly she grabbed the spoon next to her plate. Her Mistress was still watching her, waiting. "Well?" her Mistress asked. Slowly she took a bite, waiting for the spoon to be knocked from her hand. After she took a bite, she got a nod in response before her Mistress went back to eating her meal.

Seeing that she was actually still being allowed to eat, she began to dig in with gusto. After a few more bites, she grabbed the toothpick flag stuck into the rice and held it firmly in her off hand, messily eating meal, obviously not used to using utensils to eat.

When she got about halfway through her meal, Homura looked at Raphtalia to make sure she was still eating. "How is it?" she asked the younger girl. "It's great!" the girl chimed happily. Homura gave her a soft smile. "That is good."

While she might still be unsure on how to handle such a young girl, she felt like she was doing a decent job. Hopefully it would get easier.

P-*-*-*-H

Homura stirred as the early morning sun filtered in through the window on to her face. 'Why do I feel…cold?' her half-asleep brain thought to herself.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She heard faintly, not quite processing it yet though. Sitting up, she looked around the small room. The incubator with the Filolial egg sat on the small table in the corner, Raphtalia sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, hands over her head, fearfully crying "I'm sorry" over and over. When looked down next to her on the bed, where Raphtalia should've been, she noticed a large wet spot that she had been partly laying in.

Her eyes narrowed as her face distorted into disgust at realizing what had happened. 'Did she seriously wet the bed?!' she snarled in her mind. However, Raphtalia noticed the face she was making as she started crying a bit louder, her body shaking with rough coughs and fear at the perceived impending beating.

Raphtalia's response was like dumping a bucket of cold water on her anger. Taking a slow deep breath, Homura forced herself to relax, and smoothed as much of the disgust off her face as she could. But even after standing up, her nightgown was wet and sticking to her in an extremely uncomfortable manner. Walking slowly over to the cowering girl, trying her best to not seem threatening, she reached out a gently pat the girl on the top of her head.

"Calm down Raphtalia. It does not matter if you wet the bed. However, we should get hurry up and get the sheets and our clothes washed and changed." She said in as gentle a voice as she could manage. The little raccoon girl looked up at the magical girl. "You're…not mad?" she muttered, tears still in her eyes and trickling down her face.

Homura looked at her for a second. "Are you serious about being sorry for wetting the bed?" Getting a very quick, fearful nod from the little girl, Homura ruffled her hair again. "Then there is no reason to get mad. However, please, try not to let this happen again. I…did not enjoy waking up cold and wet in someone's urine." Getting a small flinch and another nod, Homura nodded back and pulled their clothes and set Raphtalia's on the table.

"Now then, please take off those dirty clothes. Wash yourself with the rag in the wash basin, then put on your clean clothes. Put your dirty clothes on to the sheet. I am going to change and go talk to the innkeeper about the situation. We will clean the clothes and sheet in the river we were at yesterday after breakfast. Understand?" Getting an affirmative response, Homura followed through with her own instructions.

While not as good as an actual shower, it would have to do. Hopefully her sleeping gown was savable. That made her think that it might be worth swinging by the general store to see about getting some clothing soap for their travels. It would help extend the life of their few sets of clothes. Especially with the blood and urine that seems to be piling up in an uncomfortable manner.

Thankfully, the innkeeper was understanding, this being far from the first time that it had happened. In fact, he seemed happy that Homura was willing to buy the sheet off from him, and it was sold for a few bronze. After heading back upstairs to gather Raphtalia, all the soiled cloth, and the egg, she left the inn to proceed on with their day.

Handing the coin pouch to Raphtalia, she told her to go grab some food from near by and meet her outside the general shop near the gate. Thankfully Homura was able to acquire what she was looking for, plus a washboard. Which unlocked a shield when absorbed. She could only sigh in defeat. The fact there was a [Washing] skill pained her immensely in a way she couldn't even begin to describe.

