In the Name of Love and Hatred! [PMMM / LoR]

Quick note for those who do not follow the thread closely: Approval Voting is no longer allowed.

---

Summon some cheese with your magic. Then blast the inside of her mouth when she goes to eat it. And rig the magic cheese to explode!

Ai switches tracks in an instant. This is a great idea, although she can make no real cheese. A simulacrum will do the trick, too. She deftly dodges a wormrush, letting the giant Witch slam her face into a cotton candy wall.

Just as Char finishes turning around, she stops in abject surprise. Barely finished, there sits a giant wheel of cheese. Ai smiles cheerfully, ignored by the suddenly docile Witch. Char approaches slowly, looking the wheel over from various perspectives. It resembles actual cheese perfectly, but hides a pink sphere in its hollow inside. More of them appear behind Ai, glowing ever brighter as she awaits the right moment.

Some ways away, Hitomi and Madoka took cover behind an oversized cupcake. Much like Sayaka on the room's other side, who is perched behind another chocolate chip cookie, they watch the proceedings with bated breath. Char veers closer to the simulacrum, expression brightening. "Cheese," she whispers reverently. Pink streaks appear on her cheeks. Her muscles relax and she opens wide to swallow the entire wheel.

Ai swings her staff down and a shower of golden stars follows the motion; they flutter forward on pink tails, right down Char's gullet. She shudders violently and blue blood pours out her mouth, but even the pain does not distract her. Her jaws closes around the fake cheese, then begin working excitedly. She chews once, twice, a hesitant third time, and stops. Blinking, the Witch becomes aware of Ai in front of her again. Tears well in the worm's eyes. The sight is almost pitiful enough to move the magical girl. Almost.

"Explosive Surprise!"

With a shout and snap of her fingers, the magic is let loose. Char's jaw balloons outward and streaks of pink break through her skin. The caterpillar drops heavily and comes to lie on the floor. Only for a new one to emerge from its mouth, shedding the other one like old skin.

Except this caterpillar is not sad. She is crying, but where her eyes were rainbow-coloured before, they are now a sinister, glowing crimson. Staring at the surprised Ai, Char screams so loud her barrier's walls shake. Then she charges again, incoherent rage driving her forward at incredible speed.

Ai leaps sideway, then rolls off and leaps again when the Witch twists herself to rebound in mid-air. Her face hammers a hole into the cake floor that she eats herself through without slowing. The ground wobbles, giving no indicator where she will emerge. Ai quickly makes platforms to step onto, rising above the ground while trying to find her enemy. Something within her curls up at the fact Char is still screaming.

Then an open maw breaks from the ground right beneath. Char comes straight at Ai, the surprise giving her enough time to reach. Ai's attempt to dodge ends with her speared on the Witch's nose and rammed into the ceiling. Char keeps snapping at her, razor sharp teeth trying to tear off Ai's limbs; the magical girl desperately pushes back against her snout with both hands, but Char is too strong to hold for long.

"Ngh! Arcana Beats!"

A beam hammers down into the maw, so close missing is impossible. Char flinches, enough to follow up with another beam. The caterpillar drops, only for yet another to emerge from her mouth and redouble her efforts. Ai pulls herself off the discarded one's nose and leaps away; her outfit thankfully took the hit. The ceiling breaks entirely behind her as she goes to ground level again.

Familiars swarm through the holes, only to die for no apparent reason but the sound of explosions. Ai has no time to investigate, too busy watching the ceiling for her irate opponent. Then, suddenly, something is in her hand. A faint but familiar voice echoes in her ear: "Perhaps this will help." Looking down, Ai finds a pipe of some sort. She never held a pipe bomb before, but Roland did.

The ceiling rattles and Ai instinctively slams her palm onto the top part, activating it. She rears back in anticipation while a magic circle forms beneath her, just for Char to break through the ceiling. A moment of rotation sends the Witch Ai's way. The magical girl throws and teleports away; she appears on a waffle jutting out of the wall, only to watch Char burp out an explosion. She shudders again, throws up blood, and sheds her skin once more. This caterpillar is definitely smaller than the first one, so Ai is making progress. Char turns around widely until she spots Ai, howls, and comes at her again.

