A/N: *pours some Bleach*
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DREIUNDFÜNFZIG
TIMELINE X + N + 1
A cheesecake, Homura fumed on her way home for the evening. The little idiot sold her soul for a cheesecake.
Despite what she had said, yes, Homura was furious at the little girl for making such a stupid wish. She understood it— knew the blame really lay with the Incubator for finding someone gullible enough to make such a weak wish— but the thought that the Sweets Witch that often killed Mami had been born of a wish as trivial as a stupid cheesecake made her blood boil.
Madoka and Sayaka seemed to be very aware that she was angry, but unwilling to leave her alone. After parting from Momoe and hospital security, Homura hadn't felt like going to Sayaka's apartment. The others ended up tagging along after her as she seethed her way toward her own townhouse— knowing them, they probably wanted to keep an eye on her at least as far as her place before they continued past. Fine. Whatever.
She was surprised by how much she wanted to snarl at Yoruichi over the new low she had found in the Incubator's operations. It was weird having someone who it was acceptable to vent and be angry around, but she kind of liked it. Even if it was a cat. A whim struck her: She wanted to call the Kurosaki girls and vent with them, too. So strange.
Homura sensed something odd when they were a block from her house. Madoka and Sayaka were finally making awkward attempts to start some kind of conversation when they rounded a corner and saw someone sitting on Homura's doorstep, boredly messing around with a smart phone as Yoruichi lazed next to him. Homura jerked to a halt mid-step and stared in confusion. Madoka and Sayaka bumped into her back. The person on the step glanced up at their double squeak of surprise.
"Ah. There you are, Akemi," Tōshirō Hitsugaya droned.
"What," Homura said flatly. She felt like her mind had ground to a stop and couldn't possibly be correct in telling her the shinigami was sitting in the middle of Incubator Central. Wouldn't this tip off the Incubator somehow?
Hitsugaya arched one eyebrow and straightened. "You act like you weren't expecting me."
Homura turned her face hard to the side and glared at him askance as she tried to restrain her outrage. "That would be because I was not."
"Oh?" The boy shinigami levered himself up and dusted off his jeans. "I take it my uncle was lying about actually notifying you of the move date, then?"
What uncle?! What move?! she wanted to hiss. She would not let her eyes bug out. Would not. Instead, she grit out, "It would seem so."
Hitsugaya clicked his tongue and scoffed. "I don't know why I ever expect anything better from him. What a pain." He looked over Homura's shoulders and inclined his chin. "You must be Akemi's new friends. Kaname and... Miki, right?"
Homura felt a tic starting in one eye as her two oblivious friends made small sounds of surprise.
"Y-yeah," Madoka said.
"Who're you?" Sayaka asked cautiously.
The boy pressed a button to mute his phone just as it started ringing and shoved it in his pocket. "Tōshirō Hitsugaya. I went to school with Akemi in Tokyo."
What. Since when?!
Sayaka nosed forward with a coo, then elbowed Homura and crowed, "You didn't tell us you have a boyfriend!"
Madoka gasped delightedly as Homura rounded on Sayaka, appalled, and shrilled, "He's not my boyfriend!"
"Ah, she's one of those," Hitsugaya muttered with a long-suffering glance at the sky.
Sayaka's laughter was downright obnoxious. Madoka stifled giggles and patted Homura's shoulder as Homura tried to shrug Sayaka off of her.
Hitsugaya watched blandly as Homura struggled with Sayaka. "I was actually her math tutor when she was ill."
Surprised out of her teasing, Sayaka exclaimed, "Math tutor?! But she's so good at math!"
"Thank you," he replied.
Her eye was definitely twitching. "I am not good at math because of you," Homura hissed.
"I am aware," he said with a smirk. "You did all the work. But I was there." Hitsugaya's serious gaze bored into her own. Play along, he seemed to be saying. Reinforce the cover.
Homura worked her jaw as she clenched her fists at her sides, then abruptly crossed her arms and looked away with a snobby hmph.
Sayaka started snickering all over again. "You guys go way back, huh?" When Hitsugaya shrugged and didn't say anything, she leaned forward and said in a stage whisper, "Are you sure you're not her boyfriend?"
Hitsugaya pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Will I ever go somewhere where people don't think I'm dating my friends who are girls?" he muttered under his breath.
"Oh, you have a lot of girlfriends?" Sayaka squealed.
Hitsugaya gave her a deadpan stare, then looked heavenward and said, "Why."
Laughing, Sayaka trilled, "Just teasing!"
"You shouldn't, Sayaka," Madoka said. Lips curving slyly, she said, "We could say things about how far back you and Kamijō go, you know," with a playful wink.
Sayaka flushed bright red and squawked.
"Sounds like I should talk to this Kamijō guy," Hitsugaya said airily.
"No! Don't!"
And suddenly, Homura regained her footing. She glanced at Sayaka from the corner of her eyes and pleasantly said, "Ah, I understand. You are projecting."
Sayaka's sputtered denials were unexpectedly satisfying.
"Anyway," Hitsugaya said to regain their attention. "I thought I'd drop by with Yumi's gift right away so she doesn't annoy me by text all night." He bent and lifted a box from the doorstep, then held it out to Homura by its elaborate yellow ribbon. "Brownies this time."
