"
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
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Heee.