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SIEBZEHN
TIMELINE X + N
The walk back to the Kurosaki Clinic was hushed and worried. Homura was afraid she had said too much or said something wrong. The twins were probably afraid of the implications of Homura's information for them. Ichigo seemed worried about all the girls in general and at a frustrated loss. Like he wanted to fight something but didn't know what to lash out at. It was an expression and magical feeling Homura had often encountered with Sayaka and Kyōko when they were about to go off like loose cannons. It put her on edge.
When they got home, the girls seemed to be in a hurry to get upstairs. Ichigo quickly grabbed Homura's shoulder. "Hey."
Homura turned to him, startled, and half-expected to be yelled at. Was he going to lash out at her for lack of other targets, like Sayaka and Kyōko? She tried to be non-threatening. "Yes, Mr. Ku— um, I-Ichigo?"
Ichigo ruffled her hair with a wan smile. "I know how hard that was. I'm proud of you. You girls go do your... girl things... and try to relax a bit, okay? Urahara will figure it out." He looked past Homura to his sisters. "Don't worry about cooking tonight, Yuzu. I'll take care of it. You two keep Homura company, okay?"
Yuzu, still pale, nodded silently. Ichigo heaved a deep sigh behind them as they hurried upstairs.
Karin ushered the other girls into their room and shut the door. She leaned back against it and stared into the room. Homura stood in the middle and Yuzu wrung her hands off to one side.
"What— What— What was that?!" Karin demanded. "You made that part up, right? Tell me you made that part up. Please." She didn't have to explain what part. They all knew.
After a long silence in which Homura forced her face to remain expressionless, Yuzu whimpered, "Please, Homura. Please explain. Did you mean— Did— Did Sayaka turn into a W-witch?"
Homura opened her mouth, paused, and frowned before quietly saying, "Yes."
Karin looked like she had been stabbed. She sagged against the door. Yuzu's knees wobbled and she plopped down on her bed. Homura's heart twisted.
"Does... does it happen to all magical girls?" Karin nearly whispered.
Homura met her eyes then looked away. She couldn't stand the expression on Karin's face. "Those who are not killed first, yes. Eventually."
Karin and Yuzu closed their eyes and tried to make sense of the world. Homura remembered the feeling well. At least they didn't find out by witnessing a magical girl's fall.
"How?" Yuzu asked in a small voice. "I don't understand. How?!"
Homura primly sat in a desk chair and smoothed her skirt, trying to project calm for the twins. "You know that when we fight in labyrinths, they taint our Soul Gems, yes? And that we must cleanse them with Grief Seeds?"
"Yeeeah," Karin said suspiciously.
"This is because if our Gems become too corrupted and we start to slip into despair and insanity, our Gems turn completely black and transform into Grief Seeds. Our souls are reborn as Witches. Then the cycle continues with newly-contracted magical girls who will defeat us and become Witches in turn."
"I thought that if our Gems got dark it just meant our magic would be weak," Karin said dully.
"K-kyubey didn't explain any of this!" cried Yuzu.
"Kyubey is a manipulator," Homura said harshly, face stone cold. "The Incubator race preys upon us. They claim the magical energy they harvest from our souls is used for a good cause, but I do not care. Dishonesty is dishonesty. It claims to have no concept of deceit, but I do not believe it. I did not find out about the Incubator's motives until after I had contracted." Homura paused for a moment, considering her earlier story. "That is why I did not want Sayaka and Madoka to contract. But no one ever believes me when I warn them. The wish and magic are too attractive."
Yuzu covered her face with her hands and cried.
Karin slid down to the floor and laughed darkly. "It makes sense. It makes so much sense. I should have seen it. He tore our souls out. Our souls. Of course we'd have a fancy kind of Hollowfication. Of course." She looked up at Homura with a humorless grin. "We really made a deal with the devil, huh?"
Homura looked down at her lap and didn't disagree.
"H-how long do we have?" Yuzu sniffled.
Homura shrugged and pushed her hair back over her shoulder. "That depends on how often you fight, how clean you keep your Soul Gem, and how rational you can stay. Theoretically, you could go on indefinitely if you take care of your Soul Gem and do not fall to despair. That... does not happen often, though."
Karin laughed grimly again.
"What— What happens to us when we die? Do we go to Soul Society?" asked Yuzu.