It was shortly after she left the store that Raphtalia ran up to her holding a few skewers of what looked like small potatoes and meat cubes, looking proud of herself. Giving her a nod, she gently set the incubator on the floor near her, not wanting to sit the wet cloth on to the dirty and ate her portion of their breakfast. Once they had both finished, Homura pulled another Medicine out of her shield, and held it out to Raphtalia. The little raccoon tried to coil back, but a sharp look from Homura was all it took for her to choke it down.

Giving the girl a nod, the magical girl picked up the incubator and proceeded to head out to the river they had stopped at yesterday.

"Alright Raphtalia. I am going to clean and hang out these clothes. Afterwards I am going to practice making more medicine. While I am doing that, I want you to continue hunting monsters in the area. If they stop providing experience or if you encounter something you cannot handle, then come back here. I also want you to bring back at least one usapil so that I can try to cook us lunch. Understand?" Raphtalia nodded, eager to try and please her Mistress after the incident this morning. "Good. Make sure you bring back everything you kill for me."

P-*-*-*-H

Surprisingly, or not, using the Washboard Shield for the length of time it took to clean the sheet and night clothes to a satisfactory level was enough to unlock it completely. A lot of these basic shields she had unlocked yesterday and this morning seemed to unlock fairly quickly thankfully. She even learned that she could still cash in the meager Mastery Points on them for a slight penalty on the energy earned. That helped her at least, not having to leave those points or waste the time to "master" a shield.

So while she had spent a few more hours afterwards experimenting with her [Compounding] Skill, which had automatically progressed up to LV 2 when she unlocked the Green Mush Shield. Doing so had unlocked the steps for a couple of other recipes that she didn't have. But the book she had gotten from the apothecary still had several recipes that she didn't have in her shield. Probably one of the biggest boons from reaching LV 2 on her compounding, the medicine she made by hand were raised by a grade in quality, just as when she picked herbs after unlocking the Leaf Shield.

Looking up and noticing that the sun was approaching it's peak, and that it would be good to get started on lunch. Carefully packing away her compounding equipment, she stood up and looked around to try and find Raphtalia. Turns out that she was actually fairly close, and seeing her Mistress standing up, she scampered over, a large bag strapped to her back, holding all the monster bits she had gathered, and in her off hand she was holding two freshly dead usapil by their ears.

"Look Mistress Homura! I did exactly like you asked! I even got us two of them, so we can each have one!" she exclaimed happily. Homura could only blink in slight shock, slightly thrown off by how relatively quickly Raphtalia seemed to have made. It was after having that thought that she noticed the poor girl was shaking slightly and looked a little green in the face.

In a gesture she was starting to become more familiar and comfortable with, she reached out and gently ruffled the girl's hair, and took the usapils from her shaking grip. "You did good Raphtalia. You should go get cleaned up and rest. I will handle preparing these and cooking us lunch." Not able to hide the relieved look on her face, the little girl set the bag full of things next to the incubator before running off to the river.

Once the girl was out of sight, Homura let out a soft sigh. She knew it was unfortunately necessary, but the girl was young, and obviously experiencing fear after whatever drama she had dealt with before coming under her wing. As she set herself to the task of preparing the rabbit like monsters for a simple meal, she recalled last night, when Raphtalia had been sleeping. Whatever nightmares the girl was experiencing, her night terrors seemed to center around her parents, if the screaming of "Mommy" and "Daddy" had been any indication.

About 45 minutes later, Homura held two skewered usapils that had been seasoned with some of the herbs she had gathered yesterday as well as some of the fresh loomush Raphtalia had hunted this morning. Calling Raphtalia over, she handed the girl her skewer, along with a dose of a new medicine she had made while the girl had been off hunting.

{ Basic Cold Medicine, quality: fair, effective on weak colds }

"I want you to take that medicine, I feel like it will work better than the ones I have been giving you." Homura instructed. Apparently, it was more bitter than the previous kinds if the face Raphtalia made when taking it was any indication. But she managed to still choke it down, even if it obviously pained her to do so.

