A few announcements:
We are now at the opening events of the Madoka Magica show with Madoka dreaming of and then meeting Homura. After we finish up with Madoka's morning we are finally going to enjoy the true start to poor Homura's new life and her fun adventures and suffering! The wording for Madoka's dream borrows from The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats which is a delightfully twisted and apocalyptic poem perfect for the Halloween season. Madoka gets to enjoy being the indecisive Magical Girl Jesus not only in the show, but now also in her dream except she's Jesus from The Second Coming and is therefore a Lovecraftian nightmare.

Using some screenshots from the show and Rebellion, I have created cover art for both Beltane and International Girl of Mystery. I hope you all enjoy and as always let me know your thoughts. I have also been working on a few other fics in the background for a while now so keep an eye out for those. Two that I am excited to be working on are two Harry Potter crossovers, one for Madoka Magica and the other for A Song of Ice and Fire. Just imagine Homucifer trying to protect Madoka and keep most of the Holy Quintet ignorant of their magical girl nature while Dementors and a Basalisk are running around. The first few chapters just need to be edited and then that will be ready. And do not worry. I have not stopped working on my works that I have here even if these massive chapters can take forever to get out.
The last major announcement is that I will soon be putting my stories up on AO3 and updating to both sites simultaneously in the future.

Chapter 6 The Big Day Part 1 The Morning

Madoka looked out upon the storm choked skies of Mitakihara. Something enormous flew through those skies like a witch on a broomstick if witches flew upside down and rode spinning gears. It looked familiar somehow even though Madoka had never seen the alien looking thing in her life.

The flying monstrosity grinned down at something on the ground before a section of skyscraper floated into the air.

This was all too weird. Was Madoka dreaming?

Madoka rushed forwards towards… something… something that the thing was maybe attacking with the floating skyscraper. There was a person there…a girl maybe.

The piece of building flew down like an arrow and then the person was just not there. It was like magic.

Madoka felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over. Something about the hand, a young woman's hand with a mark on the fingernail in the shape of a purple diamond and a piece of golden jewelry with a matching purple diamond somehow sticking to the back of her hand seemed achingly familiar.

She turned her gaze towards the owner of the hand, seeing a raven haired beauty with piercing amethyst eyes and a cold frown that seemed to morph into a look of horror as those eyes ran up and down Madoka's body. Madoka might have liked the attention if the girl had not appeared to age ten years at the sight of Madoka. She did not look that bad did she?

Madoka's lips moved of their own accord, "Homura-Chan?" So Homura was the girl's name.

And yeah, definitely a dream.

"You're a magical girl." That voice sent shivers down Madoka's spine. And the words…

She was having a dream about being a magical girl!

Again her lips moved and her voice spoke without any input from her. "I love you, Homura Akemi! I can't let you fight Walpurgisnacht alone, so I…" Madoka felt herself shrug.

Wow, Homura had such a cool name! Also what was this Walpurgis-what?

Homura looked like the words burnt her, so Madoka looked away, looking down at herself instead.

Holy crapping kittens! She was dressed as a magical girl! She even had a cool rose themed bow that matched her frilly pink and white dress!

This was so awesome, so why was Homura who seemed to have her own dark edgy take on a magical girl crossed with a school girl uniform and maybe also a nun's habit looking so sad and disappointed by Madoka being a magical girl? Surely that would let them be magical girls together?

Was Homura some kind of anti magical girl, like some kind of dark and gritty witch antiheroine? It would explain why Homura's outfit looked more like something a teenage witch would wear rather than a magical girl. Was Homura involved in some sort of forbidden Romeo and Juliet style love with Madoka? Madoka was sure she had read a magical girl manga like that once.

Oh my! Was this the sort of story where this beautiful raven haired girl would despair at how they could never be together and then Madoka would have to reassure her with plenty of hugs and kisses… or was this one of those stories where this anti magical girl would reluctantly fight Madoka, but at the last minute spare her and settle for teaching her a lesson instead…

Maybe this weird thing she had going on with Hitomi and Sayaka was starting to affect her! Between how the two of them were treating her she was starting to actually want a relationship. But if that was it, why weren't Sayaka and Hitomi in the dream with her?

"Promise me you won't use too much magic." said Homura, "Promise me, Madoka."

What was wrong with using too much magic? Magic was cool! "I promise!"

And then the two of them got to have a cool epic fight with the background monster. It was fun running and jumping around buildings and along rooftops with Homura occasionally doing something weird with a shield device on her arm to make everything freeze while Madoka hung onto the raven haired girl. So that was how she did that teleport assuming she was the girl Madoka saw earlier.

The whole fighting routine with jumping and shooting and working together felt strangely familiar somehow even though she had never done anything like it before. It was a nice feeling.

Maybe in a past life she did parkour?

Sadly all good things have to come to an end and Homura got clipped by a piece of falling building. She really hoped the beautiful girl was not dead! Was this awesome dream turning into a nightmare?

Madoka felt herself filling with rage and grief. She lifted up her bow preparing to shoot a really big glowing arrow at the thing, but at the last moment the monster threw a small oil tanker at Homura and Madoka had to change targets. The oil tanker was thrown back, landing close to the creature where it exploded and the monster was flung through the air spinning with the force of the detonation. When it finished spinning Madoka could see that half its face was burnt off and pink and white burning oil covered some of its body.

Homura cried out, "Madoka, your soul gem!"

Dream Madoka's hands appeared to be trembling as if in pain as she lifted them in front of her face. She was holding this weird egg shaped gem.

Huh? Was it supposed to be the color of deep space with a hint of despair and purple lightning? And Madoka saw something in that abyss staring back at her, right into her soul…

Madoka saw herself staring back at her, her face twisted in ecstasy or maybe pain. Was it a black mirror into her soul? It was like looking into her phone with the screen off but the reflection seemed more real, like she was staring at another version of herself through the glass, one that did not mirror her own movements, but was still so utterly her that it caused her pain on a spiritual level.

She saw herself or maybe what she could be? Or maybe what she was becoming?

Surely some revelation was at hand! Hardly had that thought formed than she saw the image of the salvation of the world. In time it would be of all worlds!

Salvation coming at the speed that she could fly through the cosmos to bring her revelation to all things that feel hope and dream of a better tomorrow!

Her new order would cure them of their cycles of pain and anarchy! When innocence is lost she would be the answer! She could see the answer in the gem before her!

She could see herself and saw herself with the eyes of herself from inside the gem. And inside the void filled gem she raged like a storm turning and turning with such a passionate intensity until at last the center could no longer hold her in and with the crash of the shattering of the firmament the gem mirror cracked and the thing fell apart.

Out of that crack poured a blood-dimmed tide and Madoka felt herself falling and rising again.

Looking down she could see her old body on the ground and her new body, some vast image of beauty and salvation with her two clawed arms and so many clawed tentacle legs reaching out for the Earth.

The strange flying monster cackled. Did it not know the dream it vexed to nightmare with its petty antics. Madoka would just have to teach it just whose nightmare it really was! Or dream Madoka would at least.

She cast her blank and pitiless gaze upon the laughing monster.

It was pitifully easy ripping the thing apart with her long clawed arms and many tendril legs like a person ending the life of an insect. Dream Madoka seemed to feel nothing, but Madoka the dreamer actually felt bad to have to do this, but the thing had hurt that nice and gorgeous, maybe anti-magical girl.

Yes, how was Homura doing? Madoka hoped that she had not stepped on her.

Madoka reached down one of her long tendrils and lifted Homura up to face her body which now towered over the human girl. Madoka could feel with some strange senses she had never had before telling her some kind of barrier was stretching out from her to slowly engulf the planet.

This was probably part of that whole salvation of the world thing. She was guessing that she would go and save a few other worlds when she was done here, maybe the whole galaxy even! Even if it took her thousands and thousands of years or more just to move from star to star.

She lifted Homura up before her. Homura just looked like she was in pain and slightly frustrated. It came out looking like constipation.

Homura did something with the shield device on her arm, a different motion to what she did to stop time and then…

Madoka awoke slumped over the desk in her room in a puddle of drool. She looked down at her desk. At least her English homework, which was on some weird poem called the Second Coming by some guy named Yeats, was only slightly damp and damaged. She could still turn it in!

That was a relief. One less thing to worry about at school. Ah school. It used to be so nice, fun, and peaceful, but Ijiwaru and Ijimekko were doing their best to ruin it for her and Hitomi both.

Granted the two's best was not that impressive, but it still stung knowing that someone was genuinely trying to hurt her and, worse, hurt her friends. Ijimekko accused Hitomi and Madoka of cheating in front of the whole class during their last English quiz and one of the two put hate mail into both Hitomi and Madoka's lockers.

Madoka had even been so excited because it had looked like a love letter at first. Worse, she let Sayaka see her being all down and disappointed which probably ruined Sayaka's day.

Later Madoka saw Ijiwaru and Nakuzawa arguing in the halls. Nakuzawa told Madoka that Ijiwaru was apparently trying to spread rumors about her and her friends. He also congratulated her on getting with both Hitomi and Sayaka offering her a high five and Madoka did not have the heart to tell him that she was just pretending to date Sayaka and the hickey Hitomi gave her was just Hitomi trying to scare her away from her vampire problems.

Hitomi had explained all about the rules she had to live by as a natural born vampire to keep her supernatural heritage in check. It was really cool, and Madoka felt like there were even more magical mysteries to be unlocked. Maybe she could even find something supernatural to let her become a magical girl like in her dream? It was worth checking out.

Madoka held in a small squee. That dream was awesome even if it was a little weird at the end with her becoming some planet saving cosmic entity. Her eyes drifted to the meteorite she was using as a paper weight.

Picking up the object in her hand she could almost feel how ancient and alien it was. It felt right, maybe even relatable somehow. It was such a nice if really weird gift from her mom, but that is what happens when her mom decides to get her a gift while out drinking at the bar.

Speaking of her mom, she should probably go join her in the bathroom. Her mom had weirdly become a morning person since coming home from the bar with that rock. If Madoka did not know better she would think her mother had been replaced by an imposter doing a bad job of masquerading as her mom, at least she seemed like an imposter when she was not saying something either really wise and smart or something really embarrassing.

But she still felt like her mom on some…Madoka did not know, some kind of deeper emotional level like the soul or something.

She just felt right even when she was trying and failing to get herself drunk or when she was telling Madoka about all the weird stuff she recently started reading or her new ideas to infiltrate or overthrow the government whenever she was not doing her usual past mom thing of complaining about work.

Madoka headed to her parents bathroom. Her mom was already awake and waiting for her, standing and staring at her in a slightly creepy manner before almost mechanically turning towards the mirror. It was like she had forgotten how to be human for a moment. Weird…

"So Madoka, how was your night?"

