[X] Let her go, but not before she agrees to have lunch with the rest of the group.
-[X] And also tells us how she gets her hair so cool
"Tomorrow, everyone's going to meet for lunch," you say. "Big Sis and Madoka and Seikyu and even Yuma! You should come with us!"
She turns her gaze to you, eyes cold.
"I must decline," she says. "I doubt I would be welcomed by Sayaka Miki and Madoka Kaname. My presence would only serve to hinder any cooperation between your two groups."
"Then you need to come even more! We're supposed to try and get along, so if they don't like you, then that's just more reason to talk things out with them!"
She shakes her head, patience thinning.
"Any gains that you and Kyoko Sakura could make from this talk would be lessened by my presence. Sayaka Miki truly does hate me, and would most likely associate the three of us as being a group if I joined on your behalf."
"And then she can think of the five of us as a group!" you say. "We can all work together, you don't need to stay away from them!"
"Look, Homura," says Big Sis. "You seem pretty cool, so I'll put it like this; if I'm suffering through this, you can sure as hell suffer with me."
She rubs her forehead with her palm and glares at you.
"Pretty please?" you say.
"If you so desperately insist, I guess I could accompany you to this lunch. But mark my words-"
"Yay!" you say, rushing forwards and hugging her. Despite her diminutive stature, you yourself only come up to her chest. If you went by the Personalized Standards Of Small, then you would be forced to rate her as tall, but you shun such self-centered ways of addressing the smallness of a person.
She freezes when you make contact, muscles instinctively stiffening. She relaxes after a second, but only slightly, and you think you may have taken her by surprise.
"Would you please release me?" she says, teeth gritted. You comply, of course, stepping back and beaming at her. She can't seem to decide whether to be angry, shocked, or pleasantly surprised, and she falls back to what you believe to be her default emotion of tired contempt.
"Why on earth did you feel the need to hug me?" she says, anger dissipating.
"Because you looked like you needed a hug," you say. "Maybe if you come to lunch with us, you'll get hugged there! But by who… Big Sis isn't the hugging strangers type, Sayaka doesn't seem to like you, but she doesn't seem to like most people, and Madoka… That's it! If you come to the lunch, Madoka will hug you!"
She stares at you, obviously in awe of your indisputable logic. After all, people call such assumptions 'leaps in logic' and leaps are exercise, which is good, so jumping to conclusions must be good for you!
"Nevertheless, I will be at the lunch, regardless of whether or not Madoka provides me with hugs. I will see you then."
She turns away, flipping her hair, and you're once again struck by just how cool she looks.
"Wait!" you say. "Just one more thing. How do you get your hair to look so cool? Do you use magic?"
She stares at you, too tired to glare properly.
"Yes," she says. "I use magic. I use costly magic at all times of the day in order to make my hair seem cool, because I am a wise person who understands the concept of resource management and can comprehend the idea of scarcity. That is exactly what I do."
Kyoko snickers, and you feel your cheeks heating up.
Homura turns away and leaves, this time without being interrupted, and you stand alone in the alleyway with Big Sis Kyoko.
"So, you wanna head back home?" says Big Sis, hands resting behind her head.
"Yeah," you say. "Yuma's getting a bit tired. You know the way?"
Kyoko nods, and you follow her down the streets.
She does know the way, and within minutes the two of you are sitting on the couch of your hotel room, watching some sitcom. You're not sure if it's British or American, but you are sure that the Japanese voice actors are very unsuited to the roles they play.
"It will be some time before I want to sacrifice another monkey," says one of them, the bearded one.
"WE SAID WE WOULDN'T TALK ABOUT CANADA!" screams the drunkard.
You and Big Sis share a chuckle, and you lean your head against her shoulder.
"What, you getting sleepy?" she says.
You nod, trying and failing to hold back a yawn.
"Then let's get ya to bed, twerp."
Big Sis click off the TV, picking you up bridal-style and bringing you to the huge bed at the end of the room.
The two of you used to look for rooms with two beds, but quickly realized that getting single-bed rooms was just easier. You would sleep in Kyoko's bed whenever you had a nightmare (which happened more than you like to admit,) and you would go to sleep with her whenever she had nightmares (which happened more than she liked to admit).
Kyoko pulls the covers over you before going around to the other side of the bed. You can hear her getting in, and you fight the urge to close your eyes and drift off into sleep.
You can feel a question burning in the back of your mind, something she's brushed off whenever you asked about it before. She said she would tell you later, when you actually needed to know, and you figure now is the time to ask.
Because despite how important she apparently was, you still have no idea just who Mami Tomoe was
You know that she and Kyoko knew each other before you came into the picture, and you know she died recently, but that's it.
"Yuma, what's wrong?" says Big Sis. "You're fidgeting like crazy. Don't tell me you're really that excited to have lunch with some weirdos?"
You want to know more about Mami Tomoe, but you're not sure if Kyoko's ready to tell you. You wish you could say that Big Sis will tell you when she's ready to, but you know she won't. Not unless you ask her.
But you don't necessarily have to ask her now….
What do you do?
[ ] Ask about Mami Tomoe.
[ ] Brush it off and go to sleep.
Next update may or may not be hella late, depending on whether or not my place in Stratford has functioning internet.
