Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel

[SVS]

1 January, 2013.

You don't remember much about your dream last night. Something about a mountain, an eagle, and an eggplant? Maybe? You aren't sure. What you are sure of is that you're rudely woken from your sleep by someone shaking you, and Kirika's voice in your ear saying "Come on, sis, wake up. We're all gonna watch the sunrise together."

It's still dark outside – obviously – when you pull yourself out of bed, quickly throwing on a bathrobe and donning slippers once you feel the cold air hitting your face, and follow Kirika to join her and the rest of your family in watching the sun rise. Archer and Minako are already waiting for you. They're seated out on the patio of the Emiya family house, staring up into the night sky. Archer doesn't turn to greet you, but when the sound of your footsteps reaches his ear he says "The moon is beautiful tonight," in a soft, content voice.

You and Kirika sit down beside your parents on the patio – you beside Archer, and Kirika beside Minako – and Archer says to you "You know, when I was younger, I couldn't wait to grow up so I could be a hero like my father. The years seemed to go by at a snail's pace back then. But now, there's nothing I want more than to spend as much time as possible with the three of you, but it's only now that time seems to fly by. It feels like only yesterday that I'd come back, and the four of us were able to be a family. It's crazy to think that, the next time we see the moon, it'll be a new year."

"It's hard to believe it's been almost a year and a half since you came back," Minako says, leaning into Archer's shoulder. "You almost missed Kirika's sixteenth birthday. If you'd just been another month late in coming back…"

"I'm a lot of things," Archer says; "And many of them aren't exactly me at my best, either. But I will not be the kind of father who misses his daughters' birthdays."

From the urgency with which Kirika roused you, you had believed that the New Year's sunrise would be coming soon. But instead, the four of you have plenty of time to spare, and so you talk about whatever comes to your mind. Last night's dinner of toshikoshi soba, prepared by Archer, his younger self, and Matou Sakura; or of the deep-cleaing the six of you – though it ended up being more when Rider, Fujimura-san, Tohsaka-san, and Saber all pitched in to assist with the deep-cleaning – did of the Emiya residence last night; or of the deep-cleaning the four of you will have to do for your own apartment when you finally return to Mitakihara; or of staying up late, past midnight as the New Year rolled around, in order to watch the fireworks being shot off all around you.

But eventually, you see the first rays of sunlight crest over the hilly landscape of Fuyuki. It's blinding, brilliant, beautiful, and its warmth and radiance brings only one name to your mind. "Madoka…" You wish she could have been here to watch the sun rise on the New Year with you. But when Archer leans over, wrapping his arm around you, and you feel the warmth of your father exceeding even the warmth of the sun, you know that being here to see the sun rise with your family is not a distant second place.

Because it's just as much as much the grand prize as watching the sunrise with Madoka would be. "Thank you," you say to your family members. "Thank you for being my family."

"Sis, we wouldn't even be a family if you hadn't stopped me and Oriko from being idiots," Kirika says. "Not to mention how good dad's been to mom. Really, we should be thanking you two. 'Cause if it weren't for you and dad, me and mom would still be living in that crappy apartment and struggling to make ends meet."

"You've been such a good sister to Kirika too," Minako says to you. "I know Oriko tries her best, but she's too soft on Kirika sometimes. She really needs someone like you around to keep her in line and out of trouble."

"I'll do my best this year to live up to your expectations, then," you say to your mom. She's seated on the opposite side of Archer from you, so you can't lean over to give your mom or your sister a hug, but you can say to Kirika "You're going to be turning eighteen this year. Are you excited?"

"No more excited than you'll be turning sixteen," Kirika replies. "'Cause neither of us'll be adults. But I bet you're excited about starting high school in a few months, right?"

You are, in fact, though you're also nervous. You've never made it this far before. Each new day that passes is another day you can't get back, can't rewind the clock to try again. You don't know what to expect going forward, and that thought scares you just as much as it excites you. "Yeah," you say. "I guess I am."

The four of you sat together like that, watching as the morning sun crested over Fuyuki, until it was time for breakfast. Breakfast was nothing to write home about, but that's not a measure of the food's quality. It's a testament to the fact that Archer and his younger self can make anything delicious, even a simple New Year's Ozouni of broth, chicken, and vegetables. So it's nothing to write home about because the high quality isn't a stand-out, it's the expected quality.

After breakfast is finished, the younger Emiya Shirou stands, and while Matou Sakura collects the dishes, he speaks, saying to the four of you "After Sakura and I do the dishes, the four of us were going to head to Ryuudou Temple for our New Year's prayers. You're all welcome to come with us if you'd like." You're sure that Archer knows the temple well, but for you, Kirika, and Minako Emiya Shirou adds "I know it's not a Shinto shrine, but it's the best Fuyuki's got, and the head priest-in-training is an old friend of mine and Rin's from high school."

"Your friend, maybe," Tohsaka-san says. "I'm pretty sure Issei still hates my guts."

"He doesn't hate you, Rin."

"He was practically over the moon when we told him we'd broken up," Tohsaka-san says. She adopts an exaggerated masculine voice, and says with her finger extended as though she were explaining magecraft to you, "He said, 'Shirou, I see you've finally vanquished the red devil and chosen a proper woman like Sakura." Matou Sakura beams with pride at her sister's words, and leans in just slightly closer to Emiya Shirou, hugging his arm in what you can only describe as a possessive display. Emboldened by her sister's display, Tohsaka-san slips an arm around Saber's waist– "Rin!" –surprising her as Tohsaka-san adds "'Though, it's unfortunate that she's managed to corrupt a good woman like Saber to her cause, the fiend'," before passionately kissing Saber on the lips, thoroughly one-upping Matou Sakura.

Kirika is the only one enjoying the show.

Emiya Shirou rolls his eyes at Tohsaka-san's words, saying as he casually sidesteps the display "He did not say that; And he certainly didn't try to make fun of you when we told him that you and Saber had started dating, either." Tohsaka-san rolls her eyes, and Shirou says "Come on, Rin, I know you two have never really gotten along, but I can't believe we're still having this conversation almost a decade out. You're both my friends, and I really wish you two could at least pretend to be civil around each other."

"I can pretend just fine," Tohsaka-san says. "I just don't want to waste the effort putting up a front for someone who knows it's not genuine." Tohsaka-san rolls her eyes again, and adds "At least he's stopped trying to 'prove' to Kuzuki that Caster is secretly evil."

Tohsaka-san's accusation does not go unnoticed by the rest of the native Fuyuki inhabitants, who all laugh it off, while you and the rest of your family all look to one another, confused. "Uh, dad…?" Kirika asks. "Care to help us out explaining that one?"

"I… Don't know what she's talking about, either," Archer says. "Kuzuki was one of our teacher's when we were in high school, and Caster was his servant, but…" Archer stares at the rest of his Fuyuki companions, just as lost as you and Kirika are. "I don't know anymore."

"Kuzuki and Caster got married a few years back," Shirou says. "But for a while after they were married, Issei kept trying to uncover proof that Caster was evil so he could get them to divorce."

"Thankfully, it never panned out, and he eventually gave up and admitted that Caster wasn't hiding or scheming anything," Saber says. "Caster and I may not always get along, but she and her master are happy together. Trying to separate them through such underhanded methods is something I would not have expected from such an otherwise upstanding young man."

"Mhm," Minako says. When she asks "Are relationships in Fuyuki… Always this complicated?" you can hear in her voice the way she's fending off the urge to say something else.

"Pretty much," Tohsaka-san says. "For a while, I was pretty sure we were all living in some sort of eroge simulator. For all I know, we might still be." Tohsaka-san looks to the rest of the Fuyuki crowd, and asks them "Mitsuzuri's the only one of us who's never actually had to put up with any sort of BS relationship drama, right?"

Emiya Shirou, Matou Sakura, and Saber all nod their heads. "Well, her and our guests," Matou Sakura says, before looking to Archer and Minako, and to Tohsaka-san who knows your family better than he does. "I think?"

Archer nods his head, and Saber says "It is a good thing, that your relationship with your wife and daughters is a stable one. I… Even if Rin decides she would like to adopt, or have a child by surrogate, I do not believe I am suited to being a parent, after what happened the last time."

Tohsaka-san places a hand on Saber's own, saying "Listen, Saber, I'm pretty sure we've all had to cosmically fuck up at some point in our lives in order to be where we are now. Just learn from your mistake, and make sure the next one doesn't turn out like the last one." It's just barely enough to force a slight smile on Saber's face, and Tohsaka-san adds "Of course, assuming we're still together by the time I'm ready to have children, don't think for a second that I'll just jump in without seeing if you're also ready."

"Thank you, Rin."

Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura retire to the kitchen to do the dishes, and soon it's time for the eight of you to all be heading out. Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura walk at the front of the pack, talking to themselves about nothing in particular in a low voice. You don't know how long it's been, since before they started dating, since the last time they saw one another, so you're sure the past two months have been as much about the two of them catching up as it has been about strengthening their relationship. Trailing just off to the side, making sure to give her master a wide berth to spend with your father's younger half, you see Rider, and trailing behind you, you can hear Tohsaka-san and Saber talking to themselves in a low voice as well.

Like most of the Fuyuki that Archer has spent the past week showing to you and your family, you've only ever seen brief flashes of the city from the dreams you've shared with Archer. So when, after ascending the lengthy stairs leading up the snowy, wooded mountains of Fuyuki, you're finally greeted to the sight of the temple, finally coming into view, you're taken by surprise at a most unusual sight.

A samurai, dressed in robes of white and purple, sits beside the front gate, hands folded in his lap in a meditative pose. His sword, sheathed in a scabbard of purple and gold, rests against the temple gate behind him, and his dark hair moves out away from his face as he tilts his head up to get a better look at everyone. "Now, this is a strange party," he says, as his eyes rove all around the party of eight, before finally settling on Archer. "I must say, even after hearing the news for myself, to see our Archer with a family at his side is… Strange, to say the least. I hope you are all finding your New Year to be a pleasant one."

"Dad?"

"It's been a pleasant New Year so far, thank you Assassin," Archer replies. The samurai – an Assassin servant, by Archer's words – nods his head. His is not a face which you recognise from Archer's dreams, nor is it one which you remember from among the false servants summoned by Walpurgisnacht, even though the rest of those servants had all been from Fuyuki. You don't know who this servant is. "I heard that Caster and Kuzuki were married. If we don't see them while we're offering our prayers for the New Year, could you send them my congratulations?"

"I shall be sure to pass your words of well-wishing along to my master when I see her," he says. "But I am guessing you all will see her first. Please, go on ahead. The master of this temple has already reserved a special place for your party to give your thanks at."

"Thank you, Assassin," Emiya Shirou says, before offering the servant something. "Onigiri with pickled plums. I didn't know if Caster and Kuzuki would include you in their New Year's activities, so I wanted to make you something if they hadn't."

Assassin accepts the offering graciously. "Thank you, Emiya Shirou," he says. "May the New Year be a bountiful one for you."

"You too, Assassin."

The Assassin servants allows the eight of you to pass, and you finally enter the temple. As you take in the sight before you, the elegant masonry and intricate woodwork, and the temple grounds covered by a light dusting of snow, your breath is stolen from you. "It's beautiful." The words escape your mouth, and you catch sight of your frozen breath leaving your mouth as you speak.

"Isn't it?" Matou Sakura says in response. "But it's even more beautiful in the fall, I think, when all the leaves turn red. Archer will have to bring you and your family back again some time so you can see them."

You just nod your head. It's Kirika who looks up at Archer, and with pleading eyes begs him "Can we bring Oriko next time, dad?"

Archer smiles, and reaches his hand out to tousle Kirika's hair. "We'll see, pumpkin," he says. "That'll depend on what Oriko wants to do."

You must be early, because you don't see anyone else around the main gate when your party entered. But as you round the corner, you see it, throngs of people have come, flocking to several stations that the temple priests must have set up, offering their prayers for the new year. Now, Matou Sakura takes the lead, and the rest of your party follows her as she leads you around the back of the temple. There, you see a young man waiting, stern-faced, eyes hidden behind his glasses. "Shirou," he says, moments before he and your father's younger half embrace.

"How's your New Year been, Issei?" Shirou asks.

"Busy. The other monks and I spent most of the morning getting everything ready for when we'd finally start letting people in." The two break, and 'Issei' offers a hug to Matou Sakura and Saber as well. Though there's no hug for Tohsaka-san, just a frosty "Tohsaka," and a glare that you're sure was once even sharper than it is now. "I hope your New Year is a pleasant one."

"Same to you, Ryuudou."

"So it's true." If his reaction to seeing Tohsaka-san was a frosty one, the young man's reaction to the voice that sneaks up behind him is positively bone-chilling. You see the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge, and his eyes turn ever so slightly as a woman passes by his side, approaching Archer. "Archer's other self really does have a family."

The blue-purple hair doesn't stand out to you. You're used to seeing much stranger things in Mitakihara. But the pointed, elf-like ears most certainly do. They draw your eyes, and the woman, the Caster servant from Archer's War, turns her attention to you. "Something catch your eye?" she asks.

You can see both Archer and Rider bristling as the woman speaks to you. But you're frozen, caught in the hypnotic gaze of her cold blue eyes- "Yeah, your ears." Kirika's words tear you out of your trance. "Sis is probably just staring 'cause she's never seen anyone with ears like that before." Caster's gaze turns from you, and towards Kirika, but before she can say anything – and before your mother can stop her – Kirika continues. "They're really cool. You ever think about getting them pierced? I bet you could fit a lot of different types of earrings onto ears like that."

Kirika's words stop Caster dead in her tracks. "So, you're the type who enjoys thinking about ways to accessorise," she says. She smiles, and her snake-like grin almost splits her face in half. You see Archer's hand twitch, as if he's preparing to attack, but Caster's next words diffuse the situation entirely. "I might not agree with your taste in fashion, but I can respect your passion for it." Caster offers Kirika a hand, and says "You know, you've got a great body. Would you like to become my model?" Kirika is taken aback. So are you. So is Minako. Archer instantly snaps back to an aggressive stance. But the rest of the Fuyuki natives just hold their heads in their hands. "I'd ask Saber, but she's leaving for London soon, and I doubt Rin would let me keep her. So how about it?"

"Don't think I'm going to let you keep her, either."

"Why Archer, that's no way to speak to an old friend, is it?" Caster taunts. "I'm just trying to make a business offer."

"Not with my daughter you aren't." Now it's Minako's turn to speak up. "I don't even know you! Kirika doesn't know you! You can't just proposition someone like that when they don't even know you!"

Minako steps in front of you and Kirika, but before things can devolve into a shouting match – though it wouldn't take much, considering the volume everyone is already speaking at – Saber steps up. "If it will get you to leave Archer's daughter alone, Caster, I suppose I can convince Rin to let us stay for another few days while I model for you." Caster's eyes light up, but Tohsaka-san bristles at Saber's offer. "However, I ask that you not force me to model anything as… Disrespectful, as that white gown you forced upon me. My body still bears the shame of that humiliation."

"Relax, I'll only put you in cute, wholesome dresses from now on," Caster says. "But, it doesn't appear that the little lady is all too pleased with your sacrifice."

"Because unlike you, some of us have jobs we have to get back to," Tohsaka-san says. "I've got important work waiting for me when we get back to London. I don't know if I can afford to put it on hold any longer than I already have, just so Saber can fulfil your little doll fetish."

"What's going on here?" There's a cold, stern voice, and it cuts through the noise that your group is making. A sharp-faced man wearing a worn suit and tie approaches, and his hand settles on Caster's shoulder. "What was it she said about you, Caster?"

"Nothing!" Caster quickly protests. "I don't have a 'doll fetish'!"

"Caster, we've been married for seven years," the stern man says. "You don't need to feel like you have to defend your image to me. I don't care if there are things you like as long as they make you happy."

"Oh, Kuzuki!"

That was the moment in which Caster checked out of reality. Rolling his eyes, Issei beckons for everyone to follow him. "This way," he says. "Before things start to get silly again." So, without giving Archer a chance to congratulate the couple that's now lost in their own little world on their marriage, Issei leads the nine of you around another corner of the temple, and it's here that he's reserved a private booth for all of you to offer your prayers at.

"Hey! You made it!"

Aunt Illya is waiting for you by the booth, and she calls out, waving to you and Kirika. She offers everyone a hug, and when yours and Kirika's times come, Aunt Illya makes sure to hand you both thick red envelopes. "Otoshidama," Aunt Illya says to you and Kirika, before leaning in and whispering in your ears "Don't tell your parents how much I gave you."

You're curious as to just how much Aunt Illya has given you, but you pocket the envelope before your curiosity can get the better of you. Not so with Kirika, who peels back the fold to take a peek, and your eyes go wide when the two of you see the ten brand-new ten-thousand Yen banknotes inside. Your Aunt just gave you and Kirika each a hundred-thousand Yen for your New Year's money.

"You're going to save most of that, right?" Kirika almost jumps out of her skin when your mom speaks up from behind her. "Illya, Archer and I appreciate how much you're willing to do for our daughters, but you really shouldn't spoil them like that. The gifts you got them for Christmas were more than enough." Gifts like the assortment of expensive clothes for the both of you, or the pair of Playstation 3's, one each for you and Kirika. "Honestly, giving them each a hundred-thousand Yen is just too much."

