Puella Magi Adfligo Systema - Story only

[Firnagzen]

You shrug indifferently as the Incubator scampers up to you. "It was more efficient than walking across the bridge," you say drily. The thought of finding out what an Incubator tastes like briefly crosses your mind, but you dismiss the thought as probably a bad idea.

The Incubator makes a begging motion to be picked up, which you ignore, simply directing upon it an icy gaze. It quickly gives up, and hops on to a nearby piece of venting so as to be closer to eye level to you, and you fold your arms behind you back while tilting your head just so to look down upon it.

"However, measures had to be taken to avoid the existence of magic from being revealed," Kyuubey notes.

"That," you say with a ghost of satisfaction, "is your concern, Kyuubey."

"This is true," Kyuubey says. "Very well, then. What did you wish to talk about?"

"Hm," you mutter, pulling on your power and allowing the Grief cloud you'd been carrying with you to swirl around you, before a twist of your will compresses it into the now familiar marble of Grief. This one is substantially larger than ones you'd previously made, most likely a combination of Yuma's newness, and Kyouko's reaction to seeing Yuma contracted, as well as her own rather traumatic injuries.

"Well, first is this," you comment, levitating the little sphere of Grief, still barely larger than the tip of your index finger, into a little orbit in front of Kyuubey. The alien turns in place to follow the motion. "Have you ever seen anything like my powers before?"

"No," Kyuubey replies. "Your abilities, much like your Wish, are fully unprecedented in the history of magical girls."

"Huh." You rub your chin. Unheard of to both Incubator and Homura. You mentally file that away for further thought, in favour of more pressing questions. "Do you know where Oriko has been going for the past few days?"

"She isn't beholden to inform me of her travels," Kyuubey says blandly.

"That is not a yes or no, Kyuubey," you observe tartly.

"Yes, I know where Mikuni Oriko has been going," Kyuubey admits.

You raise an eyebrow. "And will you tell me?"

"No. Likewise, I shall not tell her of yours," the Incubator informs you.

"So close-mouthed, Kyuubey? But it seems you've already been telling tales to a certain spear wielder already," you say, faux thoughtfully.

"I would be pleased to inform you that Mikuni Oriko possesses the power of precognizance, another unprecedented ability," Kyuubey replies. "However, this information does not appear to be new to you."

"Oh? What about Kirika, then?" you challenge.

"Kure Kirika's Wish gave her the ability to negate directed magic within her range at will," Kyuubey states. "This ability is not unprecedented," it notes helpfully.

[] Write-in

=====​

Think a little more about Kirika's Wish. What did she intend?

Also, leaving it off here in case you want to try asking further on Kirika, or persist on the west side girl, or maybe something else. Also, a little more detail in the questions is appreciated. 'Ask him about our power' is rather vague.

 

[Firnagzen]

"And is that all her Wish did?" you ask. "She seems more than a little off-kilter. Her Wish?"

"Indeed it is not," Kyuubey answers, tail lashing violently. "As you appear to be well informed of, Wishes can have a direct effect in addition to granting abilities. I shall not go into detail, but her Wish did indeed affect her mental state."

"For the better or the worse?" you say.

"I shall not go into detail," Kyuubey repeats in the same monotone.

You snort. Figures. "Fine. Tell me about the magical girl on the west side, then."

"Masami Gaikotsu?" Kyuubey asks, tilting its head. "She is still active, although currently rather reclusive, and actively goes out of her way to avoid other magical girls. She's a powerful telekinetic."

"Huh. Telekinesis," you mutter thoughtfully. "Has Oriko approached her?"

Kyuubey tilts its head in the other direction. "I do not give detailed information on the movements of magical girls to each other."

"Fine, fine," you grumble. "So, then. What did you mean by my soul being unusual?"

"You appear to have a level of karma disproportionate to your experiences," Kyuubey states. "Before you ask, I do not know what your life's experiences are. It is analogous to seeing that a road is worn and inferring that many people have passed by, but not who those people were," it adds helpfully, making you grimace.

You sigh. "Fine then. I don't think there's anything els- oh, wait. Here." You pop the Grief marble, still idly orbiting Kyuubey, into the air, and the little alien leaps to catch the falling marble into its back slot. By the time it's caught the marble, you're already at the edge of the roof, tensing your legs to jump for the next roof.

Next up on your list of things to do, you feel, is to try and find a payphone, so that you can call Nagisa. You'd promised to visit, after all, and so you let yourself plummet to the ground in an alley way, and walk out of it after dusting yourself off.

And so you wander around on foot, looking for a pay phone. You even try asking a few of the less busy-looking passersby, and you simply get blank stares. "Miss, I haven't seen a pay phone in... maybe five years?" one older man informs you. "I don't mean to be rude... but if you're from overseas, you could purchase a prepaid SIM card for temporary use?"

"Ah, thank you," you say, dipping your head politely to him. The future: surprisingly inconvenient, you grumble to yourself. Finally, you give it up as a bad job, and, after looking at the time, and figuring that school should be just over, you decide to go and look for Mami to borrow her handphone. "Mami?"

"Sabrina!" Mami replies brightly. "Where are you? We're headed to the hospital right now, would you like to come along?"
5
[] Write-in

=====​

As always, include a bit of conversational direction and stuff, whatever you choose to do.

 

[Firnagzen]

Your mood, soured after talking to Kyuubey, lifts at the sound of Mami's voice. "Sure, we'll be right there." You walk into an alleyway, and take to the roofs as has become habitual to you, ping-ponging from wall to wall to get up to the rooftops. You briefly wonder, in light of Kyuubey's passive aggressive complaint, how much extra work you're generating for it, but in the end, it really isn't your problem. The thought has you grinning as you make your run for the edge of the roof.

"So, Mami, how was your day?" you ask idly, enjoying the sensation of the wind ruffling your hair.

"Oh, today was a PE day," she comments. "We played volleyball!"

"How'd it go?" you ask, adjusting your trajectory to avoid an air conditioning compressor on a rooftop. You land, weave around the compressor, and launch yourself into the air again without losing any momentum.

"My team won," Mami says happily. "The team I'm on always seems to do well." You can practically hear the glowing smile on her face.

"Of course. Who would dare to disappoint dear Mami?" you say teasingly.

"I'm sure it's just luck," Mami replies.

"Sure," you say, rolling your eyes. "Anyway, I'm almost there. Oh! One more thing... uh, do you remember I mentioned meeting a girl who lost her parents?"

"Ah, yes," Mami says. "You're thinking of inviting her over?"

"Er, yes, actually," you admit. "How did you know?"

"You mentioned it yesterday," Mami replies. "And I must admit I'm curious to see what kind of little sister Sabrina found for herself."

"Er. So I suppose that's an OK, then?" you say.

"Of course! Though... I expect that we will be visiting at the hospital until perhaps four thirty? I invited Sayaka and Madoka over to my house, too. Hmm..." Mami trails off, thinking over it. "Maybe we could just invite everybody to my house?"

"Sounds good," you agree easily. "I'll be at the hospital soon."

As you approach the hospital on foot, you sense two magical girls. One at what you now recognize to be the lobby of the hospital, and another simply lurking on the roof of said hospital. You pulse quickens, but you decide to check first. "Homura, is that you at the hospital?"

"Yes, it is. I am keeping an eye on Madoka," she says.

"For goodness' sake, couldn't you simply join the group like a normal person?" you grumble.

"My presence makes them uncomfortable," Homura replies. "Additionally, this higher vantage point lets me see further."

"Ugh," you say in disgust, but you let it go for now.

Walking in to the lobby, you smile and wave at the small group there. "Hi, everyone!"

"Sabrina!" Mami calls, followed by greetings from Madoka and Sayaka.

"Oh, Sabrina! Thanks for those notes yesterday, they really helped!" Sayaka calls as you walk over and sit down. "You should become a teacher!"

"Heh," you shrug. "Well, you shouldn't leave your homework to the last minute."

"I know, I know, I usually don't!" Sayaka exclaims. "It's just... Kyuubey, magic, you suddenly showing up... One thing after another, and I just forgot, you know!"

"Eh... OK, then. So how're things going? How's your friend?" you glance at Madoka.

"She's recovering, she should be out of hospital by the end of this week," Madoka says, looking happier. "Ah... They confirmed that she's going to need the cast for a month, though."

"Hm... that's a shame," you say. "Oh, by the way, Mami, may I borrow your phone for a moment? I'd like to arrange the meeting later?"

"Oh, sure, Sabrina," Mami nods, before reaching into her pockets and pulling out a smartphone.

You take it, and walk a step away before dialing the number Momoe Shin had provided you with, and wait patiently as the phone rings.

"Hello? This is Momoe Shin, who is this?" a familiar voice sounds a few rings later.

"Uh... this is Sabrina?" you say tentatively.

"Ah, Sabrina! Nagisa was hoping you'd call," Shin's voice turns cheerful. "I- yes, Nagisa, it's Sabrin- uh, I'll pass her the phone, OK?"

There's some rustling noises, as of the phone changing hands. "Big sis!" the girl says. "Are you coming to visit?"

"Hi, Nagisa," you say. "I was just wondering about that, actually. Ask your uncle if I can invite you over later?"

"OK!" Nagisa says, and you can hear the phone changing hands, and some conversation in the background.

"You'd like to invite Nagisa over?" Shin confirms.

"Yes, if that's possible? Maybe about 5 o'clock?" you suggest.

"Hm..." you get the impression he's looking at the clock. "I'm on leave today, so I'll be able to drive her over. Where shall I send her?"

You give him Mami's addess, and say farewell to the two of them before walking back to the main group, where Mami is talking to Madoka and Sayaka.

"Thanks, Mami," you say, catching her attention and handing the phone back.

"Anyway, shall we go up?" Sayaka suggests, bouncing to her feet. "We can introduce you to Hitomi, maybe? Uh... maybe I'll go see Kyousuke first, though?"

"Kyousuke?" you lilt, drawing out the syllables and grinning at Sayaka.

She instantly flushes red. "Ah... my other friend here."

You glance at Mami, and she grins back. "Friend?" she says, with the same teasing lilt in her voice.

"I'm not talking to the two of you any more," Sayaka sniffs, putting her nose in the air.

"What's he here for, anyway?" you ask.

Sayaka stares at you with one eye before deciding that maybe you aren't teasing her. "Accident, long term hand and leg injuries."

You grimace. "Sounds unpleasant."

"Yeah... he's an amazing violinist, you know? But he can't play now..." Sayaka trails off. "Anyway, enough chit chat, we really should be going up."

[] Visit Hitomi
[] Visit Kyousuke
[] Insist that Homura join you
[] Go and see if there's a nearby Witch
- [] With Mami, Homura, or both
[] Write-in

=====​

No invisitext countdown. As always, include some conversation direction.

 

[Firnagzen]

"May I come along to visit your friend? I don't know her personally, but..." you say, trailing off slightly awkwardly.

Madoka glances uncertainly at Sayaka, who shrugs back. "Sure, I'm sure Hitomi'd be happy to have more visitors," the bluenette says. "Now let's go!"

The entire group troops over to the elevators. Sayaka, as mentioned, gets off first at the seventh floor to visit Kyousuke, while the rest of you continue up to the tenth.

As it turns out, the tenth floor consists almost entirely of private wardrooms, and Madoka leads you and Mami to one of them before knocking. "Come in," a voice calls from inside the room.

Madoka opens the door, and you follow her into the room, Mami trailing behind you. Hitomi, it turns out, is sitting on a chair beside the window and awkwardly trying to brush out her long, olive green hair with one hand. She winces every so often as the brush tugs on her hair. Her left hand is, as expected, in a cast. There's an enormous array of flowers and various get well cards sitting on her bedside table, you notice. You can make out some of them: one from the tea ceremony club, one from the sewing club...