"Yumi...?" Homura said slowly as she accepted the box.
Hitsugaya looked at her askance. "She gave it to me before I left Tokyo. You know how she is: Burying us in food, getting pissed if we don't eat it." He tucked his hands in his pockets and stared at her evenly, willing her to understand.
A light went off in Homura's head: He meant Yuzu. She nodded and slowly said, "Yumi has sent me four boxes of cookies in two weeks."
"Of course she has," Hitsugaya said with a lazy roll of his eyes. "Do me a favor and message her that you got the box so she doesn't get on a train and hunt me down."
"Of course," Homura sighed.
"Thanks." He glanced at each of the girls. "I'm starting at your school tomorrow, by the way."
Sayaka and Madoka made sounds of interest. Homura stared flatly again. What was going on?
"Maybe you'll be in our class!" Madoka said brightly.
"I won't," Hitsugaya said. "I'm a year ahead of you all."
Homura's friends awwwed in disappointment. For her part, Homura thought fast. A year ahead... Tomoe's class, maybe?
"Oh, well. Maybe you can eat lunch with us, though?" Madoka said.
"Maybe another day. I'll be figuring out where everything is and whatever tomorrow. But maybe I can take you all to my uncle's shop after school so you can watch Akemi tear into him." He looked back to Homura. "Can we go in and talk for a minute? I'll explain whatever my idiot uncle didn't."
Moving. Shop. Idiot uncle who doesn't tell her things.
The "uncle" was Kisuke Urahara and this was the idea he had mentioned but not explained.
There went the tic in her eye again.
"Ah, we'll leave you, then," Madoka said politely. She grabbed Sayaka's hand and tugged her along as she started to leave. "We'll see you tomorrow!" she said with a wave. "Welcome to Mitakihara!"
Hitsugaya murmured a reply and waved at them. When they were a block away, he turned to Homura and looked at her expectantly. Homura glanced around them at rooftops and shadows, looking for an Incubator. Yoruichi rubbed at her ankles then walked away, jumped up onto a window sill and looked around. They had a sentry. Homura nodded sharply and brought Hitsugaya into her home.
As soon as the door was closed, Homura hissed, "What is going on? Why wasn't I told any of this? Why wasn't I asked?!"
Sighing as he kicked off his shoes, Hitsugaya answered, "Don't look at me. Urahara told me you had been apprised of the plan." He looked up at her. "I'll brief you on the cover story. Details are in a notebook in the box of brownies."
Homura huffed, tossed her school bag aside, and looked at the box in her hand. "Ridiculous."
"Most things with Urahara are, really. You get used to it. It never gets less annoying, but you get used to it."
With a sharp wave of her hand, Homura beckoned him over to the living room table and plopped down to open the box. "If Yuzu is Yumi, what is Karin?"
"Kikyo," Hitsugaya said boredly as he sat across from her. "She rattled off something about why but I stopped listening after badass undead miko soul possessing a fake body."
Homura looked at him weirdly. He just shrugged, so she dropped the subject. "By the way, why doesn't your magic feel... the same? As strong?"
"Reiatsu. And it's a new gigai with a more complex power limiter," he answered. "As a captain, I am capable of controlling my reiatsu tightly, but it's easier to have a gigai do most of the work for me to prevent slip-ups or inconsistencies. We decided to go with me having enough power to see and fight spirits on a high level but be believably human. Basically, like Karin was before she contracted. I have ways to break the seals or leave the gigai altogether in an emergency."
Homura stared silently for a moment, then looked down and lifted the plastic box of brownies out of the cardboard box to access the notebook beneath it. She flipped through its pages for a moment, then set it down and said, "A summary, please."
Hitsugaya took a deep breath and began.
§ x § x §
Mami smiled and greeted her classmates as she sat at her desk and arranged her materials for first period. School was strange these days— somewhere between empty formality, a taunt of watching normal relationships she hadn't had in years, a hope of connecting with the potential magical girls a year behind her, and an escape from her duties. These last couple weeks, she had been floating through the school day on a superficially smiling autopilot. She was uncertain about everything she had thought she had known. Kyubey was still keeping his distance. The stability she had carefully crafted for herself was shaky.
She wished she still had Kyōko to talk to.
Her musing was interrupted by the teacher announcing a transfer student. Mami perked up in interest and watched a boy with messy white hair walk into the room and stand in front of the class. His body language bespoke thinly disguised boredom, but his eyes were sharp and attentive as they darted from face to face. He made eye contact with Mami, glanced at the next face, then doubled back to look at her again. He tilted his head ever so slightly; then Mami felt something that made her inhale sharply in surprise. A strong presence; cold, but not threateningly so...
A boy with magic?
Since when could boys have magic?!
The magic flare faded as he stared at her, curious. She darted her eyes around to see if anyone had noticed him looking at her while the teacher introduced him, then slightly flared her own magic. It was the weirdest greeting ever. Was Mami imagining that Tōshirō Hitsugaya looked impressed?
