Your jaw tenses for a second, making a valiant and not quite
unsuccessful attempt to stop the collision of amusement and annoyance on your face. It's not every day you see someone so convincingly ram their foot into their mouth all the way up to their thigh.
Look, you don't actually watch yourself in the mirror. Come to that, you don't even look into a mirror that often and
no that's not a metaphor for anything you do plenty of self-reflection thank you very much and why are you justifying yourself to yourself anyway.
Still, oddly, Kyouko's jibe seems to steady Mami.
"Sabrina would never do anything like what you're implying," she says sharply.
You squeeze Mami's hand tightly.
"
Reach out with both hands and don't look back," you murmur into Mami's mind. "
If you don't know what to say, or if you're hurt, then tell
her. I'll catch you if you fall, and I'm here for you. I will always
be here for you."
You let Mami's hand go. Her eyes go to you, huge and
terrified but
resolute as her fingers slowly fall away. You give her warm smile, soft and -hopefully- reassuring, before stepping back. This is
Mami's fight, and as much as you ache to be there with her, as much as your hand feels cold where she'd clutched so tightly - you
know that you can't.
"Yeah? It's all about her, isn't it?" Kyouko snaps back. You detransform as you join Sayaka and Homura, the flash of light seeming to catch her attention. She jerks her chin at you. "You've found someone who you can
believe in."
"I-" Mami's voice cracks, but then she straightens her back, shoulders squaring. "Sabrina has nothing to do with this."
"Hey," Sayaka murmurs as you slouch against the wall lining the bridge. Homura glances at you, an inscrutable look out of the corner of her eye.
"Isn't-" That's as far as Kyouko gets.
"You left me." Maybe it's something in the look Mami gives Kyouko, maybe it's the way she whispers it -neither loud nor accusing nor angry, just
disappointed- that takes the wind out of Kyouko's sails.
Old pain, old hurt that never truly went away.
"... yeah. I did," Kyouko says. She starts to look away, before her eyes snap back, glare reasserting itself. She doesn't move, either, her arms folded. Knotted tight and closed off, harsh shadows cast over her face and body by the illumination of the street light. "I couldn't stand being around you."
The blood drains from Mami's face.
Sayaka sucks in a breath, hissed between her teeth, while you-
You feel Homura's hand on your elbow, halting you in your tracks. Amethyst eyes meet yours, silent, implacable, and...
questioning. You subside, forcing yourself to watch as your hands find the rough brick ledges of the bridge.
"What, didn't like that?" Kyouko asks, noticing your movement. She glances at you, gaze lingering on Sayaka for a moment. "Whatcha gonna do about it."
"Kyouko," Mami says, her cold, precise diction belying the anger simmering beneath her even tone. "Why are you doing this?"
Kyouko
laughs. Loud and coarse and mocking and perhaps you're reading too much into it, but with just a bit of genuine hurt leaking through.
"I'm not
good enough for you," Kyouko sneers, and her words burn hot, hot, hot with anger. Anger at Mami, anger at the world, anger at herself. "You know it, I know it. I never was. I could never live up to your
ideals, Mami-
senpai."
That's not how you remember it. And it doesn't stop the sick jolt of anger coiling that surges in response to the taunt. Not anger for
you, but for Mami. You fight back the response, reminding yourself that this is Mami's fight.
And you...
Your senses jangle. You feel
displacement in the nanofog bank you never retracted, a slinking, cat-like form pushing into existence. The first time you've ever actually
observed Kyuubey teleporting in, you think.
You freeze Grief around the
rat, locking its body in place. It struggles for a moment before going limp and motionless - not motionless like someone lying still, but the stillness of death.
Good enough, as long as it doesn't come back.
"That's not true," Mami says, her chin lifting. "We fought
together, Kyouko. We fought for the same thing."
"Yeah, and then I didn't," Kyouko snaps. "How about that? We can't all be
perfect."
"Mistakes are
human, Kyouko," Mami says softly. "I never asked you to be perfect."
"'Mistakes'?" Kyouko echoes, her face twisting to anger. "
I hurt people. That's all I
do."
"You don't have to," Mami says.
"There was once a little girl who killed her family. The
end," Kyouko says, singsong and mocking and bitter. She holds both arms out and twirls, then curtsies towards you. "How about
that, my dear audience?"
And therein lies the problem, doesn't it?
Her mother, her sister. Dead of a murder-suicide at her
father's hand. Because he found out that Kyouko had made a Wish, that his congregation had gathered out of her
witchcraft.
Hurts that never mended. That never had the chance to
be mended.
