Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel
- Thread starter SVS
- Start date
- Crossover
BritishGrenadier
Summon The Elector Counts!
- Location
- Nova Scotia Halifax
well gilgamesh in a another timeline did claw into ilya's heart.
- Location
- Around here
I have no words. I'm not judging you, but I have no words.
While true, that is also completely uncalled for. You get a red card. This is an Illya-bullying-free zone. We're only allowed to bully Sieg around here.
Fluff huh.... the top of my mind is just huddled together, eating the best meal that archer and Sakura who mange to pull all the stop, Over a fireplace, and sharing their beautiful memories, topping it with gaming session.
- Location
- Around here
You guys know what's kind of fucked up? NMS, in his infinite suspicion, correctly pegged that Hijiri Kanna was the one responsible for the building fire all the back on Day 1.
I would also congratulate anyone who had previously been suspicious of Kana earlier, but since she was the villain of the canon Kazumi Magica manga, it's not like that was too hard of a guess to make.
He wasn't right that she would attack Mami, but still.
I would also congratulate anyone who had previously been suspicious of Kana earlier, but since she was the villain of the canon Kazumi Magica manga, it's not like that was too hard of a guess to make.
Day 29 Chapter 37
- Location
- Around here
You know you should be heading out soon. You've finished dinner, and now that everyone's stomachs have settled, it's time for you to be heading out. But since this might be the last time you ever see your mother – ever see your family whole and in one piece – in the back of your mind you want to linger, to stay a little while longer and do something fun together, as a family.
"Mom! Dad's cheating!"
"Am not!"
You just didn't expect for that something to be a few rounds of Mario Kart with your family. Kirika has hooked her Wii up to the TV in the living room, and Oriko has pushed all her chairs together so there's enough room for everyone to sit. Since there's six of you, you've been taking turns, with the two highest-ranking players of each race rotating out every other round for the people who aren't currently playing.
You look over at Oriko. The two of you had long ago given up any hope of winning this race, so you've both been hanging back and just enjoying the time you spend together while Archer and Kirika blaze through the track at lightning speed. Kirika was in the lead, until a well-timed blue shell from Archer knocked her back.
Mom, drawn in by her daughter's yelling, leans over the backing of the couch, making sure to press a very certain part of her anatomy into Archer's back. "Is that right, Archer?" she coos, letting some of her long, dark-chocolate locks falls down and tickle Archer's nose. "Are you trying to cheat my little Halloween pumpkin out of her win?"
"If you'd been watching the screen instead of thinking about my meat-" Archer just isn't going to let Mom's comment before dinner go, is he? "-then you would have seen that using a blue shell is a perfectly legitimate strategy in this game." With a hand on his controller, Archer tries to use his free hand to push Minako off of his person. "Now get off me. Your boobs on my back are distracting."
Minako smirks, and though she pulls away, she makes a big deal of showing off her figure, just for Archer. "Do you not like my boobs anymore, Archer?
"No, Minako, that's not the point-" Archer doesn't get the chance to finish, because the race ends, with Kirika's tiny cart crossing the finish line. "Oh, you dirty little cheats!" There's no malice in Archer's voice as he turns to Kirika and Minako. "You two set me up, didn't you?"
Neither Kirika nor Minako say anything, but the "Nice work, pumpkin!" and the high-five mother and daughter share at Kirika's victory, tells you all you need to know. "Sorry, Archer, but I couldn't just ignore Kirika when she asked me for help, could I?" Minako leans over, and gives Archer a kiss on the cheek as she whispers to him in a sultry tone "I'll make it up to you tonight."
Minako gives Archer another kiss on the cheek as he scoots over, making room for her and handing the controller to her. "Do you need any help?" Kirika asks as she hands her controller over to Aunt Illya, asking the question to her as much as to Minako. "I can show you how the controls are supposed to work."
Minako smiles, and gives Kirika and appreciative "Sure, if you think it'll help," but Aunt Illya just grins. "Don't worry," she says to Kirika. "Unlike Big Brother, I don't need to cheat to win at videogames."
She really doesn't. As soon as the race starts, Aunt Illya is off. She quickly dominates you and Oriko, and even with Kirika helping Minako is also steamrolled. But then, just at the last moment, the last few meters before Aunt Illya's racer is about to cross the finish line, she stops. It's a trick you're familiar with; because it's a trick you yourself have used before. Aunt Illya's avatar in the game holds up a blue shell – when did she collect that? – and tosses it as soon as Minako's racer comes into view.
"Oh, you dirty little cheat-"
Aunt Illya sticks her tongue out at Minako, and the damage is done. Her move is enough to give your racer, lagging behind in third place, the chance to slip past Minako's racer where, true to your expectations, Aunt Illya gifts the win to you. It's a trick you've used playing Mario Kart before with your friends, in order to ensure that Madoka wins a given race. "I didn't cheat," Aunt Illya says. "Heck, I didn't even win. Homura did."
As soon as the words have left her mouth, Aunt Illya turns to you, giving you a big hug as she says "You did great, Homura! I'm really proud of you!"
Oriko can only look at Minako, and shrug her shoulders as they accept their defeat. You don't entirely feel good about having won because of Aunt Illya's interference, but you know she was just trying to do something nice for you. Seeing her skills, you're confident she could have walked away with that match if she really wanted to. You and Aunt Illya hand your controllers over to Archer and Kirika.
This one is a grudge match; and now, with Minako also playing, she can't do anything to interrupt Archer as he and Kirika battle it out. You can tell that Archer is falling behind after the first lap ends, and he's failed to make any significant leads on Kirika since. He's still in a respectable second place, however, until Mom decides to take charge. You see her and Oriko looking to each other. They nod their heads, and begin a coordinated attack. Archer's racer is dragged behind the two of them as they team up to take him down- "Oh, look who's cheating now," Archer says with a smirk on his face. "You really wanted to call me a cheater when you've got your mom and Oriko working to stop me?"
"I'm not cheating," Kirika replies, sticking her tongue out at Archer. "I'm just playing normally. If Mom and Oriko want to take you down on their own, that's not anything I told them to do."
In the end, Minako accepted a graceful loss, letting Oriko get in front of her to claim second place behind Kirika. That means you and Aunt Illya are back in the race. "Uh, let's… Not," Archer says, seeing what he's up against. "I'd rather not get double-teamed again so somebody else can win."
"I've got other games," Kirika suggests. "How about Smash? I could probably set it so there's assigned teams, or we could take turns fighting against the AI. That way, there's less of a chance of… This, happening."
"That might be nice," Minako says. "As nice as it feels letting my girls win, it does feel kind of cheap."
"I suppose I'm fine with whatever everyone else wants to do," Oriko says. "I'm not very good at any of these games, but I don't mind playing them if I'm spending time with people I care about."
All eyes turn to Aunt Illya, who is the last person to speak up. "Don't look at me," she says. "I'm really good at these sorts of games. I don't have a problem playing any of them, as long as none of you mind it when I kick your butts."
"Oh, please, how good can you be?" Kirika asks, as she pops the disc for Mario Kart out of her Wii, and replaces it with another disc of some game called 'Smash'. "Sure, you were pretty good at Mario Kart, but that doesn't mean you'll also be good at Smash."
You soon find out that 'Smash' is the name of a Mario platform fighter game. Well, Mario and others, only a few of whom you recognise. You settle on Mewtwo, while Oriko picks a pink-clad princess you recognise from Mario Kart. Kirika picks Samus from the Metroid series, and Aunt Illya picks a pair of pink- and blue-clad Eskimos that the game calls 'Ice Climbers'.
As it turns out, Aunt Illya wasn't bluffing. Within the first round, she manages to completely dominate Kirika, using a combination attack that constantly pushes Kirika's fighter backwards. As Kirika frustratedly mashes buttons on her controller, trying to break out of Aunt Illya's attack, a clearly malevolent grin takes over Aunt Illya's face. "Believe me now?" she asks Kirika, after pushing her off the ledge of the arena and costing Kirika her first life.
"Oh, you're on."