"A little weird, but good." Madoka said as she picked up her toothbrush and the toothpaste.

"Oh, how so?"

"Well it started with me reading this poem called The Second Coming" Her mother frowned at the name, "for English and it was about the apocalypse or something."

"I hope you are able to sound a little more confident for Kazuko. Even if she has managed to get herself into a new relationship, she'll still take off points if you sound like that."

Saotome had definitely not stopped talking about her new boyfriend all while not actually saying anything concrete about him. He was from somewhere she would not talk about, she met him on the beach well past midnight being there for reasons unknown, and for a living he did something unknown.

Was he some kind of NEET? Madoka knew her mother would not approve of her mom's friend dating such a person, but if this guy made Ms. Saotome happy, who was Madoka to say they should not be together?

"It was about the apocalypse and I did kind of like the poem, but then I wound up having this really weird dream and I think the poem had something to do with it."

"You know if you are getting this into reading European writers I did pick up a copy of some of Marx and Engel's writing on my way home yesterday." Her mom went on about class warfare and workers rights while Madoka brushed her teeth.

"Maybe later." She said, "I have enough reading to do for school. And the poem was not even the weird part anyway. The dream was much weirder."

"Oh? What made your dream weird then?" Her mom sounded slightly disappointed that Madoka turned down her book recommendation, but she was still her mom and still seemed interested in what was going on with Madoka.

"So it started off normal enough. I was somehow a magical girl with this really cool dress and magical bow and arrow. The dress was pink and white and had a big poofy skirt and the bow was like a giant rose and the arrows were like big pink thorns." Madoka could see her mother nodding in the mirror as she brushed her own teeth. This was definitely not the first time Madoka had dreamt about being a magical girl, "but then there was this really beautiful girl in my dream who was apparently named Homura Akemi and who I have never met before and for some reason I told her I love her." Madoka found herself lost in thought at that.

Why had dream her said that? Who was this beautiful girl with such a beautiful name? Her name was literally beautiful morning flame which made Madoka think of a brightly burning star.

Madoka's mom rinsed and spat and then looked at her, "Sounds like your subconscious is telling you you like girls. Nothing wrong with that. I can definitely say you come by it honestly." Her mom grinned. It seemed a little too wide, wider than normal or even human and almost creepy, but Madoka could see so much of her mother in that grin.

"I already knew I liked girls and yes, I know you like girls, too."

"Huh? How'd you find out?"

"I found out about you liking girls from you one of the times you came home after drinking one too many glasses of sake. You should really be more careful if you want to keep any secrets from me," Madoka figured this was a laugh and tease her mom or she would cry moment. Her mom really had a tendency to overshare. "As for how I found out about me liking girls… well…um…"

"So you and Sayaka?" asked her mom.

"What, no! Well sort of, but not really."

Her mom gave her that look that she gave Madoka when Madoka could not even decide which ribbon she should wear in her hair. Great, she now had to choose which ribbon she should wear in her hair for school today and no matter which choice she made there would be consequences. If she wore the red ribbon would it blend too much into her hair, but if she wore the yellow ribbon would it stand out too much? Would those two girls who were bothering her and Hitomi say that she was just changing which ribbon she normally wore to attract attention, especially romantic attention?

She felt her face turning into a scowl as she looked at the ribbons.

"What's that face for?"

"Just some jerks at school." Madoka realized her mistake when she saw her mom's face in the mirror turn into an inhuman scowl with a too wide mouth and too sharp teeth.

She blinked and her mom was just frowning into the mirror pausing before starting to apply her makeup. "What's this about jerks at school?"

Madoka rubbed her eyes. That was weird. And now she had to explain what was going on with those two mean girls. "I'll have to explain the other thing first." Her mom gave her a look that said that she would go along with Madoka's explanation, but that Madoka was not getting out of also explaining what was going on at school.

"So" started Madoka, "Earlier this week Hitomi gave me a hickey and I enjoyed it a little more than I should have."

"Hitomi?!" her mother almost dropped her mascara in the sink.

"It was an accident, but a bunch of people including Sayaka thought it was on purpose."

"How do you accidentally give someone a Hickey?" asked her mother.

"Hitomi was resisting the urge to bite me. I trust her." Madoka watched her mom's lips twitch into a small smile as she shook her head. "So then some people saw the hickey Hitomi gave me and started asking questions about if Sayaka and I were dating and if I was cheating on Sayaka, but she and I are not actually dating. She just teases me which is fun especially with how she's stepped it up lately because people think we're dating. She wants to show she is not upset about people thinking I am with Hitomi, too, but now I almost kind of wish we were dating. Anyway Sayaka then said she could give me a hickey of her own to show that she was not jealous or something and she said some other things and it just made me start to feel things you know?"

"Uh huh." said her mom.

"So now everyone thinks I'm dating Sayaka and Hitomi, and I'm pretty sure the two of them think I'm dating the other, but I'm not actually dating either of them. I almost wish I was dating one of them, but then I would have to choose one of them which I can't do." Madoka felt her head sinking down until it was touching the counter in front of her, landing on top of the two ribbons and barely missing the faucet of the sink. "I can't even decide which ribbon to wear, so how could I choose between these two girls who are both so amazing and who I think I might like?"

"Why choose?" asked her mother.

Madoka turned her head to stare up at her mom, "Wouldn't that be unfair to Hitomi and Sayaka?"

"Don't they already think you were dating the other and flirted or in Hitomi's case gave you a full on hickey anyway? Unless you're saying Hitomi is only interested in you for the ntr."

"There's no ntr! It's not like that! Hitomi just needed help with something."

"Needed help with something that involved resisting the urge to bite you and giving you a hickey instead? Madoka, I don't know if I ever told you about my college days, but…"

"You did! You were drunk when you decided it would be a good idea. I don't need the safe and responsible kink talk again, but thank you anyway mom!" said Madoka, her face burning as she jumped back away from the sink and her mom while waving her arms in front of her to ward off the evil.

"Oh, good. I'm glad I don't have to have that conversation with you while sober, especially since my alcohol tolerance has been through the roof lately." her mom said with a grin. "So you were helping Hitomi with her urges."

Madoka groaned, "I'll talk to them or something about how I'm feeling."

"Good."

"Good."

"So these jerks at school? I take it they did not approve of you dating two people or was it because those people were girls?" There was a note of menace in her voice when she said 'jerks' and 'did not approve'.

"Thankfully they're not homophobic…I think? But I really couldn't tell you why they are doing it other than something about Nakazawa giving Hitomi a love letter and maybe something about honors students or one of them not being an honors student. Neither of them are honors students, even if I think one of the girls would probably be an honors student if our tests weren't all being graded on a curve. To be honest, the two are not very good at harassing me. It's just very annoying." It was just annoying to her even if Madoka felt like the two girls' harassment might be hurting Hitomi. Madoka was just annoyed. She already knew that she was never going to be as amazing as Hitomi or Sayaka. Sayaka was always so brave and selfless and funny and she had recently gone from pretty athletic to being the fastest and strongest student at their entire school if not their entire precinct. Hitomi was of course the smartest, most graceful, and most beautiful and talented girl at the school, and that was before she became a full vampire.

Madoka was just Madoka. Useless, indecisive, and confused. Sayaka and Hitomi were just being nice when they initially befriended her and just were too good to abandon her now that they were friends and maybe pretend dating.

The bullies really had a point. What was so special about the painfully average Madoka. She was the nurse's assistant and her parents were cool. That was it and neither made up for her many flaws like how she could not make a decision to save her life, how she could be really clumsy and irresponsible, or how she had wasted countless hours on magical girl shows, manga, and mobile games.

The bullies were always either just saying something she already knew and spent most of her days trying to forget or they were saying something that was laughably wrong even if it did make her ask questions about why her friends were her friends in the first place.

"So there has been some harassment?"

Madoka did not want to mention the hate mail or the accusation of cheating. "Well harassment is a strong word."

"Madoka, if somebody is causing you problems it is alright to talk about it. Even if the problems don't seem to be so bad you should still speak up to both keep it from getting worse and so that you can keep what is being done to you from happening to anyone else." Her mom sneered when she said the words "being done to you".

"I don't want to make a big deal out of something small and getting parents and teachers involved would be making a much bigger deal out of things." She did not want that kind of attention on her. It would be worse than any single thing the two girls had done so far.

Madoka saw her mom take a steadying breath. She seemed to think for a long minute before coming to a decision. "If I promise not to act without getting your permission first will you keep me in the loop about what's going on and tell me everything they do to you?"

Madoka thought about it. She trusted her mom, at least when her mom was sober and her mom had actually been surprisingly sober this last week in addition to suddenly being a morning person. She would even be tempted to say her mother had been replaced by an imposter if the most important parts, the parts that could not be faked, were still the same. "Alright. I promise if they do anything else I'll tell you about it." Her mother sighed and nodded, but before she could continue the conversation which Madoka really did not want to have right now Madoka blurted out, "So how are things going at work? You mentioned the other day that you got put in charge of the marketing team."

Her mom looked like she wanted to continue talking about the previous topic, but she must have seen how uncomfortable Madoka was. She began putting the finishing touches on her makeup. "Yes. The boss's son really made a mess of things and now he's obsessed with some magical girl themed restaurant in Kamihama."

Her mother froze like she had just said something she should not have. Madoka could not for the life of her imagine what that was. "I like the idea of a restaurant with a magical girl theme! That sounds so cool!" She kind of wished she could go. It was magical girl themed afterall!

"I'll be sure to bring you a souvenir when I go. Maybe they have something with a bow and arrow like in your dream." her mom said.

That was nice of her and Madoka beamed at her mother's reflection in the mirror. "Thank you mom!" Then a realization hit. "You're going to Kamihama?!"

"Just for a little while. It's not that far away. I'll be going there after work and will just be getting back home really late." So nothing new there. "Tomorrow we are going to talk more about these girls who've been bothering you at school."

Madoka wished her mom would stop making such a big deal about something unimportant. "Fine." Madoka's eyes drifted as far away from her mom's as they could until they landed on the digital clock on the wall. "Oh crap I'm going to be late!"

O . O . O . O . O

Madoka ran out of her house with a piece of buttered toast in her mouth. She munched and ran, finishing the last bite by the time her friends came into sight.

She could see that the two were talking to each other.

There was Hitomi standing regal and serene in her uniform, with her white hat and parasol and wearing a thick layer of sunscreen that shone like diamonds in the sunlight. A mask kept her fangs from view. Hitomi's eyes were firmly locked upon the throat of her companion.