He was assigned a seat behind and to Mami's left. Mami spent the morning distracted by trying to figure out the boy and his magic. It was like a fragment of quiet winter was hovering in the back of the room. She was probably entirely too obvious about her glances over her shoulder and her scrutiny when he went to the board to solve an equation, but she couldn't care. A boy having magic was yet another crack in her concept of reality and she was desperate to solve the puzzle.
Their last class before lunch was gym. The girls went first for their soccer rotation. Afterward, they sat in the shade and watched the boys play. It quickly became apparent that Hitsugaya was an ace soccer player, much to the appreciation of the girls and the alarm of the opposing team.
Two of the girls Mami had been close with before she contracted scooted over to sit on either side of her. The uncommonly scheming looks on their faces startled her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
The girls' smiles got smug. "Don't think we haven't seen you looking at Hitsugaya all day," Hanako said slyly.
"W-what?!"
Kisa grinned. "Can't say I blame you. He sure is cute."
Cheeks pink, Mami waved her arms and sputtered, "That's not it at all!"
"Suuure it's not," both girls chorused together.
They all glanced at a ruckus from the field. Hitsugaya was coming down from a jump, having stolen the ball from midair with a chest bump. The boys around him were too surprised to move for the ball, so he kicked it at the goal with such force that the goalie screeched and dodged it. Hitsugaya's team cheered. Kisa and Hanako cooed.
"You should try to sit with him at lunch," Kisa said.
"Yeah— move quick before the other girls snag him," added Hanako.
"What—! No!" Mami hissed.
"We'll run interference," Kisa said with an unholy glint in her eye. "And when you start dating, you can give us cake to thank us."
Hanako clucked and shook her head disparagingly. "Always with the cake," she huffed. Then she looked at Mami and smiled gently. "We know you've been... distant... since the accident. And you have a hard time by yourself. We can't really understand, I guess, but it makes sense you'd be depressed. It's been hard seeing you lose interest in so much we used to do together."
Kisa leaned in and held a finger to Mami's lips to stop her usual polite denials. "You're actually showing interest in someone. It's nice to see. We want to help."
Mami was suddenly struck by how much she missed her old friends. They hadn't gone anywhere, but the distance imposed by being a magical girl... well. Mami was the one who effectively went away. She was always declining invitations, always pushing them away; she hardly remembered their likes and dislikes anymore. She really didn't deserve them.
"That's really... nice of you, but I'm not... um... I'm just... um..."
"Crushing on him?" Kisa suggested with a leer.
"No! It's not— it's just— he seems—!" How was Mami supposed to disguise that her interest was the magical mystery he presented? Well, technically, a crush would work, but... that would get really awkward really quickly. Already was awkward. She buried her face in her hands and gave up on talking.
Why was her life so tumultuous lately? It had been so routine for so long that she was having trouble keeping up with the new zigzags.
Mami was still fretting over what to do as lunch started. She was usually decisive, but she was slipping into default hesitancy about everything since Homura Akemi arrived. Uncertainty had her biting her lip and looking down at her bento when a shadow fell over her and she felt that cold magic.
"Excuse me," said a low, quiet voice.
When she looked up, the new boy was standing over her, face curious. A quick glance past him showed her Kisa and Hanako leaning toward each other and gleefully watching with stars in their eyes. Mami looked back up at Hitsugaya. "Yes?"
He tilted his head and looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I was wondering if you would let me eat with you, and maybe be willing to show me around a bit after we eat." He glanced at her left hand. At her Soul Gem ring.
He could see it. And seemed to attach significance to it. Her heart raced. What was going on?
"Oh! Of— of course!" Mami said with a smile. They couldn't talk about magic in public, but they had to start somewhere. She gestured at her desk. "Please feel free to pull up a chair."
Hitsugaya murmured his thanks and did so. Mami introduced herself as they unwrapped their lunches. He blinked and looked up at her again. "Ah. So you're Tomoe. My friend who moved here from Tokyo before me mentioned you."
"Your friend?" Mami asked, surprised that someone would talk about her.
"Yes. Homura Akemi. She's a year behind us." Hitsugaya looked into her eyes with an even stare as Mami froze. "I was her math tutor at our school in Tokyo before she moved here and... recovered."
Mami furrowed her brow. "Recovered?"
Hitsugaya glanced down and snapped his chopsticks apart. "She had a heart condition. Before..." His eyes darted back up with a significant look, one brow raised slightly. He glanced at her ring and back again.
"Before...? Oh," Mami said. Before her contract. Hitsugaya knew about the contract?
"Anyway," he said calmly as as he poked around in his bento, "she said that she had met you a few times. Said you remind her of our friend Yumi."
"How so?" Mami asked. She hesitantly started eating her own lunch.
"Akemi says you bake a lot. Is that true?"
"Ah— yes."
The boy nodded. "Yumi is constantly cooking and baking for friends. She's been mailing cookies to Akemi for awhile. Sent me with brownies when I moved. Any occasion to sit down and talk is an occasion to sit down and eat cake or something. When Akemi visited last week, Yumi buried her in homemade food."
Mami's face reddened. "That... does sound like me," she said with a sheepish smile.
One corner of Hitsugaya's mouth turned up. "Then we should get along," he said casually. "You'll probably get along well with Akemi if you run into each other more, if you're patient. She just doesn't trust easily. She plays her cards close to the vest until she's more certain about a person." Again, he looked her in the eyes, to her ring, and back again.
