A/N: Your reviews thrill me on multiple levels. Have a present. *noms popcorn*
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VIERUNDFÜNFZIG
TIMELINE X + N + 1
The occupants of the shop waited until their sense of the other three girls' souls moved rapidly south, indicating they had boarded the train. Then Homura abruptly turned to Urahara and exploded. "What do you think you are doing?!"
Urahara cheerfully made a V-for-victory sign with one hand while the other indicated the shop with a wide arc of his fan. "I thought it was a good time to franchise!"
Homura snarled in rage at his flippancy. "You will give us all away!"
"No, I won't," Urahara said with an infuriatingly relaxed wave of his fan. "The three of us and some friends warded the hell out of this place and we're wearing special gigai that disguise our reiatsu so we don't feel like shinigami."
Homura ground her teeth and glared at him. Hitsugaya sighed. After glancing at him and deciding this was what he meant by not interfering, Homura turned back to Urahara and snapped, "What makes you think you can just appear here and tell Mami about the Incubator?! And all of them about Hollows?!"
"It's a test," Urahara said mildly, unfazed by her outrage. "By giving Miss Tomoe some tempting bits of truly superficial information, we may be able to gauge her willingness to keep her mouth shut. Same with the other girls. Will they wait for us to tell them, or will they seek the Incubator? It could tell us a lot."
Homura did not let her glare subside. "Did you fail to inform me of this plan so you could avoid any objections?" The prospect appalled her. In a way, Mitakihara was her territory more than any other's— even Mami. More than the physical space and the Grief Seeds that could be gained within it; everything that happened there in her time was hers to change. Control of variables was vital. Yet another massive change— especially one she should have had some say in— set her teeth on edge, made her scalp tingle with magic that hummed and spun through her with ever-condensing fury.
Urahara fluttered his fan in front of his mouth. "Oh, so suspicious!"
"That is not an answer."
The shopkeeper lowered his fan and grinned. "So observant."
Homura glared harder. She almost never got truly physical, but she felt a burning desire to punch that toothy smile off his face.
"Partly, I suppose," said Urahara. "But also because I did want you to be surprised and angry out where the Incubator could see you. That's why I sent Tōshirō—"
"Hitsugaya," the shinigami said dully.
"—to surprise you on your doorstep. It muddies the waters whether we colluded on our arrival."
"Thanks for warning me," Hitsugaya muttered sarcastically.
Homura crossed her arms and looked skeptical. "And you came here why?"
"Well, you wouldn't come to me," Urahara said innocently, "and there is research I can't do remotely. Especially that barrier over Asunaro." He tapped his folded fan in his empty hand and smirked. "Besides, you have more access to me— us— this way. You can learn things."
She shifted and grudgingly downgraded to a scowl. "What kind of things?"
He dipped his head until his eyes were gleaming from the shadow of the brim of his hat, smirk widening with mischief. "Oh-hohhhhh, many things."
Homura reengaged her death glare. "You are infuriating."
"Thank you!" he chirped.
Hitsugaya rolled his eyes at the man and looked at Homura. "You can practice healing and fighting, learn some kidō, and so on. We have a concealed training area and a way to get Inoue here without anyone outside noticing. Urahara—"
"Uncle Kisuke!" the shopkeeper sang obnoxiously.
The captain favored him with a disdainful sneer then looked back to Homura. "He has some weird idea about citywide spiritual surveillance on the Incubator."
Homura doubtfully looked at Urahara, who giggled and coyly said, "It's a surprise!"
Hitsugaya joined Homura in glaring at the shopkeeper. Homura was becoming more convinced that she would get along with the shinigami who was as no-nonsense as she was.
"Anyway," Urahara said in one of his probably habitual pivots, "I looked up that Sōju girl you told me about, Miss Akemi."
After a sigh, Homura arched a brow and said, "And?"
He rummaged in his pocket, tapped on a phone, and showed her the screen. "Is this her?"
Sure enough, a school portrait of the girl she had met stared out from the screen. "Yes."
Urahara withdrew the phone. "Ayase Sōju is from Rumoi, up in Hokkaido. She has been missing for five months, ever since her twin sister Luca's body was found burned so badly it could only be identified by dental records. There doesn't seem to be anything remarkable about either of them aside from no one being able to figure out how Luca ended up as she did." Urahara frowned. "There have been a few reported sightings of Ayase, first in Hokkaido and then moving south. We haven't had much time to dig deeper, but now that we've moved I'm having Tessai research the places where she was allegedly sighted. See what kind of news happened around the same time in the areas she was allegedly in."
Homura chewed her lip thoughtfully and tapped her foot for a few moments. "I wonder if her sister was also a magical girl."
Urahara shrugged. "The only way we'll know is to ask her. Has she shown up again?"
"No," Homura answered. She scowled at her feet. "I am... suspicious."
"Well, I've given Tōshirō—"
"Hitsugaya," the shinigami corrected. Again.
"—and Tessai pictures of her so they can also be on the lookout for her. Be careful."
Homura sighed. She didn't know what she had expected from the research, but it was disappointing nonetheless.