You and Oriko take Kirika's challenge as an open invitation to gang up on Aunt Illya. Oriko concentrates, a beaof sweat rolling down her brow as her pink princess wails on Aunt Illya's ice Climbers. She may claim to not be very good at videogames, but when she cheats and uses her precognition to see what her opponent is going to do, Oriko becomes nasty. You've never seen someone in a dress move like that, and you barely have a chance to get an attack in edgewise as Oriko's character rams her parasol into Aunt Illya's character repeatedly. Soon, she's even managed to break out of Aunt Illya's trapping move, and she and Kirika have ganged up on the tiny Eskimos.
"Trade with me." You've barely had the chance to get an attack in when Archer leans over your shoulder, gesturing for the controller in your hand. Since you haven't had much of a chance to attack anyone, you do, and as soon as the controller is in Archer's hands, he- "Damnit."
You stare at Archer, completely shocked at how terrible he is. "You…" In trying to come to Aunt Illya's aid, Archer had accidentally thrown your – now his – character completely off of the arena. "Dad, you kind of suck at this game."
"Do I?" Archer asks you in response. "Or am I just setting them up to make them think I do?"
It was a damn close four-way match towards the end. Kirika and Aunt Illya seemed to get by on their actual skill at the game, and the two constantly made their virtual avatars clash whenever the opportunity or the stage – apparently, the stage was just as much of a character as the players themselves, often throwing out hazards or items that the two were quick to take advantage of – presented itself. Archer and Oriko, meanwhile, got by more on their ability to read what their opponents were doing, always having a counter to someone else's strategy.
But in the end, it's Oriko who claims eventual victory in that match. Despite Archer managing to put up a much better fight than his initial move got you to give him credit for, Oriko's ability to read her opponents went unmatched thanks to her precognition. Nobody says anything to her about it, but after only a brief moment of the game basking in her victory, Oriko quietly hands the controller to Minako once everyone else is finished staring at her.
"Geez, Oriko, I didn't know you were that good at Smash," Kirika says. "We should play more often. I'd totally let you beat me if you wanted."
"Dearest, that's perfectly all right," Oriko replies. "Though, if you wanted it, I suppose I wouldn't be averse to indulging you from time to time."
But Mom is there to clear her throat, and she stares at Oriko and Kirika. "All right, you two, take it easy," she says. "Don't go getting ahead of yourselves, you hear me? Wait until you're older before you start talking about indulging each other." The low growl in her voice as she spoke the word "indulging" leads you to believe that Mom was subtly trying to proposition Archer, or at least keep him distracted long enough to secure a win, since she's up next and he isn't trading off on account of Oriko and Aunt Illya getting the top two places.
But Archer just smiles for Minako, keeping the controller tight in his grasp as he looks her dead in the eye, not even bothering to look at his character selection as he says to her "Maybe you shouldn't be getting ahead of yourself either, Minako. There's children present." Aunt Illya clears her throat, and Archer quickly adds "Well, not all of them are children. But you get the idea."
And speaking of children… The next round starts the same as the previous one. Only, without Aunt Illya there to crowd out the other top performer, it's an easy sweep for Kirika. Almost. . "Hey, no fair!" you hear Kirika shout. "Nobody else gets any help! You big cheater, Homura!"
You look down, seeing the familiar in Homura-shape working the controller beside you. It's seated itself atop the armrest of Oriko's couch, its small hands and short arms wriggling as it rocks the controller back and forth in your grasp, trying to "help" you where it can.. "Don't look at me,' you say, as much to your familiar as you say to Kirika. "I didn't ask for any help."
"Homura…?" From across the couch, you can see that your mom's attempt is coming out much nicer than your own. It only makes sense; she doesn't have to worry about a second set of hands tripping her up as they try to "help" her. "What the heck is that? And why does it look like you?"
"It's one of Akemi-san's newest familiars," Oriko says, not even bothering to spare more than a passing glance at the familiar in you-shape. "They're made from her memories, and they mimic the shapes of people she's close to. I got to meet one shaped like Kirika earlier; aren't they just adorable?"
The familiar of you raises its hands up to its mouth, never minding that it's letting your character get clobbered by a vengeful Kirika as it takes the controller with it as it giggles to itself at Oriko's compliment. "I don't know," Kirika says. "I think they're kinda creepy. Plus I don't like how the one shaped like me was competing for your attention when we met."
"Dearest, it wasn't 'competing' for anything," Oriko replies. "I'll always love you. But I can't help it if something that looks like a tiny, adorable version of you comes along and demands hugs as though it were the real deal." When Kirika continues to pout, Oriko asks her "Can you really say you'd be any different if it were a tiny version of me demanding hugs from you?"
"It's fine, mom," you say, as Minako can only look on in what you assume to be shock and horror at the unfolding conversation. "It doesn't hurt to make them, and they're not really all that much trouble." Aside from the fact that you can barely seem to control the little buggers. "Um… Look on the bright side? Now you get to call yourself a grandmother?"
Mom can only sigh, and she gives you that look. But you can see it in her eyes; if her hands weren't occupied with the game controller she's manipulating, she'd reach over the couch to where you are, and give you a big hug. "Homura, you are too young to be a mother," she says to you. "Don't scare me like that, okay? I love you, and when you and Madoka are ready to have kids, I'll support you all the way. But you're too young."
She's told you much the same, in almost the exact same words, the last time you called yourself a mother to your familiars. But you aren't sure there's a better term, despite agreeing with your mom that you're too young. They came from you, after all, from your memories of the people that are most important to you. Memories of the people that you're scared of losing. So doesn't that make them your children? Do familiars not work that way? How would it work if you were a regular witch?
Should you ask Kanna Niko how she feels about being in a relationship with the person she created?
Except she didn't create Kazumi, did she? She just made a new body for a Kazumi that existed before.
As the familiar of you disappears, you're left to wonder the implications of being a mother to a troupe of familiars, especially ones that seem to be as hard- to control as these five. She ran off with the controller, didn't she? Now there's one less for anyone else who wants to play.
Needless to say, you lost that round, handily.
You stare up at the ceiling of your darkened bedroom, thinking back to the memories you got to share with your family tonight, in the time between dinner's end and when you had to leave for tonight's team meeting. You hold them close to your chest, as you curl up onto your side. You want to cry. Tomorrow will come, and it might be the last time you ever get to see your family in one piece.
It might be the last time you get to see your family, at all.
You want to cry.
Restlessness takes you, and you reach your arm out to your bedside table, where your phone is resting. You don't bother checking the time. It won't make tomorrow come any slower, won't give you any more time to prepare. Tomorrow is happening, no matter how scared of it you are. Instead, you flip to your photo album, and scroll through each of the pictures of you and your family that you've taken over the past thirteen months. There's you and Kirika, flanked by Madoka and Oriko, dressed in the bright red uniforms of Shirome Junior High, on your first day back to school after Walpurgisnacht's passing. Minako was behind the camera that day, and you can still remember the wistful smile on her face as she said goodbye to the four of you that day.
Archer hadn't come back yet.
There's summer break, last year. Oriko let you borrow the keys to her summer home while she and Nurse Ortensia went to Italy to see their relatives. It was nice to be back at the beach on Lake Ashi, but the picture of you and Kirika, donned in your bathing suits with Mount Fuji in the background, is missing something.
Archer still hadn't come back.
It isn't until you reach September of last year, that Archer starts to show himself in your pictures. There's one of a day in mid-September, of just the four of you. You're all smiling, looking at the camera as though nothing could ever go wrong again. Your finger slips, and you scroll over to Kirika's sixteenth birthday party. She looks so happy; she's not even looking at her presents, or at Oriko who is clearly taking the picture, or at Amy who had snuck into the corner of the picture, cake frosting somehow all over her fur. She's looking at Archer, just glad that he's finally there with the rest of you.
There's Halloween of last year, barely a month after Kirika's birthday. You and she are dressed as two characters who, according to her, were supposed to be sisters; you in a frilly black gothic dress, holding in your arms Amy, who has apparently been dressed in purple pyjamas to make her look like half of a cat skeleton. Pink stripes streak your hair, and you remember how it had taken weeks for the hair dye Kirika used on you to fade, but she was lucky enough to get away with a wig. Blonde, long, and spikey, she's wearing a slim red dress and posing seductively. Oriko must have been holding the camera for that one, you think to yourself.
