Episode 5: I'm just venting some of my frustration on you.
Getting thrown out of a window was not in Komaki's plans for the day, neither was a parked car breaking her fall part of the plan. Having fallen from a third or fourth floor and using her magic as a last ditch effort to prevent overly visible injuries was a good idea, even if the usage of her barrier did leave a visible dent on the car and made her bounce off it and into the pavement. The impact of the fall was still enough to leave the royal blue-haired Magical Girl in a state of reduced consciousness.
"Your attempt was a waste of time. People like Mami Tomoe never listen to the truth if it inconveniences them." A familiar and irritatingly empty voice commented from the shadows. "As much as I dislike it, we share a common goal." Homura admits, as indifferent as ever. "Stay away from this territory, I do not doubt Mami Tomoe would give either of you a second chance." She approached the less than lucid teenager and put a rag to her face.
"Komaki? Say something if you can hear me!" Oriko's voice called out from farther away, she was running to find Komaki.
"I deem you more reasonable than her however." Homura directed her attention towards the confused and barely conscious Komaki. "Remaining near Oriko Mikuni is inviting tragedy and madness to befall you. The girl's history shows that all who stand with her lose their minds, perhaps they contract her own delusional tendencies." She sighs and removes the rag from Komaki's face, the older girl was fully unconscious by now. The mix she used for this packed quite the punch, Komaki would be out for a while and would likely be missing memories. It may cause dissociation, not that Homura cared. "I have no interest in forming any relationship with you beyond professional terms. But I would appreciate your cooperation, if you are willing to part with that fool." The enigmatic girl commented, she wasn't really expecting anything from Komaki, but part of her wanted to at least have a reasonable person around.
Having wasted enough time on the two, Homura leaves to tend to other business the enigmatic transfer student had.
Wasting little time, Oriko found Komaki lying lifelessly on the empty road next to the damaged car. She carried her classmate back to the sidewalk. Visibly, Komaki was just a bit roughed up, nothing dangerous. Still, the day had taken a turn for the horrible, her friend had been hurt because of her. She slammed her fist against the sidewalk in frustration, she was tearing up again, gritting her teeth in order to hold back whatever noise she'd make subconsciously.
"I'm so sorry…" Oriko apologized. "I wasn't good enough and now, look where we are…" It wasn't like her to be so open about her emotions, yet she couldn't hold back.
Oriko opted to carry Komaki back to the east part of town, taking a train this late with an unconscious girl in tow would raise too many questions and she wasn't in the mood for making up excuses that would make her seem needlessly shady. Of course, fate wouldn't let Oriko have a peaceful walk home after all she went through. Passing by some warehouse buildings, Oriko notices a Witch's Labyrinth nearby. Even if her only ally is out of commission for the moment, Oriko knew this was a good chance to get an additional Grief Seed and she knew a Witch in such a populated area could be dangerous and could easily endanger the lives of the workers during the day. Oriko looked around to see if there were people around the area, when she was sure nobody was around, she laid down her classmate's body between two warehouses to hide her from other people who may do unsavory things to Komaki's unconscious body.
Heading back to the Labyrinth's entrance, Oriko transforms into her white Magical Girl form and takes a deep breath before entering. What she didn't expect was seeing the barrier being nearly leveled to the ground and only seeing rubble everywhere, at the back of it, Oriko saw what was definitely the strongest Witch she'd met in all her life, there weren't any words to properly describe this Witch beyond looking like a kind of giant death chicken. But that wasn't what really caught Oriko off-guard, the Witch was actually being severely damaged by a mysterious Magical Girl in black and white. Despite her child-like stature, she's fending off the Witch with little effort, easily cutting down the blizzard of feathers shot as bullets with her black, sickle-shaped claws.
Hiding behind some rubble, Oriko kills her urge to run in and try aiding the smaller girl, she'd only jump into the fight if things got ugly and even in such a scenario, she had no intention of getting closer, sniping the giant avian Witch with a laser from her location would pose no risk for her own safety while retaining the needed destructive power to effectively put down the Witch.