After a moment of pensive silence, Tessai spoke up. "Please stay for dinner. We can speak about the basics of wards while we eat, then you can tour the facilities."
Homura was still angry enough that she didn't particularly want to stay in Urahara's presence, but the prospect of knowledge was an acceptable trade-off.
§ x § x §
Homura was down in the truly impressive underground training room for a couple hours that evening, taking it all in. It was huge. Tessai called it a pocket dimension, which she could believe— the sensation was similar enough to labyrinths to register as déjà vu. Afterward, she transformed and went on patrol. She haunted the area around the television station where the Box Witch usually showed up on this date, but it never appeared. No thralls attempting suicide, no labyrinth, no Familiars, nothing.
Disturbing.
When she got home and released her transformation, her phone trilled with message notifications. She ignored the ones from an unknown number in favor of Madoka and Sayaka's messages. Reading those prompted her to look at the other messages.
hi this is Nagisa from the other day
sorry if im bothering you
i dont know lots of people here and im lonely
sorry if this is weird but can you come to mommy's funeral? its on thursday
you dont have to it would just feel nice.
its a dumb way to make friends but I dont know who else to ask
sorry
Madoka and Sayaka had messaged her that they planned to go. Homura chewed her lip. She didn't particularly like funerals. Did anyone? She hadn't even known the woman. Had only met the girl once. And yet...
There hadn't been anyone with her at her parents' funeral when she was around the same age as Nagisa. Her uncle didn't count. He acted like she wasn't there and attending was a chore. So it had been Homura alone in her black dress with white collar and lace trim— that dress was seared into her memory, every uncomfortable fold and button of it, even though she had only worn it once and thrown it away the day after— and two caskets concealing the charred remains of her mother and father. She was still angry at the little girl— cheesecake, of all things!— but still...
Homura sighed and tapped out a response.
I will try to be there.
She hoped she didn't regret it.
After she had done her homework on autopilot, her phone trilled again. She thought it would be Momoe, but was surprised to see a message from Karin.
Tōsh texted me and said Ura-asshat pissed you off being his sneakyass self. Wanna bitch about it?
The mental pressure to speak welled up in Homura's throat until she nearly choked on it. She tilted the phone toward Yoruichi, who glanced at the screen and dropped from her shelf. Homura was confused by how satisfied Yoruichi was with the situation, but "angrily" tossed the cat and some ruined leftover fish out the door so she'd have a sentry without asking about the attitude.
Snarling all her frustration and anger at the sisters was a relief. Pressure she hadn't realized was building in her mind found a release as Karin agreed with everything she said and creatively insulted Urahara between stories about how he had annoyed her or her brother, while Yuzu gently soothed. Then Homura moved on to the goddamn cheesecake wish and reveled in the twins' outrage at it and the Incubator, then heard out their speculation about why Momoe would see cheesecake as so damn important. Homura was still grumpy but much calmer by the end of the conversation.
She could get used to this.
She was afraid to get used to this.
§ x § x §
Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, a lovely day with fluffy white clouds decorating the blue sky. Madoka hummed her entire walk to school, feeling much better about the disturbing things happening now that it was looking like a team effort was pulling together. Tōshirō— no, Hitsugaya! be polite!— and Mami were waiting for her on the path with Homura, Sayaka, and Hitomi. Mami looked shy and Hitsugaya looked irritated. Hitomi was stifling giggles and trying not to choke on a sucker and Sayaka was smug, white sticks for two different suckers poking out the corners of her mouth. Madoka greeted them and Homura solemnly gave her a sucker of her own.
"Did you finish yours already, Hitsugaya?" she asked as she unwrapped hers.
Before he could say anything, Sayaka made a little heh and spoke around her candy, cheeks puffed out around the suckers. "'Sugaya's a'tickinna mud. Don'tlk candy. N'yu b'l'v'it? Ahhhhwll, mo'f' me!"
Hitsugaya looked like the way Sayaka spoke physically pained him.
School was... school. Unremarkable. The two upperclassmen joined them all on the roof for lunch. They couldn't talk about magic because Hitomi was there, but it was a pleasant enough affair. Hitsugaya didn't talk much, but neither did Homura. Mami and Hitomi seemed to click a bit. Madoka thought they were all getting along well enough despite it still being a bit awkward. She hoped it continued.
They all went to their usual café after school. Yoruichi wound through everyone's legs and seemed drawn to Hitsugaya, who became increasingly annoyed by her repeated ankle-rubs. Sayaka teased him for being boring when he said he got tea and a croissant because the rest of the pastries were too sugary. Hitomi ran off for one of her lessons after her usual twenty minutes. They all sat awkwardly for a couple minutes until they silently agreed to not talk about magic and instead did homework. Homura and Hitsugaya helped everyone else, both toeing the line between seriously focused and bored. A couple hours later, Homura and Hitsugaya excused themselves for personal business at the shop.
Sayaka stood and stretched as they walked away, then eagerly turned to Madoka and Mami. "I wanna get a new CD for Kyōsuke. Wanna come with to the mall?"