There's pictures from Christmas of last year; the first Christmas you've gotten to spend with a family in an eternity. Oriko was away in Italy for winter break, and you had to keep reminding Amy to not eat the tinsel on the tree. It was a small celebration, crammed unceremoniously into the tiny former Kure apartment, where you had all been staying until school at Mitakihara Junior High started up in the spring. You're glad to be out of that apartment, and back here, back home.
It's only home when the rest of your family is here with you.
You scroll some more, passing quickly over a few pictures taken on your fifteenth birthday, until you come to photos taken at this year's graduation ceremony. Tears stream down Kirika's face as she hugs Oriko, diploma scrolls in both of their hands. This time last year, none of you were even sure if Kirika would graduate junior high at all. But she managed to pull through, and even make it into the same high school as Oriko.
There's no pictures from Kirika's high school opening ceremony; the next time every member of your family is in a picture together, it's summer, and Kirika is about to leave to spend her summer vacation in Italy with Oriko and Nurse Ortensia. But before dropping the three of them off at Tokyo airport, your family spent the day wandering around the Tokyo metro area, making a day trip out of saying goodbye to Kirika. You have plenty of pictures of you and your family, plus Oriko and Nurse Ortensia, as you all wander through the streets of Tokyo, with plenty more pictures inside the airport once it was time to say goodbye.
That had been the first time you or Mom had ever been in an airport before, and you don't think you'll forget the experience. That had been the first time Kirika went off to another country.
Mom always wanted Kirika to be able to see more of the world than just the streets of Mitakihara.
There's nothing major during the six-week stretch that Kirika was gone for. The next time the four of you are together in a photograph is for Kirika's seventeenth birthday party. She's surrounded by torn wrapping paper as she sits at your kitchen table, unwrapping the dark grey, almost-black jacket with the detached sleeves that mom and dad got her for her birthday. Mom and dad are smiling as she poses for the camera wearing her new jacket, and in the back of a few pictures, you can see Oriko looking on her girlfriend with a smile on her face.
Then, there is nothing. Your pictures end, and you hold your phone close to your chest. This time, you really do cry. Archer; Kirika; Mom; you haven't had a family in so long, that before the three of them came into your life you had forgotten how much it hurt to not have a family. You can't go back to that. You can't go back to feeling that emptiness inside your heart. When tomorrow comes, you have to do everything in your power to keep your family safe.
You bury your head into your pillow as your tears fall, muffling your cries so you don't wake up anyone else, and you let sleep take you as you continue to hold your phone close to your chest. Your phone is just a symbol for the memories you have of your family.
You will keep your family safe. No matter what it takes, you will not let Sidonia harm your family any more than she already has.
"Mom! Dad's cheating!"
"Am not!"
You just didn't expect for that something to be a few rounds of Mario Kart with your family. Kirika has hooked her Wii up to the TV in the living room, and Oriko has pushed all her chairs together so there's enough room for everyone to sit. Since there's six of you, you've been taking turns, with the two highest-ranking players of each race rotating out every other round for the people who aren't currently playing.
You look over at Oriko. The two of you had long ago given up any hope of winning this race, so you've both been hanging back and just enjoying the time you spend together while Archer and Kirika blaze through the track at lightning speed. Kirika was in the lead, until a well-timed blue shell from Archer knocked her back.
Mom, drawn in by her daughter's yelling, leans over the backing of the couch, making sure to press a very certain part of her anatomy into Archer's back. "Is that right, Archer?" she coos, letting some of her long, dark-chocolate locks falls down and tickle Archer's nose. "Are you trying to cheat my little Halloween pumpkin out of her win?"
"If you'd been watching the screen instead of thinking about my meat-" Archer just isn't going to let Mom's comment before dinner go, is he? "-then you would have seen that using a blue shell is a perfectly legitimate strategy in this game." With a hand on his controller, Archer tries to use his free hand to push Minako off of his person. "Now get off me. Your boobs on my back are distracting."
Minako smirks, and though she pulls away, she makes a big deal of showing off her figure, just for Archer. "Do you not like my boobs anymore, Archer?
"No, Minako, that's not the point-" Archer doesn't get the chance to finish, because the race ends, with Kirika's tiny cart crossing the finish line. "Oh, you dirty little cheats!" There's no malice in Archer's voice as he turns to Kirika and Minako. "You two set me up, didn't you?"
Neither Kirika nor Minako say anything, but the "Nice work, pumpkin!" and the high-five mother and daughter share at Kirika's victory, tells you all you need to know. "Sorry, Archer, but I couldn't just ignore Kirika when she asked me for help, could I?" Minako leans over, and gives Archer a kiss on the cheek as she whispers to him in a sultry tone "I'll make it up to you tonight."
Minako gives Archer another kiss on the cheek as he scoots over, making room for her and handing the controller to her. "Do you need any help?" Kirika asks as she hands her controller over to Aunt Illya, asking the question to her as much as to Minako. "I can show you how the controls are supposed to work."
Minako smiles, and gives Kirika and appreciative "Sure, if you think it'll help," but Aunt Illya just grins. "Don't worry," she says to Kirika. "Unlike Big Brother, I don't need to cheat to win at videogames."
She really doesn't. As soon as the race starts, Aunt Illya is off. She quickly dominates you and Oriko, and even with Kirika helping Minako is also steamrolled. But then, just at the last moment, the last few meters before Aunt Illya's racer is about to cross the finish line, she stops. It's a trick you're familiar with; because it's a trick you yourself have used before. Aunt Illya's avatar in the game holds up a blue shell – when did she collect that? – and tosses it as soon as Minako's racer comes into view.
"Oh, you dirty little cheat-"
Aunt Illya sticks her tongue out at Minako, and the damage is done. Her move is enough to give your racer, lagging behind in third place, the chance to slip past Minako's racer where, true to your expectations, Aunt Illya gifts the win to you. It's a trick you've used playing Mario Kart before with your friends, in order to ensure that Madoka wins a given race. "I didn't cheat," Aunt Illya says. "Heck, I didn't even win. Homura did."
As soon as the words have left her mouth, Aunt Illya turns to you, giving you a big hug as she says "You did great, Homura! I'm really proud of you!"
Oriko can only look at Minako, and shrug her shoulders as they accept their defeat. You don't entirely feel good about having won because of Aunt Illya's interference, but you know she was just trying to do something nice for you. Seeing her skills, you're confident she could have walked away with that match if she really wanted to. You and Aunt Illya hand your controllers over to Archer and Kirika.
This one is a grudge match; and now, with Minako also playing, she can't do anything to interrupt Archer as he and Kirika battle it out. You can tell that Archer is falling behind after the first lap ends, and he's failed to make any significant leads on Kirika since. He's still in a respectable second place, however, until Mom decides to take charge. You see her and Oriko looking to each other. They nod their heads, and begin a coordinated attack. Archer's racer is dragged behind the two of them as they team up to take him down- "Oh, look who's cheating now," Archer says with a smirk on his face. "You really wanted to call me a cheater when you've got your mom and Oriko working to stop me?"
"I'm not cheating," Kirika replies, sticking her tongue out at Archer. "I'm just playing normally. If Mom and Oriko want to take you down on their own, that's not anything I told them to do."
In the end, Minako accepted a graceful loss, letting Oriko get in front of her to claim second place behind Kirika. That means you and Aunt Illya are back in the race. "Uh, let's… Not," Archer says, seeing what he's up against. "I'd rather not get double-teamed again so somebody else can win."
"I've got other games," Kirika suggests. "How about Smash? I could probably set it so there's assigned teams, or we could take turns fighting against the AI. That way, there's less of a chance of… This, happening."
"That might be nice," Minako says. "As nice as it feels letting my girls win, it does feel kind of cheap."
"I suppose I'm fine with whatever everyone else wants to do," Oriko says. "I'm not very good at any of these games, but I don't mind playing them if I'm spending time with people I care about."
All eyes turn to Aunt Illya, who is the last person to speak up. "Don't look at me," she says. "I'm really good at these sorts of games. I don't have a problem playing any of them, as long as none of you mind it when I kick your butts."
"Oh, please, how good can you be?" Kirika asks, as she pops the disc for Mario Kart out of her Wii, and replaces it with another disc of some game called 'Smash'. "Sure, you were pretty good at Mario Kart, but that doesn't mean you'll also be good at Smash."
