She did her best to ignore the glances.
She just walked into class like every day, head held high, nodding to a few... friendly acquaintances on the way.
The whispers were harder to ignore.
Not that they were something new, Mami was used to the whispers. It came with her carefully cultivated image as the ur-Senpai.
... An image she had completely shattered less than twenty four hours ago. Guilt churned in her stomach as she overheard some girls talking about it, throwing less than furtive looks at her.
It wasn't just that everyone knew about her skipping half a day of class.
It also was that she had enjoyed it. That she had thought to... do it again. To just skip school and hang out with Sabrina and Kazumi instead.
She bit her lip at the recurrent thought. It would be so easy to just... stop, like many other Magical Girls had done. If she insisted, Sabrina wouldn't really stop her, and she probably wouldn't set foot on this building ever again.
Sabrina had that Magical Girl hotel idea, right? She could do that. It would be... enjoyable.
Mami shook her head and sat down. She couldn't abandon her studies. She just couldn't.
Her hands shook underneath the desk, but fortunately the bell rung then, and the blonde's troubled thoughts were shoved to the back of her mind, letting the usual rituals take over.
"Stand! Bow! Sit!"
Finally, the bell rung again, signaling the end of math class.
Mami gladly turned off her laptop and rubbed at her temples.
"This stuff is hard, don't think so, Tomoe-san?" asked the girl getting up besides her.
Mami nodded politely. "It's easier once you can visualize the plane you're looking for," she tried to offer advice, "then you just need the derivative of both..." the blonde trailed off as her classmate's eyes glazed over. "I'm sure you'll get it, just do your best!" she smiled at the girl, who seemed to cheer up a bit.
The blonde quickly nodded goodbye, turned to store her laptop in her bag, and walked out of the classroom as quickly as she could walk without looking impolite.
Mami was half a corridor away from her classroom when she stopped suddenly.
Slowly, she re-opened her bag and looked inside.
Crammed between her notebooks and laptop, two sets of eyes, one blue, one red, blinked back at her.
"What are you doing here?!" Mami breathlessly yelled in the thankfully empty rooftop.
"Hi Mami!" the Chibi Sabrina jumped out of the bag, to be caught by the blonde's arms in a hug.
"S-Seriously!" yelled Mami, watching the Chibi Kazumi climb out of her schoolbag, "you shouldn't be here! What if somebody sees you?" she asked.
She couldn't keep the smile off her face, though.
Tiny hands patted at her cheek, causing Mami to giggle.
"It's OK, Mami!" reassured Sabrina, "nobody will find us, I'm sure. Look at the good side!" she exclaimed, climbing onto her shoulder. "Now we can be together all the time!"
Mami's breath hitched. They could, couldn't they? Her lips trembled for a moment; she looked at the Chibi Kazumi who, tired of waiting, was climbing her way onto Mami's other shoulder.
Then, trapped between both of her friend's adorable gazes, she couldn't help but nod.
"That sounds... nice," she ducked her head to hide a blush.
Something moved at the corner of her eye.
Quick as lightning, the blonde grabbed and pulled both her Chibi friends behind her back as she turned around to find...
A startled pair of red eyes, their miniature owner turning tail and running away in a flash.
Mami's mouth hung open, listening to the pitter patter of tiny feet running -she flinched when she heard a high-pitched cry followed by a soft thump, signaling the little one tripping and falling down the stairs.
Slowly, the blonde turned to look at the Chibi Kazumi riding on her shoulder.
"How many?" she asked patiently.
Kazumi tried to hide behind Mami's ringlet. On her other side, Sabrina let out a nervous laugh.
"... Sabrina?" she asked the other Chibi instead.
The white haired one gulped.
"... Wellllll..." she stalled, "have you perhaps noticed how I don't feel Witchy... and how I'm way out of my range, here?"
"The thoughts crossed my mind," admitted Mami.
"Well, Kazumi and I were doing some science with our powers, and kind of figured out a way to combine our powers and make Chibis that worked outside my range and aren't Witchy!" the little Sabrina explained, smiling puffing her chest out with pride.
