"I'm baaaaack~!"
Oriko Mikuni looked up from the book she'd been reading and stood. Walking out into the
entrance parlor, she was greeted by Kirika, who immediately ran over to envelop her in a tight, adoring embrace.
Oriko returned the hug, allowing it to last for nearly ten full seconds before finally stepping back and breaking it.
"Welcome back. Was the mission a success?"
"Sure was!" Kirika grinned. "The witch was right where you said it'd be. Not that I ever doubted you; you're
always right."
Oriko smiled gently. She hadn't been sure about Kirika at first, but the other girl's undying faith in her was... appreciated. Especially at times when her
own was lacking.
"And you're certain it was the correct one?"
"Giant black and white book with a tower of straps growing out of it and a weird cyclone head, yep."
Oriko sighed in relief. Another problem taken care of.
"Excellent. There were no complications?"
She'd seen in advance that there
might be, but the vision that had brought this to her attention in the first place had been murkier than most. Even in the moment, she had struggled to make out a number of the relevant details, the mental imagery swirling about as though being sucked down a drain.
"Nope! Witch went down in a single hit."
Oriko brought a hand to her cheek. Hmm... surprising, that the battle had apparently been so simple, but perhaps she should simply count her blessings where she could find them. She'd told Kirika to strike hard and fast for a reason, after all.
"Anything else of note to report?"
Kirika shrugged. "Eh, I ran into a couple other magical girls that I guess were after the witch too, but they weren't a problem."
Oriko frowned. "And what happened to them?"
"No idea, I left them in the dust." Kirika nonchalantly replied. "I could have taken care of them more permanently, buuuuut I figured if you wanted me to do that, you'd have said so before I left."
Oriko nodded. "I would have. Commendable judgment."
Kirika's accidental murder of Komaki Asako had already put them in dangerously hot water. Kyubey hadn't yet figured out the culprit, but they couldn't afford to draw any more attention from him right now, nor from anyone else for that matter. There was a time and a place for the more... distasteful parts of Oriko's task, and as dangerous as the witch she'd just had Kirika eliminate had possessed the potential to be, slaughtering more of the local magical girls in the process was hardly necessary.
(Yet.)
Tearing herself from her unwelcome thoughts, Oriko held out a hand.
"The seed?"
"Ah, got it right here." Kirika said as she reached into her skirt pocket. "Catch!"
She lobbed a small, glinting object underhand in Oriko's direction, their close proximity allowing her to catch it with ease.
"Thank you." Oriko smiled again. "The tea is still heating up, but there's a fresh batch of the cookies you like cooling in the kitchen. If you get out the plates, we can enjoy them together."
Kirika cheered and immediately made for the snacks in question. As her partner left the room, Oriko sat down on the nearest couch, sighing as her thoughts shifted back down a familiar path.
Even now, she questioned herself. In the prophetic visions her wish had granted her, she had indeed found the purpose she'd sought — to prevent the birth of the witch that would end the world. Yet with every passing day, she wondered again if she truly had the resolve to see it through. One life, in exchange for that of millions,
billions, even... it should have been no question at all. But no matter the obvious justness of her cause, it didn't change that the only true solution to the problem, the only permanent, surefire means of removing Kaname Madoka's witch from the picture, would inevitably require...
Shaking her head, Oriko turned her attention back to the present.
Thankfully, such concerns were unimportant in regards to witches that already were. There were no hard lines to cross, no uncomfortable questions of morality to be resolved or justified after the fact. Granted, this one had been more of a tertiary issue, not nearly as dangerous as the primary one she was concerned with...
(-a swirling vortex engulfing the titanic amalgam-)
(-pure white roots spearing into the Earth-)
(-the planet cracking beneath the weight of another's world-)
…at least, so long as it was removed from the board early on.
Which, fortunately, it now was.
Letting out a breath, Oriko looked down, idly examining the grief seed she still held. Perhaps fittingly for such an abnormal witch, even what remained of it now broke significantly from the norm. Not only was the seed at least half again as large as any other she'd ever held, but its design was considerably more intricate — if also somewhat warped-looking. The metal frame seemed thicker than normal, yet somewhat jagged, as though additional material had been twisted around it and soldered on after the fact. The emblem that crowned the seed seemed almost mashed together, making it nigh-impossible to visually identify, and there even appeared to be numerous multicolored
gem fragments embedded in the object's exterior.
In fact... if she didn't know better...