You soon find out that 'Smash' is the name of a Mario platform fighter game. Well, Mario and others, only a few of whom you recognise. You settle on Mewtwo, while Oriko picks a pink-clad princess you recognise from Mario Kart. Kirika picks Samus from the Metroid series, and Aunt Illya picks a pair of pink- and blue-clad Eskimos that the game calls 'Ice Climbers'.
As it turns out, Aunt Illya wasn't bluffing. Within the first round, she manages to completely dominate Kirika, using a combination attack that constantly pushes Kirika's fighter backwards. As Kirika frustratedly mashes buttons on her controller, trying to break out of Aunt Illya's attack, a clearly malevolent grin takes over Aunt Illya's face. "Believe me now?" she asks Kirika, after pushing her off the ledge of the arena and costing Kirika her first life.
"Oh, you're on."
You and Oriko take Kirika's challenge as an open invitation to gang up on Aunt Illya. Oriko concentrates, a beaof sweat rolling down her brow as her pink princess wails on Aunt Illya's ice Climbers. She may claim to not be very good at videogames, but when she cheats and uses her precognition to see what her opponent is going to do, Oriko becomes nasty. You've never seen someone in a dress move like that, and you barely have a chance to get an attack in edgewise as Oriko's character rams her parasol into Aunt Illya's character repeatedly. Soon, she's even managed to break out of Aunt Illya's trapping move, and she and Kirika have ganged up on the tiny Eskimos.
"Trade with me." You've barely had the chance to get an attack in when Archer leans over your shoulder, gesturing for the controller in your hand. Since you haven't had much of a chance to attack anyone, you do, and as soon as the controller is in Archer's hands, he- "Damnit."
You stare at Archer, completely shocked at how terrible he is. "You…" In trying to come to Aunt Illya's aid, Archer had accidentally thrown your – now his – character completely off of the arena. "Dad, you kind of suck at this game."
"Do I?" Archer asks you in response. "Or am I just setting them up to make them think I do?"
It was a damn close four-way match towards the end. Kirika and Aunt Illya seemed to get by on their actual skill at the game, and the two constantly made their virtual avatars clash whenever the opportunity or the stage – apparently, the stage was just as much of a character as the players themselves, often throwing out hazards or items that the two were quick to take advantage of – presented itself. Archer and Oriko, meanwhile, got by more on their ability to read what their opponents were doing, always having a counter to someone else's strategy.
But in the end, it's Oriko who claims eventual victory in that match. Despite Archer managing to put up a much better fight than his initial move got you to give him credit for, Oriko's ability to read her opponents went unmatched thanks to her precognition. Nobody says anything to her about it, but after only a brief moment of the game basking in her victory, Oriko quietly hands the controller to Minako once everyone else is finished staring at her.
"Geez, Oriko, I didn't know you were that good at Smash," Kirika says. "We should play more often. I'd totally let you beat me if you wanted."
"Dearest, that's perfectly all right," Oriko replies. "Though, if you wanted it, I suppose I wouldn't be averse to indulging you from time to time."
But Mom is there to clear her throat, and she stares at Oriko and Kirika. "All right, you two, take it easy," she says. "Don't go getting ahead of yourselves, you hear me? Wait until you're older before you start talking about indulging each other." The low growl in her voice as she spoke the word "indulging" leads you to believe that Mom was subtly trying to proposition Archer, or at least keep him distracted long enough to secure a win, since she's up next and he isn't trading off on account of Oriko and Aunt Illya getting the top two places.
But Archer just smiles for Minako, keeping the controller tight in his grasp as he looks her dead in the eye, not even bothering to look at his character selection as he says to her "Maybe you shouldn't be getting ahead of yourself either, Minako. There's children present." Aunt Illya clears her throat, and Archer quickly adds "Well, not all of them are children. But you get the idea."
And speaking of children… The next round starts the same as the previous one. Only, without Aunt Illya there to crowd out the other top performer, it's an easy sweep for Kirika. Almost. . "Hey, no fair!" you hear Kirika shout. "Nobody else gets any help! You big cheater, Homura!"
You look down, seeing the familiar in Homura-shape working the controller beside you. It's seated itself atop the armrest of Oriko's couch, its small hands and short arms wriggling as it rocks the controller back and forth in your grasp, trying to "help" you where it can.. "Don't look at me,' you say, as much to your familiar as you say to Kirika. "I didn't ask for any help."
"Homura…?" From across the couch, you can see that your mom's attempt is coming out much nicer than your own. It only makes sense; she doesn't have to worry about a second set of hands tripping her up as they try to "help" her. "What the heck is that? And why does it look like you?"
"It's one of Akemi-san's newest familiars," Oriko says, not even bothering to spare more than a passing glance at the familiar in you-shape. "They're made from her memories, and they mimic the shapes of people she's close to. I got to meet one shaped like Kirika earlier; aren't they just adorable?"
The familiar of you raises its hands up to its mouth, never minding that it's letting your character get clobbered by a vengeful Kirika as it takes the controller with it as it giggles to itself at Oriko's compliment. "I don't know," Kirika says. "I think they're kinda creepy. Plus I don't like how the one shaped like me was competing for your attention when we met."
"Dearest, it wasn't 'competing' for anything," Oriko replies. "I'll always love you. But I can't help it if something that looks like a tiny, adorable version of you comes along and demands hugs as though it were the real deal." When Kirika continues to pout, Oriko asks her "Can you really say you'd be any different if it were a tiny version of me demanding hugs from you?"
"It's fine, mom," you say, as Minako can only look on in what you assume to be shock and horror at the unfolding conversation. "It doesn't hurt to make them, and they're not really all that much trouble." Aside from the fact that you can barely seem to control the little buggers. "Um… Look on the bright side? Now you get to call yourself a grandmother?"
Mom can only sigh, and she gives you that look. But you can see it in her eyes; if her hands weren't occupied with the game controller she's manipulating, she'd reach over the couch to where you are, and give you a big hug. "Homura, you are too young to be a mother," she says to you. "Don't scare me like that, okay? I love you, and when you and Madoka are ready to have kids, I'll support you all the way. But you're too young."
She's told you much the same, in almost the exact same words, the last time you called yourself a mother to your familiars. But you aren't sure there's a better term, despite agreeing with your mom that you're too young. They came from you, after all, from your memories of the people that are most important to you. Memories of the people that you're scared of losing. So doesn't that make them your children? Do familiars not work that way? How would it work if you were a regular witch?
Should you ask Kanna Niko how she feels about being in a relationship with the person she created?
Except she didn't create Kazumi, did she? She just made a new body for a Kazumi that existed before.
As the familiar of you disappears, you're left to wonder the implications of being a mother to a troupe of familiars, especially ones that seem to be as hard- to control as these five. She ran off with the controller, didn't she? Now there's one less for anyone else who wants to play.
Needless to say, you lost that round, handily.
You stare up at the ceiling of your darkened bedroom, thinking back to the memories you got to share with your family tonight, in the time between dinner's end and when you had to leave for tonight's team meeting. You hold them close to your chest, as you curl up onto your side. You want to cry. Tomorrow will come, and it might be the last time you ever get to see your family in one piece.
It might be the last time you get to see your family, at all.
You want to cry.
Restlessness takes you, and you reach your arm out to your bedside table, where your phone is resting. You don't bother checking the time. It won't make tomorrow come any slower, won't give you any more time to prepare. Tomorrow is happening, no matter how scared of it you are. Instead, you flip to your photo album, and scroll through each of the pictures of you and your family that you've taken over the past thirteen months. There's you and Kirika, flanked by Madoka and Oriko, dressed in the bright red uniforms of Shirome Junior High, on your first day back to school after Walpurgisnacht's passing. Minako was behind the camera that day, and you can still remember the wistful smile on her face as she said goodbye to the four of you that day.
Archer hadn't come back yet.
There's summer break, last year. Oriko let you borrow the keys to her summer home while she and Nurse Ortensia went to Italy to see their relatives. It was nice to be back at the beach on Lake Ashi, but the picture of you and Kirika, donned in your bathing suits with Mount Fuji in the background, is missing something.
Archer still hadn't come back.
