- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
hey are you still looking for fanmade witches? cause I have a few I think might work
Subsumption (PMMM Faux-Quest) (Witch MC)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, they're a metaphorical representation, not actual mice, so their search is probably meant to be futile.
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Eeeeeeeeeeh-Hah, that actually came to mind when you mentioned a lighthouse, I just didn't think you could possibly be thinking of that. I rather like that fanfic.
I liked it at first, and I though the world was very creative and the girls who became witches turning into humanoid witches was neat, and I even liked the memory and identity replacement detail. I liked seeing how their society functioned, and how exactly an afterlife just for magic girls worked. Character interaction was solid, and the characters acted pretty much like themselves, aside from indulging in all the yuri that the fandom shoves in everywhere. The alien magic girls were a bit much though, and I felt they were only there as scenery. However, the author has a very bad habit of having their stories take a dark turn and never stopping, but then also never concluding. So it all becomes a long slog of ever increasing depression that has no payoff, just end an endless series of 'and then THIS fucked up' that fails to engage.
In short, a fun world with fun characters as part of a shit story.
In short, a fun world with fun characters as part of a shit story.
Ah, gottach. And yeah, those witches do indeed look neat.
I'd volunteer anyway, but my editing skills have deteriorated from lack of use. Still looking forward to it!
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- Location
- Here
Oh, right, Resonance Days, that was what it was called. Read it a few ago, didn't subscribe, at a glance I think it's had more updates since then. A few things were very memorable – worldbuilding, a few lines, some imagery, all have kept coming back intermittently – but the plot's gone completely out of my head. Might reread, now I know the name again – the thing I would have thought to be the most searchable short string, "ticky nikki", turns out to match to enough unrelated porn to not work for the purpose of finding the fic.
- Location
- TX
...Do we even have our own page?
Not necessarily. It feels more of something to the benefit of the "playerbase" of the Faux-Quest then something that it's written in Ashtaroth.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
Surprised, probably. She doesn't seem very self-aware.
Interlude: Isolation
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Mami watched as the girl sitting across from her fidgeted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with her surroundings, despite having been the one to ask that she could be here. The cups of tea she had prepared were rapidly cooling on the small triangular table they rested upon, and the plate of cookies at its center had thus far gone equally untouched. The atmosphere of the room seemed to be growing increasingly suffocating with every passing second.
Tira Narumi was in her apartment for the first time in months, and somehow Mami couldn't think of anything to say.
"So… Tomoe-san…" Tira hesitantly began, finally disturbing the stifling quiet. "I suppose you must be surprised to see me."
Mami looked down, taking a small sip of her slightly tepid tea before responding.
"…I thought you were dead, Narumi-san."
Like all cities, Mitakihara was considered valuable territory for magical girls, and Mami had encountered many others hoping to claim it as their own. Those that tried to force her out, she fought off, but those that simply asked to coexist with her, she was more than happy to share with. She had even worked with some of them for a time, providing assistance on occasion... but in the end, it never lasted. Her ideals would always end up clashing with theirs, her refusal to allow stray familiars to grow into witches being a common point of contention. Soon enough, the other girls would leave in search of better hunting grounds, and Mami would be left feeling abandoned, forgotten, and just as desperately lonely as ever.
Of those numerous girls, Tira was the only one Mami had ever come close to truly being friends with. She'd met the freshly-contracted girl upon saving her from a witch, Tira having nearly died trying to fight it herself. Once introductions had been made, Tira had explained that she was actually local to the area, and asked Mami if she could team up with her until she improved enough to fight on her own.
Surprised, but with memories of days past flashing in her mind, Mami had agreed.
The cordial partnership that followed hadn't been anything like the closeness she'd shared with Kyoko, but it was the closest she'd come since. Tira had listened to her, fought with her, and even helped her hunt down stray familiars. For the first time in forever, Mami had felt as though she might not be destined to always be alone.
...and then, perhaps inevitably, Tira had parted ways with her as well. Mami hadn't felt betrayed at the time — it wasn't as though it was the other girl's fault her parents had decided to move to a different city. She'd said goodbye to Tira with a promise to stay in touch, her heart aching only slightly more than usual... until, not long after, Tira suddenly dropped completely off the grid. Fearing the worst, Mami had tried desperately to contact her, leaving messages on a phone that never picked up and sending worried email after worried email, but never once did she receive a response.