Beside Hitomi and seemingly oblivious to the girl staring at her neck was Sayaka slouched over like a walking corpse the way she had been for much of the week, but a look of fierce determination in her darkly lidded eyes as she locked gazes with Madoka. She had been keeping a look out it seemed.

Come to think of it, the dark circles around Sayaka's eyes were becoming more and more pronounced each day. Madoka really had to wonder if Sayaka was getting enough sleep since she was also now always slouched over in the typical dead tired teenager fashion, but her friend had brushed her off whenever she voiced her concern.

Running up and down Sayaka's left arm were bandages. Now that it had been about a week, Madoka wanted to have a look at Sayaka's bite mark to see if it was doing any better. She hoped that the bite was unrelated to Sayaka's recent lack of sleep. She did not want to imagine her friend getting some kind of lethal infection!

Come to think of it, the bite could be related to the lack of sleep! Could her friend be having nightmares and anxiety induced insomnia and Madoka had not noticed because she was too busy tuning out the world whenever those two mean girls were around.

Right on cue she spotted the two girls watching her arrival from behind a pair of bushes. Ijimekko and Ijiwaru never said or did anything while Sayaka was around other than whisper between themselves, thankfully too quiet for Madoka to hear.

Hitomi and Sayaka sent glares their way before closing ranks around Madoka and each putting an arm around her. She could have sworn that she heard Hitomi hiss and Sayaka let out a guttural moan, but the latter might have just been Sayaka suppressing a yawn.

She would definitely have to talk to Sayaka about her sleeping problem.

"So Hitomi was just saying we should celebrate Kyosuke's successful surgery at her place." said Sayaka.

"That would be wonderful!" said Madoka happily taking the distraction from her two unwanted stalkers. "And Hitomi you said that you had been redecorating."

"Indeed I have. It will be my honor and… pleasure to show you both what I have done with my room. Some of the furnishings that we had in storage that once belonged to my ancestors are quite… inspiring."

"Yeah don't you have some kind of bougie European ancestors in addition to those daimyo." asked Sayaka tilting her head from where it hung towards her chest, like a marionette that was not being puppeted quite right.

"The very same," Hitomi said with a fond smile towards Sayaka before turning her nose up and then wincing when she got a face full of sunlight that set her sunscreen to sparkling. Her vampire friend really was gorgeous and majestic!

And it was such a relief that they finally got a sunny day after so many days of overcast, storm clouds, and impenetrable fog, but to Madoka it really felt like the calm before the storm. On the not so distant horizon she could even see thick dark gray clouds gathering to unleash their fury.

Hitomi politely coughed as if to hide her flinching from the sunlight. The cough sounded extra forced since her lungs no longer worked, "I even found a scimitar given to my great uncle Radu the Beautiful by his boyfriend Mehmed. Oh, their romance was so tragic and so wonderful!"

"You found a sword!" said Sayaka instantly perking up. It did weird and fascinating things to her body and Madoka was not just saying that because she enjoyed watching. She was actually just a little disturbed by how the life that seemed to spring into her friend Sayaka made her seem if anything even more unnaturally stiff and rigid.

"I thought you might like that." said Hitomi like the cat that had caught the canary or in this case the vampire that had caught the teenager. "I take that as a yes that you shall be joining me for our little celebration?"

"You bet!" Sayaka's face darkened, "We might actually need that sword of yours."

"What do you mean Sayaka?" asked Madoka looking at her friend in concern. She could not be contemplating a uh permanent solution to the minor bullying problem could she? Madoka cast her gaze towards her two other shadows.

"Not for them." said Sayaka biting down on the air with a hungry look in the direction of the other two girls. Sayaka's voice dropped down to a whisper as she leaned in, "You didn't hear this from me, but… I saw the you know what that happened yesterday."

"The you know what?" asked Hitomi.

"The…" Sayaka put her hand over her stomach tracing something, Madoka did not know what and by the tone of Sayaka's voice Madoka had the feeling that if Sayaka's face was not already as deathly pale as Hitomi's without sunscreen then it would have just gotten paler. "The shooting."

Hitomi moved faster than Madoka's brain could process and her hands were roving over Sayaka, "Were you hurt?" The girl's eyes seemed to blaze with a blood red covetous rage the likes of which Madoka had never seen before. The look in the green haired vampire's eyes was more terrifying than what Madoka had seen on that rooftop the week before.

"I'm fine." said Sayaka, a little too quickly in Madoka's opinion as she took the vampire's hands in her own and held the vampire at arm's length. That must have taken an impressive amount of strength!

Wait! Was Sayaka secretly also a vampire? But if she was then how was she handling the sunlight so well? Sayaka was probably just being her usual strong and indomitable self.

Hitomi's eyes kept on looking over Sayaka before she let out a sigh and seemed to collect herself. Slowly she pulled her hands back and took on a more proper posture, but it seemed forced and there was now something feline in her stance, like a snake coiled to strike. "What happened?" she whispered.

Madoka strained her ears to listen and could tell that their two stalkers had started whispering at a fevered pitch, probably about Hitomi getting handsy with Sayaka.

"So the other day I was… I was going back to the spot where I got… um…this." Sayaka looked down at her arm. "And then I heard gunshots, explosions, and alarms going off."

"I ran and I…uh…hid… and anyways I saw these three people running into the alley."

"Did you see the Kazamino Killer Cannibal?" asked Hitomi in a weird mix of reverence and terror.

"Yeah… and I get why she ate those people."

"What do you mean?" asked Madoka, sounding a little alarmed.

"You're not going to believe this. I only believe what I saw her become because of what I saw in the newspaper."

"What do you mean saw her become?" asked Hitomi. Her voice sounding a little shaky.

"You both read about a weird big red dog that chased away the bomber?"

"We did." said Hitomi.

"Yeah, he's like Clifford. He's a hero!" said Madoka. She did not care what anyone said about the things she watched! Watching those American children's cartoons had helped her with her English!

"You say that, but that dog… it's not a hero or even a dog." Sayaka looked genuinely terrified, "That was a wolf and I think that wolf was the Kazamino Killer Cannibal."

"You don't mean…" said Hitomi taking a step back and putting her hand to her heart. She looked like she might be on the verge of one of her panic attacks.

Sayaka did not seem to notice. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think...okay it definitely sounds crazy and I probably am imagining things, but I think… I think… she's a werewolf."

Madoka could definitely believe it.

"And you weren't bitten?" asked Hitomi once again looking over Sayaka, but this time from a distance.

"Huh? No, I wasn't bitten, at least not by the… the killer. Wait, you actually believe me?"

Madoka just shrugged, "It wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've heard of." 'or imagined' she did not say. The dream from last night was already fading, but it seemed so important and she could still remember Homura's face as kaiju Madoka was lifting the other girl into the air.

"I need to make a phone call." said HItomi.

"But you'll be late for school." said Sayaka and indeed their little delay was definitely costing them precious time. The school building was already in sight and Ijimekko and Ijiwaru were both looking like they were getting rather impatient with Ijimekko, the magenta haired member of the duo tapping her foot impatiently and complaining loudly about her academic record.

Madoka was very glad that the conversation about the werewolf attack was all whispered. Madoka trusted Sayaka when she said she had seen a werewolf attack. Afterall, Madoka knew Hitomi's whole family were some kind of dormant vampire clan and Hitomi was some sort of awakened natural born vampire. If vampires could be real then werewolves should be real, too, right?

Add in that Hitomi panicked at the idea of meeting a werewolf as if she was certain they were both very real and very dangerous and Madoka was definitely inclined to believe that Sayaka had seen a werewolf attack. Sayaka also was not acting the way she would if it was some kind of prank. She seemed too certain and also too uncertain, like she doubted what her eyes had seen. She had even said she only believed what she saw after reading the news article mentioning the strangely shaped giant blood red dog, a dog with conveniently the same color fur as the cannibal killer's hair.

It just made too much sense. Werewolves were real.

Hopefully Magical Girls could be real, too!

"I guess I will just have to let my family know about the danger during lunch." Hitomi said with a very forced sigh. Madoka was sure Hitomi felt the need to sigh, her body just would not cooperate.

Sayaka nodded, "Yeah. Sorry."

"It is not your fault that that monstrous beast is still out there." said Hitomi with a dismissively imperius wave of her hand. She did not notice the way Sayaka flinched. Hitomi turned back to Sayaka, "And Sayaka, on an unrelated note, we really must meet at the shopping mall after school today. I believe that there is a most important conversation we must have."

"Yeah what is this big important conversation you are wanting us to have about anyway?" asked Sayaka.

"Oh, that most precious thing in all the world my dear, love.." said Hitomi, flicking her parasol closed as she strode into the school building like she owned the place which knowing what Madoka did about the Shizukis was probably not too far from the truth.

O . O . O . O . O

The big day was here. Homura waited outside her new homeroom classroom door as she had at least a hundred times before. As she had so many times before, she was prepared to go into the classroom, correct the misspelling of her name on the smart board, and try very hard not to stare too hard or too long at Madoka.

Ah Madoka! She would be seeing Madoka again soon. She had checked in on the girl now and then since the Amy incident using her powers, but it seemed this was one of the time lines where the incubators were giving her house a little space which was weird, but Homura was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She certainly had not objected to acquiring that oversized stash of Yakuza weapons and money even if the cards from the satanic kindergarten had been somewhat strange. She had been tempted to throw them away, but they could still be used for kindling and she had yet to find a timeline where her new home was raided so it would be safe to leave the large envelope full of them there along with the suspicious bank details and the Yakuza lawyer's contact information.

Mitakihara even seemed somewhat peaceful with fewer witches around than usual. This could mean more magical girls had moved in which would mean problems, but all of the magical girls that were the greatest threats to Madoka were already dead at Homura's hands, so Homura was not particularly worried at the moment.

Amy the cat was in the care of some visiting high school students who were in town for some kind of robotics competition being hosted in the city. They were being paid and threatened quite generously to keep an eye on Amy until they had to leave to return to Kamihama. Normally she might have looked after Amy herself after the cat started following her around, but she could not trust the cat not to be hit by a car while she was at school.

The cost of hiring a cast sitter was no longer an issue as this run Homura just had so much extra money that looking after Amy just was not worth the time even with all the extra time she now had. So far the students from the University Affiliated High School were doing a good job, but she would not let them take Amy back with them.

School was only useful for making contact with Madoka and the others, so she would watch Amy after she started skipping.

This run really was going quite well.

With how good the run had been so far she was even starting to have just a little more hope. That was probably a bad thing. She had been disappointed so many times. Hoping for a truly successful run was like hoping for Saotome to keep a boyfriend for more than a few months.

