Puella Magi Interficio Antitheus

[RexHeller]

You reach the apartment with out issue. When you reach the building all it takes is one small jump up to window you left open and you're back inside. You close the window behind you and then collapse onto the bed. You've a lot to think about but the biggest question is whether to tell Mami what you've learned. Everything Ryubey said you decide to keep to yourself because everything he told you either A) is interesting but useless in a practical sense or B) would raise too many questions you don't want to answer right now. So really it's just your meeting with Oriko that you're considering. By the time you come to a decision the sun is up and you can hear movement in the kitchen. Looks like its time to get up.

As you expected Mami is working in the kitchen, cooking something. You take a breath to steady yourself before talking to her. "Mami."

Mami turns around and smiles at the sight of you. "Hello Mister Tatsuya. Did you sleep well?"

"I didn't sleep at all." You answer frankly. "There's something I need to tell you."

Mami stops smiling. She puts down the thing she was holding on the counter, walks over to the table with chairs and sits in one of them. Then she gestures for you to do the same. You comply and Mami smiles gently at you once again. "Okay. What's this all about?"

And so you tell her about going out last night. About how you met Oriko and what she said about her "scenario". Through it all Mami stays calm and doesn't interrupt although there is a reaction at the mention of Kyoko Sakura but it's so brief you're not sure what that reaction was, whether it was simple surprise or something else. Finally you tell her about the meeting you set up before you stop talking and allow her to take her turn.

Mami seems to think about everything you said before she sighs and starts to talk. "Well Mister Tatsuya, I'm very thankful you brought this to my attention. That there was another Magical Girl operating in my territory with out me knowing is very worrying even before the mention of this "scenario" of hers. However, I can't dismiss the possibility that she may actually be sincere in her promise that it will help everyone. In any case you should take her up on her offer to meet later today. I'll be waiting near by if anything goes wrong. Does that sound alright to you?" You nod. "Excellent. Was there anything else?"

"Several." You answer. "First, do you know either of the other Magical Girls Oriko mentioned?"

Mami shakes her head. "Only one of them I'm afraid. Kyoko is an old friend of mine but we haven't talked in a while now. Her territory is Kazamino town, across the river. As for Homura Akemi, I've never heard of her."

"Do you think we could approach Kyoko for help if it turns out Oriko is against us?"

Mami frowns and doesn't speak for a while. When she does she sounds unsure for once. "Maybe. Kyoko doesn't take kindly to outsiders like yourself and there's a reason the two of us haven't talked so she may not listen to me either. However if there's an external threat then she might be willing to work together." This Kyoko sounds like yourself, a survivor used to working on her own.

Switching topics, you ask your next question. "What's a month?"

Mami blinks, surprised, before giggling. "A month is about thirty days. It's slightly more complicated than that but thirty days is likely what Oriko means when she says a month. Any other words you don't know?"

"Yes. What's a park and when is 5 o'clock?"

"Well, there are a lot of different types of parks but what Oriko means is a large open space in a city where there are no buildings and plants like grass and trees are grown. People like to spend time there relaxing and playing. As for when is five O'clock that might take a bit to explain. Hold on a second would you?" Mami then gets up and walks to her room. When she comes back she hands you a flat, circular thing, that's gold on one side and is glass on the other. Under the glass is a white surface with numbers on it and three little sticks pointing out from the center of the circle. One of them, the thinnest one, is spinning around the circle in twitching movements. Mami calls it a watch and then spends the next several minutes explain how to use it to tell time.

Once that's done Mami returns to the kitchen to work on breakfast and you follow her. You have one last question. "Mami, do you have anything I can use to learn words that I don't know?"

"Sure. I have a dictionary around here somewhere. I'll find it for you after breakfast." Mami answers while working. "Oh, by the way, I'll be in school most of the day until three o'clock, along with Madoka and Sayaka. What do you plan to do with that time?"

Plan for the day?
[] Look up words in this "dictionary".
[] Hunt witches.
[] Explore Mitakihara.
[] Experiment with your magic.

Are you going to walk Mami to school?
[] Yes
[] No

---

Not. Dead.

 

[RexHeller]

"I'll be looking at that thing you mentioned."

Mami looks at you over her shoulder while cooking something on the stove. "You mean the dictionary?"

You nod. "Yeah. What is it anyway?"

"It's a book that has the definition for every word in it." Mami pauses and looks thoughtful for a moment. "Well, almost every word. Anyway, sit sit. Breakfast will be done momentarily."

You shrug and return to the table. True to her word, Mami's right behind you with plates of food. However, you've never seen food like this before. On the plate is something that looks like bread cooked over a fire, which is odd but not impossible to recognize, and some weird yellow… stuff. You don't know how to describe it.

Mami notices your confusion. "What's wrong Mister Tatsuya? Have you never had scrambled eggs before?"

Those are eggs? The certainly don't look like any eggs you've ever seen before. Still, you watch Mami take a bit by using a metal implement like with the cake yesterday so you decide to try it. Your eyes widen in surprise at the taste of it. It's good.