"Sure!" Madoka chirped, grabbing her bag and standing up.
Mami smiled. "Have fun."
Madoka and Sayaka drew up short. Sayaka disappointedly said, "You're not coming?"
The blonde started in surprise and pointed at herself. "I'm... invited?"
"Of course!" Madoka cried cheerfully. She dropped her bag and stepped forward to take both of Mami's hands in her own and smiled. "We're friends, aren't we?"
Mami's hopeful disbelief broke Madoka's heart a little.
Their mall adventure was the most carefree Madoka had felt in weeks. They stayed out far later than intended, texted their parents to say they would eat dinner at a friend's house, and meandered toward Mami's apartment after dark. Sayaka impulsively detoured them into a park, dropped her things, and ran ahead of them to a merry-go-round. She waved her friends over, but instead of waiting for them, she grabbed a handle, ran to get it spinning, then jumped on by herself.
Madoka and Mami stopped in their tracks, though. Madoka's skin was crawling and she felt unsafe. Mami held up her left hand and frowned at it. A chill went down Madoka's spine when she saw the Soul Gem's amber glow. She screamed, "Sayaka! There's a—!"
A round blob like a glowing window into an aquarium full of faintly rising bubbles appeared in the air behind the merry-go-round. It contorted and expanded, shaped as though spawning large bubbles at its edges until it resembled a child's outline of a cloud. A line of skeletal horse marionettes within galloped down across it at an angle as it emitted garbled speech. Creepy wooden marionettes with cardboard wings bubbled out of it and scurried over the merry-go-round faster than Sayaka could scramble away. They swarmed her, pulled her limbs, and she seemed to break apart and bubble out of existence as she screamed. The entire scene shimmered once and was replaced by a warping of the air like a heat haze.
Mami transformed and landed where Sayaka had been a split second later and touched the gem on her hat. A shimmering teal sigil snapped into existence on the far side of the merry-go-round, boxlike and containing the outlines of two angels. Mami glanced over her shoulder and ordered Madoka to call Homura for help, then jumped into the labyrinth herself.
Shaking in terror, Madoka dropped her things and fumbled for her phone. She got it steady, dialed...
No answer.
She tried again and again, sobbing. No answer. Madoka left a couple semi-coherent voicemails and dropped her phone from numb hands. She stared at the sigil. Fear flooded her body. She didn't know what to do. What if Sayaka was hurt? Could Mami help her and fight at the same time?
Could she help?
It was probably really stupid, but Madoka wiped her tears on her sleeve and charged into the labyrinth.
§ x § x §
Red eyes watched from the underbrush at the edge of the park.
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Mami suddenly found herself floating underwater among rising bubbles and falling snow. The first thing she noticed was the heavy presence of a Witch; this was no Familiar's labyrinth. Craning her head back, she saw a CRT computer monitor with some kind of flippers being spun by two angel marionettes far above her. If that was "up;" up and down were difficult to distinguish.
A Witch that wasn't hiding could be a dangerous one. Potentially one with traps or tricks. Analyzing everything could make a difference between life and death even more than usual.
She was buoyant as though underwater, but could breathe. Her guns manifested around her, pointing in all directions as a precaution while she took in her surroundings. She was in the vertical and horizontal center of a column of many levels of rotating carousels with film reel trim, crude woodcut and pixellated, faded CMYK horses bobbing along on their poles. Many of them had television screens displaying test patterns embedded in their sides. Woodcuts of angel marionettes clung to and crawled over them. A faint melody echoed through the labyrinth, a dainty and cheerful orchestral piece that was like subdued carousel music slightly out of tune. There didn't appear to be anywhere to go; it was all a single chamber. Mami did not like that. It looked simple, but probably wasn't.
A scream made her look down. Below her, four jaunty marionettes had Sayaka by each of her limbs— pulling each of her limbs. The girl looked blurred at the edges and cartoonish, the Familiars stretching her like taffy. One of the ones that held an arm had also grabbed one of her cheeks and was stretching her face.
Mami scowled and made her rifles rotate to point downward with a thought. She blasted each marionette to pieces as she dove. Sayaka's limbs rebounded like a released rubber band and she snapped back into focus, losing the cartoonish appearance as Mami reached her and held her in her arms. Sayaka clung to her in terror. Upside-down— perhaps?— Mami allowed them to sink while she scanned the labyrinth and debated retreating or fighting.
Then Madoka popped into existence where Mami herself had originally entered, floating in a pose that suggested she had entered at a run. The Familiars at the top of the cylinder dropped the Witch, which spun as it drifted down toward Madoka.
Anger at the girl's risky move flashed through Mami briefly before she buried it in pragmatism. She shoved Sayaka away, conjured a ribbon to tie to Sayaka's ankle so she could keep hold of her, made a platform of her floral kaleidoscope barrier beneath her feet, and launched herself upward. Ivory muskets manifested around her in a spiral, constantly shooting at the angel Familiars that had bubbled up from behind the carousel horses and moved to intercept her. When she neared Madoka, she conjured a large musketoon and fired it straight up at the Witch. The blast connected with it with a crunch of crackling glass and sent it rocketing upward, trailing test-pattern colored blood in its wake.
