You purse your lips, meeting Kyouko's eyes. She has to tilt her head back a little to meet your eyes, but meet them she does, a challenging glare in her gaze.
You know, she knows, and you know she knows you know.
Later.
You crook your fingers, drawing the Grief away from Kyouko's Soul Gem. At the same time, your cloud of Grief swoops down from the rooftops to join you in the alleyway. You pull the swarm of spheres into a ready position, drifting around the three of you in a loose, slowly turning formation.
"Jesus," Kyouko mutters, glancing around at the spheres of solid Grief. Yuma follows her gaze, too, turning to look at the formation of Grie- oh you see what she's doing. Clever.
You half nod to yourself. You'll play along - and you do, taking advantage to draw the Grief off to the side while Yuma's distracted by your half-intentional display. You yank Grief from Kyouko's Gem as fast as you can, bilious eddies you collapse into spheres that scatter into the cloud and into your bag.
"Yuma?" you prompt, absently cleaning your own Gem and leaving it a gleaming white.
"Ah! Yes!" Yuma says, producing her bright orange Soul Gem for you to cleanse, which you do with a smile. "Thank you, Sabrina!"
You smile at her, reaching down to ruffle her hair. She leans into it, nuzzling against your hand like a cat. "No problem, Yuma-" your eyes flick over to meet Kyouko's, "-Kyouko."
She grimaces and nods slightly, Soul Gem restored to its ring form. "Thanks," she grunts. She fumbles in her pocket for a moment and produces a box of Pocky, taking one for herself and Yuma before offering you the box.
Were they Witch-bombed or something? You eye the Barrier, rolling your shoulders as you snag one of the chocolate-covered biscuit sticks, smiling a little. "Thanks! So... how d'you want to do this? I can play support and watch your back, or I can just go ahead and break everything."
Kyouko scowls at you. "We'll pull our weight," she says. "Right, Yuma?"
"Right!" Yuma agrees, beaming at you. She looks up and down the deserted alleyway before transforming, the burst of light replacing her pink hoodie with her ruffled, white and green costume. Her adopted older sister follows suit moments later, cassock-dress flowing over her skinny form.
You don't
think they were Witch- or lich- bombed. There's no hesitation in their transformations or movements, and Yuma doesn't seem to be
unhappy about anything.
Kyouko summons a spear to her hand, spinning it with effortless ease before resting it against her shoulder. "Ready?"
"Yep," you agree, sticking the pocky in your mouth. You pull Grief around you in a flowing mantle, taking a deep breath. Another day, another Witch fight.
Kyouko nods sharply, stepping into the Barrier. Yuma follows her, bouncing in her hands a mace almost larger than she is, while you take the rear.
You plunge into the Barrier, bracing yourself for the nauseating, stomach twisting
slap in the face. You swallow hard, forcing back the rising gorge in your throat.
Something jabs you lightly in the side. You follow the spear back to Kyouko, who's peering at you with a frown. "Yo, you OK there?"
"Yeah," you say, straightening and fumbling with the pocky stick dangling from your lips. Scorching heat scrapes at the back of your neck and your scalp, even through your thick hair. "I... well. I can sense Grief. All this-" you wave for emphasis, "-is Grief. It's always a bit of a... shock to the senses."
Kyouko nods. "Right," she says, glancing around.
It's a desert. Vast, rolling sand dunes stretch off into the distance, the sun blazing down from above. It's high noon.
... it's a good thing that you're a puella magi. White girl that you are, so much as
glancing at the sun-blasted landscape would probably give you one
hell of a sunburn. Instantly.
Kyouko crunches noisily at the pocky in her mouth, faded crimson eyes darting around as she surveys the seemingly endless sand dunes. "Hey, can you get up high?"
"Yeah," you say, wings already blooming from your shoulders. "Good idea."
As you launch yourself skywards, you can't help but notice the way Kyouko stands in front of Yuma, spear at the ready to defend the younger girl. You can't hide the smile, either, so it's just as well that you're airborne and out of Kyouko's line of sight - she'd probably stab you if you comment on how adorable they are.
Then again, she'd probably only stab you a
bit.
You're friends, after all.
You thi-
Too close!
Instincts roar in your mind, and you twist
away-
Only for your wings to clip an unyielding
ceiling, sending you into a wild, uncontrolled tumble.
You snap yourself back upright, your
will forcibly overwriting your momentum. "I'm OK!" you call.
"
What the fuck was that?" Kyouko snaps. You can see her shading her eyes to look up at you.
"
This isn't a real sky," you respond, glaring upwards as you level your flight out."
There's an invisible ceiling up here."
Something that sounds suspiciously like a snort echoes in your head. "
Crashed into it, did ya?"
"
... almost," you concede, starting to scan the Barrier. It's nothing but endless dunes of sand, looking almost like a calm lake frozen over and hued in yellowy-oranges. You relay that to Kyouko.
"
Nothin' at all?" Kyouko asks. "
'nything that looks out of place or something?"
You fly a slow loop, inspecting the landscape with care. "
No," you confirm. "
Lots and lots of sand."
