Puella Magi Madoka Magica - The Mitakihara War

[Carinthium]

(Disclaimer: I was specifically encouraged to write what I feel like writing. I almost went for my PMAS critique, but decided to be a bit more subtle than that even if I am going to lace criticism into the work. Starting with my strength, OCs, but don't worry, these are just the villains. Homura, Mami, and Kyoko are going be in the ordinary 'Good Guy' role for this.)

(EDIT FOR FUTURE READERS: My Mami dialogue was originally incompetent, and I had trouble with Yukiko's name. But it's all better now)

Chapter 1: Planning
The meeting room was tense to say the least. Although the five Magical Girls of the Glorious Conquest and Wealth Coalition called themselves allies, Toshiko knew for a fact the others were all plotting against her. They had to work together for the time being, but every one of them was a killer. Otheriwse they wouldn't be here.

"To sum up", began Toshiko, the group leader, "We have managed to anger a coalition amounting to a total of twenty Magical Girls. Since someone had the bright idea of slaughtering Setsuko's entire family, they aren't going to be backing down. Kyubey has turned on us for killing too many Magical Girls. Our known enemies include a girl who wished for immortality and got invulnerability in the package, a girl whose wish was literally to be a Badass, and a girl who was legendary for her Berserker rages BEFORE we killed her family. Any thoughts?"

Yukiko nodded sagely, furrowing her non-existent brow. "Hmm... the situation is bad!"

"Really?" shouted Toshiko. "I hadn't noticed!"

"You didn't?" asked Yukiko. "That's pretty dumb."

Toshiko facepalmed. Yukiko was thirteen, but that didn't stop her from getting on everyone's nerves. If not for the fact that Toshiko's plan was dependent upon Magical Girls both able to kill without remorse (fairly common) and without parents holding them back (surprisingly rare), Toshiko would have killed the runt herself out of frustration. When asked, Yukiko had claimed her wish was to be able to endure any trauma, which to be fair was an asset if used correctly.

"I have a strategy, my lady", added Yori. "I wonder if it would work?"
"Stop calling me that!" replied Toshiko. "Still, given your wish I'm thinking you're the only sane follower I have. I'll let you have your say."

"Our combined territory is bordered by enemies on three sides. But in my opinion, most of these enemies are united by a combination of Kyubey's incentives and fear of us. This explains why Kyoko Sakura of Kasamino, despite our fears, has stayed in alliance with Mitakihara but not attacked.

Magical girls in civilian garb are hard to detect, and Kyoko is often not even in Kasamino. If we sneak into Kasamino, we will go undetected. After that, we can launch a surprise attack on Mitakihara itself! Once we have secured Mitakihara, we will have plenty of Grief Cubes to fend off a counter-attack. Since we are further away and the greedy magical girls will have plenty of territory to partition, only Setsuko's five fanatics will likely pursue."

The rumor mill on Yori claimed she had once been greatly jealous of someone called Tomoko (whom according to Yori was a genius) and had wished to be as smart as her in every way. For a 13-year old, even if Yori was utter crap in combat she certainly was smart. But given Tomoko was 30 at the time of wishing, Toshiko wondered if that woman was an utter retard...

"Mitakihara?" exclaimed Toshiko. "This is the Mitakihara defended by the legendary Akemi Homura and the veteran Tomoe Mami and Kyoko Sakura whom, may I remind you, kicked my ass? I almost died fighting her on her own! How are we supposed to defeat them together?"

"My lady", replied Yori(at which Toshiko glared at her, leading her to wince), "A war is not a clash of might, but of cunning and of philosophies of battle. Kyoko on her own is ruthless, but Mami Tomoe isn't. When together, the three share a moral code that will be their undoing. Further, Yoriko and myself can act as infiltrators by claiming we were forced to do what we did."