Mami used chewing as an excuse to mull that over in the context of his knowing about magical girls. "Miss Akemi has been... a bit confusing. Warm and cold, I suppose."
Hitsugaya shrugged. "Sounds right. That's just how she is with pretty much everyone. Even the people she likes."
She thought hard. So the attitude isn't specifically triggered by me? Slowly, Mami said, "The few times we've met, she's said there are things that she's... not comfortable with speaking of with me yet. And implied that it could be a barrier if I don't take it well." This time Mami caught his eye and glanced to her ring. "Do you know what she's talking about?"
"I do," Hitsugaya said without hesitation, face frank. "But if she hasn't told you, I won't go against her choice."
"I see," Mami said, disappointed.
"She's had a hard time of things and has lost a lot of people," he added quietly. "Once burned, twice shy. I don't want to burn her. If you know what I mean."
Thinking of how jaded Kyōko had become after her family died, Mami sighed. "I understand." They lapsed into quiet eating for a few minutes. "I think... I would like to be her friend," she said after awhile. "I'm just not sure how."
Hitsugaya stared at her speculatively as he chewed. "Patience and ability to continue functioning through bad news are the trick, really," he finally said. "Roll with it when she gets bitter. Yumi and her sister say that sometimes she gets cold and snappy to try to push people away if she gets spooked by how close she's allowed someone to get to her." He smirked wryly. "Kikyo says that about me, too. That we're both quiet and grumpy. Might be part of why we get along."
"You don't seem grumpy to me," Mami said warmly.
With a snort of dry humor, Hitsugaya said, "I'm in a good mood because I know I will probably witness Akemi tear into my uncle for being an idiot later. Otherwise, I admit to getting annoyed easily. I'm a serious person but a lot of people... our age are not." He paused for a moment, hedged, then continued, "I... don't usually talk this much, but Akemi seems to think well enough of you that our mutual friends in Tokyo have given me the mission of not letting Akemi run into her own wall." His face firmed back into seriousness. "When Akemi gets irritable, it's probably not personal. She just has so much to be bitter about that there are many things that remind her of what she has to be bitter about. Or so Yumi says. She's far more of a people person than I am, so I'll just go with her verdict." He shrugged. "Aside from that, the biggest thing Akemi probably looks for is being able to accept disturbing information without freaking out."
"Disturbing stuff?" Mami asked carefully.
"Yes." Hitsugaya looked her in the eye and heavily said, "There have been too many times when she has met other girls—" another significant glance at her ring; so other magical girls— "who learned some information and turned on her. Attacked her."
Mami's eyes widened. "Attacked?"
"Attacked," Hitsugaya repeated grimly. "Some people reject painful truths. Violently."
An echo of what Akemi had said at their first confrontation played in her head. "I just ask that you do not surprise me from behind. I may attack on reflex. I have learned the hard way to beware ambushes."
Disturbed, Mami asked, "Was it regarding... whatever she's avoiding telling me?"
"Yes."
Mami thought back to what Akemi had said and what questions the two potential contractees had asked her. Something with Kyubey's methods and Soul Gems and spirits and Witches. Something that made other magical girls flip out. Her unease intensified. "I see."
After a minute of contemplation, Hitsugaya carefully said, "Akemi and her new friends are coming to my uncle's shop this afternoon. You can come with if you like."
Startled, Mami gasped, "Oh, I wouldn't want to impose—!"
He lazily waved her off. "It's no trouble. And I'd actually like to throw you two together more often. She doesn't like to admit it, but I think she needs as many friends—" a glance at her ring; magical girl allies— "as she can get. If you want to try, that is."
Face warming, Mami said, "Yes!"
Hitsugaya smiled faintly. "I'll wait for you on the path."
Mami nodded. The boy's face and posture shifted back into what seemed to be his default aloofness— similar to Akemi, now she thought about it. Then she looked over his shoulder and saw that Kisa and Hanako were still excitedly watching from the other side of the room. They looked enraptured, actually clasping each other's hands. A couple other girls were watching suspiciously. Most of her conversation with Hitsugaya had been quiet, but they had gotten louder at the end.
Their classmates probably thought they were going on a date. Hitsugaya seemed oblivious. Really awkward really fast had probably been an understatement.
§ x § x §
"I wonder where Midnight the Conqueror is," Sayaka thought aloud as they waited for Hitsugaya on the path away from school.
"With her, who knows?" Homura muttered.
Sayaka popped her sucker back in her mouth and eyed the magical girl warily. Homura had been irritable and snappy as hell all day. It apparently had something to do with Hitsugaya's uncle, but she had been tight-lipped. Before they all parted that morning, Hitsugaya had blandly told her he wouldn't interfere with whatever revenge plot she came up with. Sayaka was morbidly curious about what their afternoon would be like. It sounded like a tossup between prepare the popcorn and run for the hills.
"Oh! Tōshirō! And Mami, too!" Madoka gushed.
"Hitsugaya," the boy corrected neutrally. Sure enough, Mami Tomoe was following him shyly as he strode toward them. That was interesting.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Hitsugaya," Madoka said with a hand in front of her mouth.
