Well, all this talk of Mami dying and the circumstances of her contracting are a mite depressing.
Sudden tone change anyone?
Quoth the Shenron;
"Your wish has been granted!"
By A Hair's Breadth, Part 2
(Mo' Mikis' Mo' Problems)
Barriers were interesting things.
Some seemed almost like you'd stepped into a kid's cartoon. Others, more like horrific fever dreams, the kind that only madmen could ever conceive of. And some, like this one, managed to retain that eldritch, inherently wrong quality, while simultaneously seeming utterly serene and peaceful.
A small part of the girl wanted to simply lie down in the nearby grass, stare up into the bizarre aquamarine sky, and let time slowly pass her by. She could sit back and puzzle out the winding sky-roads, following their paths backwards to portals they emerged from and idly observing how they wound about each other.
...she ruthlessly stamped that part of herself out, just as she had so very many others. Whether idyllic paradises or demented Lovecraftian nightmares, barriers were all made of the same loathsome ingredients: the pain and suffering endured by a magical girl made material, given shape by the warped monsters they were all fated to become. Relaxing in such a place was not an option.
Her eyes swept across the familiar fields of papery grass, noting the numerous patches where something had clearly thinned the foliage, as well as the swarm of familiars that looked to be tending to it, carefully pruning back and evening out the greenery's ragged stems. Evidently, this particular witch had fought a truly titanic battle before she'd managed to find it.
All the better that it had evidently survived. Now, after all, she could kill it herself.
Homura growled under her breath, her hatred for this particular witch visibly blazing in her amethyst eyes. An outside observer may have noted that her fury-filled expression stood in notable contrast to the tidy, tightly bound pair of braids hanging down over her back.
The book witch would pay for what it had done to her hair.
...and for what it had done Mami.
...and to that other girl that was also with Mami.
…
Homura sighed. And to Miki as well, she supposed.
With her resolve set, Homura strode forth to meet the witch that had wronged her so. With malice and disdain burning in her heart, she intended nothing less than to put this "tortured soul" to the torch.
Her journey through the barrier went entirely unimpeded, largely due to Homura choosing to take the trip in grayscale. She paused only long to leave a few rather volatile presents for any of the frozen familiars unfortunate enough to be in or around her path, and soon stood before the portal to the barrier's innermost layer, where she slowly removed a rocket launcher from her shield.
Homura smiled thinly. Done in time-stop, the witch would likely be dead before it even realized it was being attacked. This would be short... but she planned on savoring every moment.
Her confidence in the protection of her time-stop absolute, Homura strode inside, memories of innumerable loops and uncountable battles making her all but certain the witch could not possibly surprise her again.
...until she saw what currently resided within the witch's inner sanctum, the mere sight of which shocked and horrified her right out of her time-stop.
"Fancy seeing you again, transfer student. What's with the braids?"
The mind-numbing greeting echoed out as if from a thousand different directions, and for the first time in many months, Homura felt fear.
---Just a bit earlier---
"So, talk me through this again. What exactly is the plan here? And why exactly do you think that it'll work this time?"
The vile force of purest darkness groaned to itself, sparing two of its ribbons to the task of massaging its non-existent temples in exasperation.
<This is the fifth time! What exactly about what I've been saying to you was unclear?>
"Look, I was having a hard time paying attention, alright? That flying hand thing-"
<It's called a Faas.>
"Yeah, whatever, that 'Faas' kept making rude gestures at me! You try listening to someone when there's a disembodied hand constantly giving you the finger in the sides of your vision!"
<I saw it too, you realize, and I did tell you not to walk through its flowerbed. They get touchy about that.>
"Fine, I get it, don't step on the flowers; I'll be sure to keep that in mind from now on. Now you will you please just tell me what we're doing?"
With a deep and long-suffering telepathic sigh, the witch turned to her more attentive subordinate.
<It's clearly not getting through coming from me, so Tira, would you mind?>
"Not at all." the girl replied with a nod, leaving Ashtaroth to sit back and hang her faux-head in frustration.
"To put things simply, Ashtaroth-san believes she has a new idea of how to unsubsume you." Tira began. "She has found a spot that is extremely rich in magic, and parked the barrier on top of it. Once she has absorbed enough of the ambient despair-"
"Wait, what?" the bluenette interrupted. "I thought you just said it was magic?"
"Ashtaroth-san is a witch. Grief and despair are essentially synonymous with magic when it comes to her." Tira explained. "As I was saying, once she has as much power as she is able to possibly contain, she is going to put you back inside of her book, then extract you again with as much 'force' as she is able to manage."