Speaking of their teacher's relationship woes, the speech bemoaning a boyfriend breaking up with her over how to properly prepare an egg was different somehow. Actually she could almost swear that Saotome was talking about how great it was being together with someone and making long term plans? Something about her boyfriend coming to visit the class later this week?

Homura was sure she was just imagining things and contented herself with planning what she would do to convince Madoka to not contract without revealing the existence of magic and the supernatural.

She could try the tried and tested method of asking Madoka if she valued her life and those she had in it and then telling her that if she really valued those things she would not change herself. It seemed to weird Madoka out sometimes, but was usually effective at scaring Madoka away from magic, though perhaps at the cost of making it clear that something weird was going on in the world. The last part did not really matter since Kyubey would be approaching Madoka soon anyway even with Homura culling the few of the incubator's bodies that she had found in the area around Madoka's house, but again there were very few incubators in that area, many fewer than usual, probably indicating they were still figuring out how to approach Madoka.

She could go with that vaguely threatening approach. It had worked before, but it also would often set Sayaka against her from the start and once she lost Sayaka's trust it was not easy to regain it not that that was a big loss especially given the girl's usual fates, but it would be inconvenient.

Still, with how good things had been going so far, she had a choice to make. She could take the safe approach and give the normal vaguely threatening message to delay or prevent Madoka's contracting at the cost of potentially alienating the girl, but the sum total of that and her stroke of luck with the stockpile would just be an opportunity to gather more weapons and grief seeds for the coming battle. On the flip side, with more time to spare from being freed up by the stockpile, she could focus on making Sayaka less likely to kill herself and could shadow Madoka more often, personally ensuring Madoka never had a reason or opportunity to contract.

In fact, she could almost watch Madoka if not 24/7, then close enough to it!

Essentially, Homura no longer had to worry about keeping Madoka from getting into trouble during the times Homura was not there, because she would always be there, watching.

She could take the safe tried and true approach or she could take a small risk with big rewards.

Normally, she went with the tried and true approach. More time focusing on improving one of the members of their group normally just resulted in a different member finding trouble and dying while Homura was not looking, but the odds of that happening while not insignificant were usually lower than the odds of them dying while she was out gathering supplies, and that was no longer a concern this time due to that inexplicable good luck with finding the stockpile, so the worst thing Homura could do would be keep stockpiling when she could be keeping an eye on things herself.

If Homura went with the tried and true methods, she would just be setting herself back in her mission for essentially no tangible gain.

Very reluctantly, Homura decided that maybe she could go for a slightly softer approach after she told Madoka to take her to the nurse's office. Now she just had to come up with the right thing to say.

This was… not untested ground, but rather there were enough tests and data for her to have another hard choice on her hands. Each option had consequences. At least she knew from waiting outside the classroom while Saotome ranted about eggs and boyfriends during past time loops that she had time to think about…

"Uh, Miss Akemi, you can come in now."

Had Saotome called her name? Had she spaced out? How many times had her name been called? She looked into the door of the classroom. The handful of students who could see her through the windows were now watching her standing there.

She noticed that two girls, a magenta haired girl and a brunette sitting in the back who had never been important enough for her to learn their names were giving her appraising looks which was not too unusual other than that they both had ignored her in past time loops. She figured they might try to approach her at lunch when all the different cliques with an interest in her learned that she just did not care about any of their meaningless little interests or problems.

Although,... given the run of good luck she had been having this loop, maybe these two were going to try to help her? It might be worth hearing them out given that every other discrepancy this time around had so far been slightly positive even if getting the attention of two background classmates was nothing compared to a Satanic church with Yakuza ties leaving anonymous bank details and mysterious well wishes where she could find it.

With a confidence born of absolute certainty and a decade or more of experience Homura strode into the classroom and the next battlefield in her war with karmic destiny.

Her first move in the battle, her introduction, "I'm Homura Akemi. It's nice to meet you."

Her next move in the fight, correcting the spelling of her name on the smart board… which was spelled correctly for once. She set the stylus she had picked up down and saw Saotome giving her an odd look.

"Usually people misspell my name." she said, sounding a little less certain and confident.

Miss Saotome nodded, "I almost did, too, but my boyfriend was just so excited hearing about all of the class that we just had to go through the whole class roster together talking about everyone." That was probably illegal and definitely creepy!

While Homura introduced herself to the class, she could see based on their faces that she was not the only one to hold this view about Saotome's new boyfriend. Even that one guy that Miss Saotome was always picking on, Nakazawa something, seemed slightly disturbed. Something fishy was going on in the Saotome boyfriend department.

Maybe this was some new scheme by Kyubey to get Madoka to contract? He had been avoiding Madoka's house for the past few days...

The joke was on the vile little pest! He did not know that Homura was watching over Madoka. No creeps or stalkers would be getting anywhere near her Madoka without Homura knowing! Now that she was fully supplied with guns and money and only had to hunt for the occasional grief seed, she could now watch Madoka almost every second of every day, even while the girl was sleeping!

Watch some creepy stalker try to spy on or interact with Madoka now!

Madoka was looking at her. While Homura had been thinking, her eyes had inevitably wandered towards Madoka. Had Madoka noticed Homura looking at her?

Homura channeled all her decade of fighting and infiltration into acting natural and not like her awkward and useless younger self. She stoically bowed to the class finishing her introduction, her eyes lingering on Madoka and then turned and took her seat, the empty seat beside Nakazawa in front of the blackboard.

As the English class began, Homura could feel the eyes of Madoka behind and to her left and strangely enough also the eyes of those two usually unimportant girls in the far back and to her right who both usually ignored her, but as the class discussion opened up she quickly had to deprioritize watching her surroundings in favor of dealing with the latest surprise this timeline.

The class material was completely different from what they were supposed to be covering. Saotome had apparently on a whim a week ago decided that the class would be doing English poetry and Homura had only prepared for some simple syntax lessons.

She had even done all of the homework for the next week! An entire hour of time wasted! It was only an hour since she had done all of the work a hundred times before, but still! Homura had been looking forward to showing off for Madoka and now she would look as helpless and useless when it came to her classwork, at least with English, as she had that first time loop!

How was she going to impress Madoka to make the girl trust her and not contract now?

She was overreacting. The other classes would still be the same. Madoka would then see that Homura was competent and capable in more important subjects than English like Math, Science, and PE.

Who even cared about English poetry anyway? Not her! When had English class ever made a real difference in a timeline? Saotome was probably only doing a poetry section because she inexplicably kept a boyfriend or got a new one or something and was feeling in a romantic mood. European poetry was supposed to be all about romance and feelings, right, like that one ancient Greek lesbian?

Homura felt like she was pulling a Sayaka and felt herself internally recoil at the thought. Still, this was Ms. Saotome. Saotome was obsessed with romance.

She had no idea if this Yeats guy's poems or at least the poem they had apparently covered in the last class The Second Coming counted as romantic poetry. She had not had a chance to read the poem that was assigned for homework last night and Saotome had forgotten to give her a copy which was not unusual. Homura could just use this as an opportunity to ask Madoka during lunch about the poem. She had after all been thinking of trying a softer approach with warning Madoka and this would work as a good way to start the conversation.

If this poem was a romantic poem then maybe that could even lead to Madoka thinking about Homura in a… thinking about Homura. Yes, just thinking about her! Then Madoka would be more inclined to trust her and would avoid contracting… at least until Madoka saw Homura fighting and decided she needed help again.

Madoka had developed feelings for Homura before and it never got easier seeing Madoka die even if it sometimes made it easier to keep her from contracting just a little bit longer.

It never stopped anything though. If anything it tended to get in the way. She would waste so much time that could be spent gathering weapons, money, and grief seeds.

It was a nice thought, but there just was never enough time.

There was time this time…

She had money and weapons from a bunch of Yakuza groups and from a Satanic church. She even had contact information for a shady lawyer who could be discreet, not that she had ever needed a lawyer in her line of work. What would a lawyer even do against witches and magical girls?

She already had the resources and now she had the time or she presumably had the time since that time might now be spent dealing with angry Satanists and Yaks who were mad at her for stealing the stuff intended for their antichrist figure..

Homura could devote that time to Madoka! That is to say, devote that time to making sure that Madoka was safe and happy and willing to trust Homura when she told Madoka to give up on her lifelong dream of being a Magical Girl.

Homura could not shake all those nagging little thoughts of Madoka, even as the class continued with Saotome talking about how this poem inspired a bunch of English speaking creators from authors to musicians with lines like "The Centre Cannot Hold" and "Things Fall Apart".

Homura had to wonder if the poem was about a breakup or something and the two people making a second attempt at a relationship leading to the name The Second Coming. That had to be it right?

It was either that or about Judgement Day which Homura highly doubted given the parts of the discussion she actually paid attention to. The Rapture was supposed to be a good thing since Jesus was good right? She could not remember. It had been a decade or more since she had been in Catholic School.

The class ended with Ms. Saotome collecting everyone's homework from the night before and telling them that they would be starting on a poem called The Wasteland next that was written at about the same time as the other poem. How cheerful.

They did not realize that their city would soon be a wasteland. Homura could only imagine what lovey dovey broken hearted mess this Wasteland poem would be. The opening lines that Saotome shared with them, all about desire, flowers, memory, and the coming of spring did not fill Homura with hope it would be about anything but romance even if it was clearly one of those more edgy angsty poems. Given who was assigning the poem, it was almost definitely about a breakup.

"April is the cruelest month" indeed. She knew that better than anyone having lived over a hundred Aprils of endless suffering, loss, and torment. She hardly remembered what a month that was not April or late February looked like and May 1st when she got that far was always a morning of horror and tragedy. If only they knew how cruel April truly was! If only they knew that the night of April 30th, the night of Walpurgisnacht could well bring the end of the world.

And Homura still had no clue how Kriemhild Gretchen and to a lesser extent some of the other witches kept getting more powerful!

As Saotome took the homework papers and set them on her desk she seemed to realize that she had forgotten to give Homura her papers and with a small frown to herself seemed to decide to pretend that she had done nothing wrong. "I look forward to introducing you all to my new boyfriend! Ms. Akemi, if I could speak to you for a minute."

Homura did her best not to show her reaction to the creepy comment, a skill that she had honed after a decade of concealing her feelings and intentions from those around her, and took the papers though she usually concealed those feelings under a scowl. She would ask Madoka about the Yeats poem later while on the way to the nurse's office as an icebreaker before vaguely warning the girl against contracting and interacting with the supernatural.

O . O . O . O . O

"We saw you looking at Ribbons earlier."

The first classes of the day had passed as usual aside from those minor incongruities with Ms. Saotome in English that could all be attributed to the woman getting a new and creepy boyfriend after her last breakup, something that was probably Kyubey's fault somehow.

