Edited(3/10/2018): Changed title, summary, and did some minor editing to the first three...
Resonantia, Ad Infinitum (PMMM AU)
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Prologue/Chapter 1
- Location
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Edited(3/10/2018): Changed title, summary, and did some minor editing to the first three chapters + Prologue.
Summary:
Among the near infinite universes, there is one universe where Kaname Madoka exists as a human, and the Incubators never came into existence. That is, until the Incubators from another universe that was taken over by the Devil escaped into this universe.
Kaname Madoka has always been the unexpected centerpiece of the Incubator's true plan. One way or another, with an Incubator technology known as the Resonance Gem, she will defeat Entropy, whether she likes it or not.
===
Prologue
A feminine figure with cat-like ears and a tail collapsed onto a pile of scraps that used to be battleships and weapons. The biting cold of rusty metal gawned at her body, leaving behind only numbness when they were done.
War had reduced this planet into an apocalyptic tragedy. Eight degrees off its original axis tilt. Erratic gravitational pull. Atmosphere completely stripped away by an enormous UASB meltdown during the war. The only life left here on a sub negative 200 Fahrenheit wasteland was her.
For millions of years, she as an Incubator misdirected and manipulated young females from different planets across the galaxy into signing up as a magical girl and fight Witches in exchange for a wish. Those girls were all the same when they found out the truth behind the Witches. "You tricked us!" they would say, or some variation of it, angry and bitter. And then they got even more angry and bitter when she explained her reasoning for doing so. Their sacrifice was needed for the sake of this Universe that was running out of usable energy.
She mustered whatever strength she had left and dropped the purple gem through a green portal. This gem was a Resonance Gem, its power limited only by the soul wielding it. Their solution to the Universe's energy crisis, as naive as it sounded, was to create something that would never run out of usable energy via their magical girl system. If it wasn't for the Devil, they would have succeeded in doing so by turning that Resonance Gem into an Infinity Gem.
A black mist swirled at a distance. Numbness gave way to the biting cold again. Her last memories of being alive was the smile of Mistress Death mocking her for messing with powers she never completely understood.
===
Chapter 1
Madoka awoke to a buzzing alarm in her bedroom. She had a strange dream where a dying cat lady was calling for her to save the Universe from something? Or was that just her imagination? It was hard to tell when it comes to dreams.
"I must've watched too much Kamen Rider with Tatsuya."
Madoka pulled the curtains away to be greeted with a scenic forest view. Given the chance, she would love to become Sailor Moon or Kamen Rider Galaxy and save the Universe, but dreams were dreams for a reason. She waved at her father watering the tomato plants in the garden below, "Good morning, Papa!"
"Morning! Could you check on your mother to see if she's awake?"
"Got it."
Madoka went over to Mama's room to see her three year old brother Tatsuya standing on the side edge of Mama's bed, about to perform his best imitation of a signature finishing move by the Kamen Riders he has recently been obsessed with. Oh dear. She quickly grabbed Tatsuya and placed him on the floor before he accidentally hurts himself, "No Tatsuya, that is very dangerous."
Tatsuya tackled Madoka, "Limit Breaker!" but he wasn't strong enough to knock her down.
Madoka giggled as she picked Tatsuya up before running towards the windows, "Rocket On!"
"Magic Hands!" said Tatsuya as he pulled the curtains open.
Madoka then ran towards her mother's bed with Tatsuya still in her hands, "Are you ready?"
"Super Duper Mega Limit Breaker!" said Tatsuya as he pulled the blanket away from his still asleep mother. She jumped out of the bed like a vampire exposed to sunlight before slowly turning to face them.
"Good morning."
===
Madoka's mother grabbed a towel and wiped her face, "How's everything so far?"
"Oh, Hitomi got a love letter again," said Madoka while brushing her teeth, "This makes two for the month already."
"Pfft. Guys that don't have the guts to confess in person are absolutely worthless. She shouldn't waste her time on those kind of guys."
By the time Madoka finished brushing her teeth, her mother applied some final touches on her face with a powder puff before striking a confident pose at the mirror.
Sometimes Madoka wondered if she was really the daughter of this incredible woman named Kaname Junko. Mama was always so fast, and so efficient. During breakfast, she could juggle between taking care of Tatsuya, reading the newspaper effortlessly, and finishing her food and cup of coffee. On the other hand, Madoka was sure she would end up in a complete mess if she attempted to do the same.
"Umm... which ribbon should I pick?"
The red one on her right, or the yellow on her left?
"How about red?" said Junko.
Madoka frowned, "Don't you think it might be a little too flashy?"
"That's the point. Now all your secret admirers won't be able to resist you. I'm sure you'll get even more love letters than Hitomi."
"Like I'd have any secret admirers."
Secret admirer? There was nothing admirable about a girl like her. She was slow, clumsy, and didn't have any particular talents like playing the violin really well for example.
"Confidence, Madoka. You have to believe in yourself. That's the secret in becoming a pretty girl with tons of admirers."
If only being confident was that easy... nothing ever seemed easy for her anyway.
===
The afternoon sun's heat clung onto Madoka as she did some warm-up stretches at a soccer field. She never looked forward to PE lessons. Other than her general dislike towards exercising, she also hated being a huge burden in every team sports. At least Sayaka was on the same team with her for soccer.
Madoka reluctantly wore a blue tag around her waist, "I'll just bring the whole team down." She could neither pass the ball properly, nor run fast enough to be useful.
"Relax, it's just a friendly match," said Sayaka.
"Still-"
A whistle blow signalling the start of the match silenced her protest. Sayaka slapped her on the back with a reassuring smile, "Be confident!" before running off. There was no point in being confident when the chaos from nineteen athletic girls chasing after a ball left her confused and overwhelmed.
A girl fired a cross towards Sayaka who followed up with a left shot into the goalpost.
Madoka waved from a distance, "Good job!"
"Thanks!" said Sayaka.
Unlike her, Sayaka was really talented in sports. Unfortunately, she had zero talent in music, and her crush Kamijou Kyousuke was a violin prodigy. Sayaka once attempted to learn piano in hopes of being able to accompany Kyousuke's violin playing but it didn't work out so well for her.
The match continued on. Madoka regretted not insisting on badminton. Some of her teammates shook their head as they ran past her. She must have looked like an complete idiot standing at a corner and not contributing anything to her team.
The ball landed on her feet. A chance to finally contribute something! Okay, take a deep breath, just pass the ball to Sayaka and let her do her magic. Easy peasy.
Madoka swerved behind with the ball. If Sayaka wasn't around, then the only thing left to do was to be confident and score. By some miracle, she kicked the ball inside the goalpost.
"What's wrong?" said Madoka. Why were her fellow teammates so unenthusiastic about her goal? In fact, they seemed… upset at her. Sayaka for some reason was trying her best not to burst into laughter.
"You kicked the ball into our goal," said one teammate before smacking her face with a palm.
Madoka's face burned crimson red, "What?! Guys, I'm sorry! I thought I was facing the correct direction and-"
"Don't worry about it, okay? We all make mistakes," said another teammate who was also a classmate of hers.
"Yeah," said Sayaka, "It's just a friendly match, not the World Cup finals. Just relax and aim for the correct goalpost later."
"Okay..."
Being confident wasn't as hard as she thought. But it also wasn't something that would magically erase her ineptness.
===
Madoka, Sayaka and Hitomi were walking on a hillside path towards their usual cafe in the city area for dinner. School was finally over.
Sayaka nudged Madoka with a grin, "Cheer up. At least you scored a goal. Even if it's an own goal."
Even Hitomi could not help but suppress a chuckle, "And your team still won in the end, so it's alright."
Madoka forced a smile as her face burned red with embarrassment again. Thank goodness Sayaka and the rest managed to score another goal after her terrible mistake, otherwise the guilt would torment her for days.
A bicycle sped past a puddle of water, splashing water onto Hitomi's skirt.
"I'll get you some tissue," offered Madoka, but to her horror she wasn't carrying her bag. "Oh no, I must have left my bag in class."
"We'll wait for you here," said Hitomi.
Madoka sprinted back to school, but her pace disappointingly dropped to a crawl after crossing the school gate. Eventually, she dragged herself to the classroom panting and retrieved her bag.
The time displayed on the clock in class was 5.20pm. If she hadn't forgot her bag, the three of them would have already made it to the cafe before it was jam packed with students. Sometimes, all she ever wanted was to be just a little bit more useful to people instead of bringing them down.
A shrill cry for help followed by the sound of plastic being hurled on the ground reverberated from the female toilet.
"What a fucking weakling," said a female voice. Laughter from a group of girls followed soon after. It was Kikuchi Manami and her clique. Manami was a millionaire who supposedly had yakuza connections. Thus, the teachers would often ignore her bullying antics. It was said whoever offended Manami can forget about having a peaceful school life until graduation day.
"What are you waiting for? Save the girl from Manami!" said her inner Sayaka, but her inner Hitomi told her to get a teacher instead even if said teacher would probably pretend to be busy with work and just leave Manami to be. Wait, that wasn't her inner Hitomi. That was her cowardice speaking to her.
Being confident wasn't hard, as she learned from the soccer match today. What's hard was making the right choice. If she offended Manami, it wasn't just her who would suffer under Manami's wrath. Her friends and the Gardening and Crafts Club would be implicated as well.
"I'm so sorry for staring too long at you. Please just let me go," said a girl in between sobs. She must be Manami's victim.
"I haven't had enough fun with you yet," said Manami.
A sick gurgle escaped from the girl's throat.
Madoka rushed into the toilet. Her worst fear came true. Manami was indeed strangling the poor girl while three other girls watched with glee.
"Stop it! Why are you doing this to her?!" said Madoka.
The three girls turned to face Madoka. "Are you standing up for this weakling over here?" said one girl. "If you don't want to become our enemy," said another girl as she raised a mop at Madoka, "then get the fuck out of here!"
Manami chucked the pale, bespectacled girl aside like a girl bored of playing with her dolls, "I just hate the sight of her. That's all."
"You can't just do this because you don't like how the way she looks. That's completely unreasonable," said Madoka. The pale, bespectacled girl who Manami was bullying fell unconscious. She had to get the girl to a doctor immediately.
"I am being unreasonable. What are you going to do about it?"
Manami's clique outnumbered her 4 to 1. There was no way she could get through them physically.
"Please just let the poor girl off okay?" begged Madoka. That was all she could do. A sincere appeal, however clumsy, from the bottom of her heart.
Manami snapped her fingers, "That's it. You've wasted enough of my time listening to your crap."
A girl stepped towards Madoka with a clenched fist. Madoka shut her eyes, body tense, ready for the bullying Manami's clique was about to unleash upon her.
"Enough of this bullshit," said Sayaka.
Madoka opened her eyes in surprise, "Sayaka?! What are you doing here?"
"I should be the one asking you that. Hitomi and I were getting worried that something might have happened to you along the way."
Manami looked at Sayaka with poorly veiled amusement, "I remember you two now. You're Hitomi's friends."
"So what?" said Sayaka, "If you dare lay a hand on Hitomi, I'll beat the crap out of you and the disgusting leeches following you everyday."
Manami held out a hand to stop the three girls from attacking Sayaka, "I'll give you one last chance for Hitomi's sake. Leave and pretend you saw nothing, or you'll be my next target."
Hitomi wasn't very close to Manami, but apparently Hitomi's family had some business dealings with Manami, so Manami tended to spare students who were on close terms with Hitomi from her bullying.
"I'm leaving with the girl," said Madoka with a level of determination she never knew existed within her, "She needs immediate medical care right now."
Manami pushed Madoka aside with a smirk as her three other friends followed behind, "I hope you don't regret your decision, Kaname Madoka."
===
Central Mitakihara Park was a large park that Madoka passed through when she had to run some errands for Papa in the city area.
"No one comes here at night," said Sayaka, "So if you feel... emboldened by your red ribbons, you could… yeah."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Don't act pure, you know what I mean. Remember that comic we read last year during a sleepover at my house?"
"I don't..." Madoka's face flushed red in embarrassment, 'What?! No, no, no. I-I'm not going to do that with her!" That comic was an adult comic depicting a forbidden act of love between two girls. It also wasn't the only adult comic they read last year during that sleepover.
Sayaka waved off her protest laughing as she left the park. Since Sayaka's house was too far from Homura's house, she decided to leave the responsibility to sending Homura home to her, who lived closer.
Akemi Homura, the bespectacled girl bullied by Manami just now, might have been taller than her if she wasn't hunching her shoulders in fear all the time. It must be the trauma from Manami's bullying. The doctor said that Homura fainted from being too stressed out because of her weak heart, and that there was nothing to worry about other than taking her medications on time.
Madoka sat at a bench before she felt a buzz in her pocket. It was a text message from Hitomi. Don't worry about Manami, I'll talk to her tomorrow.
Madoka texted back. I'm so sorry for everything.
There's no need to apologize. It's not your fault. Good night.
Good night. Sweet dreams!
Madoka gestured for Homura to sit beside her. Homura nodded and slowly took a seat beside her. The starry night was like a black canvas adorned by tiny glittering diamonds.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" said Madoka. Looking at Homura reminded her of herself when she was in fifth grade. Quiet and nervous around people. Being in a new environment always made her feel like this. Fortunately, she met Sayaka, and then in seventh grade, she met Hitomi and life has been pretty fun so far being with the two of them.
"Why did you save me from them?" Homura burst into tears, "Those bullies aren't going to let you off easily! All your friends are going to leave you! I'm… not worth it!"
Madoka fumbled for a piece of tissue from her bag, "No one deserves to be bullied. No one."
"But…"
"Have some confidence in yourself. You're worth it."
Homura wiped her tears with the tissue Madoka offered her, "I'm sorry."
Madoka patted Homura's back, "You don't have to apologize, it's not your fault at all. It's Manami's fault for bullying you." She was also at fault for almost abandoning Homura. Her cowardice sickened her. Afraid of offending Manami, afraid of becoming a murderer if Manami actually strangled Homura to death, and afraid of telling Homura the truth. She was not a hero like Sayaka. Sayaka would have acted immediately even if it's Manami, consequences be damned and all.
The look of awe and respect Homura gave her was almost a torture by itself. A coward like her deserved none of it.
They continued their journey. There was still quite a distance from the train station even after passing through Central Mitakihara Park. Turn right afterwards, and Homura should be home.
"Would you like to join us for dinner tomorrow night? There's a new cafe Hitomi wanted to go tomorrow downtown," said Madoka.
Homura stammered. It seemed like there was something she wanted to say, but had difficulty into putting it to words. "... I'd just be trouble for everyone," was what she finally managed to say.
"Please don't say that! Hitomi said she'd talk to Manami, so everything's going to be okay."
"No, it's not about Manami. I'm… just someone who can't do anything right, and a boring person as well, so I'd just be an eyesore if I joined your friends for dinner."
"I'm sure they'll like you, I promise! I know that because I was like you when I was in fifth grade. I thought I wasn't going to make any friends, but then I met Sayaka and Hitomi. Trust me, you're going to be just fine."
Homura nodded meekly.
"So… is that a yes?" said Madoka.
"I'll do my best."
Madoka slapped Homura on the back playfully, "That's the spirit." It was a very Sayaka thing she did that elicited a smile from Homura. Homura was finally smiling. Tomorrow is going to be so much fun with Homura joining them.
The beautiful night sky twisted and warped into a red canvas scribbled with white curly lines while the streets faded into a desolate world haphazardly plastered with renaissance artworks.
"Madoka, wha-what's going on?" said Homura.
Madoka grabbed hold of Homura's trembling hands with a smile, "I don't know, but we'll get out of here somehow."
The ground beneath them was uneven, and painted with various abstract figures one could find in the artworks of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
"Aren't you… afraid?" said Homura.
"As long as you don't lose hope, there's nothing to be afraid at all."
Just what was going on? How did the streets turn into this bizarre place? Surely she and Homura would find an exit if they just keep walking. That was frankly the only thing they could do.
Homura winced, "Um, I think you're holding my hand a little too hard..."
A silver astylar monument popped up together with three artwork-like monsters scuttling towards them.
"Run!" said Madoka.
More and more monsters appeared as they ran. Those monsters looked familiar. They looked almost like the abstract figures painted on the ground.
Homura let out a scream as her legs gave way. She clutched at her chest in agony.
"Wha-What's wrong?!" said Madoka. This was the worst time to collapse in pain.
"Medicine... my medicine..."
Madoka frantically searched her body for any medication, "I can't find anything!"
Homura screamed again, the clutching at her chest grew tighter.
Madoka blinked back tears as she tried to find something on Homura again. She had to be faster than the monsters! Does it really matter if she found Homura's medication before the monsters? Those monsters were actually appearing from the ground itself! Unless she could fly, the monsters were going to get them eventually! They were all going to die in this wretched artsy place!
The monsters were less than a feet away from them.
This was it.
Mundane memories of her life flashed right before her. Papa was watering the tomatoes while Tatsuya would try to grab one with his little hands. Tatsuya wasn't going to eat it of course. He hurled them at the windows, clapping each time he successfully landed a hit. And then Mama would clean up the mess with her while Papa lectured Tatsuya about the importance of not wasting food.
Her next memory was about Sayaka describing in great detail to Hitomi about the forbidden acts done by two girls inside the comic they read last year. Hitomi covered her ears as her face flushed even redder than Papa's tomato, upset that Sayaka would actually read such a comic. It was hilarious to see a normally dignified Hitomi being so flustered.
The monsters were now right next to them.
Goodbye, everyone.
A red blur sliced the monsters into pieces before a glowing red spear struck the monument. After a huge explosion, the bizarre world faded back into their reality.
In front of her was an armored figure. The sleek red armor looked like it belonged to an outer space movie, the kind of movie Sayaka would love to watch. No, it looked more like the Bleeding Edge armor Sayaka showed her the other time from Iron Man, but the figure's mask was completely black with no facial features.
The armor disintegrated into hexagon pixels, revealing her savior as a girl with red ponytail. "Don't just look at me like an idiot!" she snapped, "Perform CPR on the girl while I go get the ambulance."
Madoka hurried over to Homura and pressed down hard on her chest, "Please be okay... Please..."
They still had a dinner date tomorrow.
===
The doctor had a grave expression as he exited the ER room.
Madoka took a deep breath, "So how's Homura?" She was prepared for the worst. The stress from Manami was enough to knock Homura unconscious. Not to mention something out of the world like being attacked by a Witch.
"I'm sorry. We did our best, but we were unable to revive her."
"I see. Thank you."
Madoka sank back to her chair, tears dripping down her cheeks. There was no point in crying. Homura was dead, and nothing would change that fact.
"I'd advise you to just forget all about the Witches," said Kyoko. "There's nothing you and I can do anyway."
The girl who saved her and Homura from the Witch was Sakura Kyoko. She said the monsters that attacked them were the minions of a Witch while the silver monument was the Witch itself. Once inside that bizzare world which was actually the barrier of a Witch, the only way out was to destroy the Witch.
"Homura just died because of the Witch! I can't just forget about it!"
Kyoko was unfazed by Madoka's outburst, "You kill one Witch, ten more Witches appears as a replacement. No matter how hard we try, people are still going to die from Witches. I'm sorry that it had to be your friend Akemi Homura, but I guess that's life."
"Maybe we could target the source and d-"
Kyoko shot a glare at Madoka, "Don't even think about it. Please, for your own and everyone else's sake, just forget about the Witches."
"I..."
Before Madoka could finish, Kyoko left the hospital.
"...don't know if I can."
===
Author's Note:
Criticisms, comments, etc are greatly appreciated
Summary:
Among the near infinite universes, there is one universe where Kaname Madoka exists as a human, and the Incubators never came into existence. That is, until the Incubators from another universe that was taken over by the Devil escaped into this universe.
Kaname Madoka has always been the unexpected centerpiece of the Incubator's true plan. One way or another, with an Incubator technology known as the Resonance Gem, she will defeat Entropy, whether she likes it or not.