Homura was silent for a long time. "If you mean human death, like getting hit by a car or dying of cancer, that cannot happen to us. As long as our Soul Gems are intact and not overly corrupted, our bodies are invincible. Our magic can overcome any wound or illness. If our Gem is too corrupted when we are grievously wounded, it tries to heal our body but the strain makes it turn into a Grief Seed." She tilted her head sadly. "We have two possible ends: Transforming into a Witch or complete soul destruction by the shattering of our Soul Gems."
"That bastard robbed us of our afterlives, too? Fantastic," rasped Karin. Yuzu just stared at Homura, aghast.
They sat in silence for several minutes as the twins processed everything.
"Okay. Okay. Plans," Karin said with forced calm. "Priority one is hunting down that goddamn sneaky Witch so we can cleanse our Soul Gems. We've gone too long without."
Homura looked up curiously. "How long has it been since you cleansed your Soul Gems?"
Karin laughed again. It was getting disturbing. "Probably two months."
Homura's eyebrows jumped to her hairline. "How have you not—? I mean—"
"How have we not turned?" Karin finished. "Good question. I dunno. Maybe because we don't get new Witches every other day like in Mitakihara? And when we use our powers to fight Hollows without transforming, it doesn't muck up our Gems as quickly as prancing around in a labyrinth."
Homura frowned. "May I see your Gems?"
Karin got up and crossed the room to sit by Yuzu. Each held out her left hand and materialized the egg-shaped jewel that her soul had been condensed into. Homura slid the desk chair over to look. Both were worryingly murky, but Yuzu's more so than Karin's. Homura frowned and materialized her own Gem next to theirs. Oh, hey, hers was as bad as Yuzu's. They weren't in immediate danger of turning, but their state was concerning. Well, that explained a few things about her instability the last few days— or so she chose to believe. Great. Fun times for everyone.
How the hell was Yuzu so cheerful and put-together with that much corruption? Indomitable optimism?
Briefly, Homura pictured Madoka managing to smile at her in the timeline where the two of them had defeated Walpurgisnacht together and lay near death and final corruption among the ruins of Mitakihara. Madoka had smiled while purifying Homura's Gem even as her own was dark and cracking.
Homura forcibly shoved the memory aside.
"Yeeeah," Karin drawled. "We need to bag that Witch or we're fucked."
"Karin!"
"Is this really the time to scold me for cussing, Yuz?"
Homura pursed her lips, then sat back and let her Soul Gem turn back into a ring. She closed her fist and opened it again, summoning the Mermaid Witch's Grief Seed to her hand. The twins startled.
"Holy shit, where did you—?" squawked Karin. "Oh. Oh. You had it before. That's right. Where... oh..." She trailed off and looked pained.
"Is that... is that Sayaka?" Yuzu whispered.
Homura hummed. "It should be good for two uses. Here." She offered it to the twins.
Both reared back. "What? No, no way," said Karin. "She was your friend. We can't accept that. Use it yourself."
Homura really, really had not been Sayaka's friend in this timeline. She had been ready to kill the stubborn girl when she wouldn't see reason and use a damn Grief Seed. Sure, killing her would have ended her suffering before she could turn into a Witch, but Homura had been nothing but a cold-hearted liar with murderous ulterior motives in Sayaka's eyes.
"She would have wanted to be useful and save other magical girls," Homura said quietly. "That is the kind of magical girl she was. You two use this Grief Seed and I will use the one we get from the Witch you have been hunting."
Both twins frowned hard. Everyone was quiet for a minute.
Karin darted her eyes between the Gems and the Seed. "Two uses, right? You and Yuzu use it. I'll use the one from the Witch we're gonna... put out of her misery. Yours are darker than mine, anyway."
Yuzu turned to her sister. "But Karin—"
Karin stared Homura in the eye. "We owe you for telling us about this. It changes things. You've just let us know we can't afford to be careless. You may have put off our deaths. Thanks. So you and Yuzu share."
Homura stared solemnly at Karin, her respect for the girl increased. Homura touched the Grief Seed to Yuzu's Soul Gem with a little clink. Darkness seeped out of the citrine, leaving it sparkling golden yellow once again in a matter of a few seconds. Yuzu sadly murmured her thanks and cradled the Gem to her chest.
Homura sat back and cleansed her own amethyst Soul Gem. When she was done, she held the Grief Seed out to Karin and gravely said, "Here. There's a little left. Not enough, but it will be better than nothing."