"It's fine. At least you actually listen. Unlike some people I know." He glanced aside and muttered something resentful. Then he looked at Homura, face somewhere between stubborn and bored. "I invited Tomoe. Deal with it."
Homura shrugged disdainfully and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "It is your home. Who you invite is none of my business."
Sayaka glanced at the other girls to see them also looking uncertain. The two old friends were blunt to the point of rudeness with each other but neither seemed angry. They actually seemed borderline pleasant in spite of the deadpan. Weird. Maybe that was why they got along.
"So... I thought we were going to a shop, not Hitsugaya's house," Sayaka said slowly. Her parents might be... unhappy if they heard she went to a strange boy's house.
"We live behind the shop," Hitsugaya said with a dismissive wave. "Come on. It's up near Asunaro."
Sayaka quickly glanced at Madoka. Both remembered what Homura had said about a spell over Asunaro. They looked at Homura, who seemed to understand; she shook her head. Don't say anything.
Hitsugaya led them to the train station, took them several stops north, and led them through the streets. They wound their way to an older area of town with more traditional buildings. He was quiet until they must have been approaching their destination.
"I must warn you," he said drily. "My uncle is... eccentric." He glanced aside as Homura clicked her teeth in annoyance, then continued. "He likes to tease people and can swing between silly and serious and back again at the drop of a hat. He's especially fond of making serious people crack. He doesn't mind if you tease or insult him back, but still: He's probably one of the more obnoxious people you will meet in your lifetime," he said with a completely straight face.
"I concur," Homura added immediately, voice clipped.
Both looked resigned. That was... honestly kinda worrying.
"There it is," Hitsugaya said as they turned a corner.
Across the street was a fenced-in lot. The signpost over the neat open gate read High Spirits Magic & Tea. A stone path through minimal landscaping lead to what had once been a traditional Japanese house but had been converted to a shop. It had a lovely front veranda with rich woodwork. The corners of the tiled roof featured dangling wind chimes and a long shimenawa was artfully placed across the entire façade, the sacred rope dipping between each support beam.
"A magic shop?" Mami asked in surprise.
Homura tilted her head to one side and looked unimpressed. "At least he found one that looks less run-down this time," she muttered.
Hitsugaya snorted in amusement. "Come on. I apologize in advance for any insanity."
Sayaka felt a tingle when they crossed the threshold onto the property. She glanced at the other girls; they must have felt it too, as they looked unsettled. None of them said anything, though. They were halfway up the path when a man burst out the front door. He was wearing an olive green jinbei, the oversized top of which was so loosely tied as to bare half his chest. Over it he wore a black haori with a white diamond pattern along the hem. His face was shadowed by a green and white striped bucket hat; messy blond hair hung in his face and he was unshaven. Sayaka thought he looked scruffy. Kind of like he had rolled out of bed and jammed a hat on his head. What she could see of his face was wide awake and gleeful, though.
The man spread his arms wide and called out, "Welcome home! My darling nephew! So handsome in your new uniform! You left before I could see it and get pictures!"
"I'm not letting you take pictures," Hitsugaya said dully. "And you slept in."
"Shopkeeping is hard work! I need my beauty sleep!"
Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. "Useless. No amount of beauty sleep can help you."
"How cruel!" Urahara swooned, produced a fan from his sleeve, and held it to his forehead. He maintained the pose for a moment then looked past his nephew, jolted upright with wide eyes, and fluttered his fan over his mouth. "Oh, my! Dating four girls on your first day? Your father will be so proud!"
The girls all squawked— though Homura sounded more appalled than embarrassed.
Hitsugaya quietly growled, "I'm not allowed to kill him."
"And Kikyo makes five! Oh, my!"
"For the last time, I'm not dating K-ikyo!" Hitsugaya snarled, red-faced.
"Hello, girls! I'm Kisuke Urahara! Welcome to the family!" He looked at his nephew again. "Harems are fun but you can only marry one of them legally, Tōshi—WAH!" He dodged Hitsugaya's flying school bag, which the boy had hurled at him. "My nephew is so vicious!" Urahara wailed.
"My uncle is insane!"
"How rude! I didn't raise you to—"
"You didn't raise me at all!"
Sayaka was glad that Madoka and Mami, like her, could only stare in speechless confusion at the scene. Homura was seething, though.
Hitsugaya's uncle seemed to notice Homura for the first time. Face immediately brightening, he trilled, "My darling Homura!"
"Akemi," Homura corrected.
"Don't you dare say a word about her uniform," Hitsugaya grumbled.
Whether or not he actually heard his nephew, Urahara didn't miss a beat. "It's been so long since I heard from you!"
Homura frowned sourly. "It has been three days since our last conversation."
"Three days too long," Urahara mourned. "I thought you would come help us move in!"
"About that," Hitsugaya said with a smirk.
Sayaka watched Homura's eye twitch dangerously. She saw Madoka actually take a nervous step back.
"Perhaps you should have told me your exact moving date. Or that you were moving at all," Homura said acidly. "Your new address would also have been helpful."
Urahara's arms fell. He slouched and pouted. "Then it wouldn't have been a surprise!"