Due to having had time to prepare, Ai is ready to teleport again. Just as she makes to cast however, something else shakes the barrier. A foghorn sounds and something large slams into Char in the room's center. The surprised Witch spews out a cloud blue blood while the train splits her in two. Ai is mighty confused; she sees streamers of gold connecting the train to Madoka below. Specifically, to the ticket she still clutches. One humongous eye stares ahead, the humps on its first wagon spew smoke. Each carriage is wrapped in mummified skin.

The Express Train to Hell keeps on chugging through the two halves of Char, breaks a hole in the wall opposite to the one it arrived through, and vanishes entirely soon after.

A brief moment of silence reigns while a final, smaller caterpillar emerges from the larger half of the previous one. Even Char stares after the train. Then she shakes herself and turns back to Ai, intent on continuing her rampage. She comes face to face with a gleaming set of spell circles.

"End of the line!" Ai declares. "Arcana Slave!"

A bright beam roars forward, catching the angry Witch right in the throat. She swallows it with wide eyes, hiccups sparks, and explodes.

Ai stays on alert while shreds of dead Witch rain onto the entire room. Only when the barrier fades and Char's Grief Seed lands on the ground before her does she relax.

After taking a moment to breathe, she picks it up. "That was weird," Ai comments, mainly to herself. Hitomi and her friends approach her, clearly shaken. "Are you all okay?" A quick examination and some mumbled confirmations tell her that Char ignored them entirely. The cheese trick certainly worked out, but Ai knows she will have to apologise if they meet again.

"What were you thinking?!" Sayaka tears into her a moment later. As her shock dies down, the blunette's anger flares brighter. "We could have died in there, all because you wanted to do something stupid!" She waves her arms toward their surroundings, though they are still alone in the courtyard. "This is why you don't try to talk to a Witch!"

Instead of shrinking away however, Ai growls. She just fought a battle she did not want and her mood remains low. Her finger stabs into Sayaka's chest, who flinches back. "Maybe," Ai spits back, "if you had shut up for five seconds instead of interrupting, I could have done something about that! But no, Mami this, Mami that, where is Mami right now, huh?" She pokes the wide-eyed blunette again and follows after, trapping her against the wall. "I'll tell you where she is! Hiding! She's hiding and licking her wounds! And why? Because she couldn't be bothered to stop for those five seconds either!"

Panting, Ai throws up her arms and stalks away. Sayaka releases the breath she was holding while the magical girl fights for composure. All three humans see the thin rays of pink breaking through the skin of her arms. Some flicker as they fluctuate in intensity, only to wink out one by one.

"W-What do you mean?" Madoka asks shily once all rays have faded. She ducks her head when Ai glances her way, but finds that the other girl lost all anger. "Did something happen to Mami?"

Ai closes her eyes and bids her to wait. Sayaka yelps as Hitomi steps on her foot to stop her from saying anything. The rage coursing through Ai is still strong, but she has it under control. It abates slowly, but surely. When Ai's eyes open, she is calm. "Mami attacked me on Saturday," she reveals earnestly. Hitomi's eyes widen and her friends gasp. "She did not even let me talk and opened fire without warning. So I fought back."

"And you won?" Hitomi guesses gently, though Ai knows she knows this is not the case. "Or perhaps it was a draw?"

"More like that," Ai admits. "Either way, I do not want to talk about her anymore." She even manages a small smile and approaches Madoka. The pinkette only locks up for a moment. "Can I see that ticket again?"

"O-Oh. Sure, here." She hands it over without hesitation, but the leathery substance flakes away into dust. Madoka stares at her hand. "Um."

"Yes, I expected something like that." Ai frowns at the flakes dancing on a sudden breeze. "What I don't understand is how that got here to begin with. I've seen this train before." All the way back in Lobotomy Corporation. The train's book should be in the Library, safely under lock together with whatever others Angela deemed too dangerous to interact with.

Hitomi joins them as well, a despondent Sayaka in tow. "What exactly was it?" the young lady inquires. "I only caught a glance, but it did not look like anything I ever saw." Where her friends are still shaken, Hitomi already regained her bearings.