As such, she'd initially been overjoyed upon picking up the phone yesterday to find Tira on the other end, simply because it confirmed the other girl was still alive — at least, up until that fact truly set in, along with its various implications. For if Tira was alive and well, then the real reason all of Mami's attempts to contact her had failed was likely that the other girl simply had no desire to speak with her. On top of that, the area code of the number she'd called from was local to Kazamino, the city all of a 10-minute bus ride away from Mami's apartment, meaning that Tira had either moved so close by that continuing to meet up would have been no issue at all, or she had lied, and never moved to begin with. Either way, it now seemed obvious that Tira had deliberately cut off all contact with her, intentionally allowing Mami to believe her gone so as to never need interact with her again.
Now she felt betrayed.
"…right." Tira said, refusing to look her in the eye. "I… suppose an apology is in order for that. I changed cell phone numbers you see, and I'd forgotten your contact information, so I didn't-"
"Please don't lie to me, Narumi-san." Mami interrupted. "If you wish to speak to me about whatever other matters are concerning you, then I would prefer honesty in this one."
Tira opened her mouth, then closed it, her eyes lidding in what might have been shame.
There was a sudden knock at the door.
"Excuse me for a moment." Mami said, uncertain whether or not to be grateful for the distraction as she stood up from her seat.
She walked over to the door, wondering who it could be. Most likely, it was Madoka and Sayaka coming to visit. Mami had high hopes that both girls would eventually contract, and that she would finally have friends that she could relate to, and rely upon, and who would stay with her, but her business with Tira wasn't something she wanted to involve them in. If it was them, she would regrettably have to turn them away for the time being.
As it turned out, her prediction was only half right. Mami opened the door to find a pink-haired girl who appeared somewhat out of breath standing behind it, but also a more subdued seeming girl with light green hair the color of grass, while Sayaka was nowhere to be seen.
"Kaname-san." Mami greeted, doing her best to smile. "And… who might you be?
The green-haired girl bowed her head. "I am Hitomi Shizuki. My apologies for intruding."
"Mami Tomoe." Mami replied, echoing the gesture. "But I'm afraid that I am the one who must apologize. While I would be happy to meet another of Kaname-san's friends, a… former acquaintance of mine is currently visiting, and our discussion is likely to stray into rather personal territory. Perhaps another-"
"Mami-san…" Madoka panted, lifting her face. "Sayaka-chan… she's…"
Mami began to grow concerned as she noticed not only Madoka's slightly panicked expression, but also the undisguised redness around Hitomi's eyes, which seemed to indicate she'd been crying fairly recently.
"…I see." Mami said, realizing that whatever this was about was likely serious. "Very well. Please, come inside."
She stepped aside to allow the girls entrance.
"Oh… h-hello." Madoka stuttered as she walked in, noticing the other presence in the apartment.
"…greetings." Tira returned awkwardly.
"Kaname-san, Shizuki-san, this is Tira Narumi." Mami said, somewhat stiffly introducing the other girl as she moved to the kitchenette to pour two extra cups of tea. "She used to live in the area, but moved away some time ago. She called me out of the blue yesterday and requested to meet with me concerning… certain topics that I am as of yet unaware of. Narumi-san, this is Madoka Kaname and Hitomi Shizuki."
"...ah." Tira said. "So, these two would be…"
"Only Kaname-san." Mami answered. "This is my first time meeting Shizuki-san. To my knowledge, she is a normal girl."
A subtle way of indicating that Hitomi was unaware of magic, and that topics involving it should be shelved for the time being. Mami was proven wrong a moment later however when Hitomi spoke up.
"Your rings… you are both magical girls?"
Mami blinked, turning towards the green-haired girl in surprise.
"Yes, we are. How did you find out about magic, if I might ask? Did Kaname-san or Miki-san inform you of it?"
She would have expected Kyubey to notify her if he was scouting anyone else in Mitakihara, and a witch attack would have left Hitomi with little memory of the encounter, so it was the only explanation that Mami could see.
Hitomi shook her head. "I… perhaps we should sit down for this. May I?"
Mami nodded. Hitomi took a seat at the tea table, followed by Madoka a few moments later. Mami soon returned, placing the two fresh teacups and a small bowl of sugar in front of her guests before sitting back down herself.
"Before anything else, is this a conversation you would request Narumi-san not be privy to?" Mami asked.
"Um… Narumi-san is Mami-san's friend, right?" Madoka asked.
Mami looked towards Tira, who looked back in turn, her posture tense.
"…I would like to believe as much, yes." Mami eventually answered.