Mami's lips twitched, but she kept her composture despite the overwhelming urge to pinch the little one's cheeks.
"Kind of...?" she prompted.
Sabrina let out a nervous laugh, scratching her tiny head.
"It seemed to work really well at first!" pitched in Kazumi, causing Mami's head to snap towards her.
"I'd say it worked pretty well, too!" said Sabrina, making Mami look back at her.
"We're here after all!"
"Way outside my range!"
"Yeah!"
"OK," Mami shook her head, already tired to looking back and forth between the two, "just... just tell me what's wrong?" she asked, tiredness seeping into her voice.
Sabrina and Kazumi looked at each other behind Mami's head, shaking their heads, looking pointedly, and making faces at each other.
In the end, the Chibi Kazumi mouthed 'Senpai privilege!', causing Sabrina's head to drop in defeat.
"... Some of the chibi Kazumis might have acquired sapience and might have started cloning themselves over and over and over and over and over-"
Mami's silenced her by way of palm to the face.
"So we don't really know how many there are," finished Kazumi.
The blonde sighed. "So you came here looking for your erstwhile clones?" she asked.
Tiny hands groped at her fingers, pulling at her hand. Mami let Sabrina pull her hand away from her face, and hug onto it instead.
"We also came here to hang out with you!" exclaimed the little white haired girl, smiling brightly.
Mami smiled warmly back.
Then her eyes turned sharp. "Right," she nodded, "you will hunt and subdue as many chibi clones as you can while I'm at class, then I'll help during every recess and lunch," she planned. "We can pull the others into this, too, even Madoka can help!" she smiled.
"Sounds good!" agreed the Chibi Sabrina.
"By the way... You're already looking for the chibis, right?" asked Mami, "I mean, both you you."
Sabrina's brows twitched.
"Of course we are!" shouted Kazumi.
"Yeah! You don't even have to ask!" seconded Sabrina, crossing her arms.
Mami pinched her cheek.
"Eek!" Sabrina giggled, rubbing at her cheek.
She kissed Mami's cheek in retaliation.
Kazumi's "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" just caused her to blush harder.
"... And that's why the pronounciation of english vowels changed."
"An excellent answer, Tomoe-san," nodded the teacher.
Mami sat back down, smiling.
Once all eyes turned away from her, her smile morphed into a frown. She couldn't keep herself from tapping her foot nervously, she was worried. Sabrina and Kazumi were out there trying to fix things while she stuck in class...
"Kazumi got one!" whispered Sabrina.
Mami nodded absentmindedly, smiling at the chibi down in her bag.
"... Wait what are you doing here?" she whispered furiously back at the white haired chibi.
She could hear more than see Sabrina shifting guiltily.
"I didn't want to leave you..."
Mami's heart skipped a beat.
"Oh... OK. How's..." she stopped herself, throwing furtive glances around. Thankfully, nobody seemed to have noticed her talking.
Mami nodded down at the little Sabrina peeking at her from her schoolbag.
"OK. We'll solve this together," she whispered, smiling warmly.
The tiny radiant smile she got in answer truly raised her spirits.
"... So that's the situation," explained Mami.
Sayaka scratched her head. "So is this some sort of... chibipocalypse?" she asked.
"Yup!" agreed Sabrina from where she was being held in Mami's arms.
"But don't worry!" interjected Kazumi from when she was being held in Madoka's arms.
... She really wanted to be held, and Sabrina was hoarding Mami's arms already.
"The clones aren't actually violent, so if we round them up, we can just ask them to stop," she explained.
"And that would work?" asked Hitomi, raising a dubious eyebrow.
"Of course!" smiled Kazumi, "I would stop if you asked nicely. I mean, the newly made chibis seemed confused about the whole thing, and are just having fun with their powers... I think."
"Ah, and you're not like that, Kazumi-san?" asked Madoka.