Squinting, Oriko stood and walked to the adjoining study, retrieving a small pair of tweezers from a drawer and setting about applying them to the fragments. This, however, proved useless — upon closer inspection, the shards appeared less embedded in the seed so much as
fused to it, all but impossible to physically extricate.
Curiosity sated, she set the tweezers aside and moved back to the entrance hall. No matter then. The shards were far too deeply bonded to the seed to possibly be what they almost appeared as anyways.
Speaking of which.
Lifting her left middle finger, Oriko brought the grief seed to her ring, relaxing slightly as the embers of corruption burning within the tiny jewel that crowned it flowed into the seed's blackened frame. With her visions still largely uncontrollable in both their arrival time and subject matter, bearing no regard at all for her current magic reserves, she honestly considered herself lucky to have even lasted this long. Another reason to be thankful for Kirika's assistance in helping her... persist, at least until the time came to carry out her ultimate task.
Allowing her other hand to drop, Oriko lifted the seed to eye level. Now, how to get rid of this. Kyubey couldn't be trusted to not simply plant it elsewhere to regrow if she gave it to
him for disposal, so she would have to arrange to destroy it herself. Unfortunately, grief seeds were generally sturdier than soul gems, making non-magical tools effectively useless on them, and her own weapons were likely not up to the task. She supposed she would have to ask Kirika to do it, once the other girl returned from-
~~~~~
-numerous blades impacting all around her, blue hair whipping around as its owner thrust another sword at her neck-
-the clash of steel against steel, Kirika's claws shattering against an even darker weapon-
-an eruption of thorns engulfing half the room, preceding a spray of bubbling, caustic liquid-
-a circle of blazing light, an auburn-haired girl entrapped within-
-sudden, unrestrained shock-
~~~~~
Oriko gasped softly as the vision ended, already mentally dissecting its content.
A vision of not only upcoming combat, but one that personally involved her...? She hadn't had one of those since she'd had to subdue Kirika the first time they met after contracting. Even more concerning, the events that she'd witnessed seemingly took place
here, within the very room where she now stood, and the final fragment had been little but raw emotion, completely unaccompanied by other context — which made the advance warning much less useful.
Straightening, Oriko moved quickly for the kitchen. Though she wasn't yet certain, the pair of magical girls responsible for the impending attack were likely the same ones Kirika had encountered while dealing with the vortex witch. Using what she'd seen, they could take steps to prepare for them; counter the apparent ambush before their attackers arrived-
{…!}
She froze mid-stride, a familiar sensation needling at the edge of her magical perception, warning of her of something approaching. The assailants...? No, this didn't feel like a pair of magical girls — in fact, it
felt like-
"Oriko!" Kirika cried, rushing back into the room. "There's-"
"I know." Oriko cut her off, turning on her heel to move to the entrance proper. "Move outside, we'll confront it there. Be ready to-"
Before Oriko could finish, a circle of light covered in various symbols burst into being not twenty feet in front of her. A portal, signifying entrance to a witch's lair — or exit, as something immediately shot out of the tear in reality, aimed not at Oriko, but at-
"Kirika!"
*!-CLANG-!*
Relief swept through Oriko as Kirika transformed on the spot, catching the sword between a pair of crossed claws — except that it
wasn't one sword, but two, connected to each other's handles by a length of metal chain. With half the weapon's momentum halted, the connecting cable immediately wrapped around what had grabbed it, sending the second sword's edge spinning straight towards Kirika's neck-
The sword abruptly slowed to fraction of its speed as Kirika narrowed her eyes at it, granting her enough time to fling both her arms forward. Her claws disconnected with the motion, sending them flying back towards the portal with both blades still wound around them.
...at least, until said blades exploded around the claws mid-throw.
Oriko transformed as she jumped backwards, Kirika's personal magic slowing the dual detonation enough to heavily suppress the resulting shockwave — but not the blade-wielding girl that emerged from behind the explosion in a running slide, sweeping Kirika's legs out from under her and cutting a crimson gash into her side as she fell. No-!
Kirika recoiled in pain, but recovered quickly, hand-springing back to her feet as she summoned a new pair of claws and slashed down at her attacker. The girl from Oriko's vision leapt back to avoid them, while the second girl strode out of the portal to join her, their faces twisted into identical expressions of fury.
"
Give me back my SOUL!"
The pair's unified scream of rage acted almost akin to a gunshot. The girl in blue lunged at Kirika again, while the girl in orange-gold pointed some manner of writing tool at Oriko, and an amorphous mass of multicolored shapes surged forth from the portal to meet her.