"It should be fine then, I think." Madoka said, though somewhat uncertainly.
Hitomi seemed even less sure than Madoka, but tentatively nodded in agreement a second later.
"Very well." Mami said, picking up her tea again. "Now, what is this about Miki-san? Is she in some sort of trouble?"
"She... might be?" Madoka replied, anxiously looking over at Hitomi. "Hitomi-chan can probably explain it better…"
Hitomi shifted in place. Mami couldn't help but notice that she seemed almost as uncomfortable as Tira did, though their reasons for being so couldn't possibly be the same. She hoped it wasn't something she'd done that was making the other girl so apprehensive.
"This morning," Hitomi began, "on my way to my Japanese Dance lessons, I was… accidentally kidnapped, I suppose one could say."
"Kidnapped?!" Mami almost immediately interjected, rather alarmed to hear that. "How horrible… are you alright?"
"Oh- yes, I'm fine." Hitomi replied, waving off her concern. "I was rightfully terrified at first, but it turned out to have been completely unintentional. Ashtaroth-san — that is, my 'captor' — was quite apologetic about the whole affair. She immediately attempted to make amends by offering to take me home, or even directly to my lessons."
Mami wasn't quite sure how it was possible to "accidentally" abduct someone, but motioned for Hitomi to go on.
"After some... er, mistaken directions on my part, I did eventually ask Ashtaroth-san to take me home." Hitomi continued. "However, when we arrived, we found Sayaka-san waiting at my door, with a soul gem in her hand."
"Miki-san has already made a wish?" Mami said, surprised.
She had told both of her juniors that it would be best for them to think their wishes over for a while, to make sure that they chose something truly worth spending a miracle on. For Sayaka to have done so anyways, and on the very next morning… Mami dearly hoped that the younger girl hadn't made her wish in haste.
"Yes." Hitomi confirmed. "From what Sayaka-san told me afterwards, it allowed her to detect that I was in danger, which is why she was there... to rescue me. Due to this misunderstanding however, Sayaka-san ended up attacking Ashtaroth-san."
Mami didn't like where this seemed to be going. From Hitomi's phrasing, it sounded as though "Ashtaroth-san" was another magical girl. With Sayaka having only just contracted, she would be unlikely to be able to defeat someone more experienced than her, unless their magic was one of those rare types not suited for direct confrontation. Hitomi had been speaking relatively well of her thus far, so hopefully Ashtaroth was not one of the more… unscrupulous magical girls that Mami occasionally had to defend Mitakihara from.
"Were either of them seriously injured?"
The unexpected question caused Mami, Hitomi, and Madoka to all turn towards Tira, who shrank back under their combined scrutiny.
"Er... pardon me, if it was rude of me to ask…"
Hitomi shook her head. "Sayaka-san and Ashtaroth-san both suffered various wounds, but all of them were healed by the fight's conclusion."
Mami's concerns settled to some degree upon hearing that, at least until Hitomi continued.
"However, due to a certain type of magic unintentionally used near the end of the battle, Sayaka-san ended up… ah… 'attached' to Ashtaroth-san, in a manner of speaking."
"Attached?" Mami repeated.
"Yes." Hitomi confirmed. "We discovered soon after that Sayaka-san was unable to go more than several hundred feet away from Ashtaroth-san without immediately passing out."
A sort of linking magic then? That was rather rare...
"Is Miki-san in any immediate danger?" Mami asked.
Hitomi shook her head in the negative again. "I do not believe Sayaka-san to be in danger from Ashtaroth-san, no. However, Sayaka-san was extremely upset about what had happened, enough so that she..."
Hitomi trailed off, seeming unwilling to complete her sentence.
"She... had a bit of a breakdown." the green-haired girl eventually finished. "Ashtaroth-san took her with her for the time being to see if she could do anything to help, while I went home. But, I couldn't… I needed to talk to someone about what had happened. Sayaka-san had mentioned that Madoka-san knew about magic, so I called her, but once I had explained, she insisted we must tell you, which... brings us to now."
Mami frowned. While the details of the story were definite cause for concern, Hitomi hadn't presented them in a way that seemed to warrant the sort of barely-muted panic Madoka had arrived with. Something wasn't adding up- she had a feeling she was missing a critical piece of information; that there was something important to understanding this scenario that Hitomi had yet to elaborate upon.
"I'm sorry, I believe I may have missed something." Mami said, wanting clarification. "Could you tell me more about this 'Ashtaroth-san'?"