===
Prologue
A feminine figure with cat-like ears and a tail collapsed onto a pile of scraps that used to be battleships and weapons. The biting cold of rusty metal gawned at her body, leaving behind only numbness when they were done.
War had reduced this planet into an apocalyptic tragedy. Eight degrees off its original axis tilt. Erratic gravitational pull. Atmosphere completely stripped away by an enormous UASB meltdown during the war. The only life left here on a sub negative 200 Fahrenheit wasteland was her.
For millions of years, she as an Incubator misdirected and manipulated young females from different planets across the galaxy into signing up as a magical girl and fight Witches in exchange for a wish. Those girls were all the same when they found out the truth behind the Witches. "You tricked us!" they would say, or some variation of it, angry and bitter. And then they got even more angry and bitter when she explained her reasoning for doing so. Their sacrifice was needed for the sake of this Universe that was running out of usable energy.
She mustered whatever strength she had left and dropped the purple gem through a green portal. This gem was a Resonance Gem, its power limited only by the soul wielding it. Their solution to the Universe's energy crisis, as naive as it sounded, was to create something that would never run out of usable energy via their magical girl system. If it wasn't for the Devil, they would have succeeded in doing so by turning that Resonance Gem into an Infinity Gem.
A black mist swirled at a distance. Numbness gave way to the biting cold again. Her last memories of being alive was the smile of Mistress Death mocking her for messing with powers she never completely understood.
===
Chapter 1
Madoka awoke to a buzzing alarm in her bedroom. She had a strange dream where a dying cat lady was calling for her to save the Universe from something? Or was that just her imagination? It was hard to tell when it comes to dreams.
"I must've watched too much Kamen Rider with Tatsuya."
Madoka pulled the curtains away to be greeted with a scenic forest view. Given the chance, she would love to become Sailor Moon or Kamen Rider Galaxy and save the Universe, but dreams were dreams for a reason. She waved at her father watering the tomato plants in the garden below, "Good morning, Papa!"
"Morning! Could you check on your mother to see if she's awake?"
"Got it."
Madoka went over to Mama's room to see her three year old brother Tatsuya standing on the side edge of Mama's bed, about to perform his best imitation of a signature finishing move by the Kamen Riders he has recently been obsessed with. Oh dear. She quickly grabbed Tatsuya and placed him on the floor before he accidentally hurts himself, "No Tatsuya, that is very dangerous."
Tatsuya tackled Madoka, "Limit Breaker!" but he wasn't strong enough to knock her down.
Madoka giggled as she picked Tatsuya up before running towards the windows, "Rocket On!"
"Magic Hands!" said Tatsuya as he pulled the curtains open.
Madoka then ran towards her mother's bed with Tatsuya still in her hands, "Are you ready?"
"Super Duper Mega Limit Breaker!" said Tatsuya as he pulled the blanket away from his still asleep mother. She jumped out of the bed like a vampire exposed to sunlight before slowly turning to face them.
"Good morning."
===
Madoka's mother grabbed a towel and wiped her face, "How's everything so far?"
"Oh, Hitomi got a love letter again," said Madoka while brushing her teeth, "This makes two for the month already."
"Pfft. Guys that don't have the guts to confess in person are absolutely worthless. She shouldn't waste her time on those kind of guys."
By the time Madoka finished brushing her teeth, her mother applied some final touches on her face with a powder puff before striking a confident pose at the mirror.
Sometimes Madoka wondered if she was really the daughter of this incredible woman named Kaname Junko. Mama was always so fast, and so efficient. During breakfast, she could juggle between taking care of Tatsuya, reading the newspaper effortlessly, and finishing her food and cup of coffee. On the other hand, Madoka was sure she would end up in a complete mess if she attempted to do the same.
"Umm... which ribbon should I pick?"
The red one on her right, or the yellow on her left?
"How about red?" said Junko.
Madoka frowned, "Don't you think it might be a little too flashy?"
"That's the point. Now all your secret admirers won't be able to resist you. I'm sure you'll get even more love letters than Hitomi."
"Like I'd have any secret admirers."
Secret admirer? There was nothing admirable about a girl like her. She was slow, clumsy, and didn't have any particular talents like playing the violin really well for example.
"Confidence, Madoka. You have to believe in yourself. That's the secret in becoming a pretty girl with tons of admirers."
If only being confident was that easy... nothing ever seemed easy for her anyway.
===
The afternoon sun's heat clung onto Madoka as she did some warm-up stretches at a soccer field. She never looked forward to PE lessons. Other than her general dislike towards exercising, she also hated being a huge burden in every team sports. At least Sayaka was on the same team with her for soccer.
Madoka reluctantly wore a blue tag around her waist, "I'll just bring the whole team down." She could neither pass the ball properly, nor run fast enough to be useful.
"Relax, it's just a friendly match," said Sayaka.
"Still-"
A whistle blow signalling the start of the match silenced her protest. Sayaka slapped her on the back with a reassuring smile, "Be confident!" before running off. There was no point in being confident when the chaos from nineteen athletic girls chasing after a ball left her confused and overwhelmed.
A girl fired a cross towards Sayaka who followed up with a left shot into the goalpost.
Madoka waved from a distance, "Good job!"
"Thanks!" said Sayaka.
Unlike her, Sayaka was really talented in sports. Unfortunately, she had zero talent in music, and her crush Kamijou Kyousuke was a violin prodigy. Sayaka once attempted to learn piano in hopes of being able to accompany Kyousuke's violin playing but it didn't work out so well for her.
The match continued on. Madoka regretted not insisting on badminton. Some of her teammates shook their head as they ran past her. She must have looked like an complete idiot standing at a corner and not contributing anything to her team.
The ball landed on her feet. A chance to finally contribute something! Okay, take a deep breath, just pass the ball to Sayaka and let her do her magic. Easy peasy.
Madoka swerved behind with the ball. If Sayaka wasn't around, then the only thing left to do was to be confident and score. By some miracle, she kicked the ball inside the goalpost.
"What's wrong?" said Madoka. Why were her fellow teammates so unenthusiastic about her goal? In fact, they seemed… upset at her. Sayaka for some reason was trying her best not to burst into laughter.
"You kicked the ball into our goal," said one teammate before smacking her face with a palm.
Madoka's face burned crimson red, "What?! Guys, I'm sorry! I thought I was facing the correct direction and-"
"Don't worry about it, okay? We all make mistakes," said another teammate who was also a classmate of hers.
"Yeah," said Sayaka, "It's just a friendly match, not the World Cup finals. Just relax and aim for the correct goalpost later."
"Okay..."
Being confident wasn't as hard as she thought. But it also wasn't something that would magically erase her ineptness.
===
Madoka, Sayaka and Hitomi were walking on a hillside path towards their usual cafe in the city area for dinner. School was finally over.
Sayaka nudged Madoka with a grin, "Cheer up. At least you scored a goal. Even if it's an own goal."
Even Hitomi could not help but suppress a chuckle, "And your team still won in the end, so it's alright."
Madoka forced a smile as her face burned red with embarrassment again. Thank goodness Sayaka and the rest managed to score another goal after her terrible mistake, otherwise the guilt would torment her for days.
A bicycle sped past a puddle of water, splashing water onto Hitomi's skirt.
"I'll get you some tissue," offered Madoka, but to her horror she wasn't carrying her bag. "Oh no, I must have left my bag in class."
"We'll wait for you here," said Hitomi.
Madoka sprinted back to school, but her pace disappointingly dropped to a crawl after crossing the school gate. Eventually, she dragged herself to the classroom panting and retrieved her bag.
The time displayed on the clock in class was 5.20pm. If she hadn't forgot her bag, the three of them would have already made it to the cafe before it was jam packed with students. Sometimes, all she ever wanted was to be just a little bit more useful to people instead of bringing them down.
A shrill cry for help followed by the sound of plastic being hurled on the ground reverberated from the female toilet.
"What a fucking weakling," said a female voice. Laughter from a group of girls followed soon after. It was Kikuchi Manami and her clique. Manami was a millionaire who supposedly had yakuza connections. Thus, the teachers would often ignore her bullying antics. It was said whoever offended Manami can forget about having a peaceful school life until graduation day.
"What are you waiting for? Save the girl from Manami!" said her inner Sayaka, but her inner Hitomi told her to get a teacher instead even if said teacher would probably pretend to be busy with work and just leave Manami to be. Wait, that wasn't her inner Hitomi. That was her cowardice speaking to her.
Being confident wasn't hard, as she learned from the soccer match today. What's hard was making the right choice. If she offended Manami, it wasn't just her who would suffer under Manami's wrath. Her friends and the Gardening and Crafts Club would be implicated as well.
"I'm so sorry for staring too long at you. Please just let me go," said a girl in between sobs. She must be Manami's victim.
"I haven't had enough fun with you yet," said Manami.
A sick gurgle escaped from the girl's throat.
Madoka rushed into the toilet. Her worst fear came true. Manami was indeed strangling the poor girl while three other girls watched with glee.
"Stop it! Why are you doing this to her?!" said Madoka.
The three girls turned to face Madoka. "Are you standing up for this weakling over here?" said one girl. "If you don't want to become our enemy," said another girl as she raised a mop at Madoka, "then get the fuck out of here!"
Manami chucked the pale, bespectacled girl aside like a girl bored of playing with her dolls, "I just hate the sight of her. That's all."
"You can't just do this because you don't like how the way she looks. That's completely unreasonable," said Madoka. The pale, bespectacled girl who Manami was bullying fell unconscious. She had to get the girl to a doctor immediately.
"I am being unreasonable. What are you going to do about it?"
Manami's clique outnumbered her 4 to 1. There was no way she could get through them physically.
"Please just let the poor girl off okay?" begged Madoka. That was all she could do. A sincere appeal, however clumsy, from the bottom of her heart.
Manami snapped her fingers, "That's it. You've wasted enough of my time listening to your crap."
A girl stepped towards Madoka with a clenched fist. Madoka shut her eyes, body tense, ready for the bullying Manami's clique was about to unleash upon her.
"Enough of this bullshit," said Sayaka.
Madoka opened her eyes in surprise, "Sayaka?! What are you doing here?"
"I should be the one asking you that. Hitomi and I were getting worried that something might have happened to you along the way."
Manami looked at Sayaka with poorly veiled amusement, "I remember you two now. You're Hitomi's friends."
"So what?" said Sayaka, "If you dare lay a hand on Hitomi, I'll beat the crap out of you and the disgusting leeches following you everyday."
Manami held out a hand to stop the three girls from attacking Sayaka, "I'll give you one last chance for Hitomi's sake. Leave and pretend you saw nothing, or you'll be my next target."
Hitomi wasn't very close to Manami, but apparently Hitomi's family had some business dealings with Manami, so Manami tended to spare students who were on close terms with Hitomi from her bullying.
"I'm leaving with the girl," said Madoka with a level of determination she never knew existed within her, "She needs immediate medical care right now."
Manami pushed Madoka aside with a smirk as her three other friends followed behind, "I hope you don't regret your decision, Kaname Madoka."
===
Central Mitakihara Park was a large park that Madoka passed through when she had to run some errands for Papa in the city area.
"No one comes here at night," said Sayaka, "So if you feel... emboldened by your red ribbons, you could… yeah."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Don't act pure, you know what I mean. Remember that comic we read last year during a sleepover at my house?"
"I don't..." Madoka's face flushed red in embarrassment, 'What?! No, no, no. I-I'm not going to do that with her!" That comic was an adult comic depicting a forbidden act of love between two girls. It also wasn't the only adult comic they read last year during that sleepover.
Sayaka waved off her protest laughing as she left the park. Since Sayaka's house was too far from Homura's house, she decided to leave the responsibility to sending Homura home to her, who lived closer.
Akemi Homura, the bespectacled girl bullied by Manami just now, might have been taller than her if she wasn't hunching her shoulders in fear all the time. It must be the trauma from Manami's bullying. The doctor said that Homura fainted from being too stressed out because of her weak heart, and that there was nothing to worry about other than taking her medications on time.
Madoka sat at a bench before she felt a buzz in her pocket. It was a text message from Hitomi. Don't worry about Manami, I'll talk to her tomorrow.
Madoka texted back. I'm so sorry for everything.
There's no need to apologize. It's not your fault. Good night.
Good night. Sweet dreams!
Madoka gestured for Homura to sit beside her. Homura nodded and slowly took a seat beside her. The starry night was like a black canvas adorned by tiny glittering diamonds.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" said Madoka. Looking at Homura reminded her of herself when she was in fifth grade. Quiet and nervous around people. Being in a new environment always made her feel like this. Fortunately, she met Sayaka, and then in seventh grade, she met Hitomi and life has been pretty fun so far being with the two of them.
"Why did you save me from them?" Homura burst into tears, "Those bullies aren't going to let you off easily! All your friends are going to leave you! I'm… not worth it!"
Madoka fumbled for a piece of tissue from her bag, "No one deserves to be bullied. No one."
"But…"
"Have some confidence in yourself. You're worth it."
Homura wiped her tears with the tissue Madoka offered her, "I'm sorry."
Madoka patted Homura's back, "You don't have to apologize, it's not your fault at all. It's Manami's fault for bullying you." She was also at fault for almost abandoning Homura. Her cowardice sickened her. Afraid of offending Manami, afraid of becoming a murderer if Manami actually strangled Homura to death, and afraid of telling Homura the truth. She was not a hero like Sayaka. Sayaka would have acted immediately even if it's Manami, consequences be damned and all.
The look of awe and respect Homura gave her was almost a torture by itself. A coward like her deserved none of it.
They continued their journey. There was still quite a distance from the train station even after passing through Central Mitakihara Park. Turn right afterwards, and Homura should be home.
"Would you like to join us for dinner tomorrow night? There's a new cafe Hitomi wanted to go tomorrow downtown," said Madoka.
Homura stammered. It seemed like there was something she wanted to say, but had difficulty into putting it to words. "... I'd just be trouble for everyone," was what she finally managed to say.
"Please don't say that! Hitomi said she'd talk to Manami, so everything's going to be okay."
"No, it's not about Manami. I'm… just someone who can't do anything right, and a boring person as well, so I'd just be an eyesore if I joined your friends for dinner."
"I'm sure they'll like you, I promise! I know that because I was like you when I was in fifth grade. I thought I wasn't going to make any friends, but then I met Sayaka and Hitomi. Trust me, you're going to be just fine."
Homura nodded meekly.
"So… is that a yes?" said Madoka.
"I'll do my best."
Madoka slapped Homura on the back playfully, "That's the spirit." It was a very Sayaka thing she did that elicited a smile from Homura. Homura was finally smiling. Tomorrow is going to be so much fun with Homura joining them.
The beautiful night sky twisted and warped into a red canvas scribbled with white curly lines while the streets faded into a desolate world haphazardly plastered with renaissance artworks.
"Madoka, wha-what's going on?" said Homura.
Madoka grabbed hold of Homura's trembling hands with a smile, "I don't know, but we'll get out of here somehow."
The ground beneath them was uneven, and painted with various abstract figures one could find in the artworks of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.
"Aren't you… afraid?" said Homura.
"As long as you don't lose hope, there's nothing to be afraid at all."
Just what was going on? How did the streets turn into this bizarre place? Surely she and Homura would find an exit if they just keep walking. That was frankly the only thing they could do.
Homura winced, "Um, I think you're holding my hand a little too hard..."
A silver astylar monument popped up together with three artwork-like monsters scuttling towards them.
"Run!" said Madoka.
More and more monsters appeared as they ran. Those monsters looked familiar. They looked almost like the abstract figures painted on the ground.
Homura let out a scream as her legs gave way. She clutched at her chest in agony.
"Wha-What's wrong?!" said Madoka. This was the worst time to collapse in pain.
"Medicine... my medicine..."
Madoka frantically searched her body for any medication, "I can't find anything!"
Homura screamed again, the clutching at her chest grew tighter.
Madoka blinked back tears as she tried to find something on Homura again. She had to be faster than the monsters! Does it really matter if she found Homura's medication before the monsters? Those monsters were actually appearing from the ground itself! Unless she could fly, the monsters were going to get them eventually! They were all going to die in this wretched artsy place!
The monsters were less than a feet away from them.
This was it.
Mundane memories of her life flashed right before her. Papa was watering the tomatoes while Tatsuya would try to grab one with his little hands. Tatsuya wasn't going to eat it of course. He hurled them at the windows, clapping each time he successfully landed a hit. And then Mama would clean up the mess with her while Papa lectured Tatsuya about the importance of not wasting food.
Her next memory was about Sayaka describing in great detail to Hitomi about the forbidden acts done by two girls inside the comic they read last year. Hitomi covered her ears as her face flushed even redder than Papa's tomato, upset that Sayaka would actually read such a comic. It was hilarious to see a normally dignified Hitomi being so flustered.
The monsters were now right next to them.
Goodbye, everyone.
A red blur sliced the monsters into pieces before a glowing red spear struck the monument. After a huge explosion, the bizarre world faded back into their reality.
In front of her was an armored figure. The sleek red armor looked like it belonged to an outer space movie, the kind of movie Sayaka would love to watch. No, it looked more like the Bleeding Edge armor Sayaka showed her the other time from Iron Man, but the figure's mask was completely black with no facial features.
The armor disintegrated into hexagon pixels, revealing her savior as a girl with red ponytail. "Don't just look at me like an idiot!" she snapped, "Perform CPR on the girl while I go get the ambulance."
Madoka hurried over to Homura and pressed down hard on her chest, "Please be okay... Please..."
They still had a dinner date tomorrow.
===
The doctor had a grave expression as he exited the ER room.
Madoka took a deep breath, "So how's Homura?" She was prepared for the worst. The stress from Manami was enough to knock Homura unconscious. Not to mention something out of the world like being attacked by a Witch.
"I'm sorry. We did our best, but we were unable to revive her."
"I see. Thank you."
Madoka sank back to her chair, tears dripping down her cheeks. There was no point in crying. Homura was dead, and nothing would change that fact.
"I'd advise you to just forget all about the Witches," said Kyoko. "There's nothing you and I can do anyway."
The girl who saved her and Homura from the Witch was Sakura Kyoko. She said the monsters that attacked them were the minions of a Witch while the silver monument was the Witch itself. Once inside that bizzare world which was actually the barrier of a Witch, the only way out was to destroy the Witch.
"Homura just died because of the Witch! I can't just forget about it!"
Kyoko was unfazed by Madoka's outburst, "You kill one Witch, ten more Witches appears as a replacement. No matter how hard we try, people are still going to die from Witches. I'm sorry that it had to be your friend Akemi Homura, but I guess that's life."
"Maybe we could target the source and d-"
Kyoko shot a glare at Madoka, "Don't even think about it. Please, for your own and everyone else's sake, just forget about the Witches."
"I..."
Before Madoka could finish, Kyoko left the hospital.
"...don't know if I can."
===
Author's Note:
Criticisms, comments, etc are greatly appreciated
Last edited:
Chapter 2
- Location
- Singapore
Chapter 2
Madoka sat in her chair, unable to muster the appetite to eat her breakfast. Homura's death still weighed heavily on her mind. There was so much more she wanted to know about the Witches. Why do they exist, and why are they targeting humans? Kyoko wanted her to forget all about them, so she refused to reveal any more details other than 'Witches are mindless evil that eats humans to survive.'
"Madoka, at least eat a little?" Her mother Junko smiled encouragingly, "You did your best for Homura already."
Madoka pushed a small piece of pancake into her mouth, "I just feel so useless. Maybe if my CPR was better or something, I could have saved her." Or maybe if she could transform into an armored figure like Kyoko, Homura wouldn't have died.
Her father appeared from the kitchen and placed a steaming sunny-side-up on Tatsuya's plate, "There's a very small time frame about four to six minutes to save a person from dying of a heart attack. It really isn't your fault if you couldn't save her. I'm sure Homura is in a better place now." Tatsuya cheered and gleefully picked up his fork.