"Nope!" answered Kazumi, looking up at the girl holding her. "I'm a Prime Kazumi Chibi here, still connected to Kazumi Prime."
"Also, if anyone would listen when you ask nicely, it'd be the sweet cinammon roll," Sabrina nodded sagely.
"How bad is it?" asked Homura suddenly.
Everyone stopped at the non-sequitur; Mami regained her bearings first.
"It's... not that bad?" she blinked, "Prime Sabrina and Kazumi have been rounding up the rogue Chibis all morning; we just really need to clean up the school."
Violet eyes bore down into... Sabrina?
Mami looked down at the Chibi, who smiled up at her briefly, before turning back to Homura.
"Yeah, we've got this under control, it's just that a whole bunch of Kazumi clones got into the school, clearly looking for Mami-hugs," explained Sabrina, looking extremely smug from her position in the blonde's arms.
"So..." Madoka fidgeted, "do you think we can help?" she asked, shooting Hitomi a side glance.
Both Homura and Sayaka frowned and opened their mouths in eerie synchronization-
But Sabrina beat them to it.
"Of course you can!"
Sayaka's eyes snapped to the chibi's.
"It's perfectly safe!" concurred the other Chibi, patting at the pinkette's arm.
Homura's frown deepened.
"As we've said," interjected Mami, "we just need to find the Chibis and ask them to come along. By what I've seen during recess, the new Kazumis are... jumpy?"
"Confused," nodded Kazumi.
"Brain still not fully functional," giggled Sabrina.
Mami rubbed the little one's white haired head with a finger while she addressed everyone.
"I'm sorry this might eat up... lunch time," the blonde cringed while Sabrina giggled further, "but with everyone's help, we can sort this out before the Chibis make trouble for everyone else!"
"You don't have to ask," Sayaka shook her head, "of course we'll help!" she declared, Madoka and Hitomi nodding along, "... though couldn't Homura just hunt down all the chibis on her own like, super quick?" she asked, puzzled.
To Homura's credit, the glare she sent the bleunette was only mildly murderous.
Sayaka obliviously tilted her head, waiting for an answer.
"That would be a lot of trouble for Homura!" answered Sabrina shaking her head. "There's no need to make her do all the work when we can all help, right?"
Madoka sent her friend a reproachful stare.
"Right, right..." Sayaka raised her hands as if to fend them off, "I hadn't though of that. So!" she struck her fist against her palm, "shall we get to work?"
She was met with nods and a chorus of agreement.
'Sabrina!'
'Don't worry Mami, I've got this!'
The Chibi Sabrina slowly, very slowly backed away from the three approaching Chibi Kazumis, who looked ready to pounce on the tiny white haired girl...
... Who walked back into a wall.
'Uh-oh...'
'Don't worry, I'll ribbon them up-'
'Mami no!' the Chibi shook its head, arms raised defensively against the hungry looking chibis. 'I told you I can deal with this. Don't you believe in me?'
'I-I do! But these chibis look, they're acting... wrong?'
'Oh no, they're just following their natural instincts,' answered Sabrina.
'Their natural...?'
The blonde's question was interrupted as the Chibis attacked.
"Agh!" cried Sabrina as the trio pounced on her, "Mami! Help! Stop-"
The blonde needed hear no more; she rushed out from around the corner she was peeking from and unleashed a mass of ribbons on...
"No! Hehe- stop! Bad Kazumis! Sto- a-hahaha!" yelled the defenseless Chibi Brina being pinned down by the numerically superior group of Chibi Kazumis, who were viciously tickling her.
Mami covered her mouth, stiffling a laugh.
"Mamiiiiiiiii!" protested Sabrina, pushing the other chibis away with her tiny arms.
Unfortunately for her, she had more predators than arms.
"I'll save you in just a second, Sabrina!" informed Mami cheerfully, taking aim with her cellphone and snapping a photo when the third Kazumi tackle-glomped Sabrina from behind.
"... I am defeated," declared the white haired chibi from under the triple Chibi Kazumi hug pile.
Mami shook her head fondly.