The rest of breakfast passes in silence. After you're finished and Mami has cleaned the dishes she asks you a question. "Mister Tatsuya? Would you like to walk with me to school?"

School. There's that word again. Mami mentioned it a bit earlier. "What is school exactly?" You ask.

"School?" Mami put s a finger on her chin and thinks. "School is where children and teenagers go to learn about… well, everything really. It's a lot of fun and it's very interesting."

That sounds familiar. "Do lots of people go there?" Mami nods. Sounds right. Then it's probably that building with a lot of teens that you remember Madoka going to.

With your questions done, you wait by the door while Mami gets ready to go. It doesn't take long before she's opening the door with a bag across her shoulder. After you exit she locks the door behind you and hands you the key. "You're coming back here to read the dictionary, right? Use the key to get back inside. I left the dictionary on the table where we ate." You nod to show you understand and the two of you set off.

It's a beautiful day outside, although compared to what you're used to perhaps that isn't a very big accomplishment. You don't care. The sun is out and there's barely any clouds dotting the bright blue sky and what clouds there are are fluffy and white. It's warm out but that's offset by the refreshing breeze blowing. To you this is paradise.

You follow Mami as she walks down the streets of Mitakihara in silence, just enjoying the weather. After a while though, Mami speaks up. "Mister Tatsuya? This may be bit of an odd question but would you like to go to school? As in actually attend and learn things? I think it would let you get used to this time much quicker than by just asking me when you don't know something. It would take a few days to set up though."

[] Yes
[] No

---

I apologize for the lack of quality in this update.

 

[RexHeller]

"No." There is so much wrong with that suggestion, most of which is that if you have to spend most of the day surrounded by strangers you'll likely to lose it and kill someone. "I wouldn't be able to act the right way."

"Oh, right." Mami looks down at the ground and you wonder what she's looking at. "You're right it wasn't a good idea." Her voice seems… much less cheerful then usual. Did you make her sad? But it wasn't a good idea. Why would stopping her from making a mistake make her sad?

And now you're feeling sad? At least you think you feel sad. Admittedly you don't have the greatest grasp on your own emotions. You've spent so long just feeling so tired of it all that you're a bit rusty when if comes to everything else. You heart feels sort of heavy and that means that you're sad, right? Why? Is it because you made Mami sad? Maybe if you make her happy, you'll feel happy too? But how can you make her happy?

Maybe if you replace her bad idea with a good one? "Maybe you could teach me?" She wanted you to learn about the world so if she teaches you that will get her what she wants, right?

Mami looks up and gives you a sort of half-smile. "I'd like to but with going to school myself, homework, regular Magical Girl business and hunting for that Devil of yours we really don't have the time to set aside for a dedicated teaching time. Plus, I'm not sure how good a tutor I'd be." As soon as she her eyes widen. "A tutor… That could work…"

You narrow your eyes in confusion. "A tutor? What's that?"

Mami held one finger up and closed her eyes while she explained. "A tutor is like a teacher but teaches students one-on-one and usually work with students that need help catching up to everyone else." She opens one eye and looks at you out of the corner of it. "Sounds perfect for you, right?"

"I guess." You sort of grumble in response. You'd rather Mami was the one teaching you than some stranger. You're quickly learning that meeting new people is stressful and complicated. First there was Sayaka and Mami, and while Mami's all right you still don't know why Sayaka kept looking at you in weird ways. And then there was Oriko and you have no idea what was up with her really.

"We're here." You hear Mami say and that pulls you from your recollections. Seems you've stopped outside a set of large gates. Inside the gates is a large white building with a big clock on a tower and lots of windows. There's a lot of space between the building and the walls on all sides too. As your taking in the sight, Mami keeps talking. "I'll look into getting you a tutor, okay? Stay out of trouble and have fun with the dictionary."

"Fine." You nod at her. "Good bye."

"Good bye." Mami says as well but she seems to hesitate instead of enter the gate. She takes a half-step towards you before changing her mind and walking towards the school. You shrug, dismiss it as just another odd thing you'll probably get later and head back to Mami's apartment.

When you get there you immediately sit down at the table and start reading the dictionary. It's a very large book that'd probably be able to serve as kindling for at least a hundred fires. Not that you're about to burn Mami's things. You remember when some crazy guy burned your things. It sucked. He didn't even have any stuff to replace it with when you killed him. Anyway, you started reading the book.

Not even ten minutes later you're bored out of your mind. You can't do this. How can people read this thing? It's just words, words and more words! Most of them you don't even know the words in the descriptions of the words, making it impossible to learn those words!

Closing the book with a slam. Getting up a stretching until you're back pops you decide that there has to be something better to do with your time.

[] Experiment with your magic.
[] Try hunting witches.
[] Try and find other Magical Girls.
-[] Oriko Mikuni.
-[] Someone else.
[] Just walk around Mitakihara.
[] You sense an explosion of magical power. What was that?

