Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

You close your eyes, swallowing as you debate with yourself.

She's worth saving.

Everybody, magical girl or not, is worth saving. There's no one who's beyond saving.

But sometimes...

Sometimes you need to let go.

You don't want to. It goes against the grain for you to...

You're not giving up.

Yuuki doesn't want to be helped. She doesn't want to be helped now, even though you saw a sliver of interest you could maybe exploit. She's told you to leave her alone five times in barely ten minutes, and you've chased her halfway across a not-exactly-small shopping centre.

It's... you have better things to do. You need to go and see what Kyouko wants - and she does want something, and maybe you could go and see about Kuroki if you had time.

You're not giving up... not exactly. The best you'd get from Yuuki is grudging acceptance, in any case, and... there's always another time.

You sigh. "I'll be there soon," you tell Kyouko.

"Cool," she responds. "Same park as last time, since I don't reckon you know Kasamino. We'll wait."

You take a few quick steps forward, following Yuuko. 'You match the profile. You don't know it yet, but you're going to be important in the future.'

The words are all but on the tip of your tongue.

But what you do instead is to apologise.

"Hey," you call. "Look, I'll leave you alone. I'm sorry for the trouble."

"Good!" she snaps over her shoulder at you.

"I... flag me down for ice cream if you see me next time, alright?" you say.

Oh, you could pull the mysterious act. You could pull it off flawlessly. Hell, you could drop her full name on her, walk down an alley, and just vanish. You've got about three or four ways to accomplish it, and that's just off the top of your head.

You're also pretty sure it'd backfire spectacularly if... when... if Kyuubey comes sniffing around.

She barely deigns to give you a look before marching off.

You watch her go for a minute, the brown haired girl throwing her surly scowl against the world as she stomps away.

You sigh, running your fingers through the thick, neatly combed mass of your hair. Enough of that, enough of Yuuki, for now. Now you're going to see your redheaded friend and her adorable, adopted little sister.

Your footsteps turn down an alleyway, and a casual transformation later, you leap up to the roof. You're getting better at that, arcing from wall to wall. You're still not exactly graceful in the way Mami is, but you get the job done without shattering brick and concrete.

Cresting the roof, you land smoothly, stretching your hands out and twisting from side to side, wings already blooming behind your back. Another powerful leap, and you soar into the clear blue sky, trailed by a few wisps of Grief hurrying to join the fractal edges of your wings.

A warm thermal draws you upwards in a lazy spiral. You really don't have to bother with anything as plebian as aerodynamics, not when you can move with perfect impulse in three-dimensional space with your Grief manipulation, but eh... It's comfortable this way. In the distance, you can see the black tarmac runway of the airport off to the North, the air visibly shimmering even from this distance.

You tuck your wings in and roll east towards the gleaming expanse of the river. Which reminds you, you're not really sure if it's the Mitakihara river or Kasamino river. Or possibly something else, with a name that has nothing to do with the twin cities. The white V of a boat's streaks across the river - probably some privately owned one out on a pleasure trip.

You could go back to Mitakihara mall again, without much issue. Since... well, Homura said she tended to hang out there, and you did find her there. You'll probably run into her again.

Yeah, that works.

Long, thundering wingbeats carry you across the river, Kasamino unfurling beneath you as you cut through the skies. You kind of have to wonder a little about Kyouko wanting to meet with you, and her asking about hunting a Witch with you.

She could simply be attempting to minimise risk to herself and Yuma. That'd be a smart thing to do. But then again, she was perfectly willing to hunt a Witch with Yuma that time before. Hm. And of course, you had already arranged a meeting with her for lunch. She could just have wanted to be polite.

Yeah, and if you bought that, you've got a bridge to sell yourself - that bridge between Mitakihara and Kasamino, the perfect investment for an enterprising young woman like yourself. Hell, you don't even know what it's called and you'd buy it from yourself like you bought that story and...

Hm...

You seem to have tied your brain into a linguistic knot and lost track of the point you were trying to make to yourself somewhere there, which, right, is that Kyouko's probably wanting something. You'd like to think that it's because she considers you enough of a friend now to be willing to ask.

"Hi, Sabrina!" Yuma's voice rings inside your head.

You look down to spot a tiny blob of green, waving frantically at you from far below. At Yuma's side is a more considerable blob of red, head craned back to look at you.

You smile. "Is the park clear?"

"Same as last time," Kyouko drawls.

"Cool," you drawl right back. You fold your wings behind your back and-

-drop.

The wind screams through your hair, mixing with the booming crack of heavy leather as your coat snaps at the air. Grass and trees and bushes and that tiny pond over there loom large, approaching with terrifying speed.

You whoop in exhilaration, wings flaring wide for a second. You jolt to a halt amidst massive a downdraft that sends leaves and fallen flowers billowing in a huge cloud, before finally dropping lightly to your feet. Twigs and leaves patter down from the tree branches, swaying and rippling with the draft.

Yuma drops her arm from her face, grinning at you. "Hi, Sabrina!" she says, bouncing on her toes. She's dressed in the same pinkish-purple hoodie as last time, with a nice, sturdy pair of jeans.

Kyouko gives you a half-hearted glare, combing her windswept mane with her free hand. "Was that necessary?"

You shrug, starting to dissolve your wings. "No, but it was cool, wasn't it?"

"It was so cool!" Yuma agrees, beaming.

Kyouko scowls. "And if I say anything," she says, giving you a baleful glare. "Yuma's just going to call me tsundere. Aren't you, Yuma?"

The little girl turns huge, soulful eyes up at her adopted older sister, blinking in a particularly innocent way.

"Yeah, thought so," Kyouko grumbles, rubbing her forehead. "'nyway. This way, then." She turns away, tugging Yuma's hand.

"So... Witch hunt, right?" you ask. Despite Kyouko's easy air of amiability, her shoulders are taut with tension as she walks down the streets.

"Yep," she drawls.

"Mmm," you agree. You can feel the Grief Seed in her pocket, the one you'd given her. Jane. It's all but full, throbbing on your senses, and you can feel the state of her Soul Gem - maybe a third full. More than a third, at a guess, edging towards half. Yuma's is in much better condition.

Kyouko ambles down the streets, and you follow for now as you head north.

The Barrier comes into your senses long before you see it, a malevolent pressure against your mind in a way you can't describe. "I sense it," you murmur.

Kyouko grunts. "Handy, that," she says. "You lead, then."

"Sure," you say, taking a quick few steps forward, leading the way to what turns out to be the side of a cake shop. On the wall glows the Barrier entrance, a pulsating gash in reality.

"So," Kyouko says, producing her Soul Gem and holding it out to you on her palm. "Yuma?"

You can't help but notice that the way Kyouko holds it, flat out on her outstretched palm, leaves the clouded Gem well above Yuma's line of sight. In fact, you doubt the younger girl can see it.

[] Write-in


Witch fight!