Biting the inside of her cheek, Oriko stepped back, summoning her weapon for the first time in weeks — eight small, floating crystal balls with intricate floral designs etched into their exteriors. She flung half of them at the advancing mass of living art, targeting the human facial features slapped seemingly at random across its surface like some sort of cubist nightmare, keeping her remaining four spheres rotating around her as she cursed internally.
Her vision had come too late. There'd been no real time to plan for this event, much less to avoid it entirely. Worse, while Kirika's magic was strong against singular targets, it only worked where her focus was; it wasn't meant for battles with multiple opponents, much less ones where Oriko herself was a factor-
The painted entity surged forward, ignoring the crystal orbs battering its form as it washed over the floor like a living tidal wave. Oriko sent two of her attack spheres through a shifting eye, causing that section to collapse inward, weeping liquid color — but a mental tug found the pair of weapons stuck fast in the thing's body, trapped inside it like hardened mud. Retreating back towards the fireplace, Oriko raised an arm and-
*!-plink-!*
-stumbled as the back of her foot caught on the crystal coffee table. Oriko's eyes went wide as the indistinct
thing rushed forward-
"Don't you even dare
TOUCH her!"
The living artwork keened as six savagely-edged claws bit deep into its form, sending more wild splashes of color spattering across the floor. Oriko caught a glimpse through the chaos of the blue-haired girl with a bloody shoulder, yet no apparent wound to go with it, while the auburn-haired one was standing back up from having one of the now-ruined couches flung at her.
"Oriko, get out of here! I'll take care of this!" Kirika shouted at her from atop the writhing mass.
Knowing her presence was likely only hindering Kirika, Oriko nodded and ran for the door. One of their opponents took issue with that plan however, as the sword wielder leapt over the living obstacle now taking up the middle of the room and forced Oriko back the way she'd come, another weapon forming in her off hand. The first two blades she threw shattered the table Oriko had previously tripped on, even as she skirted around it, while the next pair perforated the floor directly in front of her, forcing her to turn and confront her attacker.
"It's rather rude to attack someone in their own home, you know." Oriko said with far more calm than she actually felt.
"Sure is! Now tell your partner that!" the girl shot back.
The statement made little sense to Oriko, but the volley of swords immediately following it did, setting the scene for her to retaliate. Knowing from her earlier vision that the blades were a bluff, in truth meant only to limit her avenues to dodge, Oriko simply leaned back and let them miss her, sending her remaining crystal balls weaving through the storm of steel. They intercepted her attacker mid-charge, smashing into her exposed stomach one after the other.
The girl doubled over, spittle flying from her mouth. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Oriko yanked a sword out of the wall behind her, several of the thrown weapons having stuck fast in the large piece of art that hung there, and whirled forward to slash at the other girl's wrist. The blade struck true, sending a spray of blood across the already-ruined floor.
...then a glowing blue music staff appeared over the wound, healing the debilitating wound on the spot.
The seed still clenched within Oriko's right hand
pulsed.
"Gonna have to do better than
that." the girl hissed, another pair of swords already in hand.
Oriko retreated further, slamming a pair of spheres into the girl's kneecaps as she swept to the left. Her efforts failed, slowing the other girl down for all of half a second total, and Oriko found herself backed into a corner, unable to dodge in any direction as her attacker lunged-
The rest of the room abruptly appeared to accelerate, like a movie on fast-forward. Oriko briefly registered Kirika kicking the top-hatted girl towards the stairs as she simultaneously carved the mass of art in twain, springing up over the now rapidly-melting slick of paint before kicking off the ceiling to reach the other side of the room.
The next thing Oriko knew, a pair of deceptively thin arms had closed around her and yanked her out of the way. Time resumed its normal course as a flying leap took her savior across most of the length of the room, skidding to a halt in front of the front door — which the portal had taken up post directly in front of, forming a quite literal barrier to the outside.
"Damn you..." Kirika hissed as she quickly set Oriko down, knocking another thrown sword aside to explode against the wall an instant later. Rounding on the back half of the room, she glared, this time managing to catch both opposing magical girls in her own magic's effects — and without anyone else in the way.
"You're in for it NOW!" Kirika laughed.
Oriko watched as her partner leapt, claws outstretched to bisect the sword wielder. With both girls moving in slow motion, they couldn't possibly dodge this time.