"Madoka! And..." Hitomi begins, before looking at you and Mami in slight confusion. She lays the brush down on her lap, looking relieved that she can put that aside for now.

"Hitomi!" Madoka greets her in return as she moves over to Hitomi's side. "I brought my friends to meet you... This is Tomoe Mami, one of our upperclassmen, and this is Sabrina? Sayaka and I mentioned her?"

"It's nice to meet you," you say, almost in unison with Mami.

"I'm pleased to meet you too, Mami, Sabrina," Hitomi says, looking between the two of you. She seems to remember something, and looks back at Mami, brow furrowed in thought. "Ah... Mami, aren't you in the archery club? You seem familiar..."

Mami nods, looking startled. "Yes, I was... Um... I left it last year, actually. Outside commitments."

"Oh. Still, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance again. And any friend of Madoka's is a friend of mind," Hitomi smiles at the blonde and you. "I understand that you lost your memory, Sabrina?"

You shrug. "I suppose that's one way to put it, yes," you say, glancing off to the side. "I consider myself very lucky that I ran into someone as nice as Madoka and Sayaka, and then Mami, who were willing to help me."

Hitomi nods, smiling. "Madoka is a good person," she agrees. Madoka reddens at the praise, ducking her head and looking away.

"So, ah, I'm just curious, Hitomi," you say, picking your words carefully. "You... fell down the stairs?"

Hitomi nods, frowning a little. "I did."

Madoka reaches for her shoulder and pats her gently to comfort her. You grimace internally, but you sort of need to know whether Kirika had a hand in it.

"Ah... Did you trip, or something?" Mami looks at you in askance.

The green haired girl now turns a full frown at you. "I'm not very sure, I don't remember the incident that well."

"Sabrina..." Madoka looks at you, worried. "Why are you asking?"

You clear your throat, and laugh nervously, brushing your hair back. "Ah... It's just that, uh, my mind's been going to some rather strange places recently. I... maybe whatever made me lose my memory gave me a touch of paranoia?"

To Mami, you think, "I have a slight suspicion that this might have been Oriko's work."

"You still shouldn't have asked Hitomi here," Mami says reprovingly, bumping you lightly with her shoulder.

Hitomi stares at you for a moment, before turning to Madoka. "I suppose Sayaka is visiting Kyousuke?"

"Um, yeah!" Madoka says.

"Sabrina, could we step outside for a moment?" Mami asks.

"Sure," you say, and follow her out.

When the door shuts behind you, Mami turns to you, and informs you tartly, "Sabrina, that was rude."

You hang your head. "I'm sorry, but I really thought it was important to know. Oriko threatened us, and if she can make Homura worry like that..."

"You shouldn't be apologizing to me, you know," Mami says. "And I understand, Sabrina. It's just... that was terribly impolite, it really was. And... Didn't you say she was talking to you, when the accident happened?"

"Yes, but she's not working alone," you say. "I was talking to Kyuubey earlier. Oriko's working with at least one more magical girl, by the name of Kirika."

Mami sighs. "I see. This isn't the first time some new magical girl tried to take this city from me... but still, this Oriko doesn't seem to have done much so far."

"I suppose so," you admit. "Hey, uh, one more thing that occurred to me. Do you think that we could heal Hitomi and Kyousuke with magic?"

Mami purses her lips. "We could, but we would have to reveal magic to them. We aren't dedicated healers, so it would take a bit of time, and it wouldn't be, ah, subtle."

"Huh," you respond. "Maybe something to bring up with Madoka and Sayaka?"

"Maybe," Mami agrees. "We should think it over a bit more first, though. Shall we go back in? You should apologize to Hitomi."

"Yeah. Thanks, Mami," you say.

"Not a problem, Sabrina," the blonde tells you, and opening the door to head back in. The conversation between Madoka and Hitomi peters out, and Hitomi turns to look at you.

You walk over to where Hitomi is sitting, and half bow to her. "My apologies, Hitomi, I shouldn't have asked you so brazenly. I was just curious," you say formally.

Hitomi nods in acceptance. "I accept your apology."

Madoka smiles tentatively at the two of you, pleased to see that you're doing to best to make amends.

"So, um, Hitomi," you say carefully. "How's the hospital? Is there anything I, we, can help you with? Maybe I could visit during the day? It must get lonely in here," you suggest, probing for information to see if she's talking to Kyousuke.

"Ah... no need, Sabrina, but I thank you for the thought," Hitomi says. "Besides, I'm actually allowed to walk around, if not too far."

You nod in acceptance, unable to see a way to probe further. It seems reasonable to guess that she might be talking to Kyousuke, though, since she said that she could roam about in response to your suggestion that it might be lonely. Ultimately, you're still unsure.

"Ah, Hitomi?" Mami begins. "Are you still in the archery club?"

"Yes, I am," Hitomi replies.

"How is Chie doing?" Mami asks. One of her juniors, you figure.

"Chie? The vice-president of the club?" Hitomi says.

"Oh, she is? I knew that girl would go far if she'd just be a bit bolder," Mami nods in satisfaction.

The conversation becomes a little more natural, after that, largely between Madoka, Mami, and Hitomi, with you injecting a few comments here and there. It's not like you can really relate to their school talk.

"Ah, look at the time," Madoka comments. You follow her gaze to the clock, and see that it's four-fifteen. "Maybe we should go to look for Sayaka? She should still be visiting Kyousuke."

"May I come along? I would like to go for a walk, too," Hitomi asks, rising gingerly to her feet.

Madoka beams at her. "Of course, Hitomi!"

The four of you troop over to the lift, stopping to let Hitomi check in at the counter to inform them that she's going for a walk, and head down to the seventh floor. You soon find yourself led to another ward room, just as opulent as Hitomi's.

Madoka knocks on the door, and a male voice replies. "Come in!"

Kyousuke, it turns out, is a rather delicate looking boy with grey hair and fine features. Sayaka, sitting at a chair beside his bed, looks up in surprise at the four of you trooping into the room. Kyousuke looks similarly surprised. There's no music player, or even the wreckage of one, in sight, something which niggles at the edge of your thoughts.

"Eh? What're you doing here?" Sayaka asks, startled.

"Ah... look at the time, Sayaka," Madoka says. "And Hitomi wanted to visit."

"Um... right!" Sayaka glances back at the boy lying on the bed. "Um, Kyousuke, these are my friends. Mami, and Sabrina. Uh, you know Madoka."

"Mami, Sabrina. It's a pleasure to meet you," Kyousuke says pleasantly. "Hitomi, Madoka, hello."

[] Write-in conversation
[] Head off to Mami's house
[] Insist that Homura join in like a normal person

=====​

And a special thanks to Choo Choo for helping me to discover that it is possible to brush your hair with one hand!

Additionally, in the future, more detailed write-ins are appreciated for the more... delicate things.

 

[Firnagzen]

You incline your head to the boy. "It's good to meet you, too. Sayaka's told us about you."

Mami smiles at him. "I'm pleased to meet you too."

Sayaka glances around the room, looking slightly put-out by the sudden influx of people, but then looks at the clock again and seems to give up. Kyousuke, by contrast, simply looks vaguely nonplussed by the sudden surplus of girls visiting him.

"So..." you break the silence. "How long have you known each other?"

"Oh, we've known each other for years," Kyousuke says, looking at Sayaka, who averts her gaze, smiling.

Mami catches your eye as Sayaka replies to that. She quirks an eyebrow minutely, with a hint of a mischevious smile hovering on her face. A smile similarly tugs at the edge of your lips, but you shake your head fractionally. Another time, maybe, when Hitomi isn't here.

"Hitomi, how's your arm?" Kyousuke asks curiously, looking at the green-haired girl.

"Oh, ah... the doctors say I'll be in a cast for a month," Hitomi replies, other hand coming up the cover the cast.

"Ah, good to know," Kyousuke says. Looking closely, though, you see that the lines around his eyes are slightly strained, and his left hand seems to be tightening into a fist.

"Um," you say, indicating the clock. "We really should be going if we're to make it back in time?"

"Ah, OK," Sayaka says, rising from the chair beside Kyousuke's bed. "See you later, Kyousuke, Hitomi."

You exchange goodbyes, and as you leave the ward room, you see Hitomi sliding into the seat Sayaka just vacated. Sayaka looks despondent as she leaves the room, trailing behind the main group a bit.

You drop back to walk beside her. "How long has he been in the hospital?" you ask Sayaka idly.

"Seven months," Sayaka answers glumly.

You hiss out a breath. "And you've been visiting him for the entire time?"

"Yeah, it's the only way I get to spend time with him," Sayaka sighs. The group stops to wait for the lift, Madoka and Mami listening in on your conversation.

"Dedicated," you comment. "Childhood friends?" you say with heavy emphasis on the last word.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sayaka asks, blushing a little.

"Oh, nothing," you reply, shaking your head with a smile. "How'd he get injured, anyway?"

"Car accident," Sayaka says. The lift arrives at this point with a cheerful ding, and you step into the crowded elevator, putting the conversation on hold for a moment. The glass walls of the lift gives you a clear view of the sky outside, rapidly shading towards the orange-pinks of evening.

You let your mind drift, and wonder about simply getting everyone out of the country and away from Walpurgisnacht. Or maybe go one step further and getting everyone into space. Who wouldn't want to go into space, after all? Maybe if you had a teleporter with a large range... well, Soul Gem corruption wouldn't be an issue with you around.

Then again, sustaining long term habitation in space would be tricky, as would convincing anyone to go along. That would be tricky. On the other hand, time would be a problem, too.

You shake your head to clear out the random musings as the elevator comes to a stop on the first floor, and you exit into the main lobby. The four of you move over to the bus stop to wait for a bus.

"We're headed to Mami's place now," you inform Homura telepathically as you wait. "And you know, Homura, you could come and say hi. You even have an excuse, just say you came to the hospital for a follow-on checkup or something."

"Unnecessary," Homura says.

"Unnecessary is not the same thing as 'shouldn't be done', Homura," you say. "Just come and say hello, Homura. Tell yourself it's for the sake of furthering future cooperation with Mami, if necessary."

"Fine," Homura replies, eventually, and you can feel her presence descending from the rooftops and moving so that she can approach the bus stop from the direction of the hospital. A minute later, you see her in person, walking up.

Madoka's the next person to notice her. "Homura!" she calls, waving happily.

"Akemi," Mami greets her. Sayaka just sort of nods vaguely in her direction, while you greet Homura with a simple 'hello'.

"Hello," Homura says in return. She walks to the bus stop, and similarly seats herself as if to wait for a bus.

"Follow-on checkup?" you prompt, when she doesn't seem to be about to bring that up.

"Yes," she affirms.

"Ah, right, your heart condition!" Madoka says. "How are you?"

"Fully recovered," Homura replies.

"That's great!" Madoka says brightly, reaching out to pat Homura on the shoulder. You can see the black haired girl stiffen almost imperceptibly at the contact, before relaxing.

"That's our bus," Mami informs you, looking down the road at the approaching traffic.

"I won't be taking this bus," Homura says without looking.

"OK! See you later!" Madoka says.

"See you, Homura," you add, as you board the bus and find a seat next to Mami. As the bus pulls out of the stop, you can feel Homura moving away from the bus stop and taking to the roofs, shadowing the bus again.

The bus ride passes mostly in a comfortable silence, and you soon arrive at the bus stop near Mami's apartment, and walk there just in time to see a sleek looking car pull up at the pavement. A familiar looking head of white hair hops out of the side. Nagisa looks around and spies you. "Big sis!"

She runs to you, holding her arms out. You obligingly catch her in a hug. "No relation," you say to the others in response to their looks of surprise. "Despite the hair, yeah."

Nagisa's uncle laughs as he walks towards you. "I can confirm that, too. So you're Sabrina's friends? I'm Momoe Shin."