The feel of the labyrinth changed. The atmosphere was heavy with rage. More, larger angel marionettes clambered out of the carousels and attacked her. She wrapped a ribbon around Madoka's middle and used it to propel her all the way down to where Sayaka was, ignoring the girl's shriek. Mami's floral ribbon shield cocooned the two girls just as all the screens embedded in the carousel horses flashed and changed channels from test patterns to images. Mami fought the first wave of Familiars efficiently, but froze when she caught a glimpse of the screens.
She knew those scenes.
Having fun with her parents. Lying in the wreck of their car, gravely injured. Her parents' bloodied corpses. The funeral. Good times with Kyōko. Feuding with Kyōko. And that Witch. The one she had lost to so badly when she first contracted, before she knew how to craft guns with her magic. Ribbons alone had just not been enough against the massive construct of grainy black smog and tarnished motorcycle parts. And everywhere, in so many screens, the screaming face of the grieving mother whose child Mami had been unable to save from that Witch.
Her greatest failure. The event that had shaken her to her core and inspired endless effort to learn more, get better, save everyone— to be the perfect magical girl.
Mami was slow to react to the next wave of Familiars that swarmed her. Her fight turned into a close-quarters frenzy as she lashed out with ribbons, shot the disturbingly smiling heads off the marionettes with ivory pistols, and used rifles as staves. She was regaining her rhythm when the next wave of Familiars descended on her. This time, they all had television screens for heads, each playing her worst memories on an endless loop. She couldn't look anywhere without seeing her parents' corpses, that Witch, or that shrieking mother clutching her hands to her head as though to hold her skull together. Mami fought desperately as she uttered a guttural scream and tears streamed down her cheeks. She threw an arm up, fashioned a huge ribbon, and made it spiral down around herself before making it burst outward and send the Familiars crashing into the carousels. Screaming mindlessly, she conjured innumerable rifles around her and fired an endless onslaught in all directions. Madoka and Sayaka's screams from below as her shots impacted their shield only dimly registered to her. She barely noticed Homura Akemi pop into existence nearby until the girl's body was immediately riddled in her bullets and slammed into the carousel along with the Familiars with a loud crack.
Floating in the middle of the newly-cleared column, Mami held her hands to her head and tried to gather her wits. She heard Homura roar, "Tomoe!"
Mami turned to look at Homura and noticed just how angry and bloodied she was. How many bullet holes in her body were shimmering violet as they healed. How many of them were near vital organs. How Homura's back was engulfed in fluid violet flame as she jerkily forced herself upright on uncoordinated, faltering legs by dragging herself upright on a horse. Realized the crack she had heard must have been Homura's spine instead of a carousel pole and that the amount of magic consumed by healing so quickly would be extreme. Realized that it was her fault. She was always hurting people. She was a terrible magical girl.
"I'm so sorry!" Mami wailed at Homura.
Homura's angry expression twisted into pity as chiming laughter rang out above them. Mami looked up and saw the computer monitor Witch descending again.
"Get down by Madoka and Sayaka!" Homura ordered fiercely as she steadied herself and pulled some kind of rocket launcher out of her shield. "I'll get the Witch!"
Mami looked at her and hesitated. Homura's face looked irritated, but suddenly her eyes went wide and her face paled as she looked past Mami.
"Behind you!" she shrieked.
Conjuring a gun automatically, Mami glanced over her shoulder and prepared to defend.
White and purple frills— so close!— a reaching hand, silver light trailing from fingers like smo—
§ x § x §
Face contorted in horror, Homura leveled the RPG launcher at the magical girl who had leapt out from a hiding spot in the carousel and grabbed Mami's Soul Gem with glowing fingers. Whatever magic Ayase Sōju was using must have severed Mami's link to her body regardless of distance, as the blonde's eyes immediately went dull, her flower-shaped gem turned back into an egg, and her battle costume evaporated. Homura fired the RPG as Mami's slack body drifted downward, Madoka and Sayaka's distant screams ringing in her ears.
The white-clad magical girl smirked and thrust a sword forward as she held Mami's Soul Gem up like a trophy. She pointed the weapon at Homura and shouted, "Avviso dell'Ustione!" A gout of flames gushed out and met the projectile in midair. Both looked away from the mutual detonation to save their vision. Before the smoke could even clear, Sōju yelled, "Prodotto Secondario!" Huge balls of flame shot out of the smoke in a spiral and crashed into the nearest level of carousels.
Homura grit her teeth and scanned for the girl as she forced her spine to heal faster, quickly finding Sōju's form among raging flames. Her skirts billowed in the heat, untouched by the fire quickly spreading to other levels of the carousel. She was still holding Mami's Soul Gem up in a taunt.
"Ohhh, did I make you angry?" Sōju cooed. "Was she your friend?"