Karin nodded and held her Gem out. The ruby brightened slightly, but the Grief Seed was spent. Homura tucked it back into storage to sit in stasis until she could do something with it.
After an awkward silence, Karin cleared her throat. "So. Plans. We need to hunt after school every day. Dad let Ichi-nii ditch school all the time, but he knew what was going on. I don't think we'll be able to get away with that."
Homura tilted her head. "We just..." She trailed off for a moment, then corrected herself to something they would appreciate. "Sayaka just bought us time. You are not in immediate danger. Skipping school should be unnecessary. I will find an excuse to leave the house during school hours and search. If we do not find the Witch by Friday night, then we can leave for Mitakihara the next morning and get a Grief Seed there before Walpurgisnacht appears on Sunday morning."
Yuzu bit her lip. "If Walpurgisnacht is many Witches put together... that means it's a lot of magical girl souls who fell into despair put together, right?"
"I suppose so."
Yuzu's face hardened into determination. "We need to free them."
Homura frowned. "You must know that if we defeat it, it will become a Grief Seed. All we can do with Grief Seeds is give them to the Incubator to be converted into raw energy. Otherwise, they just re-spawn."
"At least that would end their suffering, though," Karin said resentfully.
"No," Yuzu said with a scowl. "We won't give Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed to Kyubey. The Incubator. Whatever."
"Eh? What else could we do?" Karin asked while Homura looked confused.
Yuzu sat straight, crossed her arms, and declared, "We give it to Mr. Urahara."
The other two girls stared.
"What?" asked Homura as Karin grinned and said, "You're a genius."
Homura looked back and forth between the sisters. "Why?"
Karin smirked. "If anyone can figure out how to help those souls— and ours— it'd be Urahara. He's a nosy troll, but he's brilliant when it comes to everything having to do with souls and spirit stuff."
Homura frowned. "We still do not know how he and other shinigami will react to magical girls."
"So we find out," Karin said breezily. "You were tossing out clues, right? We have a week to see if Urahara's smart enough to figure something out and hightail it if everyone decides to grab the pitchforks and torches. And I doubt it will come to that."
Homura remained unmoved. "You are far more optimistic than I."
"No, we believe in Ichi-nii," Karin asserted.
Yuzu nodded. "Onii-chan won't let the shinigami come after us."
"And even if they were given orders, a lot of the shinigami command structure really likes Ichi-nii. Like, to the extent that a handful defied orders and deserted to help him on a personal mission during the war and all of them helped him get his powers back. And the fact that Kyu— the Incubator tricks girls into contracts should work in our favor with the current, more reasonable leadership. We're victims. We should be able to redirect any bad reactions toward that little bastard."
"I bet we could take Sayaka's Grief Seed to Mr. Urahara right now and everything would be fine," said Yuzu.
Homura grit her teeth and shifted uncomfortably. "You are proposing taking an enormous risk."
"Can't win big if you don't bet big," Karin argued with a shrug.
Homura chewed her lip and looked down, thinking. "Perhaps," she said hesitantly. She looked up at them fiercely. "But I do not want to take that risk until after we fight Walpurgisnacht." Not a lie. She wanted to see where everyone's cards fell in this timeline before approaching— or not approaching— them in the next.
"That's reasonable," said Yuzu with a satisfied nod. "We just have to hang in there for a week, right?"
Homura nodded agreement.
One week. Game on.
§ x § x §
Ichigo went into the kitchen and went through the motions of preparing dinner on autopilot, mind spinning.
No wonder Homura was traumatized.
There were some little things that niggled as not quite adding up, but he couldn't pin down why he felt that way. And he still didn't know what kind of powers the girl had. He wondered what other details she had glossed over that would explain how close to the vest she played her cards.
What worried him the most was her calm as she had said, "I thought Sayaka was a lost cause... and that the only thing we could do for her was put her out of her misery."
Lost cause. Put her out of her misery. Brr.
In that moment, there had been something distinctly weary and not-childlike in her face. Something distant and bleak. He could see it even in profile. In that moment, she had seemed much older than she appeared. It was disturbing.
Ichigo wanted to introduce whatever had beaten her down like that to Zangetsu. Have a... chat. With lots of stabbing and explosions.