---

You tried to read a dictionary, what did you think would happen?

 

[RexHeller]

You're about to decided to what to do when the choice is taken away from you. You're lucky you were focusing on your magical senses while trying to make a decision otherwise you would have missed the explosion of magical power going off in the distance. It's like when Mami transforms but even more powerful. Also, unlike when you felt Mami and Oriko's magics, which felt which both invoked physical feelings, this magic has a taste to it. A very sweet taste in fact.

You frown in annoyance as you get up to leave Mami's apartment. Of course you're going to check this out, you need to make sure it isn't a threat. That doesn't mean you're enjoying the constant distractions though. The first time you used your magic sense you found Madoka and that's fantastic, but the second time and now with the third it's brought things to your attention that need to be investigated. It's annoying that you need to keep reacting to things that are happening instead of doing what you want.

You leave Mami's home, locking the door behind you, and head to the roof. There you set off in the direction you felt the magical explosion coming from, taking the long, multi-building leaps that you did when you first arrived, the one's that you're fairly certain that even Mami can't match.

Before long you've reached the area you think the explosion came from. You land on a large building with lots of floors, almost as large the building where you met Madoka and the others. Just like that building, this one is mostly glass but rather than steel, its walls are white. It also has some strange symbols on it, including a red cross on the sides and a yellow circle on a raised metal platform on the roof. There's a small yard with benches, grass and trees off to the side, while at the front of the building there's a roundabout where cars can drive up and drop people off. At the back there's a wide-open space with painted lines with a lot of cars sitting there. There are a lot of people wandering about too, although not as many as at the glass and steel building so you don't have to worry about crowds.

Now you just need to find the source of that magic.

[] Search Strategy? (write in)

---

Sorry for the sort and late update. Time management is not a strong suit of mine.

 

[RexHeller]

You'll admit that you're in a bit of a bad mood. First there was the disaster that was the dictionary and then, just as you were about to figure out something you wanted to actually do, you got interrupted. So, yes, you would really like this to be over as quick as possible so you can go back to your own business. First you check your magic sense and make sure you've got the location. It seems to be two floors down and deeper in the building.

Walking over to the door only door you can see on the roof, you try the handle. Locked. You snarl in annoyance and kick down the door, blasting it out of the doorframe and over some sort of railing. It seems you got lucky and the door lead to a stairwell, one made of concrete with metal railings. You can tell because you can hear the door making loud crashing noises on the way down. You can't be the only one who heard it either; it was loud as thunder. Now it seems you've got a second reason to move quickly, unless you want to deal with people harassing you for breaking their door.

You vault over the railing, letting yourself fall two floors before reaching out and grabbing the guardrail and flipping yourself over onto the landing, Trying the door out, you're pleased to find that it isn't locked as well. Going through it, you find a hallway with pale green walls and a white floor. There's the occasional metal thing along the walls or sign board but luckily there are no people there currently so no one sees you.

As you walk down the hall, some people do end up exiting various rooms and rushing past you to check what happened but none of them pay attention to you. Which is good because you're not sure what you would have done if someone tried to stop you. It's a bit of a walk to your destination but luckily your long stride eats up the distance and it isn't long before you've arrived at the door to one of the rooms in the building.

The door isn't closed properly, leaving it ajar. You gently push the door open enough to peek inside. You see a woman lying in a bed, surrounded by a variety of machinery, with a girl sitting on a chair next to the bed. The woman is clearly sick. Her skin is pale, she's sweating slightly, she's lost all her hair, but she's still smiling happily at the girl, who's chatting at her excitedly, waving one of those metal things people eat with about as she talks.

"… And then I made my wish and I got this cake, which was super delicious and I came to share it with you and that's what happened!" The girl finishes, setting her hands down in her lap, where you notice there's a plate with crumbs on it.

The woman reaches out and starts to weakly comb through the girls long, white hair with her fingers. The girl hums happily as the woman begins to talk. "That's quite a story. I'm glad you've seemed to have made a new friend. And I'm glad I got to share this cake with you." The woman stops stroking the girl's hair and rests her arm on the bed once more. The next time she speaks, she keeps having to stop and rest, like she's out of breath. "Nagisa… I want you to know that I'm proud of you… I know… you'll grow up to… be a strong, beautiful woman… I… love… y-" She doesn't finish her sentence.

"Mama?" The girl, Nagisa you now know, asks in a voice so low you can barely hear her. She takes her mother's hand gently and shakes it. "Mama? Are you awake? Please, wake up. Mama, wake up!" Her voice is rising now and her shaking is getting more violent. "Mama? MAMA!"

[] This isn't your problem. There's no reason to be here. Just walk away.
[] This isn't your problem. The girl is clearly the source of the magic you felt. Interrogate her.
[] … Comfort the girl?

---

... Awkward.