"No, see, that part I heard." Sayaka noted. "I just don't get how that's any different from what she did before. We already did that on the same night she ate me to begin with."
<For the last time, subsumption is NOT the same thing as eating you!>
Tira cleared her throat. "While I was not present at the time, I do not believe it is exactly the same. The idea, so far as I understand it, is that if Ashtaroth-san is overflowing with grief at the same time that she does this, the excess may be forced out of her upon attempting to extract you, potentially 'expelling' your soul in the process. Does that make sense?"
"So, it's like she's going to drink soda until she pukes, in the hope that she'll puke me up with it?"
"...a crude, but not entirely inaccurate analogy." Tira conceded.
"Huh... well, worth a shot I guess." Sayaka shrugged. "So, when are we doing this?"
A giant ribbon-arm wrapped around the inattentive magi's midriff, gripping her securely as it lifted her high into the air.
<Right now.> the witch decreed, before shoving the source of her headache back into Novella.
For a few moments there was silence as Ashtaroth swelled in size again, shooting upwards like the tree she appeared to be upon reabsorbing Sayaka. Tira, having not witnessed this before, simply squinted up at the display.
"Well, that was an unusual sight. Do you always do that when-"
<When I subsume something?> Ashtaroth asked. <If it's powerful enough, yes. You might want to give me some space by the way, I'm not entirely sure what will happen when I do this.>
"Understood." Tira replied, politely hurrying off into the distance and setting to work with her penbrush.
<Wait, what are you- are you making a bunker?> Ashtaroth asked, watching as Tira literally began painting the structure into existence.
"You said that you are uncertain of what might happen, so making a shelter only seems prudent." Tira replied, completing her finishing touches. "May I ask where you are drawing the power for this experiment, by the way?"
<I parked the barrier in a college exam hall.>
"...ah, I see." the top-hatted girl nodded, ducking into the safety of her impromptu fortress. "I am ready when you are."
<Alright.> Ashtaroth nodded. <Let's do this.>
---Now---
It was like a scene from her most horrific nightmares.
"Hello? Earth to transfer student?"
...no, it was worse. Worse than anything she could ever have possibly imagined. What Homura was currently surrounded by would haunt her for the rest of her life and beyond.
Sayaka on her own was trouble enough for any timeline. This... this was...
"No..." the time-traveler whispered, frantically denying the unspeakably terrible sight before her. "This can't be real. It has to be an illusion."
A thousand identical Sayakas grinned back at her.
"Wanna bet on that?" the seemingly unending horde of blue replied, their faces one-and-all plastered with an identical smirk.
A deafening click echoed through the white, Miki-infested void.
"Nope!" the normally stoic girl declared, all traces of composure having been replaced by complete and total panic. "I'm out! Have fun!"
With a full rotation of her shield, the world once more began to twist, warping and twisting in on itself before unfurling into a new reality.
-------------------------
<...well, she sent us back to Sengeitsu again> Ashtaroth grumbled a minute or so later.
"So, another boring day's travel back to Mitakihara then?" the Miki chorus groaned in perfect, deafening harmony.
<Could we put some, if not all but one of them away, perhaps?> Tira inquired over telepathy, still sequestered away in her bunker. <I am uncertain just how sane we shall still be upon arrival if we are forced to spend the rest of day with this many bored Sayakas, nor of what state the barrier may be in by that point->
Once more, the Canvas abruptly tore open to reveal a most unwelcome guest.
"Heh, just right out in the-" the intruder started to say before stopping dead, utterly unprepared for the sight that awaited her.
"…what did I just walk into?" Hirako said, mouth agape as the entire mob of Sayakas turned to face her as one unified body.
"Well hi there, Harpoon Girl."
"Uh... um..." Hirako stuttered. "...you know what, never mind, I'll just get going-"
<Sayakas!> Ashtaroth mentally yelled to her unending army of minions, dramatically pointing one of her ribbons at the invading magical girl. <Attack!>
With an ear-splitting war cry, the tide of blue surged forth.
Hirako didn't make it very far.
-----
Magical Girls Homura Akemi and Hirako Hamahashi Defeated!
420 Xp gained.
You acquired:
Error in Subsumption.OS: [MikiS.StackOverflowError]
>2^15?x Sayaka Miki(s)
1x Pirate Girl (Thoroughly dogpiled condition)
You lost:
Any remaining hope of retaining your sanity.
-----
*Many thanks to our favourite
Faux-QM for some much-valued Beta'ing.