Isshin wandered into the kitchen and leaned against the doorway to watch his agitated son cook. Ichigo noticed him but kept working, darkly itemizing a list of little things Homura had said that earned whatever mysterious enemy was out there an extra Getsuga Tenshō to the face.
When Ichigo reached a point where he had nothing to do but stand and wait while things cooked, Isshin spoke up. "That bad, huh?"
Ichigo turned to his father. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, too angry to actually speak coherently. He covered his face and forced himself to calm. Through grit teeth, he ground out, "On top of everything she already told me, she saw that Sayaka girl's soul Hollowfy and the unidentified redhead from the articles use all her fire-type reiatsu to burn the Hollow and herself out of existence even though the Hollow used to be her friend. And the reason the redhead hasn't been reported missing is her father found out about her powers a while back, decided she was a witch, and tried to fucking kill his whole family to escape some kind of imaginary curse. So of course the poor girl with powers was the only survivor and there's no one to miss her but Homura. Of course. I don't fucking understand people sometimes. I really don't."
Isshin sighed heavily and sat in a chair. "Unfortunately, those with powers are so alien to the general population that I don't think the fear response will ever be wiped out. It's hard to handle when you come across violence because of powers. Poor kid." He cocked his head. "Did Homura say what her name was?"
"Kyōko."
Isshin hummed and nodded. "A good name. Kyōko. I'll have to look at the pictures of her again, memorize her face. A girl brave enough to face a friend-turned-Hollow and go down in flames after a life like that... she deserves to be remembered by more than just Homura. Sounds like she'd make one hell of a shinigami someday."
"Yeah," Ichigo said, downcast.
"I'll get the rest of the details from Kisuke, son," Isshin said tiredly. "We'll just have to keep the girls happy tonight."
"Uhhhhh. About that," said Ichigo.
Isshin raised his brows.
"Karin and Yuzu took Homura's story hard. Like, really hard. Pale and scared hard. Hearing what happened to some girls with powers like they do... I think it shook them."
Isshin closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Thanks for the heads up. We'll just have to do our best."
"Mm."
§ x § x §
The first thing Kisuke did was transcribe the meeting, which he had recorded, and scan the map Homura had annotated to send it all to Akon for independent evaluation.
The second thing he did was actually study the map. Akemi's tiny handwriting labeled multiple points with things like "Mami saves Madoka & Sayaka," "Mami, Sayaka, Madoka save woman," "Mami dies," "Madoka saves group, Sayaka saves Madoka," and so on with dates. Most recent and most interesting were the labels on the train station ("Sayaka turns/dies") and a lot across from the station ("Kyōko & Madoka die"). Everything was exceptionally neat except for the words "Madoka die." Kisuke inferred that Madoka was the person Akemi was closest to. That her hand would shake for her and not the others implied a deep bond. Strange, for only having known her a month. Unless that was a lie. Something was off with Akemi's timing, so that could be part of it. What was most curious about the map was that all of Akemi's marks were within Mitakihara proper. She hadn't labeled anything in Kazamino, Asunaro, or Shinchi. Either she was lying by omission or there were independent pockets of disturbances she didn't know about.
Next, he researched the story Akemi had told about the ill-fated Kyōko. It took some digging without a family name, but he eventually found a series of articles about the Sakura family murder-suicide with arson. It was a tragic family history— all four nearly starving when the father was ejected by the church for preaching contrary to doctrine, the turning of the family's fortunes with a sudden surge of believers helping the man build his own church and congregation, followed by an equally sudden descent into alcoholism featuring public rants that his eldest daughter was a witch who had cursed his family and enchanted the congregation. As Akemi had said, it had culminated in the father attacking his family, setting the house on fire, and hanging himself. A follow-up article mentioned that when Kyōko Sakura was released from the hospital into foster care, she immediately ran away. He looked up the missing persons casefile and found it still open. So that part had all been true, unfortunately.
Third, he took a break from the material from the interview so he could look at it with fresh eyes later. Instead, Kisuke devoured the data Akon had sent him. It was almost exactly the opposite of what he had expected. Fascinating. He loved when that happened. Kisuke decided to set it aside and wait until the field investigation could corroborate the information.
After dinner, Kisuke watched the video of the interview over and over and over, taking notes. Places where the girl had paused and changed her words. Places where she avoided everyone's eyes. Things she had said that didn't quite match up with each other. Things that stuck out as interesting. What had been said— and especially what had been left unsaid.