 

[RexHeller]

This isn't your problem. Yeah, the girl just lost her mother and that sucks for her, but it has nothing to do with you. The only reason you're here is to investigate and make sure there isn't a threat to Madoka. Checking your magical senses, it's clear that the girl is a magical girl, although it does take a bit of effort to find her power while she's untransformed. Looking at the girl, she hardly looks like a threat. You could probably just leave her there, crying her eyes out, or if you really wanted to make sure you could kill her. Either of those options would be the smart thing to do.

But… She's just so small.

You're stepping into the room before you can stop yourself. You don't know what you're doing but that isn't going to stop you from trying. You know what it's like to be alone. You're all alone now. Madoka isn't here now. Nobody's here now. You cry out, screaming for someone, anyone, but no one comes. It's cold. So cold. You can't stop shivering. Your tears are freezing to your face but you keep crying. You cry and you cry but your throat hurts and your face hurts and and everything hurts. But your heart hurts most of all because you know that you're never going to see Madoka again. You're never going to be whole again. You can't take it. You fall to your knees next to the girl and gently touch her shoulder. She whirls around, wraps her small arms around you and buries her face in you shoulder, muffling her sobs.

You're caught off guard, surprising you for a moment. But then, once you're sure she's not attacking you, you slowly and awkwardly return her hug. She seems so small in your arms. If you wanted to, you could break her in half easily. Something about that terrifies you. You're not sure why.

She's still crying though, and doesn't show any signs of stopping. You try and pull up memories of your childhood. How did Madoka make you feel better when you cried? You can barely remember now, but some memories remain and you do what she did. You begin to gently rub the girl's back and begin to hum a half-remembered song that makes you think of Madoka.

You stay like that for a long time, or at least it feels like a long time. Slowly, the girl's breathing evens out and her tears stop flowing. You check and it looks like she's fallen asleep. She's still hanging on to you tightly though. You could break her grip easily, but you're not sure if that would wake her up or not.

[] Wake her up.
[] Pick her up and carry her out.
[] Try and get her off you without waking her.

 

[RexHeller]

You sigh and mutter a curse under your breath. This not how you thought your day was going to go. You look down at the child clinging to you. You shouldn't have gotten involved. You shouldn't care. She's just going to be a distraction, getting in the way of your goals. But you did get involved and despite yourself you do care. Technically you could walk away right now but you know that you won't. This girl… she needs protecting. She won't survive on her own. It's not like anyone else will care. She was alone when you found her asides from her mother. If she had anyone else, wouldn't they be here for her?

Maybe you're just making up reasons not to let her go. Trying to convince yourself that this is the right thing to do. Your course is set but you don't know why. Why do you care for this girl you just met? You don't know.

You do know one thing though; you can't stick around here all day. You have things to do, probably. Once you actually decide what you're going to be doing, you will. And if you stick around, then someone will probably actually talk to you at some point, start asking question. Since you still dislike dealing with people, you'd rather avoid that.

So you can't stay here and you aren't going to leave the girl on her own. That really just leaves on final option, doesn't it.

Gently scooping the girl up so you're carrying her comfortably in your arms as she clings to your shirt, you make your way to the door. However, as you cautiously peak out the door to check if there's anyone there, you see two people coming down the hallway towards the stairs to the roof. One of them is wearing all pale green including a cap and with a thing covering his mouth, while the other is wearing a plastic looking vest that's an ugly shade of yellowy-green with reflective silver stripes. There was writing on the vest that you struggled to figure out but once you did you swore under your breath. It said "Security" and you could guess that meant that guy was a guard of some sort.

After pulling your head back inside and closing the door behind you, you tried to figure out what to do next. If you left the room the guard would see you and while you might be perfectly fine with killing someone in your way, you're pretty sure that would wake up the girl.

There was one other way out though. Walking across the room, you opened the window and looked down. Below was a back street and from what you could see there was no one there. It was hardly the perfect escape, the two-story fall might wake up the girl, but it was better than waiting around to get caught. Figuring that you'd wasted enough time already, you made sure you had a good grip on the girl and stepped out the window.

A quick fall latter and you were on the ground floor, moving away from the hospital as fast as you dared to go without drawing attention. Thankfully, other than a few grumbles and some slight shifting of position, the girl in your arms didn't show any signs of waking up.

Once you were a few blocks way you slowed down to a regular walking pace and started second guessing what you'd just done. Yes, you weren't going to leave the girl alone but that didn't mean you knew what you were doing. You were so out of your depth it was insane. You had no idea how to take care of someone else, let alone a child.

Still, you shook off the doubt and panic that was creeping in on the edges of your mind. You were used to those emotions and just as used to ignoring them. Stuff like that wasn't useful at all. Instead you focused on what to do next, just like you did in the wasteland. You might not know what to do but you needed to do something and you'd figure it out from there.

[] You should probably take care of the girl.
-[] Get the girl somewhere safe. Mami's apartment should be fine.
-[] Go to that school place and fine Mami. Hopefully she'll be able to help.
-[] Food is always a good idea. Go find some before she wakes up.