Snarling, Homura froze time, leapt to the girl's side, and seized Mami's Soul Gem. Touching the Gem created an indirect link with Sōju and her opponent was exempted from the timestop. Sōju tightened her grip and reacted violently, swinging her sword around to stab Homura in the throat. Homura jerked her head to one side and managed to avoid having her spinal cord severed again, but blood fountained out from her slashed right jugular and carotid. Her vision whited out before she dropped the taxing timestop and forced her magic to seal the wounds. Homura could hear Madoka screaming in the distance as she let go of Mami's Soul Gem and reeled back. She flooded her body with magic and willed it to keep working; her vision wobbled back into focus just as Sōju's sword stabbed her dead center in the face. Sight gone again, Homura flared her magic more strongly and brought her shield up in a blind attempt to dislodge Sōju's grip on the sword in her face. She realized her mistake as Sōju triumphantly crowed, "Tocco del Male!"
Wreathed in magic that Homura could not see but the sense of which made her skin crawl, Sōju's hand grasped for the amethyst on the back of Homura's hand with a movement like a striking snake. Her cackling turned into a frustrated shriek as her fingers broke against the shield Homura had been training herself to hold around her Soul Gem.
Homura desperately sensed for where Mami's Soul Gem was and pinpointed the feel of her magic. Relative to Sōju's, the enemy probably still held it in her hand, though Homura couldn't figure out how she managed it. Up her sleeve? Homura probably couldn't use a bomb without also shattering Mami's Gem. Firing the RPG in the first place had been a stupid instinctual risk. She would have to stall to recover and kill her opponent more precisely. Homura kneed the girl in the gut, drew a sawed-off shotgun from her shield, jammed it into Sōju's ribcage one-handed, infused it with her magic, then pulled the trigger to send Sōju flying.
"Secondo Stagione!" Sōju shrieked in rage as her voice trailed farther away.
Still blinded, Homura stopped time and pried the sword out of her head with a wet squelch. Panting and gasping, Homura struggled to ration her magic between timestop, Gem shield, head wound, and neck wound. It would have been much easier had she only sustained one such grievous wound, but two so soon after recovering from Mami making Swiss cheese out of her and snapping her spine took longer. She closed her eyes— well, used the mental focus of doing so; the actual organs were probably wrecked somewhere in the gaping hole in her head— and forced her breathing to calm. The major muscles that supported her head and everything related to her vision were her main priorities. Once her head was repaired enough to be functional, she wiped the blood and bits from her face with a sleeve and looked around while her magic shifted to secondary healing targets. The attack Sōju had called out had fired spiraling gouts of flame not just at her, but in every direction. That was in addition to the top two thirds of the carousel already engulfed in flames. Homura found that she was above everyone. Sōju was two levels down, frozen horizontally in the midst of swinging around a carousel horse pole she had caught herself on with one hand, Mami's Gem clutched to her mangled chest with the other hand so it was nestled beside her own Gem. Three levels below her, Mami's soulless body floated like a corpse in the ocean. A level below her—
Homura's blood chilled. The theft of Mami's Soul Gem had caused the shield protecting Madoka and Sayaka to collapse. Sayaka, the idiot, had started swimming upward to intercept Mami's body, face determined and protective despite the Familiars and fire closing in on her. Three levels below her, the Familiars were trying to shove Madoka into the forgotten Witch's cracked, test-pattern-bleeding computer screen as her face contorted in terrified pain; it looked like one of her elbows had dislocated and one of her legs was broken. A faint nimbus of pink magic hovered over her skin— a defensive reaction Homura had rarely seen Madoka engage without being contracted.
A vivid memory of the early timeline in which the Familiars managed to actually tear off some of Madoka's limbs and offer them to the Witch while Madoka watched, shrieking and bleeding everywhere, alive because the Soul Gem at her throat was intact, overtook Homura's mind for a minute. After a struggle, she forced her mind to consider her options.
The flaming projectiles and burning carousel-walls would make navigating the labyrinth with time stopped difficult, but not impossible if she was willing to be burned. Which she absolutely was. But even with her time freeze, she couldn't be in four places at once. Order was vital. She decided to plan from top to bottom.
Reclaiming Mami's Soul Gem would probably require more fighting because the monster's Soul Gem was so close to Mami's that the amber egg could sustain collateral damage from attacks on the spinel beside it. Well, that just meant she would have to stall Sōju while she dealt with the others. Homura backed off as she pulled a handgun from her shield. She automatically fired from the distance she knew the bullets would travel before freezing just short of Sōju's crazed face, emptying all fifteen rounds from the gun before tossing it away. A shotgun was the next item out of her stockpile; she fired it at Sōju's midsection, carefully aiming to create a difficult-to-heal spinal injury to add to the gaping wound she had already caused. Then she flickered to Sōju's side and emptied another fifteen 9mm rounds into her from neck to knees, making sure to aim for the cervical vertebrae and joints.
Sōju was a powerful enough magical girl to be able to recover from the catastrophic injuries that would result, but it wouldn't be fast. She couldn't pause reality while her magic repaired her body like Homura could. It should buy Homura precious time. If she was lucky, Sōju would also drop Mami's Soul Gem. A bullet to the cervical vertebrae should paralyze her and make her hand relax before she could counter the injury with her magic, but Homura didn't want to count on anything when she didn't know how the mess below would turn out.