The name was strange. Certainly not Japanese, so presumably she was a foreigner of some sort? Mami didn't know much about foreign magical girls, and had never really thought to ask Kyubey about them. Did they differ at all from the kind she was used to?
Madoka looked as though she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite figure out how. Hitomi glanced down at the table, her gaze fixed upon her teacup.
"Ashtaroth-san is... fairly experienced in regards to magic." Hitomi said. "I found out about it due to how I was accidentally taken, and asked her to explain it to me once I realized she did not intend to hurt me. She seemed... intelligent, and kind, if somewhat frustrated with her own circumstances, and held no apparent ill intent towards anyone. She-"
"Hitomi-chan, please, you have to tell her." Madoka nervously interrupted. "I know you said Sayaka-chan is probably safe, but..."
Hitomi looked to Madoka for a moment, drew in a breath, and exhaled.
"Ashtaroth-san is... a witch."
Mami's heart nearly stopped. Hitomi was still speaking, but she could barely hear the other girl over the sudden rush of blood in her ears, the pieces quickly falling into place: Hitomi hadn't been kidnapped, she had wandered into a witch's barrier. Somehow, Sayaka had found out, and made a wish in order to gain the power to rescue her. Upon finding and fighting the witch however, she only ended up managing to take her friend's place... and Mami hadn't even known until Madoka and Hitomi had showed up at her door to tell her, directly to her face. She'd failed; it was her duty to protect her juniors, and it hadn't taken more than a couple of days before one of them had been-
Recognizing the direction her thoughts were moving in, Mami strode over to her work desk and opened the drawer containing her collection of spare grief seeds. Retrieving an unused one from the small pile, she held it to her somewhat darkened ring, sighing in relief as the corruption was expunged from it.
Better. Now then.
"There is no time to waste." Mami announced, returning the seed to the drawer before turning back to the rest of the room. "Shizuki-san, please lead me to your house. I should be able to track the witch's magical signature from there and follow it back to its barrier. If I kill it, its magic should-"
"No, please wait!" Hitomi frantically interrupted.
"…wait?" Mami repeated, confused. "Miki-san is in terrible danger! We cannot wait!"
"Ashtaroth-san has no wish to hurt Sayaka-san!" Hitomi exclaimed. "She wants to release Sayaka-san from herself as well! She is just… unaware of how to do so, I believe. Regardless, I am certain there is a way to re-separate them without the need for violence!"
Without violence? Then what? Witches were monsters, incapable of understanding anything else. Yes, Hitomi claimed to have somehow spoken with this one, but Mami was most certainly not going to try and negotiate with a witch, particularly one clever enough to deceive others to this extent. She could only hope that Sayaka had not yet been killed or eaten… perhaps-
Mami tried to send Sayaka a telepathic message, only for the attempt to immediately fizzle out, going nowhere.
"Kyubey!" Mami called.
<Yes, Mami?> Kyubey psychically replied, causing everyone but Mami to jolt in place upon seeing the small creature suddenly walk out from behind the nearby couch.
"Why am I unable to contact Miki-san through telepathy?"
<Sayaka Miki was forcibly disconnected from the telepathy network early this morning.> Kyubey said, settling down on a small floor cushion. <I was unsure of precisely what happened to her, though Hitomi Shizuki's testimony appears to give reason to believe she remains alive.>
For perhaps one of the first times since she'd met him, Mami found herself actually somewhat mad at her one constant companion.
"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" she implored. "It is already mid-afternoon! Miki-san has been gone for the majority of the day!"
<The cause of the disconnection was ambiguous, and Sayaka Miki's exact whereabouts remained unknown.> Kyubey answered. <Until they could be more accurately determined, I believed it would be best not to worry you, as doing so would have been detrimental to both your health and magic. You have already had to cleanse your soul gem once simply as a result of speaking about this, have you not?>
Mami began to calm, her anger rapidly abating. Of course, Kyubey was simply looking out for her, just as he always did. He had probably been searching for Sayaka all day… still.
"I appreciate your concern, Kyubey." Mami said. "However, I would appreciate even more if you would alert me regardless the next time a situation like this arises."
<Very well, Mami.>
"Ah…"
Kyubey's head turned, his bright pink eyes fixing themselves upon the green-haired girl who had made the small utterance.
<Greetings, Hitomi Shizuki. I am Kyubey.> Kyubey said. < I am normally imperceptible to humans, but as you seem to be aware of magic, I have made myself visible to you.>
"Then… you are the one who makes people magical girls in exchange for granting them a wish?" Hitomi asked.