Madoka took a bite of her own sunny-side-up. Tears sprang to her eyes. Because she was still alive, she could taste Papa's delicious cooking. She could sit with her family for breakfast. She could go to school afterwards, meet up with Sayaka and Hitomi before going to school together.
Being alive has never felt so wonderful before.
===
Hitomi couldn't make it to their usual meeting spot in the park because she had a meeting for the upcoming school festival. She did leave a message saying that Manami wasn't contactable and probably wasn't in school today.
"I think Manami might have been kidnapped or something," said Sayaka. "I mean, she has so many enemies that I'm not surprised."
"Maybe she's just unwell for the day," said Madoka. Should she tell Sayaka about her experience with the Witch yesterday? Would Sayaka actually believe her? Even she found her own words difficult to believe.
"Don't worry about Manami tomorrow." Sayaka hurled a few punches into the air, "I'll beat the crap out of them if they try anything funny. Oh yeah, how's Homura? Did you..."
"I did not."
Sayaka's grin spread slowly across her face, "Really? Don't be shy-"
"Homura's dead."
Sayaka blinked, her face in utter disbelief, "You're joking… right?"
Madoka shook her head in tears, "She died of a heart attack. I tried to save her, but I failed. I was powerless to do anything."
Sayaka pulled a teary-eyed Madoka into her embrace, "There, there. It's not your fault that Homura died. You're not a doctor. I mean, you only scored 35 for that Human Anatomy test two weeks ago. There's no way you'd ever make it as one."
Madoka wiped her tears with a chuckle, "You're such a meanie."
Sayaka smiled in relief, "Hey, I scored 17 for that stupid test. Anyway, do you want to join me for MMA classes today? I heard they hold classes for non-members on Thursday, and guess what, today is Thursday."
"MMA? Since when were you interested in exercising?"
"Hey, don't make it sound like I'm a couch potato. I just couldn't find time to exercise, that's all."
Madoka poked Sayaka's stomach teasingly, "If you don't watch your weight Miss Potato, Kyousuke is going to abandon you."
"As long as my sweetheart Madoka doesn't abandon me, I don't care about Kyousuke. After all, you're going to be my wife!"
Madoka laughed as she tried to stop Sayaka from tickling her all over. MMA wasn't such a bad idea. Being better at fighting might just increase her chances of surviving another Witch encounter.
===
The Gardening and Crafts room was full of people working on the upcoming school festival. At one corner were people cutting and folding colored paper as decorations for the booth was being built at another corner. Beautiful violin music danced about in a graceful waltz. It was from Kyousuke playing the violin with his eyes closed, fully absorbed by his music. Normally, he would be at the music room to practice, but why was he here?
Her partner Chiaki waved hello with a scissors in hand, "Do you mind if you help me check on the greenhouse flowers?"
"Sorry, but where's Mami?"
"She's outside watering the flowers."
Mami appeared from a back door. She was their club leader, and a very attractive blonde with drill curls. So attractive that Madoka sometimes found it hard to try and connect closer with her, and Mami being her senior only made things harder.
"Good afternoon, I was wondering if I could skip today's session to join my friend for MMA classes," said Madoka, embarrassed. Everyone was busy, so it seemed really rude to leave for her own personal reasons.
"Why the sudden interest in MMA? And especially during a time when we need all the help we can get," said Mami.
"Umm…"
Madoka couldn't possibly tell Mami it was because she wanted to increase her chances of surviving a Witch encounter by learning some basic fighting techniques.
"I… err…"
This was bad. What was her stupid excuse again? It was her best friend Miki Sayaka's first time and she's a really shy girl so she wanted to accompany her and make sure everything's okay? Like Mami would actually buy that.
"Is your friend Miki Sayaka?"
"Yes! She really really wants me to join her because it's her first time and she's afraid to go alone so that's why I need to accompany her!"
Okay, that sounded really stupid. Everyone knew Sayaka had a reputation for being reckless. Sayaka was anything but shy.
"If that's the case…" Mami shot a glance at Kyousuke, I'll just return Kyousuke a favour and let you join your friend Sayaka."
"Thank you so much!"
===
The gym where the MMA training was being held at smelled thickly of sweat. Trainees equipped with protective gears punched and kicked at the punching bags while yelling as loud as they can. Madoka sat by the wall, gasping for air. Her muscles throbbed in pain. Even the slightest movement of her body intensified the pain.
"Are… you still alive?" Sayaka struggled to get the words out from her mouth. She was as desperate for air as Madoka.
Madoka gave a thumbs up in response. The workout consisted of an intense exercise circuit repeated five times. By some kind of a miracle, they managed to finish the whole workout. Was Mama right when she said that there are no limits to what the human body is capable of?
"Why are you here Madoka? I thought you were supposed to be busy with your own club activities," said Airi. Miyoshi Airi was the club leader for the MMA club, and also a good friend of her partner Chiaki.
"Madoka needs to lose that 3kg she gained from eating too much ice cream," said Sayaka.
"Hey, I totally did not gain 3kg! I only ate one small cup of ice cream last week."
"And a big one two weeks ago at Saizeriya."
"Anyway," said Airi, "I hope you're not dumping all your work to Chiaki. Speaking of which, I should really get Chiaki to exercise more often. She's always using her club activities as an excuse."
The noise gradually ceased upon the appearance of a red-haired girl who brushed her long ponytail aside with a hand. Unlike the rest who were wearing protective gears, she was wearing a grey sweater over her PE attire.
Madoka blinked. Sakura Kyoko was in the same school as her and Sayaka?!
Airi glared at Kyoko. "Why are you here?"
"Because I feel like it."
"This club isn't some place you can come and go as you like! Do you realize that is your first attendance for the past few months?"
"Does that mean I'm expelled from the club?"
The other members stepped in with awkward smiles. "I'm sure Airi doesn't mean it like that." said one member. "You'll always be part of the club even if you don't come that often!" added another member.
Airi gritted her teeth with clenched fists, her face twisted into pure rage, "Sakura Kyoko!"
Kyoko peeled a banana open, "What's your problem anyway? I won tournaments and helped the club grew in popularity. Shouldn't you be nicer to me?"
"You should've been expelled a long time ago. It's not fair how you're still a member when you don't even show up for training."
"What do you mean by it's not fair? I won tournaments for the club, so I get to remain as a member. There's nothing difficult to understand about it."
Sayaka rolled her eyes, "What a bitch."
"Hey Kyoko," said Madoka, "Could I talk to you for a moment?"
Kyoko sighed, "No."
"Please?"
"Get lost."
Sayaka pulled Madoka aside, "You know this bitch?"
"Well… kinda," said Madoka. This bitch also happened to be the one who saved her and Homura from the Witch's Barrier. Not that anyone would believe her if she actually said that out loud.
"What did she do to you?"
"I'm not sure if you'd believe me."
"I trust you. Unless it's about ice cream. I know you just ate a tub behind my back a few days ago."
"No I did not-"
"Just kidding. What's going on between you two anyway?"
After some hesitation, Madoka decided to tell Sayaka about the Witches, a mindless evil that eats humans to survive. Kyoko transformed into a red armored figure that looked like the Bleeding Edge armor from Iron Man and saved her from one. Problem now is, Kyoko is refusing to tell her more about the Witches.
Sayaka dragged Kyoko into their conversation, "Tell us what you know about the Witches."
On one hand, Madoka was touched that Sayaka took her seriously. On other hand, so much for not dragging Sayaka into her own problems.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Kyoko.
"You saved me from the Witch while you were transformed as a red armored figure, and you called the ambulance for Homura. Don't you remember?"
"I only remember calling the ambulance for Homura while you were standing there like an idiot. I don't know what Witch you're talking about. Are you sure you're not imagining things?"
Madoka tried her best not to burst into tears. The uneven ground where the monsters appeared from and the wretched artsy hell was real. Her fear when she could not find the medication that would have saved Homura was real. The monsters that would have killed her was real.
All of it was real.
All of it.
"Stop pretending you forgot everything! I remember everything clearly! You saved me and, and Homura from being killed by the Witch!"
Kyoko looked at Sayaka concernedly, "You should take your friend to see a doctor. I mean it."
Madoka rushed towards the toilet in tears.
===
Madoka washed the tears off her face in the toilet.
"Are you alright?" said Sayaka.
Madoka nodded. The thought of her actually suffering from a mental illness and locked away in a psychiatric ward forever frightened her so much that she actually broke down.
"Do I really have a problem?" said Madoka.
"I've read enough superhero origins comics to know you're not lying."
"Comics aren't real. I… I don't even know what's real anymore."
What if Kyoko was right? What if everything she experienced last night was just her hallucinating? Madoka gripped the sink in horror. Did she stood there blankly, trapped in her hallucination while Homura was on the ground crying for help?
"Actually, I was just joking about the comic thing," said Sayaka, "You see, there's this weird circle behind us and I was wondering if you knew what to do about it."
Madoka took Sayaka's hand and dashed out of the toilet into a grassy field with dancing scissors and grotesque butterflies flying around. The sky inside this Witch Barrier this time around was blue instead of red, with crude magazine cutouts plastered above as clouds.
"Is that the Witch you're talking about?" said Sayaka, terrified. "Any idea how we can get out of this place other than that bitch transforming into Iron Man?"
Madoka stood rooted, unable to move a single inch. Even if she got better at fighting, just the thought of her fists coming into contact with something as crazy as those dancing scissors was enough to turn her muscles into mush.
The scissors advanced towards them in a circle as the obnoxious chanting grew louder.
"There must be some way out, right? Right?!" said Sayaka.
Sayaka pushed Madoka aside as the scissors pounced upon them all at once.
"Sayaka, no!"
The scissors were like a pack of vultures feasting on Sayaka before disappearing into a blue shimmer. Sayaka was gone. Eaten by the scissors without leaving behind a body.
Madoka fell to the ground panting, her world spinning into a blur as the relentless pressure from her anger and fear left her breathless.
If she… if she willed it… there would be no more Witches! No more deaths! Everyone would be happy in her new world! For she was the-
"Madoka!"
A jolt shook Madoka awake from an increasingly blurry world filled with only hate and anger.
It was Sayaka.
Madoka hugged Sayaka, "You're alive! How?!"
Sayaka revealed a blue gem on her palm before it disappeared into a blue shimmer, "Thanks to this little thing who teleported me to safety."
Surrounding them was a barrier generated from a floating pink gem. Madoka had never seen this gem before, but why did she feel like a part of her was connected to its power?
"Hi Madoka," said Chiaki, her partner in the same club as her.
"Chiaki? Wh-What are you doing here?!" said Madoka.
"Backup. Just in case the Witch gets too much for Mami to handle alone."
An army of muskets rallied behind a yellow armored figure and opened fire at the butterflies and scissors. Its armor had the exact same sleek design as Kyoko's armor except for the color.
Sayaka pointed at the yellow armored figure who hurled a giant musket against a flying slug monster with butterfly-like wings, "You mean... that's Mami? Tomoe Mami?"
The armor and the giant musket exploded, revealing Mami dressed in a white medieval uniform paired with a checkered skirt and a beret.
"Oh. My. God," said Sayaka. "Okay, I have no idea what's going on anymore, but that transformation was fricking awesome."
"That's Mami's magical girl form," said Chiaki. "It trades defense and some firepower for increased utility. In this case, her magical girl form grants her access to those ribbons."
Fragments from the explosion morphed into a messy stream of yellow ribbons that pinned the slug monster to the ground.
"Amazing..." said Madoka, awestruck at the sheer power of Mami's musket army blasting those horrible butterflies and scissors to smithereens, and how the slug monster caused mini tremors trying to break free from Mami's magical ribbons.
Mami winked at the three of them with a smile before pulling out a musket from her beret. "Tiro Finale!"
Madoka squinted as a brilliant flash erupted from Mami's finishing blow. The Witch Barrier fell apart, but they found themselves near an abandoned construction site instead of their original location in school.
Chiaki frowned as she looked at the time on her smartphone, "The blue gem must have done something."
"How about some tea and cake at my house while I explain everything to you two?" said Mami.
"What exactly are those things? Witches?" said Sayaka.
"Yes, we refer to those things as Witches," said Chiaki.
Madoka recounted her experience inside a wretched artsy world which had red skies, artwork monsters and a giant monument which Kyoko defeated to free them from that world.
"Is that a Witch as well?" said Madoka.
Mami nodded, "You were very lucky that Kyoko was around."
Madoka broke down into tears again. This time, her tears were of relief that she wasn't going crazy.
Madoka sat in her chair, unable to muster the appetite to eat her breakfast. Homura's death still weighed heavily on her mind. There was so much more she wanted to know about the Witches. Why do they exist, and why are they targeting humans? Kyoko wanted her to forget all about them, so she refused to reveal any more details other than 'Witches are mindless evil that eats humans to survive.'
"Madoka, at least eat a little?" Her mother Junko smiled encouragingly, "You did your best for Homura already."
Madoka pushed a small piece of pancake into her mouth, "I just feel so useless. Maybe if my CPR was better or something, I could have saved her." Or maybe if she could transform into an armored figure like Kyoko, Homura wouldn't have died.
Her father appeared from the kitchen and placed a steaming sunny-side-up on Tatsuya's plate, "There's a very small time frame about four to six minutes to save a person from dying of a heart attack. It really isn't your fault if you couldn't save her. I'm sure Homura is in a better place now." Tatsuya cheered and gleefully picked up his fork.
Madoka took a bite of her own sunny-side-up. Tears sprang to her eyes. Because she was still alive, she could taste Papa's delicious cooking. She could sit with her family for breakfast. She could go to school afterwards, meet up with Sayaka and Hitomi before going to school together.
Being alive has never felt so wonderful before.
===
Hitomi couldn't make it to their usual meeting spot in the park because she had a meeting for the upcoming school festival. She did leave a message saying that Manami wasn't contactable and probably wasn't in school today.
"I think Manami might have been kidnapped or something," said Sayaka. "I mean, she has so many enemies that I'm not surprised."
"Maybe she's just unwell for the day," said Madoka. Should she tell Sayaka about her experience with the Witch yesterday? Would Sayaka actually believe her? Even she found her own words difficult to believe.
"Don't worry about Manami tomorrow." Sayaka hurled a few punches into the air, "I'll beat the crap out of them if they try anything funny. Oh yeah, how's Homura? Did you..."
"I did not."
Sayaka's grin spread slowly across her face, "Really? Don't be shy-"
"Homura's dead."
Sayaka blinked, her face in utter disbelief, "You're joking… right?"
Madoka shook her head in tears, "She died of a heart attack. I tried to save her, but I failed. I was powerless to do anything."
Sayaka pulled a teary-eyed Madoka into her embrace, "There, there. It's not your fault that Homura died. You're not a doctor. I mean, you only scored 35 for that Human Anatomy test two weeks ago. There's no way you'd ever make it as one."
Madoka wiped her tears with a chuckle, "You're such a meanie."
Sayaka smiled in relief, "Hey, I scored 17 for that stupid test. Anyway, do you want to join me for MMA classes today? I heard they hold classes for non-members on Thursday, and guess what, today is Thursday."
"MMA? Since when were you interested in exercising?"
"Hey, don't make it sound like I'm a couch potato. I just couldn't find time to exercise, that's all."
Madoka poked Sayaka's stomach teasingly, "If you don't watch your weight Miss Potato, Kyousuke is going to abandon you."
"As long as my sweetheart Madoka doesn't abandon me, I don't care about Kyousuke. After all, you're going to be my wife!"
Madoka laughed as she tried to stop Sayaka from tickling her all over. MMA wasn't such a bad idea. Being better at fighting might just increase her chances of surviving another Witch encounter.
===
The Gardening and Crafts room was full of people working on the upcoming school festival. At one corner were people cutting and folding colored paper as decorations for the booth was being built at another corner. Beautiful violin music danced about in a graceful waltz. It was from Kyousuke playing the violin with his eyes closed, fully absorbed by his music. Normally, he would be at the music room to practice, but why was he here?
Her partner Chiaki waved hello with a scissors in hand, "Do you mind if you help me check on the greenhouse flowers?"
"Sorry, but where's Mami?"
"She's outside watering the flowers."
Mami appeared from a back door. She was their club leader, and a very attractive blonde with drill curls. So attractive that Madoka sometimes found it hard to try and connect closer with her, and Mami being her senior only made things harder.
"Good afternoon, I was wondering if I could skip today's session to join my friend for MMA classes," said Madoka, embarrassed. Everyone was busy, so it seemed really rude to leave for her own personal reasons.
"Why the sudden interest in MMA? And especially during a time when we need all the help we can get," said Mami.
"Umm…"
Madoka couldn't possibly tell Mami it was because she wanted to increase her chances of surviving a Witch encounter by learning some basic fighting techniques.
"I… err…"
This was bad. What was her stupid excuse again? It was her best friend Miki Sayaka's first time and she's a really shy girl so she wanted to accompany her and make sure everything's okay? Like Mami would actually buy that.
"Is your friend Miki Sayaka?"
"Yes! She really really wants me to join her because it's her first time and she's afraid to go alone so that's why I need to accompany her!"
Okay, that sounded really stupid. Everyone knew Sayaka had a reputation for being reckless. Sayaka was anything but shy.
"If that's the case…" Mami shot a glance at Kyousuke, I'll just return Kyousuke a favour and let you join your friend Sayaka."
"Thank you so much!"
===
The gym where the MMA training was being held at smelled thickly of sweat. Trainees equipped with protective gears punched and kicked at the punching bags while yelling as loud as they can. Madoka sat by the wall, gasping for air. Her muscles throbbed in pain. Even the slightest movement of her body intensified the pain.
"Are… you still alive?" Sayaka struggled to get the words out from her mouth. She was as desperate for air as Madoka.
Madoka gave a thumbs up in response. The workout consisted of an intense exercise circuit repeated five times. By some kind of a miracle, they managed to finish the whole workout. Was Mama right when she said that there are no limits to what the human body is capable of?
"Why are you here Madoka? I thought you were supposed to be busy with your own club activities," said Airi. Miyoshi Airi was the club leader for the MMA club, and also a good friend of her partner Chiaki.
"Madoka needs to lose that 3kg she gained from eating too much ice cream," said Sayaka.
"Hey, I totally did not gain 3kg! I only ate one small cup of ice cream last week."
"And a big one two weeks ago at Saizeriya."
"Anyway," said Airi, "I hope you're not dumping all your work to Chiaki. Speaking of which, I should really get Chiaki to exercise more often. She's always using her club activities as an excuse."
The noise gradually ceased upon the appearance of a red-haired girl who brushed her long ponytail aside with a hand. Unlike the rest who were wearing protective gears, she was wearing a grey sweater over her PE attire.
Madoka blinked. Sakura Kyoko was in the same school as her and Sayaka?!
Airi glared at Kyoko. "Why are you here?"
"Because I feel like it."
"This club isn't some place you can come and go as you like! Do you realize that is your first attendance for the past few months?"
"Does that mean I'm expelled from the club?"
The other members stepped in with awkward smiles. "I'm sure Airi doesn't mean it like that." said one member. "You'll always be part of the club even if you don't come that often!" added another member.
Airi gritted her teeth with clenched fists, her face twisted into pure rage, "Sakura Kyoko!"
Kyoko peeled a banana open, "What's your problem anyway? I won tournaments and helped the club grew in popularity. Shouldn't you be nicer to me?"
"You should've been expelled a long time ago. It's not fair how you're still a member when you don't even show up for training."
"What do you mean by it's not fair? I won tournaments for the club, so I get to remain as a member. There's nothing difficult to understand about it."
Sayaka rolled her eyes, "What a bitch."
"Hey Kyoko," said Madoka, "Could I talk to you for a moment?"
Kyoko sighed, "No."
"Please?"