Homura assessed her remaining tasks. Mami's empty body was her lowest priority. Now that she had allies with healing capabilities and it was detached from Mami's soul, most damage it would sustain could be repaired after the fact while also not causing her pain. Besides, if worse came to worst, Urahara had mentioned that a Soul Gem could occupy one of his fake bodies.
So, Sayaka. Whom Homura dearly wanted to grab by the shoulders and shake. Violently. Even though some part of her realized that one less person in the mob below was probably a good thing; it was the principle of the matter. She could freeze time and move the girl, but with the fire rapidly descending the column of carousels there wasn't anywhere safe to leave her— and she apparently couldn't be trusted to stay in one place even if Homura did shove her off to the side. Encasing her in a barrier was chancy with her magic in its current straining state. Homura decided to leave Sayaka where she was but clear as many of the threats to her as she could. If Sayaka was focused on recovering Mami's body, that could keep her occupied. Homura swam from fireball to fireball, touching each with her shield, flaring her magic and gritting her teeth through the heat. Then she took aim at Familiars with a machine gun. When she resumed time, they would be blown away.
Now, most importantly: Madoka.
Even if she could grab her friend, the dense tangle of limbs and Familiars meant touching Madoka would indirectly unfreeze time for all the enemies, too. Homura was hesitant to do much to the Witch with Madoka so close. More than close— one foot was inside the CRT monitor's screen. After careful analysis, Homura angled headshots at as many Familiars as she safely could without hitting Madoka, then found an opening for a shotgun round to hit the Witch in one of its corners. It wouldn't be enough to kill, but hopefully it would cause the Witch to recoil and let go of Madoka. Then the fighting could begin in earnest.
Homura took a deep breath and let time resume.
The labyrinth echoed with the sound of bullets hitting their targets and ricocheting off carousels. Many of the Familiars attacking Madoka were blown back like bowling pins as bullets knocked their heads from their bodies. Her carefully-angled shot at the Witch startled it into releasing Madoka and launched it spinning across the labyrinth and into a horse. Marionettes bubbled around it and carried it up toward the nebulous ceiling once more. Madoka was screaming in pain and fear; her cries became more urgent as the angry Familiars that remained pulled on her more insistently and one of her shoulders dislocated with a pop. Pink magic flared around her and knocked back marionettes as Homura rammed a Desert Eagle handgun into that particular Familiar's chest and fired. It rapidly turned into a brawl of grasping hands and close-range weapons, made awkward when a panicked Madoka lunged and latched onto Homura's leg with her good arm. Endless waves of Familiars mobbed the two of them as Homura fought. But with Madoka safely plastered to her leg, Homura was able to pull a machine gun and start spraying bullets into the horde without worrying about hitting her.
A sharp, abbreviated scream made her glance up. Homura realized she had been careless— some of her bullets must have reached Sayaka, as thin streams of blood trailed away in the not-water of the labyrinth. She had reached and caught Mami's body, though. Mami's body was trailing blood as well. Damn.
And then Sōju was looming over Sayaka.
Impossible, Homura thought. She shouldn't have been able to heal that fast. Even Sayaka would have trouble healing that fast with her contract. Did I really lose that much time in the mêlée?
Homura saw that much of the enemy magical girl's white dress had been dyed pink and red with blood. Her face was spattered with gore and deranged. She was missing much of her midsection and neck, but her spine had repaired in both places; bare bone showed where her scalp hadn't regenerated to cover the reassembly of brain and skull; her joints had recovered enough to function, but she was swaying drunkenly so the job must not be done. It seemed she was forcing her magic to perform some manner of puppetry to make up for missing and damaged muscles, as bands of white magic glowed in those empty spaces. That was a costly technique, as Homura well knew.
Sōju glared at Homura and roared, "WE'LL FIND YOU AGAIN, BITCH! THIS ISN'T OVER!" With that, she slammed a palm against Sayaka's forehead and retreated.
Homura was baffled by the action at first, but then Sayaka dropped Mami's body and grabbed her head. Black magic snapped and sizzled around her head, then spread as she writhed and howled tortured screams. After a blast of power, Sayaka began to change.
It was Witch magic. How? How?
The crackling blackness raced along Sayaka's limbs as they warped. Her hands enlarged into webbed claws. Scales grew from her skin and gave her an inky blue and rainbow sheen like an oil slick on an ocean. Her legs fused into a tail and her hair suddenly grew out and turned into tattered ribbons of navy and fuchsia. The distinctive knight's helm that usually formed the Mermaid Witch's head manifested on Sayaka's brow, but stopped just short of her screaming mouth. A similar knight's visor manifested over her pelvis and sprouted more tattered ribbons like a skirt. When her transformation was complete, she was a creature halfway between Sayaka Miki and the Mermaid Witch Homura knew from countless timelines.
Homura stared dumbly, having never seen anything of the like. How could Sayaka turn into a Witch without contracting first?! What did Sōju DO to her?!