"... I've got an idea."
A shiver ran down Sabrina's spine.
One of the Kazumis patted her head comfortingly.
'The Kazumi mob is sitting still,' informed Sayaka from her vantage point.
'This is the last of them!' informed Kazumi from her actual Chibi.
'How's things looking on your front, Homura-san?' asked Mami.
'No problems here.'
Sayaka snorted. 'Yeah, she's just glaring everyone away, don't worry, there'll be no interruptions.'
'...'
'It's weird how I could hear that.'
'Hey...' interrupted Sabrina's voice, 'don't I get a say in this?'
'Yeah, but Mami gets to speak for you,' informed Kazumi.
'You're doing a great job, Sabrina-san,' smirked Hitomi.
'Um... should I do it?' asked Madoka.
'Yup.'
'Go ahead.'
'No.'
'Do it.'
'Lowering the bait...' murmured Madoka, slowly unreeling the spool of ribbon she was holding over the edge of the window overlooking the school gym. '... Sorry, Sabrina.'
The Chibi Sabrina, tied at the end of the ribbon line, sighed.
She immediately regretted it when one of the Kazumis looked up, red predator eyes focusing on her.
At once, the Kazumi yelled and pointed, causing a sea of chibi red eyes to turn as one and zoom in on Sabrina's defenseless form.
For the shortest moment, the Chibi army and the Chibi bait beheld each other.
Then the ribbon dropped two feet suddenly, jolting Sabrina out of it.
'Oops! Sorry, Sabrina!' apologized Madoka as the Kazumi mob cheered and stampeded towards the white haired bait.
Blue eyes bulged as one of the Kazumi jumped at her, tiny grabbing hand brushing at her hair.
'Eek!' Sabrina flinched, 'Hurry up Mami this is actually really scary there's so many of them please save me Mami!' she shouted, panicked.
'Just a moment...' muttered the blonde.
'Aaagh!' Sabrina kicked as one of the Kazumis latched onto her leg, 'Madoka that's low enough! Mami hurryyyyyyy!'
In lieu of answering, Mami made a sweeping gesture with her arms, long lenghts of ribbon extending from her fingertips. The mass of ribbons immediately wound their way through the window and into the gym, reaching down to encircle the Chibi Kazumis, distracted as they were trying to jump over each other to catch the panicking Chibi-Sabrina-Bait.
Mami waited until Sabrina managed to kick a Kazumi off her leg, then with a grabbing gesture, her ribbons leaped at the startled chibi mass, wrapping them up in a tangled web of yellow ribbons and securing them still in a matter of seconds.
'... Mami?' asked Sabrina.
'Yes, Sabrina?'
'You kind of caught me, too,' she complained from where she was, restrained alongside the tied up mass of Chibi Kazumis.
'Well, that ain't nothing new,' laughed Sayaka.
'S... Sorry, Sabrina!' blushed Mami.
'It's OK,' reassured Sabrina, 'at least we... we won.'
Oriko clenched her eyes shut, rubbing at her temples as if in great pain.
"And what is this supposed to be?" her voice rung loudly in the still, greyed out confines of Time Stop.
"See for yourself," murmured Homura.
Mami blinked. Was she hallucinating, or was the taciturn girl smirking?
The ex-Seer seemed taken aback as well, so Mami shrugged and let enormous ribbon-made package dissolve in the middle of Oriko's living room.
"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...!"
The mob of Chibi Kazumis let out a deafening collective cheer at being released, a veritable pile tiny humanoids scraping and scrambling to gain their footing, pulling and climbing over each other and onto anything they could find.
The scraping and crashing of Oriko's furniture was almost an afterthought.
Before the owner of the house could properly react, one chibi rose up and away from the chibi mass, a blue coated, white haired chibi flying on sickly-purple-black wings.
"AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS I'M FREEEEEEEEEE!" yelled the Chibi Sabrina, immediately changing course and vectoring into Mami's waiting arms.
The blonde happily caught the self guided chibi missile, who let out a happy sigh, letting the Grief Wings vanish.
