"Are you sure about this? It's a little… Revealing, isn't it?"
With a red paint marker in his hand, Archer was busy putting the finishing touches on Minako's costume. "Relax," he said, circling her collarbone just above her breast in red. "You look gorgeous. Besides, if anybody stares, that just means they're impressed by how good you look."
Minako smiled, touching her black-gloved fingers to the crimson serpent which was attempting to devour itself atop her breast. She stared at herself in the full-length mirror Archer had provided, marvelling at how everything came together. The black dress was slim, form-fitting, hugging her curves and accentuating her best features. The gloves, equally black, held firm just below her armpits by thin strands of clear, double-sided costume tape, and she gave them an experimental slide down the sides of her dress, letting the glossy red lines trailing down the length of her arms catch the light as she straightened everything out. She shook her hair, which Archer had curled for just the occasion, trying to swish it just so so it didn't completely cover her right eye.
"It's a shame this is just going to get carelessly thrown on the floor after we get back," Minako said, admiring Archer's handiwork. "Because I really do look good in this."
"If you like it that much, after we're done tonight I can iron the dress out, and I'm sure we'll find some occasion for you to wear it again." Archer smiled, placing his hands atop Minako's exposed shoulders, his warmth causing her to shudder at his touch. "Or maybe we could restrain ourselves just enough for you to put the dress away carefully before we start anything," he said. "Heck, we'll be out for a few hours. By the time we get back, we might even be too tired to do anything else."
Archer admired the handiwork he had put into his own costume as well; well, it was more coordination than handiwork, since the yellow jacket was the only thing he had made completely by hand. The shirt was just a regular white shirt, and the black pants only needed a single white stripe sewn down the right leg. But damn, if he didn't look good all the same; and with Minako by his side, he thought they looked even better as a pair.
"Let's get out of here," Archer said to Minako. "I'm sure the girls are just about dying to head out by now."
Archer and Minako exited their bedroom and turned down the hall towards the living room, hearing the muffled voices of their daughters growing louder with each step. "Well, I don't know why you couldn't have gotten one of your friends from school to be your partner," they heard Homura say. "I wanted to do something with Madoka as a couple."
"Yeah, well, you two hadn't gotten back together when we made plans, remember?" Kirika responded. "It's not like either of us knew she'd want to get back together literally a few hours ago today. It'll be fine, sis; relax."
Minako smiled, her two daughters coming into view as she rounded the corner into the living room. Homura wore an all-black suit, a royal blue shirt which matched her eyes, and a white tie; conservative, and in colours familiars to her, with the only unfamiliar addition being the wide-brimmed hat which fell down over her eyes, and the obviously fake beard that she kept scratching. Eventually, muttering to herself, Homura tore the fake beard off, letting it come to a rest on the living room table.
Kirika, on the other hand, had taken a much more dramatic approach. Her suit jacket was a bright bottle-green, and unlike the more traditional cotton fiber blend of Homura's suit jacket, Kirika's was made from a shiny velvet. Her shirt was black, her pants a light grey, and her tie, coloured a bright amber-gold, matched her eyes.
"Girls, are you ready?" Minako called out. "Did your friends say they were going to meet us here, or were we going to meet them once we'd headed out?"
"Oriko said she and Nurse O were coming here to meet us," Kirika replied. "Maybe Pinkie too. But the others said to meet them in Downtown in about an hour." A *Ding dong* was heard coming from the front door, causing Kirika to say "That's probably them now!"
Kirika dashed off, with the rest of the family following slowly behind. Kirika threw open the door, welcoming "Oriko!" and her cousin; though the full-force hug she threw herself into giving Oriko prevented anyone from actually being welcomed in. "Are you ready? We're gonna have so much fun!"
"I'm sure we will, dearest."
Behind the hugging couple, Caren coughed into her hand. "Just remember to keep your hands to yourselves when we're out in public, okay?" she said to the pair. "Not everyone is as okay with staring at your affection as the rest of us are."