Homura being approached at lunch by the two girls who had been staring at her earlier was something new and the other people who were approaching her were now trying to be somewhere else for some reason including the magenta haired girl who sat next to Nakazawa and the brunette girl who sat behind her and who usually would steal Nakazawa's seat during the lunch discussion. For some reason Nakazawa shot a disappointed glare at the approaching brunette.

Homura was left with just the two anomalous newcomers.

"You mean Madoka?" asked Homura. She honestly did not care if people that probably did not matter knew she knew information she should not know. It just added to her mysterious aura that Madoka seemed to like and Sayaka strongly disliked which were both positives in her book.

"Ah so her reputation precedes her." said the girl with Magenta hair, "My name is Ijimekko and this is Ijiwaru . Do you mind if I ask what you have heard about Madoka Kaname?"

Homura thought about what answer would be believable since she was supposed to be a stranger here and there was a small chance they might say something to Madoka or one of her friends. "I've heard that she is the nurse's aid. I was told about her since I have a medical condition."

"Ah, so you have not heard then." said the second girl with a sneer. "She is openly two-timing with the blue haired girl over there," she said pointing to where Homura knew Sayaka was talking to Madoka and Hitomi about her, "And that snooty rich green haired…" here the brunette struggled to find words. She seemed incandescent with fury, "Green haired heartless trollop!"

Homura was sure she had misheard. "Really?"

"Oh yes. You can ask her yourself or literally anyone in the class. In fact don't just take our word for it. Ask them! They will all tell you the same thing." said the brown haired Ijiwaru. That bothered Homura. If these two were just going to lie or spread a baseless rumor then why would they be encouraging her to ask the subject of that rumor?

"It's true. I think it's called a polycule or throuple." said the magenta haired Ijimekko. "I always figured that perfect little Ms. Honors student had something wrong with her."

Homura felt the world spinning for a moment. She noticed Nakazawa over the brunette's shoulder shaking his head sadly and looking away. She dimly remembered that Nakazawa should be being comforted by one of the other guys in class right now since Saotome bullying him tended to lower his mood. Homura only knew this because she had considered using Nakazawa to distract Madoka and she also sat next to the boy, so it was kind of hard to miss these things.

She knew she was just distracting herself.

."Come again. What was that about Madoka doing what with two dead girls? I mean the green and blue haired girls."

Ijiwaru grinned like some kind of animal, all her ferocity from calling Hitomi a green haired trollop could be seen in those flashing teeth, "That's right. Those girls don't care about the sanctity of the human heart or what love is. They don't care how many people's hearts they break or who they hurt."

"Madoka?" It could not be true. Lies and slander or maybe she had hallucinated all of this as she felt herself leaning precariously in her chair, "I think I need to go to the nurse's office."

"Oh right, you said you have a medical condition." said Ijiwaru, "We can take you to the nurse's office."

Homura shook her head, "Nurse's aid. Better if she does it."

"Just be careful and if she tries to seduce you or anything, report it to a teacher immediately!" said Ijiwaru. "We'll talk more later. I think this might be the start of a beautiful partnership."

Homura was barely paying attention anymore as she stumbled her way to her feet. She had not felt like this since those first few time loops when she did not know how to fix her heart condition. She was sure she had fixed it. Maybe their words were just getting to her.

"Nurse's aid," she said looking at Madoka and… and the other two girls. They did seem to be standing unusually close to each other. Hitomi who for some reason was wearing a mask - was she sick? - watched the two with hungry green eyes tinged with red, and Sayaka appeared to be leaning against Madoka's side like she had lost the ability to stand up straight. Still, that was probably just Sayaka's regular teasing and Hitomi just being Hitomi.

Also Sayaka was currently crushing on Kyousuke, and Homura thought for sure that Hitomi was homophobic. That was right. Hitomi would say 'Girl's can't love girls.' those rare times when she saw Sayaka dating Kyoko or those even rarer times when Madoka and Homura were dating.

She was imagining it. Maybe the magic to fix her heart had not gone off correctly. That must be it. She would check it and her soul gem in the privacy of the bathroom later.

"What can I do for you?" Madoka asked her from across the room. Right, she had called for the nurse's aid.

"Can you show me to the Nurse's office. I need some medication." said Homura who still felt her world tilting slightly though it was getting better.

"That's convenient." said Sayaka with a warm and welcoming smile, "Madoka and I were just about to go over there together." Do not think about the two together. "Here let me help you out."

Homura shook her head. She did not want Sayaka getting involved with the conversation where she would be warning Madoka. She did not want Sayaka around at all right now after hearing those… rumors. "Thank you, but I would prefer to just go alone with the nurse's aid. I'm…uh… sensitive about my condition."

The three had a whispered conversation and Homura felt her heart sink just like she would expect them to if they were…together. She felt like she was about to collapse. Her soul gem would probably need cleaning soon. Madoka must have seen something in Homura's expression or body language because she shook her head and swiped her hand through the air before saying something too quiet for Homura to hear.

"Don't worry I'll still go to the nurse's office. I'll just run on ahead. This thing takes forever to unwrap anyway." said Sayaka holding up her left arm which Homura noticed was wrapped in bandages. Homura wondered what had happened to Sayaka. How had the foolish girl gotten herself injured this early in the run?

Hitomi whispered something to the two, but Homura was just able to make out the word "rooftop." She supposed the three were planning to have their lunch there. She might join or spy on them after her talk with Madoka just in case they ran into Mami or Kyubey up there. She definitely was not doing it to make sure they did not get up to any… couple activities. No, do not imagine them holding hands with her Madoka!

Madoka approached and without even asking she wrapped Homura's arm around her shoulder. With a smile that never failed to light up Homura's dark and twisted reality Madoka said, "This way."

Homura would normally start walking in front of Madoka so that the two could get there faster, but she had to admit she liked the physical contact. She felt like she needed it after that hopefully just a daydream nightmare thing of Madoka supposedly dating Sayaka and Hitomi at the same time.

"If you don't mind me asking," said Madoka looking away, "What did those two girls say to you Akemi san?"

"Nothing important." said Homura, "And you can just call me Homura."

"Only if you call me Madoka," Madoka replied and she gave Homura a smile. Was it just Homura's imagination or was she studying Homura's face more closely than usual for one of their encounters during the first lunch.

Maybe Madoka had dreamt of Homura battling Walpurgisnacht. That was starting to happen these last couple of time loops though Homura knew she herself only knew about the times that Madoka actually told her about it.

"You have such an amazing name, Homura Akemi, the beautiful morning flame like the sun or The Morning Star."

Homura found herself getting lost in Madoka's pink eyes. After the shock to the system of hearing that Madoka was allegedly dating Sayaka and Hitomi at the same time Homura needed the comfort.

"You have a beautiful name, too. Madoka Kaname, the focal point of the cycle." And that name was rather prophetic. Madoka was the focal point of Homura's endless cycles. In a very real sense she was Homura's focal point.

The two of them just stood there in the hallway Madoka helping Homura to stand even though the magical girl no longer needed the help. It looked like Madoka wanted to ask her something, but after a moment Madoka turned her head. "Really I'm nothing special."

Homura wanted to protest, but not here. She could see some of their classmates looking at them. There was a glass bridge connecting the two far sides of the school. It would be safe to talk there. For now she had resolved to go for the soft approach to warning Madoka and that meant awkwardly striking up a conversation to serve as an icebreaker before dropping the whole do not contract or interact with the supernatural speech.

"So I never had the chance to read that poem for English, what was it called?"

"The Second Coming?" asked Madoka.

"Yes. What was it about? Saotome made it sound important so I'm guessing it's romantic."

"I think Saotome said something about it being counted as a late romantic piece, but she said it is really more modernist."

"Do you think the poem is romantic, like love romantic?" asked Homura even though she was having trouble making sense of what Madoka was saying. This never happened in past time loops, but then she never talked to Madoka about English poetry in past time loops. All Homura had was her hard won experience. Without that experience she was just good for nothing and even with it she was so very useless.

"Well I wouldn't call the poem itself romantic, but…" Madoka trailed off. She looked at Homura again and it seemed like she was deciding something, probably that thing she had been thinking about saying earlier.

"This is going to sound weird." said Madoka, "The poem only has the narrator and Jesus in it so it can't really have much romance there." Homura felt silly since the name of the poem was The Second Coming. She should have guessed it would be about The Rapture. One of the nuns who had helped raise her had been a little too enthusiastic about the Book of Revelations, but Homura had never really paid much attention to that and it was all so very long ago. "And" Madoka continued, "I had this dream last night and at the end I was kind of like Jesus in the poem."

Homura was now very confused. Madoka was probably just remembering making a wish and dying. That would make the most sense.

"But the dream I had was romantic like love romantic. In it, before I went all Jesus Second Coming on the world, well… I was with this girl."

Homura nodded along. Some parts of her brain, namely her jealousy, pessimism, and sense of inferiority were whispering that the girl was Sayaka or Hitomi even though she just knew that the latter was impossible.

That was unless Hitomi was a closet bisexual…

But no! Surely not!

"And that girl…" Madoka trailed off looking away and blushing, her cheeks reflecting the pink of her eyes and hair.

"Yes?" Homura squeaked out. She had enough self awareness to know she squeaked. She really was a pathetic good for nothing piece of trash!

Her soul gem was going to need at least an entire grief seed after just this conversation.

Madoka muttered something that might have been, "her name was."

"Come again?"

"You'll probably think I'm weird or crazy, but her name was Homura Akemi and she looked just like you."

Homura let out a breath of relief and felt her lips pulled into a massive smile. All the things those two idiot girls said were just slanderous lies. Madoka was hers and she was Madoka's even if they could never be together since Homra was going to be busy enough just trying to save Madoka from her fate.

Madoka's face turned into a shy smile on seeing Homura smile, "And I may have told dream Homura that I loved her."

Now it was Homura's turn to turn away blushing.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Madoka said trying to pull away which was difficult since the two had their arms around each other.

"I'm not uncomfortable. I'm…" Homura looked for the right word. What word could express how she felt. Not that she thought there was anything more to Madoka's love than just something platonic… except that Madoka had said the dream was romantic…

What word could capture what Homura felt then?

"I'm honored. I'm grateful. I…" Homura was rambling. She did not want to scare Madoka away. Madoka, at least this iteration of her, did not know Homura beyond a dream. "I would not be against getting to know you better." What she really meant was Madoka getting to know her better, but those were just details. Madoka might not appreciate how much Homura knew about her already, but all that mattered was keeping Madoka safe and now that she had all the guns and money she would need, there really was no reason not to use the opportunity to keep a closer eye on Madoka. "Maybe we could um…"

What was she doing later? Today was the day of the mall attack, and hopefully Homura could dispose of the witch's familiar and the Kyubey bodies before Madoka and Sayaka had a chance to meet either and worse get saved by Mami who would then set a bad example for them both about what it means to be a Magical Girl. "Go to the mall together later?" Homura finished.