A thorougly fake cough from Oriko prompted Mami to continue. While Sabrina absentmindedly noticed the ribbon tied to her waist, and climbed onto the blonde's shoulder, Mami turned to address the mass of Chibis.
"Attention, Kazumis!" she yelled in her best Senpai voice.
Every single Kazumi in the room, including the original one, immediately snapped to attention.
"YES, MAMI!" the saluted.
"During this period of crisis, everyone of you will reside in this house," explained Mami, "in charge of this girl," she pointed to an entirely composed and not at all panicking-looking Oriko, "and will not clone yourselves any further. Understood?!" she asked.
"Loud and clear!" "Right-o!" "Aye aye, captain!" "Got it, Mami! "Can I have some cake?" "Sure thing!" "We won't cause any trouble!"
All answers came back affirmative, showing the Chibis Kouhai instincts were working properly.
Mami nodded proudly, hands on her hips. "If any of you wants cake, I hear Mikuni-san loves baking!" she once more gestured towards the girl they had chosen to dump this... rather multiple problem on.
Well, if the Chibi Kazumis actually were sapient, what else could they do? Mami smiled fondly, watching some of the Chibis tug at the ribbon tying them together to her.
As understanding of the relation between the words 'cake', 'baking', and 'Mikuni' filtered through the Chibis' heads, a sea of red eyes collectively turned to focus on the sidetailed girl... who chose that moment to set her foot down.
"Tomoe-san, I very much doubt I can entertain this..." she frowned, "... public, nevermind feed all of them cake."
Mami smirked, feeling affected by the smug waves she could clearly feel rolling off Homura.
"Well, we'll have to make some arrangements," she answered, "but unfortunately, you are our only option right now, Mikuni-san."
As Oriko opened her mouth to reply, the Chibi Sabrina suddenly jumped off Mami's shoulder, landed smoothly on her feet, and ran up to...
Color washed onto Kirika's frame as Sabrina grabbed onto her shorts.
"... Ah?" orange eyes blinked confusedly for a moment. "Oriko...?"
After a few seconds, the black haired girl noticed the tiny hand tugging onto leg, and looked down to meet Sabrina's big blue eyes.
"Hi, buddy!" she greeted.
Kirika's eyes widened. In a movement so fast it made Homura's breath hitch, she swoop down to grab the Chibi into her arms and pulled it into a bone crushing hug.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeee you're so cute how did you get so cute do you have a secret you must tell me!" the girl babbled excitedly.
Sabrina flailed, hitting Kirika's arm repeatedly with her fist until the enthusiastic girl deigned to pull her away, bringing the Chibi Sabrina face to face instead.
The white haired tiny girl took a few grateful breaths of air, before pointing back towards the mass of Chibi Kazumis watching them.
Orange eyes' followed her arm's movement and froze. Kirika stood absolutely still, was she not in full colour, Mami would've thought she had been taken into the timestop once more.
On that note, the blonde stealthily wrapped a ribbon around the girl's ankle.
"OH MY GOSH!" Kirika dropped Sabrina without thought, sprinting the whole two metres to meet the Chibi Kazumi collective. She promptly let herself drop to her knees and picked up the closes Kazumi she could reach.
"Hello! I'm Kirika! Who are you?" she asked.
"We're Kazumi! Nice to meet you!" answered the Chibi, not missing a beat.
"Eeeeeeeee..." came the high pitched sound from Kirika's mouth as she snuggled the Chibi to near death.
Slowly, Kirika turned big, soulful, bubbly eyes towards her Ojou.
"Oriko, can we keep them...?" she begged.
The Mikuni heiress sighed in consternation.
Mami and Sabrina looked at each other and smirked.
Check and mate.
'I can't believe school is still going,' complained Sayaka.
'Hunting down all those Chibis did seem to take a while,' mused Hitomi, 'isn't it weird it only took the whole lunch period?'
Mami swore she could hear Sayaka's stomach rumble through the telepathy link.