<Correct.> Kyubey nodded. <Unfortunately, you do not fulfill the minimum necessary requirements to make a contract with me. I cannot make you a magical girl.>
"Oh, that's… that's alright." Hitomi replied, seeming more relieved than anything.
Mami opened her mouth to tell Hitomi that they could be more properly introduced later, once the current crisis was resolved, but was preempted by someone else.
"Excuse me, but if I might ask a quick question?" Tira asked. "Shizuki-san, what exactly does this 'Ashtaroth' look like?"
Hitomi blinked. "I suppose... she was a sort of spire of interwoven straps, sticking out of the pages of a large floating book. She had four thin, flat arms, with a smaller book hovering in front of them, and many circular black and white swirls rotating above her neck."
"…the book witch…?" Tira mumbled.
"Do you know something, Narumi-san?" Mami asked, her voice coming out slightly harsher than she'd intended.
"I…" Tira paused, her gaze flickering to Kyubey. "…could we possibly speak about it without him present?"
Mami tilted her head in confusion. "Why would you want to exclude Kyubey from the discussion? He is likely the most knowledgeable one here, and may even be able to provide assistance in rescuing Miki-san."
Tira seemed somewhat torn, but after a few seconds of indecision, she relented.
"I encountered that same witch late last night." Tira explained. "Shizuki-san is telling the truth; it really did seem intelligent. It did not actually fight me, only plead that it could think, and begged me not to kill it."
"…so you didn't." Hitomi finished for her, eyes widening in surprise.
Tira nodded, and Mami felt a flash of anger run through her. The other girl had shown mercy to something that almost certainly did not deserve it, and as a result, Sayaka was now in grave peril. The witch's actions obviously weren't Tira's fault, but the fact remained that this conversation would not be happening had she simply eliminated it when she had the chance.
"It was actually part of what I was here to speak to you about, Tomoe-san." Tira said, oblivious to Mami's current thoughts. "That witch is not the only one I have encountered that seemed capable of communication. I have begun to wonder if they are not all so… mindless as they often seem, and hoped you would assist me in investigating the matter."
<I take it you were dissatisfied with the information I previously provided on the subject.> Kyubey noted.
"You have spoken to Narumi-san about this before?" Mami asked.
<I have.> Kyubey replied. <For the sake of everyone else present, I will explain once more: witches that are capable of actions appearing to indicate atypical intelligence have indeed occasionally been discovered. However, in previous instances, these displays were found to be only rote repetition of human concepts, performed without any true comprehension on the witch's part. The motivations for such behavior were generally impossible to fully determine, but intelligence was often feigned as a way of luring in human prey.>
"Ashtaroth-san was most certainly not 'feigning' intelligence." Hitomi said somewhat indignantly.
<Perhaps. However, even assuming the existence of a witch with the capacity for true communication, any information it may be capable of conveying would undoubtedly be warped by the natural inclinations of its species.>
In other words, even if the witch wasn't just acting out some sort of twisted hunting instinct, its malevolent nature was likely a foregone conclusion. As Mami had largely expected.
"I would prefer to confirm that for myself, if you do not mind." Tira said.
<I am merely relaying what I know. If you wish to look further into the matter regardless, I will not stop you.> Kyubey finished.
"We are becoming distracted." Mami stated. "All of this is secondary to the fact that Miki-san has been taken, and we cannot take the slim chance that this witch is not like others over the chance that it simply tricked both of you. Shizuki-san, I will ask again: please lead me to-"
"Mami-san...?"
Mami paused, turning towards Madoka. The pink-haired girl had been silent for nearly the entire conversation, making her decision to finally speak up a surprise.
"I'm really worried about Sayaka-chan too," Madoka said, somehow sounding even more uncertain than she did before, "but... maybe we could at least try talking first? The witch wouldn't have let Hitomi-chan go if it was completely evil, would it…?"
"Would you risk Miki-san's safety on that chance?" Mami asked.
Madoka hesitated. "I..."
<You know, if you made a contract with me, you could use your wish to save Sayaka right now, Madoka.> Kyubey said.
Mami blinked. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of that?
"He's right." she said, realization dawning. "Kaname-san, this is the perfect situation for you to make a wish. You can save Miki-san immediately!"