It isn't until you reach September of last year, that Archer starts to show himself in your pictures. There's one of a day in mid-September, of just the four of you. You're all smiling, looking at the camera as though nothing could ever go wrong again. Your finger slips, and you scroll over to Kirika's sixteenth birthday party. She looks so happy; she's not even looking at her presents, or at Oriko who is clearly taking the picture, or at Amy who had snuck into the corner of the picture, cake frosting somehow all over her fur. She's looking at Archer, just glad that he's finally there with the rest of you.
There's Halloween of last year, barely a month after Kirika's birthday. You and she are dressed as two characters who, according to her, were supposed to be sisters; you in a frilly black gothic dress, holding in your arms Amy, who has apparently been dressed in purple pyjamas to make her look like half of a cat skeleton. Pink stripes streak your hair, and you remember how it had taken weeks for the hair dye Kirika used on you to fade, but she was lucky enough to get away with a wig. Blonde, long, and spikey, she's wearing a slim red dress and posing seductively. Oriko must have been holding the camera for that one, you think to yourself.
There's pictures from Christmas of last year; the first Christmas you've gotten to spend with a family in an eternity. Oriko was away in Italy for winter break, and you had to keep reminding Amy to not eat the tinsel on the tree. It was a small celebration, crammed unceremoniously into the tiny former Kure apartment, where you had all been staying until school at Mitakihara Junior High started up in the spring. You're glad to be out of that apartment, and back here, back home.
It's only home when the rest of your family is here with you.
You scroll some more, passing quickly over a few pictures taken on your fifteenth birthday, until you come to photos taken at this year's graduation ceremony. Tears stream down Kirika's face as she hugs Oriko, diploma scrolls in both of their hands. This time last year, none of you were even sure if Kirika would graduate junior high at all. But she managed to pull through, and even make it into the same high school as Oriko.
There's no pictures from Kirika's high school opening ceremony; the next time every member of your family is in a picture together, it's summer, and Kirika is about to leave to spend her summer vacation in Italy with Oriko and Nurse Ortensia. But before dropping the three of them off at Tokyo airport, your family spent the day wandering around the Tokyo metro area, making a day trip out of saying goodbye to Kirika. You have plenty of pictures of you and your family, plus Oriko and Nurse Ortensia, as you all wander through the streets of Tokyo, with plenty more pictures inside the airport once it was time to say goodbye.
That had been the first time you or Mom had ever been in an airport before, and you don't think you'll forget the experience. That had been the first time Kirika went off to another country.
Mom always wanted Kirika to be able to see more of the world than just the streets of Mitakihara.
There's nothing major during the six-week stretch that Kirika was gone for. The next time the four of you are together in a photograph is for Kirika's seventeenth birthday party. She's surrounded by torn wrapping paper as she sits at your kitchen table, unwrapping the dark grey, almost-black jacket with the detached sleeves that mom and dad got her for her birthday. Mom and dad are smiling as she poses for the camera wearing her new jacket, and in the back of a few pictures, you can see Oriko looking on her girlfriend with a smile on her face.
Then, there is nothing. Your pictures end, and you hold your phone close to your chest. This time, you really do cry. Archer; Kirika; Mom; you haven't had a family in so long, that before the three of them came into your life you had forgotten how much it hurt to not have a family. You can't go back to that. You can't go back to feeling that emptiness inside your heart. When tomorrow comes, you have to do everything in your power to keep your family safe.
You bury your head into your pillow as your tears fall, muffling your cries so you don't wake up anyone else, and you let sleep take you as you continue to hold your phone close to your chest. Your phone is just a symbol for the memories you have of your family.
You will keep your family safe. No matter what it takes, you will not let Sidonia harm your family any more than she already has.
- Location
- Around here
Here it is, 29-37, the last day before the last day. I'll be honest, writing this one scared me. Tomorrow scares me. I've cocked up so much about the sequel, that I'm honestly scared for my ability to turn tomorrow into a satisfying conclusion. I know tomorrow will never be good enough to match up to the Walpurgisnacht fight from the last quest, but I'm scared that it won't be good enough, at all. I've almost certainly already blown my chance at seeing the 3quel that concludes the Confringentur trilogy with my terrible mismanagement, and I'm terrified that I'll handle tomorrow so terribly that we won't even make it through until the end of the day.
I'll be absent tomorrow, but I have something special planned for both the 19th and 20th. We'll be picking up with Day 30 on the 21st, and I've booked us for until the end of the year to complete the sequel.
Happy two-year anniversary, to the few of you who have actually stuck with me through this entire journey. Thank you. We literally would not be here today if it weren't for all of you.
I'll be absent tomorrow, but I have something special planned for both the 19th and 20th. We'll be picking up with Day 30 on the 21st, and I've booked us for until the end of the year to complete the sequel.
Happy two-year anniversary, to the few of you who have actually stuck with me through this entire journey. Thank you. We literally would not be here today if it weren't for all of you.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong or anything, because I know that'd be bullshit, and you would know I'm lying. But even if this isn't exactly the highest note in the series, I'm still confident that we can at least end this with a bang, and not a whimper. And hey, once this is done, maybe you can finally take a rest for a bit. I've got high hopes. See you in a few days, I suppose. Man, I suck ass at inspirational messages.
Oh, Panty and Stocking, huh? I guess they do kind of have that vibe going, although Homura is a bit less gluttonous than Stocking.
- Location
- Around here
You want to talk about not being able to take a rest? Had I not cocked things up as badly as I did, the 3quel would have been slated to start on January 7th of next year.
... I would still like to do the 3quel at some point. It doesn't feel right ending a trilogy without actually giving it the third installment it was planned to include. I just know that I've blown all the goodwill to continue this series that I'd built up following the Walpurgisnacht fight and I'll probably never get the chance to.
Yeah, but only because Madoka isn't the one making her sweets. If Madoka ever becomes a baker, Homura had better watch out. Her caloric intake will skyrocket.
Hmm. What would have the threequel been based on? Rebellion Story? MagiReco? I think I like the former more, but I can see the latter work better.
- Location
- Around here
Neither. The entirety of Confringentur is technically a cosmic sequel to Rebellion whose purpose is to prevent the laws of the universe from being rewritten, and MagiReco was slated to be its own installment, which would have been part 5. The 3quel was going to address the ramifications of Madoka having the power of a god, and would have pit Homura and co. against Enforcers from the Mage's Association who are trying to claim Madoka and the divine power for themselves. Honestly, think more along the lines of Symphogear's 5th season than anything the Madoka Magica franchise has ever done.
Well, now I'm curious about part 4. Can't leave me hanging like that!
- Location
- Around here
Part 4 would have been the Confringentur universe's equivalent to Suzune Magica. I can't really say more than that, because it was actually the most recent entry in development. Originally, this was just going to be a duology, not a trilogy, focusing on Homura, Archer, and how everything unfolded for them. At the time, I had no plans for the Suzune Magica cast, and no plans to take things any further than the ending of part 2, which in the initial stages of development was considerably more stacked than what you see here now. Honestly, a lot of the stuff that was in the original draft of the sequel got trashed, and it was around that time that I started thinking I should make this a trilogy instead, with part 3 poviding the conclusion that had been cut from the original draft of part 2. Then MagiRreco entered development early last year, and was originally slated to be part 4. Then, somewhere along the line, I hit on an idea for the Suzune Magica girls, and somehow that then became the new part 4, with MagiReco being pushed back to part 5.
Omake, side Nightingale - Last Night and Tonight
- Location
- Around here
"Not again…"
Night had fallen over Mitkaihara, and the lights were off in the warehouse temporarily housing the Pleiades Saints. Where Lancer, Rider, or Berserker were, Assassin couldn't say. She wished she knew; wished one of them were here, able to stop her before she did something she knew in her heart she would regret. But the scalpel in her hand, and the voice whispering in her ear, commanded her to do it, and she didn't know for how long she could resist their siren call.
Silent as the night she had cloaked herself in, Assassin stood over the bed that her master shared with Lancer's, watching as the couple slept soundly together. Niko was the taller of the pair, but she slept curled up on her side, while Kazumi slept spread out, making her appear the taller presence in their shared bed. She stood over them, watching, stalking, scalpel clenched tight in her trembling hand.