...at least, that's what she thought until the
portal suddenly swept forward to intercept Kirika instead, clumsily placing itself between her and the girls who'd emerged from it. Blindsided by the completely unexpected interception, Kirika fell right through the opening — immediately ending the effects of her magic outside of it.
Oriko's mind raced, even as she threw the now-unbarred door open in an effort to escape the chaos. It was obvious that these girls had somehow gained control over a witch's barrier, but how had they just done
that? Even if the barrier itself hadn't been caught in Kirika's magic, the pair's mental processes should've been too lagged to-
A chain weighted down with an empty hilt suddenly wrapped itself around Oriko's arm and yanked backwards, forcefully spinning her around and dragging her back into the middle of the parlor.
"You're not going anywhere with-!"
Kirika burst back out of the portal claws first. In the brief time she'd been inside however, the portal had reoriented itself again.
To face Oriko.
Oriko shrieked, even as Kirika's eyes widened in perhaps even greater fear. Abruptly slowing to a crawl herself, Kirika just barely managed to avoid colliding with her — then, pivoting on one heel, Kirika accelerated back to normal speed and leapt for the sword wielder, catching the girl in her slowdown effect once more. However, this left the remaining girl free to follow after, the coiled gold ribbons laid over her shoulders bouncing as a sword of her own spilled into existence from between her fingers. Oriko sent several spheres forward to intercept, but too late, the pitch-black blade already awkwardly sweeping forward to collide with Kirika's claws-
*!-SCRACK-!
-and shattering them on contact nonetheless, sending Kirika stumbling backward, her wounded side still bleeding freely.
Another
pulse flowed through Oriko's palm.
"Restrain them!"
Obeying without question, Kirika leapt up onto the parlor's left-side staircase and thrust her arms out to either side of her. Rather than claws, what came forth from her sleeves this time was closer to thick metal wire, tipped with the same curved blades as her weapons at even spaces all along its length. Kirika flicked her wrists, and the metallic lengths whipped through the room, surrounding the blue-haired girl like a mass of thorns, and sending the other scrambling back to avoid them.
With the sword wielder immobilized, her weapons straining to keep the scythe-like blades from closing in, even with another pair of miniature magic platforms bracing her feet, Oriko finally managed to rip the chain free from her arm. The portal retreated back towards the door, but she ignored it, concentrating magic in all six of the crystal spheres still surrounding her.
This battle was deteriorating with every passing moment — if she couldn't escape, then nor could she afford to keep staying conservative with her magic.
Oriko was proven right a scant instant later as the auburn-haired girl tossed her sword into the mass of tangled metal, the ink-black blade not so much tearing through the wire as
annihilating it, carving a massive swathe of the trap apart without slowing down in the least. As tension fell out of over half of the restraints, the girl still trapped by the remainder let out a scream of exertion, and a veritable
carpet of blades sprouted out of the floor, ripping through the remnants of Kirika's wire and sending its pieces flying.
The seed
pulsed for a third time, now throbbing in Oriko's grip like a miniature heartbeat.
Kirika descended on the sword wielder once more as the other girl summoned a new paintbr- no, pen, and a spray of bubbling black ink shot out of its tip. Prepared for that, Oriko twirled away and summoned the spheres that had been freed by the art blob's death from behind the girl, one of them knocking the weapon from her hands while the other struck her in the back of the neck, sending her stumbling forward with a cry of pain.
Now.
Oriko gestured, sending her remaining six spheres flying upwards over her momentarily stunned opponent. Already primed by her earlier efforts, she allowed them to unleash their stored potential, flooding the room with light as a sextet of searingly-bright
lasers spilled forth. As they slammed down on every side of Oriko's target like the bars of a cage, the spheres rotating in a rapid circle to leave her no way out, the girl's expression flickered to utter panic.
And Oriko... hesitated.
Even with her attempts to harden her heart for the task to come, she had never taken a life herself. In spite of everything, she had truly hoped she would never have to... but now...
Steeling herself, Oriko thrust her doubts away, turning the aim of her crystal spheres inward-
"
KiIyAaHhHh!!!"
Pure shock ran through Oriko as the pendant hanging from her enemy's neck sprang to life, a tiny head emerging from the frame as its still-curled ribbons abruptly ballooned to hundreds of times their size. As the massive cloth arms swept through the room, Oriko's trap collapsed, all of her spheres knocked aside in an instant — along with Oriko herself.