"Get lost."
Sayaka pulled Madoka aside, "You know this bitch?"
"Well… kinda," said Madoka. This bitch also happened to be the one who saved her and Homura from the Witch's Barrier. Not that anyone would believe her if she actually said that out loud.
"What did she do to you?"
"I'm not sure if you'd believe me."
"I trust you. Unless it's about ice cream. I know you just ate a tub behind my back a few days ago."
"No I did not-"
"Just kidding. What's going on between you two anyway?"
After some hesitation, Madoka decided to tell Sayaka about the Witches, a mindless evil that eats humans to survive. Kyoko transformed into a red armored figure that looked like the Bleeding Edge armor from Iron Man and saved her from one. Problem now is, Kyoko is refusing to tell her more about the Witches.
Sayaka dragged Kyoko into their conversation, "Tell us what you know about the Witches."
On one hand, Madoka was touched that Sayaka took her seriously. On other hand, so much for not dragging Sayaka into her own problems.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Kyoko.
"You saved me from the Witch while you were transformed as a red armored figure, and you called the ambulance for Homura. Don't you remember?"
"I only remember calling the ambulance for Homura while you were standing there like an idiot. I don't know what Witch you're talking about. Are you sure you're not imagining things?"
Madoka tried her best not to burst into tears. The uneven ground where the monsters appeared from and the wretched artsy hell was real. Her fear when she could not find the medication that would have saved Homura was real. The monsters that would have killed her was real.
All of it was real.
All of it.
"Stop pretending you forgot everything! I remember everything clearly! You saved me and, and Homura from being killed by the Witch!"
Kyoko looked at Sayaka concernedly, "You should take your friend to see a doctor. I mean it."
Madoka rushed towards the toilet in tears.
===
Madoka washed the tears off her face in the toilet.
"Are you alright?" said Sayaka.
Madoka nodded. The thought of her actually suffering from a mental illness and locked away in a psychiatric ward forever frightened her so much that she actually broke down.
"Do I really have a problem?" said Madoka.
"I've read enough superhero origins comics to know you're not lying."
"Comics aren't real. I… I don't even know what's real anymore."
What if Kyoko was right? What if everything she experienced last night was just her hallucinating? Madoka gripped the sink in horror. Did she stood there blankly, trapped in her hallucination while Homura was on the ground crying for help?
"Actually, I was just joking about the comic thing," said Sayaka, "You see, there's this weird circle behind us and I was wondering if you knew what to do about it."
Madoka took Sayaka's hand and dashed out of the toilet into a grassy field with dancing scissors and grotesque butterflies flying around. The sky inside this Witch Barrier this time around was blue instead of red, with crude magazine cutouts plastered above as clouds.
"Is that the Witch you're talking about?" said Sayaka, terrified. "Any idea how we can get out of this place other than that bitch transforming into Iron Man?"
Madoka stood rooted, unable to move a single inch. Even if she got better at fighting, just the thought of her fists coming into contact with something as crazy as those dancing scissors was enough to turn her muscles into mush.
The scissors advanced towards them in a circle as the obnoxious chanting grew louder.
"There must be some way out, right? Right?!" said Sayaka.
Sayaka pushed Madoka aside as the scissors pounced upon them all at once.
"Sayaka, no!"
The scissors were like a pack of vultures feasting on Sayaka before disappearing into a blue shimmer. Sayaka was gone. Eaten by the scissors without leaving behind a body.
Madoka fell to the ground panting, her world spinning into a blur as the relentless pressure from her anger and fear left her breathless.
If she… if she willed it… there would be no more Witches! No more deaths! Everyone would be happy in her new world! For she was the-
"Madoka!"
A jolt shook Madoka awake from an increasingly blurry world filled with only hate and anger.
It was Sayaka.
Madoka hugged Sayaka, "You're alive! How?!"
Sayaka revealed a blue gem on her palm before it disappeared into a blue shimmer, "Thanks to this little thing who teleported me to safety."
Surrounding them was a barrier generated from a floating pink gem. Madoka had never seen this gem before, but why did she feel like a part of her was connected to its power?
"Hi Madoka," said Chiaki, her partner in the same club as her.
"Chiaki? Wh-What are you doing here?!" said Madoka.
"Backup. Just in case the Witch gets too much for Mami to handle alone."
An army of muskets rallied behind a yellow armored figure and opened fire at the butterflies and scissors. Its armor had the exact same sleek design as Kyoko's armor except for the color.
Sayaka pointed at the yellow armored figure who hurled a giant musket against a flying slug monster with butterfly-like wings, "You mean... that's Mami? Tomoe Mami?"
The armor and the giant musket exploded, revealing Mami dressed in a white medieval uniform paired with a checkered skirt and a beret.
"Oh. My. God," said Sayaka. "Okay, I have no idea what's going on anymore, but that transformation was fricking awesome."
"That's Mami's magical girl form," said Chiaki. "It trades defense and some firepower for increased utility. In this case, her magical girl form grants her access to those ribbons."
Fragments from the explosion morphed into a messy stream of yellow ribbons that pinned the slug monster to the ground.
"Amazing..." said Madoka, awestruck at the sheer power of Mami's musket army blasting those horrible butterflies and scissors to smithereens, and how the slug monster caused mini tremors trying to break free from Mami's magical ribbons.
Mami winked at the three of them with a smile before pulling out a musket from her beret. "Tiro Finale!"
Madoka squinted as a brilliant flash erupted from Mami's finishing blow. The Witch Barrier fell apart, but they found themselves near an abandoned construction site instead of their original location in school.
Chiaki frowned as she looked at the time on her smartphone, "The blue gem must have done something."
"How about some tea and cake at my house while I explain everything to you two?" said Mami.
"What exactly are those things? Witches?" said Sayaka.
"Yes, we refer to those things as Witches," said Chiaki.
Madoka recounted her experience inside a wretched artsy world which had red skies, artwork monsters and a giant monument which Kyoko defeated to free them from that world.
"Is that a Witch as well?" said Madoka.
Mami nodded, "You were very lucky that Kyoko was around."
Madoka broke down into tears again. This time, her tears were of relief that she wasn't going crazy.
Last edited:
Chapter 3
- Location
- Singapore
Chapter 3
Mami's house was elegantly minimalist. The only furniture she had were the bare essentials such as a coffee table with some colored cushion around it, TV, a dining table near the kitchen, and a bookshelf filled with books about cooking and baking.
Madoka, Sayaka, and Chiaki sat around the coffee table as Mami appeared from the kitchen with a tray of assorted pastries.
Madoka took a bite from a chocolate muffin, "Th-This is delicious!" The sweetness of the muffin was so wonderfully balanced without being overpowering, and the fluffy texture felt like she was munching on clouds.
Sayaka shoved cookies after cookies into her mouth, "It's so delicious I can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!"
Mami chuckled, "There's always room for improvement. As for the Witches… I'm not so sure where I should start."
"From the beginning," said Madoka, "I want to know everything."
Mami raised her eyebrows in surprise, "If you're willing to spend the night here, I could start from the beginning."
Sayaka shrugged her shoulders, "I guess it won't hurt to stay for the night and know more about the Witches."
"Let me do the explaining," said Chiaki.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, an alien race known as the Incubators found Earth and the humans living in caves at the time.
When those aliens realized that human souls could be harvested for usable energy and after some discussion, they decided on a magical girl system where young girls would be offered a wish in exchange for their soul to fight Witches as magical girls.
The Incubators would then put the souls of these girls into a palm-sized container named as Soul Gems, which acts like a power source and transformation tool for the magical girls. Eventually, the souls inside the Soul Gems would become corrupted and then they turn into the very same Witches they were fighting against as a magical girl. At the same time, an extremely large amount of energy is released which the Incubators then harvest for their own use.
"But the Witches you see now do not follow that system anymore," said Chiaki.
"Why so?" said Madoka.
Sayaka swallowed her muffin down with a cup of tea, "Someone must have obviously wished for the old magical girl system to disappear."
"Correct."
"Eh? Is such a wish allowed?" said Madoka. It seemed silly for the aliens to let their energy harvesting system be so easily wished away.
Chiaki flashed a melancholic smile. A smile Madoka had never seen before on Chiaki. "She allowed it. I mean, the Incubator in charge of recruiting girls to be magical girl. But that's a story for another time."
Mami returned from the kitchen with another tray of assorted pastries, "There are three other Incubators who uses the harvested energy to develop new technologies and perform upgrades to their magical girl system."
A blue and pink gem appeared from a portal on the table, floating above tea and pastries.
"Every single technology we've developed so far are condensed into what you see here," said Chiaki.
These gems are known as the Resonance Gems. It allows one to control essential aspects of the Universe if one's soul "resonates" with it. Yellow, which was Mami's Resonance Gem, controls the Mind. Red, which was Kyoko's Resonance Gem, controls Reality, and Blue controls Space.
The blue and pink Resonance Gems had chosen them as its new owner because of their soul "resonating" with it. That "resonance" was also why Madoka felt like she had some connection with the pink gem just now inside the Witch Barrier. One of the ways to defeat the Witches is to use the Resonance Gems like what Kyoko did and transform into a hybrid armored/magical girl warrior.
"...Lastly, Pink allows one to control Hope," said Chiaki, "Remember the girl who made the wish to destroy the Witch system? The result of her wish ended up in her discarding her humanity to transform into a new aspect of the Universe that you humans call Hope."
"But," said Mami. "I hope you think it through carefully. Being an owner of a Resonance Gem requires you to pay a price. A price you may regret paying."
Sayaka eyed the blue gem hesitantly, "What price?"
"It's fine if you stay in armored mode, but if you ever transform into magical girl mode, you cease to be human," said Chiaki.
"You mean...?"
"Yes," said Mami. "I didn't get to choose, so I hope you two would make your choice carefully."
"You still look pretty human to me though."
Mami took a sip of tea with a smile, "I may look human, but you wouldn't want to know what's inside of me now."
"You're a... monster disguised as a human? A shape-shifting alien?!"
Mami broke into laughter, much to Madoka's embarrassment. "You have a wild imagination, Sayaka. No, I am none of those things. I just cannot grow old nor die of old age, and… also incapable of having children anymore."
Madoka briefly saw a tinge of regret in Mami's eyes. It may seem like a small price to pay to her, but perhaps she wasn't mature enough yet to understand the consequences of being an immortal incapable of having children.
"I guess if we just stay in armored mode and focus on killing the Witches, we should be okay right?" said Madoka.
"We haven't figured who exactly is behind the Witches, but when they eventually come for us, you two might have no choice but to transform into a magical girl just to survive," said Mami.
"But we can't just sit back and do nothing while the Witches are about killing people."
"Then are you prepared to pay the price?"
"I... I'm not so sure if I should go for this superhero thing," said Sayaka.
It surprised Madoka to hear that from Sayaka. She always seemed like the sort of person who would jump excitedly at the chance of being a hero like in the comic books she often read.
"I'm the only one my mum has left now," continued Sayaka, "I can't do this to my mum. I can't let her lose her daughter just like how she lost her husband."
Madoka put a hand over Sayaka to comfort her. Ever since Sayaka's father died as a national hero during Hurricane Owari for saving countless lives, Sayaka and her mother were on pretty bad terms because of her tendencies to play the hero and getting injured like her father.
"Anyway, just think about it. There's no rush at all. At most the Resonance Gems will just have to find a different owner," said Chiaki.
By the time Mami and Chiaki was done explaining, it was already past midnight.
===
The car engine hummed comfortably in the background. Thankfully, today was a day where Mama did not have to attend any after-work drinking party, so she drove over to Mami's house with a company car, picked her and Sayaka up, and had just dropped Sayaka back home.
"I understand that it's an important school festival, but it's not good for your health to stay up so late especially for girls your age," said Junko.
"We just got a little carried away," said Madoka. A little carried away in wanting to know everything about the Witches. There was so much information she couldn't remember even half of what Mami and Chiaki said.
In summary, there were a few key takeaways.
Hundreds of thousands years ago, an alien race known as the Incubators found Earth. They have a total population of 4 and had used "extensions" in the form of a white alien cat to recruit girls into their horrible magical girl scam before a smart and noble girl destroyed said scam with a wish of her own in exchange for her humanity. Chiaki said she couldn't identify who that girl was because they saw humans as something like alien computer codes instead of images through the magical girl system.
Two out of the four Incubators, currently disguised as humans, are likely to be the masterminds behind the new Witches in this world.
Chiaki, an Incubator and also disguised as a human, are against the Witches. She stole the Resonance Gems in the hopes of putting an end to the Witches. Ultimately, the whole point of the Witches was obtaining power from human souls. Power to do whatever they-
"How are the preparations coming along?"
"Great. A few more days and we should be finished with everything."
"That's good to hear."
"Hey Mama."
Junko shot a glance at the rear-view mirror before making a turn, "Yeah?"
"If you were ever turned into an immortal incapable of having children, would you regret it?"
"What's with that strange question you're asking me?"
"Oh… err… well I… read this story about a girl given a chance to erase all evil from the world, but in exchange she paid a heavy price of becoming immortal and cannot have children anymore. I don't quite understand why was it such a heavy price to her."
"That's because it must be painful for the girl to watch everyone else around her die one by one while she remains alive because of her immortality. When you think about it, not being unable to have children might just be a form of mercy. I'd never want to see you or Tatsuya gone before me. No way in hell I'm allowing that to happen."
"Mama, you just ran the red light."
Junko sighed, "There's goes my perfect record for the year."
Was that the price Mami was referring to? To watch Papa, Mama and Tatsuya die of old age while she fights the Witches forever?
It would be easy to say that she was willing to pay the price in order to protect everyone, but Madoka knew deep inside she was no hero. Her first battle was probably going to be her last because of her ineptness. Maybe she should be more considerate of her family like Sayaka was to her mum. If she died in action, surely Papa and Mama would be devastated. It wasn't fair at all to hurt them because of her own selfishness.
Or maybe she should just stop being a coward.
===
Miyoshi Airi slammed the gym door shut before wiping the sweat off her face with a towel. Every night, she would stay behind for extra training. Her parents taught her that hard work would be rewarded. Eventually, she'll catch up with the talented ones and stand at the top alongside them.
Sakura Kyoko proved her wrong. Kyoko won championships after championships without any training. Without any fucking kind of training.
And her? What did a year of extra training every night brought her? No titles. Nothing. It was a miracle she still remained as club leader. If it wasn't for Kyoko's abysmal attendance, Kyoko would have already taken over as club leader.
"Isn't that..."
Manami and her lackeys were making a huge mess inside the Gardening and Crafts Club's room through the main door that was left ajar. One lackey tore the booth apart while another lackey hurled a chair at the walls. Manami stood at a corner busy with her phone, unperturbed by the chaos around her.
Airi walked away. Someone in the Gardening and Crafts Club must have offended Manami. If she interfered, her club might end up in an even worse state. For her club, she had to walk away. Away from trouble.
Airi unleashed her rage against the school gate before sinking to the ground in exhaustion. She shouldn't have walked away. That was Chiaki's club being destroyed by Manami! What kind of a friend she was if she didn't at least to try stop those bullies. In the end, she was a pathetic loser chasing after titles that will never belong to her, and a coward who let the strong bully the weak.
"Why are you crying?"
Airi jumped at the talking white cat-like creature who looked exactly like how a magical girl mascot would look like.
"It's none of your business!"
Was it just her imagination, or was there really a magical girl mascot talking to her? This mascot had cat ears with something like a scarf extending from inside of it, red orbs as eyes, and a tail larger than its body.
"I sense great potential in you, Miyoshi Airi."
"How'd you know my name?!"
"This world may be unfair, but I can grant you powers to make it a little less unfair."
"Are you going to turn me into a magical girl to fight monsters that are secretly terrorizing the city?"
The mascot swished its tail, "You are pretty smart."
"I've also watched enough of those edgy deconstruction magical girl TV shows to know that there's a price to pay for it."
"Heroes make sacrifices, don't they? How can you call yourself a hero if you're unwilling to make sacrifices? This is your chance to become something greater, Miyoshi Airi."
"What price do I have to pay?"
The mascot rested a paw on her chest, its red eyes fixed intensely on her. It may have a cute smile, but that smile never changed. Almost as if it was wearing a mask to hide its true intentions. "The burden of being a hero, of course."
"I..."
This might turn out to be the worst decision she ever made. Her instinct screamed at her to refuse the cute but really creepy mascot if you look at it long enough, but she wouldn't allow herself to be a coward again and let this once in a lifetime chance go.
"... accept your offer."
===
A long forgotten part of Madoka's past came back to haunt her as she headed for the usual spot where Hitomi and Sayaka would be waiting for her. Kikuchi Manami, even during elementary school, was a bully. There was one time where she stumbled upon Manami bullying two girls in the toilet. The girls looked at her, their eyes begging for her to save them. But she was no hero of course.
Everyone said it wasn't her fault that she ran away.
They were wrong.
The two girls were found dead soon after. No one in school knew their exact cause of death, but it was without a doubt suicide due to the bullying. If she had reached out, just like she had reached out for Homura, those two girls might have been still alive. Funny thing was that Homura died anyway because of the Witches.
Madoka slapped herself. She almost broke down into tears… again. Up ahead, Sayaka and Hitomi was quarreling. Her dread grew with each increasing step. It must be because of Manami.
"Whatever happens to you later, it is none of my business anymore!" said Hitomi before she stomped off.
"What's wrong with Hitomi?" said Madoka.
"Just a small argument from a difference in opinion," said Sayaka. "Don't worry, everything's going to be alright."
Madoka viewed a message Hitomi sent her. No, everything wasn't going to be alright. Her heart pounded as her mind raced to comprehend the consequences of Hitomi's failure to convince Manami to let them off.
===
A pungent smell assaulted Madoka when she opened her locker. Rotten fruit peels were stuffed inside and some kind of disgusting goo dripped on the floor. Okay, that wasn't as bad as she thought.
"It's okay," said Sayaka before she opened her shoe locker, "You can... never mind."
Even Sayaka's locker wasn't spared from being stuffed with rotten fruit peels and that disgusting goo. Everyone in school looked at them like they were some sort of plague to be avoided. This was it. Manami has officially made them her target.
"Any idea where we can put our shoes?" said Sayaka.
A group of boys snickered, "Maybe you can put them in the trash, idiots."
"Why you!"
"Or maybe you can put them in my locker," said Hitomi, exasperated. "Manami wouldn't dare to do anything to my locker."
Sayaka hugged Hitomi with a big goofy grin. "I knew you wouldn't abandon us!"
"You two are still my friends even if the both of you are complete idiots."
"Hitomi, I'm sorry," said Madoka.
"There's no need to apologize. You did the right thing, morally at least."
"What do you mean by that? Morally or not, it was the right thing to do," said Sayaka.
And so Hitomi and Sayaka started arguing again, but not in a bad way this time though. Hitomi was of the view that she should have acted more prudently especially when it involved Manami while Sayaka was completely on her side. Who knows what Manami could have done to Homura if she didn't interfere in time?
Madoka smiled in an attempt to stay optimistic. Surely her club members would understand her decision to save Homura… although their level of understanding depended on how badly Manami messed up the club.
===
Madoka took a deep breath and opened the door to her club room.
A heavy air of anger and resentment greeted her inside. The booth display was shredded to pieces, littered upon the splinters of wood that once formed the frame. Tables were overturned, books turned to paper waste. Flowers outside were trampled. The greenhouse with all of its exotic flowers, reduced to shattered glass and bent metal.
"Why did you have to go ahead and be the hero?!" said a club member. "It wasn't even your business in the first place," said another club member.
Madoka hung her head in shame before bowing deeply, "I'm sorry, I'll fix everything." Her club mates were either confused, enraged, or both, at her actions. They had every right to be. Manami had messed the club up so badly to the point where they had to rebuild everything from scratch. Everything in one week before the school festival. And it was all her fault.