Kirika stuck out her tongue at Caren, but to her credit she did in fact separate from Oriko, finally allowing Homura, Archer, and Minako to get a good look at the two cousins. Caren was dressed like a stereotypical nurse from the 1950's, save for the (hopefully fake) bloodstained bandages which she had wrapped and draped over her entire body. Her face was obscured, but what skin could be seen was covered in grotesque makeup, and it looked like she had hidden prosthetics under the bandages as well, to give her mouth some extra oomph. "Ooh, creepy," Archer said. "You're… One of the nurses from the Silent Hill games, right?"
Caren contorted her body until it looked painful, and shambled slowly towards Archer, asking in a low voice obviously meant to sound spooky "Was it that obvious?"
Archer nodded his head, and then turned to Oriko. Almost immediately, he felt ashamed to even be looking, because her every curve was on display in the black, form-fitting catsuit she had chosen to wear. Archer did everything he could to not compare Oriko's chest to Minako's, but with her suit unzipped to scandalous effect, the only other thing he could focus on was her hair. "Is that a wig, or did you really dye your hair?" he asked, focusing all his attention on the red-orange mop which cascaded down Oriko's shoulders, back, and chest. "Because if that's a wig, it's a damn good one. Looks like real hair, too."
"It's a wig," Oriko replied, running a gloved hand through her fake orange locks. "Let me tell you, it was a nightmare trying to fit my real hair inside this thing. I almost considered dying it, but Caren-san said she'd ground me until the holidays if I tried, so I stuck with it."
Archer remained silent, nodding his head and letting Minako take over. "You look… Good," she said, as the gears in her head ground to a halt thinking about her daughter being seen in public with someone dressed so. "Black Widow from that Avengers movie that came out in the summer, right?"
"Nope!" Kirika answered for Oriko, leaping forward and daring Oriko to catch her. Oriko did, of course, and Kirika proclaimed "Miné Fujiko!" as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Duh~!"
Minako gave a slight nod of her head, saying "I should have figured," as she looked at her daughter smiling in Oriko's arms. "Well, shall we be off, then?"
Moving east from Homura's apartment building, the first person the group caught up with was Madoka herself. She was wearing a frilly, pink-and-white outfit, with a plastic toy wand and a thick, red-bound book under each arm. Her hair, a light brown instead of her usual pink, was done up in a different style than her usual short pigtails. Finally, completing the outfit, a small stuffed animal rode on Madoka's shoulder, yellow in colour with curly white wings on its back.
"Homura-chan!" Madoka called out as the group came into sight of her. "I thought you were going to dress as Tomoyo-chan~" Madoka pouted, but it quickly faded as she added "You look good, though. That suit really fits you."
"Maybe if you two had gotten back together sooner," Kirika grumbled, making a big show of draping her arm over Homura's shoulder as though she were her property. Sticking out her tongue, Kirika added "But you didn't, so Homura went as my partner instead."
Homura, caught in the middle and feeling uncomfortable, asked "Don't I get a say in any of this?"
Smiling, Kirika lets go of Homura's shoulder and pushes her towards Madoka, saying "Go have fun with your girlfriend, sis," before taking a step back to claim Oriko. "I'll have fun with mine."
"You two look really good also," Madoka said to Oriko and Kirika. "Are you also on your way to meet up with the others?"
"Yes," Oriko said. "We all set out together, and I think an outing with everyone would be more enjoyable than spending the night with just Kirika." As Kirika pouted, despairing at the thought of losing her time alone with Oriko, Oriko gave her a knowing wink, and said to her "We can spend time just with each other after everyone else has gone to sleep."
"Oh, not you too," Minako said. "It's bad enough when it's only Kirika we have to deal with. I don't want to hear that kind of talk from you too, young lady."
Oriko could only laugh to herself, keeping in close contact with Kirika as she whispered sweet nothings into her girlfriend's ear; to which Kirika, always eager to drink in Oriko's affection, melted into her embrace, completely oblivious to Minako's ministrations. Caren looked to the exasperated mother, and could only shrug her shoulders and say "Don't look at me; I didn't raise her to be that way."
The late October sky over Mitakihara grew darker with each step the party took, but the street lights giving off their amber glow kept the sidewalks bathed in light. Even this far out, Homura could hear the sounds of Downtown, bustling as shops opened their doors to the eager, and stalls of food and games lined the busy streets. Halloween in Japan was a fairly recent celebration, only becoming big within the last handful of years, but Mitakihara, ever on the forefront, had thrown itself into the festivities.