[] Just because you have a passenger doesn't mean you can't still do what you were planning earlier. Hunting a witch is off the table but you have other options.
-[] Experiment with your magic.
-[] Try and find other Magical Girls.
--[] Oriko Mikuni.
--[] Someone else.
-[] Just walk around Mitakihara.

---

I have no idea if Japanese security guards look like what I described. Just roll with it.

 

[RexHeller]

Right, well now that you've decided to take care of the girl, you might as well focus on doing it right. You know that food, water and shelter are the most important things in life and Mami's apartment has all of that, so you head back there. You briefly consider taking to the rooftops and jumping there but then you remember the girl. Roof hopping would probably wake her up and you're not sure that would be a good thing right now. So you wind up just walking back.

It takes forever. Now that you can cover miles in minutes, walking like a regular person sucks. It's incredibly boring. Plus, you weren't exactly paying the most attention when you were rushing to find the girl and even if you had been, you'd been up in the air, not down on the ground. Things look different down here. As a result of all that, you end up getting a little bit lost along the way.

You make sure to pay attention to your surrounds this time and memorize exactly what's around you. You don't like being lost.

While it takes much longer to get back to Mami's than you'd like, you do eventually make it there. Holding the girl up with one arm, you quickly unlock the door and head inside. Kicking the door closed behind you, you head to the room Mami let you sleep in last night. If the girl's going to sleep, she might as well do it in a bed.

However, when you try to put her down on the bed she clings to you. Growling quietly in annoyance, you do your best free your shirt from her grasp. When you try to push her away she just holds on tighter. It takes some gentle pressure to get her to uncurl her fingers but eventually you get her release your shirt with one hand. However, as you get started with the other hand she just grabs hold of your coat. This pattern continues for several minutes, with you getting her to let go briefly before she just grabs on again. You're really starting to get frustrated but you tramp down on the rising anger. You're trying not to hurt the girl, just the opposite, but you can't believe how much trouble your having with trying to escape an opponent half your size.

Finally you come up with a solution. The girl is holding on to your jacket now instead of your shirt so you just slip out of the coat, leaving her holding onto it while you finally put her to bed. However, as soon as you're not wearing the coat anymore, it turns back into the ratty, threadbare thing you were wearing before your transformation.

Stepping back from the bed, you take a look at the girl. She's lying there now, frowning slightly and gripping your coat like her life depends on it. Oddly enough, instead of feeling relieved that you don't have to carry her any more, you feel like something's missing, almost like a little bit of your insides are gone, leaving a small hole in you chest.

Now what?

[] The girl will probably be hungry when she wakes up. See if you can find something to eat.
[] Go back to the dictionary. Maybe you were too quick to give up on it last time.
[] Practice your magic. Hopefully you won't destroy the apartment.
[] Get in bed with the girl. You don't like how letting her go is making you feel.

 

[akrasiel23]

Well, with Rex's permission, I return and wow, over a thousand words on this one, I can't believe I actually did it.

Without further ado, I leave you with this.

-----​

Hunt and Break
​

Sounds of metal being struck echoed through a lightless alley in the midst of the night, a constant ring akin to that of a blade being hammered, compained with what seemed to be whispers and grunts hidden within the noise, all breaking the otherwise silent evening of Mitakihara city from its usual atmosphere. The source of the battle song were two figures clad in dark colours. One, in a defensive position surrounded by what seemed to be a sabre curtain that flowed like water and acted at behest of its master whereas the other one had his arms raised and held in his hands a pair of glistening knifes, both shinning with more strength than what the light of the moon would normally allow. Both's breaths were ragged and the movement of their chests betrayed their tiredom, thought it was the armed figure who seemed to be injured the most.

"Please Takkun, stop! " The voice of a girl, a teen by the tone of her voice spoke from between breaths. "I don't want to keep fighting you!" The girl pleaded to the other form before she saw its charge and moved the black veil surorunding her once more to form what seemed to be a shield wall in front of her, not a moment later the impact of the blades rung again as the attacker tried in vain to slash or pierce through the black defense with no avail.

Finding no opening, the boy in the black coat snarled before he jumped and used the shield as a pivot to spring away from his white haired opponent, spinning in the air before his feet touched the floor of concrete again and skidded for a pair of metres further away from the trenchcoated girl. With his right leg at the front and his left behind in a diagonal from his chest, the chestnut haired boy took once more the stance he had used and took back his breath. Sabrina made no attempt to move and stood where she had been the last few minutes and spoke to the boy again.

"Tatsuya, please, don't make me do this! Just stop!." Her voice carried what seemed to be worry and much frustration. Tatsuya only picked the latter as he shifted his weight on his legs. "Leave me then! I won't fight if you don't get in my way!" His face was bloodied and his teeth were bared in a sneer.

The girl was not intimidated and gave him an angry scowl. "I won't do it that Takkun!" A brief light in the dark and what appeared to be a warhammer was in her right hand. "I can't let you go unless you swear you-."