"Fix?! That isn't the problem at all! Our club is now on Manami's list, and it's all because of you. Everyone in this club is finished."
Mitsuki stepped out from the crowd and slapped Madoka, "Was sacrificing the club really worth it to save a stranger you barely knew?"
The pain stung so hard that a tear leaked from the corner of Madoka's eyes. "I only did what I thought was right. Manami would have strangled Homura to death if I didn't interfere."
"The right thing to do was nothing."
Mitsuki, for some reason, always hated her. She tried to be extra nice to Mitsuki, like baking cookies only for her, or help her out with some cleaning duties, but Mitsuki would always brush off her attempts with disgust. The disgust in Mitsuki's eyes this time gripped tightly at her throat, as if it wanted her dead. Why does Mitsuki hate her that much? She never found the courage to ask Mitsuki, even if that was what she should do instead of guessing.
"I'm on Madoka's side," said Chiaki. "Who's with me?"
All the other club members shuffled behind Mitsuki. Perhaps they didn't want to lose their standing with the vice president. Even in a supposedly casual club like the Gardening and Crafts Club, there was quite a fair bit of 'politics' going on, as Mama would put it. Chiaki didn't care about politics. She only joined the club because she liked flowers, and never went out of her way to make friends with the rest, preferring to focus on her flowers, which was why no one was with Chiaki... but that wasn't the point at all!
"Sorry about the flowers," said Madoka to Chiaki. "You put in a lot of effort into it, and I ruined everything."
Chiaki hugged Madoka, "Indirectly, yes, but I forgive you, so stop blaming yourself. The ones who stepped on my flowers though, I cannot forgive."
Madoka smiled awkwardly, "Thanks." It was an unexpected hug coming from Chiaki, but appreciated nonetheless.
Mami gathered everyone while she stood facing them. "Listen everyone, now is not the time to be pointing fingers. We still have about a week until the actual festival, so here's the plan. First, we-"
"What about Manami?" said a club member.
"Manami may be a bully, but she can be reasoned with. I'll speak to her personally."
"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay."
It was Mami speaking telepathically to her while addressing the club members. To communicate telepathically with others was one of Resonance Yellow's abilities.
"I'm sorry, it was my fault that Manami messed up our club room," replied Madoka.
"You did it to save a life. Don't blame yourself."
"Still, it's my fault. I'm sorry."
Maybe Mitsuki was right. Maybe she should have done nothing. Manami wouldn't be so stupid to actually strangle Homura to death.
"Listen, Madoka," said Mami, "Sometimes, you have to make a bad decision to save a life. Honestly, the situation isn't as dire as you think, so stop blaming yourself, alright?"
Madoka looked back at the destruction Manami caused to her club. Mami wasn't wrong. They still had a week to fix the mess, and if she stayed back overnight, the club would still make it in time.
===
Sayaka closed the practice room door quietly when she saw Hitomi and Kyousuke inside, chatting happily about music. Maybe it wasn't the right time to come over and talk to Kyousuke as usual. What if Manami saw them together and decide to hurt Kyousuke? Honestly, Hitomi deserved Kyousuke more than her. She was rich, talented in like everything and definitely not a troublemaker who kept getting into fights like Miki Sayaka.
And then there was being Resonance Blue to save the world from Witches. If she ever decides to be like her national hero dad and save the world from the Witches as Resonance Blue, she should just forget about Kyousuke. Hitomi was better for Kyousuke anyway.
The hallway grew unusually quiet. Surrounding Sayaka was a group of girls who were clearly Manami's lackey.
"I'm not afraid of you scumbags," said Sayaka. Here it comes, the classic beat-you-up bullshit because of your friend's 'bad' decision to mess with the most powerful bully in school.
"Get her!"
Sayaka landed a few heavy blows against the first wave of scumbags but eventually their numbers got so overwhelming that she was forced to crouch down in a ball while they rained down punches and kicks. Eventually, the punching and kicking stopped.
Sayaka picked herself up to see that red-haired bitch Kyoko mow down those scumbags like cutting weed from a grass field. She vaguely heard stories about Kyoko being very good at fighting and won multiple MMA championships with her skills.
"Why did you have to lie to Madoka and make her cry? Mami told us everything about the Witches already," said Sayaka. Mami defended Kyoko, saying that Kyoko was just trying to help them forget about something they can't do anything about, so that they may live life blissfully in ignorance. But Kyoko did it in such a bitchy manner that Madoka almost admitted herself to a mental hospital.
Kyoko clicked her tongue, "Good for you. Now that you know about the Witches, tell me what are you going to do about them?"
"Using the Resonance Gems of course. I know your secret, bitch. You shoved Resonance Red up your ass to win all your MMA championships."
"How about you shut your mouth and thank the gem that was 'shoved up my ass' for saving for your butt."
"Wait," Sayaka put a hand to her chin in mock thoughtfulness, "Did you actually… shove Resonance Red up your ass? I mean, if something as ridiculous as Witches exist, then I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you use the gem."
Kyoko looked at Sayaka both in disgust and confusion, "What? No, that was just an-"
"I know, I know, it's embarrassing to admit it in public. Like, I have to strip off my panties and shove something weird up my ass just to transform? Eww. But for the greater good, I have to transform, no matter how embarrassing it gets!"
"Ugh, you're being ridiculous. I am so done with you."
Sayaka texted Madoka that she couldn't make it for dinner tonight because of an urgent matter with her mum. Her bruises and cuts was just going to make Madoka feel even more guilty about her choice to save Homura. Still, if only Madoka was here to see that arrogant Kyoko squirm in discomfort. She'd definitely laugh her ass off.
===
Madoka passed through the cafe where she was supposed to have dinner with Homura and the rest in. The queue was still going strong even after 8pm. Well, it would just be her and Homura since Hitomi had an urgent meeting and Sayaka couldn't make it as well. Chiaki was always busy with something in the evening, so she never once joined them for dinner. In hindsight, Chiaki was probably busy fighting the Witches with Mami.
Sayaka was obviously lying when she said she had an urgent matter with her mum. Sayaka just didn't want her to feel bad about the injuries she suffered. Everyone in school knew that Sayaka got beaten up because her good friend Kaname Madoka had to offend the one bully everyone knew not to offend.
Madoka hated that doubt niggling inside of her. Of course she should have saved Homura. It was the right thing to do. But at the cost of getting her best friend hurt, and her club destroyed? Was it worth it? Hitomi? Why was Hitomi out in the streets? Didn't she have a urgent meeting today around this timing?
Madoka waved a hand, "Hitomi! What happened to your meeting?"
"Oh, hello Madoka," said Hitomi, her eyes vacant.
"Are you alright?"
Something seemed very, very wrong with Hitomi.
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Where are you going?"
Hitomi stared at Madoka for a few seconds before answering with a dreamy smile, "Of course! Why don't come join me?"
Madoka cautiously followed Hitomi behind as more people in a similar trance like Hitomi joined them. All of them were headed towards an abandoned warehouse near the shipyard. Inside the warehouse were people moaning about how life has unfairly treated them, and how they no longer have a place in this world anymore.
"I should call Mami-"
Hitomi slapped the phone away from Madoka and crushed it with a foot, "The ritual is starting. Hurry."
Madoka found herself dragged inside a crowd surrounding a housewife pouring bleach and other household cleaning products into a bucket.
"We will each take turns to drink from the Holy Fountain as we prepare for our journey beyond this world." Hitomi said.
"That thing is poisonous! You'll all die!" Mama once warned her never to mistake household cleaning products for condiments in the kitchen. If she did, the whole family would meet in Heaven.
Hitomi did a little twirl, "Exactly. No longer will we be limited by our physical bodies. Finally, we shall be free and happy in the Promised Land."
A roaring applause followed soon after. Madoka grabbed the bucket and hurled it out of the window. Witches… It must be the Witches!
The crowd including Hitomi turned into an angry horde of zombies chasing after Madoka. She dashed into a nearby storeroom and locked the door.
"What should I… what should I do?!"
She should have called Mami earlier while following Hitomi into a warehouse, but it was too late for anything now.
A circle pulled her into yet another Witch Barrier.
===
Sayaka entered her apartment to see her mother watching some cringy, stale drama on TV, "Hey mum."
Sayaka's mother eyed the cuts and bruises on Sayaka's face, "Did you get into a fight again?"
"Yeah… sort of."
"Another fight? When you will learn to stop butting into other people's problem like your father?!"
"Alright mum, got it. I won't do it again," drawled Sayaka before retreating into her room. She didn't want to get into an argument with her mother again. Mum always hated Dad for deciding to be the hero during Hurricane Owari, and nothing she says would ever change that.
Sayaka plopped herself into bed with a Kamen Rider Ichigo figurine in one hand. Becoming Resonance Blue was something like being a Kamen Rider, using the technology of the enemy to fight against the enemy itself. Mami wasn't a cyborg like Kamen Rider Ichigo, but she might as well be since she cannot age nor have kids anymore.
If it was Dad, he would have accepted it without hesitation. In fact, if he had Resonance Blue, the hurricane would not have killed him.
"Dad, what should I do? I'm sure you wouldn't object to me being a hero when you decided to be one yourself."
Sayaka heard a loud thud on her window. It was Chiaki and Resonance Blue floating beside her outside. Did Chiaki just climbed up fifteen floors outside of her apartment building? That was impressive even for an alien disguised as a human.
"You could've taken the stairs."
"Ma-Madoka is in danger! Mami is on her way, but I fear she may not make it in time. Transform now!"
"What?! How do I do that?!"
"Just grab the gem and think about transforming."
Sayaka did as Chiaki told and blue armor covered her body. She thought about de-transforming and the armor faded into a blue shimmer. No belt, no transformation phrase to say, nothing. All she had to do was think about it. Her body had absorbed the gem and she was now tentatively the owner of Resonance Blue. The bruises and cuts on her arms, and face were also healed.
"Woah, nanotech?" said Sayaka. Why was Chiaki looking at her weirdly? Did she just ask a stupid question?
"No, that's closer to Resonance Red. X-DMAH, or dark matter nano armor in short. Very impressive durability. Quick, we don't have much time!"
Sayaka transformed again with a thought and a blue portal appeared, "Right." Go through the portal, pull Madoka out to safety, and ask questions later.
===
Unlike the first two, this Witch Barrier had no ground to stand on. All Madoka could do was keep sinking down as merry-go-rounds and weird dolls holding onto TVs with static screens surrounded her in a blue snowy background. Witches were really scary the first time, or even the second time, but the third time? Not so much. Not when she actually had power to defeat the Witches.
First, the Witches came after Homura. Next, Hitomi. What's next? Mama, Papa or even Tatsuya? There was really no reason to think about it any further.
Madoka grabbed the pink gem. Sometimes to save a life, one has to make a bad decision.
===
Madoka expected to transform and unleash her power against the Witch. Not being teleported back into the abandoned warehouse by a blue portal that swallowed her right after touching the pink gem.
The armor of a blue armored figure faded into a blue shimmer, revealing itself as Sayaka.
"Glad we made it in time," said Sayaka.
"How did you guys know I was here?"
Chiaki put away her smartphone, "Resonance Pink told Mami, then Mami told me, and finally I told Sayaka about it."
"If you want to de-transform, it's easy as just thinking about it," said Sayaka.
"Wait, what?"
Covering Madoka's body was pink armor, with the same kind of sleek design she saw in Kyoko, Mami, and Sayaka's armor. So she did transform after all, but was teleported away before she could fight the Witch. She thought about de-transforming like what Sayaka said, and the armor burst into rays of pink light that disappeared inside her body.
A yellow flash reverted Mami's magical girl costume back into her normal school uniform. "While the both of you may be the new owners of those gems, you have a choice of returning it to us since you haven't transformed into a magical girl."
"By just thinking about it?" said Sayaka.
"Yes."
"You may also experience excruciating pain during the process, but don't worry, you'll live," added Chiaki.
"I've… decided to fight the Witches. I don't know if it's right, but I know it's something I won't regret doing," said Madoka. Enough was enough. She would not allow the Witches to hurt the ones she cared about anymore.
"What about you, Sayaka?" said Mami.
Sayaka stared at her partially transformed arm for a long while before answering, "You know what, sign me up for this superhero thing. If anyone has to be the hero, it might as well be me."
Mami shook her head with a smile, "Let me just drill this into the both of you before we officially begin. No one is to play the hero alone, you hear me? We operate as a team, and return alive as a team."
Sayaka saluted Mami, "Yes, madam. I hear you loud and clear."
Training officially starts this weekend.
===
Mami's house was elegantly minimalist. The only furniture she had were the bare essentials such as a coffee table with some colored cushion around it, TV, a dining table near the kitchen, and a bookshelf filled with books about cooking and baking.
Madoka, Sayaka, and Chiaki sat around the coffee table as Mami appeared from the kitchen with a tray of assorted pastries.
Madoka took a bite from a chocolate muffin, "Th-This is delicious!" The sweetness of the muffin was so wonderfully balanced without being overpowering, and the fluffy texture felt like she was munching on clouds.
Sayaka shoved cookies after cookies into her mouth, "It's so delicious I can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!"
Mami chuckled, "There's always room for improvement. As for the Witches… I'm not so sure where I should start."
"From the beginning," said Madoka, "I want to know everything."
Mami raised her eyebrows in surprise, "If you're willing to spend the night here, I could start from the beginning."
Sayaka shrugged her shoulders, "I guess it won't hurt to stay for the night and know more about the Witches."
"Let me do the explaining," said Chiaki.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, an alien race known as the Incubators found Earth and the humans living in caves at the time.
When those aliens realized that human souls could be harvested for usable energy and after some discussion, they decided on a magical girl system where young girls would be offered a wish in exchange for their soul to fight Witches as magical girls.
The Incubators would then put the souls of these girls into a palm-sized container named as Soul Gems, which acts like a power source and transformation tool for the magical girls. Eventually, the souls inside the Soul Gems would become corrupted and then they turn into the very same Witches they were fighting against as a magical girl. At the same time, an extremely large amount of energy is released which the Incubators then harvest for their own use.
"But the Witches you see now do not follow that system anymore," said Chiaki.
"Why so?" said Madoka.
Sayaka swallowed her muffin down with a cup of tea, "Someone must have obviously wished for the old magical girl system to disappear."
"Correct."
"Eh? Is such a wish allowed?" said Madoka. It seemed silly for the aliens to let their energy harvesting system be so easily wished away.
Chiaki flashed a melancholic smile. A smile Madoka had never seen before on Chiaki. "She allowed it. I mean, the Incubator in charge of recruiting girls to be magical girl. But that's a story for another time."
Mami returned from the kitchen with another tray of assorted pastries, "There are three other Incubators who uses the harvested energy to develop new technologies and perform upgrades to their magical girl system."
A blue and pink gem appeared from a portal on the table, floating above tea and pastries.
"Every single technology we've developed so far are condensed into what you see here," said Chiaki.
These gems are known as the Resonance Gems. It allows one to control essential aspects of the Universe if one's soul "resonates" with it. Yellow, which was Mami's Resonance Gem, controls the Mind. Red, which was Kyoko's Resonance Gem, controls Reality, and Blue controls Space.
The blue and pink Resonance Gems had chosen them as its new owner because of their soul "resonating" with it. That "resonance" was also why Madoka felt like she had some connection with the pink gem just now inside the Witch Barrier. One of the ways to defeat the Witches is to use the Resonance Gems like what Kyoko did and transform into a hybrid armored/magical girl warrior.
"...Lastly, Pink allows one to control Hope," said Chiaki, "Remember the girl who made the wish to destroy the Witch system? The result of her wish ended up in her discarding her humanity to transform into a new aspect of the Universe that you humans call Hope."
"But," said Mami. "I hope you think it through carefully. Being an owner of a Resonance Gem requires you to pay a price. A price you may regret paying."
Sayaka eyed the blue gem hesitantly, "What price?"
"It's fine if you stay in armored mode, but if you ever transform into magical girl mode, you cease to be human," said Chiaki.
"You mean...?"
"Yes," said Mami. "I didn't get to choose, so I hope you two would make your choice carefully."
"You still look pretty human to me though."
Mami took a sip of tea with a smile, "I may look human, but you wouldn't want to know what's inside of me now."
"You're a... monster disguised as a human? A shape-shifting alien?!"
Mami broke into laughter, much to Madoka's embarrassment. "You have a wild imagination, Sayaka. No, I am none of those things. I just cannot grow old nor die of old age, and… also incapable of having children anymore."
Madoka briefly saw a tinge of regret in Mami's eyes. It may seem like a small price to pay to her, but perhaps she wasn't mature enough yet to understand the consequences of being an immortal incapable of having children.
"I guess if we just stay in armored mode and focus on killing the Witches, we should be okay right?" said Madoka.
"We haven't figured who exactly is behind the Witches, but when they eventually come for us, you two might have no choice but to transform into a magical girl just to survive," said Mami.
"But we can't just sit back and do nothing while the Witches are about killing people."
"Then are you prepared to pay the price?"
"I... I'm not so sure if I should go for this superhero thing," said Sayaka.
It surprised Madoka to hear that from Sayaka. She always seemed like the sort of person who would jump excitedly at the chance of being a hero like in the comic books she often read.
"I'm the only one my mum has left now," continued Sayaka, "I can't do this to my mum. I can't let her lose her daughter just like how she lost her husband."
Madoka put a hand over Sayaka to comfort her. Ever since Sayaka's father died as a national hero during Hurricane Owari for saving countless lives, Sayaka and her mother were on pretty bad terms because of her tendencies to play the hero and getting injured like her father.
"Anyway, just think about it. There's no rush at all. At most the Resonance Gems will just have to find a different owner," said Chiaki.
By the time Mami and Chiaki was done explaining, it was already past midnight.
===
The car engine hummed comfortably in the background. Thankfully, today was a day where Mama did not have to attend any after-work drinking party, so she drove over to Mami's house with a company car, picked her and Sayaka up, and had just dropped Sayaka back home.
"I understand that it's an important school festival, but it's not good for your health to stay up so late especially for girls your age," said Junko.
"We just got a little carried away," said Madoka. A little carried away in wanting to know everything about the Witches. There was so much information she couldn't remember even half of what Mami and Chiaki said.
In summary, there were a few key takeaways.
Hundreds of thousands years ago, an alien race known as the Incubators found Earth. They have a total population of 4 and had used "extensions" in the form of a white alien cat to recruit girls into their horrible magical girl scam before a smart and noble girl destroyed said scam with a wish of her own in exchange for her humanity. Chiaki said she couldn't identify who that girl was because they saw humans as something like alien computer codes instead of images through the magical girl system.
Two out of the four Incubators, currently disguised as humans, are likely to be the masterminds behind the new Witches in this world.
Chiaki, an Incubator and also disguised as a human, are against the Witches. She stole the Resonance Gems in the hopes of putting an end to the Witches. Ultimately, the whole point of the Witches was obtaining power from human souls. Power to do whatever they-
"How are the preparations coming along?"
"Great. A few more days and we should be finished with everything."
"That's good to hear."
"Hey Mama."
Junko shot a glance at the rear-view mirror before making a turn, "Yeah?"
"If you were ever turned into an immortal incapable of having children, would you regret it?"
"What's with that strange question you're asking me?"
"Oh… err… well I… read this story about a girl given a chance to erase all evil from the world, but in exchange she paid a heavy price of becoming immortal and cannot have children anymore. I don't quite understand why was it such a heavy price to her."
"That's because it must be painful for the girl to watch everyone else around her die one by one while she remains alive because of her immortality. When you think about it, not being unable to have children might just be a form of mercy. I'd never want to see you or Tatsuya gone before me. No way in hell I'm allowing that to happen."
"Mama, you just ran the red light."
Junko sighed, "There's goes my perfect record for the year."
Was that the price Mami was referring to? To watch Papa, Mama and Tatsuya die of old age while she fights the Witches forever?