After eating lunch and absorbing everything as needed, no new shields were acquired from the monster parts. Which wasn't a surprise to Homura, but at least it would mean that she wouldn't have to carry everything around while trying to sell it. Handing the incubator off to Raphtalia, who looked confused, Homura decided to explain.

"I noticed the experience from the monsters have already reached not being worth enough to keep killing them." In fact, she had managed to be brought up to level 7, but once she had hit that level the experience had stopped trickling in almost entirely, and she saw that Raphtalia was also at level 7. "So until your illness has been cured, we will stay in town or leave to gather some more herbs. For now, I want to head into town and find somewhere that will buy our stock of materials. After that we will find an inn to stay at for the night. Understand?"

Raphtalia gave an excited nod, before suddenly looking down at the ground. Homura tilted her head to the side curiously, it looked like she wanted to ask her something, but was scared to. "You have something you want to ask Raphtalia?"

Watching the girl quickly shake her head no, to quickly, Homura gave her a stare. "Raphtalia, please. If there is something you want, you only have to ask. If it is reasonable, I see no reason to deny you anything."

The little girl bit her lip, still looking hesitant. Head still facing the ground, she looked up through her bangs at the taller girl. "Mistress Homura…would it be alright if…we got me something…to play with?" she whispered out softly.

Homura blinked slightly in shock. That hadn't been what she had been expecting. "You want me to get you a toy?" she decided to ask, wanting to make sure she heard correctly. A hesitant nod was her answer. It made sense, she supposed, she was still a little kid. She didn't see anything wrong with indulging the girl.

"I have no problem with that. We can look for something while we are selling our items. But it is something you will have to carry and take care of yourself. Is that a deal?" she asked, getting a more excited nod in response.

Homura decided her first stop in town would be the apothecary, sell a few more herbs that had been gathered and to get a professional opinion on the medicine she'd been making.

"Well these aren't bad at all…Hero, do you have a background in medicine?" he asked. From such a grouchy old man, that was probably high praise. Considering how much help he's been, she decided to be a bit honest.

"I am familiar with a form of healing magic and have spent much time when I was younger under the care of Healers in my own world. But yesterday was my first attempt at making medicine. However, I did find it remarkably like preparing explosives. Managing ratios of a mixture of certain items under certain conditions while following a recipe." She explained.

"Explosives?!" he asked disbelievingly. Getting a nod from the magical girl, he leaned back gaping slightly at the girl. "That…Is certainly a unique thing for a young woman such as yourself to work on. But it seems like you're not wrong about the similarities if this is the result. Keep up the good work."

"Thank you sir." Giving him a small bow, Homura looked over the stock on the counter. "Tell me, is it better to sell the herbs or the medicine?"

"Hmm. That's a unique question." He responded. "Medicine, if effective, is easier to use so probably easier to sell as well. With the prophecies and struggles going on in the world, the price of medicine is also increasing, so that would make it more profitable as well."

Homura gave a nod, it made sense after all. Even if she had her shield bulk craft medicine, it would mean a study income on the road without to much danger. Until Raphtalia was more confident and capable with her blade, she wanted to try and keep her as safe as possible, while easing her more into combat.

A few more questions, and the two girls left the apothecary heading towards a reputable loot shop recommended by the apothecary to sell their monster drops. Homura had been reassured by the old man, that her Basic Cold Medicine was effective enough that one more dose tonight, and another tomorrow morning, both at least fair quality, should be enough to cure Raphtalia.

They approached a booth that had a small line in front of it. Homura made sure to pay attention to what the other patrons were haggling out of the man for various monster parts, not wanting to get ripped off. When it was finally her turn, she walked up to the counter and saw the man failing to hide a smirk. 'Probably thinks that two little girls will not know what they are doing,' she thought.

