30

The world tumbled end over end, from to sky to ground and back again, over and over.

Until, at least, the chunk of concrete that I had sunk into finally hit the ground and stopped moving.

I passed from one surface to the other, not for the first time grateful that it was impossible for me to get dizzy, moving from concrete chunk to bitumen streets.

The bitch with the rocket launcher stood on the other side of the street -when the fuck had she gotten down here?-, just staring at my shadowed form.

I didn't stop to consider, didn't even bother trying to think of a plan.

I just dipped further into the Darkness and went away.

The Darkness was near stifling, all but utterly overwhelming.

I passed through it with nary a care or a thought. The maelstroms could not affect me so, currents and ebbs and flows were merely suggestions to follow. Once, perhaps, but I was more learned now. For me, there was nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. There were no creatures in the dark just waiting to devour me, no primal intelligence that sought my destruction for ill-defined reasons.

No.

I was that creature in the dark.

I emerged in an alleyway, still at night and still raining.

Still in the same city, if the fact that there were the same number of maelstroms around was any indication.

Given the positioning of them... I'd previously been about 4 kilometersthataway, towards the center of the city.

And, more importantly, that much further away from the crazy bitch with the missile launcher.

Now, to find out-

"Greetings."

I didn't even finish the fucking thought!

I turned around, looking at the... speak...

What the fuck is that?

A... white, cat... thing... sat on the wall to my right, its overly large and fluffy tail swishing from side to side. On a head that was far too oversized for its body, a pair of beady pink eyes stared back at me, alongside a mouth that seemed permanently pursed into a Sigma-like cat-smile. It had a normal-looking set of cat ears on top of its head, with two large and longer protrusions coming down its side, splitting into three pinkish ends. A pair of gold rings hung around those... ears in blatant defiance of physics, not touching yet still holding perfectly in place.

"I do not recognize you."

The feeling is mutual, random white cat thing.

"You are not native to this planet, yet none of the records available to me allow me to identify your species."

That... was probably for the better actually. I'd be quite concerned if they did know what a Heartless was.

"I must request to know your purpose on this planet."

Purpose?

I blinked.

Didn't have one. Aside from not being shot at, anyway.

"Are you capable of understanding me?"

I blinked again, then nodded.

"Are you capable of speaking?"

Nope.

I shook my head again.

"Then our methods of communication is unfortunately limited."

Yeah, I was used to that.

It looked up. "Sayaka, please do not-"

And that was as far as it got before I found myself with a sword through my chest.

Oh, god damn it, not again.

I held still for a few seconds, before rotating my head 180 degrees and glaring at the perpetrator.

My second would-be murderer since I came to this world, a somewhat tall, blue haired girl, blinked back.

"Kyubey-san?"

"This is not a Witch or a Familiar, Sayaka."

"Oh." She looked down.

I continued glaring at her.

"O-oh! I'm sorry!" She all but shouted, panic on her face.

The left side of my chest became smoke, allowing me to pull away from the... cutlass, really?

Yeah, that was a cutlass.

I turned my head back around as my chest once more became whole, throwing another glare her way for good measure. Honestly, jumping straight to attempted murder without even bothering to speak. Who does that?

Thankfully, I was a tad bit more resistant to murder than most.

She glowed for a second, before her clothes were replaced with a relatively normal looking school uniform.

She bowed, her face a cheery red. "I'm sorry. I thought you were something else."

I held for a few seconds, before nodding.

If I held a grudge against everyone who's tried to stab me, I'd be hating far too many people. Heck, even Shikaku had done it once or twice.

I brought my claw to the ground, etching out 'Name?' in the cement.

The Bluenette leaned over, reading the words. "Name? Oh- I'm Sayaka Miki, pleasure to meet you."

"Kyubey." The white cat thing speaks up, for the first time since Sayaka deigned to shove a sword through my chest.

I nod to them, etching a 'Greetings.' onto the ground.

Meet the Magical Girls, they said. It'd be fun, they said.