It would be easy to say that she was willing to pay the price in order to protect everyone, but Madoka knew deep inside she was no hero. Her first battle was probably going to be her last because of her ineptness. Maybe she should be more considerate of her family like Sayaka was to her mum. If she died in action, surely Papa and Mama would be devastated. It wasn't fair at all to hurt them because of her own selfishness.
Or maybe she should just stop being a coward.
===
Miyoshi Airi slammed the gym door shut before wiping the sweat off her face with a towel. Every night, she would stay behind for extra training. Her parents taught her that hard work would be rewarded. Eventually, she'll catch up with the talented ones and stand at the top alongside them.
Sakura Kyoko proved her wrong. Kyoko won championships after championships without any training. Without any fucking kind of training.
And her? What did a year of extra training every night brought her? No titles. Nothing. It was a miracle she still remained as club leader. If it wasn't for Kyoko's abysmal attendance, Kyoko would have already taken over as club leader.
"Isn't that..."
Manami and her lackeys were making a huge mess inside the Gardening and Crafts Club's room through the main door that was left ajar. One lackey tore the booth apart while another lackey hurled a chair at the walls. Manami stood at a corner busy with her phone, unperturbed by the chaos around her.
Airi walked away. Someone in the Gardening and Crafts Club must have offended Manami. If she interfered, her club might end up in an even worse state. For her club, she had to walk away. Away from trouble.
Airi unleashed her rage against the school gate before sinking to the ground in exhaustion. She shouldn't have walked away. That was Chiaki's club being destroyed by Manami! What kind of a friend she was if she didn't at least to try stop those bullies. In the end, she was a pathetic loser chasing after titles that will never belong to her, and a coward who let the strong bully the weak.
"Why are you crying?"
Airi jumped at the talking white cat-like creature who looked exactly like how a magical girl mascot would look like.
"It's none of your business!"
Was it just her imagination, or was there really a magical girl mascot talking to her? This mascot had cat ears with something like a scarf extending from inside of it, red orbs as eyes, and a tail larger than its body.
"I sense great potential in you, Miyoshi Airi."
"How'd you know my name?!"
"This world may be unfair, but I can grant you powers to make it a little less unfair."
"Are you going to turn me into a magical girl to fight monsters that are secretly terrorizing the city?"
The mascot swished its tail, "You are pretty smart."
"I've also watched enough of those edgy deconstruction magical girl TV shows to know that there's a price to pay for it."
"Heroes make sacrifices, don't they? How can you call yourself a hero if you're unwilling to make sacrifices? This is your chance to become something greater, Miyoshi Airi."
"What price do I have to pay?"
The mascot rested a paw on her chest, its red eyes fixed intensely on her. It may have a cute smile, but that smile never changed. Almost as if it was wearing a mask to hide its true intentions. "The burden of being a hero, of course."
"I..."
This might turn out to be the worst decision she ever made. Her instinct screamed at her to refuse the cute but really creepy mascot if you look at it long enough, but she wouldn't allow herself to be a coward again and let this once in a lifetime chance go.
"... accept your offer."
===
A long forgotten part of Madoka's past came back to haunt her as she headed for the usual spot where Hitomi and Sayaka would be waiting for her. Kikuchi Manami, even during elementary school, was a bully. There was one time where she stumbled upon Manami bullying two girls in the toilet. The girls looked at her, their eyes begging for her to save them. But she was no hero of course.
Everyone said it wasn't her fault that she ran away.
They were wrong.
The two girls were found dead soon after. No one in school knew their exact cause of death, but it was without a doubt suicide due to the bullying. If she had reached out, just like she had reached out for Homura, those two girls might have been still alive. Funny thing was that Homura died anyway because of the Witches.
Madoka slapped herself. She almost broke down into tears… again. Up ahead, Sayaka and Hitomi was quarreling. Her dread grew with each increasing step. It must be because of Manami.
"Whatever happens to you later, it is none of my business anymore!" said Hitomi before she stomped off.
"What's wrong with Hitomi?" said Madoka.
"Just a small argument from a difference in opinion," said Sayaka. "Don't worry, everything's going to be alright."
Madoka viewed a message Hitomi sent her. No, everything wasn't going to be alright. Her heart pounded as her mind raced to comprehend the consequences of Hitomi's failure to convince Manami to let them off.
===
A pungent smell assaulted Madoka when she opened her locker. Rotten fruit peels were stuffed inside and some kind of disgusting goo dripped on the floor. Okay, that wasn't as bad as she thought.
"It's okay," said Sayaka before she opened her shoe locker, "You can... never mind."
Even Sayaka's locker wasn't spared from being stuffed with rotten fruit peels and that disgusting goo. Everyone in school looked at them like they were some sort of plague to be avoided. This was it. Manami has officially made them her target.
"Any idea where we can put our shoes?" said Sayaka.
A group of boys snickered, "Maybe you can put them in the trash, idiots."
"Why you!"
"Or maybe you can put them in my locker," said Hitomi, exasperated. "Manami wouldn't dare to do anything to my locker."
Sayaka hugged Hitomi with a big goofy grin. "I knew you wouldn't abandon us!"
"You two are still my friends even if the both of you are complete idiots."
"Hitomi, I'm sorry," said Madoka.
"There's no need to apologize. You did the right thing, morally at least."
"What do you mean by that? Morally or not, it was the right thing to do," said Sayaka.
And so Hitomi and Sayaka started arguing again, but not in a bad way this time though. Hitomi was of the view that she should have acted more prudently especially when it involved Manami while Sayaka was completely on her side. Who knows what Manami could have done to Homura if she didn't interfere in time?
Madoka smiled in an attempt to stay optimistic. Surely her club members would understand her decision to save Homura… although their level of understanding depended on how badly Manami messed up the club.
===
Madoka took a deep breath and opened the door to her club room.
A heavy air of anger and resentment greeted her inside. The booth display was shredded to pieces, littered upon the splinters of wood that once formed the frame. Tables were overturned, books turned to paper waste. Flowers outside were trampled. The greenhouse with all of its exotic flowers, reduced to shattered glass and bent metal.
"Why did you have to go ahead and be the hero?!" said a club member. "It wasn't even your business in the first place," said another club member.
Madoka hung her head in shame before bowing deeply, "I'm sorry, I'll fix everything." Her club mates were either confused, enraged, or both, at her actions. They had every right to be. Manami had messed the club up so badly to the point where they had to rebuild everything from scratch. Everything in one week before the school festival. And it was all her fault.
"Fix?! That isn't the problem at all! Our club is now on Manami's list, and it's all because of you. Everyone in this club is finished."
Mitsuki stepped out from the crowd and slapped Madoka, "Was sacrificing the club really worth it to save a stranger you barely knew?"
The pain stung so hard that a tear leaked from the corner of Madoka's eyes. "I only did what I thought was right. Manami would have strangled Homura to death if I didn't interfere."
"The right thing to do was nothing."
Mitsuki, for some reason, always hated her. She tried to be extra nice to Mitsuki, like baking cookies only for her, or help her out with some cleaning duties, but Mitsuki would always brush off her attempts with disgust. The disgust in Mitsuki's eyes this time gripped tightly at her throat, as if it wanted her dead. Why does Mitsuki hate her that much? She never found the courage to ask Mitsuki, even if that was what she should do instead of guessing.
"I'm on Madoka's side," said Chiaki. "Who's with me?"
All the other club members shuffled behind Mitsuki. Perhaps they didn't want to lose their standing with the vice president. Even in a supposedly casual club like the Gardening and Crafts Club, there was quite a fair bit of 'politics' going on, as Mama would put it. Chiaki didn't care about politics. She only joined the club because she liked flowers, and never went out of her way to make friends with the rest, preferring to focus on her flowers, which was why no one was with Chiaki... but that wasn't the point at all!
"Sorry about the flowers," said Madoka to Chiaki. "You put in a lot of effort into it, and I ruined everything."
Chiaki hugged Madoka, "Indirectly, yes, but I forgive you, so stop blaming yourself. The ones who stepped on my flowers though, I cannot forgive."
Madoka smiled awkwardly, "Thanks." It was an unexpected hug coming from Chiaki, but appreciated nonetheless.
Mami gathered everyone while she stood facing them. "Listen everyone, now is not the time to be pointing fingers. We still have about a week until the actual festival, so here's the plan. First, we-"
"What about Manami?" said a club member.
"Manami may be a bully, but she can be reasoned with. I'll speak to her personally."
"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay."
It was Mami speaking telepathically to her while addressing the club members. To communicate telepathically with others was one of Resonance Yellow's abilities.
"I'm sorry, it was my fault that Manami messed up our club room," replied Madoka.
"You did it to save a life. Don't blame yourself."
"Still, it's my fault. I'm sorry."
Maybe Mitsuki was right. Maybe she should have done nothing. Manami wouldn't be so stupid to actually strangle Homura to death.
"Listen, Madoka," said Mami, "Sometimes, you have to make a bad decision to save a life. Honestly, the situation isn't as dire as you think, so stop blaming yourself, alright?"
Madoka looked back at the destruction Manami caused to her club. Mami wasn't wrong. They still had a week to fix the mess, and if she stayed back overnight, the club would still make it in time.
===
Sayaka closed the practice room door quietly when she saw Hitomi and Kyousuke inside, chatting happily about music. Maybe it wasn't the right time to come over and talk to Kyousuke as usual. What if Manami saw them together and decide to hurt Kyousuke? Honestly, Hitomi deserved Kyousuke more than her. She was rich, talented in like everything and definitely not a troublemaker who kept getting into fights like Miki Sayaka.
And then there was being Resonance Blue to save the world from Witches. If she ever decides to be like her national hero dad and save the world from the Witches as Resonance Blue, she should just forget about Kyousuke. Hitomi was better for Kyousuke anyway.
The hallway grew unusually quiet. Surrounding Sayaka was a group of girls who were clearly Manami's lackey.
"I'm not afraid of you scumbags," said Sayaka. Here it comes, the classic beat-you-up bullshit because of your friend's 'bad' decision to mess with the most powerful bully in school.
"Get her!"
Sayaka landed a few heavy blows against the first wave of scumbags but eventually their numbers got so overwhelming that she was forced to crouch down in a ball while they rained down punches and kicks. Eventually, the punching and kicking stopped.
Sayaka picked herself up to see that red-haired bitch Kyoko mow down those scumbags like cutting weed from a grass field. She vaguely heard stories about Kyoko being very good at fighting and won multiple MMA championships with her skills.
"Why did you have to lie to Madoka and make her cry? Mami told us everything about the Witches already," said Sayaka. Mami defended Kyoko, saying that Kyoko was just trying to help them forget about something they can't do anything about, so that they may live life blissfully in ignorance. But Kyoko did it in such a bitchy manner that Madoka almost admitted herself to a mental hospital.
Kyoko clicked her tongue, "Good for you. Now that you know about the Witches, tell me what are you going to do about them?"
"Using the Resonance Gems of course. I know your secret, bitch. You shoved Resonance Red up your ass to win all your MMA championships."
"How about you shut your mouth and thank the gem that was 'shoved up my ass' for saving for your butt."
"Wait," Sayaka put a hand to her chin in mock thoughtfulness, "Did you actually… shove Resonance Red up your ass? I mean, if something as ridiculous as Witches exist, then I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you use the gem."
Kyoko looked at Sayaka both in disgust and confusion, "What? No, that was just an-"
"I know, I know, it's embarrassing to admit it in public. Like, I have to strip off my panties and shove something weird up my ass just to transform? Eww. But for the greater good, I have to transform, no matter how embarrassing it gets!"
"Ugh, you're being ridiculous. I am so done with you."
Sayaka texted Madoka that she couldn't make it for dinner tonight because of an urgent matter with her mum. Her bruises and cuts was just going to make Madoka feel even more guilty about her choice to save Homura. Still, if only Madoka was here to see that arrogant Kyoko squirm in discomfort. She'd definitely laugh her ass off.
===
Madoka passed through the cafe where she was supposed to have dinner with Homura and the rest in. The queue was still going strong even after 8pm. Well, it would just be her and Homura since Hitomi had an urgent meeting and Sayaka couldn't make it as well. Chiaki was always busy with something in the evening, so she never once joined them for dinner. In hindsight, Chiaki was probably busy fighting the Witches with Mami.
Sayaka was obviously lying when she said she had an urgent matter with her mum. Sayaka just didn't want her to feel bad about the injuries she suffered. Everyone in school knew that Sayaka got beaten up because her good friend Kaname Madoka had to offend the one bully everyone knew not to offend.
Madoka hated that doubt niggling inside of her. Of course she should have saved Homura. It was the right thing to do. But at the cost of getting her best friend hurt, and her club destroyed? Was it worth it? Hitomi? Why was Hitomi out in the streets? Didn't she have a urgent meeting today around this timing?
Madoka waved a hand, "Hitomi! What happened to your meeting?"
"Oh, hello Madoka," said Hitomi, her eyes vacant.
"Are you alright?"
Something seemed very, very wrong with Hitomi.
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Where are you going?"
Hitomi stared at Madoka for a few seconds before answering with a dreamy smile, "Of course! Why don't come join me?"
Madoka cautiously followed Hitomi behind as more people in a similar trance like Hitomi joined them. All of them were headed towards an abandoned warehouse near the shipyard. Inside the warehouse were people moaning about how life has unfairly treated them, and how they no longer have a place in this world anymore.
"I should call Mami-"
Hitomi slapped the phone away from Madoka and crushed it with a foot, "The ritual is starting. Hurry."
Madoka found herself dragged inside a crowd surrounding a housewife pouring bleach and other household cleaning products into a bucket.
"We will each take turns to drink from the Holy Fountain as we prepare for our journey beyond this world." Hitomi said.
"That thing is poisonous! You'll all die!" Mama once warned her never to mistake household cleaning products for condiments in the kitchen. If she did, the whole family would meet in Heaven.
Hitomi did a little twirl, "Exactly. No longer will we be limited by our physical bodies. Finally, we shall be free and happy in the Promised Land."
A roaring applause followed soon after. Madoka grabbed the bucket and hurled it out of the window. Witches… It must be the Witches!
The crowd including Hitomi turned into an angry horde of zombies chasing after Madoka. She dashed into a nearby storeroom and locked the door.
"What should I… what should I do?!"
She should have called Mami earlier while following Hitomi into a warehouse, but it was too late for anything now.
A circle pulled her into yet another Witch Barrier.
===
Sayaka entered her apartment to see her mother watching some cringy, stale drama on TV, "Hey mum."
Sayaka's mother eyed the cuts and bruises on Sayaka's face, "Did you get into a fight again?"
"Yeah… sort of."
"Another fight? When you will learn to stop butting into other people's problem like your father?!"
"Alright mum, got it. I won't do it again," drawled Sayaka before retreating into her room. She didn't want to get into an argument with her mother again. Mum always hated Dad for deciding to be the hero during Hurricane Owari, and nothing she says would ever change that.
Sayaka plopped herself into bed with a Kamen Rider Ichigo figurine in one hand. Becoming Resonance Blue was something like being a Kamen Rider, using the technology of the enemy to fight against the enemy itself. Mami wasn't a cyborg like Kamen Rider Ichigo, but she might as well be since she cannot age nor have kids anymore.
If it was Dad, he would have accepted it without hesitation. In fact, if he had Resonance Blue, the hurricane would not have killed him.
"Dad, what should I do? I'm sure you wouldn't object to me being a hero when you decided to be one yourself."
Sayaka heard a loud thud on her window. It was Chiaki and Resonance Blue floating beside her outside. Did Chiaki just climbed up fifteen floors outside of her apartment building? That was impressive even for an alien disguised as a human.
"You could've taken the stairs."
"Ma-Madoka is in danger! Mami is on her way, but I fear she may not make it in time. Transform now!"
"What?! How do I do that?!"
"Just grab the gem and think about transforming."
Sayaka did as Chiaki told and blue armor covered her body. She thought about de-transforming and the armor faded into a blue shimmer. No belt, no transformation phrase to say, nothing. All she had to do was think about it. Her body had absorbed the gem and she was now tentatively the owner of Resonance Blue. The bruises and cuts on her arms, and face were also healed.
"Woah, nanotech?" said Sayaka. Why was Chiaki looking at her weirdly? Did she just ask a stupid question?
"No, that's closer to Resonance Red. X-DMAH, or dark matter nano armor in short. Very impressive durability. Quick, we don't have much time!"
Sayaka transformed again with a thought and a blue portal appeared, "Right." Go through the portal, pull Madoka out to safety, and ask questions later.
===
Unlike the first two, this Witch Barrier had no ground to stand on. All Madoka could do was keep sinking down as merry-go-rounds and weird dolls holding onto TVs with static screens surrounded her in a blue snowy background. Witches were really scary the first time, or even the second time, but the third time? Not so much. Not when she actually had power to defeat the Witches.
First, the Witches came after Homura. Next, Hitomi. What's next? Mama, Papa or even Tatsuya? There was really no reason to think about it any further.
Madoka grabbed the pink gem. Sometimes to save a life, one has to make a bad decision.
===
Madoka expected to transform and unleash her power against the Witch. Not being teleported back into the abandoned warehouse by a blue portal that swallowed her right after touching the pink gem.
The armor of a blue armored figure faded into a blue shimmer, revealing itself as Sayaka.
"Glad we made it in time," said Sayaka.
"How did you guys know I was here?"
Chiaki put away her smartphone, "Resonance Pink told Mami, then Mami told me, and finally I told Sayaka about it."
"If you want to de-transform, it's easy as just thinking about it," said Sayaka.
"Wait, what?"
Covering Madoka's body was pink armor, with the same kind of sleek design she saw in Kyoko, Mami, and Sayaka's armor. So she did transform after all, but was teleported away before she could fight the Witch. She thought about de-transforming like what Sayaka said, and the armor burst into rays of pink light that disappeared inside her body.
A yellow flash reverted Mami's magical girl costume back into her normal school uniform. "While the both of you may be the new owners of those gems, you have a choice of returning it to us since you haven't transformed into a magical girl."
"By just thinking about it?" said Sayaka.
"Yes."
"You may also experience excruciating pain during the process, but don't worry, you'll live," added Chiaki.
"I've… decided to fight the Witches. I don't know if it's right, but I know it's something I won't regret doing," said Madoka. Enough was enough. She would not allow the Witches to hurt the ones she cared about anymore.
"What about you, Sayaka?" said Mami.
Sayaka stared at her partially transformed arm for a long while before answering, "You know what, sign me up for this superhero thing. If anyone has to be the hero, it might as well be me."
Mami shook her head with a smile, "Let me just drill this into the both of you before we officially begin. No one is to play the hero alone, you hear me? We operate as a team, and return alive as a team."
Sayaka saluted Mami, "Yes, madam. I hear you loud and clear."
Training officially starts this weekend.
===
Last edited:
Chapter 4
- Location
- Singapore
Chapter 4
Resonance Pink raised a barrier against rampaging telescopes and a sudden burst of white light. Her role in this Witch fight was to buy time for Sayaka to open a portal and for Mami to prepare her finishing shot.
"Tiro Finale," said Mami before firing shots into the portal. By combining Resonance Blue's ability to open a one way portal to any location, and Resonance Yellow's ability to determine the exact position of the Witch, every shot will score a direct hit against the Witch no matter where it was hiding.
The Witch Barrier fell apart, and they all returned back to where they were before. A quiet area within Mitakihara Park.
Blue armor faded in a blue shimmer. "Fighting Witches isn't as… exciting as I thought it'd be," said Sayaka. "I just open portals for you to fire at the Witch, and that's it."
"You can thank Madoka for that," said Mami with a smile. "Anyway, good job everyone!"
Sayaka nudged Madoka with a grin, "Thanks."
Resonance Pink's biggest strength was being able to defend her teammates with a barrier while enhancing their abilities as well. Thanks to Pink, Sayaka was able to open portals and Mami could determine the exact position of the Witch.