What am I supposed to do?!
Her default reaction kicked in and she froze time to think.
Madoka was badly injured and vulnerable. Mami's body would be an acceptable loss. The
Box Witch was still lurking somewhere in the burning labyrinth. And then Sayaka. Homura could leave Madoka if she conjured her barrier and maintained the timestop to fight the two Witches. She looked down at her Soul Gem and debated her endurance. She wasn't fully healed herself, her magic still knitting parts of skull, meninges, facial nerves, and the intricate lattice of muscles and blood vessels in her head and neck; part of her magic was repurposed to act as blood due to the extreme exsanguination from the neck injury to keep her brain working, while yet more magic shuffled resources to create new blood and thus made every bone ache down to its marrow. Sōju had departed, so the risk to her Soul Gem was lessened; however, Homura didn't feel it wise to drop her barrier from around the amethyst on her hand. That was another magic sink— she needed more practice crafting and holding it efficiently. Her Gem was rapidly dimming and she had exhausted her spare Grief Seed on Nagisa Momoe. Homura's vision swam again. Magically speaking, she was doing too many things at once. She debated a tactical retreat, but didn't know what might happen to Sayaka if she was stuck in the labyrinth. It would be painful to abandon Sayaka— especially this Sayaka, who she got along with so well for once— but Madoka was always her first priority.
Taking a deep breath, she dropped the timestop, grabbed Madoka around the waist, and moved up toward the hidden exit. The mermaid creature rushed to attack her but was stopped by the sudden appearance of Tōshirō Hitsugaya. He startled, then kicked the twisted mermaid in the face with a glowing, ice-clad foot to send her reeling. He glanced around and locked on Homura. Throwing one hand out in invitation, he yelled, "Akemi!"
Homura let go of Madoka and froze time again. She moved up to him and grabbed his hand, exempting him from the timestop. They looked at one another for a moment. Homura realized he wasn't in his shinigami uniform, but his school uniform. Instead of his metal blade, he held a sword crafted of solid ice in one hand. He was maintaining his cover as a human with powers.
His face twisted. "What the hell happened to you?"
Right. She was covered in blood and gore. Right. "It's complicated."
He huffed and set that aside. "Sitrep?"
Homura blinked and took longer than she liked to translate that into situation report. "The Witch is over there," she said, pointing upward. "Tomoe's Soul Gem was stolen. Her body is over there." She pointed down, then rubbed her eyes— the crackling sound her facial bones made at the contact was not good— and pointed at the mermaid-creature. "That is Miki. Sōju did something to her. It is like she is halfway between her normal form and the form she takes as a Witch."
Hitsugaya scrutinized the mermaid suspiciously. "Where is her body?"
"Her body transformed. I think."
The shinigami's eyes cut to her. "You've never mentioned anything like that."
"That would be because it has never happened— that I know of," Homura answered tiredly.
Frowning uncertainly at the creature that had been Sayaka, he muttered, "Well, that's disturbing."
"Quite."
He searched her face for a moment. Homura hated herself for wobbling with the strain of healing, Gem shield, and timestop. Hitsugaya scowled. "You're at your limit."
"Yes," she bit out resentfully.
"I can go after the Witches—"
"No. I need to do it." Homura defiantly met his skeptical gaze. "Does that ice-sword work like your zanpakutō?"
"To an extent."
Homura made a sour face. "Would it purify the Witch and send it on?"
Hitsugaya pursed his lips and looked down at his blade. "I can't be certain. It would work on a Hollow, though." His tone was grudgingly resigned; he was quick-witted enough to understand the thrust of her question. "You want the Grief Seed."
"Need it," Homura corrected as she held up her left hand to show him how dark her Soul Gem was getting. Damn her swimming vision. And it felt like her body's movements were through thickening molasses, control becoming more difficult. This was Bad. She hadn't been this badly off since— best not to think of it.
Grim-faced, Hitsugaya could only say, "That's worse than I expected."
Homura sighed. She swayed again, even less steady; she hated admitting it, but she announced, "I cannot maintain the timestop much longer."
Tilting his head in consideration, Hitsugaya said, "Let me hit them with some ice real quick. To make it easier on you when you drop it."
With a firm nod, Homura agreed and curtly said, "Then your mission is to protect Madoka and retrieve Tomoe's body. If you are capable of using that yellow rope spell Mr. Tsukabishi demonstrated, apply it to my ankle so you can be exempted from my timestops."
He raised a brow at her barking orders, but didn't argue. As his fingers sparked yellow light that snaked down to both their ankles, he lowly said, "Careful with the timestops. Don't push yourself beyond—"
"I am aware," Homura snapped.