"Do it," the voice in her head commanded. Its every word was like a pounding headache, like poison working its way deep into every crevice of her body. "Do it."
But somehow, Assassin held onto herself for long enough that she was able to pull herself back to reality. The voice in her head was poison; every word it spoke it spoke of corruption, destruction, evil intent. She would not listen to the voice which told her to kill her master.
"Former master, you mean," the voice corrected her. "She's no longer your master, is she? Why resist? Why struggle? It's just a simple cut across the neck. She won't even notice."
"I will notice."
Assassin tore herself away from her master's bedside, and made haste to the toilet as a powerful wave of nausea overwhelmed her senses. She just barely made it, falling to her knees and retching into the bowl a thick black sludge. Some of it missed the bowl, splattering across her shoes and down the front of her skirt, but Assassin paid no mind to her mess as she stood, wiping the sludge from her lips as she gazed into the mirror at her reflection.
Pale yellow irises stared back at her, and as Assassin's free hand – the one in which a scalpel was not still tightly clenched – tore at the buttons of her shirt's collar, she saw thin black veins trailing up her neck. "Damnit…" she muttered. "Not again."
For what felt like several minutes, Assassin stood still, glaring at her reflection as she attempted to will the accursed marks off of her person. "Pain for pain," she muttered, slamming the backside of her hand against the porcelain of the sink. A wave of shooting pain blossomed from her knuckle; a significant bruise, but Assassin could tell just from the feel of her hand that it wasn't broken. Still…
Assassin could see the veins of black receding, slowly, as the throbbing pain in her hand fought back against the corruption, giving her something else besides the erosion of her soul to focus on. Breathing heavily, Assassin stared at her reflection. Her eyes were still ringed with yellow, and the black veins in her neck hadn't receded completely. She knew she would need to give her body another push.
Then, as her eyes fell on the scalpel still clutched tightly in her other hand, an idea passed through Assassin's head, and she knew what she had to do.
She clenched her jaw, tightly, and drove the hand holding the scalpel deep into the palm of her other hand, rocking the tool back and forth until a crater of blood had formed in the center of her hand. The pain was immense, monstrous, throbbing waves washing over her. She wanted to scream, to let loose the pain she had inflicted on herself out into the world, but she held her mouth shut. Seconds passed. Sweat rolled down from her brow, and Assassin dared to look at her reflection in the mirror again. She forced the lump in her throat to recede as she saw the pale gold fade from her eyes, and the black veins recede completely.
All it had cost her was the use of her left hand. Next time, she knew, she wouldn't be so lucky.
Absent the temptations of the voice inside her head, Assassin let the scalpel fall from her right hand's grip. It clattered to the floor, flecking the tiles with tiny specks of red. It was nothing compared to the gargantuan stain left behind in the sink. As the reality of what she had done to herself sank in, Assassin hastily reached for some paper towels, wrapping her left hand up and doing what she could with the supplies immediately on-hand to staunch the bleeding, while also trying to wipe away the large blood stains discolouring the sink and the tiled floor of the toilet.
When her task was complete, Assassin made haste back to the closet she had set up in the warehouse, where she kept all of her medical supplies. Her wound would need to be disinfected, sutured, and bandaged, all before anyone else noticed her movements. At the time, she wasn't even thinking about coming up with a credible excuse for her injury.
She was just glad to have thrown back the temptation of that voice to kill her master. Her real master. Making excuses could come later.
Kazumi and Niko had sequestered themselves away for the night, taking refuge in the room they shared away from the rest of their teammates. How Kaoru, Umika, Saki, or Mirai wanted to spend their last remaining night wasn't their concern. Their concern was solely with each other.
"… So, do you know what's going to happen to Kanna after tomorrow?"
Well, each other, and the mutual complication that sat between them. Not literally, of course. Hijiri Kanna was sleeping in quarters that had been given to her, since Kazumi, spending the night with Niko, didn't need them anymore. That left the two of them free to be alone with their thoughts, and with each other.
"After speaking with her- My- Our, parents-" It took Niko several attempts to not stumble through what she wanted to say, but the look on her face as she settled on her last attempt showed some measure of peace with her decision. "I was able to convince them to take her back," Niko said. "They were… Hesitant, is probably not the right word to describe their reaction."
Niko could still hear her parents arguing in her mind's ear, neither her mother or father sounded sure of her decision, or of their decision towards the end of it. "But, I felt I had to convince them. Kanna is my mistake, but…" Niko's voice trailed off, and it took her several seconds of staring at Kazumi's face, her mouth silently making an "Oh" sound as words failed her each time she tried to speak them, before she could find the courage to say "But I'm my parents' mistake. They always knew I was troubled by… What I'd done, back then, but they never tried hard enough to get me the help they knew I should have gotten."
Niko's hands clenched up, and they didn't relax again until they felt Kazumi's hands envelop them. "So in the end, the three of us came to an agreement. I'd give being their daughter another shot, if they would give letting Kanna be their daughter another shot. We're not really sure how we're going to make there being two of us work, when our family register only shows one of me, but if we're going to try being a family again, then I wanted us to do it the right way."
Kazumi smiled, and as she leaned in to kiss her girlfriend she said "I'm really proud of you, Niko." Another kiss, and the promise of more to come, helped to seal Kazumi's words. "The you I remember when I first got here wouldn't have been willing to step up and make such a big change in herself like that. You've really come a long way?"
"Have I?" Niko looked away, until the gentle touch of Kazumi's fingers on her chin turned her gaze back towards her girlfriend. "I don't feel any different. I just feel… Like I'm doing the things I should have done from the start."
"That's still a big change from the Niko you used to be,' Kazumi said. "Even if you don't think you feel any different, I think you've really grown a lot."
"Then it's all thanks to you," Niko said to Kazumi. She leaned in, getting a bit more aggressive with her kisses. "If you weren't around to keep me in line, Kazumi, I…" Niko stopped herself. "I really don't know what I'd do."
Their lips met, and for what felt like an eternity, all Kazumi and Niko's world was centered on each other. Somewhere along the way, as the pair continued to kiss, ever more passionately, they had fallen over, and Kazumi now lay on top of Niko. Quickly, she picked herself up, straddling Niko's waist, and Niko's hands kept Kazumi in place as they continued to kiss, oblivious to the world around them.
"You know, when people find you two in a pile like this, it really makes it hard to take you seriously when you say you're going to wait until the young miss has finished her schooling."
Their faces were beet-red as Assassin's voice tore Kazumi and Niko apart, and they stayed like that, staring at Assassin with stunned, open-mouthed expressions frozen on their faces. "It's not like that!" Kazumi squeaked, quickly throwing a pillow at Assassin's face as she and Niko scrambled to pose themselves presentably for their guest. "Really, Assassin, that's not fair!"
Assassin could only smile, and she kept her laughter to herself as she said "I just wanted to let the two of you know that Mikuni's servant arrived a few minutes ago. She was giving these out." In Assassin's hands were a pair of rings. "She says they're luck charms, to protect us in case Sidonia orders Caster to use his Noble Phantasm against us. She also wanted to collect the spare transmitter rings from us that we weren't using, since her master wanted to make another set for herself to keep Kure well-regulated as well."
Niko nodded her head. "Thank you, Assassin," she said. "Was that all?"
Assassin nods her head. "I gave her the transmitters from Umika and Saki," she says. "That still leaves us with one left over; the one you're wearing. Whether you'd prefer to keep it for yourself, or whether you think Mirai would prefer receiving additional support from Saki and want to give it to her, that's up to you."
Niko nodded her head, but kept the transmitter for herself. "I'd say to give this to Umika instead," Niko said. "She's got the most mana of anyone on our team outside of Kazumi. But she'll also need than mana more than I will. Her versatility is going to come in handy tomorrow, and since my ultimate magic attack would be useless against Sidonia, I'd rather it be my mana Mirai is drawing from than Umika's. It's not like I'll need it as much as Umika will."
Assassin nodded her head, and said "I'll let Mirai know, in that case."
As she turned to leave, Assassin's bandaged hand briefly passed in front of Niko's field of view, and she stopped. "How is your hand doing?" Niko asked.