Madoka is staring at the older businessman in surprise. "Mr. Momoe?"

"Yes, I am..." he trails off as he looks at the pinkette, and frowns as if trying to remember something. "You're... Are you Mrs. Kaname's daughter?"

"Y-yes, I am!" Madoka says.

"Hah. Small world," Shin says, shaking his head. "I'll leave you to it, then? I'll pick Nagisa up at... seven?"

You look questioningly at Mami, and she nods. "That should be fine," you say in answer as you ruffle Nagisa's hair playfully. She tries to swat your hand away.

The businessman nods. "Alright. See you later, then." He returns to the car and drives off.

"So. Everyone, this is Nagisa, apparently my new little sister," you introduce to the group at large. "Yes, we're really not related despite the hair. Nagisa, these are my friends, Mami, Madoka, and Sayaka."

"Hello," Nagisa says shyly. Madoka and Sayaka exchange grins, and you can practically see what they're thinking: So cuuuuute!

"Hello," Mami says, bending down to look properly at the younger girl. Nagisa simply blinks her hazel eyes at the older girl.

[] Order-in at Mami's place
[] Eat at somewhere nearby
[] Write-in

=====​

As always, include conversational direction.

 

[Firnagzen]

"So, everyone, shall we head up?" you suggest, now that the introductions are done.

There's general assent, and Mami leads the way up to her apartment, Nagisa holding her hand out for you to take, which you oblige her.

"Are you sure you're not related?" Sayaka asks you with a grin, when she sees that. "The two of you..."

You roll your eyes as you remove your shoes to step into Mami's house. "It's the hair, isn't it? But really, do we look anything alike apart from that?"

"Eh... I guess not," Sayaka admits.

"Pretty," Nagisa says, following you into Mami's apartment and staring around with wide eyes. She flits off to the side to look at some of the ornaments decorating the apartment.

Sayaka, following you in, continues. "So how'd you find a litt-"

"Hey, Mami," you say loudly, over Sayaka's voice. "What do you think we should have for dinner?" You glance at Nagisa, but luckily, she seems to be engrossed with looking at some of the decorative bottles Mami has on a shelf. Madoka, smiling, is following her around and making sure that nothing gets broken. You leave your bag alongside Mami's, on the shelf.

Telepathically, you say to Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami, "I ran into her yesterday at the hospital. Her mother had just passed away, and there was no one to comfort her."

"O-oh," Sayaka blinks at you. Madoka freezes for a moment as she smiles down at Nagisa, but she recovers quickly. Mami nods, unsurprised since you'd already told her.

"We should order in," Mami suggests. "We can have some cake to tide us over in the mean time?"

"Sounds great!" Sayaka answers eagerly.

"Hey Nagisa, what would you like?" you ask.

"Uh..." the white haired girl looks thoughtfully at you. "I had udon... yesterda..." her face crumples, and you hurry over to her and sweep her up in a hug, rubbing her back gently.

As you comfort Nagisa, who's now crying softly into your shirt, you glance significantly at Mami, who nods and murmurs quietly, "I'll order some teriyaki or something. Sayaka, could you get some wet cloths? You know where the washroom is..."

Eventually, Nagisa's crying peters out, and you gently clean her face with the wet cloth Sayaka hands you wordlessly. You smile gently at her, and get a rather wobbly one in return. But a smile nevertheless.

Mami has, with the help of Madoka, brought out slices of cake for everyone, and you direct Nagisa's attention to the cake. "Nagisa, try the cake. Mami makes them herself, and they're really good."

Mami beams at you for that compliment, and Sayaka and Madoka chime in with, "Yeah, they're amazing!" and "I wish I could cook that well..."

"Sure you don't want to drop by for cake?" you think at Homura, while slicing off a small piece of cake for Nagisa. You can feel her presence on the rooftop of the apartment block opposite, where you suspect she can see Mami's window. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"That won't be necessary," Homura says. Nagisa nibbles at the slice of cake you're holding up on a fork for her, before her eyes widen and she engulfs the rest of the slice. Laughing, you push the rest of the slice to her, along with the knife and fork, before turning to your own slice.

"Well. Do you have anything to eat, at least?" you ask.

Homura's reply is monosyllabic. "Yes."

You sigh internally. "In any case, I need to meet you later. Same way?"

"Yes. I should show you where Madoka's house is," Homura replies. You return your attention to the impromptu party at Mami's place, and notice that Nagisa's virtually inhaled her slice of cake and is currently staring with greedy eyes at your untouched plate.

You chuckle, and push your plate over to her. "That's your last slice, OK? We still have dinner coming, you know."

"Aww," Nagisa says, but digs into the slice with gusto. You look up at the others, who are smothering grins. "Oh, ha ha," you roll your eyes at them.

"So anyway," you start. "Anything interesting happen today?"

"Miss Saotome got rejected again," Sayaka grins.

"I don't think Sabrina knows who Miss Saotome is," Madoka points out, and informs you, "Miss Saotome is one of our teachers."

"Is she still doing that?" Mami asks. "She taught me last year, and... uh... we all know about her... problems."

"Oh, yes," Sayaka mock groans. "Every other day, I swear. Rejected, dumped, rejected again..."

The doorbell rings. "Food's here," you guess, and you and Mami walk over to the door. Your paranoia has you doing a thorough check with your Grief senses, but apart from yourself, Mami and Homura, you don't sense any magical girls in the vicinity. Behind you, Madoka and Sayaka busy themselves moving the plates over to the kitchen, while Nagisa hops to her feet and follows you to the door.

Thre three of you ferry the cartons of food to the table, and Mami pays the bill, thanking the deliveryman with a smile. "Well, let's eat up!" Mami says happily, when you're all seated around the table.

"Hey Sayaka," you say later, after swallowing a mouthful of rice. "How's the homework going?" you ask with a grin.

"Ugh," Sayaka grumbles, but she's smiling. "I'm on top of it. I usually do my homework, OK?"

You raise an eyebrow at her, then at Madoka. The pinkette nods her head. "She does."

"Hey, what do you take me for, some kinda delinquent?" Sayaka faux-growls at you.

"Welllll," you draw the syllable out. "Nah."

"Hey!" Sayaka complains.

You look down at Nagisa, sitting beside you, to make sure she's alright, and are relieved to see that she's smiling at the banter between you. She's even eating the vegetable that came with the meal, the pickled radish and whatnot. "How's the food?" you ask her.

"It's good!" Nagisa says. "Mami's cakes are better, though!"

"Never in doubt, that," you observe.

"It's nothing special," Mami protests.

You glance at the others. "Yes it is, Mami. Yes, it really is," you reply, accompanied by vigorous nodding.

The rest of dinner passes quickly, and Nagisa seems to have gotten over her earlier sadness. A glance at the clock tells you that it's almost seven.

[] Arrange a hunt
-[] With Mami
-[] With Homura
-[] Both
-[] Any particular location?
[] It's late, just go talk with Homura
[] Write-in

=====​

The next update will start with bringing Nagisa down to meet her uncle[1]​, and then the next activity, whatever you choose. You may write in anything special you want to say etc., of course.

[1]​Unless you guys, for some reason, vote against it, but yeah.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Hey Nagisa," you catch the younger girl's attention. Madoka and Mami are currently braiding the girl's hair while giggling. Sayaka's running around the apartment, looking for ribbons. "It's almost time for you to go," you say, pointing at the clock.

"But I don't want to," Nagisa protests.

"I promised your uncle, Nagisa," you reply. "And we've got to keep out promises. We'll invite you over another time, OK?"

Nagisa puffs out her cheeks, trying to look grumpy, but failing, and simply looking adorable. "Mnaaaaaaa," she complains wordlessly.

"Found some blue ribbons!" Sayaka calls out from one of the rooms.

"Oh, I forgot about those," Mami says. "Bring them over, and we'll finish this up..."

Nagisa's hair is quickly completed, and the five of you are soon leaving the apartment. The younger girl's hair is now done up in a whole array of long braids, each one tied up with sky blue ribbons.

Momoe Shin is waiting at the roadside, standing beside his car, as it turns out. His face breaks out in a smile when he says Nagisa, now decked out with braids and ribbons.

"Hello, girls," he says. "Did you have fun?"

"I did!" Nagisa exclaims happily. "I want to come here again."

"Ah, you must ask Sabrina here," Shin says.

"She promised!" Nagisa replies.

You shrug and smile at the man in response to his questioning look.

"Well, thank you for having my niece over," Shin says to you. "Say thank you, Nagisa!"

"Thank you, big sis!" the girl beams up at you.

"Ah, it was no problem. And you should be thanking Mami here, really," you say.

"Thank you too, Mami!" Nagisa says.

"You're welcome, Nagisa," Mami smiles back.

"Anyway, we should be going," Shin says. You nod, and you all say your goodbyes before they drive off. Nagisa waves at you out of the back window as the car pulls away, and you all wave back.

"Cute kid," Sayaka comments as you watch the car turns the corner.

"She is," you agree.

"Ah... we should be going too," Madoka comments, tugging at Sayaka's sleeve.

"Of course," Mami says. "See you tomorrow, Madoka, Sayaka."

"See you," you say. The two of them wave their goodbyes, and walk off, presumably headed for the bus stop. Above you, you can feel Homura moving to shadow Madoka.

"So," you say to Mami, and she looks inquisitively at you. "Maybe we should go on a Witch hunt tonight?" you suggest.

"Ah... I don't see why not. Perhaps we could invite Akemi along too?" Mami says carefully.

You cheer internally. Progress!

"Homura?" you call.

"Yes?"

"Would you like to go on a hunt with Mami and I tonight?" you suggest.

Homura doesn't reply for a moment, and you get the impression she's thinking it over. "Let me see Madoka home, first. No more than forty-five minutes for the hunt."

"Alright." You nod at Mami. "Homura will be here in about fifteen minutes," you inform her.

"OK," Mami says. "Shall we move back inside? It's warmer in there."

You nod in agreement. Night's fallen, and the air temperature is starting to dip. The lobby of Mami's apartment block is warmly lit and out of the wind, and the two of you wait there in a comfortable silence for the time traveller.

"I'm here," Homura announces a scant few seconds before walking into the lobby, still dressed in her school uniform.

"Hello, Akemi," Mami says politely.

"Mami," Homura replies.

"So... where shall we go to hunt?" you ask. "Maybe we could go look for Familiars, or, I dunno, groups of people acting strangely?"

Mami gives you an odd look, eyebrows faintly creased in worry. "Um... Sabrina, you can sense Witches, can't you? You haven't... forgotten, have you?"

"Uh, no," you cringe internally. Well, from an external point of view, you can see where she's coming from, though- 'forgetting' that you could do something might very well be some brain damage acting up again or similar, giving you amnesia again. You scramble to cover. "I remember, but I do have a limited range on that. We can probably see a group before it comes into sensing range, after all."

Mami nods, mollified. "I guess that makes sense. Do you have any suggestions, Akemi?"

"The old industrial district," Homura suggests, giving you a long stare.

"I agree," Mami says. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's go," you affirm.

The three of you walk out of the lobby, and are soon at the roof tops. You can't help but admire Mami's elegance of motion as she leaps across the rooftops, so much smoother and gentler than your own clumsy, destructive roof hopping. The three of you soar amongst the rooftops, rapidly heading east.

A few minutes of rapidly combing through the industrial district doesn't turn up any people, save for the few working in the one or two factories still humming away.

"There," you call, sensing a Barrier as you weave between the forest of old gantry cranes and rusting girders. One foot slips on the powdery dust underfoot as you veer right, but your right hand shoots out with instincts you didn't know you had, seizing on an I-beam and converting your tumble into a smooth swing that looks almost planned. Your fingers leave imprints in the steel flange as you arc into the air.