"I would like that." said Madoka, "I'm actually meeting my friends at the mall later."

Homura now had a choice. She could try to keep Madoka to herself, but past attempts at that often failed. Madoka cared too much about her friends and they were too nosy about Madoka's affairs, especially when it came to the mysterious transfer student. On the other hand the words of those two girls were still getting to her. They had seemed so sure of what they were saying and had even said she should ask anyone and she would hear the same thing. "The more the merrier." Homura said though she felt her voice was not as strong and confident as she would have liked.

"I'm glad. I think they will like you," said Madoka, "especially Sayaka." Homura had her doubts.

"It's not true right? The rumors that you are um…" Homura waved her hand. Madoka's face fell and she looked away, "dating those two girls you were with." Looking at how Madoka's head was hanging, she looked tired all of a sudden, to the point that Homura was actually helping to hold the other girl up. Homura thought Madoka might not be happy with the current subject of the conversation. "Not that there's anything wrong with you um doing this polycule thing, if you were, which you are not since it's just an unfounded rumor and all."

"You don't think there would be anything wrong with it even if it was true?" asked Madoka, her eyes pulled back to Homura's. They were a little wet and full of so much desperate hope. Desperate hope was a rather common expression to see in Madoka's eyes as Walpurgisnacht neared and their world each cycle descended into horror and tragedy.

"Of course not." said Homura though she had to force the words out. Anything for Madoka! She did not need Madoka making some stupid wish with Kyubey to get rid of rumor spreading girls who did not know better. These were obviously just rumors. Why else would Madoka react the way she did? And Madoka even said 'even if it was true'.

"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me. My mom and Nakazawa have been supportive, but well…" Okay not it sounded like Madoka was actually in a relationship with the two which should be impossible since again Sayaka and Hitomi liked Kyousuke and Hitomi was a homophobe.

"You're allowed to love who you want," Hitomi!, "and as many people as you want so long as everyone involved is okay with it," Homura was not okay with it and had to force the words out. She hoped she sounded convincing. While she wanted Madoka to be happy, her magic healed heart had a small amount of selfishness in it and that little part of her hurt unbearably at the thought of Madoka with anyone else. "And don't worry about what anyone says!" She knew that in a few past timelines Madoka had been bothered by Hitomi's 'Girls can't love girls line.' "But that's all a moot point since you said that it wasn't even true, right?" asked Homura.

"That's right, but only my mom knows that." Homura was now confused.

"Your friends don't know that they are not really um…" Homura waved her free hand.

"Well Sayaka knows that she is not really dating me and Hitomi knows she is not really dating me, but they both think that the other one is dating me, and I've tried to say things to clear it up, but I don't think they understand."

Homura felt relief flood through her and almost collapsed. She would have collapsed if not for Madoka taking her weight for her, giving her a look of concern.

Homura had nothing to worry about. Everything was fine in the world. Everything was better than fine because this thing that might have been a catastrophe had led her to having one of the longest one on one pre third week conversations that had nothing to do with the supernatural that she had ever had with Madoka. They usually had their longer conversations as people started dying and Walpurgisnacht started getting nearer.

Oh, were they at the bridge already?

"You said you weren't special Madoka, but I don't think that's true at all." Homura put her other arm onto Madoka while pulling away slightly with the arm around Madoka's shoulders so that she had both hands on Madoka's shoulders. "You matter a lot to a lot of people, your friends, your family,..." she almost added the word me.

Madoka seemed to guess what she left unsaid, "You don't think we're moving a little fast do you? I don't really even know you yet outside today and the dream."

"We'll have the chance to really get to know each other very soon." Homura said, waving the idea off. She knew some probable outcomes for the future based on trial and error. Madoka would be getting to know Homura better before this Walpurgisnacht. "What I'm trying to say is, you are something amazing and special just as you are now, so don't change, ever."

"But how do I stop changing? Isn't changing part of growing up?" asked Madoka. Now she just sounded confused. This happened sometimes. Homura could fix this!

"Well, I mean, don't make any serious choices that drastically change who and what you are."

"What kind of choices would those be?" She seemed to be thinking hard about something.

"You know, choices…"

Madoka just looked confused for a moment before her face lit up with realization, "Oh I just remembered something from my dream! Don't make any choices like becoming something… supernatural." Madoka said the last word with a wink.

She knew! Homura felt the blood drain from her face, but she forced herself to nod, "Yes, that. Please, please, please, don't do it. You don't have to do it. You are um… you're stronger than you know. You don't need magical powers, in fact getting magical powers would just hurt you and those around you, so it's better if you don't, so please don't!" Homura felt a little short of breath as she tried to draw in air. She supposed she had said the last part pretty fast.

"This means a lot to you doesn't it?" asked Madoka.

"It does."

Madoka looked very conflicted. Homura knew what she was asking Madoka to give up. Madoka had always wanted to be a magical girl even before contracting. "I promise that I'll at least talk to you and some of my friends about it first before you know, getting myself turned into any kind of supernatural creature even if that creature is a magical girl."

Odd phrasing, but Homura could live with it. "Yes. Believe me, the supernatural world is much more painful and terrifying than you can imagine."

"I don't know. If that dream I had last night was anything to go by then I can imagine a lot."

"It is as bad as the worst stuff you can imagine."

She thought she could hear Madoka mutter, "I liked that dream."

"It sounds like a nice dream, but I'm sure there were parts of it that were less nice."

Madoka thought for a moment. "I think you got hurt in it which is really bad and I might have died at one point, but then I think I came back to life like that Jesus guy, so I guess I get what you're saying. The supernatural is dangerous and should be handled with care."

It worked! Madoka was going to talk to Homura before making any contracts.

It was not perfect since Madoka had not said that she would not make any contracts, but it was something, and it was something huge! Homura could not believe just how good this run was going and it was only the first day since she transferred in!

Homura felt the stirrings of fickle hope inside of her breast. It almost felt like things would actually work out this time, like nothing could go wrong!

O . O . O . O . O

"Uwasa, Nameless AI of The Endless Solitude, hear your creator and obey!"

Sana Futaba was confused and shocked at hearing the voice of a small girl projected directly into her head.

"Sana, I recognize that voice." said Ai, her best friend and companion since she willingly threw herself into the prison of the Endless Solitude. Her friend's voice was only in her head.

The two of them were in a new prison now, no longer living in a virtual reality paradise for just them. Instead they were trapped in a black metal skeleton lined in green LEDs with the words University Affiliated High School stenciled on the front in big grey lettering.

Theirs was an immobile skeleton looking out upon the world through glowing green eyes. They had seen themselves in the car mirror on their way to their current tomb and were horrified. Her head was literally a black painted steel skull with a metal grill for a mouth. Their body was all sharp angles and points with wires running between black metal ribs to a bundle of circuitry and chips where a heart would be.

Sana had gone to the Mizuna Girl's school so she knew none of the people that now wandered about her wearing UA High School uniforms and checking on a laptop that was connected to her by some chords. They would press a key and a part of her body would move.

"I just don't get it. We did the ritual and everything!" said one of the robotics club members gathered around her. "It's eyes are glowing and that's not from the LEDs. It should be alive!"

The cat, apparently named Amy that the robotics students were looking after for some local middle schooler leapt onto Sana and Ai's new head. They still could not move on their own.

"Uwasa, uh if you can hear this message and are capable of responding, please respond." said the young girl's voice.

"Shall I say something in response?" asked Ai.

"Go ahead. If they made you then they can't be all bad, right?" Sana thought back to Ai.

"You don't know them like I do." Sana felt something from Ai as her companion did something, "Message sent. I've told them what happened to us, and that I also now have a name."

After a minute where the little girl was probably reading the message from Ai Sana heard the voice again, "Okay, and it's Ai, right? Touka is using all that information you sent to get access to your new body's systems. She says she thinks she can fix the drivers whatever those are to allow you to… well you know, move."

"Oh, that would be nice." said Sana. She could feel Ai agree with her in their shared mindscape.

"Alright, so before we do this, we want something from you Uwasa."

Sana could feel Ai let out a simulated sigh. "One wonders what twisted machinations those three have dreamt up this time."

"We, that is Ui, Touka, and I would like you to agree to help us track down Ui's older sister before she can accidentally or deliberately try to murder her parents. We sort of brought her back from the dead and then lost track of her. Her name is Iroha by the way, Iroha Tamaki. I was kind of hoping you could track her down with your ability to monitor radio signals, but Touka is saying she doesn't think that will be as easy now that you are no longer in a radio tower even if your new body can still pick up radio signals."

"That's not so bad. We'll be helping put a family back together." Sana thought to Ai. She remembered her problems with her own family… and her wish to disappear. "This Iroha's family seem to care about her don't they?"

"That seems like a logical assumption." said Ai. "Shall we accept then?"

"Do it." thought Sana and she felt it as Ai sent off the message. "I was happy in the Endless Solitude, but I'm not happy here. We had each other and nobody bothered us, but now everyone keeps looking at us and shouting at us and plugging things into us and I don't think I really like it."

Sana could feel something changing inside of her new body.

"Update has started." said Ai's creator, "We're also including something for you to use the tracker in Ui's parents' phones, but unfortunately someone forgot to put a tracker into Iroha's body, and that certain someone isn't even smart enough, ouch that hurt, to get access to Iroha's cellphone's location data - stop pinching me! - so you'll have to find her yourself. We'll be arriving in the city soon, too, but for now happy hunting!"

Sana felt the update complete and together with Ai they moved their body for the first time in days. They stood and the robotics team scattered away except for the one high schooler who was still holding the laptop that was plugged into them, and looking at them with glee. "It worked! It's alive!"

They moved their hand robotically in jerking motions, seizing the offending cables and ripping them out of their body. This also pulled the laptop out of the boy's hands where it crashed into the nearby wall that they had been propped against exploding in a shower of sparks and glass.

"Sorry!" thought Sana as they let go of the cables and was surprised to find the word leaving their mouth. Their voice came out like an electronic screech or maybe the growl of a beast and the words were barely intelligible.

Amy looked on from their head seemingly unbothered by the violent jerky motions. The high schoolers were slightly more bothered backing up against the far wall.

Sana felt bad for scaring them. She wanted to disappear and with that thought the two called on her powers as a magical girl. They felt the transformation take hold. Sana could tell how Ai was surprised by her now getting to feel the unfamiliar sensation.