Madoka's eyes went wide as the party approached Downtown, and she drank in the sights of festival stalls, and storefronts handing out candy to passers-by in costume. "Homura-chan, what should we do first?" she asked, grabbing Homura by the arm.
"I think we should try to find the others first," Homura said to Madoka. "I thought the plan was that we were supposed to meet up and do this as a group. We can figure out what we're going to do afterwards."
Madoka pouted, and Kirika slid up beside her. "Don't make that face, Pinkie," she said. "I'm sure Sis'll want to go off and do stuff with you later, right?" Homura's face went red at Kirika's insinuation; Kirika knew she had won. "I mean, I know me and Oriko were gonna go off and do stuff on our own later, but meeting up with the others first so we can hang out and do some stuff together first isn't that bad, either."
"I believe Tomoe-san said we could meet her by the stage over…" Oriko pulled out her phone, and used to bring up a map of Downtown, showing the location she had marked. "By this street. I imagine the others will be with her, or at least Sakura-san will be."
"If Kyouko's with her, then I imagine Sayaka will be too," Homura added.
Madoka nodded her head; "And if Sayaka-chan's there, then that's probably where Hitomi-chan'll be too," she thirded. "Unless Hitomi-chan made plans to go off with her boyfriend without telling us… I mean, I'd understand, but it'd be nice to see her for a bit before she went off to spend time with him."
"I'm sure we'll find them together, Kaname-san."
True to Oriko's prediction, the gang of four did indeed stumble upon the second half of their troupe; plus one extra, Hitomi's boyfriend, Homura recognised. All but Kyouko were dressed in similar fashion, of white, high-collared tunics, swords at their sides, and with coloured pants and trim which accented their hair colours; blue for Sayaka, green for Hitomi, yellow-orange for Mami, and white for the boy, save for the flowing red wig he wore which fell down his back and over his shoulder.
Kyouko, in contrast, was dressed much the same as she normally dressed; though how she wasn't cold despite not wearing her hoodie was anyone's guess. The only indication that she was in costume was the ornate black tattoo drawn on her right shoulder, and the pair of pistols which hung from holsters under each arm. Oh, and the scowl which she currently wore, directed towards Sayaka, who was scowling just as hard.
"What's eating them?" Homura asked of Hitomi and Mami.
"Stupid Blueberry was s'pposed ta dress up as my partner," Kyouko said. "Not theirs."
"Kyouko, I told you weeks ago that me and Hitomi and Mami-san were doing an Utena group cosplay for Halloween," Sayaka said. "Heck, I even offered to let you be Touga, 'cause you've got red hair. You're the one who wanted to be stubborn and not go along with it, so we had to get Hitomi's boyfriend to fill in."
"Yeah? And I never agreed ta that, 'cause I wanted us ta do something just fer us, idiot!"
"I really don't mind," said the boy in question, completely ignoring Kyouko's outburst, or Sayaka's counter-outburst which followed. "Hitomi said she had an open spot in her friends' group cosplay, and asked if I wanted to fill it. I wasn't doing anything else, so I said yes. I didn't know it would cause problems at the time." The boy leaned in, wrapping his arm around Hitomi's waist and drawing her in for a kiss. "Besides, when else am I going to get to see you dressed so dashingly?"
"Oh, Makoto-san, stop it," Hitomi said, doing everything she could to suppress her giggling. "You look plenty dashing yourself."
Mami nodded her head, and to Homura and Kirika said "You two look rather dashing as well, Akemi-san, Kure-san. I really like the choice of colours."
"It was Kirika's idea," Homura said, earning her an enthusiastic nod of the head from Kirika. "If I'd known Madoka would have asked me to get back together with her earlier today, I would have dressed up as her partner instead."
"But I'm glad she's dressed as one of my partners instead," Kirika said, wrapping an arm around Homura's shoulder. "'Cause it's not often that I get to do something fun with my sis." Kirika turned her gaze towards Sayaka; "And hey, Miki, I wish you'd have said yes to being our Goemon. Could'a had the whole crew if you didn't already have other plans."