Your trajectory is timed perfectly, and you slam to a halt right in front of the barrier, sending chips of concrete flying into the air. Mami and Homura land behind you.

[] Say something?
[] Cleanse?
[] Go in
- [] Maxim 6. If violence wasn't your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it. (Full assault)
- [] Maxim 47. Don't expect the enemy to cooperate in the creation of your dream engagement. (Be a little more cautious)
[] Write-in

=====​

Heh.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Cleanse before we go in?" you suggest, looking at Mami and Homura. Mami detaches her Soul Gem and holds it out for you with a smile, whereas Homura simply displays her hand.

You pull on the wisps of Grief clouding their Soul Gem, and add the Grief from your own to the billowing cloud that forms in front of you. Homura simply nods in acknowledgement, while Mami spends a moment to reattach the Soul Gem to her brooch and fuss with her hair.

Without anything else to do, the three of you step into the Barrier. You squelch your instinctive revulsion at being surrounded by Grief, and look around.

Or you try to, anyway.

All that meets your eyes is pitch darkness.

You can't even see yourself, not even a hand raised in front of your face.

"Sabrina?" Mami's slightly panicked voice floats out of the darkness.

"I'm here," you reply, with a calmness you don't quite feel. "Homura?"

"Here. I'm going to try making some light," the time traveller replies.

"Please do," Mami says, a slight edge to her voice.

You hear a clicking noise on your right, followed by a hissing noise, and red light that illuminates the three of you, but doesn't penetrate far into the darkness. Homura's holding up what looks like an emergency flare, the harsh light bathing the three of you in hues of crimson and casting Homura's grimly set face in stark relief.

Mami's face is almost tearful, and clears in relief as the light floods over her. "Oh, thank goodness, Akemi," she says.
It was like I was alone.
You see a portion of the Barrier twitch, as if its texture changed slightly. Your head snaps up, staring at that portion. "Something's ther-"

You're only halfway through your warning when the darkness billows and a ribbon congeals out of the darkness, lancing directly at the flare Homura's holding. Homura, who is suddenly three steps to the right, a sudden gunshot sounding and a pistol -a Desert Eagle? Where even in Japan?- in her left hand.

The muzzle flare flashes out, and the bullet severs the ribbon of darkness, which dissipates into so much vapour. "Attracted to the light," Homura snaps, smoothly sidestepping. This time, you've gotten your bearings, and a blade, flash-formed out of Grief, meets the ribbon. The sharp crack of Mami's musket firing has another ribbon wisping away into vapour.

"How annoying," Mami says primly, lowering her shouldered musket. "Akemi, do you have a large supply of flares?"

"Yes," Homura replies, as you slice through another bevy on tendrils homing in on the light. Both Homura and Mami are firing rapidly to keep the ribbons, which are striking at an increasingly fast tempo, at bay.

"Then we shall defend you," Mami says firmly. You can see Homura's eyebrows contract, and her mouth half-opens as if she's about to protest, most likely that she can handle herself, but she shuts her mouth, and simply nods. "Lead the way, Akemi," Mami says with a smile.

Flare in her right hand, and pistol in her left, Homura walks into the darkness. The pistol cracks out measured shots, each one severing any of the ribbons that slip too close to her. You and Mami circle her, you with both hand orchestrating the dance of your Grief blades cleaving through the tentacles.

Shots and golden ribbons lance out from Mami, her ribbons unerringly seeking out their shadowed counterparts and wrapping, smothering the shadowy ribbons. The flare in Homura's hand sputters once, but it's suddenly arcing away into the darkness, and a fresh one burning in Homura's hand. You follow the flight of the flare with your eyes, and observe that it's suddenly shredded into slivers by a convergence of the dark tendrils, its light smothered and extinguished.

A mass of golden ribbons crosses your line of sight, homing in on a mass of their umbral counterparts. "Tsk. Remember what I said about paying attention, Sabrina!" Mami calls cheerfully. You grin back and her, and send your blades of Grief dancing through another converging mass of tendrils. Behind you, the tempo of gun fire from Homura changes, and you glance back to see that the pistol's gone, replaced with a submachine gun you can't quite make out.

"I don't think it's much further," you comment; you can feel the looming presence that is the Witch.

"It's not," Homura agrees, and she blurs in place with a clicking of her shield. The flare, this one only half-burned, arcs into the air, followed by another two fresh ones. Another one is blazing in her hand.

Before the flares are shredded by the solidified shadows, they briefly illuminate the corpulent, abdominous form of what you recognize to be the Witch. It's a huge, squatting bulk, with a tiny head bearing two beady eyes that blink open under the harsh illumination of the flares. Six pudgy arms swathed in flaking, unhealthy looking skin depend from body and drag on the floor, spaced equally around the almost gelatinous mass.

As the soaring flares are destroyed and their light winks out, the Witch blinks down at the three of you.

[] Write-in

=====​

I swear I get more verbose when it comes to Witches.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Homura, could you keep it lit?" you hiss, body tense and ready to leap aside the moment the Witch moves for you. "Mami, the eyes first?"

"Acknowledged," Homura says. Mami nods, conjuring muskets from her hat and grimly hefting one.

The Witch finally reacts, letting out a belching, grumbling noise that you feel in your bones more than you hear with your ears. As if that's a signal, Homura is suddenly no longer at your side, flares, some brilliantly magnesium white and blue, careening on haphazard paths through the air. Dim flashes of purple light show her manuveuring through the air, and the rapid cracking of her submachine guns heralds a storm of bullets that sever the shadowy tendrils reaching for the flares. Not all of them die soon enough, though and some of the flares are destroyed, to be quickly replaced by others.

Under the stark illumination, you wave both hands like a conductor at a particularly energetic orchestra, directing the paltry amount of Grief under your control to slice through the tendrils that reach for the three of you. Even with the small amount, however, you have enough for a round dozen of solidified shards of Grief that dance nimbly about the battlefield to deadly effect.

Pinpoint precise shots from Mami punch through the beady eyes on the Witch, which lets out a burbling scream in response. The Witch's arms come up in a rippling motion, the gelatinous mass that is its body wobbling, and it smashes all the arms down against the floor, heaving itself up. It swarms towards Mami on six arms, moving arm over arm like a hideously deformed starfish in unnatural fast forward, a motion that's subtly wrong to the eye.

From where you are, you can see Mami smile before diving out of the way, a mass of ribbons emerging from her previous position. They only manage to snare one of the Witch's arms, but the Witch screeches in displeasure, planting its other five arms and trying to tear itself free.

"Cover your eyes," Homura barks telepathically. You duck your head behind your arms, having an inkling of what Homura's going to do.

Sure enough, a heartbeat later, the entire Barrier flashes brilliant white and a sound louder than thunder, bright enough to that you can see red even with your eyes behind your arms. Flash-bangs. The Witch screams in pain, and, lowering your arm, you can see that its skin is scorched under the intense illumination. It heaves hard at the arm that's been bound, and with a sickening squelch, rips itself free, leaving a hand behind.

The stump, oozing darkness, is swung at Homura, who is no longer there, and instead, it meets another explosion that shreds what is left of that arm. More flares are arcing through the air, courtesy of Homura. Another burbling scream.

"I'm going for it!" you warn. Mami whirls at that, but your hand is already upraised, clenching into a fist. You bear down with your will, and tear away some of the Grief that animates the Witch.

Its head puffs away in a cloud of vapour, and the Grief, now under your control, swings away in a long arc. You twirl on the spot in a motion reminiscent of Mami's pirouetting, guiding the Grief in an accelerating orbit that has it slamming back into the Witch as a sandstorm of razor-sharp shards that flay ugly, gaping holes clear through its midnight black flesh.

The Witch remains standing for a long moment, motionless, before toppling slowly. It's gone before it hits the floor, and a Grief Seed hits the floor. The Barrier ripples, inky darkness beginning to dissipate.

[] Hang on to the Grief
[] Hoover up even more Grief!
[] Let it go~
[] Cleansing
[] Head home with Mami
[] Ask Homura for that talk
- [] Here, there, elsewhere, timestop
[] Write-in

=====​

Suleika, the Witch of Darkness. Her nature is delusion. Her power grows as the darkness deepens. In total darkness she can scarcely be matched. Her Familiars attempt to drag intruders into the concealing dark where all secrets lie silent.

 

[Firnagzen]

This time, you decide to hang on to the Grief you tore free from the Witch as it swirls down into the Grief Seed. There's some resistance as it the maelstrom tries to drag the Grief with it, as if that portion belongs with the rest of the Grief, but you counter it easily.

The Barrier breaks up, and the three of you are now standing one the top of one of the gantry cranes, the Grief Seed lying by Mami's feet, and a large cloud of gaseous Grief lazily orbiting you at a distance.

"That was a good hunt," you offer.

The blonde directs a smile first at you, then Homura. "It was. I must admit, Akemi, we couldn't have done it without you."

Homura nods, and says, "It was no problem," before flipping her hair.

This time, you hastily turn away from the hypnotic, rippling motion of Homura's hair flowing out like a midnight black banne- dammit. You're staring again, with all the inevitability of gravity.

You shake your head. "How the heck, Homura."

"What?" she looks at you questioningly.

You sigh wearily. "Never mind."

"Is this about the hair again?" Homura narrows her eyes at you.

Mami's looking at Homura with a considering look, now. "Actually, I have to agree with Sabrina. How are you doing that, Akemi? You can't possibly not be using magic."

Homura stares at you, then at Mami in silence. You can practically see the question marks forming above her head.

You sigh again. "Never mind. Never bloody well mind," you grumble. "Cleansing?"

"That's a good idea," Mami says, untransforming and holding out her Soul Gem. Homura doesn't untransform, but wordlessly offers her hand. You siphon off the Grief clouding their gems before cleaning your own, and adding it to the cloud you now possess.

"Hmm... Maybe you should get rid of that cloud, Sabrina?" Mami suggests. "I can feel this one quite clearly. Maybe because it's bigger?"

"OK," you agree, raising your left hand, palm open. You clench it into a fist, and as it closes, you force the Grief inwards, allowing it to coalesce into an orb in your grip. This one's bigger than your usual ones, about the size of a billard ball. You purse your lips at it, and then break it up into a handful of smaller Grief marbles, before pocketing them.

"I should be going now," Homura says, and turns to leave.

"Hey Homura, I still need to talk to you later tonight," you remind her.

"I remember," Homura agrees. "Contact me later."

"Shall we head home," you look at Mami, subtly stressing the last word.

"Let's," the blonde nods.

The two of you roofhop back to Mami's house. "Hey, Mami?"

"What is it, Sabrina?" Mami asks, turning her head to look at you mid leap.

"What do you think of Homura?" you ask, watching as Mami lands flawlessly despite not looking where she's going.

"I suppose she's not as bad as she seems," Mami admits. "She's willing to cooperate, at least."

"Lacking in social skills, though," you suggest.

Mami giggles. "Sabrina!"

"What?" you say, mock indignantly.

"Nothing," Mami says. But she's smiling.

The rest of the trip back home passes in a comfortable silence. As you remove your shoes to walk into the apartment, you ask another question. "Mami?"

"Hm?" Mami asks, locking the door behind you.

"Why do we keep magic a secret?"

"Hm... Well, it's just what we do," Mami says, looking thoughtful. "I admit I never really thought about it... It's just something that we keep secret, you know? I think maybe Kyuubey told me that it should be a secret at some point." She smiles, as if an amusing thought just occurred to her. "Besides, it's just like those magical girl shows, you know? You always keep it a secret."

"Huh. Well..." you drag out the syllable, meandering over to the sofa. "You know Madoka and Sayaka's friends? Hitomi and Kyousuke?"

"Ah," Mami says, comprehension dawning on her face as she walks over to her schoolbag, sitting on the shelf beside the bag you'd been using today. "So that's why. I don't really see a reason why not, really. Perhaps we should ask Kyuubey?"