"Stop calling me like that!" Wrong. It was wrong. She felt wrong. From the first moment he had meet her his senses screamed that she was an enemy, a threat, the feeling she emanated was simply too akin to that place, the barrier as Mami had called it. "Just leave me the fuck alone!" He ran towards her again, this time jumping to his right before he could reach the shield and dashing away from the ebony veil before he attempted to slash her back. Or so he would had the white haired magi not switched hands with her weapon and not hitted him on his side, sending him to the floor where he was before with what he knew were a pair of fractured ribs. As Tatsuya struggled to resume his position, his mind wandered again at the events before the battle.

He had been training in the area where he had meet the girl with the bucket hat when he had meet her, the girl seemed determinated to speak with him and hounded him so he would talk to her, and so he had amused her with the same demenour he had done with Oriko before. His eyes were always kept in scrutinity of the white haired girl who looked so similar to Madoka's friend, Sayaka as he responded back with vague answers, he saw her expression change from what appeared to be elation to sadness as he told her abridged details of who he was. Then, he spoke of his mission, the price of the second chance he had been granted and tried to end the conversation there and then before the girl, who called herself Sabrina, denied him the chance of leaving and got on his way, all the while saying she could not allow him to go until he stopped his quest.

That had been minutes ago, at first he had tried to lose the girl on the lonely roofs and the crowded streets, all the while being cautious of not giving away his true destination, but the girl, who seemed to know the city much better than him, kept blocking any attempt to flee and kept demanding he gave his consent. Then, after running away from prying eyes, he had tried to push her away only to be met with what seemed to be a black fluid that hardened before his palm could reach her and stopped his attack. It was then that all hell broke loose and he had been trying to break free from the girl in blue, never being given a chance as she kept flying and chasing him wherever he went.

Thus, he realised he would have to beat her if he wanted to be left alone and shifted his tactics from flight to fight, trying to overpower Sabrina with his fists and legs. It worked at first, her obsidian constructs broke each time he hitted them and his fists were able to make contact with her thrice before being pushed back by the magical girl after she drew what seemed to be a silver hammer at him, hitting him in his right arm on the first swing and piercing his right leg on the second. She appeared to be in shock once she saw his blood and he used the short moment to hit her in the stomach with his left hook and sent her flying to a wall.

He had managed to briefly flee away from her then and tried to use the park to lose her yet his wounds prevented him of running too far and he was ambushed by what looked like to be thiefs. He made quick work of them and stole the knifes they carried, however the diversion gave Sabrina enough time to find him and thus the moment he had reached this alley, the girl was already waiting for him on the other side.

'I-I have to end this.' Tatsuya's mind returned to the now and gripped the stolen knifes with more strength, even as empowered by magic as he was, he knew his body was about to reach its limit soon, he had to end this now. 'This will be the last charge.' Tatsuya gave a brief look at the surrounding walls of the corridor and looked around the roofs. He had never tried to jump to far in fear of being hit in the back, but, even in the shadow of the night, he could see a construct of metal protuding from the wall.

He smirked. He had a plan.

Taking a deep breath, he repeated the course of action he had done the last time, rushing beyond the reach of her shield and jumping to the right wall. This time however, he used the wall to spring away from her reach before she could swing her hammer to him and jumped towards where the metal beam was.

It was now or never, positioning his feet first, he used to brief moment when he made contact with the beam to propel himself towards the magi once more. In less than a second, he was flying to her like a savage arrow and as she turned to face him, he turned his knifes and aimed them to her shoulders as he tackled her to the ground. He had done it, his knifes had managed to pierce the girl on her shoulders, disabling her arms from the fight and leaving him open way to flee, yet, in his haste, he had forgotten one detail, he was fighting a magical girl, not a human. And he had missed her soul gem.

After a brief scream, Sabrina directed the grief and bound Tatsuya, making him hit the wall with enough strength to knock out his breath before she took away the knifes from her shoulders and dropped them to the ground, her white shirt staining with her blood. She then moved towards the boy, bangs hiding her expression from Tatsuya, who was himself at a loss and was trying to make sense of what was about to happen to him.

Was this how it ended? How his life, his journey was going to finish? He didn't even started to enjoy the feeling of being with his sister once more, to take delight in the heat of the sun or the beauty of the blue sky. This would end like this?...just after feeling warmth for so long in his life?

'No..' He knew, there was still one last resort, it had saved him when he was young long ago and it would help him once more, but he had to wait. As the girl advanced towards him Tatsuya positioned his left knee on the floor and his right foot in front of him, his eyes fixed on the ground in a stance apparent to summision and bided his time, all the while blocking the sense of pain from his collected wounds as adrenaline left, because this wolf still had his tee-.

"...Eh?" She was...holding him, not punching, not stabbing, not even insulting....just...just holding him. Why? he had just pierced her on the shoulders and had tried to kill her . His first instict told him to run, to break his dark restrains and get as far away as he could from the girl in front of him, yet as he squirmed to escape from the embrace Sabrina kept a firm grip on him, all the while humming a tone so similar to what her sister once used to hum to him. "It's okay Takkun, it's over, I won't hurt you."