Assassin did what she could to hide the injured hand from her master, but decided to give up when it was clear that hiding it wouldn't hide the fact that she'd already been spotted. "It's doing better than it was last night," she said. "Thank you for inquiring, master. I appreciate it."
Niko nodded her head; "And I appreciate everything you've done for me,' Niko replied. "So we're even." Master and servant smiled for each other, and after a "Take care, Assassin," Niko's servant saw her way out. The door closed behind her, but it took several seconds for the awkwardness of being caught to settle before Niko had the courage to ask Kazumi "Now, where were we?"
The couple were nowhere near as quiet a pair of kissers as they thought, and through the door to their room, Assassin could hear everything; their kisses, the whispered nothings that passed between them, the rustle of their clothing and the bedsheets as their bodies found more comfortable purchase on which to kiss.
Assassin didn't judge them. She smiled, and as she walked away to deliver the news to Mirai, she looked at her bandaged hand. She tried to flex her fingers, but whether from the damage she'd inflicted to herself last night, the tightness of her bandaging, or the painful tug of the stitches that now kept her palm closed, Assassin could do little more than an ineffectual curling of her fingertips.
She still smiled, of course, despite the pain, because the voice in her head which commanded her to kill her master was gone. She would do whatever it took to protect her master, no matter the cost.
Night had fallen over Mitkaihara, and the lights were off in the warehouse temporarily housing the Pleiades Saints. Where Lancer, Rider, or Berserker were, Assassin couldn't say. She wished she knew; wished one of them were here, able to stop her before she did something she knew in her heart she would regret. But the scalpel in her hand, and the voice whispering in her ear, commanded her to do it, and she didn't know for how long she could resist their siren call.
Silent as the night she had cloaked herself in, Assassin stood over the bed that her master shared with Lancer's, watching as the couple slept soundly together. Niko was the taller of the pair, but she slept curled up on her side, while Kazumi slept spread out, making her appear the taller presence in their shared bed. She stood over them, watching, stalking, scalpel clenched tight in her trembling hand.
"Do it," the voice in her head commanded. Its every word was like a pounding headache, like poison working its way deep into every crevice of her body. "Do it."
But somehow, Assassin held onto herself for long enough that she was able to pull herself back to reality. The voice in her head was poison; every word it spoke it spoke of corruption, destruction, evil intent. She would not listen to the voice which told her to kill her master.
"Former master, you mean," the voice corrected her. "She's no longer your master, is she? Why resist? Why struggle? It's just a simple cut across the neck. She won't even notice."
"I will notice."
Assassin tore herself away from her master's bedside, and made haste to the toilet as a powerful wave of nausea overwhelmed her senses. She just barely made it, falling to her knees and retching into the bowl a thick black sludge. Some of it missed the bowl, splattering across her shoes and down the front of her skirt, but Assassin paid no mind to her mess as she stood, wiping the sludge from her lips as she gazed into the mirror at her reflection.
Pale yellow irises stared back at her, and as Assassin's free hand – the one in which a scalpel was not still tightly clenched – tore at the buttons of her shirt's collar, she saw thin black veins trailing up her neck. "Damnit…" she muttered. "Not again."
For what felt like several minutes, Assassin stood still, glaring at her reflection as she attempted to will the accursed marks off of her person. "Pain for pain," she muttered, slamming the backside of her hand against the porcelain of the sink. A wave of shooting pain blossomed from her knuckle; a significant bruise, but Assassin could tell just from the feel of her hand that it wasn't broken. Still…
Assassin could see the veins of black receding, slowly, as the throbbing pain in her hand fought back against the corruption, giving her something else besides the erosion of her soul to focus on. Breathing heavily, Assassin stared at her reflection. Her eyes were still ringed with yellow, and the black veins in her neck hadn't receded completely. She knew she would need to give her body another push.
Then, as her eyes fell on the scalpel still clutched tightly in her other hand, an idea passed through Assassin's head, and she knew what she had to do.
She clenched her jaw, tightly, and drove the hand holding the scalpel deep into the palm of her other hand, rocking the tool back and forth until a crater of blood had formed in the center of her hand. The pain was immense, monstrous, throbbing waves washing over her. She wanted to scream, to let loose the pain she had inflicted on herself out into the world, but she held her mouth shut. Seconds passed. Sweat rolled down from her brow, and Assassin dared to look at her reflection in the mirror again. She forced the lump in her throat to recede as she saw the pale gold fade from her eyes, and the black veins recede completely.
All it had cost her was the use of her left hand. Next time, she knew, she wouldn't be so lucky.
Absent the temptations of the voice inside her head, Assassin let the scalpel fall from her right hand's grip. It clattered to the floor, flecking the tiles with tiny specks of red. It was nothing compared to the gargantuan stain left behind in the sink. As the reality of what she had done to herself sank in, Assassin hastily reached for some paper towels, wrapping her left hand up and doing what she could with the supplies immediately on-hand to staunch the bleeding, while also trying to wipe away the large blood stains discolouring the sink and the tiled floor of the toilet.
When her task was complete, Assassin made haste back to the closet she had set up in the warehouse, where she kept all of her medical supplies. Her wound would need to be disinfected, sutured, and bandaged, all before anyone else noticed her movements. At the time, she wasn't even thinking about coming up with a credible excuse for her injury.
She was just glad to have thrown back the temptation of that voice to kill her master. Her real master. Making excuses could come later.
Kazumi and Niko had sequestered themselves away for the night, taking refuge in the room they shared away from the rest of their teammates. How Kaoru, Umika, Saki, or Mirai wanted to spend their last remaining night wasn't their concern. Their concern was solely with each other.
"… So, do you know what's going to happen to Kanna after tomorrow?"
Well, each other, and the mutual complication that sat between them. Not literally, of course. Hijiri Kanna was sleeping in quarters that had been given to her, since Kazumi, spending the night with Niko, didn't need them anymore. That left the two of them free to be alone with their thoughts, and with each other.
"After speaking with her- My- Our, parents-" It took Niko several attempts to not stumble through what she wanted to say, but the look on her face as she settled on her last attempt showed some measure of peace with her decision. "I was able to convince them to take her back," Niko said. "They were… Hesitant, is probably not the right word to describe their reaction."
Niko could still hear her parents arguing in her mind's ear, neither her mother or father sounded sure of her decision, or of their decision towards the end of it. "But, I felt I had to convince them. Kanna is my mistake, but…" Niko's voice trailed off, and it took her several seconds of staring at Kazumi's face, her mouth silently making an "Oh" sound as words failed her each time she tried to speak them, before she could find the courage to say "But I'm my parents' mistake. They always knew I was troubled by… What I'd done, back then, but they never tried hard enough to get me the help they knew I should have gotten."
Niko's hands clenched up, and they didn't relax again until they felt Kazumi's hands envelop them. "So in the end, the three of us came to an agreement. I'd give being their daughter another shot, if they would give letting Kanna be their daughter another shot. We're not really sure how we're going to make there being two of us work, when our family register only shows one of me, but if we're going to try being a family again, then I wanted us to do it the right way."
Kazumi smiled, and as she leaned in to kiss her girlfriend she said "I'm really proud of you, Niko." Another kiss, and the promise of more to come, helped to seal Kazumi's words. "The you I remember when I first got here wouldn't have been willing to step up and make such a big change in herself like that. You've really come a long way?"
"Have I?" Niko looked away, until the gentle touch of Kazumi's fingers on her chin turned her gaze back towards her girlfriend. "I don't feel any different. I just feel… Like I'm doing the things I should have done from the start."
"That's still a big change from the Niko you used to be,' Kazumi said. "Even if you don't think you feel any different, I think you've really grown a lot."
"Then it's all thanks to you," Niko said to Kazumi. She leaned in, getting a bit more aggressive with her kisses. "If you weren't around to keep me in line, Kazumi, I…" Niko stopped herself. "I really don't know what I'd do."
Their lips met, and for what felt like an eternity, all Kazumi and Niko's world was centered on each other. Somewhere along the way, as the pair continued to kiss, ever more passionately, they had fallen over, and Kazumi now lay on top of Niko. Quickly, she picked herself up, straddling Niko's waist, and Niko's hands kept Kazumi in place as they continued to kiss, oblivious to the world around them.