'Don't talk about lunch,' complained the bleunette, 'I'm still waiting for the next recess so I can eat something.'
'Don't think only about food!' chided Mami, 'Classes are important, lunch or no lunch.'
'Yeah, yeah... Hey, Homura.'
'...?'
'What's the answer to the second problem?'
'Four e squared.'
'What?!' cried out Madoka in dismay, 'I got a twelve...'
'Did you remember to carry the- actually, let me check,' said Sayaka.
'Does any of you feel like we're cheating right now?' asked Hitomi.
'Uh, kind of?' the bleunette shrugged. 'But it's not like we're having an exam right now, so...'
Mami shook her head fondly, listening to the back and forth chatter from the girls sitting in another classroom altogether.
Sabrina's tiny hand snuck out of the schoolbag at the blonde's feet to pat her leg, before sneaking back in.
Mami had to contain a giggle.
"Stand! Bow! Sit!"
The final bell of the day had finally rung.
In a minute, Mami met up with the other girls, Kazumi waving briefly from within Madoka's bag, and together they all walked through the school hallways towards the exit alongside everyone else, as if nothing had happened.
Before they actually exited the building, the Chibi Brina suddenly jumped out of Mami's bag. The blonde quickly looked around, making sure nobody was watching, before turning to admonish the white haired girl...
"Our job as Chibis is done! See you in a minute!" yelled Sabrina before Mami could even open her mouth. Said Chibi reached into Madoka's bag to pull the Chibi Kazumi out, then took off running towards the nearest hallway, dragging the other girl along.
"... Weird," said Sayaka.
Homura frowned.
Hitomi shrugged.
Mami fidgeted, uncomfortable. She felt silly, but now that the Chibi Sabrina was gone, out of easy reach, she felt how used she had got to having her close and available, waiting... like an object, more than a person...
She shook her head, causing her ringlets to bounce around. Sabrina wasn't a thing to be had, and furthermore, was waiting for her less than fifty metres away, just outside the school gates.
Mami sped up her pace, walking out ahead of her friends, as had become habit by now.
She usually also rushed out ahead of literally everyone else in school, though. But she didn't usually have Sabrina's Chibi around at school.
Mami's thoughts of hugging and relative walking speeds came to a halt when she actually spotted Sabrina ahead, waiting by the school gates as usual.
With a new spring on her step, the blonde ran the rest of the way and into Sabrina's waiting arms.
... She felt weird being the smaller party in the hug then, having hugged the Chibi version of the white haired girl all day.
"Took your time, hmm?" whispered Sabrina to her ear.
Mami tilted her head to look at Sabrina's bright smile.
Laughing, the blonde snuggled closer into the hug.
"... So then Kazumi just hugged the Chibi we caught and told the man," Sabrina mimicked holding something in her arms, "Isn't my baby the cutest?!" she made a pretty good approximation of Kazumi's generally excited voice.
"I didn't sound like that..." complained the girl.
"You totally did," countered Umika.
Kaoru just nodded.
Kazumi scratched her head, laughing softly.
"And then...?" prompted Mami, tightening her hug on Sabrina's arm.
"Well, just as you can expect..." the white haired girl huffed a laugh. "... The man just nodded politely and walked off."
Mami blinked as she opened the door to her apartment. "... That does make sense," she nodded, turning to the red eyed girl. "Good job, Kazumi!"
"Ha! See?" Kazumi puffed her chest out with pride, "I did a good job."
Kaoru patted her head.
The black haired girl grumbled good-naturedly, leaning into the orange girl's hand.
"Say, Mami?" asked Sabrina they walked into the kitchen.
"Hmm?" Mami hummed, taking out her half-empty bento box, considering whether the unfinished food was worth keeping or not.
"... Uh. How did you do on that english assignment? The one your turned in last week?" she clarified.
Mami paused before closing the fridge door, in thought. "Ah," she nodded, "I turned it in alright. You helped a lot," she smiled.