"Yeah, well, Hitomi asked me first," Sayaka said. "Frankly, I just wish this wouldn't have caused a whole big thing with Kyouko."
"Have any of you seen anybody else we know?" Madoka asked. "You know, other classmates, teachers… Have you seen anyone else?"
"Well, I believe I saw a certain… Mutual enemy of ours," Mami said, though she spoke more to Homura, Oriko, and Kirika. "At least, I think it was her; it was hard to tell under the green skin-paint, but the eyes were definitely hers." Mami leaned in, whispering in a low voice to the three "Sakura-san and I saw her getting food at one of the nearby stalls before heading off in the direction of the haunted house one of the local shops set up. We can break off from the others so the five of us can go have a better look, if you'd like."
Homura nodded her head, and after making sure to catch Oriko and Kirika up on what was happening, made motion for Mami and the rest of her team to join her, before- "Homura-chan!" Madoka called out, causing Homura to stop. "Did I hear you were going to the haunted house? Can I come with you?"
Homura was caught. On one hand, this was an important reconnaissance mission, and she didn't want to put Madoka in danger; on the other hand, this was Madoka, and Homura wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. "Let me check it out first," Homura replied. "If I think it looks okay, I'll invite you to go through it with me. If I think it'll be too scary, we can find something else to do. How does that sound?"
"But, isn't being scared the whole point of a haunted house?" Madoka asked. "I wouldn't mind being scared if you were there with me, Homura-chan."
"Look, Pinkie, ya gotta understand," Kirika said, sliding in between Madoka and Homura. "Sis has been through some rough shit, haven't you?" Homura nodded her head. "When she says she's looking to see if it's too scary, she actually means she's looking to see if it's too scary for her." Kirika winked at Homura, adding "She cares about you, that's all. She doesn't want to see something that freaks her out, and she accidentally pulls a gun on it 'cause she thinks you're in danger."
"I wish you wouldn't put it like that," Homura replied. To Madoka, however, Homura added "But… I am worried, about you. I don't mind if either of us are scared; you're right, that's the point of a haunted house. But I don't want to see something that makes me feel like you're in danger. Even if you aren't."
At that, Madoka nodded her head. "I understand, Homura-chan," she said. "I'd really like to go through the haunted house with you, but if you don't think you can handle it, I'll understand. We can always find something else to do if that's the case."
Homura leaned in, giving Madoka a brief kiss. "I'll just be a few minutes," she said. "Hopefully it looks okay, and we can go together once I get back." "Archer, the team and I are heading to the haunted house to investigate a… Sighting. Can you and mom watch over the others while we're gone?"
"Understood," Archer replied. "Take care, Homura. We'll be here when you get back."
"She" was easy enough to spot, because she was the only person in sight to be wearing green skin-paint. More obviously than that, she even had the nerve to go walking around dressed like a witch, wearing long black robes, a wide-brimmed hat which tapered into a point, and in her off hand she held a broomstick, while with her dominant hand she was casually eating a candied apple on a stick.
The Quintet saw her slipping in through the front doors of the haunted house, and they followed her in. As Oriko took the lead, Kirika, staring at one part of Oriko's person in particular which the form-fitting catsuit highlighted, grinned like a maniac. "Dearest, please keep your thoughts to yourself," Oriko said, immediately shutting Kirika down. "All right, there's… A few jump scares up ahead. Nothing too major. It looks like it goes in a fairly straight line."
"Right," Mami said. While none of the Quintet dared to change into their magical girl attires, they did all have weapons they could draw on if the situation arose. "Akemi-san?"
"We'll take it slow, one thing at a time," Homura said. "Be on your guard. Oriko, does it look like she's luring us into a trap?"
"It's hard to say."
The Quintet proceeded with caution. The air inside the haunted house was stale, and a low fog – fake? Real fog wasn't supposed to be purple-black, was it? – rolled across the floor. Occasionally, props meant to scare patrons would spring from the walls; plastic skeletons and cardboard cutouts of demons did little to scare the battle-hardened veterans, but the oversized spiders which dropped from the ceiling along with sticky webbing- "Augh!"
Webbing had fallen on Kyouko's head, and she tore at it. "Quick, get this shit offa me!" she shouted; "And get that fucking spider, too, before we all go deaf!"