"It's fine," Aunt Illya says. "Sure, grandfather racked up a lot of debts before he died, and I had to sell the mansion in Germany, but I've still got plenty left. I could wallpaper my toilet with envelopes just like those, and I might only lose the equivalent to a week's worth of my total lifetime remaining funds, if that." Aunt Illya pulls you and Kirika in for another hug, and she says, as much to you and Kirika as to your parents, "Really, Minako, it's fine. I don't mind splurging a little if it means I get to spoil my nieces rotten."

"You might not mind, but what about Minako and I?" Archer asks. "We don't want them developing unreasonably high expectations that we won't be able to meet." Archer's eyes fall on you and Kirika, and he says "You can go out and see your friends when we get back to Mitakihara. But you'll have to wait until the school year is over before you can open up your Playstations. Especially you, Homura. You've still got a lot of studying to do to pass your high school entrance exams." Minako nods her head in affirmation of Archer's decree. That'll be that, then. "Now, come on, let's give our prayers for the New Year."

The rest of the Fuyuki natives are already underway with their New Year's prayers by the time your family of four are ready. You can hear Archer, Kirika, and Minako whispering under their breath, but you aren't sure what to say. You've never been one for prayer before, and you aren't even sure what you should ask the New Year to bless you with. Not because you're ungrateful, but because you already have everything you could ever want. You have a family: a mother, an older sister, and a father, and all of them love you as much as you love them. You have your friends, and you have Madoka, your girlfriend, who is waiting for you to return to Mitakihara. You have a city you've worked so hard to protect. So what can you ask for?

"May the New Year let me keep everything I've worked so hard to obtain."​

 

[SVS]

4 January, 2013.

It feels strange to be back in Mitakihara now, after being away for a week in another city on the other side of the country. But as strange as it feels, you're glad to be back home again. It means that you and Kirika can see your friends again. It means you can see your girlfriends again.

Oriko and Nurse Ortensia arrived back in Mitakihara only a day after you and your family returned from Fuyuki, and that was the last you saw of Kirika for the entire day. You can't blame her, not when she spent the entire two weeks apart from Oriko anxiously waiting for her, like a lost and sick puppy. A gentle "Mew" takes you away from musing about your sister, and you lean over, scooping Amy up and lifting her into your arms. "Were you a good girl while we were away?" you ask, snuggling your cat against your chest.

"Mew"

Amy is someone else you're glad to see. You feel like she went mostly ignored during the month of October, when all hell broke loose and Mitakihara was on the verge of being wiped out. But as soon as November rolled around, and your teams had emerged victorious, you made sure to give Amy all the affection you had missed out on giving her when you were too focused on stopping Sidonia.

Of course, the fact that you spent the past two months grounded and unable to spent time with your friends outside of school, meant that often Amy was your only companion.

"Yeah, I'm glad to be back too," you say, knowing that Amy can't actually respond to you. But the content purring she makes as you nuzzle her against your cheek makes you imagine that she can. "I missed everyone."

There's a knock on your door, and a "Hey sis, you ready?" follows. It's Kirika, and she opens the door just as you're setting Amy back down on the floor. Your sister walks in, dressed in her dark grey jacket – though underneath the detached sleeves you can see the dark blue sweater Archer got her for Christmas in 2011 – and a pair of black jeans. A pair of ice skates are slung over her shoulder like a scarf, which she has slung over her other shoulder, and she looks over you as she walks over to the dresser where she keeps her clothes, rummaging around for a pair of socks. When she finds a pair that she likes, she plops down on her bed, situated across the room from you, and wiggles her toes as she slides her warm socks on. "You look good in the stuff Auntie got you. Cute. Now you've got an outfit you can wear if you and Pinkie break up again."

Today is your first time wearing the winter clothes that your aunt bought you for Christmas, and looking at the completed ensemble you have a sneaking suspicion that she chose them to reflect the colours of your puella magi attire. The purple-grey skirt is slim and fashionable, and comes to a stop at your mid-thigh roughly where your battle outfit's skirt stops. The black turtleneck sweater is thin and tight, but is also warm, and the white hoodie is even warmer with its fuzzy purple fleece lining. All it's missing is a pair of gloves, which you'll be sure to grab from the bowl in the hallway on your way out.

You pull the fleece collar of the hoodie close against your face, rubbing your cheeks against the fuzzy purple lining. "It's so warm," you say. "Remind me to write Aunt Illya a thank you card when we get back."

You hear the doorbell ringing, and Kirika calls out "I'll get it!" as she finishes sliding her socks on. She skids out of the bedroom and towards the front door, where "Oriko!" is waiting for her. Your sister throws herself at her girlfriend, and the two embrace as if they hadn't just spent an entire day together just earlier in the week. "I'm glad you could make it."

You'll cut her some slack, though. Discounting the day Oriko got back to Mitakihara, it has been two whole weeks since she and Oriko have seen each other. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting very long, dearest," Oriko says. "Are you and Akemi-san ready?"

After giving Kirika and her girlfriend a few moments to themselves, you emerge from your bedroom and make for the front door, where your winter boots are waiting. Kirika already has hers on, and before Oriko can greet you with so much as a "Good morning, Akemi-san," Kirika is calling out "Mom, dad, we're going out now!" to your parents. "We'll be back later tonight, okay?"

"Have fun!" Archer calls back, while Minako calls out "Stay safe!"

"Right, we will!"

As the three of you walk through the snow-covered streets of Mitakihara in winter, you find yourself marvelling at the sight of it all. Just two months ago, this entire part of the city had been in ruins thanks to Sidonia's familiars, but you can't even tell now that anything was amiss. "Man, strange as it sounds, I'm glad we've got Juubey around to clean up our messes," Kirika says, putting voice to the very same thoughts you yourself had. "It's kind of… Not shit, that we've got an Incubator again who isn't trying to fuck us over, you know?"

So far, Juubey has kept to its promise of not approaching Madoka. You assume that means your proposed method for cleansing Grief Seeds for reuse is still in consideration among the rest of the Incubator collective. "Yeah," you say, still amazed that you can agree to anything positive where an Incubator is concerned. "Though, it feels like our bar is pretty low if we're saying things like 'I'm glad Juubey isn't actively scheming to get us killed or make life difficult for us'."

"Well, if the bar's too low, that just means it's easier to jump over it; right?"

You laugh at Kirika's comment, and it reminds you of something your archery team's captain – then only its vice-captain – said to you shortly after you joined the team. "You know, Mochizumi-san once said that she thought I won Madoka over when she saw me do the high jump in PE class," you say, earning you a laugh from Kirika. "I don't know where that idea came to her."

"I dunno," Kirika says once she's managed to stop laughing. "Didn't dad's younger self say that he won over both Tohsaka and Matou when they saw him try to do the high jump? Maybe it's just something that runs in the family."

"Maybe, but did you also have to do the high jump to impress Oriko?"

This time, it's Oriko's turn to laugh, though true to form hers is a much more reserved laugh than Kirika's. When she finally manages to compose herself, she responds with a composed "No. Even when we had just started dating, Kirika impressed me with how direct she was in what she wanted. She wanted to date me, and told me so in no uncertain terms. That forwardness impressed me, especially because Kirika hadn't known the first thing about my family and simply wanted me for myself." Oriko scoops Kirika up in her arms, kissing her as she adds "The fact that I found her irresistibly attractive once I had accepted that I was a lesbian was just icing on the cake."

You can accept that, and you decide now would be a good time to look at the beautiful snow-covered Mitakihara scenery, so your sister and her girlfriend can have a few moments to kiss. But not too many: you know from personal experience that those two can hold a kiss for well over an hour, and you are not going to let them hold you up here. Fortunately, they don't, and after Oriko has set Kirika down, she asks you "So, what was Fuyuki like? Did you enjoy your trip?"

You nod your head. "It was nice, but I think dad enjoyed it more than the rest of us," you say. "Just being back there again after so long… I could tell he was really enjoying getting to see everyone he used to know, and not having to worry about a Grail War throwing everything into chaos."

"It's been, what did dad say, nine year since the last time he was in Fuyuki?" Kirika asks, and again you nod your head. "Except this time, he didn't have to go and fight them all over some stupid cup."

"I can't imagine how awkward it must have been for him to meet his younger self again, though," you say, "After what happened the last three times." The younger Emiya Shirou seemed to take your Archer's presence in good stride. He was courteous and kind, even to people that dad told you have tried to kill him in the past. But in him you could definitely see where dad got his… Um, himself-ness, from. Matou Sakura is going to be a lucky woman when they finally decide to settle down and start a family together, you think.

If they had a child, where would they fit into your family, legally and genetically speaking? You know Archer's forged documents give his name as Emiya Shirou from Fuyuki, but Tohsaka-san had to fudge the date to make Archer a decade older than the current Emiya Shirou, unrelated to him and from a different, coincidentally also Emiya, family. So, would the child of Emiya Shirou and Matou Sakura have any legal relationship to your own family?

