Ranbu Escalation (PMMM/Gaim)

[X] ...Sayaka was visiting Kamijou right now, wasn't she? Madoka didn't want to distract her. She could explain when Sayaka was done with her visit.

"U-Um..." Madoka stammered, as she racked her brain for a way to explain herself to Sayaka. "Y-You see..."

She trailed off as she realised she didn't have anywhere she was going with her explanation.

How was Madoka going to explain it to Sayaka? A mysterious Magical Girl in white told Madoka to ask Homura something, and then Homura gave her some kind of transformation device that would only work for her because of whatever happened in the future, and they used it to go after Baron without Sayaka, and...

Oh, they should have waited for Sayaka, it would've been simpler that way.

Madoka looked up at Hitomi, who was herself somewhat lost. She couldn't hear Sayaka's end of the conversation, after all. Maybe Madoka should put Sayaka on speaker...

Oh, but then the crowd would hear it then, and this wouldn't be a very private conversation then.

"Kamijou and I saw Sagara's stream of it." Sayaka explained, continuing on. "But... What the hell was that? Is this some kind of Magical Girl thing? And..."

Oh, that was right. Kamijou. Sayaka was visiting him right now, wasn't she? He'd been in hospital for a while now, and Sayaka and Hitomi kept dropping by to visit him every few days. They never ended up spending much time together, likely some kind of hospital rule, but...

"S-Sayaka?" Madoka asked, speaking up. "I-Isn't it more important to be spending time with Kamijou right now?"

Sayaka took a moment to reply, after that. "...Is there something wrong, Madoka?"

"No, no!" Madoka quickly clarified. Had she given Sayaka the wrong idea? "I-It's just... You shouldn't waste the time you can spend with him right now. You'll be coming later, won't you? I can just tell you then."

"...Fair point." Sayaka conceded. "I suppose I shouldn't waste time, after he... Well, I'll be expecting a conversation about this when I get to that stage!"

"Don't worry, I'll explain everything." Madoka reassured her. "I'll see you then, Sayaka."

"Alright. Bye."

The line cut out, and Madoka pocketed her phone again as she looked over at Homura, who was in the process of circling the crowd to get near Madoka and Hitomi.

"M-Madoka!" Homura called, as she approached. "Y-You... That was great!"

There was a light in Homura's eyes as she cheered Madoka on, and the pink-haired girl smiled at the sight of a happy Homura. Considering how often Homura had been distressed over the few days Madoka had known her, Homura being happy was a nice thought. It meant Madoka was doing good, to give Homura some kind of hope that what she was doing was enough.

"Thanks, Homura." Madoka nodded. "I was kind of worried, but it all worked out, didn't it?"

"That was kind of... Cool, I have to admit." Hitomi spoke up, flicking through her own phone. "Sagara seems to think so as well. He's replaying the fight to make sure anyone just tuning in gets to see it as well."

...What.

"He's..." Madoka took a moment to take that in. Sure, she realised earlier that people were going to be watching the fight, it was a match against Baron, but...

But now it wasn't just that everyone was going to know. DJ Sagara was making sure everyone saw it.

Everyone was going to see Madoka dropping her weapon and getting distracted and...

"Madoka." Hitomi called her to attention, noticing her friends worry. "You did great. Here, watch."

Pulling her phone up, Hitomi put the video in front of Madoka's eyes.

It took Madoka a moment to realise the reddish-pink armoured figure was her. The suit almost made her seem taller, Madoka noted. There was a base layer, Madoka noted, of a white suit with pink highlights. The strawberry pink sections of her arms, for instance, encompassing her arm and reaching up to her elbows, and then a streak of the pink connecting the outside of the elbow to the shoulder, where the strawberry armour proper kicked in.

The helmet was one of a design that Madoka couldn't place, with a round top, and a squared bottom, but with a curve in the sides that stopped it from being properly square in design. Some sort of rounded crest poked up from her head, and as the video played on, Madoka noticed something attached to the side of her belt.

"Um..." Madoka looked closer, and turned to Homura. "Was that always there, on my side?"