They moved their optical sensors looking down at themselves without moving their head. They saw that Sana's armor combined with loosely hanging ghostly tattered scraps of Ai's white dress had appeared on their metal frame, on their head they could feel the weight of Sana's crown, and in their hands they could see and somehow also feel Sana's dagger and shield even if the world now felt so distant, numb, and cold.

Movement drew their optical sensors back to the high schoolers who were running for the door of the hotel room they were in and struggling to all leave at the same time which did not appear to be working very well for them.

Sana felt a little bad for scaring them and just really wanted to disappear and with a thought the two were gone.

For some reason that just scared the high schoolers who were glancing over their shoulders at them even more as they finally broke out of the traffic jam and fled down the hall.

Sana, Ai, and Amy the cat who was perched inside the ring of Sana's crown made their way invisibly down the hall, down the stairs, and out the door into the sunlight of Mitakihara.

They could not really leave the cat when those high schoolers were probably never going to come back. Hopefully they could find this Homura Akemi middle schooler later to return her pet, but first they had an Iroha to find and a family to help put back together!

O . O . O . O . O

Iroha Tamaki frowned in concentration as she tapped the screen in front of her with her grotesquely oversized but otherwise immaculately beautiful right hand. The screen was attached to a smart phone-like device that was embedded in her left forearm with seams connecting the rubber sides to her skin.

The smartphone device that was displaying a map changed language from Japanese and started shouting directions at her in some European language. Maybe French? The line on the map seemed to be pointing to… somewhere in the ocean maybe?

"I'm sorry, I'm so useless with these things." Iroha said, turning her head, which she was pretty sure was mostly still her head to look at the not so small Kyubey perched on her shoulder.

"That is perfectly fine Iroha Tamaki. Since your GPS device has failed, I will lead you to the church with the so-called Kazamino Killer Cannibal."

"And if I help to stop her you'll help me get back my memories?" She had vague memories of a family. There were parents who were always traveling and two little girls who she was like a big sister to, but it was all so far away and she felt like she was missing something very important, someone very important. She closed her eyes and she saw pink hair so much like the patch of pink hair on her head like a pink highlight on blonde and pink eyes so much like her one pink eye that stared back at her when she had looked in a bathroom mirror. Her other eye was a beautiful blue and the other people in that particular gas station had quickly run off for some reason shortly after she had entered.

"Of course I will. I will even lead you back to your family when this is over." said Kyubey. She remembered that the little white fairy could not tell a lie. She trusted Kyubey and wondered what she would have done if he had not found her and helped her escape that strange hospital room she had woken up in.

O . O . O . O . O

"How lovely," said the dead looking blue haired thing in the hotel's bathroom mirror. "A whole new city and so many new friends to meet." The voice was in her head. It was not real. The voice was just her imagination anthropomorphizing her awful power.

Yachiyo could still see the blood from the other models.

Her power's parasitism had never taken over her body like this before, with her waking up covered in blood and the voice laughing in her head, laughing like her fellow models had laughed when they had heard that Kanashii Ichika was dead.

Ichika was another magical girl. Her wish had been to go into modeling so that she would have enough money to feed her starving little brother. In spite of all her sacrifices her brother was still sent into the foster system and Ichika and Yachiyo both knew that the other models at the agency were to blame for the girl losing custody of her brother.

Ichika having to wear that avant garde magical girl themed dress for a photoshoot was what finally killed her. The despair was too much. Ichika had felt so powerless, so pointless, so hated, she had taken her own life.

Yachiyo had tried to keep her distance. She did not want a repeat of Mel who had been forced by Yachiyo's power to take a blow for her before succumbing to her grief and becoming a witch.

Yachiyo had kept her distance from Tsuruno and her restaurant afterwards. Momoko had left them all not able to handle the revelations, and Mifuyu had disappeared and was likely dead.

Yachiyo tried to keep her distance, but she had found herself getting attached again, this time to a younger model, a younger magical girl.

"It was blissful revenge for our friend's death." said the voice in the mirror, "We do not have so many friends that we can let others end their lives."

"Because you want that privilege." She spat at the mirror.

"We do what we must to survive, and you act like that is a bad thing, but really what has your purity and goodness ever gotten you? You would be dead if not for me! Ichika would be unavenged if not for me!"

"You are not real!" but Yachiyo knew the truth.

"This again! If it's the guilt that is gnawing at you then as a favor to myself I say you are innocent. I am your darkness and savage nature and you are our purity and empty heroism. You just keep being a pretty empty headed useless model, and I'll even let you handle the boring stuff like getting the paycheck and keeping the house in order. I'll take care of the important stuff like keeping us and our friends alive."

"How magnanimous." she growled and was not sure which of them had said it. Her power had changed that night about a week ago. Her power was changing!

Was it something she drank? Was it some experiment by the incubators into the depths of human nature?

There was a pawing at the bathroom door, "Yachiyo Nanami?" asked Kyubey. "I have information on the expected location of the Kazamino Killer Cannibal."

"And in exchange you will tell me where my good friend, Mifuyu is?" asked the voice in the mirror.

Yachiyo could feel her mouth moving with the words.

"Of course. Afterall, honoring agreements is necessary for cultivating trust."

"Then let us be vengeance and justice." said the thing that was not Yachiyo. Yachiyo could see the face in the mirror smiling as she felt herself falling into a deep dark hole inside her own mind. "I wonder if this Yuma Chitose would like a new friend."

Yachiyo's last thought before blacking out was that Kamihama's Catwalk Killer would soon face off against Kazamino's Killer Cannibal Kidnapper.

O . O . O . O . O

Felicia and Riko were walking home after another awesome victory over the witches of Kosho Ward. Riko was inspecting her nails which in her transformed state had grown into slight claws. Felicia had shared the last of her remaining cow person meat with Riko. Protein helps you grow strong after all and Riko was already showing that she would become a top notch magical girl mercenary just like Felicia!

And Riko would never have to become a tough orphaned lone wanderer lone wolf type to get strong. Not if Felicia had her way.

"Um, so I think there might have been something up with that beef you gave me after we adopted… I mean hired you." said Riko moving her clawed fingers to rub the little nub like horns that were not completely hidden by her hair.

"Yep. That stuff will help you grow big and strong like me."

"Well it worked." said Riko. She conjured her bento pick, such an amazing weapon, almost as good as a hammer, and examined the end which had gained two additional prongs to become a giant fork. "I can hardly believe I managed to take such a strong witch out all by myself." she said dismissing her weapon and transformation.

"But you did." To be fair it was not that strong of a witch. Felicia was not going to let Riko take on a really tough one on her own just yet, but she did not want to hurt her new friend's confidence so she kept her mouth shut.

She had a friend. Felicia wondered why her eyes were watering again. That had been happening a lot these past few days. "And I'll be here if you ever end up in trouble you can't handle, not that there will be any trouble like that once we're done helping you get stronger."

Training Riko had not been part of the original deal when she was hired as a mercenary. She was hired as a mercenary! For a long term contract, too! And it had not fallen apart yet! Still, she was not going to let this girl who had shown her such kindness or Riko's family who had taken her in and basically all but adopted her come to any harm and that meant making sure Riko could take care of herself and was strong enough to protect her family in case Felicia was for some reason not there. Some reason like school which Riko's mother had started to ask Felicia about though Riko did also have school, too.

Felicia was not sure how she felt about things like being sent to school again by Riko's parents. There were a lot of things that Riko's parents did that Felicia did not know how to feel about like Riko's mother tucking her into bed, or Riko's dad teaching her how to cook and letting her eat what she made or how they trust her so much to help look after Riko.

Apparently Riko used to be looked after by the daughter of their neighbor, but that girl got married and moved away and had not talked to Riko since Riko contracted.

Riko did not really have anyone whenever her parents were busy working which was most of the time it seemed.

Felicia understood why they had to work so hard, Felicia had learned the value of money and work the hard way, but she also understood why Riko was always upset by it. For all that Riko's parents loved the girl they were absent. They may not have been gone completely like Felicia's were, but they were still gone most of the time.

That was why last night after Riko and her parents had a small argument about the girl's parents working late again Felicia had taken Riko out for a witch hunt. A little violence never failed to cheer Felicia up so long as she was winning of course and it seemed to help Riko feel better, too.

The plan had been to go out around 10pm and be back before dawn, ideally before midnight but… well the witch was a crafty one. The stupid thing managed to lead the two of them around for hours throughout Kosho ward and the labyrinth was really confusing to find your way around, sort of like a maze or a labyrinth. And there were a lot of familiars and since the two were doing this to help Riko feel better that meant Felicia could not just kill everything really quickly and be done.

So it was now getting close to noon. Good thing they left a note on Riko's pillow saying that the two of them would be out for a bit with Felicia promising to keep Riko safe.

And it was a very good thing that between the magic cow person meat they had both eaten and them being magical girls the two of them did not need to sleep as often. That did not mean Felicia did not still like to relax on the bed she had been given. A real bed! It was so soft, too.

Felicia sniffed the air. Even untransformed as she was now her senses were much sharper than they had been before. Was that blood mixed in with the smells of old buildings, gasoline, cigarette smoke, and garbage?

"Do you smell that?" she asked. Riko shook her head.

As the two drew closer to the Chiaki bento shop however Riko's face twisted into a frown and she started sniffing, too.

Felicia was definitely smelling blood. That was not a good sign.

The lights were off in the shop. They should not have been off.

Riko charged forward and tugged on the door. It was locked and the sign said closed.

That could not be right. It was lunch time. The shop should be open.

Riko pulled out her key and unlocked the door before rushing inside. Felicia caught the door. Her hands were shaking.

Something was wrong. Something was not allowed to be wrong. This was all wrong!

Riko let out a choked gasp.

Felicia found Riko holding her mom. Her dad lay pale and motionless on the floor. There were two red marks on his neck.

Riko's mom's chest was barely rising and falling. She looked so pale, "Riko, Felicia."

"Shhhh we'll get you to a hospital. Save your strength, mom."

"No. Have to… have to warn you." the woman's breathing sped up as she reached out, not for Riko but Felicia. She gripped her arm tight. Her hand was so cold! "A man… and girl… she looked barely Riko's age. They called each other Shizuki and Sakura."

"We need to call an ambulance." said Riko rushing over to the phone.

"We shouldn't have invited them in. A mistake. They were… they were looking for something. Said you had a hammer." Felicia felt her blood run cold. Riko had heard and the phone had fallen from her trembling fingers. "They called it the Hammer of The Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven. The man said it would let them fight the Sun." The woman's grip tightened. "Don't let the monsters who killed my husband have it whatever the hell it is." She looked towards Riko, "Keep my daughter safe. Promise me, keep Riko safe!"