Closing the gap between herself and the Witch, the girl in black giddily cut apart the Witch's face, revealing the bird shape to be merely cover for the Witch's true form underneath. Flipping backward from the Witch to avoid the more concentrated feathers aimed at her person. The, likely annoyed, Witch raised her right leg to stomp the black roach that dared destroy her lair and tarnish her figure. With respectable speed and fearsome force, the Witch's leg zipped down on her target, ending the life of the Magical Girl.
Or so the Witch would've preferred. Despite her already impressive speed, whatever stunt this black Magical Girl performed outdoes all that. Oriko blinked in utter disbelief as claw marks showed up on the Witch's leg and the short lass was perfectly fine, right behind the Witch's assumed wings given their position and aforementioned shape. Kicking off downwards from a sigil she had formed, the vampire-like girl clawed the Witch's left leg.
In a surprising turn of events, the Witch leapt away from the person she was fighting and a bit too close to Oriko for the teen's comfort. Anyone would feel uncomfortable if a giant death bird was standing almost on top of them, Oriko was naturally more interested in running away than actually attacking, given she'd prefer to conserve her magic and not get on the other Magical Girl's bad side. What really shocked her was the Witch's name finally showing up, HEVELIUS as the runes read. Also the fact that it had a sort of sharp blade within her wing and is currently swinging it towards the ever confident Magical Girl.
The crashing noise deafened Oriko's ears, and she was sure she had gone insane because she was seeing a person shorter than most children rather effortlessly catch a giant's blade-like wing. And she threw the giant Witch into the air.
"It seems I have completely lost my mind then." Oriko comments in utter disbelief at the insanity unfolding before her.
It wasn't a simple throw, the Witch got suplexed and now having her wing sliced up by the shrimp running on top of it. Followed by said wing getting cleanly chopped off from the main body. This girl was good, that was clear. Not one to accept defeat, the Witch attempts to swing the remaining wing at her target. Only for that to also get cleaved off and the madwoman is now standing on top of the Witch.
"Byebye!" She giddily says as she slides down the Witch's back.
The creature screamed in a distorted yet vaguely human voice as the two halves fell to opposite sides. Oriko's stomach turned when she reminded herself that the creature she was watching be slaughtered was a girl like her at some point. The girl in black retrieved a Grief Seed from the dead remains of the Witch. She turned around to see Oriko was watching all along, her citrine-colored left eye pierced Oriko and made chills go down her spine.
"You're all white an' frilly ain't ya?" The girl smiles eerily, like a wild animal that found its prey. "Like some kinda butterfly!" The girl begins cackling, she's not in despair, but she's certainly unhinged enough to randomly attack Oriko. "Ya know, huntin' butterflies in the moonlight sounds like fun! It'll be a great time for both of us!" Black sickles emerged from her white, overgrown sleeves to serve as claws. "Wanna play?" Without warning, Oriko found the shorter girl was quite literally right in front of her.
It just hit her. The girl challenging her to a duel was the same one who killed Komaki in that vision. She knew Magical Girls sometimes fight for territory, but this was getting out of hand. The barrier had vanished, leaving the two inside the dimly lit warehouse. In close quarters combat, Oriko was at a severe disadvantage and she needed to make the gap between them larger if she hoped to get out of this alive and human. Dodging the first incoming slash wasn't too hard, tapping into a lesser variant of her magic, Oriko could also predict the immediate future when it came to a specific area. This was much less costly than her more grandiose visions which was vital, at just below half of her Soul Gem's magical capacity, she'd need to be efficient. Despite her predictions, Oriko still took a rather explosive slash to the head, more accurately, her hat got torn to shreds.
"Aw, my hat…" Oriko whined. "What's wrong with you!?" Oriko asked, appalled at the situation. "Why are you even doing this!?" Oriko took a follow-up kick to the face after the aforementioned slash. More accurately, she made it seem this way while she parried with one of her orbs, using the resulting explosion as a way to propel both herself and her attacker in opposite directions for the sake of increasing the gap between them.