"Hang on..." interrupted Hideko, known as the Coalition's Badass for her feats in battle. "Kyoko Sakura has been wanting to expand for a while now, but can't with her current allies. We could cede territory to her, make an alliance, and-"

Toshiko felt like she wanted to scream.

"Shut! Your! Mouth!" she yelled. "It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place! Actually, come to think of it- All of you leave NOW! Yori and I need to talk."

Despite her faults, everyone knew Toshiko was the only member of the group with actual leadership skills. Thus, they all reluctantly obeyed and shuffled out. Unfortunately for Toshiko, that included Yori.

"Get! Back! Here!" screamed Toshiko. Yori turned around.

"Isn't it obvious I didn't mean you?" shouted Toshiko. "Why didn't you realise that?"

"It is not", replied Yori, "for me to question my Lady's Orders."

After facepalming yet again, Toshiko sighed. "It's our only hope, isn't it? Gambling everything on a final showdown?"
"Yes, my Lady", replied Yori. "We're- out of other options."

"Where", screamed Toshiko at the top of her lungs, "DID IT ALL GO WRONG??"
"Probably when-", started Yori-
"IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION!" screamed Toshiko.

A year ago (well, 377 days technically), 15-year old Toshiko had gathered together allies and explained her plan. Factoring for their apparent lack of threat and absence of weak points (she didn't know magical girls were undead then), if they worked together they could steal mafia guns (which they did, though it was a lot harder than it sounded), scare off the police(easy after a few supernatural scares), and make all property in the area a de facto Fief. They could live like Queens! With an alliance of eight Magical Girls and territory to match, they would have the power to take on all comers!

But things didn't work out. The Coalition's territory was disjointed, and five out of eight Magical Girls lacked territory at all. So they started attacking others. Hideko's psycopathic impulse murders started unnecessary fights and made things worse. When she went too far and and killed Setsuko's parents and two brothers, Setsuko blamed all of them and apparently cared for revenge more than her own life now judging from how much territory she ceded as bargaining chips for aid.

Yori, Toshiko concluded, was right. Kasamino was the only escape route not carefully guarded.

The Coalition couldn't escape indirectly through Kasamino either, as the city was bordered by Coalition War participants on all sides except Mitakihara. But most members would fear too much for their territory to go as far as Mitakihara. Besides, even if Yori was a schemer Toshiko knew her schemes were usually better than Toshiko's own.

Time for one last throw of the dice...

 

[Carinthium]

Maybe I should try doing two stories at once then? Once I've got the hang of this at least...

Freudian Excuses, good or bad, are a bit too overdone. The truth is that far more people are amoral or psycopathic because it's in their nature than because circumstances have made them such.

Finally, noting about the below- I have never written a fanfic before. Trying to keep somebody else's character in-character is something I am not good at. Here goes nothing...

(EDIT: Several improvements later with advice. Should be pretty good now)

Chapter 2: Peaceful
"Let me get this straight", exclaimed Kyoko. "Gorou knows that Juro and Katsuo can't work together because Juro hates Katsuo's ruthless handling of zombie problems. He also knows that Katsuo is the way he is because his wife and children were killed by zombies. He knows Juro doesn't know. So why didn't he tell him? If he'd fixed that problem, Hikari wouldn't have gotten killed!"

"Why couldn't Katsuo tell Juro himself?" Mami pressed, the corners of her mouth twisting.
"Because angsty McLimpdick couldn't get over himself long enough to keep the other people safe!" retorted Kyoko.

Mami was a little bothered that Kyoko would think that way, but said nothing. If Kyoko didn't want to listen, she wouldn't be able to persuade her. Even if she was on their side now, it appeared she'd changed a lot in the year they'd been apart.

After Kyoko's father had killed himself and her mother and sister, Kyoko had declared her intention to 'fight in her own way' and returned to Kasamino. About a year later, she had returned to Mitakihara. Mami had suspected at the time that she wanted to take Mitakihara for herself, but with no proof there was nothing she could do.