"Good afternoon little ladies! What can I help you two with?" he asked, his voice to cheerful for her liking.

"Good afternoon sir. Me and my partner are here to sell some of loot. The old apothecary down the road recommended you as a good, reputable merchant." Homura began, smirking inwardly when she saw his own smirk start to turn into a frown.

"And where is this loot?" he asked, a good bit of the cheer gone from his voice, replaced by a more business-like tone. Homura took a moment to bulk select a large amount of items, before holding her hand out, palm up so her shield was pointing towards the counter. Selecting the [Dispense] option, several large piles of pre separated materials appeared on the counter in a bright green light.

Seeing the shocked look on his face, Homura allowed a small smirk to appear on her face. "Ma-madam Shield Hero?" he asked. Homura was only barely able to stop the twitch in her eye. It reminded her of that annoying princess.

"Based off of some of the prices you were quoting for the other people in line, I feel like 3 silver would be a reasonable price." Glancing down at Raphtalia and seeing her watching something, she followed her gaze. Off to the side of the road were a few boys playing a with a ball that looked to be made from stitched together Balloon scraps. Looking behind the loot merchant, she saw several of the same kind of ball. "And one of those balls." She finished. She did her best to ignore Raphtalia turning to look at her suddenly in surprise.

The merchant scowled openly and began sifting through the piles, counting exactly how much of what was here. A couple of minutes later, he accepted while grumbling, handing over the three coins and a ball. The loot was in exceptionally good condition, plus since the Princess' little plan failed horribly, worshippers of the Three Heroes Church couldn't act as openly as they might sometimes want to.

Homura gave a nod and bowed gratefully to the merchant. "Thank you very much sir. I look forward to doing business again."

Handing the ball to Raphtalia as she guided them away from the shady merchant. The little girl could only look down at the ball in shock. She knew her Mistress had said she would get her something to play with. But for her to notice that she had been wanting to play with the same kind of ball as those boys. Slowly, a smile started to bloom on to her face.

"Lets go get an inn room for the night, then you can go play with your ball." Homura answered. Raphtalia gave an exuberant nod before taking off, ball under one arm, incubator under the other. "Come on then Mistress Homura!"

Homura could only roll her eyes, her brain conjuring up memories of early timelines with Madoka and Sayaka. She didn't notice the small smile on her lips as she followed the little girl. The smile would be gone an hour later after she had to knock around the group of boys from earlier who had tried to take Raphtalia's ball from her. She also failed to notice the growing hero worship in the little raccoon's eyes.

P-*-*-*-H

The next morning found Homura being shaken awake by an excited Raphtalia. "Mistress Homura! Mistress Homura! I think the egg is about to hatch!" she exclaimed excitedly when she noticed she had finally woken up.

Doing her best to shake the cobwebs of sleep from her mind, she turned her attention to the incubator sitting on the table and saw a fine crack down the side of it. The magical girl was just able to make out what looked like feathers within the egg before the cracks began to spread. As she approached the table and took a seat, the egg opened with an audible crack and a large baby bird face popped out from the hole.

Homura could only stare in shock has her mind was frozen at what she saw. The bird's feathers and eyes were the exact same shade of pink as Madoka's. As the baby bird that looked to be about 25 cm (10 inches) tall shook off the remaining bits of it's shell, except for one piece on top of it's head like a hat.

"Cheep!' it chirped happily, before jumping on top of Homura's head, waving it's wings happily. "Aww, it's so cute!" Raphtalia chirped at the baby Filolial.

A/N: This chapter. It fought me every step of the way. But I am victorious!

This story now has it's own cover! It was made by my friend Irregular on the ANAI discord server. If you haven't read "As N Approaches Infinity" by Corisanna, I would thoroughly recommend it. It is a PMMM x Bleach crossover, that has been in work for 5 years, and is definitely a labor of love by the author.

And congrats to those that guessed correctly! Ohohohoho!