Homura blinked. "Y-You didn't n-notice the s-sword? I t-thought... N-No, you w-wouldn't k-know how s-strong that i-is, I d-didn't think..."

Homura looked away, mumbling to herself, and Madoka suddenly felt very silly. Did she really have some kind of sword on her side the entire time and not notice it? Well, she was easily distracted by the fight, but still, she should have been able to tell what was attached to her. How had she not...

Well, that didn't matter, right now Homura was feeling silly about not mentioning earlier if Madoka was guessing right.

"Hey, it doesn't matter." Madoka smiled, looking cheerful. "I didn't need it in the end, and I know about it now."

"Is the sword supposed to be important?" Hitomi asked. "Those exploding kunai seemed rather effective."

"I-It's also a gun." Homura explained. "A-And... You can put your L-Lockseed in it, d-do a stronger attack..."

"I see..." Hitomi mused. "Perhaps you should practice with it later, Madoka."

"M-Maybe..." Madoka agreed. "So, should we dance now, or..."

Hitomi took a moment to consider it, then shook her head. "We haven't practiced anything with just two people. I don't think we'd be able to do anything for the crowd like this.

"...Oh. Right." Madoka sighed.

Homura looked between the two for a second. "S-So you're not going to d-dance?"

"Not yet, at least." Madoka sighed. "Maybe when Sayaka gets here, we'll get through the explanation fast enough to do some dancing."

"It isn't as it anyone else will use the stage now anyway." Hitomi mused. "We beat Baron, after all. And they were using three Lockseeds. New ones too, by the looks of things."

"Class B." Homura muttered.

Hitomi nodded towards her. "So the Inves they called up would have been strong enough that nobody else would be able to beat one, let alone three. And Madoka proved capable enough to stop them fairly easily."

Madoka rubbed the back of her head, somewhat embarrassed. Honestly, considering she hadn't meant to drop the kunai, hadn't gone for the stab immediately, and hadn't even noticed the sword, she didn't feel like the praise was warranted. She wasn't saying anything because Homura was here, but being praised even though she felt like she did poorly...

...Well, it didn't exactly feel right.

Madoka let her eyes wander for a second, looking away from Hitomi. She didn't feel like she could look her friend in the eye while Hitomi talked about how much of a good job Madoka had been by accident, and...

...What was that?

As she turned her gaze, out of the corner of her eye...

"Did anyone else see that?" Madoka asked. "Something just went behind the stage. Like... A white cat or something?"

Homura froze up, which was instantly a tell that whatever it was wasn't good.

"K..." The girl in the glasses began, before cutting herself. "I-It's here..."

"What's here?" Hitomi asked, looking concerned. "...Akemi, what-"

"W-We should..." Homura began, before trailing off. Slowly, she tilted her head to look at Madoka. "Y-You saw it? A-Are you..."

Was she hoping it wasn't what she thought?

"I saw it." Madoka replied. "I don't know what it is, but... Homura, are you okay?"

"...I-It w-wanted you to s-see it." Homura stuttered. "It... I-It'll f-follow you, until i-it can t-talk..."

Madoka frowned. If something was following her...

"...Should we avoid it?" Madoka asked. "Or... If it'll follow me anyway, would you prefer to be here for it?"

"That isn't a question." Hitomi intervened. "If something is following you, Madoka, and we don't know what it is, then I want to be there when whatever it is is talking to you."

Homura gave Hitomi an alarmed look. "But-"

Hitomi looked at the other girl. "I don't know what's scaring you, but I'd rather not let my friend deal with this alone."

"Hitomi-" Madoka began, but Homura shook her head.

"S-She's r-right." Homura admitted. "L-Let's..."

She trailed off, but Madoka had gotten the idea. If Homura was okay with it...

"Well, let's go see, then."

Hitomi beckoned the other girls on as she turned around the stage, and Madoka followed quickly enough. Homura lagged behind for a second, but only a second.

There wasn't anyone behind the wall that was the back of the stage, and there wasn't anyone within line of sight of it either. Madoka looked around for a moment, trying to see whatever it was she was following. The white thing was-

"If you are looking for me, I am up here."