Akemi never gave an actual description of a monster. When directly questioned, she hedged on whether or not it was a Hollow, choosing to instead focus on her surroundings. Then she didn't mention further hallucinations with other monsters. The closest to a physical description of a monster was that the monster that had killed Tomoe had done so by way of a larger entity emerging from its mouth. That was curious in and of itself.
Her description of waking from the suicidal compulsion sounded a lot like when a disorienting kidō was cast on someone strong enough to shake it off, though. That was interesting, especially combined with hallucinatory visuals. An area-effect kidō trap of some kind, or a Hollow-like approximation of one? It would make sense— Akemi, reiatsu strong enough to resist a spell, came to her senses, but others with low or no reiatsu would be ensnared beyond return without outside help. Which sounded like what the girls in the area were trying to be. Interesting. Actually, a soul forcibly overcoming such a spell could act as a catalyst to accelerate spiritual maturation, which would explain the girl's rapid acceleration from seeing things out of the corner of her eyes to total visibility and ability to fight. Was that what was happening with some of the other girls?
Kisuke felt like two huge clues lay hidden in the purported facts that only girls could see the monsters— supported by the forum posts one commenter had summed up with "Whys it always a girl helps the suicidals?"— and that the monsters ate the physical body as well as the spiritual. Yet there were some bodies left behind. Unsure what to make of it yet, he noted it and scribbled a bunch of question marks and stars around it. Something important was there. He could feel it.
What was most disturbing was Akemi's description of Sayaka Miki's decline. It sounded like she had begun to Hollowfy while still alive, which should not be possible with an intact Chain of Fate. Which begged the question: Had her Chain of Fate been intact? Then there was the fact that Akemi had been so careful in how she phrased Miki's fall. She looked as though she gave a great deal of thought before deciding to say anything. That strongly implied she was hiding something about Miki. But what? He scribbled more question marks and stars.
Then there was Akemi's choice of words when talking about Miki. "Lost cause" and "put her out of her misery." It was strange for a fourteen-year-old to have the logical objectivity to make that kind of call— to completely write off the possibility of recovering her friend. Kisuke had known shinigami who didn't acquire that detachment until they had decades of experience. Seeing it in such a young girl was chilling. It was like something had gutted the girl's youthful optimism and left a veteran shinigami behind.
That... That could be important. Kisuke chewed on his pen and stared at the ceiling.
Akemi definitely had more experience wielding her reiatsu than she was claiming. The passive scan he had performed on her showed even distribution and regulation implying conscious control. That took time to accomplish so flawlessly, especially while as stressed as she seemed to be. There had been Hollow-like reiatsu tainting her own, but the scan was inconclusive on the question of whether it came from her or was residue of an attack. Whichever it was, it was dormant beneath the majority of her reiatsu. Considering the tale of Sayaka Miki, he was worried.
And why had Akemi looked something between ashamed and apprehensive when she looked at the Kurosaki girls after saying that Sayaka had turned? Actually, why had all three girls looked like they were having a completely separate conversation in that moment? Kisuke took a second to mourn that the Kurosaki girls weren't open books like their brother. When they wanted to, each was capable of using her known personality as a mask to hide what she really—
Wait.
He looped the video of Akemi telling the story again. Watched the Kurosaki girls closely when she said Sayaka's soul had turned into a monster.
Terror.
While everyone was focused on Akemi, they had met one another's eyes with a lightning-quick glance of sheer terror, looking like each had figured something out. They immediately looked away from each other and visibly tried to control their facial expressions. Akemi had looked at them apprehensively; when she saw their faces, she avoided their eyes. But she had focused completely on the girls, as though speaking to them instead of her interviewers.
What subtext had the Kurosaki girls picked up on that no one else was privy to? And why hadn't they said anything?
Kisuke's mind raced. He kept circling back to the information possibly being a revelation of a threat to them. After a moment of thought, he reluctantly pulled up the results of the scan he had performed. Its scope had recorded everyone in the room, but he had only looked at Akemi's results. It had been about a year since he had reason to scan the twins. Click, click, click, he was looking at the scans of all three girls side-by-side.
Well.
The Kurosaki girls were shot through with the Hollow-like reiatsu, too.
Kisuke scrubbed his hands over his face. This... complicated things. To say the least.