A lonely bench reminded Madoka of the time when she was at the park with Homura before a Witch attacked them. Those Witches used to be scary. An insurmountable nightmare. Things were different now with Resonance Pink, Blue and Yellow. Eventually, she'll defeat every single one of those Witches so that no one else would ever have to experience losing someone they care about like how she lost Homura to the Witches.
"How about treating me to ice cream at Saizeriya someday?" said Madoka.
"I could make ice cream for everyone," said Mami. "Your friend Hitomi can come as well if she's free. The more the merrier."
Sayaka pumped a fist into the air, "Awesome. Remember to make an extra large one for Madoka."
Madoka's face went red with embarrassment, "I'm actually on a diet."
"Liar," said Sayaka. "I still remember the Supreme Chocolate Delight Upsized you ordered at Saizeriya two weeks ago. Don't you dare deny it."
"That was two weeks ago. I'm on a diet starting from today," pouted Madoka.
Mami chuckled, "It's alright to let go once in a while. You deserved it."
Madoka always hated being a huge burden in any team based activities. This time however, was the first time she felt like she actually contributed something. She was no longer a burden, and that made her heart throb proudly with happiness. If they work together, there was nothing they can't overcome.
===
Thunder and rain marked the start of a disappointing weekend morning. Because of the weather, both Madoka's and Sayaka's training with Mami had to be postponed to a later timing in the afternoon.
Junko grabbed a slice of toast to catch a falling tomato slice while keeping her eyes on her smartphone. She dropped the tomato slice back into Tatsuya's plate with a smile, "Be careful next time, okay?" Tatsuya raised his fork and cheered in response.
Madoka never quite figured out what was her Mama's secret to her impossible feat. Either Mama was blessed with good genes, or she was actually a Resonance in secret? Chiaki said there were two more out there she knew about. Purple and Green. Purple is a Resonance Gem capable of unleashing great amount of power, limited only by the soul wielding it, and Green has control over Time. Because Resonance Green is difficult to use on its own, it's likely to be with whoever has Resonance Purple, which definitely wasn't Mama.
"That's interesting," said Junko, "Masked vigilante protecting people from harm."
According to a news article on Mama's smartphone, this masked vigilante had a rather skimpy magical girl-like outfit with mini pants, sports bra and metal gloves. The mask though, was a cheap Spiderman mask anyone could get at DonQ for about 1000 yen, which clashed with the overall sporty feel. Was this masked vigilante a real magical girl, or cosplaying as one?
"Mama, if I was also a vigilante, would you agree with what I'm doing?" said Madoka. The confused silence from her parents made her nervous. Did they somehow already know she was a Resonance? Tatsuya excitedly pointing at Mama's smartphone screen while repeating the words 'masked vigilante' broke the silence.
"It's admirable to be the hero, but as a mother, I wouldn't want you to be in any danger so I'd probably be against it," said Junko before praising Tatsuya for correctly identifying the masked vigilante.
Tomohisa took out a pie from the oven, "As for me, I'd respect Madoka's decision to be a hero. I don't see anything wrong in that."
"Even if it means knowing that she'd die at any moment?"
"If Madoka died fighting for something she believed in like Sayaka's father during Hurricane Owari, I have no regrets at all."
"Say Madoka, are you secretly the mysterious masked vigilante on the papers?" said Junko.
Madoka heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe she was overthinking things. There was no way they could have known about the Witches. It was rather surprising though to know that it would be Mama who would be so against her being a hero while Papa was on her side.
"Of course not," said Madoka. Fighting crime was something she could suggest to Mami and Chiaki when they get better at fighting the Witches though.
Tatsuya hurled a fork at Madoka as he screamed a finisher move from Kamen Rider Galaxy. Madoka grabbed the fork before it almost hit her face. Was it sheer luck or did Resonance Pink do something to-
Cold lettuce doused in mayonnaise struck Madoka's cheeks. Naughty Tatsuya. He always liked playing with his food instead of properly eating them.
Junko winked at Madoka, "You still have a long way to go, mysterious masked vigilante."
Madoka chuckled, "If only I was actually one." She did have a long way to go. Just not as a mysterious masked vigilante.
===
Madoka never liked the smell of grass after the rain. Mami had chosen a field next to Mitakihara River for their training. A few middle-aged men sat by the river with their fishing gear. This particular area was the only fishing spot in Mitakihara City, but apparently it wasn't a very popular spot.
Sayaka took a deep breath, "Nothing beats the smell of fresh air after the rain! So what's next?"
Their warm up before the actual training was a 5km non-stop sprint around the city. The point of this warm up according to Mami was to acclimatize them to their enhanced stamina thanks to the Resonance Gems. It felt weird, but amazing to be able to run as hard as she could, hold a nice conversation with everyone, and not get breathless and tired. The masked vigilante in conclusion, was highly unlikely to be a Resonance, but the origins of her unnatural strength merited further investigation.
Mami took out two pistols from a bag, "Reflex training. You two will learn how to dodge bullets."
Sayaka gleefully picked up a pistol as if she was back in third grade when her family first took her the arcades, "I thought they were illegal here. How did you get them?"
"I made them with my magic, so you two don't have to worry about recoil or pain from getting shot at, and it also allows me to track the bullets."
"Just like an arcade game?"
"But better."
"Will we get into trouble? I mean, gun laws are really strict here," said Madoka.
"Don't worry, normal people can't see the bullets. Although I must admit that it looks silly to be pretend-playing with guns at our age," said Mami.
Kyoko bit off a Pocky stick as red diamond chains surrounded them, "Of all people Mami, you had to choose two sheltered idiots who has never been in a single serious fight before."
It was strange how no one noticed the chains. Mami said telepathically that the chains had an effect of "convincing" people outside that they live in a reality where those chains and whatever that's happening within it are normal.
"The Resonance Gems chose them, and now it's my job to train them to use it properly," said Mami.
"I could train them way better than you," grinned Kyoko with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Mami frowned, "If you're here to create trouble, please leave."
"Come on, I'm offering your pupils a chance to spar with a veteran. If they accidentally get themselves killed, well, good riddance."
"Sakura Kyoko-"
"I'll fight you," said Madoka. Mami said Kyoko lied to her about the Witches because Kyoko didn't want her to worry about something she couldn't do anything about. Kyoko may look like, in Sayaka's words, a bitch, but Kyoko was really trying to stop them from fighting the Witches for their safety. This fight was her chance to show Kyoko she was no longer the powerless girl at the hospital crying over Homura's death. With Resonance Pink, she could now hold her own in a serious fight. There was no need for Kyoko to worry about her anymore.
"No Madoka, let me fight that bitch and prove her wrong," said Sayaka.
Kyoko shot Sayaka a dirty look, "I don't want to fight a retard who thinks transforming mean shoving the gem up her ass."
"You're the retard who can't tell that I was obviously joking," retorted Sayaka.
Madoka resisted the urge to burst into laughter. Sometimes, Sayaka would say the most ridiculous things just to tease Hitomi. Her face went red with embarrassment when Mami looked at her strangely, "I'm sorry."
"Are you sure about this, Madoka?" said Mami.
Madoka took a deep breath, "Yeah. I can do this."
"Or we could just ask that bitch to piss off," said Sayaka. "You can't just go from a few Witch battles to fighting her one on one. There's a reason why training has to be progressive."
Kyoko formed a spear with hexagon pixels and leaped towards Madoka, "Just shut up and fight already."
Rays of pink light transformed Madoka into Resonance Pink. She fired a barrage of magical arrows from her bow and a blue portal teleported her some distance away from Kyoko.
Hexagon pixels deflected a stray arrow away from Kyoko's face. It seemed like there was an invisible barrier wrapped around her body. Mami said telepathically that Kyoko has already transformed, but she chose to make her armor appear invisible for some reason.
"Sayaka, please, let me do this on my own," said Madoka.
Resonance Blue's armor reluctantly faded into a blue shimmer, "Be careful, alright?"
Kyoko reached into her pocket for a Pocky box and poured the crumbs into her mouth, "Have you told your family about it? That you're a superhero fighting Witches."
"No, but I-"
"Are they the most important people in your life?"
"That's why I'm fighting the Witches. I won't allow the Witches to take them away from me like Homura."
Kyoko pursed her lips in anger, "The ones behind the Witches will. Did Mami tell you about Resonance Purple?"
Resonance Purple was said to be the source of all the Witches, but there was no definite proof. What was certain though was that Purple will eventually appear to try and stop them from fighting the Witches. Preparing themselves against Purple was the main reason why they had to go through training.
Madoka nodded, "I know you're worried about us. That we might not be strong enough to deal with Resonance Purple. Trust me, things will be different if we work together."
Kyoko twirled her spear and slammed the butt down, "You leave me with no choice..." before she broke into a sprint, "...but to beat some sense into you!"
Pink arrows whizzed through the air, intent on defending its master from a red blurry target moving equally as fast.
Kyoko deftly danced about, turning the arrows against each other. She stepped out of a huge pink explosion and vanished.
Madoka frantically looked around.
"Sayaka, change of plans. Let's show Kyoko some teamwork," said Madoka telepathically.
"Got it," replied Sayaka.
Six Kyokos surrounded her in a circle. All at once, the Kyokos morphed into giant spears headed towards her.
Resonance Pink leaped up towards a blue portal.
Shockwaves rattled the red diamond chains and tore the earth apart.
Pink rays of light turned Resonance Pink back into Madoka as she emerged from the blue portal beside Kyoko.
"I couldn't have dodged that if it wasn't for Sayaka," said Madoka. "To tell you the truth, I'm still terrible at fighting, but it seems that I can make others stronger with my Resonance Gem, well… um, I just want to say that there's nothing we can't overcome if we work together!"
Sayaka swallowed her pride, "I'm sorry for calling you a bitch and for anything else I said that might have offended you. Even though fighting Witches now takes like five seconds thanks to Madoka, but if you join us, we could take down all the Witches in one go."
"Theoretically," added Madoka. It has never been attempted before, but it was possible to instantly erase every Witch on Earth at one go. The problem was gathering enough power to open the required amount of portals, and be able to deal enough damage to the Witches through each portal. Even if that doesn't work out, it'd be wonderful to have one more ally on their side.
Yellow ribbons pieced the shattered earth together, "Kyoko, listen… I… what happened to your family wasn't your fault," said Mami.
Kyoko swung her spear towards Mami, "Don't talk to me about my family. I don't want to hear it." The spear burst into hexagon pixels, "Tomoe Mami, if you still have a conscience, make those two idiots return the Resonance Gems and ask them to forget all about the Witches," and the red diamond chains vanished together with Kyoko.
"What happened to Kyoko's family?" said Madoka. Chiaki only mentioned that there was some history between Mami and Kyoko, but Mami doesn't like talking about it, so Chiaki decided not to ask further, "It-It's okay if you don't want to talk about it!"
Mami sighed, "I shouldn't have mentioned her family. I thought maybe she finally got over it, but I was wrong."
Sayaka handed Madoka the pistol Mami made with her magic, "So, let's continue with our training?"
Mami quickly rubbed her eyes, "Of course! We don't have much time left."
Sayaka tried to lightened the atmosphere by sharing some anecdotes about class 2C who were arguing about what to do for the upcoming school festival for months and it was only yesterday that they finally decided on one. She must have noticed as well, that what Mami rubbed from her eyes… was tears.
===
Airi wringed out her wet Spiderman mask as she stood inside a bus stop. Everyone said the mask looked stupid, and yes, it does look stupid, but she wasn't getting paid for being the friendly neighbourhood magical Spidergirl.
"Whatcha doing out here in Higurashi Village, girl?" said an middle-aged man in a plain white singlet. The way he looked at her gave her the creeps.
"It's none of your business."
The creepy man slid his fingers across Airi's arm, "Aww, you should relax a little," and licked his lips.
Airi flicked him aside like an annoying bug towards the bushes. What the hell was he trying to do anyway? If he was trying to rob her, then maybe he should have used a knife instead.
The area around the bus stop transformed into a gloomy forest with trees that looked like it belonged on a chalk drawing and leaf creatures with two pairs of wings and a glowing red eye fluttering about. A Witch's Barrier.
Witches were mindless evil who traps people inside their barrier and eat them. Their barrier also protects them from being seen by people on the outside. Unlike TV, the magical girl mascot cat simply gave her powers, told her she could whatever she wanted with her newfound powers, guided her on fighting one Witch before disappearing.
Airi transformed into her magical girl form with a flash and punched down the fluttering leaf creatures. The simplicity of her transformation disappointed her a little, but the real world wasn't a TV show for children to sell toys.
The trees trembled with rage. Branches lashed out at her. The leaf creatures covered every inch of her body, trying to pin her down. The branches wrapped itself around her limbs, trying to tear her apart. Her super strength rendered their efforts useless.
Airi grabbed the branches extending from her arms, uprooted trees, and hurled them against herself to wipe the creatures off her body. More branches lashed out against her. Huge mistake. This time, she smashed the uprooted trees against the other trees instead as chunks of wood struck down the leaf creatures.
Purple flames melted the chaos away, and everything else that wasn't her. She was back in the bus stop area with the man still lying unconscious on the bushes.
"Hello," said a purple armored figure. The figure had purple armor plates over a black suit. Its mask was also pure black. The person behind the armor sounded rather mature, like the school president Hashimoto Chinatsu. "You must be Miyoshi Airi."
"And you must be the source of the Witches. A magical girl mascot told me about you, and the Witches."
The true purpose of the Witches was to kill people, harvest their souls for energy to erase the Law Of The Cycle, an entity preventing wishes from being granted. Once they do so, all of the 'magical girls' who contributed their souls to sustain the existence of Witches will be rewarded with a wish of their own.
"We all have a wish we want granted. What's yours?"
Airi readied her metal gauntlet for combat, "My wish has already been granted. I wished for power to do the right thing, and now I have it as a true magical girl."
"How about another wish?"
Airi leaped towards the purple armored murderer who raised a barrier against her fists. Punching the barrier, despite her super strength, was like punching concrete without any super strength. "How about I end this for good by finishing you off."
"Foolish girl," said the murderer. "Listen, if you continue to fight the Witches, all that awaits you is death. Consider this your first and last warning."
A purple flare slammed Airi through the bench so hard that she blacked out.
===
Snacks and two bottles of soda accompanied Kumiyo, and her two friends, Norie and Saya, inside their partially decorated classroom for the night. Yesterday, their class finally agreed on a costume booth where people could dress up in costumes provided to them and take a photo, so they needed to stay back to work on the decorations at least until midnight to make it in time for the upcoming school festival.
"... I heard Kaname Madoka got off pretty lightly considering it's Manami she pissed off," said Norie.
Saya put down her scissors and paper cuttings, "That's because Shizuki Hitomi is her friend."
"You mean that Shizuki Hitomi? The really rich girl whose family owns one of the largest construction company in Japan?"
"Yeah, that Shizuki Hitomi. She always walks to school with Madoka and another blue-haired girl who likes getting into fights. What's her name again?"
Kumiyo sipped her soda, "You two are wrong. It's because of Kaname Junko that Manami let her off that easily."
"Who's Kaname Junko? Madoka's sister?" said Norie.
"No, Madoka's mother."
"What has Madoka's mother got to do with Manami?" said Saya.
Kumiyo proceeded to explain that Madoka's mother in the past has a reputation of destroying companies for profit. Manami must be afraid that if she bullies Madoka too much, Junko might devise a plan to destroy all of Manami's businesses out of revenge even if Junko makes a loss while doing so.
Norie laid on her back with a sigh, "What am I doing with my life when Manami is already a millionaire from her businesses."
"Manami may be a big asshole, but I kind of respect her for being good in running businesses. My dad on the other hand is always worrying about his own business," said Kumiyo.
Saya pushed a Cheetos snack inside Kumiyo's mouth, "Don't worry about your dad. He'll be fine. As long as we believe in hope, everything will work out somehow."
Kumiyo swallowed the snack in surprise, "Believing in hope isn't going to help us pass that Biology test on Monday."
"What's actually going to help us pass is a magic lamp from Aladdin. You know, that show where the genie appears from the lamp with three wishes," said Norie.
"What would you wish for if you actually get a wish?" said Kumiyo.
"I know, I know!" Norie raised a hand excitedly, "I would wish for a giant amusement park where people can have fun in."
"Norie, that's the lamest thing I've ever heard," said Saya.
"What would you wish for then?" pouted Norie.
Saya cleared her throat, "I of course would wish for world peace and solve world hunger. What about you, Kumiyo?"
"I'd wish for my father not to worry too much about his business."
"Aww," giggled Norie, "You're so sweet."
What Saya and Norie didn't know was that there was someone out there who could grant their wish, no matter how silly, if they were willing to invest their souls to keep the Witches alive. The Witches would then eat people to gain power to defeat the Law Of The Cycle. Once the Law Of The Cycle is defeated, their souls would be returned to them and they get a wish granted as interest payment.
"I… actually know someone who could grant wishes. If you want, I could take you to see her," said Kumiyo.
"No way," said Saya.
"I swear it's true," said Kumiyo. The purple armored lady behind the wish granting scheme had opened up two new slots for any interested females between the age of 13 to 18, but there was an interview they needed to go through first.
Tremors shook the area. The three of them dropped to a crouch with their arms over their head and neck as the decorations fell off. Japan was an earthquake-prone country, so tremors wasn't unusual.
"Look, something's off." said Saya. She pointed towards an opposite classroom. Their decorations remained still. It seems that only their area was being affected.
"Let's get out of here!" said Norie.
The ground shattered into pieces and they all fell into an abyss.
===
Faint moonlight leaked through broken windows. Kumiyo could vaguely see that she was in a school hallway. Wood creaked a little with every step she took. Only schools in rural villages would use wood as their flooring, and have actual rooms instead of transparent glass cubes as classrooms.
"Norie? Saya?" said Kumiyo. Her voice echoed through the vast darkness. No response. She remembered hugging Norie and Saya close together as they fell until something knocked her unconscious midway.
This place had the same depressing aura as a Witch Barrier, but this looked… real. Kumiyo didn't have much experience with Witches, but so far, all of the Witch Barriers she was in had a surreal feel to them. Like trees made of chocolates and dogs with six eyes and four pairs of legs. The purple armored lady made it clear that no Witches would target her family, her two best friends Norie and Saya, and herself. This was also why only a fixed amount of girls could participate in this wish granting scheme because the Witches wouldn't have enough people to harvest energy from if there were too many girls.
A flash of energy transformed Kumiyo into her magical girl form. She hated transforming because this would mean borrowing harvested energy from the Witches that was supposed to go into taking down the Law Of The Cycle, which she would have to pay back by lowering the quality of wish she could make.
"What are you doing here?" said Manami amused. Was Manami also trapped here by a freaky earthquake? She oddly looked like this wasn't her first time here.
"Where are-"
Manami grabbed Kumiyo by the neck, "A place where I turn you into my asset. Look, there's a lot going on that you don't understand."
Glowing orange eyes tore Kumiyo's consciousness away from her body. She could scream for help, beg Manami to give her body back, or to keep Saya and Norie safe, but those words would no longer reach anyone.
"But let's just say I'd like to be the one in control of this wish granting scam instead of Resonance Purple," said Manami.
Kumiyo helplessly watched her body kneel down, and her lips forming the words, "What would be my first order, Master?"
===
Resonance Pink raised a barrier against rampaging telescopes and a sudden burst of white light. Her role in this Witch fight was to buy time for Sayaka to open a portal and for Mami to prepare her finishing shot.
"Tiro Finale," said Mami before firing shots into the portal. By combining Resonance Blue's ability to open a one way portal to any location, and Resonance Yellow's ability to determine the exact position of the Witch, every shot will score a direct hit against the Witch no matter where it was hiding.
The Witch Barrier fell apart, and they all returned back to where they were before. A quiet area within Mitakihara Park.