"
Underground or above, then," Kyouko decides. "
See if you can break through the sky, we'll work on the ground."
"
OK!" Yuma says.
"
Right," you say. Below, you see a twin flash of crimson and green, and sand starts to erupt into the air as Kyouko and Yuma start digging.
You purse your lips, considering the sky. Your wings stop as you replace aerodynamics with will, Grief manipulation letting you hang dead at a dead stop in the sky. You try not to think too hard about the fact that the wings aren't actually
attached to your shoulders, just kind of... hovering there.
A touch of will sends you drifting upwards to meet the ceiling. You reach out cautiously, finding it cool to the touch, almost glassy.
Hm.
You crunch thoughtfully on the pocky. You could Grief rend a hole right through it, but it'd also bring every single Familiar in the place down on you. Which ordinarily you wouldn't mind, but with Kyouko, and more importantly,
Yuma here, you're not as sure.
Hammertime, then.
... There is a very obvious reference here that you
won't make.
A silver warhammer flashes into existence in your hand, the haft reassuringly solid. You rear back and swing as hard as you can, twisting from your hips and the Grief of your wings to lend as much force as you can to the blow. Swing
through.
Your hammer bounces off. It bounces off with a sharp crack that reverberates around the entire Barrier, the shock of impact juddering up your arm. "Ow," you grunt, shaking out your arms.
"
Quit screwing around up there, we've got it," Kyouko snaps at you.
"
Well how was I
supposed to know that?" you grunt back, glaring up at the invisible small-b barrier. You fold your wings and dive straight down.
You land in the middle of a huge crater excavated in the sand, the clash of weapons echoing from below - at the
bottom of the pit is a smooth, rocky surface with a hole punched clear through it, metallic sparks glowing below.
"
Incoming!" you call, diving in after Kyouko and Yuma. You can
feel the wave of Familiars pouring down on them, skittering things scuttling in the darkness.
You drop right next to Yuma, taking the situation in at a glance - Kyouko just two steps ahead, spear flashing and stabbing and weaving in intricate patterns as she slices into a horde of Familiars. Scurrying, dog-sized things with too many glassy eyes and legs. They're vaguely boxy, a pair of ram's horns curling above a single large eye in place of any coherent head, a dozen eyes apiece scattered at random over the rest of their skittering bodies.
Flashes of light strobe as each Familiar dies, stark white illumination bright enough to hurt the eye as Kyouko smashes into the glassy bodies with clear chimes of breaking glass.
Yuma watches intently, knuckles white around the haft of her mace. With a sharp, wordless cry, she rears back, raising her mace over her head and bringing it smashing down. Shockwaves ripple out, Kyouko diving smoothly out of the way as the rolling wave punches into the Familiars, sending them flying.
"On your left!" you bark, sweeping in after the wake of the shockwave, a thousand blades blooming out of the cloud of Grief. The blades flash around you in a buzzing swarm, an oblate sphere gleaming deep purple in what little light filters from the hole behind you.
The sphere bulges around you, a maw yawning wide to bite down on the oncoming wave of Familiars. You lunge forward, each blade finding a target and slamming deep, and you sprint on.
"
Christ. C'mon, Yuma!" Kyouko barks. You can sense her, hard on your heels. Her spear lashes out, lengthening past you to punch through a particularly large specimen of Familiar.
"Right!" Yuma says, keeping up gamely.
You slow a step, letting Kyouko vault in front of you with her spear to crunch down on a Familiar with both boots. The haft of her spear snaps into pieces, the rattle of chains cracking through the air, the spearhead whirling about Kyouko like a living thing.
Your footsteps pound through the caves as the three of you push deeper, the relentless crush of spear and mace and hammer and Grief rolling over the Familiars pouring towards you.
Kyouko doesn't go out of her way to kill Familiars, just those in her path, you can't help but notice. Not surprising - but she doesn't do much more than give you an annoyed look when she notices that you're picking up the slack with a sandstorm of blades that scourges every Familiar you can sense. There's no
time to do anything more.
The caves grow darker the deeper you travel - the flashbulb bright novas of light from dying Familiars would be enough to leave anyone not a puella magi blinded and disoriented. Stark shadows dance across the walls, stopmotion cutouts of the three of you carving your way through.
"Up ahead!" Kyouko snaps, spear whirling out to point for a moment before streaking through a figure-of-eight flourish that finishes with three Familiars impaled on the blade.
You nod, spotting it - a faint, luminescent glow growing brighter as you punch through the last line of skittering familiars.
You find... an underground oasis, a small pool of water sitting at the bottom of a large cavern. Looking down, you spot impossibly lush greenery, a single crimson flower sitting atop a mass of leafy vines that curl around the water.
Yuma smashes the last Familiar into pulp with her mace, wrinkling her nose at the glassy shards. "Ergh," she complains.
Kyouko nods sharply, blowing out a breath as she kneels abruptly in front of Yuma, inspecting her carefully. "You alright, Yuma?" she asks. "Didn't get injured?"
"Nope!" Yuma says proudly. "Yuma didn't get hit at all, big sis!"
[] Write-in
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Witch time!