Kyouko tore the spider from her head, tossing the oversized toy onto the ground and drawing the pistols from her underarm holsters. She fired, letting loose a storm of plastic bullets which shredded the toy spider. "Geez, what the fuck were these guys thinking?" Kirika asked as she surveyed the wreckage. "Seriously. Who'd put giant spiders in a haunted house when this city's been attacked by spiders at least twice now?"
"Three, actually," Homura said. "Archer and I fought some by ourselves down in their lair. I think we got them all, but…"
But getting the last of the spiders didn't stop the Quintet from staring at the toy spider that had fallen from the ceiling. "Let's move on, shall we?" Mami suggested. "There's still more to explore, and we haven't found her yet."
But the deeper the Quintet went into the haunted house, the stranger things became. The rolling fog grew thicker, the canned, pre-recorded sounds of bats were replaced by vastly more realistic-sounded wing-beats and screeches, as though a living animal were actually flying over their heads. When Homura turned her head up, she could have sworn she saw the shadowed outline of a creature wearing a bat's shape, but armed with sharp sickle-clawed limbs at its front.
A wolf howled; another sound that wasn't pre-recorded, and the Quintet came to a stop, a darkened window beside them. On the other side, the members of the Quintet could see the shadows of familiar figures; large wolves, creatures of man-shape with large wings and strong limbs, the thick neck of a hissing serpent.
"Oi, Big White, are you seeing this?" Kyouko asked. "D'ya think they're real?"
"Yes, Sakura-san, I'm seeing the same as you are," Oriko replied. "I… Don't know if they are real or not. The smaller ones very well could be, but the larger ones… If it's not Sidonia's work, then it's all a very improbable coincidence."
"Is it?" Kirika asked. "I mean sure, picking spiders is kind of a dick move, but vampires, werewolves, bats, snakes, and even spiders are all pretty common Halloween decorations, aren't they? It's not as big a coincidence as it seems if the people who set this place up picked them."
"Okay, but how do you explain the sounds?" Homura asked. "Those… Don't sound like recordings. They sound like Sidonia's actual familiars."
Familiars which, as far as their shadows gave away, were just on the other side of the darkened window. The sound of a creaking door, sliding open just a crack, caused the Quintet all to turn their heads, as a large black wolf bounded out from the darkness at them. Instinct took over, and Homura opened fire with a pistol of her own. But unlike Kyouko's toys, the one in Homura's hand was real, and she fired until every round in the revolver's cylinder had been spent. Her heart was beating almost to the point of bursting when the wolf, frozen in mid-pounce, was revealed to be a cardboard cutout when its wooden stand snapped and it fell over onto the ground, dotted with several bullet holes.
"Great job, Spooky,' Kyouko said. "Ya really killed the shit outta that one."
Kirika was there, clapping Kyouko on the back of her head with a chop. "Oh, shut up," she said to Kyouko. "Like you didn't act the same way with that spider?"
"Least my guns aren't real," Kyouko said. "Somebody's bound to have heard that."
"Indeed," Mami said. "We may be in trouble if we're caught standing around here with the… Smoking gun, still in Akemi-san's hand."
But someone had already caught the Quintet. This time, the scare lurking behind the creaking door was real, and she revealed herself to the Quintet then. "Oh, it's you five," said Sidonia, crossing her arms over her chest, as she stared with disdain at the members of the Quintet. "What a surprise. You can't leave me alone for one day, can you? Even when I deliberately try to avoid you, you come after me."
"Maybe we wouldn't have to keep doing this if you'd just behave yourself," Homura said. Her body tensed as she asked "What sort of trouble are you looking to get into tonight?" and she anticipated the worst. "How'd you get the people who set this us to agree to use your familiars?"
"Did I?" Sidonia responded to Homura's question with one of her own. "What proof do you have? For that matter, what trouble do you think I'm planning on getting into? All Hallow's Eve is the one day out of the year where I can be myself without fear of being persecuted for it by the ignorant masses. What reason do I have to cause trouble tonight, of all nights?" Sidonia snubbed the members of the Quintet, saying "Now go away. I'm trying to enjoy myself without causing any trouble for your little city."