Blue armor faded in a blue shimmer. "Fighting Witches isn't as… exciting as I thought it'd be," said Sayaka. "I just open portals for you to fire at the Witch, and that's it."
"You can thank Madoka for that," said Mami with a smile. "Anyway, good job everyone!"
Sayaka nudged Madoka with a grin, "Thanks."
Resonance Pink's biggest strength was being able to defend her teammates with a barrier while enhancing their abilities as well. Thanks to Pink, Sayaka was able to open portals and Mami could determine the exact position of the Witch.
A lonely bench reminded Madoka of the time when she was at the park with Homura before a Witch attacked them. Those Witches used to be scary. An insurmountable nightmare. Things were different now with Resonance Pink, Blue and Yellow. Eventually, she'll defeat every single one of those Witches so that no one else would ever have to experience losing someone they care about like how she lost Homura to the Witches.
"How about treating me to ice cream at Saizeriya someday?" said Madoka.
"I could make ice cream for everyone," said Mami. "Your friend Hitomi can come as well if she's free. The more the merrier."
Sayaka pumped a fist into the air, "Awesome. Remember to make an extra large one for Madoka."
Madoka's face went red with embarrassment, "I'm actually on a diet."
"Liar," said Sayaka. "I still remember the Supreme Chocolate Delight Upsized you ordered at Saizeriya two weeks ago. Don't you dare deny it."
"That was two weeks ago. I'm on a diet starting from today," pouted Madoka.
Mami chuckled, "It's alright to let go once in a while. You deserved it."
Madoka always hated being a huge burden in any team based activities. This time however, was the first time she felt like she actually contributed something. She was no longer a burden, and that made her heart throb proudly with happiness. If they work together, there was nothing they can't overcome.
===
Thunder and rain marked the start of a disappointing weekend morning. Because of the weather, both Madoka's and Sayaka's training with Mami had to be postponed to a later timing in the afternoon.
Junko grabbed a slice of toast to catch a falling tomato slice while keeping her eyes on her smartphone. She dropped the tomato slice back into Tatsuya's plate with a smile, "Be careful next time, okay?" Tatsuya raised his fork and cheered in response.
Madoka never quite figured out what was her Mama's secret to her impossible feat. Either Mama was blessed with good genes, or she was actually a Resonance in secret? Chiaki said there were two more out there she knew about. Purple and Green. Purple is a Resonance Gem capable of unleashing great amount of power, limited only by the soul wielding it, and Green has control over Time. Because Resonance Green is difficult to use on its own, it's likely to be with whoever has Resonance Purple, which definitely wasn't Mama.
"That's interesting," said Junko, "Masked vigilante protecting people from harm."
According to a news article on Mama's smartphone, this masked vigilante had a rather skimpy magical girl-like outfit with mini pants, sports bra and metal gloves. The mask though, was a cheap Spiderman mask anyone could get at DonQ for about 1000 yen, which clashed with the overall sporty feel. Was this masked vigilante a real magical girl, or cosplaying as one?
"Mama, if I was also a vigilante, would you agree with what I'm doing?" said Madoka. The confused silence from her parents made her nervous. Did they somehow already know she was a Resonance? Tatsuya excitedly pointing at Mama's smartphone screen while repeating the words 'masked vigilante' broke the silence.
"It's admirable to be the hero, but as a mother, I wouldn't want you to be in any danger so I'd probably be against it," said Junko before praising Tatsuya for correctly identifying the masked vigilante.
Tomohisa took out a pie from the oven, "As for me, I'd respect Madoka's decision to be a hero. I don't see anything wrong in that."
"Even if it means knowing that she'd die at any moment?"
"If Madoka died fighting for something she believed in like Sayaka's father during Hurricane Owari, I have no regrets at all."
"Say Madoka, are you secretly the mysterious masked vigilante on the papers?" said Junko.
Madoka heaved a sigh of relief. Maybe she was overthinking things. There was no way they could have known about the Witches. It was rather surprising though to know that it would be Mama who would be so against her being a hero while Papa was on her side.
"Of course not," said Madoka. Fighting crime was something she could suggest to Mami and Chiaki when they get better at fighting the Witches though.
Tatsuya hurled a fork at Madoka as he screamed a finisher move from Kamen Rider Galaxy. Madoka grabbed the fork before it almost hit her face. Was it sheer luck or did Resonance Pink do something to-
Cold lettuce doused in mayonnaise struck Madoka's cheeks. Naughty Tatsuya. He always liked playing with his food instead of properly eating them.
Junko winked at Madoka, "You still have a long way to go, mysterious masked vigilante."
Madoka chuckled, "If only I was actually one." She did have a long way to go. Just not as a mysterious masked vigilante.
===
Madoka never liked the smell of grass after the rain. Mami had chosen a field next to Mitakihara River for their training. A few middle-aged men sat by the river with their fishing gear. This particular area was the only fishing spot in Mitakihara City, but apparently it wasn't a very popular spot.
Sayaka took a deep breath, "Nothing beats the smell of fresh air after the rain! So what's next?"
Their warm up before the actual training was a 5km non-stop sprint around the city. The point of this warm up according to Mami was to acclimatize them to their enhanced stamina thanks to the Resonance Gems. It felt weird, but amazing to be able to run as hard as she could, hold a nice conversation with everyone, and not get breathless and tired. The masked vigilante in conclusion, was highly unlikely to be a Resonance, but the origins of her unnatural strength merited further investigation.
Mami took out two pistols from a bag, "Reflex training. You two will learn how to dodge bullets."
Sayaka gleefully picked up a pistol as if she was back in third grade when her family first took her the arcades, "I thought they were illegal here. How did you get them?"
"I made them with my magic, so you two don't have to worry about recoil or pain from getting shot at, and it also allows me to track the bullets."
"Just like an arcade game?"
"But better."
"Will we get into trouble? I mean, gun laws are really strict here," said Madoka.
"Don't worry, normal people can't see the bullets. Although I must admit that it looks silly to be pretend-playing with guns at our age," said Mami.
Kyoko bit off a Pocky stick as red diamond chains surrounded them, "Of all people Mami, you had to choose two sheltered idiots who has never been in a single serious fight before."
It was strange how no one noticed the chains. Mami said telepathically that the chains had an effect of "convincing" people outside that they live in a reality where those chains and whatever that's happening within it are normal.
"The Resonance Gems chose them, and now it's my job to train them to use it properly," said Mami.
"I could train them way better than you," grinned Kyoko with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Mami frowned, "If you're here to create trouble, please leave."
"Come on, I'm offering your pupils a chance to spar with a veteran. If they accidentally get themselves killed, well, good riddance."
"Sakura Kyoko-"
"I'll fight you," said Madoka. Mami said Kyoko lied to her about the Witches because Kyoko didn't want her to worry about something she couldn't do anything about. Kyoko may look like, in Sayaka's words, a bitch, but Kyoko was really trying to stop them from fighting the Witches for their safety. This fight was her chance to show Kyoko she was no longer the powerless girl at the hospital crying over Homura's death. With Resonance Pink, she could now hold her own in a serious fight. There was no need for Kyoko to worry about her anymore.
"No Madoka, let me fight that bitch and prove her wrong," said Sayaka.
Kyoko shot Sayaka a dirty look, "I don't want to fight a retard who thinks transforming mean shoving the gem up her ass."
"You're the retard who can't tell that I was obviously joking," retorted Sayaka.
Madoka resisted the urge to burst into laughter. Sometimes, Sayaka would say the most ridiculous things just to tease Hitomi. Her face went red with embarrassment when Mami looked at her strangely, "I'm sorry."
"Are you sure about this, Madoka?" said Mami.
Madoka took a deep breath, "Yeah. I can do this."
"Or we could just ask that bitch to piss off," said Sayaka. "You can't just go from a few Witch battles to fighting her one on one. There's a reason why training has to be progressive."
Kyoko formed a spear with hexagon pixels and leaped towards Madoka, "Just shut up and fight already."
Rays of pink light transformed Madoka into Resonance Pink. She fired a barrage of magical arrows from her bow and a blue portal teleported her some distance away from Kyoko.
Hexagon pixels deflected a stray arrow away from Kyoko's face. It seemed like there was an invisible barrier wrapped around her body. Mami said telepathically that Kyoko has already transformed, but she chose to make her armor appear invisible for some reason.
"Sayaka, please, let me do this on my own," said Madoka.
Resonance Blue's armor reluctantly faded into a blue shimmer, "Be careful, alright?"
Kyoko reached into her pocket for a Pocky box and poured the crumbs into her mouth, "Have you told your family about it? That you're a superhero fighting Witches."
"No, but I-"
"Are they the most important people in your life?"
"That's why I'm fighting the Witches. I won't allow the Witches to take them away from me like Homura."
Kyoko pursed her lips in anger, "The ones behind the Witches will. Did Mami tell you about Resonance Purple?"
Resonance Purple was said to be the source of all the Witches, but there was no definite proof. What was certain though was that Purple will eventually appear to try and stop them from fighting the Witches. Preparing themselves against Purple was the main reason why they had to go through training.
Madoka nodded, "I know you're worried about us. That we might not be strong enough to deal with Resonance Purple. Trust me, things will be different if we work together."
Kyoko twirled her spear and slammed the butt down, "You leave me with no choice..." before she broke into a sprint, "...but to beat some sense into you!"
Pink arrows whizzed through the air, intent on defending its master from a red blurry target moving equally as fast.
Kyoko deftly danced about, turning the arrows against each other. She stepped out of a huge pink explosion and vanished.
Madoka frantically looked around.
"Sayaka, change of plans. Let's show Kyoko some teamwork," said Madoka telepathically.
"Got it," replied Sayaka.
Six Kyokos surrounded her in a circle. All at once, the Kyokos morphed into giant spears headed towards her.
Resonance Pink leaped up towards a blue portal.
Shockwaves rattled the red diamond chains and tore the earth apart.
Pink rays of light turned Resonance Pink back into Madoka as she emerged from the blue portal beside Kyoko.
"I couldn't have dodged that if it wasn't for Sayaka," said Madoka. "To tell you the truth, I'm still terrible at fighting, but it seems that I can make others stronger with my Resonance Gem, well… um, I just want to say that there's nothing we can't overcome if we work together!"
Sayaka swallowed her pride, "I'm sorry for calling you a bitch and for anything else I said that might have offended you. Even though fighting Witches now takes like five seconds thanks to Madoka, but if you join us, we could take down all the Witches in one go."
"Theoretically," added Madoka. It has never been attempted before, but it was possible to instantly erase every Witch on Earth at one go. The problem was gathering enough power to open the required amount of portals, and be able to deal enough damage to the Witches through each portal. Even if that doesn't work out, it'd be wonderful to have one more ally on their side.
Yellow ribbons pieced the shattered earth together, "Kyoko, listen… I… what happened to your family wasn't your fault," said Mami.
Kyoko swung her spear towards Mami, "Don't talk to me about my family. I don't want to hear it." The spear burst into hexagon pixels, "Tomoe Mami, if you still have a conscience, make those two idiots return the Resonance Gems and ask them to forget all about the Witches," and the red diamond chains vanished together with Kyoko.
"What happened to Kyoko's family?" said Madoka. Chiaki only mentioned that there was some history between Mami and Kyoko, but Mami doesn't like talking about it, so Chiaki decided not to ask further, "It-It's okay if you don't want to talk about it!"
Mami sighed, "I shouldn't have mentioned her family. I thought maybe she finally got over it, but I was wrong."
Sayaka handed Madoka the pistol Mami made with her magic, "So, let's continue with our training?"
Mami quickly rubbed her eyes, "Of course! We don't have much time left."
Sayaka tried to lightened the atmosphere by sharing some anecdotes about class 2C who were arguing about what to do for the upcoming school festival for months and it was only yesterday that they finally decided on one. She must have noticed as well, that what Mami rubbed from her eyes… was tears.
===
Airi wringed out her wet Spiderman mask as she stood inside a bus stop. Everyone said the mask looked stupid, and yes, it does look stupid, but she wasn't getting paid for being the friendly neighbourhood magical Spidergirl.
"Whatcha doing out here in Higurashi Village, girl?" said an middle-aged man in a plain white singlet. The way he looked at her gave her the creeps.
"It's none of your business."
The creepy man slid his fingers across Airi's arm, "Aww, you should relax a little," and licked his lips.
Airi flicked him aside like an annoying bug towards the bushes. What the hell was he trying to do anyway? If he was trying to rob her, then maybe he should have used a knife instead.
The area around the bus stop transformed into a gloomy forest with trees that looked like it belonged on a chalk drawing and leaf creatures with two pairs of wings and a glowing red eye fluttering about. A Witch's Barrier.
Witches were mindless evil who traps people inside their barrier and eat them. Their barrier also protects them from being seen by people on the outside. Unlike TV, the magical girl mascot cat simply gave her powers, told her she could whatever she wanted with her newfound powers, guided her on fighting one Witch before disappearing.
Airi transformed into her magical girl form with a flash and punched down the fluttering leaf creatures. The simplicity of her transformation disappointed her a little, but the real world wasn't a TV show for children to sell toys.
The trees trembled with rage. Branches lashed out at her. The leaf creatures covered every inch of her body, trying to pin her down. The branches wrapped itself around her limbs, trying to tear her apart. Her super strength rendered their efforts useless.
Airi grabbed the branches extending from her arms, uprooted trees, and hurled them against herself to wipe the creatures off her body. More branches lashed out against her. Huge mistake. This time, she smashed the uprooted trees against the other trees instead as chunks of wood struck down the leaf creatures.
Purple flames melted the chaos away, and everything else that wasn't her. She was back in the bus stop area with the man still lying unconscious on the bushes.
"Hello," said a purple armored figure. The figure had purple armor plates over a black suit. Its mask was also pure black. The person behind the armor sounded rather mature, like the school president Hashimoto Chinatsu. "You must be Miyoshi Airi."
"And you must be the source of the Witches. A magical girl mascot told me about you, and the Witches."
The true purpose of the Witches was to kill people, harvest their souls for energy to erase the Law Of The Cycle, an entity preventing wishes from being granted. Once they do so, all of the 'magical girls' who contributed their souls to sustain the existence of Witches will be rewarded with a wish of their own.
"We all have a wish we want granted. What's yours?"
Airi readied her metal gauntlet for combat, "My wish has already been granted. I wished for power to do the right thing, and now I have it as a true magical girl."
"How about another wish?"
Airi leaped towards the purple armored murderer who raised a barrier against her fists. Punching the barrier, despite her super strength, was like punching concrete without any super strength. "How about I end this for good by finishing you off."
"Foolish girl," said the murderer. "Listen, if you continue to fight the Witches, all that awaits you is death. Consider this your first and last warning."
A purple flare slammed Airi through the bench so hard that she blacked out.
===
Snacks and two bottles of soda accompanied Kumiyo, and her two friends, Norie and Saya, inside their partially decorated classroom for the night. Yesterday, their class finally agreed on a costume booth where people could dress up in costumes provided to them and take a photo, so they needed to stay back to work on the decorations at least until midnight to make it in time for the upcoming school festival.
"... I heard Kaname Madoka got off pretty lightly considering it's Manami she pissed off," said Norie.
Saya put down her scissors and paper cuttings, "That's because Shizuki Hitomi is her friend."
"You mean that Shizuki Hitomi? The really rich girl whose family owns one of the largest construction company in Japan?"
"Yeah, that Shizuki Hitomi. She always walks to school with Madoka and another blue-haired girl who likes getting into fights. What's her name again?"
Kumiyo sipped her soda, "You two are wrong. It's because of Kaname Junko that Manami let her off that easily."
"Who's Kaname Junko? Madoka's sister?" said Norie.
"No, Madoka's mother."
"What has Madoka's mother got to do with Manami?" said Saya.
Kumiyo proceeded to explain that Madoka's mother in the past has a reputation of destroying companies for profit. Manami must be afraid that if she bullies Madoka too much, Junko might devise a plan to destroy all of Manami's businesses out of revenge even if Junko makes a loss while doing so.
Norie laid on her back with a sigh, "What am I doing with my life when Manami is already a millionaire from her businesses."
"Manami may be a big asshole, but I kind of respect her for being good in running businesses. My dad on the other hand is always worrying about his own business," said Kumiyo.
Saya pushed a Cheetos snack inside Kumiyo's mouth, "Don't worry about your dad. He'll be fine. As long as we believe in hope, everything will work out somehow."
Kumiyo swallowed the snack in surprise, "Believing in hope isn't going to help us pass that Biology test on Monday."
"What's actually going to help us pass is a magic lamp from Aladdin. You know, that show where the genie appears from the lamp with three wishes," said Norie.
"What would you wish for if you actually get a wish?" said Kumiyo.
"I know, I know!" Norie raised a hand excitedly, "I would wish for a giant amusement park where people can have fun in."
"Norie, that's the lamest thing I've ever heard," said Saya.
"What would you wish for then?" pouted Norie.
Saya cleared her throat, "I of course would wish for world peace and solve world hunger. What about you, Kumiyo?"
"I'd wish for my father not to worry too much about his business."
"Aww," giggled Norie, "You're so sweet."
What Saya and Norie didn't know was that there was someone out there who could grant their wish, no matter how silly, if they were willing to invest their souls to keep the Witches alive. The Witches would then eat people to gain power to defeat the Law Of The Cycle. Once the Law Of The Cycle is defeated, their souls would be returned to them and they get a wish granted as interest payment.
"I… actually know someone who could grant wishes. If you want, I could take you to see her," said Kumiyo.
"No way," said Saya.
"I swear it's true," said Kumiyo. The purple armored lady behind the wish granting scheme had opened up two new slots for any interested females between the age of 13 to 18, but there was an interview they needed to go through first.
Tremors shook the area. The three of them dropped to a crouch with their arms over their head and neck as the decorations fell off. Japan was an earthquake-prone country, so tremors wasn't unusual.
"Look, something's off." said Saya. She pointed towards an opposite classroom. Their decorations remained still. It seems that only their area was being affected.
"Let's get out of here!" said Norie.
The ground shattered into pieces and they all fell into an abyss.
===
Faint moonlight leaked through broken windows. Kumiyo could vaguely see that she was in a school hallway. Wood creaked a little with every step she took. Only schools in rural villages would use wood as their flooring, and have actual rooms instead of transparent glass cubes as classrooms.
"Norie? Saya?" said Kumiyo. Her voice echoed through the vast darkness. No response. She remembered hugging Norie and Saya close together as they fell until something knocked her unconscious midway.
This place had the same depressing aura as a Witch Barrier, but this looked… real. Kumiyo didn't have much experience with Witches, but so far, all of the Witch Barriers she was in had a surreal feel to them. Like trees made of chocolates and dogs with six eyes and four pairs of legs. The purple armored lady made it clear that no Witches would target her family, her two best friends Norie and Saya, and herself. This was also why only a fixed amount of girls could participate in this wish granting scheme because the Witches wouldn't have enough people to harvest energy from if there were too many girls.
A flash of energy transformed Kumiyo into her magical girl form. She hated transforming because this would mean borrowing harvested energy from the Witches that was supposed to go into taking down the Law Of The Cycle, which she would have to pay back by lowering the quality of wish she could make.
"What are you doing here?" said Manami amused. Was Manami also trapped here by a freaky earthquake? She oddly looked like this wasn't her first time here.
"Where are-"
Manami grabbed Kumiyo by the neck, "A place where I turn you into my asset. Look, there's a lot going on that you don't understand."
Glowing orange eyes tore Kumiyo's consciousness away from her body. She could scream for help, beg Manami to give her body back, or to keep Saya and Norie safe, but those words would no longer reach anyone.
"But let's just say I'd like to be the one in control of this wish granting scam instead of Resonance Purple," said Manami.
Kumiyo helplessly watched her body kneel down, and her lips forming the words, "What would be my first order, Master?"
===