Your head is spinning when the words "Hey, sis, are you okay?" leave Kirika's mouth and enter your ears.

"I'm fine," you reply. "Just caught up in thinking about some things, that's all."

As the three of you approach the frozen lake in the middle of Mitakihara's park, you see that you're only the second-to-last to arrive. As your party of three crest over the hill standing between you and a day of ice-skating with your friends, you see Sayaka helping a nervous-looking Kyouko learn how to skate, while on the other side of the lake, Hitomi and her boyfriend are skating a duet that's far more coordinated than Sayaka and Kyouko. Madoka is already enjoying herself, but as soon as she sees you she changes course, and skates over to the bank to greet you. Tomoe-san has yet to arrive, but you imagine she'll be along shortly.

"Hey hey hey!" you hear Kyouko exclaim as she struggles to keep standing. "Watch it! What the fuck're ya gunna do if I fall in the lake and drown?"

"Come on, Kyouko, that's not going to happen," Sayaka replies. "The lake's totally frozen over. You'll be fine, promise."

"Besides, if it did happen to break and you fell in, I'm sure Sayaka-san wouldn't hesitate to dive in and rescue you." Hitomi sighs to herself, and her boyfriend skates up beside her to wrap an arm around her waist. "It would be such a dashing, gallant sight to behold, Sayaka-san diving into the frigid lake to save her beloved~"

"Yeah, well, don't get lost in yer head fantasising about shit like that."

You're so close to crouching down by the frozen water, invoking your Isa rune, and reinforcing the ice under Kyouko's feet so she doesn't fall in. But the presence of Hitomi's boyfriend stays your hand. You'll leave it to Hitomi to decide when to introduce her boyfriend to the fact that magic and miracles are real.

But while you hold yourself back from doing anything stupid, you try to imagine your life as a puella magi without your workaround method to the Grief Seed problem. Would your parents have still kept you grounded if you had to go out each night to hunt for Grief Seeds? Would you and Kirika have to sneak out of confinement in order to not turn into witches? Would your parents have let you leave the house for official business if something important had come up? You remember in April of 2011, when Archer and Minako were growing closer and testing the waters of a relationship on the eve of Walpurgisnacht, that Kirika got herself grounded for skipping school and not keeping up with her schoolwork. She had been grounded, and even with official business in consideration, Minako only let her leave the house three nights a week. Would you have met the same fate?

If you didn't have the safety of your method to fall back on, would you have even attempted the experiments with your Grief that got you grounded in the first place?

Before you have a chance to dwell on the questions swirling in your mind, Kirika gives you a shove forward, saying "Go on, sis, Pinkie's waiting for you."

Madoka has come to a stop at the water's edge, and is waiting there for you as you approach. "Good morning, Homura-chan," she says. "I'm really glad your parents let you come out today." Madoka's arms wrap themselves around you, and she says "It just wouldn't have been the same if you and Kirika-chan weren't able to make it."

"I know," you say, meeting Madoka's embrace with one of your own. "I've missed getting to see you outside of school, Madoka."

The two of you share a kiss that gets Kyouko wolf-whistling at you, and when you break your kiss your faces are both bright red. "Oh, right, I almost forgot!" Madoka quickly kisses you a second time, before poking her head up over your shoulder in order to call out to Oriko. "Mama said she found a really nice place for you and Nurse Ortensia. It's big enough for both of you as well as Lancer and Assassin, and it's about halfway between Mitakihara and Shirome, so you won't have to switch schools or deal with a super-long commute from Shirome to see everyone!"

It's official. With their relationship in the toilet and neither side willing to budge on the matter of reconciliation, Oriko's uncle decided to disown her at the start of December, and since then Oriko has been living with Nurse Ortensia in her one-storey flat. It's not big enough for the both of them plus their servants, and you don't know how they've managed living together for the past month. Spending the past two weeks staying with their family in Italy was probably more enjoyable to them for the fact that they could finally sleep in separate rooms again, than it was for them to see their family.

"I'm glad to hear that, Kaname-san," Oriko says. "I'm sure your mother has already let Caren-san know, but if not I'll be sure to share the good news with her once we're done for the day. Did Junko-san say how soon we could move in?"

"I think she said sometime next week, assuming you both like the place and Nurse Ortensia goes through the closing paperwork quickly enough."

"Mom could probably help Nurse O with that,' Kirika offers. "I know she's really good with helping your mom do paperwork."

You don't want to think that it's nepotism, that Kaname Junko would pick the mother of her daughter's girlfriend to be her right hand in spite of more qualified, longer-served realtors in their firm, but you suppose an excess of eight years working closely under her made her an appealing choice since she already knows how Kaname Junko works. So while Madoka and Oriko are discussing the new residence Kaname Junko picked out, Kirika sits down on a bench near the water's edge, waiting for Oriko to finish. You join her, and the two of you wait for your girlfriends to finish talking.

There's one person who still hasn't shown up, but it's not long before- "Mami-san!" Sayaka trades out with Hitomi, who breaks away from her boyfriend to help Kyouko keep her balance while Sayaka leaves skates over to the banks. As Tomoe-san approaches, waving and calling out her greetings to everyone, Sayaka says "Hey, where's your boyfriend? I thought we were all gonna come together with our significant others!"

"Then I'm afraid I must disappoint you, Miki-san," Tomoe-san says. "Because I wasn't about to find myself a boyfriend just to satisfy your desire for an all-couples ice skating date." Tomoe-san doesn't sound very pleased by Sakaya's comment.

"Ah, geez Mami-san, I'm sorry," Sayaka says, scratching at the back of her head. "I didn't mean to make you mad or anything. You could have come with that gold friend of yours, though, right?" When Tomoe-san's response is a frosty "Try again," Sayaka knows she'd better shape up. "Look, I'm sorry, all right? I wasn't trying to imply anything. I know your last boyfriend was kind of a dick, and that you're not really eager to get back in the dating pool just yet. I just… I dunno, I thought it might be fun if we all came together with our partners. It'd be, like, romantic and stuff, you know?"

Only now does Tomoe-san's harsh gaze soften. "I know you didn't mean anything by it, Miki-san," Tomoe-san says. "Though I wish you would have dropped it the first time, and not implied anything about my relationship with Caster. He's… A friend, but I don't believe I could see myself dating or being intimate with him."

"Well, we're glad you still decided to show up," you say to Tomoe-san. "Even if you don't have a boyfriend you can skate with."

"That's quite all right, Miki-san," Tomoe-san says. "That's just my fate, isn't it? Always the odd one out…" A wistful look comes over Tomoe-san's face, and she sighs. "It's so hard to believe, though; I'm older than all of you bar Mikuni-san, and yet I'm the only one without a significant other. It really doesn't look to good on me as your senior to be so inexperienced in love compared to all of you, does it?"

"Don't push yourself so hard, Tomoe-san," Oriko says. "Love doesn't come in a day." Slyly, Kirika wraps her arms around Oriko's waist and, wearing the embarrassment of being proven wrong on her face, Oriko promptly changes course. "Well, maybe it did for me, but I think we can all agree that Kirika is a special case. You'll find the right partner one day, Tomoe-san, I believe in you."

With Oriko's speech signalling that she and Madoka are done talking, you turn your attention to Madoka, who is smiling warming at you. She extends her hand clad in a fuzzy pink mitten, and you take her hand into yours. You'd already put on your ice skates while she and Oriko were talking, so there's no delay in Madoka taking you out onto the ice.

"Wow, Homura-chan, you're a natural!" Madoka says, admiring how quickly you've picked up ice skating. "It must be because you're-" "-a magical girl," almost escapes her lips, but Madoka, remembering Hitomi's boyfriend, keeps quiet, instead settling on "-So naturally graceful." Madoka fakes a pout, adding "You don't even need to hold my hand to keep your balance, too. I'm so jealous."

Seeing Madoka pout only inspires you to hold onto her hand even tighter. "Maybe," you say, "But I'd prefer to hold your hand regardless." But Madoka is right; even though this is only your first time ice skating, you've somehow picked up a steady rhythm within moments of skating out onto the ice. You really do have to attribute it to your enhanced reflexes as a puella magi. Grinning, you pull Madoka in close, and hold her tight against you as you take the lead in guiding her along the ice. "It's wonderful being able to spend time with you again, Madoka. I've missed this."

Madoka nods her head into your chest. "I've missed this too, Homura-chan," she says, sliding up onto her tiptoes in order to kiss you.

Emboldened by Madoka's kiss, you do something you probably aren't ready for. Channelling all your mana into your arms and legs, you hoist Madoka up into the air, holding her up over your head as you skate in circles on the ice, spinning the two of you around and around before bringing her back down and kissing her again. It's graceful, romantic, and it manages to attract the attention of everyone else who's skating with you because of how impressive it is. But you totally aren't checking to make sure their eyes are on you, because right now, the only thing your eyes want to focus on is Madoka.