"Where is he, anyway? Haven't seen him all day," you ask idly.

"Oh, he was in school today, with Madoka and Sayaka," Mami comments, rooting in her bag. After finding her lunch box, she looks at your bag and pulls out the lunch box you'd filled this morning.

"I'm guessing he wandered off at some point?" you ask.

"He did," Mami confirms. "Um... you didn't eat your lunch today?"

[] Write-in

=====​

You have seven Grief marbles in total.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Oh," you say. "It's kind of a long story... maybe you should sit down."

Mami smiles a little as she moves over to the sofa to sit beside you. "What adventures did you get up to today, Sabrina?"

"Heh," you chuckle, though it's a little strained in anticipation of what's to come. "Well, OK. This morning, I tried to get in contact with this Oriko again by telepathy. Yes, I know, but as you said, she hasn't actually been very hostile, has she?"

Mami, who was about to protest, subsides.

"And anyway, I'm pretty sure that I can handle myself if it comes to fighting her, thanks to my... unique abilities," you add, wiggling your fingers. "In any case, she didn't respond to telepathy, so I thought maybe I'd go over to Shirome Academy, since that's her school, and have a look around."

You shake your head. "That's the point where this other magical girl caught up with me. Short black hair, a bit longer than mine, yellowish-brown eyes. She introduced herself as Kirika, and told me that Oriko wasn't available."

"Huh?" Mami says. "Is this the Kirika you mentioned at the hospital?"

"Yes, and exactly!" you complain. "Turns out she's working with Oriko... and I think she's new. Newer than me, even. She was... a bit odd. Very, uh, intense. She said she loved Oriko, and kinda threatened me a little when I stepped too close to that subject. In any case, that didn't really go very far, but I asked her a few questions. Among other things, she said that Oriko 'went to hire someone'."

Mami opens her mouth as if to say something, but closes it again.

"So the first thing that I thought of was that maybe she was hiring another magical girl to help contest Mitakihara," you forge onwards. "And, well, you'd mentioned two magical girls in this area, one to the east and the west, right?"

"Ah... I suppose that's not a bad idea," Mami admits slowly. "Did you go to the west? How's Masami doing?"

"Um, actually, I went east to Kasamino," you say. Mami's hand, still resting loosely at her side, clenches into a fist. "I ran into a young kid, freshly contracted, I think. Maybe about ten years old? She was just running. I mean, just running, you know, not at magical speeds?"

Mami blinks, surprised. "Ten? Uh, sorry, go on..."

"Yeah, she was running to a Barrier. She seemed to be in a huge hurry, so I uh... helped her along," you say, tactfully omitting how you picked her up and carried her in a football carry. "The Witch was... Well, there was another magical girl in the Barrier fighting the Witch. She wasn't exactly doing well, but between the two of us -the new girl, Chitose Yuma, has healing powers- we managed to save that other girl."

"Sakura Kyouko," Mami says. It's not a question, and both of her hands are tightly fisted now, old pain echoing in her eyes.

You nod slowly. "Yeah. Well. It seems like Kyouko was taking care of Yuma for at least a while. Kyuubey took the opportunity of Kyouko fighting to pressure Yuma into a contract. Kyouko... wasn't happy about that, and scolded her for it, I think. I kinda offered both of them lunch for an opportunity to talk to them about Oriko, and gave them a warning," you sigh. "In the end, she didn't really seem to trust me, though, and told me to go away. I left her with an offer to drop by for cleanses if need be."

Mami is, at this point, slumped and cradling her face in her hands. "I see," she says at length, muffled by her hands. You move over, and gently rub her back soothingly, not sure of what else to do.

"Mami, I'm guessing there's history between the two of you," you say gently. "It's OK-"

"It's not just that, Sabrina," Mami whispers. "Sabrina... I can't lose you. I can't lose another one."

[] Write-in

=====​

There's more than one layer to Mami's sadness. It'd be worth thinking through them.

 

[Firnagzen]

Mami's not crying. Not yet, perhaps. She's simply sitting, with her face in her hands, and shoulders slumped. She looks... defeated, for lack of a better word, completely at a loss for what she could do.

"A-another one?" you blurt.

Mami looks up at you, eyes empty. "Kyouko used to be my student... my friend. S-Sabrina, I, I, being a magical girl is so lonely. I- I'm not the cool senior m- magical girl, and-" she's crying now, slow tears sliding silently down her face. "Sabrina, I- I can't lose another friend."

She's worried about losing you, too. And all things considered, while things turned out well for you today, they could have gone much worse.

"Mami..." you reach for one of her hands, grasping it with both of yours. She lets you, hand hanging limp in yours. "Mami, I'm so sorry. I wasn't thinking..."

"Y- you weren't thinking," Mami echoes hollowly, slow tears beginning to make tracks down her face. "B-but you still- you can talk down Akemi. And Kyouko. And save people, better than I ever c-could. A-and your magic. Y-y-you don't need broken old Mami any more. You never did..."

You drag Mami into a hug, throwing both arms around her. Her hands hang limply by her side, and you can feel your shoulder slowly dampening as she continues to cry. "Mami, you're not going to lose me," you say. "You are a good person, and an amazing friend. I don't think many people who would just let a total stranger stay with them just out of the goodness of their heart."

You tighten your hug around the blonde. "I'm not going anywhere, Mami."

Her quiet weeping turns into great, wailing sobs, but she throws her arms around you and clings on tightly, like a life preserver in a storm. And in a way, that is what you are to her; her chance at changing the empty loneliness of her existence.

[] Say something else
-[] Write-in what
[] Go meet Homura
[] Tell Homura you can't make it
[] Go to sleep

=====​

Unlike just about everyone else, Sabrina is Mami's equal. And therein lies the root of Mami's reaction.

Indicate what you'd like to do next, too, whether it be to go find Homura or stay here, or spontaneously catch fire, or something.

 

[Firnagzen]

Mami's crying doesn't abate, and you let her cling to you. "Mami, you are not broken," you breathe into her ear. "You have done so much more than I have to help people. How many lives have you saved? Directly, and indirectly? Every Witch, every Familiar you've killed..."

You shake your head slightly, against her shoulder. "Why, why would I ever want to leave you? You are a wonderful person, Tomoe Mami, and you've done so much. Not just for me. I'd never leave a friend as wonderful as you."

Mami's wailing sobs quiet, and eventually, she whispers, barely audible, "Thank you, Sabrina. Thank you, so much."

You continue holding her, and let her cry herself out, years of loneliness and pain slowly giving way. You don't think she's fully OK, but... she will be.

Eventually, Mami's tears dry up, and she separates from you with a watery smile. "Thank you, Sabrina."

"For nothing, Mami," you reply. "I said nothing that wasn't true."

Mami hiccups, and dips her head to you in what is almost a bow. "I- I should clean myself. I must look terrible," she says, and gets up to head to the washroom. She pauses at the door to look back at you, and you smile reassuringly at her, patting the sofa. You're not going anywhere.

"Homura," you saya telepathically.

"Meet at the school," the time traveller replies. "I'll show you where Madoka's house is."

"No. not tonight, Homura. Mami... needs someone with her right now," you say. "We'll meet tomorrow at lunch or so?"

"What is it?"

You frown a little at the sheer, callous brusqueness of that response. Not that it's an unreasonable deduction, you have to admit. "There are things we shouldn't talk about over telepathy, Homura."

"... yes," Homura agrees, at length. "Lunch, then."

You lean back on the sofa, and stare up at the ceiling. What a day. What a day. Kirika, Kyouko and Yuma, Mami.

The door to the washroom opens after a while, and you turn to look. Mami has cleaned her face, her eyes now longer as red and puffy as they had been. Her hair has been freed from its drills, lying limp. "A-ah, Sabrina...?"

"Hm?" you raise an eyebrow at Mami.

"I-is it OK if I sleep in your room tonight?" the blonde asks tentatively. "N-not on the same bed or anything, I have a spare mattress..." she adds hastily. "I... just don't want to be alone."

You shake your head with a smile. "You don't have to ask, Mami."

Eventually, the two of you are ready to go to sleep. You can't help but feel that setting up in what is technically the guest room makes things a little cramped, but there's just about enough room to slide the extra mattress in between the bed and the closet. You try to get Mami to take the bed, but she refuses.

"Good night, Mami," you say.

"Good night, Sabrina," Mami says. With the lights out, the silvery moonlight streaming in through the window shines off her smile.

=====​

"Help! Mami! Sabrina! Anyone!"

You're jolted awake in the middle of the night by a telepathic scream, and bolt upright. It's Sayaka, and it's also about 2AM.

On the floor, Mami's also sitting upright, and staring at you with wide eyes. "Did you-"

"Sayaka. Yes."

"What's happening?" a scared, tremulous voice - Madoka.

[] Write-in

=====​

Thus ends chapter two: Entanglement.
A butterfly flaps its wings...
The next post shall be chapter three: Direct Intervention.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Where are you?" you snap, bouncing out of your bed and transforming. Mami's a heartbeat behind you, golden radiance filling the room.

"My house! I-it's on fire!"

What?

What?

Oriko wouldn't.

She would, wouldn't she.

Mami's already throwing open the window, and you move behind her as she swings outside. "Sayaka, we're on our way!" Mami calls as she bounds up to the roof. A moment later, golden ribbons drop down for you.

"Homura!" you bark, one hand looping through the ribbons. Your other hand slams the window shut behind you even as the ribbons shorten, hauling you up to the roof to stand beside Mami.

"I heard. I'm watching Madoka right now," Homura replies. Her mental voice is calm and unhurried, but there's nevertheless an undercurrent of worry that she doesn't quite manage to hide.

"Right. I think you'd better stay there," you reply, before switching mental channels to Mami and Madoka. Mami's already leaping towards the next roof, and you're hard on her tail. "Madoka, don't worry. Mami and I are on the way to help Sayaka."

"Please hurry!" Madoka says urgently. You get the impression that she's sitting at her bed wringing her hands.

"Of course, Madoka," Mami replies, landing darting around a vent on the rooftop with practiced ease.

"Sayaka, still there?" you say.

"I- there's sirens," she replies. You can hear the sirens of the firetrucks too, rapidly dopplering as you and Mami push yourselves as hard as you can move.

"We'll be there soon, OK? Stay close to the floor to avoid the smoke," you soothe. In the midst of a roll after your landing, you pull out one of the marbles of Grief you've been collecting, and it puffs away into a roiling cloud of Grief which you pull behind you. No sense not going in loaded for bear.

"Ok. Ok." You can tell Sayaka's struggling to stay calm.

You arrive before the firetrucks do, though not by much- they're maybe a minute or two behind you. From your landing point in the middle of the street, you can Sayaka's apartment blazing, fire gouting out of the windows. It doesn't look it's it's spread all that far yet, though the fire is, in your judgement, burning unnaturally fast- it shouldn't have reached this level of inferno without spreading further.

There's a magical presence on top of a nearby building, and your head swivels to look up. Mami follows your gaze.

You recognize the rather distinctive figure, lit as it is by the fire. A long, flowing white dress, topped by a peculiarly shaped hat.

Oriko nods regally down at the two of you, pivots, and calmly walks away.

[] Go after Oriko
[] Sayaka needs help, get in there
[] Split up
[] Write-in

=====​

... except, this time, it looks like some bastard shelled the entire forest.
Whoops!

 

[Firnagzen]

Mami stares at the departing figure, then looks at you. "Was that-"

"Oriko. Yes," you growl.

"I see," Mami says, voice icy cold. "Sayaka needs our help, first."

"Yes," you agree, as the first fire truck pulls up at the street, firemen piling out, shouting at each other. They hurry to connect up the hoses to the fire hydrants, setting up to put out the fire.