§ x § x §
Dinner at the Kurosaki household had been awkward and stilted, the girls solemn in the face of Isshin's increasingly ridiculous attempts to entertain them. Ichigo finally distracted them by grasping at straws and asking if the girls had done their homework. The ensuing panic had looked like normal academic desperation, but hid the girls' determination to not get detention in the coming week so they'd have time to hunt. Even Homura got involved, helping them with a couple assignments because her own school was a bit ahead of theirs. Crisis averted, the Kurosaki men breathed a sigh of relief.
Homura woke on Monday morning to a shout in the room next door, followed by a window slamming shut and a scream outside. She sat up rapidly, ready for a fight—
"Homura. Manly morning ritual. Chill," Karin droned from her bed.
Yuzu drowsily sat up. "Wait. Why is Onii-chan still here?" When Homura raised an eyebrow at her, she clarified, "He's supposed to go to the dorms on Sunday night so he's there for his Monday morning class."
Karin stretched lazily. "We'll have to ask."
They asked him at breakfast. Ichigo froze and looked like a deer in headlights. "Uh... I got an e-mail saying that my morning class was canceled, so... yeah..."
Karin rolled her eyes. "You suck at lying, Ichi-nii."
"You shouldn't skip classes, especially this early in the school year!" scolded Yuzu.
Ichigo shrugged and looked away. Instead, he offered to walk them to school on his way to the train station. Homura wondered if he had stayed out of concern for his sisters.
"Excuse me," Homura said politely. "Is there a library on the way? I did not bring my textbooks, but I want to study so I do not fall behind my class."
Ichigo looked surprised. "Oh, uh, yeah. If you come with I'll point you down the right street. Will you be able to find your way back here?"
Homura nodded. "I will put the address in my phone. And the clinic phone number in case I still cannot get back without help."
"Sounds cool," Ichigo said agreeably. "You okay with that, old man?"
Isshin scrutinized Homura. "Are you sure you're okay being alone? After everything that happened..."
Homura tilted her head. "Have there been deaths and disappearances here?"
"Not that I know of."
Homura shrugged. "I should be fine, then."
Isshin dragged one hand down his face in blatant exasperation. "Let me write a note for you to carry in case a cop stops you for truancy or something. And I'll give you my library card."
Half an hour later, Homura and Ichigo parted ways with the twins and turned toward the train station. They walked in companionable silence until they reached the library.
"Hey, Homura."
"Yes?"
Ichigo pulled out his phone. "Tell me your number. I'll text you and you can save mine. I want you to call me if you run into something you can't handle."
Homura blinked up at him. "But you go to school an hour away."
"There are closer people I can call, plus I have ways of traveling quickly. Actually, wait, I'll text you Urahara's number, too. Call him first— he's closer. You can still call me if you need help, or... or if you want to talk or something." Ichigo scratched his neck and looked embarrassed. "I dunno if I'll really be able to help you, but I can always listen, yeah? Oh, and if the old man gets too ridiculous, call or text me and I'll handle it."
A few minutes later, Homura watched Ichigo as he walked away. He turned and waved lazily as he went around a corner. Karin and Yuzu had told her Ichigo was the best big brother ever. She could see why they said it now.
Homura spent the morning in the library, but not going over school subjects. Instead, she studied Karakura itself with its many oddities in recent years and checked the news from Mitakihara. Evidently there was a furor over another girl going missing overnight, this time just inside Shinchi. Something about a third-year high school girl who had leadership positions in both band and orchestra. Homura had never noticed that before. She hadn't cared about the news in previous timelines, though. If the missing girl was a magical girl, she had to be a ferociously tenacious one. Living to start third year of high school was something Homura believed was nearly impossible once contracted. That was positively ancient for a magical girl.
Homura returned to the clinic in time for lunch, figuring Isshin was the type to come hunting for her if she didn't show up. After lunch, she made a show of reading a library book about literature at the front desk of the clinic until the girls came home. The girls put away their school bags and absconded with Homura, telling their father they needed to have some fun. The girls led Homura to the train station.
"This Witch has a thing for trains," Karin explained.
"We've only ever found it... her and her Familiars by train tracks," Yuzu added.
Karin's eyes unfocused and she tilted her head around. Homura realized she was casting about with her magic the way Homura sought magical girls in Mitakihara. After a minute, Karin announced, "Urahara's crew are all at the shop. Goat-Face is in the clinic. Afro-Man is way to the northeast, probably beyond the high school. We're clear."
The hunt was on.
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.