Homura looked skeptical. "How could you expect me to help when you also wanted to surprise me?"
Urahara just pouted at her.
"You are a giant child," Hitsugaya sneered. He stepped forward and said, "Get out of the doorway so we can get inside."
Urahara pivoted on one geta-clad foot and clattered his way into the shop. Hitsugaya and Homura stepped forward. Sayaka shared wary glances with the other girls before following them.
When Sayaka had seen that it was a magic shop, she had assumed she would find playing cards and top hats and other tricks inside. Instead the shop was a neatly sorted array of crystals, incense, candles, books, and lucky charms. Half of the area was dedicated to shelves holding bins of dried herbs and teas. It was basically a psychic-supernatural-whatever shop, Sayaka guessed. Different kind of magic.
"Welcome to my humble shop!" Urahara crowed, throwing his arms wide. The girls were still looking around them when he said, "Ah, Tessai!"
Sayaka turned and saw a giant of a man emerging from the back room and taking a place at the shop's counter. Face serene, he adjusted his glasses, nodded genially at Homura, and said, "Miss Akemi. It is a pleasure to see you again."
"Likewise, Mr. Tsukabishi," Homura said politely. And with some degree of relief, Sayaka thought.
Note to self: Big guy is probably less... nuts. Probably.
Sayaka waved awkwardly when it was her turn in Homura's round of introductions and Urahara's effusive greetings. She shuffled uncertainly with the other girls when the shopkeeper's demeanor suddenly shifted to seriousness.
"Now, Miss Akemi. Have you warded your home appropriately? I have yet to see a spirit here, but it's always best to be safe," Urahara said in a far more reasonable tone.
"What?" Sayaka blurted. She saw Homura tense and cut her eyes between them and the shopkeeper. The air felt heavier. Stranger Danger was pissed.
"Spi-spirits?" Madoka squeaked.
Urahara gasped and fluttered his fan in front of his mouth. "Oh, my." He looked at Homura with wide-eyed innocence. "I felt their power, so I assumed they know about spirits. I suppose I was wrong?"
Homura's eye twitched. She opened her mouth to speak, seemed to be too angry for words, and nodded jerkily.
"Oh, dear. How terribly rude of me. Well, you know what they say about when you assume something, ahahaha~"
"You— you know we have magic?" Sayaka asked hesitantly.
The scruffy shopkeeper looked her in the eye for the first time, gaze piercing from the shadow of the brim of his hat. "Oh, yes indeed," he said softly. "I can feel it from here. Raw; immature; untrained; but definitely there." He cocked his head to one side. "Have you ever seen ghosts?" He glanced between her and Madoka and Mami. "Any of you?"
Sayaka rocked back on her heels at the unexpected question. "I... don't know?"
"Hmm, hmm, hmm. Have any of you ever seen a person walking around with a chain dangling off their chest?" Urahara tapped his folded fan in the center of his chest. "There would also be a metal plate about here."
Sayaka and Madoka frowned, but turned when Mami sharply sucked in a breath. Mami startled when everyone looked at her expectantly.
"Ah... a few times. Years ago," Mami said haltingly. "When... when I visited Sendai with my parents. I was... maybe nine? Ten? It was— it was funny, so I asked my mother about it. She always said no one was there and I had a good imagination." Distressed, she asked, "That was a ghost?"
"Quite probably, especially if it was in Sendai. A city that big and old has a lot of spirits," Urahara said soberly. He scrutinized her with his head canted to one side. His eyes strayed to Mami's left hand and back again. "Your magic is extremely focused and well-controlled. I see your ring. You are a magical girl, correct?"
Mami jolted, surprise escalating. "You can tell—? You know about—?" She looked from Urahara to Hitsugaya and back. "Wait, you have magic, too! And you—!" she cried with a glance at the huge man in the back of the shop. Her face screwed up in confusion. "How?!"
Urahara blinked and looked curious. "We were born with it, of course. Just like you."
"But how do boys have magic?!" Mami sputtered. "I've never— today is the first time I've ever— what is going on?!"
The shopkeeper looked deadly serious. "You don't need to be a magical girl to have magic, Miss Tomoe," he said, pointing his fan at Madoka and Sayaka. Mami opened her mouth, but Urahara cut her off before she could speak. "Nor is magic limited to potential magical girls. There is a wide variety of what you call magic in this world. Magical girls are just one specific type of user." Grinning faintly, he raised his free hand and pointed upward. Glimmering red light blinked into existence over his finger and whistled like a small firework, then disappeared like a spent sparkler.
Sayaka's eyes widened. Madoka's jaw dropped. Mami's eyes bugged out.
Stranger Danger and Hitsugaya looked completely unsurprised.
Urahara glanced at his nephew expectantly. Not moving from his spot leaning on a display case, the boy sighed and held his hand out in a similar way. Palm up, he made a flicker of blue-white light that rapidly blossomed into a spiky flower made of ice crystals. He cupped the ice sculpture in his hand and idly spun it with his thumb.
Sayaka realized something. Excited, she blurted, "You can use magic without becoming a magical girl?!"
"Yeah," Hitsugaya said, causing the ice flower to disintegrate into sparkles with a flex of his fingers.
Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome!
"Could we— me 'n Madoka— could we use ours?!"
"It's possible," Urahara answered. "It requires study, training, and practice, though."
Awww.
"As does becoming an effective magical girl," Homura said quietly.
Double awww.
When they looked at Homura, she added, "Access to your powers means little if you do not use them effectively. I read books about battle tactics. I studied weapons. I watched martial arts tournaments obsessively in the beginning. Even choreographed fight scenes in fiction can give me ideas. I take notes. I have begun files on Witches, looking for patterns."
"You do?" Mami asked with happy surprise.
"Of course," Homura said, face expressionless.
"So do I," Mami said with a wan smile.
"Aaanywaaay," Urahara drawled loudly to get their attention, "What you need to worry about most, Miss Miki, is that your inborn power can attract spirits."
Completely derailed, Sayaka blankly said, "Spirits?"
"Ghosts?" Madoka asked.
"Yes," Urahara said with a decisive nod. "Spirits are often attracted to those with enough spiritual perception to see them or hear them. Many are simple annoyances, but there are dangerous ones. Predatory ones that eat souls to absorb their power."
"You mean— Witches?" Madoka asked timidly.
"No. I mean Hollows. It can be a bit complex, so I will have to explain in more detail another time, but they are assorted monsters that have bone masks on their faces and holes in their chests." The shopkeeper stared at each girl in turn, weighing them. "Miss Akemi would not have allowed you to come here if she didn't trust you to some extent," he said slowly.
They all looked to Homura, who lightly closed her eyes and pushed her hair back over her shoulder in a smooth motion probably intended to take up time. She did not object to the shopkeeper's words. Sayaka glanced at Mami, who was visibly surprised, and wondered what had happened between them. Sayaka hoped they were moving toward alliance; that would imply Mami was starting to take things well. That would be a relief.
Urahara eyed Mami. "Miss Tomoe. Are you capable of keeping our confidence even if the Incubator asks you about us?"
Sayaka and the other girls froze. They looked to Mami, who didn't know.
"Mister Urahara," Homura hissed in outrage. The what the hell do you think you're doing?! was implied.
Mami frowned in confusion. "What? Incubator?"
Urahara leveled an unrepentant stare at Homura, then turned to Mami. "You would know it as Kyubey."
"...What?"
Homura sighed and rubbed her eyes with one hand. "In-kyu-bey-tor."
There was a long silence as Mami knit her brows and looked at each of them in turn, then settled on Homura. "Is this one of the things...?"
"Yes," Homura murmured. "There is much more, and much worse, but this is its most minor deception."
"Wouldn't that just make 'Kyubey' a nickname, though?" Mami asked.
"Nicknames are often used to disguise one's true name," Urahara said. "The motive for doing so can be innocent or deceptive. We have evidence of the latter."
"What kind of evidence?"
Urahara turned to Homura and raised one brow. Homura sighed deeply. "It is complicated and distressing. I would still rather wait to explain."
Mami shifted uncomfortably, but searched Homura's face with narrowed eyes. "Do you really believe I would react that poorly?"
"Yes," Homura answered without hesitation. "In my experience, kind and honorable girls like you take this news the hardest. I want you to figure out some small things yourself to reduce the shock and denial."
For some reason, Mami turned her head to look at Hitsugaya. He met her gaze with an emotionless, heavy-lidded stare and shrugged slightly.
"Anyway," Urahara said mildly. "I would prefer that you do not tell the Incubator how much spiritual knowledge I have. Ah, my nephew and business partner, too. Speak in generalities; ghosts, negative energy, cursed spirits. Do not mention the word Hollow." He paused and his gray eyes drilled into each of them in turn. "Since you have power and Miss Akemi trusts you, I'm going to make you some protective charms. Something more complex than I generally sell in the store— subtly tailored to each of you now that I've gotten an idea of what your power feels like. It could take a couple days to make the charms, so in the meantime—" he switched from serious to ridiculous in an instant, grinning wildly as he threw his arms wide— "each of you can choose one item from the shop to have for free! A grand opening present for friends of a friend!"
Sayaka couldn't help but go with his cheer. Besides: free stuff, helloooo? She pumped a fist and crowed, "Score!"
Madoka and Mami started making polite refusals, so Sayaka dropped her bag and grabbed each of them by their free hands and yanked. "Come on! You heard Magic Man! It's a present!"
Mami ended up wandering over to the bins of tea and carefully reading the descriptions on each. Madoka stuck with Sayaka as they curiously poked around at everything. They wound their way to a section of more commercial, mass-produced trinkets.
Sayaka's face lit up. "Cazh Soul stuff! Look, Madoka! Those limited edition cell phone straps!"
Madoka shuffled over to her and oohed. Homura approached them warily and asked, "Cazh Soul?"
"Whaaaat?!" Sayaka cried. Had she been living under a rock?! "You don't know about the Casual Soul Realm Assault Trip show with Don Kanonji?!"
"It's so fun!" Madoka cheered. The two friends looked at each other, raised their arms and crossed them as though in coffins, and playfully cackled, "BOHAHAHAHA!"
Stranger Danger looked disturbed.