"I don't help that much..." said Sabrina, turning on the stove, and fetching the teacups while the water heated up.
Mami shook her head, hugging Sabrina from behind.
After a couple of minutes, the two of them came out of the kitchen bearing trays and scones, much to Kazumi's, Kaoru's, and Umika's delight.
"... So Beckham would totally be on my dream team," explained Kaoru.
Sabrina sighed. "Dream teams just don't work, you know? It's been tried, and players aren't simple puzzle pieces you can mix and match together."
"Bah," the soccer enthusiast waved her off, "it still would be so cool..."
The white haired girl rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she turned to Mami. "You still haven't told me how you dealt with the Chibi invasion at school."
The room turned silent.
"Um... something wrong?" asked Sabrina, suddenly finding herself the universal subject of scrutinity.
Mami frowned. "But Sabrina... You were there...?"
"What do you mean?" blinked the tall girl, "I've been hanging out with Kazumi, Umika, and Kaoru."
Umika clicked her tongue. "Right, but you were also-"
"Sabrina," cut in Mami, "where... Where's your Soul Gem?" she asked breathlessly.
"Uh?" blinked Sabrina, "it's right... it was here," her eyes widened, staring at her own bare hands. "It was- just..." she looked around, checking her pockets... then her head snapped up.
Mami followed Sabrina's alarmed gaze the kitchen door, where... Sabrina was standing, holding her Soul Gem ring in one hand, her hammer in the other.
Chibi Sabrina.
If Sabrina's eyes were wide with alarm, the Chibi's ones were shaking, bubbling with barely contained panic.
"D-don't move," she stated.
Mami and the Pleiades stared back and forth between both Sabrina, nobody daring to move a muscle.
The blonde's first conscious thought, hope, was that Sabrina must have been playing some sort of joke on them.
That hope died as soon as she looked back at their eyes, at the pure, undiluted emotion on them.
Sabrina, both Sabrina, were scared.
More than that, she noticed Sabrina's white-clenched fists, her lips turning into a snarl... unlike the Chibi, trembling, almost panicking, Sabrina was shaking in anger.
Mami felt her heart in her throat, she wanted to say something, but her lips wouldn't budge.
"What's going on?" Kazumi's innocent question broke the silence.
"I think..." bit out Sabrina, visibly trying to hold back her outrage, "... this might be yet another result of our ill-planned science session..."
"Oh!" Kazumi's eyes lit up in understanding. Then she gulped.
To Mami's relief, Sabrina took a deep breath. When she addressed the rogue Chibi version of herself, she did it with utmost calmness.
"Give me my Soul Gem back, put away the hammer, and come sit down," she instructed. "We can talk about this."
For the briefest, most fleeting moment, Mami believed that would've work.
Her hopes were dashed again as the Chibi shook its head.
"No," it answered.
Rather than folding at the monosyllabic denial, Sabrina tried again.
"Please. If you stop right now, I'll forgive you. We all will, right?" she asked the other four girls.
"It... would be for the best," said Umika, frowning.
"Yeah!" chimed in Kazumi.
But the Chibi Sabrina just kept shaking its head. "No... No, no," it hesitated, "we can't... we can't talk about this, I-I'm..." she sniffed.
The pitiful noise tugged at Mami's heartstrings.
"It's OK," she tried to smile for the little one, "j-just come here and..."
"NO!" the Chibi yelled at the top of her small lungs, freezing a half-standing Mami in her tracks. The small hammer rose threateningly over the Soul Gem ring, shaking, but undoubtedly powerful. "You just... stay where you are..."
"And then what?" asked Sabrina.
Her small counterpart stared, no answer forthcoming.
The taller white haired girl sighed. "Look, OK, we'll stay here. You'll stay there threatening my life. Then what? How does this end?" she tried to appeal to logic.
"I..." the Chibi sniffed again, "I don't kno- Eek!" it cried suddenly, empty hands groping at thin air.
So startled, she turned around and fell on her back, staring up at cold, frightening purple eyes.