The demons were getting very powerful, and seeing no other option Mami had made an alliance with Kyoko in exchange for a generous share of Grief Cubes. Sayaka had loudly objected, but under the circumstances they had no choice. Mami had had to break up several fights between them.

Mami hadn't been surprised when Sayaka used a suicide attack to save them from a powerful Demon. What did surprise her was Kyoko crying over her, and saying that they could have been friends. She even managed to talk Kyoko into working with them further, if in exchange for a portion of Mitakihara's Grief Seeds.

Mami had found out later that Kyoko and Sayaka were a lot closer than she thought. After Shizuki-san had declared her intentions to confess to Kamijou-kun, Shizuki-san had been gotten by a Witch's Kiss. Mami had known Sayaka had been consumed by guilt over her hesistance almost costing Shizuki-san's life. What she hadn't known was that Kyoko had taken her to her family's old Church and confided in her how her parents were killed. Kyoko had, quite selflessly, tried to persuade Sayaka to be more selfish. Sayaka had been more friendly towards Kyoko after that, but in the end it had done nothing to help her.

Since then Kyoko seemed to have closed herself off. She still worked with them, but was open about not caring about anyone but herself. There was almost no trace of the kindness she had once shown when she fought beside Mami before. Mami knew there was more to her underneath, but on the surface she was nothing more than an uncouth, greedy girl with a bad attitude.

That was all about six months ago. Since than Mami had had nobody she could remotely call a friend, except in a loose sense Kyoko and Homura. The demon population was unusually low lately, but only because it had been very high for a while so Mitakihara's magical girls had had to spend several all-nighters on extermination. There had been several near-misses where Mami or Kyoko had nearly died. The group was already close enough as to be on a first name basis, but almost never had time to to socialise. Thus, Mami had come up with the idea of a Movie Night. Her chosen movie was supposed to be a light one, but had disappointed in that regard.

Homura was a bit hesitant to come along, even once she learned Kyoko had been swayed with good food. But Mami was insistent, plus Homura knew well enough Madoka would encourage her to be closer to both of them. Honestly, the night had been more enjoyable than Homura had expected. Kyoko had certainly enjoyed the unusually gory action sequences, even if in her mind the plot was rubbish.

"And another thing", continued Kyoko, "The ending didn't make any sense. Even Gorou wasn't such a dumb sap he'd fall for Hikari in a couple of weeks. Besides, she was already a zombie! 'It's lonely being by yourself.' That's no reason to be dinner!"

Homura was well aware of the irony of this, but said nothing. As she'd mentioned to Kyuubey, it was pointless to try explaining what she'd seen and done. Others would think her insane...

"And that is why you are still single. You have no sense of romanticism, Kyoko." Mami replied. "He valued their love over his own life! Wouldn't you want someone special, to value you like that? To need you more than air?"

Kyoko brough her hand to her neck, mimicking choking sounds. There was a pause for a few seconds, as nobody had anything to say.

"What do you think, Homura?" asked Kyoko. "You wouldn't give your life over some girl, right?"

Again, Homura was well aware of the irony. She had done exactly that, after all. But it did spark off an interesting question. Homura gave her usual blank, neutral stare back, taking a few seconds to make up her mind.

Throughout the movie Gorou, despite being supposedly a veteran commando, had made Sayaka Miki look wise and prudent by comparison. Choking himself to death so Hikari could eat him did absolutely nothing to help her. That, combined with the sheer number of times he had made foolish decisions in the name of Honour, made him lose all sympathy from Homura.

Kyoko's sacrifice was very similiar. Like Gorou's for Hikari it was absolute proof of love, or at least intense friendship. But not only had it done nothing to actually help Sayaka, it had left Homura alone to face a hopeless battle against Walpurgisnacht and almost led to the destruction of Mitakihara. If Homura had had the means at the time, she had no doubt in her mind she would have stopped it by force.