Or at least, that was how it was supposed to go. What actually happens is that you get halfway into lifting Madoka up over your head, before your inexperience causes you to lose your balance and fall flat on your butt, with Madoka sprawled out on top of your lap. "Are you okay, Homura-chan?" Madoka asks as she picks herself up. "Did you hurt yourself?" Everyone has still stopped to stare at you, but now it's because you've gone and embarrassed yourself.

"I'm fine," you say to Madoka. Your butt might be bruised from the fall and a little cold from the ice, but it's nothing you can't walk off. You aren't majorly injured. It's the injury to your pride that really hurts. "Sorry. I guess I thought that would look more graceful in my head than it actually ended up being."

"It's fine." Madoka leans over, kissing you on the cheek as a single snowflake falls from the sky onto your nose. "As long as you're okay, Homura-chan. That's what really matters."

"Yeah," Kirika says. "If you'd hurt yourself doing something stupid, mom and dad would have had my head for not keeping you safe."

"Dearest, that's not true."

You'll ignore the stares from your friends and your sister, and you'll instead make like Hitomi and her boyfriend, who are already back in their own little world. Madoka is the first to pull herself up and back onto the ice, and she offers you a hand. "Come on, Homura-chan," she says. "Let's try to take things a little slower this time." This time, when you take Madoka's hand into your own, you decide you'll let her take the lead, and not try anything foolish like that again.

So you don't. Like when Madoka taught you how to swim during your trip to Oriko's beach house after defeating the witch Elsa Maria, you let her take the lead, pulling you along by the hand and showing you how to move to keep your balance. "See, Homura-chan?" she asks. "Isn't this nice?"

It is. You didn't know how peaceful ice skating with Madoka could be. Though, you're fairly confident that it's Madoka's presence that is peaceful to you, and not the ice skating itself. "I wish we'd had the chance to do this earlier," you say. Unfortunately, you and Kirika were grounded until Archer shuffled the family off to Fuyuki. "But at least we were able to do this before school started. I don't know how much time we'll have to just do things for ourselves when we'll have to study for entrance exams."

Madoka nods her head. "Are you planning on going to Mitakihara high?" she asks. "Or, are you going to try for a better school, like Shirome high, or a school in Tokyo?"

"Mitakihara," you say. You aren't going to bother trying for Shirome high, not when you know the commute Kirika has to make; and if you tried for a school in Tokyo, you'd have to leave home and relocate to somewhere in Tokyo. That means you're living away from your family, from your friends, and from Madoka. You've spent so much of your life trying to reach Madoka, and now that you have her in your hands you don't want to ever let her go again. You pull Madoka in close, but this time you don't try any fancy, foolish moves. You just hold her close, and kiss her.

"Hey, glad you could make it!"

Not attempting any fancy, foolish moves turns out to be for your benefit, because if you had tried anything then you would have had to suffer through the shame of knowing that the Pleiades Saints had seen you at your least graceful. Instead, you have to suffer through the embarrassment of knowing that the Pleiades Saints have seen you kissing your girlfriend.

Not that you mind, of course. They can watch you kissing Madoka for all you care.

Tomoe-san waves down Kazumi as she and the rest of the Saints approach from the other side of the lake. She and Kanna Niko walk hand-in-hand at the head of the pack, and from there you count three for five six seven – eight? – bodies in total. "Hey, Tomoe! Akemi! It's great to see everyone again!"

Asami Saki nods her head as Kazumi addresses you and Tomoe-san. "Yeah, I'm glad we were actually able to find the time to come," she says. Asami Saki scratches at the back of her head when she sees that you're all staring at her and her teammates, and she adds "Heh, sorry if there's a lot of us. But Niko and Caster finished working on something really important, so we ended up having one more person joining us."

The short, curly brunette hair of Usagi Satomi is a strange sight. She's been dead since the middle of October, and yet here she is, standing in front of you in a purple, cat-eared hoodie with ice skates draped over her shoulder as though nothing had happened. She's eyeing the nine of you carefully: doubtless her friends have updated her on the situation, and you're sure that whatever she gleaned from her time in the place between life and death has stuck with her, but you can still see some wariness in her eyes.

You can't blame her. She never went through what the rest of you did, and no amount of altering the memories or the soul of the homunculus made by Kanna Niko in Usagi Satomi's image can change that.

"So…" Kyouko is the first to speak up. "Brought the dead girl back ta life, I see."

"Kyouko-!"

"Sakura-san!"

"Damnit-!" Sayaka and Tomoe-san both try to stop Kyouko, and even Wakaba Mirai calls out in exasperation. "You idiot," she says to Kyouko. "What if somebody heard you? How the hell would we explain that?" Wakaba Mirai holds her head in her hands, and as everyone else looks towards Hitomi and her boyfriend, you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that he didn't hear her. "Anyway… Good to see you all too, I guess. Kind of surprised to see a straight girl in our midst." Wakaba Mirai looks at Kyouko, adding "I guess she really wasn't your girlfriend, after all."

"Nah, like I said, that'd be Blueberry."

Kyouko slips her arm around Sayaka's waist, and gets her to stand up straight when she surprises her by squeezing her butt. "Geez, Kyouko, knock it off!" Sayaka shouts. "Come on~ That's the girl who attacked us with teddy bears before, right? So what the hell are you two doing being so friendly?"

"It's like I told ya, Blueberry," Kyouko says. "We made up, got some shit done, and now we're all smiles an' sunshine. Ain't that right, Napalm?"

"You could have said it a bit more diplomatically," Wakaba Mirai says, huffing as she crosses her arms over her chest. "But yes, that is the gist of what happened. Anyway~" All eyes turn to Usagi Satomi, who has been left standing there ever since Kyouko first spoke up. "Doesn't I bother you that Sakura'd just come right out and say something like that?"

"No, it's… Fine, I guess," Usagi Satomi says. "I mean, I did die." There's a look in her eyes, and you don't know what she's going to do or how she's going to react. Until she lunges for Kazumi and Niko, and throws her arms around the both of them. "But then Niko-chan brought me back to life! And I learned that she and Kazumi-chan are dating, too~! That's so~o adorable~!"

Misaki Umika crosses her arms over her chest. "Caster and I helped, you know," she says. It's been so long since you heard Misaki Umika's voice coming from her mouth that you'd gotten used to the tinny echo of her mental voice. Hearing her speak without the echo almost feels strange. "Anyway, Satomi was a lot of work, but I think we did a pretty good job; and Caster's Noble Phantasm made sure that she's the real deal, not just a doll that has Satomi's face and memories."

You see three faces turn sour at Umika's words. "That's not fair, Umika-chan," Usagi Satomi says. "Niko-chan did a good enough job on Kazumi-chan that I didn't even notice the difference!" Usagi Satomi tightens her grip on Kazumi, and you can see Kanna Niko and Hijiri Kanna both growing jealous of her. "You're fine just the way you are, Kazumi-chan. Don't let that meanie Umika say otherwise."

Fortunately, it's only at this moment, when talk of Usagi Satomi dying and being brought back to life has come to an end, that Hitomi and her boyfriend decide to skate over. You look to Hitomi, and she nods her head just subtly so. Smart girl, keeping him away from the action so he couldn't hear anything. "Well, I see we've skated in during a bit of a commotion," Hitomi says. Introducing her boyfriend to the Saints, she says "Makoto-kun, these are some friends of ours from Asunaro," before singling out Kanna Niko in particular. "Niko-san is the one I've told you about, that I was helping with on a certain project."

"Charmed," Hitomi's boyfriend says, offering a hand to Kanna Niko. "Aoba Makoto. Hitomi hasn't told me much about what you two were working on, but she'd always sing your praises about how smart you are. It's good to finally meet you."

"Likewise," Kanna Niko says. "I believe Shizuki's mentioned you to me once or twice." Kanna Niko gestures to the rest of the Saints, as well as to Hijiri Kanna, and says "These are the rest of my friends, plus my sister Kanna."

"Hitomi mentioned you didn't have the best relationship with your sister. Are things-?"

Kanna Niko and Hijiri Kanna meet eyes for a brief moment, and they both nod their heads. "I'd like to think we've been working to repair our relationship," Hijiri Kanna says. "It's been… Awkward, especially for our parents, but we've been managing. For our sakes, as well as for theirs, and for our two younger sisters as well."

Kazumi snakes her arms around her girlfriend's waist from behind, and also manages to pull Hijiri Kanna in as well. "But I'm really glad you're both trying your hardest to patch things up," she says. "Maybe things are awkward right now, but they'll only get easier from here, just you watch."