"You know, when people find you two in a pile like this, it really makes it hard to take you seriously when you say you're going to wait until the young miss has finished her schooling."
Their faces were beet-red as Assassin's voice tore Kazumi and Niko apart, and they stayed like that, staring at Assassin with stunned, open-mouthed expressions frozen on their faces. "It's not like that!" Kazumi squeaked, quickly throwing a pillow at Assassin's face as she and Niko scrambled to pose themselves presentably for their guest. "Really, Assassin, that's not fair!"
Assassin could only smile, and she kept her laughter to herself as she said "I just wanted to let the two of you know that Mikuni's servant arrived a few minutes ago. She was giving these out." In Assassin's hands were a pair of rings. "She says they're luck charms, to protect us in case Sidonia orders Caster to use his Noble Phantasm against us. She also wanted to collect the spare transmitter rings from us that we weren't using, since her master wanted to make another set for herself to keep Kure well-regulated as well."
Niko nodded her head. "Thank you, Assassin," she said. "Was that all?"
Assassin nods her head. "I gave her the transmitters from Umika and Saki," she says. "That still leaves us with one left over; the one you're wearing. Whether you'd prefer to keep it for yourself, or whether you think Mirai would prefer receiving additional support from Saki and want to give it to her, that's up to you."
Niko nodded her head, but kept the transmitter for herself. "I'd say to give this to Umika instead," Niko said. "She's got the most mana of anyone on our team outside of Kazumi. But she'll also need than mana more than I will. Her versatility is going to come in handy tomorrow, and since my ultimate magic attack would be useless against Sidonia, I'd rather it be my mana Mirai is drawing from than Umika's. It's not like I'll need it as much as Umika will."
Assassin nodded her head, and said "I'll let Mirai know, in that case."
As she turned to leave, Assassin's bandaged hand briefly passed in front of Niko's field of view, and she stopped. "How is your hand doing?" Niko asked.
Assassin did what she could to hide the injured hand from her master, but decided to give up when it was clear that hiding it wouldn't hide the fact that she'd already been spotted. "It's doing better than it was last night," she said. "Thank you for inquiring, master. I appreciate it."
Niko nodded her head; "And I appreciate everything you've done for me,' Niko replied. "So we're even." Master and servant smiled for each other, and after a "Take care, Assassin," Niko's servant saw her way out. The door closed behind her, but it took several seconds for the awkwardness of being caught to settle before Niko had the courage to ask Kazumi "Now, where were we?"
The couple were nowhere near as quiet a pair of kissers as they thought, and through the door to their room, Assassin could hear everything; their kisses, the whispered nothings that passed between them, the rustle of their clothing and the bedsheets as their bodies found more comfortable purchase on which to kiss.
Assassin didn't judge them. She smiled, and as she walked away to deliver the news to Mirai, she looked at her bandaged hand. She tried to flex her fingers, but whether from the damage she'd inflicted to herself last night, the tightness of her bandaging, or the painful tug of the stitches that now kept her palm closed, Assassin could do little more than an ineffectual curling of her fingertips.
She still smiled, of course, despite the pain, because the voice in her head which commanded her to kill her master was gone. She would do whatever it took to protect her master, no matter the cost.
- Location
- Around here
One last omake to tide us over until the twenty-first. Niko, Kanna, and their family are going to give being a family another try, Kazumi is proud of Niko for making as much progress as she's made with her mental health, the pair are obnoxious, sappy kissers, and now Nightingale doubts that they'll actually make it to Kazumi's graduation before getting into anything more serious than just kissing. Also, now we get to find out what happened to Nightingale's hand that would have necessitated her to bandage it up, and we've found out just how important it was to seal off Sidonia's access to her. God only knows how long she's been fighting that off for it to have come that far, but God bless her loyalty to Niko.
"But wait," I hear you saying, "SVS, you said you'd have something planned for us on the 20th as well. So how is this the last omake?" Fret not, my children. I've got something else special planned for the 20th. But you'll have to wait and see what that is.
"But wait," I hear you saying, "SVS, you said you'd have something planned for us on the 20th as well. So how is this the last omake?" Fret not, my children. I've got something else special planned for the 20th. But you'll have to wait and see what that is.
Day 30 Chapter 0
- Location
- Around here
"Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill; and Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill again
Repeat eight times until each is filled, then unleash their curses upon the land."
"For my Element I give tribute, Svarog; and my Origin, Marzana;
For the heavens, Perun; and for the god of my ancestors, Veles."
"Heed my words: My purpose creates your body, and your vengeance creates my destiny.
If you heed the Great Seed's call, and obey my malevolent purpose, then answer my summoning!"
"I hereby swear that I shall be all the evil in the world.
That I shall defeat all good in the world."
"So let thine eyes be clouded with the fog of rage and vengeance.
Thou, who are cloaked in a veil o f terror, and I the summoner who holds they chains!"
"By the eight-pointed sigil inscribed upon the Great Seed's seal,
Come forth from the circles of torment, guardian of despair!"
Repeat eight times until each is filled, then unleash their curses upon the land."
"For my Element I give tribute, Svarog; and my Origin, Marzana;
For the heavens, Perun; and for the god of my ancestors, Veles."
"Heed my words: My purpose creates your body, and your vengeance creates my destiny.
If you heed the Great Seed's call, and obey my malevolent purpose, then answer my summoning!"
"I hereby swear that I shall be all the evil in the world.
That I shall defeat all good in the world."
"So let thine eyes be clouded with the fog of rage and vengeance.
Thou, who are cloaked in a veil o f terror, and I the summoner who holds they chains!"
"By the eight-pointed sigil inscribed upon the Great Seed's seal,
Come forth from the circles of torment, guardian of despair!"
- Location
- Around here
I'm glad it had the desired result. I wanted to replicate what I did with the Walpurgisnacht fight last time, if you'll refer to 47-0 of the previous quest. Believe it or not, this actually took me a lot longer to figure out than it looks for just being six two-line stanzas. I wanted to give her a summoning incantation that echoed the familiar one we're all used to, but that was also it's own thing entirely, referencing what she's up to rather than being a boilerplate summoning chant that's shared among masters with only a line or two different for picking out specific classes.
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well that gives me a bit of fear. IIRC Angra Mainyu's still inside someone (replaced Bazett's lost arm originally, not sure where he is in this timeline), and she mentions Walpurgisnacht-related things, and I don't know where this is going to go. I hope she didn't manage to get past us without getting our attention and just wake up Walpy outright.
Oh no, that's what she did, didn't she?
Those alarms we set up around her workshop have been completely useless.
- Location
- Around here
I think he's just gone now. Bazett has another arm, and I think if he were out there Caren would be trying to find a way to get back to him. In terms of what's canon to actual TM lore, I can't say where Avenger is, but I've always written things as though he had gone back to wherever he came from.
EDIT: Somehow, despite more people seeing the omake on the 19th, this was the one that got more engagement. While that's fine and all in a vacuum, I had been counting on the engagement from both of them pushing us over the page threshold in time for 30-1. So hopefully, @NMS, @PlaguePaladin, @K4lepo, and @Riku_Furude will help me to push us past these last four posts until the page turn.
Last edited:
PlaguePaladin
The Bird Lady
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Unfortunately, I don't have much to say about the other omake. Sorry. I guess what I can say is that Nightingale is probably not going to be the level of healer that she would otherwise be in this fight, which is pretty bad. A good question to ask is if we should have Boudica berserk or sane tomorrow? If she's sane she can be a buff train, but if she's insane she's probably going to do some wild damage.
Maybe we should just start this engagement by throwing all of our collective giant beam-swords at Sidonia. It probably won't finish the fight, but it'll hurt a damn lot, especially if she's floating like Walpurgisnacht and can hence be in a position where we can aim her away from the city.
Sorry for not having a lot to talk about.
- Location
- Around here
She just needs another hand, right? Well, who else do we have that isn't using theirs? It's not ideal, but we can always tell Kanna that if she wants to be extra-helpful, she can be Nightingale's left hand. Just an idea.
... I swear I didn't set things up like that. It wasn't intentional.
It's okay, we just have to switch Nightingale over to her Santa mode. She only needs one hand to use her medicine machine gun.
- Location
- Around here
What? What the fuck?