"
I think you're being stupid." Sayaka beats you to the punch, scowling and folding her arms. "I've seen how you act with Yuma. I dunno what your problem is, but you're not as bad as you think you are."
Mami steps forward. Once, twice, thrice, to stop just out of arm's reach of Kyouko, and she simply... looks at Kyouko. The anger is gone, banked embers now replaced with solemn consideration.
"I wonder what lessons
your student is learning from you?" Mami murmurs. "I wonder what she thinks of you?"
"She's a
kid," Kyouko snarls. "She doesn't know better."
"I think she knows well enough," Mami says. "I wonder if she would agree, if I asked her?" She turns her head slightly, looking past and above Kyouko's head. "I recognise that enchantment she's using."
You track Mami's gaze, past the glow of streetlights and past the gloom of night, to what
might be a tiny silhouette perched atop a building in the distance.
"I feel sorry for her," Kyouko says, lips peeling off her teeth. "So what?"
"No matter how much you try to pretend otherwise... Kyouko, you believed in the same ideals I did," Mami says. Her attention returns to Kyouko. "I know you did."
"No. I just said that to make you feel better," Kyouko says. The sneer returns to her face. "It's better this way."
"I don't believe you," Mami says, but you can see her conviction waver a little. She shakes her head, and sighs. "I... Kyouko,
I miss you."
"
Good for you," Kyouko says, sardonic. "I don't miss your
nagging."
Brick crunches under your fingers, jagged edges biting in even as it crumbles to powder under superhuman strength. Kyouko's eyes flick your way for a second, that damnable sneer curling her lips still.
"Still that same troublesome student of mine," Mami says. She opens both hands to Kyouko, the gesture belying the hurt and renewed anger in her eyes. "You're not here because you want to argue with me, Kyouko. Why
are you here?"
"I dunno, really," Kyouko says. She half turns away from Mami, shadows cast by her ponytail and bangs shading her face. "Maybe I
should leave. You've already got
friends."
"Kyouko, I..." Mami falters, reaching out to Kyouko before letting her hand drop, and takes a shaky breath. "You're my friend, too. You're
still my friend, and... I'm not going to let to push me away. I..." Mami takes a deeper breath, straightening. "I learned to
hope again, Kyouko. I'm not giving up on you."
"I thought you knew better than that," Kyouko says. She doesn't look at Mami, still half-turned away. "I've got a pretty good life. Just gotta look out for myself." She jerks a thumb over her shoulder at you before stuffing her hand back in her pocket. "Your girl's pretty good for free stuff."
Sayaka snorts quietly.
"Can you really say that, Kyouko?" Mami says. "Can you
really say that you don't care? That you only care about yourself?"
"Hey, that's just the way things have to be, isn't it?" Kyouko says. "You try and do something good, and the world pays you back with the bad."
"No," Mami says quietly. "No, it
doesn't have to be that way. We fight for
justice, Kyouko, because things
can be better. I..." Mami's eyes flicker over to you for a split second. "I never- I never thought I'd have the chance to see you again, and yet, here we are."
"Should've kept it that way," Kyouko grunts. "What, you forget how
disappointed you were with me?"
"I was disappointed with what you were saying," Mami whispers. Her voice is quiet. Almost pleading. "But you... you never really meant it, did you?"
"Mean it?" Kyouko barks out a bitter laugh. "People died. I didn't save them."
"And now?" Mami persists, but you can see her shoulders slumping a little. Because Kyouko, damn her prickly street urchin facade,
hates herself, and she can't stop
digging.
Kyouko doesn't answer, a muscle twitching in her jaw as she looks away, too.
"I-" Mami swallows, taking another step forward. "Kyouko, I... whatever you've done, it's
alright. We can- we can work something out. I-" Mami's voice cracks, and you can see her trying to blink back tears. "I'm
sorry, Kyouko. I'm sorry I- I wasn't enough to help, back then. Please- please. I just want my friend back."
Kyouko hunches her shoulders, mutely shaking her head. "There's a place for people like
me, Mami. Go home."
[] Wait. Let Mami handle it.
[] Intervene
- [] Encourage Mami
-- [] Telepathically (Write-in)
-- [] Out loud (Write-in)
- [] Say something to Kyouko (Write-in)
- [] Nudge someone to say something
-- [] Sayaka
-- [] Yuma
-- [] Homura
[] Say something to Kyuubey
=====
Minor note: Mami has been using 'Kyouko-san' throughout, as opposed to 'Sakura-san' whic Kyouko would have been used to from their parting.