Madoka looked down, apparently considering it. Hitomi reached over and grabbed her friend's hand, slowly shaking her head in a subtle no, but Madoka barely seemed to notice. She opened her mouth to speak-
"If I may, your friend is now a magical girl, correct?" Tira suddenly cut in. "In that case, she should be capable of fighting back should the witch attempt anything, and if Shizuki-san is to be believed, she likely will not need to anyways. I do not think it wise to make a contract for the purposes of something that may be easily resolved regardless."
Mami frowned, and Hitomi's expression grew slightly uneasy, but both of them remained silent. In contrast, Madoka's expression firmed.
"…I trust Hitomi-chan." she said, her voice steadier than before. "And... I want to believe that not all witches have to be evil. If I need to, I'll use my wish to save Sayaka-chan, but… I want to know if it's true, first."
Mami looked at Madoka. The statement seemed selfish on the surface, but she knew full well that the other girl wasn't like that. Madoka truly believed that rescuing Sayaka from the witch might be as simple as talking things out with it.
"...very well." Mami finally said, sighing. "When we find the witch, we will attempt diplomacy first, to see if it truly is different than others."
Hitomi, Madoka, and Tira all smiled.
"Thank you, Tomoe-san/Mami-san." each of them said, almost in unison.
"However, we still must first locate the witch in order to do so." she reminded them.
"We may not need to, actually." Hitomi said. "Ashtaroth-san asked me if she could come by my house tomorrow morning in order to check on me. I was hoping we could try and work out how to separate Sayaka-san from her at that time. I have already invited Madoka-san, and I doubt that Ashtaroth-san would mind more assistance, particularly from someone more experienced in magic than us."
Mami blinked. The witch had made... plans?
"Then, Kaname-san and I should meet you at your house at that time?" she asked, deciding to disregard that for now.
Hitomi shook her head. "Tomorrow is a school day. Even if my parents do not notice our presence, the staff likely will. There is a cafe that I frequent not too far away however... we could convene there, perhaps?"
A public area wasn't particularly ideal in Mami's mind, but if this was to happen first thing in the morning, there likely wouldn't be too many people around. It would do.
Tira raised her hand. "Would you mind terribly if I attended this meeting as well? Seeing as how it ties rather directly into..." She glanced over at Mami for the briefest moment. "...into why I am here, after all."
Hitomi shook her head. "I do not have a problem with it."
"I don't either." Madoka agreed.
"…nor do I." Mami said. "However, I will ask that you be prepared to assist me in fighting the witch if it comes to that, Narumi-san."
Tira nodded. "Of... of course, Tomoe-san. Shall I depart then?"
"Ah, we should probably exchange numbers first..." Hitomi said.
By the time things finished up and everyone had everyone else's numbers, it was starting to get dark outside. Madoka and Hitomi left first, with Tira following shortly after. Mami was left alone in her apartment once more, save for Kyubey's presence.
<What will you do now, Mami?> the small creature asked.
"What I must." she replied.
Her clothes flashed, replacing themselves with those of her magical uniform.
<Hmm?> Kyubey remarked, watching Mami as she walked over and opened the large window at the end of the tiny hall. <Did you not tell the others you would try to resolve this peacefully?>
"I said that we would try diplomacy first." she answered. "That is not mutually exclusive with finding the witch before tomorrow morning."
Mami jumped outside and on to the nearest neighboring roof, using a summoned ribbon to close the window behind her on the way out. She typically searched from the street so as to avoid being seen by passerby or wasting magic, but right now she needed to move fast and cover as much ground as possible. The oncoming night would hopefully provide enough concealment that the former issue wouldn't crop up, and the latter was an acceptable sacrifice given the circumstances.
Leaping from building to building, she began scanning her surroundings with both her soul gem and magical senses, hoping to pick up on something as she went. Mami never had gotten Hitomi's address, but the green-haired girl had claimed that the cafe they were planning to meet at tomorrow was somewhat close by, which was at least a start. Unfortunately, the witch's magical signature would have already begun fading by now, and if Mami failed to trace its path directly, locating it would become a great deal harder. She would have little recourse at that point but to search the city at random, a terrible method to use when searching for a specific witch instead of witches and familiars in general, and if that too failed, she would have no choice but to wait until morning as agreed.