Madoka's sacrifice was different. It was not only flawless in its purity of heart, but flawless in its execution. Her... her sacrifice was absolute. Even knowing that at the end of the universe she would fall into despair and die by her own hand, she showed no reluctance to follow her chosen path.

Homura had pleaded with her not to do it, and if there was a way to reverse it she would still plead. She would hope against hope that Madoka would come back to her, even knowing that even then it would never happen. Madoka was more valuable than the universe to her. Even Madoka herself couldn't change her mind on that.

Would Homura have changed her mind, knowing what had happened, if she had the chance to go back and redo her Wish? Would she choose to do it all again, knowing exactly what the result would be?

Absolutely.

Homura had cried night after night for more than a month after Madoka's sacrifice. But even if Homura might never see Madoka again, at least she was alive. If Homura had to go back and do it all again for Madoka's sake, she would do without a second thought.

"Homura?" asked Kyoko.

Homura had known what she thought of Gorou since the end of Act 1. It wasn't hard to respond.

"Katsuo was right", replied Homura. "Guro put too many innocent lives at risk for his honour. He shouldn't have been allowed to lead in the first place. His death was a logical extenstion of the same foolishness."

As Mami and Kyoko kept talking, Homura started to think. The respite from demon attacks likely wouldn't last long. It would be good to start making plans for the future...

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There are probably some mistakes I've made. I'll have to go back and revise later (EDIT: Revised Mami's dialogue later).

Some of this chapter is Foreshadowing, now I've figured out what to do with these characters.

 

[Carinthium]

I'm a bit worried about giving my villains too much spotlight. This story is meant to be about the characters we all know, after all. Thoughts?

I'm also worried about how I portray Mami. I can instinctively tell it's sub-par, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I also worry about portraying Mami under-competently because there's a lot I despise about that kind of character.

Chapter 3: Implementation
Thankfully for the Coalition, crossing Kasamino was not difficult. Yori had recommended they not get an apartment as it would be too easy to find them if it came to it, and suggested they sleep under a bridge instead. For some reason she couldn't understand for the life of her, everyone had shouted at her for it!

Her Infilitration plan, however, was adopted. Yori had stolen an Iphone before leaving, and used the Internet to check several important things. First, she looked up (and stole the ingredients for) fake tears. Second, she had found an old Court case in which it was agreed Mami could live on her own but a Guardian would have to check up on her (a case which included Mami's current adress). Finally, Yori had persuaded the Coalition's derogatorily named 'Fifth Girl' Aimi to use said Iphone to scan online maps of Mitakihara and create a physical map for when their connection was inevitably cut.

"Yukiko", explained Yori as they walked, "Speed is absolutely essential to this operation. As soon as we strike, Kyubey will inevitably alert Setsuko's fanatics to our location. After my 'Train Bomb' trick, Setsuko will most certainly take the land route, which would take about a day. That means we must conquer Mitakihara in one day if we are to suceed-"

"Hey Yori", interrupted Yukiko. Yori sighed- her lecture had gone in one ear and out the other, hadn't it? "What?" she replied, figuring she may as well get this over with.

"Have you heard the one about Hayate?", continued Yukiko. "His parents are dead, but he can't keep the ashes! It would be possession of a Class A drug!"

Yori stared blankly at her. She was telling a joke about dead parents. When she knew Yori's parents were dead and when she had dead parents herself!

"Stop it!" screamed Yori. "Stop being dumb!"
"Your face is dumb!" shouted Yukiko in response.

Yori screamed incoherently, lunging at Yukiko and pulling at the tufts of her hair. Yukiko fended off her strikes with one hand whilst pulling at Yori's own hair with the other.
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Eventually, the two of them had stopped fighting and reached the front door of Mami's apartment. The fake tear equipment had been applied to make the ruse work then carefully discarded. To be on the safe side, Yori had given Yukiko strict instructions to let her do the talking.
"We'll need to make up for lost time", added Yori, "We're half an hour behind schedule."
"It's your fault!" replied Yukiko. Yori glared at her in response, before knocking on the door.