Ai shrugs.

"What the train wants and does, only the train knows. This was the first time it actually helped with anything, usually it just runs people over. It doesn't care what's in its path." After saying so, Ai turns to Madoka: "If you come by another ticket, please get as much distance between you and it as possible." The pinkette nods weakly, which is as good as Ai figures she will get. Next she turns to Hitomi. "And good work in there. Your reflexes helped keep everyone safe."

"Oh, it was barely anything," the other girl deflects modestly. She inclines her head to Madoka. "Any of you would have done the same for me, were our roles reversed."

The pinkette smiles back. "Thanks, Hitomi. You're really something else. I don't think I could have done it. And thank you for protecting us, miss Ai." She shily offers her hand, which Ai makes to take. The moment their skin touches however, pink sparks rain all over both hands. Madoka squeaks as a curtain of pink fog covers her for but a moment; Ai just stands frozen, staring at the spectacle in wonder.

"What's happening?" Sayaka shouts, but just as soon as she finishes speaking, the effect ends. She looks between the two suspiciously, ending on Ai. "What was that? Did you cast a spell on her?"

"No," Ai denies. She peers closer at Madoka, but keeps a distance. "There is just so much power around her that my presence sparked a reaction. You're oozing it from every pore." And suddenly, she knows why the air felt so loaded ever since she met Madoka. "Is that magical potential?"

"Correct." All eyes go to Kyubey, who sits nearby. "Madoka Kaname's potential is unlike any ever observed. Magical Girls are capable of sensing it in close proximity and, going by this Witch's focus on her, so can their counterparts."

Sayaka is just as surprised by this as Hitomi. "So wait," she starts after a moment of silence. "You say she'd be like a super Magical Girl when she contracts?"

"That is roughly accurate. Mind, the extent of her power also depends on the wish she makes. But with the correct wish, it is not impossible she can become equivalent to a goddess."

"Wha-, me?" Madoka points at herself, completely lost. "But I'm just a normal girl. Why would I have that much potential?"

"I do not know," Kyubey admits readily. "It is still a mystery I am investigating. By all accounts, this amount of potential should not even be possible."

This leaves all four girls silent. Neither of them really knows how to react to the revelation. Madoka twiddles her thumbs, Hitomi is deep in thought, Ai studies the pinkette, and Sayaka... shrugs. "Alright, whatever. We can think about that later. For now, we've got to go." She swiftly grabs Madoka and drags the surprised girl off.

"Where to?" Hitomi questions, only to receive a dark look. Sayaka points at Ai.

"She just said she hurt Mami. So we've got to go check on her. I don't trust her at all, especially with the transfer student around. Come on, let's go."

Madoka hesitates for a moment, bowing sadly to Hitomi and Ai. "She has a point, I am a little worried, too. Um, thank you for spending time with us. Goodbye."

"Mhm, goodbye." Ai suppresses a sigh and smiles, for poor Madoka's sake. "Take care of yourselves."

Sayaka only huffs, but Madoka manages a faint smile and follows her friend. Hitomi stares after the two, then glances Ai's way. She seems oddly torn, but it takes a moment for the magical girl to understand the reason. Once she does, she makes a shooing motion. "Go with them, it's okay. I need some time to think."

Hitomi hesitates momentarily. Then her features even out and she nods. "Very well. I will see you later?"

"Of course."

While her friend moves to follow the other girls, Ai weighs the Grief Seed in her hands. She still has no use for them, and several options for what to do with it. Maybe reconciliation is possible after all, if she buys Char a big piece of cheese? Though that would require another deal to fill her Seed. Or she could gift it to one of the local magical girls she knows? For a moment she considers just leaving the Seed with Kyubey, but they are already gone.

---

[] Keep the Seed and try to make up with Char
weight: x1.5

[] Gift the Seed to Kyoko, she is a friend after all
weight: x1

[] It was probably Homura who helped you out; give the Seed to her as a token of appreciation
weight: x1

---

Unlocked Character Sheet: Charlotte