"Ow! Did something get on my shoes?" The black Magical Girl complains as she leaps after Oriko, preferring to close the gap between them. "Nighty night!" The vampiric looking Magical Girl grinned as she teleported right in front of Oriko's face and delivered a painful kick to the taller girl's face, sending her flying into a mountain of boxes in the building's back. "Hmm. That's real weird. She's effin' slow and klutzy but I still have trouble getting good hits in!" The attacker wondered to herself.
Oriko was staying put in the pile of boxes, she needed to bide her time. Her Soul Gem had hit the point where using anything fancy was out of the question. She was a little above halfway through and the battle had only just begun. She took a risk and manually caused herself a vision to get the best result out of the battle, while in the pile, she can safely use her singular, usable Grief Seed.
"How long are you gonna stay buried in there? I'm getting a little sick of this." She asks impatiently. "Come to think of it, you said something back there didn'tcha? You asked me why I was doing this, yeah? See, my wish got granted and all that good shit, but the problem's that I have no idea what my effin' wish was! I tried asking that Kyubey thing, but that little white asshole just blathered about side-effects or some shit. So I decided to rip his face off to get less pissed off at this predicament. It's been real rough on me I tell ya! It's a bitch to know jack shit about what I wanted to do back then…" The time manipulating Magical Girl raved on in irritation.
"We are not even acquainted so that has nothing to do with me." Oriko voiced her annoyance as she emerged from the pile with some of her magic charged up in her index finger. It wasn't as powerful as her other lasers, but this one should serve its purpose well. "We're both Magical Girls so I'd encourage you to redirect your violent annoyance elsewhere." Oriko scolded the girl, she'd prefer if the fight could just end now to save herself some magic, but she was already aware of how things would go down.
"You have a point, yeah…" The smaller girl began. "I'm just venting some of my frustration on you." She said with a wicked grin.
Oriko shot her small laser at her target, the small girl ducked under it with little effort and dashed in to tear Oriko apart. But the laser hit its target, the lights.
"Uwaah!" The small girl yelped in shock and probably fear. Oriko took her chance and ran out of the room and to the higher floor while her opponent was panicking "Hey! Hey! HEEY! The bulb! You just broke my light!" She whined without noticing the taller girl had run out.
Without warning, the girl in black was struck by two spheres crashing into her from the room's darkness. She got back up visibly upset at the sudden shift in odds. Desperate, she opts to scour the room in search of Oriko, ultimately finding nothing but more orbs that attack her. She wonders if the girl in white is trying to kill her via a stalling strategy to outlast her.
"You…" She forms one sickle in each hand with a furious face. "BASTARD!" She yells as she shoots both sickles in opposite directions, to say she was livid was an understatement.
After some silence, the eyepatched girl remembers the weird feeling in her right shoe. She takes it off to check it out and notices the small white fragment inside, her expression darkens as she pulverizes the fragment between her index and thumb in rage. She rapidly searches for Oriko in each room of the building, her frustration increasing each incorrect guess.
"Where did madame butterfly go!?" She says as she kicks down one door and finds nothing. "Cuz I'm makin' really, really sure she's cryin' an ocean of tears after I'm done kickin' her ass to kingdom come!" She kicks down another door that leads to another empty room.
This was the 8th room she checked, she had stopped kicking down doors by now and instead found an extremely dusty and dark room, Oriko had gone out of her way to take out the lights in every room which made seeing the narrowness of the room harder.
"What is this place!? Some kinda storeroom!? That'd explain all the fuckin' dust!" She furiously complained as she tried making her way through the room to investigate. She sees a slightly open window that leads into the night. "Sh-she got away!? FUCK!" The overconfident lass panicked and began climbing to reach the window. "I'm gonna catch this bitch! Even if it kills me!" The climbing girl slips a bit and falls on her behind with boxes falling in front or on top of her. A gray, rectangular object slid out from inside one of the boxes, she checks it out and flips it open. "The hell's a cellphone doin' here?" She asks herself.
"It's over!" Oriko exclaims from the room right next to her assailant's position.
Without a chance to see the attack coming the short Magical Girl turns around to see the source of the sound only to find three orbs digging into her waist, stomach and chest, causing her to fly into another pile of boxes and falling on her back, coughing out blood all the while. The battle was indeed over as Oriko proclaimed.