You and Mami sprint at the flaming building, amidst some shouts of alarm from the few firefighters that notice the two of you. The cloud of Grief billows around you, and a tangle of ribbons springs into existence around Mami. "Sayaka! Firefighters are here, and we're coming in!"

"P-please hurry!" Sayaka shouts.

The two of you sprint up the stairs to Sayaka's third story apartment. The banisters are warm as you pull on them to help you change direction, leaving finger imprints as you do. When you reach the third floor, you're confronted by a virtual wall of flame and black smoke gouting through the remains of the door.

"Sabrina-" Mami begins, a worried frown on her face.

"I've got this one, I think," you say, smoothly stepping around Mami. One hand rises in front of you to direct the mass of Grief, and it surges ahead in a billowing cloud to engulf the licking flames. Roiling darkness meets the hungry flames, and snuffs it out without fuss.

You storm forward in the wake of the cloud, Mami hot on your heels. The floor is hot enough that you can feel it through your boots, and you're barely able to keep a small path clear of flame with your Grief. Mami's ribbons lash, serpentine, helping to smother and toss aside flaming pieces of debris in your path as you push through the inferno heated air. "Sayaka!" she shouts, voice ringing clarion-like over the roar of the flames. "Where are you?"

"H-here!" Sayaka's response is barely audible, and interrupted by coughing. It's enough, though, that you can figure out which room is hers.

You feel Mami releasing a pulse of magic behind you, blasting back the acrid clouds of smoke in the air. Now that you notice the smoke, though, you realize that you should have been coughing just as hard, if not harder than Sayaka had... but aren't. In any case, with the smoke clear, you can see the closed door clearly. "Mami?"

"Got it," she snaps, ribbons lashing out and sliding between the door and the wall. The blonde braces herself, and then hauls on the ribbons, tearing the door off its hinges while you focus on keeping the flames back.

The room beyond is untouched by the fire, but smoke pools against the ceiling, and you can see Sayaka huddled on the floor beside her bed, blanket dragged around her face. She lifts her face to look at the two of you through reddened and tear-laden eyes.

"M-Mam-" her grateful cry is interrupted by a hacking, phlegmy coughing fit. Crap. Smoke inhalation.

"We need to get her out of here," you say, hurrying over to the bluenette. Mami nods, eyes anxious. "Sayaka, is there anyone else in the house?"

"My pare-" she begins, but promptly starts hacking again. "N-next room."

"Easy, Sayaka," you say. "Can you wal- no, best not. Stay down for a moment."

The fire's getting more intense, and at this point, you're hard pressed to keep it away from this room with the small amount of Grief you have at hand, a thin layer of Grief pushing back against the hungry flames. "Mami, through the wall?" you suggest.

"OK," the blonde says. She considers the wall for a moment, before manifesting a large mass of ribbons. She gestures grandly with both hands, and the ribbons lance out, outlining a roughly person-sized area with regular perforations clear through the wall. You gently pull Sayaka behind you, shielding her body with your own. Mami, in an echo of her earlier motion, braces herself and hauls.

The wall explodes outwards in a spray of crumbling mortar and cheap brick. On the other side of the newly formed hole, you can see another bedroom, this one with a larger bed, and an older couple huddled together in the corner furthest from the door. Like Sayaka's room up until a moment ago, the door is firmly shut, and not yet burned through.

The man looks up. "Who- wha-"

"We're here to help," Mami says, ducking slightly and stepping through the hole in the wall. "Mr. and Mrs. Miki? Can you walk?"

"I- ye-" he coughs slightly, but nowhere as badly as Sayaka is, "My wife-"

Sayaka's mother is unconscious, you can guess that much from the way her head is lolling about. Mami takes that in stride though. "That's OK." Golden ribbons spring into existence, bearing the older woman upon a stretcher. Mami moves over to Sayaka's father, offering a supporting hand. "Sir, this way?"

Despite the gravity of the solution -fire pressing hard against your thin barrier[1]​ of Grief, Sayaka and her parents in poor condition- you can't help admire Mami's unflappable demeanour. It works, too, Sayaka's father staggers to his feet, one of his arms pulled over Mami's shoulder. Despite the height difference, she still manages to support most of his weight.

"OK, stay calm, Sayaka," you mutter to the girl, before kneeling and picking her up in a fireman's carry. You nod at Mami, and the two of you push towards the living room, which is still blazing away.

Water pours in through the window in a torrential spray, dousing some of the flames- fire department, then. The edge of the spray catches you in the side with enough force to send you staggering to the side, and you swear violently. Thankfully, Sayaka hasn't been hit, and you managed to maintain your Grief cloud, pressing back against the inferno.

"Sabrina!" Mami calls in alarm, still supporting Sayaka's father.

"I'm good," you grunt, forging doggedly forward. The stairwell, with its promise of safety from the fire, isn't far away now.

The five you you quickly reach the stairwell, and you bundle the Mikis down to the first floor quickly. When you reach the first floor, you're surrounded by people- paramedics, and firefighters, all shouting and trying to get the five of you to the ambulances. Behind them, you can see a team of search and rescue firefighters, all geared up and ready to rush into the blazing building.

[] Go with the paramedics
[] Run away!
- [] Leave the Mikis with the paramedics
[] Write-in

=====​

[1]​ Small 'b' barrier, not 'Barrier'.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Sabrina, we should go," Mami says as she deposits Sayaka's mother on a proper stretcher, the ribbons disappearing in a burst of golden light. The paramedics are wide-eyed, but they have a job to do, and they rush the older woman off to the ambulance. Sayaka's father and Sayaka herself have already been ushered off to the temporary aid station.

"Miss, do you need help?" one particularly persistent medic asks you. His expression is puzzled, probably at your odd choice of attire, but he appears to be clamping down on his emotions.

"No, I'm fine," you say, pushing past him. "Yeah, let's go," you reply to Mami, who is also slipping through the crowd. "Sayaka, we'll take our leave, OK?"

"O-ok," she replies, looking up from the aid station, where she's breathing into an oxygen mask. She waves weakly at you, and you wave back.

There are a few paramedics and firefighters trying to detain you, but you slip past them easily and quickly bound up to a roof when you're out of sight.

Cresting the edge of the roof, you walk over to the side of a labouring air conditioning compressor, and slump down against it. The vibrations barely impinge on you, as sudden exhaustion that you shouldn't be experiencing washes over you. Psychosomatic reactions, then, as the adrenaline fades.

Mami follows you up to the roof, landing gracefully. Her expression is anything but serene, though, now that the crisis is over, and she begins pacing agitatedly along the roof.

"Madoka, Homura," you say, reaching out telepathically. "Everyone's OK. Alive."

"Oh, thank goodness, Sabrina!" Madoka replies immediately. "How's everyone?"

You hesitate, but Mami enters the conversation smoothly, "Sayaka and her family will be fine, Madoka. They're in the care of the professionals, now."

"Oh," Madoka says. You can tell that she's worried that they had to be relegated to medical care at all, but it seems that she accepts that. "Thank you, Mami, Sabrina."

"Hey, it's our job," you say wryly. Sort of, anyway.

"No need to thank us, Madoka," Mami says.

Mami finally abandons her pacing, and sits beside you, smoothing down her skirt with an air of distraction. "Sabrina," she says.

"Hm?" you raise your head to meet her eyes. The lines around her eyes are drawn tight, giving her a distinctly dangerous look- that of a finely crafted sword, or perhaps one of her filigreed muskets. Elegant, and yet poised to kill.

"You said that that girl who walked away was Mikuni Oriko?" Mami asks. Her voice is as pleasant as it usually is... except for the tightly leashed current of fury you can hear in it.

"Yes, she was," you say, sharpening to attention.

"I see," Mami says. Those words send a chill running down your spine, almost as if she'd just pronounced a death sentence upon Oriko. "And Homura knows of her?"

[] Write-in

=====​

Heee.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Yeah," you mutter. "Yeah, she does. I don't think she expected Oriko to do anything... quite like this, either."

"If she did, and didn't say anything..." Mami trails off. "But no. If she knows anything about this Oriko, then we need to talk to her."

"Mami, wait." You grab her arm as she shifts her weight to stand. "Oriko... From what I can tell, she likes making these big, elaborate plans. She wanted us to see her. She probably meant to make us angry- and I'm afraid going after her here and now is going to play right into her hands."

"We're not going after her right now," Mami states, shrugging off your arm and rising to her feet. She offers you her hand. "But if Homura knows about her? Then I want to know what she knows. Because this was not acceptable." Her expression is hard, and you can't help but remember that however pleasant she usually is, Mami is a veteran magical girl, who's presumably been in her share of territorial conflicts.

"I'm right with you, Mami," you say, grabbing her proffered hand with a smack of palm meeting palm, and letting her pull you to your feet. "This was utterly inexcusable, and we are not going to let this happen again. Homura will be happy to help, I suspect."

Mami nods firmly, jaw firmly set. "If Oriko is as formidable as Homura seems to think she is, then we're going to need all the help we can get." Her lips compress. "We might want to bring in Masami. And Kyouko... maybe."

You hum noncommitally. "Maybe. We need to be careful about this."

"Homura. Where are you right now?" Mami calls telepathically.

"I am watching over Madoka," Homura responds.

"Good. We'll be there soon," Mami replies. "Come on, Sabrina."

[] Go with Mami
[] Do something else
- [] Write-in
[] Write-in conversational topics

=====​

If you choose to do something else, then write-in what you want to tell Mami. If you choose to go with Mami, then write-in conversation along the way, as well as anything that you personally to tell Homura.

 

[Firnagzen]

Even in the middle of the night, Mitakihara City bustles as you and Mami soar over the rooftops. Cars stream endlessly on the road, and you fancy that perhaps one or two of the twinkling lights are the fire engines, and perhaps another carries journalists hurrying to the scene of the fire.

Not your problem, in the end.

"So, Mami?" you begin.

"Yes, Sabrina?" Mami asks.

"What's this Masami like?" you ask. Taller buildings are becoming shorter now as you head out towards the suburbs, and Mami leads you on a weaving path amongst them to ensure that you aren't seen.

"Hm... Peppy would be the best word to describe her. Always cheerful and happy, always listening to music of some kind of another," Mami replies. "Really quite powerful, though!"

"Huh. How'd you meet her, anyway?" you query, making a particularly tricky hop across a building- you're forced to tuck and roll to avoid an inconveniently placed antenna.

Mami shrugs. "Oh, I met her about... half a year ago, I think? I... well, I saved her from a Barrier, and told her a little about magical girls. She became one a while later, but since she lived so far away, we sort of... never kept in touch."

You can tell there's a little more to that story, and decide to risk pushing a little. "I get the feeling there's more to it than that?"

Mami laughs. "Can't hide anything from you, can I?" She tries for nonchalant. "She... stopped answering my calls. When I went to check on her, she told me she needed her space," she finishes evenly, but the slight stumble as she lands on a roof gives lie to that.

Ouch. You wince to yourself, and take a few quick steps forward to bump Mami's shoulder with your own. It's probably an old hurt at this point, but you can't help but feel that a little comfort would be for the best here. She turns and gives you a smile that's tinged with gratitude and just a little melancholy.

Mami's next words, spoken, not telepathic, are almost snatched away by the wind as the two of you leap for the next building, but straining, you can just hear them. "I'm glad you're here."

The two of you continue on in silence after that, now forced to move at the street level, keeping to darker areas and avoiding cars. You soon sense a magical presence, ahead... and above you? "This way, Mami," you say, veering off to the side.

The houses are sparser in this area- there is a remarkable amount of greenery and open ground around here, and you frankly have no idea how that works with land-starved Japan, unless the Kanames actually happen to be richer than gods, plural. But then again, it's not like theirs is the only house in this read, and nor is this land fenced off and 'Property of...'