"Guess that explains dressing up like the Wicked Witch," Kyouko said. "Bet you're the only person in the world who'd sympathise with someone like her." Sidonia glared daggers at Kyouko, who just kept on going despite the silent protests of her four companions. "You out looking fer Dorothy, and her little dog, too?"
"You shut your mouth," Sidonia barked. "Elphaba was framed, just like I was. She's a hundred times the woman you'll ever be." Still sneering, she added "Besides, those slippers belonged to her sister. She had every right to want them from Dorothy."
A look of "Huh?" and "What now?" spread over Kyouko's face, while her other friends thankfully cut her off before she could cause more trouble. "I apologise for Sakura-san's words," Mami said. "I know we've had our differences in the past, but if you really aren't looking to cause trouble, then we have no quarrel with you."
"Of course we do," Kirika said. "Just 'cause she's behaving now doesn't mean she'll still be behaving tomorrow. Tomorrow's the first, isn't it?"
"Yes, but…" Oriko's voice died off, as she looked back and forth from Kirika, to Sidonia, and to the rest of the Quintet. "If Sidonia is willing to be polite and non-violent tonight, perhaps we could take advantage of that, and enter into talks with her about settling our differences without hurting anyone," she said. "You done so much harm over the past month, but I refuse to believe that you are wholly evil or irredeemable. There must be a way we can reconcile our differences and reach a peaceful conclusion."
"You think of one that addresses my grievances with the muggle world, and I'll gladly listen," Sidonia replied. "But so far, you've failed to give me any substitute that could serve as recompense for the harm they've done to our kind."
"I see we're still stuck on 'agreeing to disagree'," Homura said. "As long as you're behaving, I suppose leaving you alone to enjoy the night won't hurt any." Under her breath, Homura added "It's not as though we could do anything to stop you before tomorrow anyway."
"Then if you'll all excuse me, I'd very much like to be moving on." With a dramatic flourish of her legs, Sidonia pushed herself past the Quintet, reluctantly offering a handful of candy to each of the five girls. "I promise they aren't poisoned," she said. "Regardless of our differences, today is the one day of the year that I don't want to cause trouble on. So enjoy yourselves, for now."
With equal reluctance, the members of the Quintet took the offered candy. "Thank you," Mami and Oriko said, almost in unison. "It's… Unexpected, but your goodwill is appreciated all the same." Nudging her girlfriend with her elbow, Oriko added "Dearest, what do we say when someone gives us a gift?"
Mami gives the same encouragement to Kyouko, and together the pair offer up reluctant "Thanks for the candy" to Sidonia. Only Homura remained silent, contemplating the hard candy which had been bought with her family's lives in peril.
"I see not all of you are as grateful as the rest," Sidonia said, noticing Homura's silence, and Kyouko and Kirika's reluctance. "No matter. We'll settle things tomorrow, one way or another." Sidonia mounted her broomstick with a flourish, and kicked off, hovering gently above the ground, before gliding off down the hallway to the tune of "I think I'll try~ Defying ~Gravity~ And you can't hold me~ Down~"
Not a minute later, the members of the Quintet stumbled outside, as the sound of voices coming up behind them echoed in their ears. "Sorry," called out Archer, as he ran behind Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi. "I tried to keep them away as long as I could while you girls were… Talking. But once I saw her taking off, I knew I couldn't keep them for much longer."
"Homura-chan, are you ready?" Madoka asked, as she lunged forward and latched on to her girlfriend. "Did the haunted house look like fun?"
But Homura had to shake her head. "I'm sorry, Madoka," she said. "I don't know if I'd be able to go through that." Madoka pouted, but she understood. "Let's see if we can find something else to do instead, okay?"
"How about the cosplay contest they're having down in the town square?" Sayaka suggested. "The grand prize is, like, a whole bunch of candy and ten-thousand Yen. I don't know about you girls, but the four of us look great. We'd be shoo-ins to win this year."
Kirika glared at Sayaka, which only caused Hitomi and Mami to laugh. She wrapped her arms around Homura and Oriko, pulling them close as she bragged "Oh yeah? Bet you ten-thousand Yen we win instead!"
"You're on!"