The next moment, Homura walked past the stunned Chibi and handed Sabrina her Soul Gem.
"Oh my god, thank you," muttered Sabrina, astounded. She put the ring back on at once.
"No, no, no!" cried the Chibi Sabrina. "You can't- that's not fair! You can't just, just..."
"Just what?" Homura's icy voice cut through the little one's rambling.
The Chibi clammed up. After a couple of seconds, she folded, her whole frame drooping, tears leaking out of her eyes.
Mami's eyes stung at the display, and she looked at Sabrina beseechingly, hoping she'd know what to do.
The white haired girl sighed. She stood up, laid a hand on Homura's shoulder, smiling at the dark haired girl in thanks, and walked up to the miserably looking, tiny version of herself.
"Offer's still open," she said, extending her non-Soul bearing hand towards the Chibi. "We can still talk about this, if that's OK?"
The smaller Sabrina looked at her counterpart's outstretched hand for a moment, but shook her head.
"We can't talk about this..." she murmured. "I'm..."
"... You are?" prompted Sabrina after a few seconds.
"I'm nothing. I-I shouldn't exist," the Chibi's head hung low, eyes clenched shut.
Sabrina sighed, letting her hand drop at her side. "You know that's not true. Actually," she said with some cheer, "I've wanted to create something- someone like you for a while, you know that, right?"
"It doesn't matter," was the muttered answer, "I'm not... I'm not you. I'm not what you are," another sniff accompanied a brief look towards the table's occupants.
"You know, that's not entirely a bad thing, right?" Sabrina smirked self-deprecatingly.
The Chibi huffed, looking away.
Mami thought she saw her tiny lips twitch.
"I don't have a place here," said the smallest Sabrina.
"Of course you do!" answered the larger one.
She only got a dubious look in reply.
This time, Sabrina didn't wait, in one fluid motion, she grabbed the Chibi version of herself "Eek!", lifted her up and gave her a big hug.
"You can be the newest addition to our family," she said. "Right, Mami?"
Mami, still not recovered from the sudden and repeated mood whiplash, fumbled for words.
Then, big, teary blue eyes peeked at her from Sabrina's arms.
"Of course," she answered, standing up without thinking.
A moment later, Sabrina walked into Mami's waiting arms, the Chibi Sabrina quickly being smothered between the two of them.
"Awwwwwwww," Kazumi swooned, wiping at her eye with the back of her hand.
Kaoru reacted by way of patting Kazumi's head, smiling in relief.
Umika, meanwhile, furiously typed at her cellphone, muttering something about plot bunnies.
"OK, so..." said Sabrina a couple of minutes after the Chibi quieted down, "all's well that ends well?"
"Hmm..." nodded Mami, head buried on the taller girl's shoulder.
"Well, then..." Sabrina looked around, "Homura! Are you staying for dinner? It's early yet, but we can hang out?"
"Maybe another time," she answered softly.
At once, the Chibi squirmed in Mami's and Sabrina's embrace, and made her way to look over Sabrina's shoulder. From there, she just stared at Homura.
The dark haired girl stared back, impassively.
Then Sabrina added her own beseeching stare besides the Chibi's one.
"... I guess I can stay just tonight," Homura flipped her hair.
"Agh-" "Ngh..." both Sabrina's eyes glazed over, neither managing to cover their eyes in time.
Mami laughed, hugging them both tighter, and sighed.
All's well that ends well.
"For her own good, I hope Sabrina doesn't intend to take all these cute ones away," Kirika cheerfully told her Ojou, who smiled fondly down at her. Kirika looked up from where she was cuddling no less than five Chibi Kazumis, each one holding a small piece of cake in their hands. "Seriously!" insisted Kirika, biting into her own cake, "it's like having all the little sisters I never knew I wanted!"
Oriko brushed her fingers through her beloved's hair, causing her to blush. "I guess I can't complain," she shrugged, smiling. "The house's got a lot more lively today."
Then she flinched slightly, hand flying to her head.
"The cake! The cake!" she ran into the kitchen.