There's... simply a perplexing amount of unutilized land here.

You circle around to the side of the house, where Homura's presence is, until you're almost directly on top of it. Your senses still say she's almost directly above you, but you don't see her.

"Here." Your head snaps up at the sound of Homura's voice.

As it turns out, she's perched incongrously on a tree branch, barely visible amongst the foliage until she shifted position slightly to look down at you. You squint at her position, and then back at the the Kanames' house, estimating angles. At a guess, you suspect that she can see into Madoka's window from her current position.

Homura hops down from her perch, landing softly beside the two of you.

"Homura," Mami says, inclining her head the barest fraction of a centimeter to the time traveller.

"Mami, Sabrina," Homura replies, returning the infinitesimally tiny nod.

Well, you'll take it. "Hello, Homura," you say.

[] Suggest talking in time-stop
[] Talk here
[] Suggest adjourning to elsewhere
[] Write-in conversational direction
- [] Degree of meta

=====​

The Kaname residence is ridiculous. I have no idea how to make sense of it.

 

[Firnagzen]

"Homura. What do you know about Oriko?" Mami prompts, fixing the time traveller with an unyielding, steady gaze.

You raise a hand, forestalling any further comment. "Wait. Homura, I think we should speak under cover of your power, just to be sure?"

Mami glances at you quizzically, with a slight hint of impatience, but defers to you and looks back at Homura, waiting for an answer.

Telepathically, you inform Homura, "Kyuubey knows about the timestop somehow, and has told Kyouko, at least. Not much point hiding it from Mami."

Homura's violet eyes shift to look at you, and a long moment passes before finally she bends down to pick up a twig from the ground, and holds it out to you. You grasp the twig, and hold your hand out to Mami. "Grab on, Mami."

"What's this fo-" Mami begins, grabbing your hand.

Homura turns her shield, and time stops. What little noise there is, here in the suburbs at 3AM in the morning, is completely snuffed out, leaving the three of you with nothing but the sounds of your breathing to accompany you. The world falls into hues of lifeless grey, the subtle motion of plants swaying in the wind dying.

Mami doesn't gape, precisely, but she stares at the deadened surroundings, eyes widened from her usual half-lidded expression.

"I can stop time," Homura says simply.

Mami swallows, recovering. "I see. That is a... powerful ability indeed, Homura."

Homura nods slightly. "To answer your question, Mikuni Oriko is a powerful, very powerful precognizant. She works with a time slower, Kure Kirika."

"Uh, that's not true," you inject. "Kirika, I mean. According to Kyuubey, her power is to cancel active magic." Under Homura's questioning glare, you shrug, and add, "I asked. Since he was so free with telling other magical girls about your power..."

A grimace. "Magic cancelling, then. Oriko is... was the daughter of the former senator, Mikuni Hisaomi."

Mami raises her eyebrows. "That Mikuni. I see."

"Oriko goes to school at Shirome," you add. "Kirika... at Mitakihara. I'd say be careful in school, but I don't think that's necessary. Kirika seems... quite unstable to me, when I met her- she's... uh, maybe 'yandere' for Oriko comes close? She's very, very protective of Oriko, but otherwise acts more or less normally. I think her Wish might have messed with her head a little."

Mami nods grimly. Even in her quietly simmering anger, the thought of the Wish intefering with a person like that seems to mildly disturb her.

"Am I to assume Oriko was behind the fire?" Homura asks. You doubt she's really questioning the idea, just confirming.

"Yes, she was," you say. "Or... she was there, when we arrived, watching from a rooftop. Then she just walked away."

"Whether she was responsible or not," Mami snaps, "she is at least responsible for walking away."

You nod. "What else do we know she's done? She gave me that threat to our house, she sent Kirika to talk to me... she... might have been responsible for having Kirika push Hitomi down the stairs? And apparently she was hiring? Homura, have you seen her?"

The time traveller shakes her head. "No."

"Ugh," you grunt, feeling the urge to rub your temples, but both of your hands are occupied. "What the hell is her game? She's a precog, she can't simply be doing this for fun or something. If she wanted us dead, we'd probably be dead already."

"Irrelevant."

"That doesn't matter-"

Mami and Homura both reply at the same time, before looking at each other in surprise. Homura inclines her head for Mami to continue.

"It doesn't matter, Sabrina. Whatever her game, this was completely unacceptable, and she will answer for it," Mami says.

"Yes, she will!" you agree. "But if we don't do this carefully, we're probably playing right into her hands! We need to come up with some kind of plan, here- we need to stop this from happening again."

Mami grimaces. "I agree, Sabrina." She looks off into the distance, considering for the moment.

All three of you are quiet.

It's eerie, here in the time stop, with nothing to accompany you apart from the thundering of your heart and the slow breathing of the three of you. There exist, apparently, acoustic chambers soundproofed so perfectly that the silence drives people mad, and the longest anyone has ever lasted in one of those is about twenty minutes. You imagine much the same applies here.

You should be thinking of a way to beat Oriko, but here and now, you're coming up blank.

At length, Mami asks, "Homura. Your timestop. Could we use it to find Oriko and... deal with her?"

Homura's eyes widen fractionally, but she nods. "I am intending to try. The biggest issue will be finding her."

"Good. Can you bring us with you?" Mami asks.

[] Attempt to head off this plan
- [] With what reasoning?
[] Let them hash it out
[] Suggest improvements
[] Write-in

=====​

Phone typing again. Oh well.

 

[Firnagzen]

Thoughts explode into your head as you hear Mami and Homura discuss assassinating Oriko from inside the time loop. How upset must Mami be to even contemplate that? You contemplate possible interactions of Kirika's and Homura's powers, as well as whether you should try to dissuade them.

Homura hesitates for a moment before nodding. "I can."

You inject a question at this point. "Homura, Kirika's power is to cancel out active magic. Do you think she might cancel your timestop?"

The timetraveller frowns, and considers it for a moment. "It's possible, yes."

"Then out first task should be to find her first, and, uh, neutralize her, or at least make sure she's not in a position to interfere?" you suggest. "I can still sense things while timestopped, so that should work."

Mami nods. "That sounds workable, though finding her is the biggest problem. Homura, how long can your timestop last?"

"Indefinitely, if I can cleanse my Soul Gem," Homura says, inclining her head to you. "It won't be a problem."

"Mmm," you agree with a nod. "One, uh, two more things. Firstly, Oriko is a precognizant... if she doesn't already have countermeasures against us, then she certainly will the moment you release the timestop. The other thing... well, again, she said she was hiring. Who? Maybe another magical girl?"

Mami looks away. "I hope she's not in the area. Oriko... Oriko needs to pay, but someone who was just hired for a job..."

"It shouldn't come to that," you comment. "Timestop, no?"

"I hope so," Mami admits, before turning back to Homura. "Homura, your timestop works by touch range. Do you think my ribbons will suffice?"

Homura nods.

"Then may I suggest we bind ourselves together using the ribbons so that we can spread out and search a larger area?" Mami asks.

"That should work," Homura agrees.

"I can't help but feel that a seer will be better at hiding than three of us can search, though, even with Homura's timestop," you comment.

Homura nods slowly. "I tried to find her yesterday, as well."

"We can cover a much larger area now, though, and Sabrina can sense magic in a very large radius," Mami points out. "And I am not letting her go without at least trying to find her."

Homura's eyes are slightly widen. You wonder how many times she's ever seen Mami this angry before. It can't have occurred all that often. She eventually nods again. "I suggest that we start at where you last saw her, then search towards her house. Failing that, we can check the old industrial area."

[] Write-in
- [] Suggestions for where else to search
- [] Anything else to say?
[] Split your lungs with blood and thunder/When you see the white magical girl (Start hunting)

=====​

Whoops. Wound up coding instead of writing an update.

 

[Firnagzen]

"OK, then. Nothing for it, I guess?" you say, letting out a breath.

"The sooner we get started, the sooner we find Oriko," Mami says. She holds up the hand not gripping yours, and golden ribbon begins spooling out from between her fingers. The ribbons wind sinuously around your waist, and then snakes over to Homura, who watches the ribbon slightly dubiously. Nevertheless, she lets it wrap around her waist without complaint.

"The ribbon should lengthen as needed," Mami comments.

"Well. A cleanse before we go, then?" you suggest, letting go of the twig that had previously been bridging you and Homura, as well as Mami's hand. You shake out your hands; gripping things for so long has left them a tad sore.

Homura nods, and offers her Soul Gem, as does Mami. You draw off the corruption clouding their Gems -there's a fair amount on both their Gems-, and you pull it into the familiar little spheres of your Grief marbles for safekeeping. These join the others in your pocket, making for a total of twelve, and causing a somewhat unsightly bulge in said pocket. On an off thought, you pat your right pocket, ensuring that the Grief Seed is still there.

"Let's go, then," Mami says, starting in the direction of Sayaka's house. As promised, the ribbon stretches out behind her, seeming to have a life of its own as it avoids getting snagged on the various obstacles.

"Be careful, everyone," you breathe as you pick up the pace, Homura alongside you.

"Of course, Sabrina," Mami replies, turning to half smile at you.

The three of you move in near silence, ghosting over the timestopped city at a hundred meter spread. You quickly arrive at Sayaka's house, still blazing with stilled flames. Torrents of water, frozen in mid air, gout from the parked fire engines, and there are fire fighters rushing out of the building. One of them, halted midstep, is carrying someone in the traditional fireman's carry. You feel a slight pang- in your rush to save the Mikis, you hadn't considered other people in the building.

"One more thing for Oriko to pay for," Mami observes grimly from behind you. You hadn't even heard her walking up to you.

You shake off the thoughts. "Oriko was up there, wasn't she?" You point at a red-bricked building, and Mami nods, before silently taking a long hop to reach it. Homura follows, as do you.

The time traveller walks off to the edge of the building, peering around to get her bearings, and Mami trails a step behind.

... Mami's hands are shaking, just a little. With rage, or with uneasiness as the fact that she is planning cold blooded murder settles in, you don't know. You probably wouldn't have noticed, were you not currently hyper alert for any unexpected traps, impossibly functioning within the timestop.

You grimace, and look away, gaze falling to the ground.

There's a piece of paper with text on it lying on the ground, near the edge of the building. You raise an eyebrow at it, and glance at the others. They don't seem to have noticed it.

It's almost certainly a note from Oriko.

[] Call the others over
[] Pick up and read the note
[] Ignore the note, proceed with hunt
[] Write-in

=====​

... you know, I actually don't have anything to say in my usual note here. Oh well.

 

[Firnagzen]

You scowl at the note. Would it be better to read it, or just leave it be? You're almost certain Oriko left that note- it's utterly pristine save for the traceries of beautifully done calligraphy. Your gaze shifts over to the other two again to make sure they aren't looking -Homura's pointing off into the distance, now-, before you stoop and pick up the note.

The note is short, and written in flowing, picture-perfect Hiragana penmanship of the sort someone who's taken lessons for half her life would have. It says, simply, 'This was, and remains, necessary.'

A tug on the corner of the note and it bends as though it caught on something.

Too late, you see the thread delicately glued to the corner.

Too late, you see the tiny black box the note had been sitting on top of.

Despite your enhanced reflexes, you're halfway through a panicked jump away when the box detonates, blossoming out in a spray of fire and shrapnel. White-hot agony shoots up your spine as metal shards tear their way through your right leg and hip. Some corner of your brain recognizes that the mine can't have been a military one- those have deadly radii in the tens of meters.

You crash down facefirst as a bleeding heap next to one of the vents on the roof. Your right leg, extended from the jump and caught in the brunt of the blast, is little more than a mangled mess of flesh, shredded tatters hanging from the bone.

It's probably a good thing you don't actually need all the blood that's pooling around your leg.

You clench your teeth, grinding them against each other hard enough to creak.

Mind over matter.

