Mami was worried.
A flood of students walked past her, chatting, some animatedly, some tiredly, but moving along.
Mami stood. She looked around amongst the mass of teenagers, she looked up at the sky, she looked down, frowning, but couldn't seem to find what she was looking for.
She bit her lip, while at the same time her eyes unfocused, giving her eyes a faraway look.
"S-Sabrina? Where... A-are you, there, Sabrina? H.. hello?" she thought.
Mami's hands shook, and she nervously pressed them together, before half flinching, straightening up before she could draw too many odd looks from her fellow students.
"Sabrina? I-I'm waiting for you."
No answer.
Mami took a shuddering breath, lip trembling. Her hands held each other once more, every part of her exuded worry...
[HELP]
Mami jumped.
She frantically looked around, mouth open, before she stopped herself, frowning harder.
"Hello?" she thought.
A few seconds passed... Mami's eyes closed shut, and she sagged in place. "Must be my imagination," she thought, "I'm hallu-"
[OJOU HELP]
Mami's breath hitched. "Who are you?" she sent out frantically, "do you know where S-Sabrina is...?"
[SABRINA]
The answer was quick then.
[COME HERE HELP]
Immediately, Mami's head turned to a side, her eyes as if focused on a far away place.
She looked around. There was nobody else around, everybody having finished leaving while she was having her mental conversation. The blonde girl nodded to herself; a bright light enveloped her for a moment, fading and leaving her attired in a white blouse and brown skirt, with a matching beret sitting atop her head.
Without hesitation, Mami jumped high and away.
-
A graceful landing, impeccable but for a hint of haste in her steps, Mami found herself before a closed, big door, barring entrance to a warehouse.
Her hands held a musket, for she could feel a worryingly familiar sensation assaulting her magical senses, a dangerous aura emanating from the delapidated building...
She had a moment to half remember Sabrina mentioning this place before the door suddenly slid open, revealing...
Sabrina?
No.
Witch?
Mami blinked.
A familiar. But why does it look so... familiar?
Standing in fron of her, head tilted up to look at her eyes, was a porcelain doll. Big, bright blue eyes stared unblinking; white hair decorated its head, and a blue coat covered it down from the shoulders.
A second flew by, then the doll literally jumped into motion.
[OJOU]
Mami stood paralyzed with indecision as the little one grabbed onto her arm.
[HELP SABRINA]
Mami let herself be dragged into the warehouse.
Inside there was... stuff.
Mami couldn't describe the interior any better than that. Stuff.
Witch stuff.
It was almost like being in a Barrier, surrounding by a Witch's domain, but not entirely, as the floor and walls were clearly mundane.
And the one who could do this...
Mami's eyes snapped to lock onto a single figure.
Sabrina.
Sitting on the floor, in the middle of the warehouse, surrounded by so much clutter, a girl attired the same as the creepy doll.
"Sabrina!" Mami called as she ran towards her missing friend.
Clack. Ignored, the doll fell to the floor on its face, as it couldn't hold onto the quickly moving girl.
Mami came to a stop a feet before reaching the white haired girl, hand outstretched, almost but not quite touching her shoulder.
Sabrina ignored this. Sitting cross legged on the floor, arms also crossed and a serious frown on her face, which looked down at her navel.
"Sa... Sabri... na?" Mami's voice trembled.
Sabrina hummed.
Mami held her breath.
Sabrina hummed again, frowing harder for a moment. After a second, she went back to her previous frown, remaining silent and oblivious to the World around her, and her friend at her side.
Mami's hand shook, dropping to her side.
Something grabbed at that hand.
Mami quickly turned to see the doll. This one pulled at her with one hand, the other one pointing at the stuff filling the place.
Mami took a look around. She looked back down at her white haired friend, opened her mouth, closed it, then nodded to herself and, with one last look back, turned around to check on all the... stuff. Witchy stuff.
The first thing that caught her eye was a statue. It looked much like a muscular, masked, bright yellow human.
It was also striking quite a... pose.
Mami tilted her head, trying to divine significance from this object, before noticing something small at the statue's feet.
Crouching down, she found more statues. But these ones didn't represent the yellow man. These looked like Sabrina... also posing.
Mami grabbed one of the little figurines, marvelling at the detail, at the still hair that looked almost real, at the little fingers spread out, partially covering the little bright blue eyes, which seemed to stare at her with that fervor...
Mami shook her head, putting the figurine back down. She stole a glance back at the real version of her friend, still sitting lost in her own little world, before quickly turning back to the little statues.
She noticed a piece of paper. Picking it up, she read:
The World.
Stand necessary?
Optimal pose?
Would screaming 'useless' increment time powers?
Mami frowned. Time powers?
Her eyes snapped wide open, her head raising, taking a good look around.
A diagram. Stepping closer, she could quickly make out more notes strewn around. Accel.
A pocket watch. Self explanatory.
A familiar looking set of long, curved claws. Notes reading: Wrong sort, but cool. Retractable? Might hurt.
A... Mami carefully turned around, looking for something...
There.
Stepping around almost random objects and pieces of paper strewn all over the floor, Mami made her way to the piece that caught her eye, lifting it off the floor and up to her face.
A buckler. A familiar buckler, decorated with long curves...
A note stuck on the back:
Fashioned after ---
The last word was scratched out thoroughly.
Might need to look into space stuff, too, to validate using this shape.
"... Time?" Asked Mami out loud.
"Time!"
Mami jumped, hands twitching, dropping the shield.
"Sabrina!" Ignoring the noise of the piece falling, she ran towards her friend.
"Mami!" Sabrina looked up, blinking repeatedly, as if she couldn't fathom what the blonde girl was doing there. But only for a moment. Sabrina's frown returned full force, "time!" she yelled. "There's so many..." she waved her hands around, standing up, "so many... shapes," she mused, folding her hands behind her back, and starting to pace.
Mami stopped once more short of reaching her friend, discouraged by her seemingly non existant attention span regarding her.
Mami watched Sabrina pace back and forth around the stuff, time stuff, muttering to herself.
"... the perfect form... can't use hers... not too flashy?..." Mami could catch some of Sabrina's mutterings.
"Ah..." She hesitatingly called out. Sabrina's eyes snapped up to meet hers. Taking this as encouragement, Mami continued, "are y-you making... a time device, Sa... Sabrina?" she asked.
Sabrina nodded her head fervently. "Yes!" She raised her arms, hands closed in fists as she exclaimed in frustration, "but I can't find the best way to shape it!" She huffed, resuming her pacing, faster this time, even more irritated, "is a watch too mainstream? What about a magic stone? Or a police box? Does that make sense?"
"Ah..." Mami once more interruped her friend's angry muttering. "Have y-you..." she stopped as Sabrina once more looked up at her. Gulping, she continued, "can yo-you... stop time, S-Sabrina?" she asked, hesitation and eagerness and a hint of worry mixing in her voice.
Sabrina stilled absolutely.
She didn't blink. She didn't breath. She didn't move. Not even a hair.
"Sab...?" Mami's voice trembled. "Sabri-?"
Slap!
"Wha...?" Mami stared at her friend, who was suddenly covering her eyes behind her hand.
Sabrina said something too low to hear.
"W... what?" Asked Mami.
Sabrina sighed, head dropping, her whole body sagging in defeat.
Sabrina's voice was a whisper, "... I haven't tried," she bit out.
Mami blinked.
Slowly, she looked down, then around at the many, many pieces of stuff strewn around the room.
There must be hundreds of models. She must've spent the whole day making these.
Then she looked back at her friend, who's face she could partly made out, bright red.
The next words scaped her lips without a thought.
"Oh, Sabrina..."