Her eyes squeezed shut on instinct as the witch's limb struck her, slamming her into the room's right wall. The pain was a distant second however to the horror that ran through her as she felt her grip come loose with the impact, and Oriko's eyes snapped back open just in time to see the grief seed go flying from her hand.
"Kirika,
destroy the seed!"
Having been catapulted up onto the fireplace mantle by the room-encompassing attack, Kirika kicked off of it and flipped over the shards of the coffee table, claws scything down towards the tiny, airborne object-
Another glowing platform, much larger than the previous ones, appeared in front of the seed mid-flight. Kirika's strike fell short as the seed bounced off of the magical panel — and directly into the blue-haired girl's palm.
The girl had scarcely held the seed for an instant before it began to glow, shining off-white tendrils emerging from all sides of the tiny core of despair. Her and Oriko's eyes widened as one, but the former reacted quicker, whirling around and pitching the seed like a miniature fastball back into the awaiting portal before leaping right in after it. The remaining girl did the same a moment later as the portal accelerated forward to meet her, whereupon the barrier immediately reversed course, pulling upward and away.
"You won't escape!" Kirika snarled as she made to follow-
A massive,
roaring blast of tainted wind burst forth from the open tear in the world, blasting both girls backwards more effectively than an actual explosion. Oriko gasped, all air evacuating from her lungs as she struck one of the overturned couches back first, the impact only partially cushioned by the ruined furniture. Before she could recover, the portal finished fleeing through the ceiling, vanishing from sight.
Once she'd caught her breath again, Oriko slowly stood back up, surrounded by the ruins of the formerly-stately parlor. Kirika, having dug her claws into the floor like ice picks to avoid being thrown into the fireplace (and only really succeeded in tearing up the wood even more), did so as well, murder written across her face.
"I can still catch up." she grit out. "I'll be right back-"
Oriko held out a hand.
"Stay."
Kirika froze.
"...you sure?"
Oriko nodded. Kirika was always most effective on her own, but without the benefit of surprise or a better measure of their foes' collective abilities, pursuing the pair into what was clearly their own territory could go even more poorly than the battle they'd just fought.
"Argh..." Kirika moaned as the pair de-transformed, her wound having healed enough mid-fight to at least not start immediately bleeding through her shirt. "I'm so,
so sorry Oriko! I should've just gotten rid of those two when I first saw them after all-"
"Hush." Oriko quieted her. "This isn't your fault."
Truthfully, she
was a little irritated with Kirika for apparently leading the pair back to her house without realizing. However, she could hardly lay all the blame on the other girl, as even with the vision she'd experienced beforehand, she'd been caught off guard as well. She'd hardly expected the pair to be toting around a
witch, after all, much less to somehow have control over its personal dimension.
...or...
had that even been...?
"Kirika, did the vortex witch's labyrinth actually vanish upon its death?"
"Uh..." Kirika hemmed, scratching the back of her head. "No, actually. I thought it was a little weird, but I had its grief seed already, so I figured that was enough."
Oriko frowned. Evidently not — at least, not while those girls were around to bring it back. And if that was
its somehow-persisting labyrinth, not even that of the witch the one girl had hanging around her neck, then it was entirely plausible that the pair had even more in reserve.
...perhaps she'd sent Kirika after the wrong target entirely.
Despite the situation, Oriko's expression slowly inverted, a small hint of satisfaction playing over her lips. Thankfully, she still had a lead — one that didn't even require resorting to her visions again. While Kirika hadn't managed to follow the pair into that labyrinth, something
else had.
She'd only used her powers this way once before, but if this worked...
Oriko closed her eyes and concentrated.
Yes, she could still sense it — the single crystal sphere she'd managed to sneak into the portal before it vanished. It was heading west, away from the city, and ascending quickly.
...but it would have to come back down eventually.
"Pack a bag, Kirika." she ordered as she reopened her eyes, already making new plans. "It seems we still have a few loose ends to clean up."
AN+Patrons: You have questions, I'm certain. Well, rest assured — Ashtaroth is likely just as clueless as you are, and therefore shares in your pain.
A huge thanks to
@Pheonix14,
@Warclam,
@ScorpioBot,
@Captain Skipjack, Henry Branscombe, Leaf, Bertucchi, BlackEagle91, Jordan Juengel, Stays Secret, Alxariam, Nubcaekz, and my eight other
Patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives a cookie from Oriko's now-forgotten batch thereof. They're fresh from the oven, and murderous intentions or not, Kirika
does have good taste in sweets, so get 'em while they're still hot! 🍪