The boy felt as the hug began to take away what strength he had left and talked while he still had the chance."Why don't you just leave me?" his voice was now reduced to a whisper, Sabrina shifted a bit from her hug before she answered. "I know you, I can't leave you."

Tatsuya chuckled before his expression turned sour "You know nothing of me." as if guessing his expression, Sabrina held him stronger, making her tone as straight yet gentle as she could."Yes, yes I do."

The boy sighed, unable to put much more of a fight or argue with her and instead asked her once more the question he had inquired her."What do you want?"

"Stop." Sabrina's tone was even but pleading "Stop what you will do." She never wavered yet didn't imposed herself. "Stop, what you think you have to do, it won't bring you nor anyone else happiness."

The boy frowned, unable to turn to look at her from his position and replied to her. "Do you even know what you are saying?"

"I know." She did? She knew, then she had to see reason with him. Using what little strength he had, he raised his voice. "Then the more the reason I should-" Sabrina cut him before he could finish, matching his tone with the same determination as before. "No. You won't do it. Meguca are for saving."

Tatsuya stood in silence, trying to find the question he needed to ask so as he could hear the words he thought might enlighten him"Why?" this was his last word before darkness claimed him and the chestnut haired boy went to slumber.

Sabrina's breath became regular again as she held Madoka's brother on her arms and felt him fall asleep, glad that exhaustion had claimed him before she had to answer that. This had been a close fight, much too close for comfort, she was starting to fear she would have to knock him out before he died of blood loss, fortunately, the fight finished before she had to go to such lenghts.

'I'll probably have to bug Mami for melee training after this.' She began to heal his wounds and her own, all the while taking the mass of grief away from her soul gem, once she was sure all of Tatsuya's and her wounds where healed, she compressed the grief into a small ball before sending it towards the vastness of space. 'Now....to Mami.'

Yes, for now, she had to meet with Mami first.

-----

Welp, that's finished.

At first I wanted to make it funny but I didn't knew how to do so without repeating a joke since I had done that already with the Sabrina of Godwinson's (Sabrinaception) quest, then I recalled Tatsuya's new grief sense and realised their meeting would not have been nice at all with what Sabrina being a borderline witch meguca. I have to admit describing fights is somewhat new to me so I hope I did not bore you; dialogue on the other hand, I pray I have not reached Lucas's levels of speech.

As for the fight, if you think Sabrina had a long time in fighting Tatsuya do remember that she uses grief for everything she does, which is useful against witches and magical girls who generate it for her when she doesn't have enough, but once she had to fight against someone who doesn't generate grief at all and who (I assume) has enough force to destroy her magical constructs she found herself in a pinch; add to that the fact she's fighting someone she knows is her 'uncle' with the shock of seeing him so hostile to her and she wouldn't be able to do much in the offensive department, not to mention Tatsuya would be fighting to kill which is another layer of difficulty for Sabrina to deal with.

I hope you enjoyed.

 

[RexHeller]

Right, the most important thing first: food. The girl will probably be hungry when she wakes up and even if she isn't, well, eating always makes you feel better so it probably works the same way for others, right?

You exit the bedroom and go to the room Mami always prepares the food in. You know that there's not a fire pit or anything so you don't know how she actually cooks the food though. She obviously must but you don't know what machine she uses to do it. So raw food it is.

There're some red things in a bowl on the counter that are sort of ball-shaped. You're not quite sure what they are but you're pretty sure you can eat them. At least, they aren't made of wood, plastic or metal and you can't see any obvious use for them. You pick one up and smell it but you don't get much of a scent off of them. Well, at least they're not rotten or something? They're pretty firm too put you apply a little pressure and the surface of it gets crushed inward and juice leaks out. You take a sniff of the juice and it's vaguely familiar. Licking the juice off the your fingers, you find that it's sweet. Presumably Mami wouldn't keep something poisonous just lying out in the open so you decide that this'll be good to feed the girl.

Looking through the doors on the walls with the shelves in them, you find a plate and in the drawers you find a knife. You slice up the red thing, discovering that the insides are white in the process, and put the slices on the plate for when ever the girl wakes up.

Looking at the plate, it seems that a single one of the red things isn't a full meal, compared to what Mami fed you last night at least. You'd be grateful to have this much back in hell. Still, you could eat this and still be hungry so maybe the girl will want more? And if not you can always eat the rest.

The wooden wall doors didn't have any food in them, just some plates, glasses and containers full of various powders. However, there's also this tall black box made of metal that you haven't opened yet. Pulling its door open, you unexpectedly greeted with a small blast of cold air. Looking inside you see the box is filled with stuff, some of it meat, and has lights on inside. You quickly guess it's used to keep food cold so it doesn't go bad. Cool.