Needless to say Mami was quite surprised when she opened the door. Her maternal instincts kicked in even before Yori started talking. She didn't recognise either of them, but she could see from the rings they were Magical Girls.
"Tomoe-san", started Yori, fake tears falling down her face, "H-h-hi, we're, we're- Yori and Yoriko, from the Coalition-"

Mami had heard of the Coalition, primarily from Kyoko as she was closer. Apparently some Magical Girl named Toshiko had recruited allies, promising them they could live like Queens, and started one of the largest turf wars she had ever heard of. One of them had slaughtered the family of a powerful and influential Magical Girl known as Setsuko, who had sworn to kill every single member to avenge her family. Outnumbered four to one, the Coalition was in desperate straits.

"-and we want out! Toshiko's been forcing us to kill people and we don't wanna any more! Please, Tomoe-senpai, help us!"

Something didn't seem right about this. The tears looked real enough, but something about the way Yori were speaking seemed a little... fake. All of the Coalition's warriors were said to be ruthless killers. Maybe they were faking redemption as a last ditch gambit to escape Setsuko's wrath?

Still, Mami was a defender of justice. She knew for a fact that Setsuko would kill both of them if she could, whether innocent or guilty. Even if she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt they were guilty, it was still true that everyone deserves a second chance. Kicking them out would be the same as signing their death warrant.

"Would you like something to eat?", asked Mami, now in a more compassionate variant of her patented 'Senpai Mode'. "You must be starving after coming all this way."

"N-no thank you", replied Yori, making sure to keep her head down to avoid giving away her facial expressions, "We should be going to bed now."

Yori had originally planned for them to stay up and gather intelligence, but Toshiko had warned her she was an utterly terrible liar. Even if Mami hadn't the time to look up fake tears on the Internet, after a few hours talking she would definitely be suspicious.

Mami simply smiled, opening her fridge. "I have ice-cream", she added.
"Gimme gimme gimme!" shouted Yori and Yukiko, almost in unison. Mami smiled, serving it up as quickly as she could as the two dug in. Yori knew this was a dumb idea, but she couldn't help it and damn it she was literally ruining her own plan over ice cream!

Mami still wasn't sure what was going on here. It didn't make sense that the notorious Coalition, who were already surrounded on three sides, would pick a fight with a powerful fourth enemy. But something still didn't feel right.

If it was legitimate, though, then her two new kohais had gone through a lot and needed all the help they can get. From what Mami knew, they would have started killing at twelve. Even if Setsuko or Toshiko did come after them, in that event Mami resolved she'd let them rest a few days at least before going to battle no matter what. However brave a face they were putting on, they most definitely needed it.
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After the ice-cream was done, Yori had insisted on going to bed. And the same after the cake, chocolate cake, and chicken&rice. Finally, at about 10:00 p.m they had turned the lights out. Mami being Mami, she was sleeping on the couch while Yori and Yuriko shared the bed.

Yori was starting to get worried. The attack plan had agreed Toshiko's group would set off at 10:00 sharp. By Aimi's calculations, they would reach the apartment in fifteen minutes (or about two minutes from now, by that theory). Mami looked asleep, but looks could be decieving. Still, Yori had spotted alcohol in the fridge. The way she saw it, if Mami wasn't fooled she would have tried to serve some to get the truth out of them.

"Hey Yori", whispered Yukiko.
"Ssh!" replied Yori, still whispering. "We're supposed to be asleep!"

Unknown to both of them, Mami could hear every word. Their earlier behaviour was suspicious enough she was on high alert.

"Toshiko will be here in a minute or so, right?" added Yukiko, still whispering.
"Stop before she hears you!" replied Yori, barely whispering at all.

Mami's mind started racing. This would be tough...