"I dunno if it's real, but Don Kanonji is cool," Sayaka said. "He's really funny and totally heroic."
Urahara sauntered up behind them. "Cazh Soul is real. Don Kanonji started out as an ill-informed novice with excellent showmanship, but has improved greatly in the last several years. Television cameras just can't pick up the spirits. I talk to him from time to time to see if he's having any trouble and give him supplies for difficult cases."
Sayaka whirled to Urahara, stars in her eyes. "You know Don Kanonji?!"
"Indeed, I do," Urahara chirped. "He is a good man. Very conscious that some children see him as a kind of superhero. He tries to be worthy of that."
Hands pressed to her cheeks, Sayaka squealed, "Awesome!"
Homura still looked wary. Madoka noticed and perked up. "One of these nights, you should come to my house so we can have a sleepover with a mar—"
"Marathon! Yes!" Sayaka cheered.
Face dubious, Homura said, "I... suppose."
Madoka and Sayaka high-fived and crowed, "Spirits are always with you!"
Urahara laughed lightly and Homura looked weirded-out.
Knowing Homura had personal business of some kind with Urahara and Hitsugaya, they didn't stay much longer. Sayaka and Madoka put their matching Don Kanonji cell phone straps on their phones and took places on either side of Mami as she left with a bundle of some kind of tea. They walked to the train station with the older girl, who seemed to become more sure of herself and cheery the longer they chattered.
Sayaka met Madoka's eyes when Mami was leaning forward to stifle giggles. Their eyes shone with purpose. By silent mutual agreement, Mami was officially their second project.
§ x § x §
The Incubator watched the girls leave the shop from a nook on the roof of a building a block away, then turned back to the shop.
It was wary. The shop contained at least three bright, strong souls apparently allied with Homura Akemi, though it only knew such from the residents' forays off the lot. If there were other souls within, it could not say. The property was warded to the teeth with possibly the most efficient human use of magic it had ever encountered. Innumerable barriers were intertwined in a fine lattice, anchored by stone lanterns that looked like normal garden decor in a wide circle that touched the edges of the lot, with additional lantern anchors in the corners. All lanterns probably disguised something crucial— likely a power source and ward programming. Their positions indicated the already-formidable cubic wards formed at the corners of the lot likely disguised a dome or sphere of wards within.
The layers of woven wards shifted at what appeared to be random intervals and at such a rate that it was difficult to latch onto and scrutinize any single one for more than a moment. There were many shields and diffusers to disguise any magic or soul within the boundaries, multiple trip-wires for unknown purposes, alarms, deterrents that would make various types of spirits and Hollows deeply uncomfortable or even repel them altogether, a handful of different potential bindings or traps, and several duplicates of everything cast with different underlying magic with whispers of the different souls the Incubator had sensed when they were outside. Plus spells that were disturbingly unfamiliar. There were also threads of something Hollow-like, which should have clashed with the Hollow-repellent wards and caused cascading failure but defied logic to dovetail with them. Everything shifted in disorienting but artful chaos. It felt like there was greater magic beneath it. Perhaps an active attack system? No way to know. The Incubator was unsure if it should even try to breach the wards. It could usually pick its way through or outright overpower human-wrought wards without being detected, but the sheer scale of the protections gave it pause.
Taking out the stone lantern anchors could probably destroy a good number of wards, but the anchors were protected by their own shields and failure of the wards would be an alarm of its own. The cubic wards would have to come down first. Wards with corners were much easier to break than spherical ones. However, they were tied to the spherical wards at the cardinal points of the inner wards' circle in such a way that there would probably be dire consequences for breach— there were blatant trigger mechanisms between the two schema. It could target the cardinal point overlaps to attack both sets at once, but that wouldn't destroy either set of wards— the cubic ones would still be anchored at corners and the circular edge of the spherical ones had extra anchors at forty-five degree angles from the cardinal points, well within the boundaries of the cubic wards. Even if the cardinal points the Incubator could access were destroyed, the sheltered midpoints would simply shift the axis of the wards forty-five degrees instead of crashing them altogether— while also screaming of breach. And there was a whisper of a trigger mechanism for something that felt like a lock waiting for a key to turn it— to rotate the spherical ward. What that would trigger was a mystery. Every potentially exploitable weakness was re-purposed into something useful, turning disadvantages into advantages.
Masterful. Beautiful, even.
This was no novice. Whoever had designed the wards was brilliant, powerful, and in possession of extensive spiritual knowledge. The Incubator felt a rare grudging respect for whichever human— or humans— had designed and implemented the magical masterpiece. It was disturbing that whoever crafted it was allied with Akemi. It now seemed more likely that the girl knew far more about magic and spirits than most magical girls in the last two centuries. She might even know more than the weak, marginalized Quincy girls the Incubator had contracted in years gone by.
This merited closer scrutiny rather than overt or covert action. It was always best to conserve energy and remain unnoticed by the spiritually aware, after all.
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
A/N: Reminder that I interpret the Incubators as lacking empathy, not all emotion.
I need to draw Madoka and Sayaka doing the Cazh Soul pose all }:D and Homura side-eyeing them, leaning away and looking disturbed. I need that image in my life.
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.