Looking through the cold box, you find some meat wrapped up in paper. It's orangey-pink, with thin white lines going across it and it smells good. Odd that it's not bleeding but whatever. You take it out, slice it up and add it to the plate.

There, that looks fine. You quickly check on the girl but she's still sound asleep. Since you don't know how long she'll be out, you put the plate of food back in the cold box. Lacking anything else to do, you head back into the bedroom and sit down on a chair in the corner, keeping guard over the sleeping girl.

You do your best to keep alert and aware of any threats that might sneak in, just as you always do in a resting place but for some reason you find it hard to focus. It's hard to explain but it's almost like you not expecting to be attacked here. No, that's not quite it. You always been good at picking shelters and you tend not to expect anyone to find you but you always keep watch anyway just in case. Now, it's almost like you're body thinks it's impossible to be attacked here and doesn't see the need to keep alert.

You feel… safe? Actually safe? Is that it? It's been so long…

You'll have to watch out for that. You can't afford to feel safe. There's no such thing as safety after all. The last time you felt safe you were betrayed and abandoned into hell. Even now, you know that a Magical Girl or even a regular person could break down Mami's door or climb in through the window. And you keep reminding yourself of the dangers every time catch yourself watching the girl snore quietly instead of the door.

Eventually the girl begins to wake up. The girl pushes herself into a sitting position and yawns while rubbing at her eye with one hand. You can see her begin to panic as she looks around the unfamiliar room, so you get up from your chair and walk over to the bed. When she catches sight of you she relaxes and smiles. "Ah, Onii-chan!"

You freeze mid-step, mind grinding to a halt. Why is she calling you her brother? Why is she smiling when you've essentially kidnapped her? And why do you feel warm inside your chest?

"Onii-chan? Is something wrong?" The girl asks, head tilted to the side.

You tsk in annoyance. You're getting sloppy if a girl like her can read you. "Why did you call me that?"

"Ah! I'm sorry. Do you not like it?" The girl flinches and looks down. "It's just… besides Mama, you're the first person to be nice to me and since Mama… Mama…" She chokes up, tears in her eyes. You're by her side in an instant, taking her gently into your arms. She sniffs loudly but continues. "Since Mama is… gone, I'll stick with you. If… If that's okay."

Yeah, it's fine with you. That was the plan anyway. Letting go of the girl, you give her some space. "Are you hungry?"

The girl looks at you for a moment before her face lights up in comprehension. "Onii-chan!" She cries out in joy, a huge smile on her face. Then she blushes and looks down again. "Oh, um… sorry, I…"

"It's fine. Call me what you want." You say, guessing the reason for her hesitance. "Answer the question."

The girl opens her mouth but before she can say anything there was a loud growling from her tummy. She closes her mouth, blushes and nods.

Nodding yourself, you get up and head the room with the food, the girl getting up to follow you without being told to. You pull the plate of food from the cold box and hand it to her.

She looks at it for a moment before shrugging. "Apples and salmon? Okay." She looks up at you with a smile. "Thanks Onii-chan!" She says as she rushes back to the main room to sit down.

You follow and sit across the table from her. "Don't waste any." You instruct. She's already started to eat so she just nods instead of opening up her mouth. As you watch her eat you realize you've forgotten something. "What's you name?"

She pauses in the middle of placing a piece of meat in her mouth. She quickly swallows it. "Nagisa Momoe!" She answers cheerfully.

"I'm Tatsuya." She smiles at you again, which you're learning that you much prefer to her crying, and continues eating. It's… hard to look away from.

[Tatsuya?]

You leap up from the table in alarm, looking around the room frantically. You can feel your power rise up, waiting for you to use it. You're chair clatters to the floor and Nagisa flinches. Still, despite your panic at being ambushed, you recognize the voice.

"Mami?" You ask cautiously, not seeing her anywhere.

[Oh, good! I wasn't sure this would work since you're not technically a Magical Girl. I'm talking to you telepathically!]

Tele…? Ryubey said that word last night as well. "What?"

[Ah, right. It means were talking mind to mind. Don't worry, I can't read your mind or anything. Why don't you try it?]

"Tatsu-nii?" Nagisa's asks with concern.

"Just a moment Nagisa." You don't have the ability to keep track of two conversations at once. She still looks worried but she hesitantly starts to eat her food again. Meanwhile, you turn your focus back to Mami. [You startled me.]

[Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. Anyway, I'm taking a break at school now so I thought I'd check on how you're doing.]

You pick you chair back up from where it's fallen and sit back down. [The dictionary didn't help.]

[I was afraid of that. Still, it couldn't hurt to try. Anyway, I'll be done school in a few hours. What will you be doing in the meantime?]

[] Practicing Magic
[] Exploring the town
[] Talking with Nagisa
[] Something else? (Write in)

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Wooo! Update!

So, I did some looking and @akrasiel23 has two threadmarked Omakes, so he can request two omakes from me whenever. Also, looking back, I'm finding that I made Tatsuya too talky. Hopefully, with more experiance under my belt I've been able to capture his personality and warped world view better.