"Awkward doesn't begin to describe it," Kanna Niko says. "There's… Still so much bad blood between us. But I'd like to believe you that things will get easier from here." The two sisters look to each other once again, and nod their heads. They might not believe it now, but they're going to try. "From where we started, things really don't have anywhere to go but up…"

Kanna Niko doesn't say anything else. Not just because she doesn't need to say anything else – the meaning being where her voice failed is clear – but because- "Now who's ready to skate?" Maki Kaoru has cut ahead of her, and is excitedly pumping her fist in the air to signal her anticipation. "Come on!"​

 

[SVS]

6 January, 2013.

"Hey, sis, let's go camping!"

Your sister's sudden, inexplicable urge to go camping was well-met by the remainder of your circle of friends. This time, however, Hitomi's boyfriend won't be coming, and neither will the Pleiades Saints be making an appearance. This camping trip is just for you, your sister, and your six closest friends. The plan was to head out, bright and early Sunday morning, and stay out in the wilderness together until morning the next day, when you'd all have to finally scatter and head off for school again.

So that's how the eight of you all set out on a bright Sunday morning, heading across the river to the wooded foothills of eastern Kazamino. You'll make camp there, and spend the last night of your winter break sleeping under the stars, surrounded by all of your friends.

Well, something like that had been the plan. Instead-

"Whew, it's done!"

Kyouko wipes the sweat from her brow as she finishes hammering in the last stake for the tent. Unfortunately, "Kyouko, I don't think tents are supposed to look like that." She's made something that doesn't resemble a tent, and more resembles a modern art project. Kyouko scowls at Sayaka, who can only plant her hands on her hips and say in response "Don't give me that look, Kyouko. I'm not the one who said they knew what they were doing." Kyouko snorts, and when she tries and fails to slip into the misshapen red tent, it collapses on her. "Yeah, don't think for a second that I'm sleeping anywhere near that thing."

"Just shut up already!" Kyouko barks. Finally admitting defeat, she hangs her head, and with her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment she grumbles "Gimme a hand, will ya? I can't do this by myself."

Sayaka smiles, and she crouches down on the ground beside Kyouko. "Sure," she says. "Now, let's see…" Sayaka looks over her shoulder, staring at the other half of the tent that Hitomi and Tomoe-san have put up. "How the heck did you two get your half so good-looking?" Kyouko asks; "And how're we supposed ta join these two halves together when we're done?"

"We just followed the instructions," Hitomi says.

"Yeah, but when I tried that," Kyouko says, gesturing to her vaguely tent-shaped mess, "This happened. So what the heck did you two do different?"

"Well, unlike you, Sakura-san, Shizuki-san and I took our time and worked carefully," Tomoe-san says. She tries her best to smile for Kyouko, but it does nothing to improve Kyouko's mood. "If you and Miki-san just take your time, and put in the effort to make it look good, then I'm sure your half of the tent will come out looking the same as this one."

"Right," Hitomi says.

"Or, you could just do this-!" Kirika tosses something floppy onto the ground, and it springs up as soon as it hits the ground, converting from a floppy mess into a tube that's big enough for two. Completely destroying the argument that Hitomi and Tomoe-san worked so hard to build. "Isn't the modern world great?" Kirika asks. "Why bother hammering stuff into the ground when you can just toss out one of these babies? And it's big enough for two, so me and Oriko can slide in and snuggle up to our hearts' content."

"Kure-san, I wish you wouldn't just butt in and invalidate what I'm trying to say so casually,' Tomoe-san says, crossing her arms over her chest.

Oriko appears behind Kirika, placing a hand onto her shoulder; "And there's no need to brag, either," she says. "But, yes, it is so much more convenient not having to do all that extra work." Oriko's hand slides from Kirika's shoulder and down her back, until it settles in a new resting spot on her hip. "Now then, dearest, perhaps we should think about turning in for the night?"

"Geez, if yer gunna be that obvious about it, ya might as well put it up in neon lights," Kyouko says. "Yer really not thinking about turning in fer the night fer real, are ya?"

But while all your friends are busy talking about tents and other things, you and Madoka have been quietly at work over the fire pit: arranging logs for everyone to sit on, stacking stones around the hole you've dug to make a fire pit, and preparing wood for kindling. "How are you enjoying yourself so far, Homura-chan?" Madoka asks. "This is your first time going camping, right?"

"Yeah," you say. Your breath is visible as you speak, and the cold air tickles your nose and throat with each breath. You sniffle in the cold air, wishing you had thought to bring some tissues with you, but "It's exciting, getting to do something with my friends that I've never done before." You look over to your sister, confident that this is also her first time going camping as well. "What about you? Is this also your first time going camping?"

Madoka shakes her head. "No," she says. "Mama and papa took me camping once, before Takkun was born. It was a lot of fun." Madoka smiles, and even though the fire hasn't been lit yet, Madoka's smile is warm enough that you almost think you don't need it. "But if it's all of us, then I'm sure tonight is going to be even more fun."

You and Madoka lean into one another from across the fire pit, letting your lips meet for a brief moment before breaking. "So, if you've done this before, does that mean you'll know how to get our fire started?"

Madoka's hand reaches for the back of her head, and she laughs an awkward, almost Sayaka-esque laugh. That's fine, because- "In that case, I brought these." You know you could just as easily rely on Hitomi or Kyouko to start your fire, but if you're going to do this, then you want to do it the right way. That was why you and Madoka went out into the woods to gather this tinder in the first place, and that's why you aren't going to start this fire with magic, either. So you made sure to bring along a flint and a fire starter. Carefully, you strike the flint over the twigs in the fire pit, creating sparks that light up as they settle on the twigs. Soon, you've got the start of a fire, but it needs more. "Blow on it," you say to Madoka. Gently, though. You don't want to blow it out."

You cup your hands together and show Madoka the proper technique, and she blows, mimicking you, nurturing the growing fire with her slow, steady breathing. Her eyes light up, sparking like rubies in the flickering red glow when she sees what she's created, and as you feed the fire with a handful of twigs, Madoka reaches for one of the larger branches. You stop her. "Not yet," you say, holding Madoka's hand back. "Let the fire grow first-"

"Geez, Spooky, yer really going through all that effort ta a fire going?" Kyouko asks. "Ya coulda just asked me. I'm better at that than I am with putting up some stupid tent." Kyouko butts in, crouching down beside you at the fire pit as she snaps her fingers a few times in quick succession. The Sowilo rune surges to life at her fingertips, and soon you've got a roaring flame nestled in your fire pit. "Told ya," Kyouko says.

"Geez, Kyouko, way to ruin the moment."

Is what you'd like to say. But when you see Madoka's wide-eyed smile, you hold your tongue. "Oh, wow Kyouko-chan, that's really incredible!" she says. "So you're good at that kind of magic too, huh?"

"Yup." Kyouko snaps her fingers again, and a flickering ember appears at her fingertips as the Sowilo rune blazes in her hand. "See, me and Spooky are like two halves'a the same coin, ain't we? She freezes stuff, and I burn stuff." Kyouko's eyes drift towards Hitomi, and she adds "'Course, then there's Seaweed, and she's so damn good she can do'em both, and then some." A loud growl escapes from the pit of Kyouko's stomach, and she says "But enough about that. All this work's making me hungry."

"Except you've barely done anything," Sayaka says. But when her stomach also growls, Sayaka admits defeat, adding "But yeah, I guess now would be a good time for us to have something to eat, wouldn't it?"

"Then it's a good thing I brought this!" Kirika holds up a zippered cooler, and comes to join you and the others by the fire pit. She unzips the cooler, and shows off "Meat! Dad helped me pickle it in a really nice homemade sauce before we left, so it'll have lots of yummy flavor!" Kirika digs deeper into the cooler, showing off "There's vegetables, too! Rice and curry stock! And a whole bunch of other goodies! Mom and dad made sure to pack enough in here for us to have ourselves a really nice dinner!"

Immediately, you see Sayaka and Kyouko's eyes glaze over at the thought of a meal prepared for them by Archer, but as they look at everything Kirika has brought, reality soon dawns on them. "Oh, come on," Sayaka says to Kirika. "You mean we've got to prepare this stuff ourselves? Why couldn't your dad have taken care of that before we left?"

"Fer real," Kyouko adds. "It ain't Redman's cooking if Redman ain't the one cooking it."

"Oh, knock it off, will you?" Kirika says to the pair. "I'm sure that between me, Homura, Oriko, and Tomoe, we can figure something out that'll be just as good."

At least-

"Kirika-chan…"

That had been the plan.

"Dearest…?"

Somewhere along the line things had gone awry.

"Why is it…"

If only things hadn't turned out this way.

"Purple?"

You swear, you had only left Kirika in charge of preparing the meat. Oriko handled the vegetable preparations since it wouldn't have been fair to ask her to prepare the meat, and Tomoe-san handled steaming the rice and making the curry. Everything had been going so well, too. Oriko had been humming to herself as she peeled, cut, and seasoned the vegetables, and the steaming rice and the seasonings in the curry Tomoe-san was preparing smelled so delectable. It might not have been a feast made by Archer, but it still smelled good enough to eat. But somewhere along the line, this just happened, and you aren't even sure how.