He stared into her eyes, weighing her, then turned away and leapt up to sling waves of ice at the Box Witch and incomplete Mermaid Witch. On his way down, he unleashed a dragon construct that spiraled down the sides of the labyrinth to hit Familiars and douse flames. He met her eyes and nodded as he descended past her, snatching Madoka around the waist as he went. Madoka was immediately exempted from the timestop and resumed her screaming. Homura propelled herself up to the Box Witch and pulled an RPG launcher from her shield. As time resumed, Hitsugaya's ice restrained it and she fired an RPG into the Witch's screen at point blank range. The ensuing explosion of shrapnel and test pattern-colored blood knocked Homura back and inflicted more lacerations on her front. As the labyrinth wobbled, Homura froze time briefly to approach the Mermaid Witch. The technique that was as natural as breathing these days made her gasp with effort. While fetching a weapon from her shield, she glanced down toward Hitsugaya. Satisfied that he had Madoka under one arm and Mami's body under his other with a shimmering barrier around them, Homura dropped the timestop with a double barreled shotgun leveled straight at the incomplete Mermaid Witch's visor as the creature shrieked and struggled against the ice holding it in place.
Homura hated it, but she had to put Sayaka out of her misery. Again. She pulled the trigger.
It was as though her shells only hit the Witch portion of the composite creature; the shape of the corrupt mermaid seemed to blow off behind Sayaka's body like a costume ghost sheet in a strong wind, leaving the human girl behind unharmed as it rapidly disintegrated. Homura forced herself to clumsily grab her friend's shoulders just before the labyrinth could collapse completely. She blacked out for a moment; when she snapped back, they were standing in the dark playground again. Her vision tunneled as she cast about and saw that Madoka was still alive at Hitsugaya's side. Screaming near her caught her attention, so she drunkenly turned back and noted Sayaka's face was wild and panicked, screaming; she thought she heard her name but was so very tired. Her hearing faded into a dull whine. The last thing she noticed before drifting off was the sight of Kisuke Urahara landing atop a nearby jungle gym as her gaze wandered beyond Sayaka's shoulder and toward the moon.
§ x § x §
An Incubator terminal passively observed the fallout. Sōju's battered and bloody exit carrying Mami Tomoe's Soul Gem was an interesting indicator of the resistance she had encountered. It was impossible to be certain how much of the damage had been inflicted by which magical girl, though. It was unfortunate that Sōju had confiscated the wrong Soul Gem; however, its theft could incite Homura Akemi into a rash reaction. They would reserve judgment of success or failure for now. Besides, Sōju would fall and cede possession to them eventually; their loss was only temporary.
The empowered youth from the shop appeared and awkwardly squinted and grasped around and stabbed in the air for the entrance to the labyrinth until it drew him within. He was capable of flash step and had ice-based powers. Interesting.
The humans remaining in the labyrinth reappeared as it collapsed. The youth was the only one without injuries. Madoka Kaname was badly but not fatally injured and Mami Tomoe's empty body and Sayaka Miki had only minor injuries, but Homura Akemi's state was dire— half-healed catastrophic injuries and a heavily tainted Soul Gem. Perhaps the operation would be a success after all? Akemi's turning would be a profit far beyond the loss of Tomoe.
The two adult males from the so-called "magic shop" appeared, also capable of flash step. Sayaka Miki screamed and caught Homura Akemi as the magical girl lost consciousness on her feet, her costume dissolving in dim violet sparkles. The larger of the two men descended, pressed his fingers over Madoka Kaname's eyes, and rendered her unconscious with some manner of magic as the blond man solemnly retrieved the Grief Seed and Evil Nut from their resting places on the children's centrifugal force amusement device.
So Sōju had been desperate enough to use one of Hijiri's Evil Nuts. Interesting.
After terse discussion, the entire party retreated. Sayaka Miki clambered onto the youth's back, still sobbing hysterically. The blond man gravely lifted Homura Akemi and the large man carried the senseless bodies of the other two girls, one over each shoulder.
The Incubator monitored their rooftop journey back to the shop from multiple terminals. It had learned much. Not as much as it had wanted, and the primary goal of eliminating Homura Akemi had not quite been accomplished, but useful information nonetheless.
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
§ x § x §
WITCH DATA
H.N. ELLY (KIRSTEN): The Box Witch with a covetous nature. She is a staunchly reclusive witch. Anything she covets she locks away within glass. The thoughts of her prisoners are laid bare, but one can strike her without thought without problems.
MINIONS: DANNIYEL & JENNIFER: The Box Witch's minions with the duty of transportation. Anything they touch becomes easy to carry.
§ x § x §
A/N: ( ° ヮ °)
Ayase's attacks are Puella Magi Kazumi Magica canon. Like... I think all of PMKM attacks, they are Italian puns on Western TV shows or showbiz terms. The author is my kind of dork.
Avviso dell'Ustione: Burn Notice
Prodotto Secondario: Spin-Off
Secondo Stagione: Second Season
Tocco del Male: Kinda weird. Il tocco del male means The Touch of Evil and is the Italian name for the American movie Fallen. If you read a plot summary for it, it's very relevant to the Kazumi plot and the spell's purpose.
...or if you translate it as Bad Touch, you get a slang term for groping that lends a certain infamous song about mammals and cable TV its name. And since the spell involves grabbing a Soul Gem off a magical girl's body and dispelling their costumes, both potential meanings are equally, terribly possible. ( ° ヮ °)
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.