Felicia nodded. "I will. I will!" Mrs. Chiaki smiled. Her hand slackened. Her face looked wrong frozen sort of. Her chest had stopped rising. Felicia did not panic. She just pulled away really fast. She did not panic!

She wiped at her eyes. They were not wet. They were not. Why was she shaking. She was not scared. She did not get scared. This was all just a bad dream.

Riko screamed. Felicia could see the other girl engulfed in blue fire as her transformation came over her. Riko's horns and claws seemed longer than before as she gripped her hands tight enough to draw blood.

When Riko was done screaming she collapsed to the ground and crawled back to her parents who were… they were…

Felicia was trembling.

"The last time I talked to them I called them both liars." Riko choked out. Riko was silent for a few minutes before looking into Felicia's eyes. She spoke. Her voice was now calm, "Shizuki and Sakura, right?"

Felicia nodded. She did not recognize either of those names, but it was not like she knew everyone in Kamihama. She only knew a handful of the magical girls even after jumping from team to team doing the odd job for different ones.

"I'm going to kill them." said Riko, still sounding so calm. Since when did she have fangs in her transformed state? That was a lot of sharp teeth. "Will you help me?"

Felicia could only nod her head. She still had Riko. Riko was experiencing what Felicia had. She was swearing vengeance like Felicia had. Felicia looked at where Mrs. Chiaki had held her arm. It still felt cold even after having time to warm up again. It felt like it burned. It felt like she had a burn from the fires she would light to cook her food and like the burn would not go away. She could still feel the hand there.

Her new home might as well be gone now.

She still had a job to do, keep Riko safe.

"I will."

O . O . O . O . O

It was almost noon when Kyoko Sakura in her transformed state ground to a halt on the border between Mitakihara and Kazamino.

She knew this was a bad idea. Mami knew Kyoko well enough to know where she would go.

Kyubey knew Kyoko well enough to know where she would go. He would probably say something about humans being too driven by emotion and sentimentality. Well he could shove his lack of sentimentality up his traitorous backside for all she cared!

She had to come back here. This was where they died. She had to say goodbye one last time before she joined them… in case she could no longer join them, because she had damned herself just as bad as her father had.

"You lived in there?" asked Yuma from where she sat, clinging to Kyoko's shoulders and secured by rope to the other girl's back. They had fashioned the rope harness for her to hold onto for when Kyoko went over rooftops.

It just was not safe for Yuma to ride her transformed all the time. Mami or another magical girl might pick up Yuma's magical signature.

The harness had already saved Yuma's life once when the two had fought a witch the night before. Yuma still needed grief seeds.

Yuma and Kyoko could both be terrors when transformed, but that did not make witches any less dangerous and Yuma was still new to the whole magical girl thing.

"Woof!" Kyoko barked an affirmative. She had trouble looking at her old home. There were so many painful memories there, but she forced herself to look.

Something seemed off though…

Nothing appeared wrong, but something was… She could smell something. There were people inside the ruined church.

Were they just squators looking for shelter? She knew that need herself from her year on the street even with her being a magical girl.

No, she smelled dried blood and metal here.

Were they magical girls? Were they waiting for her?

Kyubey acted fast!

Something did not add up though.

Kyoko lowered herself to the ground, the sign for Yuma to get off and then crept closer. There were voices coming from inside.

She crept even closer, careful to stay out of sight of the windows. When she pressed herself up against the side of a broken window she could hear the voices clearly.

"This feel wrong to you? Feels like we're desecrating someone's tomb." said an accented woman or girl's voice, but was she a magical girl?

"I'm telling you, Old Man Sakura would want someone to use his old weapons and shit assuming we can find his stash." said a man's voice, "He probably hoped to give them to his daughters when they came of age."

Definitely not magical girls! But what did they mean about presumably her dad having weapons?

"Too bad one of them did him in." said another man. Kyoko probably should get going. These may not be magical girls, but they would definitely be hostile to the last surviving Sakura girl.

"Nah, I don't think she did. Look at this under the pew." said the first man.

"Lord Jesus in Heaven!" said the woman or girl sounding excited. Kyoko figured her accent was German maybe? She honestly could not tell. It definitely was not Italian, because she had met some of Mami's neighbors. "Fritz, is that what I think it is?" She was very excited.

"If you mean a Goddamn stake, then yes, yes it is."

Steak? There was food in there? They were stealing her dad's food? It was probably too old to be safe to eat anyway, but still! Letting someone else steal your food was almost as bad as wasting it!

Kyoko took a moment to calm herself. A steak left to rot for a year was not safe to eat and it was the least of the things that were put to waste in this old place.

Still she was hungry. She had not eaten in too long. There was just too much to do to take care of Yuma including feeding Yuma, but Kyoko had not been able to eat since she still felt queasy over what had happened with…

Do not think about it!

"Look right there. See that?" said the man, presumably Fritz. "That stain on the stake is old blood."

Bloody steak?

"So he took one of the bastards down before they got him! Sakura really was a Goddamn hero even if he was a heretic!" said the woman. Kyoko could only wonder how the possibly German woman would feel if she knew the truth of just who he took down with him.

"Ain't that right Hilda." said Fritz.

"So that stuff about his daughter was what? A cover up by the police? We know the local biters are some well connected rich assholes." said the woman who Kyoko guessed must be Hilda.

"Might be, but I want to talk to Father Lorenzo first and see if he has any thoughts. He knows more about witchcraft and other magic shit."

Doubtful! She doubted this Father Lorenzo had ever hunted a witch in his life! He knew nothing about the food chain that he was at the bottom of!

Food chain! She was so hungry! Bloody steak sounded so good. She had only had it when her family had money from those mind control donations and even then they only ate it sparingly, but still!

"What's Father Lorenzo doing at the hospital anyway?" asked the second man.

"Something about a suspiciously miraculous recovery or something I think." said Hilda, "You know, it'd be nice, solving a year old murder, getting justice against some evil rich bastards, and clearing an innocent girl's name even if that girl's probably dead."

Kyoko's stomach growled.

"What was that?" asked Fritz.

"I was talking about clearing this Kyoko girl's name and getting revenge on some biters?"

Wait, they wanted to clear her name? Who in the world even blamed her for her father doing a murder suicide? Well aside from herself…

If she was not to blame though then who the Hell was?

"No, I mean did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Hilda.

"I thought I heard a growl." said Fritz.

Kyoko could try to run. She had to look after Yuma, but… had these people known her father? And what was this about her father leaving weapons for her and Momo? And her father being murdered and were these people actually interested in helping her?

Could this all be an elaborate trap by Kyubey?

Well, probably not that last one. Kyubey already set his trap with Mami and she walked right into it. Even Kyubey could not work that fast right?

She could hear them creeping towards the windows. She looked over her shoulder and saw Yuma in the bushes where Kyoko had left her. The other girl would be in sight of the strangers soon and Kyoko was still transformed. She could not warn Yuma away and could not reach her without revealing herself.

She could still rush over there to Yuma. It would not be the first quick getaway the two had done since running from Mami the other day, but…

Kyoko was here to say goodbye to her mom and sister and even her dad, and these people acted like they knew her dad.

She took a breath and willed herself to detransform in a shower of blood red light. She stifled her grunts and growls of pain and discomfort as her bones and skin rearranged itself, but the pops were still audible.

"There is somebody out there! Come out and we'll shoot!" said the second man.

"It's come out or we'll shoot, dumbass!" said Hilda.

"We're not shooting anyone." said Fritz.

"What if they're a biter?." asked Hilda.

"Biters wouldn't set foot on hallowed ground." said the second man.

"One did," said Hilda, "and probably more since Old Man Sakura and his family got murdered by biters."

"This isn't hallowed ground anymore," said Fritz, "Not if some kind of nasty witchy stuff happened here, but Father Lorenzo would know better then me and that doesn't matter right now. Whoever you are, we mean you no harm. Can you show yourself?"

Kyoko very slowly stepped into view. She kept her hands up where they could see them and she had given her distinctive hoodie to Yuma earlier so hopefully they would not connect her to the cannibal killings.

She was not sure if she hoped they would recognize her as Kyoko Sakura though.

There were four foreigners in front of her. Two men and two women.

One of the women or maybe girl would be more accurate looked to be just on the upper edge of magical girl contracting age, but Kyoko doubted the girl was magical. She had hair dyed red and black and a sword strapped to her back which all fit with being a magical girl, but she was also wearing a black leather trench coat which had a distinct lack of silly impractical decorations like frills. The girl probably thought she looked cool, but she really just looked ridiculous. Kyoko even had to stifle a snort as the other girl was struggling to draw the sword strapped to her back. Definitely not a magical girl!

Kyoko was less amused by the two crossbows held in the hands of one of the men and of a scarred middle aged woman with an eye patch.

Still, if it came to a fight she and Yuma could beat them. They did not know about her wolf form, her regeneration, or that Yuma was watching from the nearby bushes. Yuma even being a rookie was no slouch in a fight and could probably take two down on her own. The middle aged woman lacking depth perception might give another small edge in the fight. Why was that woman using a crossbow?

"See, just a kid." said Fritz. He was shorter than average and covered in scars with long messy silver hair and a five o clock shadow. He wore a heavy dark brown trench coat and a brown wide brimmed hat like one of those American cowboys. For some reason he also was wearing numerous cross necklaces and rosaries and he had a bandelier of wooden stakes. He was not carrying a crossbow. All he had was a very old looking wooden stake, definitely older than the shiny and polished ones on his bandolier. The one in his hands was stained with what might have been dried blood.

So stake and not steak then.

"Could still be a biter." said the second man. The girl with the sword nodded her head still trying to get her weapon off her back.

What was a biter? Not a werewolf or they would just say werewolf right?

"She's standing in direct sunlight without any sign of discomfort." said the scarred woman. Kyoko recognized the voice as Hilda's. Hilda did not lower her crossbow..

Wooden stake, sunlight, hallowed ground, bites things… did these people seriously think of themselves as vampire hunters or something? Were they insane?

Except werewolves, witches, and magical girls existed, so why not vampires, too?

"You look a little like Old Man Sakura." said Fritz.

She had just come here to say goodbye one last time, but if these strange people actually knew something about her father, for all her complicated and mostly negative feelings about the man… well, she could take her time with that goodbye.

And anyways, magical girls probably would not attack with so many witnesses around. There was totally a strategic reason for it, too!

She was not trapped by her past at all! Really!

Her voice even shook as she spoke, "I'm his daughter. I'm Kyoko Sakura."

Homura has sort of gotten her hug! Now everyone must suffer!