Mami swallowed down a lump in her throat as she jumped to the next roof, not liking that she was basically going behind everyone else's backs right now. For Sayaka's sake however, it seemed she had no choice. Madoka and Hitomi were too new to magic to understand, and Tira seemed not to want to understand, but Mami had seen witches of all sorts: ones that looked like pets, ones that looked like cartoons, ones that looked like people; like children, even. Witches that all seemed utterly harmless at first glance... and of which, each and every one had still turned out to be dangerous, without a single exception. Kyubey often described witches as curses upon the world, and this one was doubtless no different, other than the particular way it went about spreading that curse. Mami was fully aware that despite their good intentions, the other three girls' stated goal was all but bound to fail.
Nevertheless, she had promised. Whether she found the witch tonight or was forced to wait until tomorrow, she would try to find out if it was truly somehow benevolent before doing anything else. But if Mami saw any indication to the contrary; if the witch gave off even so much as a hint of duplicity, then she would kill it then and there to set Sayaka free.
Intelligent or not, a witch remained a witch.
Tira Narumi was in her apartment for the first time in months, and somehow Mami couldn't think of anything to say.
"So… Tomoe-san…" Tira hesitantly began, finally disturbing the stifling quiet. "I suppose you must be surprised to see me."
Mami looked down, taking a small sip of her slightly tepid tea before responding.
"…I thought you were dead, Narumi-san."
Like all cities, Mitakihara was considered valuable territory for magical girls, and Mami had encountered many others hoping to claim it as their own. Those that tried to force her out, she fought off, but those that simply asked to coexist with her, she was more than happy to share with. She had even worked with some of them for a time, providing assistance on occasion... but in the end, it never lasted. Her ideals would always end up clashing with theirs, her refusal to allow stray familiars to grow into witches being a common point of contention. Soon enough, the other girls would leave in search of better hunting grounds, and Mami would be left feeling abandoned, forgotten, and just as desperately lonely as ever.
Of those numerous girls, Tira was the only one Mami had ever come close to truly being friends with. She'd met the freshly-contracted girl upon saving her from a witch, Tira having nearly died trying to fight it herself. Once introductions had been made, Tira had explained that she was actually local to the area, and asked Mami if she could team up with her until she improved enough to fight on her own.
Surprised, but with memories of days past flashing in her mind, Mami had agreed.
The cordial partnership that followed hadn't been anything like the closeness she'd shared with Kyoko, but it was the closest she'd come since. Tira had listened to her, fought with her, and even helped her hunt down stray familiars. For the first time in forever, Mami had felt as though she might not be destined to always be alone.
...and then, perhaps inevitably, Tira had parted ways with her as well. Mami hadn't felt betrayed at the time — it wasn't as though it was the other girl's fault her parents had decided to move to a different city. She'd said goodbye to Tira with a promise to stay in touch, her heart aching only slightly more than usual... until, not long after, Tira suddenly dropped completely off the grid. Fearing the worst, Mami had tried desperately to contact her, leaving messages on a phone that never picked up and sending worried email after worried email, but never once did she receive a response.
As such, she'd initially been overjoyed upon picking up the phone yesterday to find Tira on the other end, simply because it confirmed the other girl was still alive — at least, up until that fact truly set in, along with its various implications. For if Tira was alive and well, then the real reason all of Mami's attempts to contact her had failed was likely that the other girl simply had no desire to speak with her. On top of that, the area code of the number she'd called from was local to Kazamino, the city all of a 10-minute bus ride away from Mami's apartment, meaning that Tira had either moved so close by that continuing to meet up would have been no issue at all, or she had lied, and never moved to begin with. Either way, it now seemed obvious that Tira had deliberately cut off all contact with her, intentionally allowing Mami to believe her gone so as to never need interact with her again.
Now she felt betrayed.
"…right." Tira said, refusing to look her in the eye. "I… suppose an apology is in order for that. I changed cell phone numbers you see, and I'd forgotten your contact information, so I didn't-"
"Please don't lie to me, Narumi-san." Mami interrupted. "If you wish to speak to me about whatever other matters are concerning you, then I would prefer honesty in this one."
Tira opened her mouth, then closed it, her eyes lidding in what might have been shame.
There was a sudden knock at the door.
"Excuse me for a moment." Mami said, uncertain whether or not to be grateful for the distraction as she stood up from her seat.
She walked over to the door, wondering who it could be. Most likely, it was Madoka and Sayaka coming to visit. Mami had high hopes that both girls would eventually contract, and that she would finally have friends that she could relate to, and rely upon, and who would stay with her, but her business with Tira wasn't something she wanted to involve them in. If it was them, she would regrettably have to turn them away for the time being.