"I mean, how does that even happen?"

"I don't know," you say, glancing around the campfire and taking in the reactions in your friends' eyes to the purple mixture simmering in the pot over the campfire. "Dad made sure to preserve the meat properly, and I know-" Your eyes dart over to your sister, whose face has gone redder than Kyouko's hair with embarrassment. "-That Kirika didn't put any food colouring in it. So… What the heck actually happened?"

Kirika pouts, and it seriously looks like she's about to toss the entire pot of curry. But if she did that, then you wouldn't have anything to eat. Not that consuming the concoction in front of you is any safer than not eating at all, but still- "Geez, come on, knock it off!" She shouts. "I didn't mean for that to happen!" Kirika sniffles, and at this point you can't tell if it's because the cold is making her nose run, or if it's because she's about to cry from embarrassment.

Fortunately for her, Oriko is there to save the day. She drapes an arm around Kirika's shoulder, and says "Don't cry, dearest. I'm sure it'll taste just fine." It's easy enough for Oriko to say that, since her own, smaller pot of vegetarian curry doesn't have any chunks of purple meat floating in it. But when Oriko leans over the cooking pot, taking in its scent and saying "It still smells delicious, in spite of the… Exotic, colouration," you can almost believe her.

On second thought…

You lean in as well, and find that Oriko wasn't lying. "It actually does smell really good," you say to Kirika.

"Maybe if we eat it with our eyes closed, we'll be able ta forget that it looks like something out of a Biohazard game," Kyouko says. Tomoe-san, reluctantly, nods her head, and Kyouko turns to Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi. "You three… Might still wanna wait fer us before eating any. We might be able ta survive, but if there's anything wrong with Crazy's curry I don't wanna see anyone getting sick from it."

"But Sakura-san, if you say you'll be fine, then how will you know if there's anything wrong with it?"

Hitomi is out here asking the smart questions, and Tomoe-san, Kyouko, and Kirika all look stumped. "Oh, whatever!" Kirika shouts. "If you're going to make fun of it, then just get it over with already!"

"Here," you say to Kirika, offering her your mess tin. "I'll try your curry first." Courtesy of a rather foul-tasting liquid once gifted to you by Caster, you are now immune to all known – and hopefully unknown as well – poisons. "If nothing else, I'll eat it even if no one else will."

Kirika's face lights up as you offer to take the fall for her cooking, and she gleefully serves you up an extra-large portion of curry and rice. The rice still smells delicious: Tomoe-san has steamed it to an absolute perfection, and you can smell the hint of spices she put in for some additional flavour. The curry also smells fine: it smells like food, like good, hearty curry, and both the meat and vegetables smell like they'll be fine to eat. It's just a damn shame it came out looking so… Purple.

Everyone gathers around to watch you, and you can feel their held breaths as they wait for you to give your verdict. You dip your spoon into the violet brew, making sure to get a little bit of everything, meat, vegetables, rice, and curry sauce. You bring the spoon up to your mouth, and close your eyes as you open wide. It's now or never. You bring your spoon in, closing your mouth around the curry and-

Your eyes shoot open as the delicious flavours spread out across your tongue. A surprised "Mhm" escapes your closed mouth, and you swallow the entire spoonful. "It's good," you say. It's definitely not on the level of anything dad makes – though you can definitely taste his influence in the meat: it must be the sauce he pickled it in – but it's well above edible; tasty, even.

"It's really good, Kirika-chan!"

"Indeed," Hitomi says, nodding her head in agreement with Madoka's statement. "I can't say I was expecting much based on sight alone, but this is actually quite good."

Oriko, who is busy eating her own, vegetarian curry, never the less manages to smile for Kirika. "See, dearest?" she says. Oriko leans over in her seat, kissing Kirika on the cheek. There's a few drops of vegetarian curry stuck to Kirika's cheek when Oriko pulls away, but she barely seems to notice them when Oriko praises her. "I knew it would turn out good." Then, with a coy smile on her lips, Oriko sticks out her tongue just slightly, and laps up the drops of curry on her lover's cheek, causing Kirika to squeal in surprise, and for Oriko to giggle. "Has Archer been teaching you to cook?"

"I find it hard to believe that he hasn't been," Tomoe-san says. "It's not quite there at Archer's level just yet, but… The taste reminds me of something your mother might have cooked for us once, when Archer was teaching her how to cook."

"Actually, no, not really," Kirika says. "Come on, guys, you were all giving me crap for the way it turned out just a few minutes ago. Don't you think it's a little late to be buttering me up?" Several pairs of eyes all silently rove around the campfire, and Kirika says. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Besides, if dad had been teaching me how to cook, don't you think it would have turned out…? You know, not purple?"

"So what if it's purple?" Sayaka says, greedily slurping down the remainder of her curry. "If it tastes like mister Archer's cooking, I wouldn't care if it looked like unicorn vomit."

"Regardless," you say, "I'm glad everything turned out all right."

Night falls sooner than you would have liked it to, and the scents of winter surround you in the darkness. Smoke and burning wood, snow, the smell of the forest, and the delectable scent of toasting marshmallows and melting chocolate as you and your friends make dessert over the campfire. Fortunately, the marshmallows are not purple. The quiet sounds of nature at night are at your back, and the flickering flames are bright orange-red, moving in a mesmerizingly erratic back-and-forth dance over the twigs in the fire pit, crackling dimly in your ears as the flames feed themselves.

"Akemi-san, is everything all right?"

You look up from your trance as Tomoe-san speaks to you from across the fire. "I'm just admiring the flames," you say. "I… I never had any friends growing up, so it's nice to finally be able to have friends… To have an older sister, that I can do this kind of stuff with." You smile, and your gaze returns to the flames. "It's so peaceful out here at night."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Sayaka says. "It's like, I could just stay out here forever, watching the fire with all of you." A chill breeze causes Sayaka to tuck her hands into the armpits of her jacket, prompting a laugh from Kyouko and Kirika. Sayaka pouts, and admits defeat, saying "Well, okay, but you guys know what I mean."

"Yes, I do," Oriko replies. "It reminds me of summers spent at the beach house with my parents. But… Like Akemi-san, I never had friends growing up. I always had to put on a perfect mask when I was in public, and it was only around my parents that the mask was allowed to drop." Oriko's eyes glance over to Kirika first, who smiles for her, before her eyes roam over each one of you in turn. "That's why I'm so grateful to have friends that I can do this sort of thing with. I can just be myself around all of you."

Someone's marshmallow is done cooking: it's Madoka's, and she quickly takes it off the fire, before jamming it and a piece of half-melted chocolate between two biscuits. "Mhm~!" she squeals, delighting in the taste with such enthusiasm that she almost knocks the others' marshmallows into the fire. "Careful, Madoka-san" Hitomi says, catching the marshmallows before they fall. Hitomi takes her own off of the fire and tries it, and soon finds herself in a similar bliss to Madoka. "Oh, my, that is delicious."

"Indeed," Tomoe-san adds. "I know I might go overboard sometimes with the cakes and pastries, but sometimes it's good to have something as simple as this, too."

Oriko takes a marshmallow off the fire, and hands it to you. "Try one, Akemi-san," she says, while beside her Kirika is practically in as much delight as Madoka over the taste. "They're really quite good."

"Thank you." You accept the marshmallow, and sandwich it between two biscuits along with the melting chocolate, popping the entire confection into your mouth in a single bite. The taste is instantly electrifying, and you understand why Madoka and your sister had such strong reactions. "It's really good."

"Isn't it?" asks Kyouko, speaking with a mouth that's gummed up by marshmallow and chocolate. "Damn, these are good, Crazy. Tell Redman ta start packing snacks in my lunch from now on, will ya?"

"Hey, no fair!" Sayaka protests. "If Mister Archer's gonna start putting snacks in Kyouko's lunch, then I want some too!"

"Can it, will ya!" Kirika says. "I'm not gonna tell dad to start making extra just for you two. You want to eat dad's snacks, you gotta come over to our place and get them yourself." Kirika sticks her tongue out at the pair, and reaches a hand over to wrap around your shoulder. "'Cause otherwise, it's just me and sis who get to eat dad's snacks!"

Someone laughs. You aren't sure who, but whoever they were, their laughter starts a chain reaction. Soon enough, all eight of you are laughing at nothing in particular.

The moon is high in the night sky by the time everyone decides to turn in for the night. Fortunately, despite their earlier hardships Sayaka and Kyouko did manage to set up the second half of your eight-person shelter, and now the eight of you are getting ready to turn in for the night. You've all taken off your winter boots, and set them aside at the feet of your sleeping bags, all chosen to colour-coordinate with your preferred colours. Just as you're about to wiggle your way into your sleeping bag, Kirika starts to strip, getting all the way down to her- "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sayaka says, "Slow down, girl," before turning to you and saying "Homura, can you get your sister under control?"