Pain is optional.

You don't need to feel the pain.

You can almost feel something click inside your brain, and the pain fades away to a dull ache.

"Sabrina!" Mami's instantly by your side, eyes wide and panicked. Homura's a step behind her.

[] Write-in

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Remember that I have, to date, fiated Oriko's actions once.

 

[Firnagzen]

You growl into the roof. It is, just about literally, just a flesh wound. You aren't going to die or even be seriously inconvenienced by something as minor as this. Grunting, you plant your right hand on the roof and force yourself to flip over, rolling on your left side to avoid grinding dirt from the roof into your mangled right hip. Your right leg flops, muscles unresponding to your mental commands.

Face up, you can see the glimmering cloud of shrapnel and fire of the explosion, frozen in the midair of Homura's timestop, like a deadly flower. There's a section simply missing from the explosive blossom, corresponding roughly to where you were.

"Sabrina- your leg," Mami whispers, face drawn into a rictus of horrified panic. She kneels beside you, hands already glowing with her trademark golden radiance, and she applies them to your mangled leg with alacrity. The bleeding is already slowing down. Luckily, it doesn't look like the bone was actually damaged, merely that your flesh was turned to minced meat.

"I-it'll be OK, Sabrina," Mami says urgently, reaching out one hand to grip yours tightly. Her hand is icy cold, and shaking violently. "Don't panic, I'll heal you, OK?"

Homura kneels opposite to Mami, the purple glow of her magic filling her hands. She lends her aid to the healing process, a scowl set hard on her face.

You blink slowly, and push yourself up to a half seated position. "No, don't move, Sabrina!" Mami says, trying to push you back down.

"Let me help," you protest, dredging up the instincts you have for healing. Magic rushes to your hand, and you draw forth a gentle white light that you know can knit together flesh and even mend broken bone, given time.

"N-n-n-" Mami stutters, staring at you with wide eyes. Her trembling grip on your hand, already bone-crushing, tightens further. "S-Sabrina, it's OK, there's no need to push yourself!"

You meet Homura's flat gaze, and then look back at Mami's terrified gaze, before subsiding back against the rooftop. "Let me help you cleanse your Gems, at least."

"Later, Sabrina," Mami says, turning her attention back to your leg.

You lie back in silence for a few minutes, mind churning. Even if you can't feel the pain, you can feel the odd squelching and movements in your leg as Homura and Mami carefully work over your leg with their magic. A while later, Homura grabs Mami's hand by the wrist and forces it up. "Mami. You need to cleanse, now."

"I-it's OK, I can just use a Grief Seed," Mami says, flustered.

"I can handle it, Mami," you insist, lifting your head slightly to look at her. The blonde frowns unhappily, but detaches her Soul Gem for you.

You gasp softly when you see it. You'd judge that it's almost half filled, and you hurriedly gesture at it, pulling all the corruption free to form a fairly substantial cloud. Mami, against her will, sighs in contentment as she is freed of the Grief. Homura holds up her own Soul Gem, and you cleanse that too- you'd judge that her Gem was maybe a fifth filled, at worst.

You grip Mami's hand firmly. "Mami, you don't need to push yourself so hard, either. You said it yourself, I'll be OK. Take your time, OK?" you smile at her.

"O-OK," Mami says shakily, putting on a smile and returning her Soul Gem to her hairpin.

As they return to healing your leg, you collapse the tremendous cloud of Grief down as far as it will go, forming a double handful of marbles. You have no idea what to do with these, so you just let them hover in a ring slowly orbiting around you.

"You know," you comment at the air as she returns to healing your leg. "I can't believe Oriko did that. She made a damned landmine and deployed it here, in a residential area. I mean, yes, she set Sayaka's house on fire, but... if she wanted Sayaka dead... She's been threatening, and dangerous, but..."

"Oriko is ruthless," Homura growls. Absently, you note that her healing seems to be significantly more effective than Mami's- where her purple coloured magic falls, the layers of flesh seem to weave themselves back together far more quickly than Mami's. It's still extraordinarily slow, though.

"Yeah, I guess she is," you admit. "Still... if she wanted us dead, any of us dead..."

"She is not infallible," Homura says.

"Good," Mami adds, a flash of fury crossing her face. Her healing hand remains steady, though, making its slow sweep across your leg. You shiver briefly at the unaccustomed expression on her face- and it's not like it's been in short supply ever since the fire. This is not the warm, kindly and gentle Mami you've become used to. This is the veteran magical girl, who has survived and defended her territory, solo, against all both Witches and magical girls alike for perhaps years.

As her hand tightens briefly against yours, and she turns to smile comfortingly at you, though, you're forced to amend your statement. No. That's the Mami that Oriko is seeing.

You sigh. "Where else should we search? From here to Oriko's house, and Kirika's? Maybe we should check our home, and Homura's as well?" you suggest. "I mean, areas of personal significance, right?"

"Yes," Homura agrees. "However, given that these are the obvious locations, Oriko may avoid them instead."

"Good point," you say. "Hm. School, perhaps? Mitakihara and Shirome? And, uh... one idea I had. If she's hiding from us, then my detection range is the largest, with my power... She could hide inside a Barrier, and I'd have trouble detecting her. With Kirika, she'd be basically safe inside a Barrier."

"Possible," Homura allows. "Cleanse, Mami," she adds sharply.

Mami sighs, and holds out her Soul Gem. It's not as bad as the previous time, only about a third, but it nevertheless forms a fairly substantial cloud, and combined with the Grief from your own and Homura's Gems, you have another handful of Grief marbles to add to your orbiting ring.

It takes past an hour and several more cleanses to heal your leg fully- that mine had made an utter mess of your leg. Homura did the majority, though not by much, of the work, her healing seemingly far more efficient than Mami's, who simply brute forced it. You speculate that perhaps Homura simply had more time to hone her skills.

The healing and one last cleanse finally done, you flex your leg, followed by your toes. Everything seems to be working fine, and you smile gratefully at Homura and Mami. "Good as new," you say. The pant leg is completely shredded, but your leg is whole and working perfectly again.

Mami stares at you, emotions mixing on her face, before giving in to her impulses and dragging you into a tight hug. "You were so brave, Sabrina. H-how do you do it? It's like you weren't even worried about your leg. T-the last time I broke my arm..." she trails off.

[] Write-in

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There is quite a bit of dissonance with Sabrina's leg being utterly mulched, and her blithely talking about other things as if she doesn't care.

You now have a hundred seventeen Grief marbles, twelve of which are in your pocket.

 

[Firnagzen]

You awkwardly hug Mami back, while out of the corner of your eye, you see Homura stalking off around a corner, dodging one of your Grief marbles as she goes. "I kinda cheated with magic to dull the pain," you admit. "And... you and Homura were right there, so it was OK..."

"Oh, Sabrina." You can feel her shaking her head against your shoulder. "You- you..." Mami breaks off, lost for words.

"I'm sorry for making you worry again," you offer weakly.

"You're sor- for making me worry. You weren't even- you're not even worried about your leg, are you?" Mami says with a choked laugh. "You, Sabrina... you are something amazing." She gives you one last squeeze before releasing you, and favouring you with a half-smile.

"I... uh," you say, slightly puzzled. "Thank you, Mami? And thank you for the healing, too," you half bow in her direction. Raising your voice, you add, "You too, Homura. Thank you for the healing."

Homura walks back around the corner of the silent air conditioning compressor. "You're welcome."

You take a step back, and look down at your shredded pant leg. You could retransform, and the costume would be fine again, or... you concentrate, twisting your magic just so, and a fine white glow suffuses you. The costume mends itself, weaving itself across your leg as though from some otherworldly bolt of cloth. Even the tiny rips and tears here and there mend themselves, threads snaking together.

Mami gives you an approving nod and smile, while Homura simply looks on impassively. You glance around, and look at the tremendous ring of tiny spheres of grief orbiting you slowly. "Oh wow..." you say, slightly shocked. You knew you'd cleansed off a lot of Grief, but actually seeing the sheer amount puts a different complexion on it.

"I... guess I need to do something about that," you say to no one in particular. "Bit unwieldy." You reshape the enormous ring, dividing up the marbles into seven groups of fifteen marbles each, and move each group to sit at the points of half an icosahedron, centered on you. Each of the small groups of marbles form a small ring of fourteen orbiting the remaining one of their number.

With the marbles spaced out like that, you reason, it should be relatively out of the way. Less chance of them running into things as you roof hop, though you resolve that you'll probably need to get that sling bag from Mami if you plan on keeping this many marbles around. It's fine in the timestop, with no one to see, but you'll look decidedly odd to non magical girls.

"It's sort of pretty," Mami observes, looking at the geometric patterns you formed from the Grief marbles, but the smile fades from her face.

You shrug. "It seemed like the thing to do. This will keep the Grief out of the way, at least?"

"It's a good thing you can remove corruption," Mami says quietly. "There's... probably more than I can afford, here." It seems that the sheer magnitude of what it had taken to heal you is beginning to sink in for her. She continues in a slightly more formal tone. "And thank you, Homura, for insisting that I cleanse my Soul Gem. Losing my magic at this juncture would have been unfortunate."

Homura nods. "Not a problem," she says, eyes flickering to yours for a moment. You can tell what she's probably thinking- about Mami, and her reaction to the unpleasant reveals on the nature of magical girls.

"Anyway," you say, catching Mami's attention. "Shall we continue on? Oriko's still out there, somewhere."

"I suppose so," the blonde replies. "Do you need a minute to rest first, Sabrina?"

"No, I'm fine," you demur. "How about you? And Homura?"

"Not necessary," Homura says.

Mami shakes her head, blonde curls flapping. "I'm fine, too. Where shall we go, first?"

"I suggest checking towards Oriko's house," Homura replies.

[] Agree
[] Disagree
-[] Write-in where else?

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Geometry!

 

[Firnagzen]

"Sounds good to me," you affirm. "Which way, then, Homura?"

"There," the timetraveller replies, pointing off into the distance. You nod, and let her take point, hopping off in that direction. You and Mami follow at a distance, spreading out to form the points of a large V connected by golden ribbons.

Pushing your senses out as far as they can go, you scan thoroughly for magic as the three of you proceed slowly. You even descend to the streets a few times to ensure that Oriko isn't travelling along at ground level to hide from you, weaving in between the few frozen cars and eerily still pedestrians on the street.

Even with the three of you searching at a hundred meter spread, there's a considerable amount of area to cover, and it's a quiet two hour trip, with only the occasional murmur to break the monotony before you approach Oriko's house. It's located in one of the more well-off parts of the town, as you'd expect, and much like the Kaname residence, this area is surrounded, perplexingly, by swathes of open land and greenery. Oriko's house is an enormous two story building, virtually a mansion in and of itself.

Looking down at it from atop a nearby building, you decide to circle it before going in, and you hop down to the street while Homura prowls about on the rooftops, examining the area with a keen eye. Mami joins you down on the streets, trailing you as you hop over and around the sparse people and cars. Brief colour blooms as you swing around a lamppost with one arm, momentarily bringing it into the timestop with you.

"What's wrong, Mami?" you ask, after a few minutes of Mami trailing you silently. You come to a halt, and half turn to look at her.

Mami blinks unhappily, and opens her mouth, before slowly closing it again. Eventually, she begins, "Oriko... is not the first magical girl I've had to fight for territory."

You think you can hear a 'but', hanging in the air.

"She's the first to have gone after your friends like this?" you fill in the blanks for her.

"Yes, she is," Mami says, looking away. "I don't understand. Why would she do that? She- I- I want her to pay, Sabrina. But I- I- why would she do that? Set fire to Sayaka's house, and then set a trap for you like that?"

[] Write-in response
[] Specifics for checking Oriko's house

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Do you want to comb the house room by room, just scan it from the outside, that kind of thing?