Madoka paused, as the voice seemed to speak into her brain. She looked upwards, towards the top of the wall at the back of the stage, and saw something swishing it's tail.

"Forgive my intrusion." The voice continued, as it looked down at the three girls. "But it would be irresponsible of me to leave this situation without investigating."

"K-Kyubey..." Homura gasped aloud, and with a name put to the creature, Madoka suddenly realised what it was.

So this was what Homura had warned her about? The creature that manipulated Magical Girls for it's own ends, and somehow profited from the bad thing that was occurring soon...

"Do not feel obligated to speak out loud. Simply will me to hear your words, and I will hear them." Kyubey responded. "Though I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Especially worrisome, considering that there shouldn't be a Magical Girl that I am unaware of..."

Madoka looked towards Homura for a moment, and saw the frightened look on the girl's face. Feeling a sense of protectiveness, Madoka turned back towards the Kyubey-thing.

She... Didn't fully understand what was happening here, as she failed to understand a lot of things about the circumstances surrounding Homura, but if this was something connected to the bad thing that was going to happen-

"What are you?" Hitomi asked, interrupting Madoka's train of thought. "What is your interest with my friends?"

"I am Kyubey." The creature responded. "And I would suggest taking my suggestion regarding willing me to hear you. We would not want to be overheard."

Hitomi just stared up at the white creature, and Madoka finished turning her gaze to match it.

"And to answer your question, I am merely concerned regarding a few details regarding your group." Kyubey continued. "Lockseed Dealer Sid represents a threat to the Magical Girls of this city, and your Beat Rider team did spend some time with him yesterday. He seems to have developed some kind of Lockseed technology that prevented me from investigating him directly, but you spoke with him after demonstrating a level of Lockseed we had not seen in the hands of Beat Riders before, and now you have made use of technology we have previously only seen in the hands of 'Zangetsu'-"

"NO"

Homura's mental scream shook Madoka, who clutched at her ears on reflex from the sudden sound that felt like it was about to deafen her. Turning towards Homura, Madoka saw the Magical Girl collapse backwards, desperately trying to crawl away from Kyubey as her breathing hurried into a panicked rush.

Ignoring the situation for a moment, Madoka rushed to Homura's side, even as Homura's continued mental rejection continued to pound into her skull. Kneeling beside the collapsed girl, Madoka wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her up into a hug.

"It's okay." Madoka reassured her, even as she rushed to figure out what had set this off. She had been distressed already about Kyubey being here, but the instant the name Zangetsu was mentioned...

"Whoever it is, they're not here." Madoka reassured Homura. "They can't hurt you. You're safe."

Homura clutched at Madoka like her life depended on it, and cried into her shoulder. Madoka knew that Homura had seemed like she wasn't coping well, but just that name was causing this? What exactly had happened in the future that had caused this?

"...My apologies." Kyubey spoke, from within Madoka's mind again. "I had not intended for this. I doubt that your group is truly aligned with Yggdrasil's Lockseed development force if the name of their enforcer causes Miss Akemi to break down like this. In this case, I doubt that Miss Akemi's allegiance with you is causing them to gain information on-"

"Hold on." Hitomi's voice interrupted it in Madoka's mind. "I've had a lot of questions, and nobody has been able to give me answers. What do you mean, Yggdrasil? What the hell is... That name? What's going on?"

"Oh, I can answer some questions for you, if you wish." Kyubey decided. "If you wish to talk now, at least. Your friend seems as if she is not in much of a position to talk, however. I would be willing to organise a future meeting to make up for this, by explaining some things, if you wanted to delay until Miss Akemi was feeling better."

Madoka stood, helping pull Homura to her feet, and glared up at Kyubey.

[X] ...She didn't want to spend any more time around Kyubey. Homura didn't seem like she wanted to either. Madoka wanted it to go away.
[X] Even if Madoka wasn't feeling too happy with Kyubey, and even if Homura didn't trust it, it had information. Madoka might need that information.
[X] Write-in.