"What?" Kirika asks, balling all of her warm layers up and stuffing them down her sleeping bag, before sliding herself down her sleeping bag as well. "This is what I read you're supposed to do. It keeps your clothes nice and warm, 'cause they're not getting sweaty and sticking to you."

Nestled beside her, Oriko nods her head, and mimics her girlfriend, stripping out of her warmest outer layers and stuffing them down her sleeping bag. "Kirika is correct," Oriko replies. "If our clothes get sweaty, they'll make us colder when the sweat evaporates. Doing this keeps our clothes dry, and stuffing them down our sleeping bags means that our body heat is still keeping them warm for tomorrow."

Now ensconced in her sleeping bag, Kirika rolls along the floor of the shelter like a worm until she's sidled up next to Oriko's sleeping bag; "And getting to be almost naked while you're sleeping next to the person that you love is just a nice bonus," she says. When Kirika winks, you feel like she's winking specifically for you and Madoka.

"Hey, works fer me," Kyouko says. Soon she too is stripping, and soon Sayaka, Hitomi, and even Tomoe-san follow suit, all stuffing their rolled-up warm outer layers down their sleeping bags before crawling in. "But, like, what was the point'a you two bringing that other tent, if yer just gunna cosy up in here with the rest of us?"

"Well, Kirika and I had initially planned on sleeping separate from the rest of you," Oriko says. "But in the end, we decided that if we're out here to enjoy spending time with our friends on the last day before school starts again, then sleeping in a completely separate tent from the rest of you would defeat the purpose"

Even Madoka is getting in on the action, leaving you alone as the sole fully-clothed member of your friend circle. Suddenly, you feel very naked. Inside her sleeping bag, Madoka giggles to herself. "Come on, Homura-chan~" she coos. "Come join us. It's so warm and cozy doing it like Kirika-chan said."

"I…" The thought that, underneath her sleeping bag, Madoka is wearing only her underwear and a shirt, is by itself enough to keep you quite warm for the rest of the night. But eventually, the feeling that you are the naked one, that you are the one missing out, wins you over, and you relent. "Okay, fine," you say, as you alone finally strip down to your underwear and your shirt. You stuff your roll of warm clothes into your sleeping bag, and crawl in. "Oh, wow, that is warm," you say.

Hearing you admit defeat, Kirika giggles to herself, only managing to quiet down when Oriko kisses her. "Goodness, I guess I'd forgotten how lively things could be when all eight of us were together," Tomoe-san says. "Life's been so hectic since the start of October, and we haven't had any time to spend together like this."

Hitomi nods her head; though, ensconced in her sleeping bag, she looks more like a wriggling caterpillar than a person trying to nod their head. "I know," she says. "We spent an entire month pulling our hair out, but it's been so quiet since then; and then Akemi-san, Kure-san, and Mikuni-san all vanished for the holidays, too… Ice skating with the Pleiades Saints was nice, but it's been so long since we could just do something like this, just by ourselves."

"We should think of something fun to do before graduation," Madoka says. "Homura-chan's birthday is right before graduation! Let's all do something nice together for her birthday!"

"Heck yeah!" Sayaka says. "You know me and Kyouko'll be there!"

"We better be, if Redman's doing the catering."

"If Sayaka-san and Sakura-san will be there, then I guess I'll be going as well," Hitomi says. "Not that I would dream of missing your birthday otherwise, Akemi-san."

"Agreed," Tomoe-san says. "Kaname-san's birthday feels like it was an eternity ago. Another birthday party together with everyone sounds wonderful."

"Kirika and I weren't able to make it to Kaname-san's party," Oriko says. "But I promise you, Akemi-san, we'll be there for yours."

"Of course we will!" Kirika says. "What, you think I'm gonna miss my little sis's birthday? Not on your life!"

You'll be turning sixteen in just three months, and graduation is right after that. You know Madoka will be attending high school in Mitakihara with you, and you're confident Kyouko will as well. But you don't know where Sayaka or Hitomi will be going. You'd guess that Sayaka will be going to Mitakihara High with you, but Hitomi is really smart, and she's ambitious, too. She might decide to go to high school somewhere in Tokyo.

Graduation could be the last time you get to see all of your friends together in one place for quite a long time. It's a sobering thought, and one which drags you down more than you'd like to admit on what was supposed to be an enjoyable outing with your friends. "Ah, don't worry, Homura-chan, I'm sure we'll all be able to make it to your birthday party," Madoka says. She rolls over in her sleeping bag and kisses you, before saying "I know you probably didn't get to enjoy too many birthday parties before, but I promise they'll all be enjoyable from now on."

"All right, girls, it's lights-out time," Tomoe-san says. Swiftly, Tomoe-san turns off the lamp which illuminates the shelter, and- "Goodness, what's that?"

A field of stars is projected against the sheer walls of the tent, and the shelter is brought to life with all the constellations in the night sky, like scenes from a planetarium. "It's in case we wanted to watch the stars," Kirika says. "I pulled it off of my phone, and-"

"If you wanted to watch the stars, why not just go outside?" Sayaka asks. Kyouko laughs at her words, and soon, all eight of you are once again laughing together at nothing.

7 January, 2013.

Sleep takes your friends, one by one, but it never takes you. You lie in your sleeping bag, restless, as your body fails to let the night take you away as it has your friends. Eventually, you give up, and decide to take Sayaka's advice, pulling your clothes out from the bottom of your sleeping bag, dressing yourself, and going outside to stare up at the stars. You relight the fire in the fire pit, and you stare up at the stars the flames crackle and give off their calming, wood-smoke scent. It's well past midnight, you're sure of that, meaning that today is Monday the seventh. You'll be returning to school again just a few hours, and it'll be as though winter break, and even this past year, never happened. The world keeps spinning whether you like it or not.

You hear rustling coming from behind you, and you turn, hoping that it isn't a wolf, or some other wild animal come to snoop around your campsite. Instead, it's- "Can't sleep, Homura-chan?"

"No," you say, gesturing for Madoka to take a seat on the log beside you. "Too much going on in my head."

As if she can read your mind – or maybe so much of you has bled into Madoka due to your meddling in her karmic destiny that she can just innately sense these things about you, Madoka asks "Are you worried about what will happen after graduation?"

"Yeah," you say. "I know none of our friends are going to abandon us, but… What if we all go to different schools? What if school, or club activities, or afterschool jobs keep us from being able to see each other?" You pull your knees up to your chin, and say to Madoka "I… I'm scared, Madoka. I was able to make it this far because I had everyone helping me, but… What if high school comes, and we stop being friends because our schedules are just too different? Or what about after high school? Hitomi's going to London to study magecraft at the Clocktower… We might not see her again for years… Oriko might go to university in Italy where her relatives are, and if Kirika goes with her…"

"Homura-chan…" Madoka places her hand on top of yours. "That's not going to happen, Homura-chan," Madoka says. "I know it won't. Sure, maybe we'll go our separate ways in high school and afterwards, but I know we'll still be friends. Now, and forever."

Madoka leans in, pressing her lips against yours until she's confident that you believe her. "Okay," you say as she breaks your kiss. "I believe you."

"That's good," Madoka says. She smiles for you, and the moon in the sky above your head is dulled by the beauty shining in Madoka's eyes. "Did you have fun today, Homura-chan?"

"Yeah," you reply. "I've never been camping before, but this…" You smile, and a content sigh escapes your lips. "Today was a lot of fun. I'm glad we all got to do this."

"I'm glad we got to do this too, Homura-chan."

During your timeloops, you were stuck experiencing the same month and a half for countless lifetimes. The world was always stuck in spring for you, the cherry blossoms always in bloom, their pink petals reminding you of your mission to keep Madoka safe. It had been so long since the last time you saw a winter, back then, that even now, almost two years since you were finally freed from your eternal looping, winter feels strange to you. Seeing snow on the ground is something you spent a lifetime without, and even though this is your second winter since being freed from your looping, seeing snow still feels magical to you, because it, just like Madoka, was something always out of your reach.

But now, neither Madoka nor winter are out of your reach.

You wish this moment could last forever.

If you still had your time magic, maybe it could. If your progress experimenting with Isa's other abilities were at that point yet, maybe it could. But it can't. You can't stop time and hold on to precious moments like this. You have to let them live. So you do the only thing you can do in this situation. You kiss Madoka, again, and say to her "I love you, Madoka."

"I love you too, Homura-chan."

~End~​

 

[SVS]

Well, it's July, and just like I said I'm back with the 3quel. I don't know whether coming back is the right decision or not, but if anyone is out there and is still interested, here is your official invitation to join me. I hope to see you there.