As it turned out, her prediction was only half right. Mami opened the door to find a pink-haired girl who appeared somewhat out of breath standing behind it, but also a more subdued seeming girl with light green hair the color of grass, while Sayaka was nowhere to be seen.
"Kaname-san." Mami greeted, doing her best to smile. "And… who might you be?
The green-haired girl bowed her head. "I am Hitomi Shizuki. My apologies for intruding."
"Mami Tomoe." Mami replied, echoing the gesture. "But I'm afraid that I am the one who must apologize. While I would be happy to meet another of Kaname-san's friends, a… former acquaintance of mine is currently visiting, and our discussion is likely to stray into rather personal territory. Perhaps another-"
"Mami-san…" Madoka panted, lifting her face. "Sayaka-chan… she's…"
Mami began to grow concerned as she noticed not only Madoka's slightly panicked expression, but also the undisguised redness around Hitomi's eyes, which seemed to indicate she'd been crying fairly recently.
"…I see." Mami said, realizing that whatever this was about was likely serious. "Very well. Please, come inside."
She stepped aside to allow the girls entrance.
"Oh… h-hello." Madoka stuttered as she walked in, noticing the other presence in the apartment.
"…greetings." Tira returned awkwardly.
"Kaname-san, Shizuki-san, this is Tira Narumi." Mami said, somewhat stiffly introducing the other girl as she moved to the kitchenette to pour two extra cups of tea. "She used to live in the area, but moved away some time ago. She called me out of the blue yesterday and requested to meet with me concerning… certain topics that I am as of yet unaware of. Narumi-san, this is Madoka Kaname and Hitomi Shizuki."
"...ah." Tira said. "So, these two would be…"
"Only Kaname-san." Mami answered. "This is my first time meeting Shizuki-san. To my knowledge, she is a normal girl."
A subtle way of indicating that Hitomi was unaware of magic, and that topics involving it should be shelved for the time being. Mami was proven wrong a moment later however when Hitomi spoke up.
"Your rings… you are both magical girls?"
Mami blinked, turning towards the green-haired girl in surprise.
"Yes, we are. How did you find out about magic, if I might ask? Did Kaname-san or Miki-san inform you of it?"
She would have expected Kyubey to notify her if he was scouting anyone else in Mitakihara, and a witch attack would have left Hitomi with little memory of the encounter, so it was the only explanation that Mami could see.
Hitomi shook her head. "I… perhaps we should sit down for this. May I?"
Mami nodded. Hitomi took a seat at the tea table, followed by Madoka a few moments later. Mami soon returned, placing the two fresh teacups and a small bowl of sugar in front of her guests before sitting back down herself.
"Before anything else, is this a conversation you would request Narumi-san not be privy to?" Mami asked.
"Um… Narumi-san is Mami-san's friend, right?" Madoka asked.
Mami looked towards Tira, who looked back in turn, her posture tense.
"…I would like to believe as much, yes." Mami eventually answered.
"It should be fine then, I think." Madoka said, though somewhat uncertainly.
Hitomi seemed even less sure than Madoka, but tentatively nodded in agreement a second later.
"Very well." Mami said, picking up her tea again. "Now, what is this about Miki-san? Is she in some sort of trouble?"
"She... might be?" Madoka replied, anxiously looking over at Hitomi. "Hitomi-chan can probably explain it better…"
Hitomi shifted in place. Mami couldn't help but notice that she seemed almost as uncomfortable as Tira did, though their reasons for being so couldn't possibly be the same. She hoped it wasn't something she'd done that was making the other girl so apprehensive.
"This morning," Hitomi began, "on my way to my Japanese Dance lessons, I was… accidentally kidnapped, I suppose one could say."
"Kidnapped?!" Mami almost immediately interjected, rather alarmed to hear that. "How horrible… are you alright?"
"Oh- yes, I'm fine." Hitomi replied, waving off her concern. "I was rightfully terrified at first, but it turned out to have been completely unintentional. Ashtaroth-san — that is, my 'captor' — was quite apologetic about the whole affair. She immediately attempted to make amends by offering to take me home, or even directly to my lessons."
Mami wasn't quite sure how it was possible to "accidentally" abduct someone, but motioned for Hitomi to go on.
"After some... er, mistaken directions on my part, I did eventually ask Ashtaroth-san to take me home." Hitomi continued. "However, when we arrived, we found Sayaka-san waiting at my door, with a soul gem in her hand."
"Miki-san has already made a wish?" Mami said, surprised.
She had told both of her juniors that it would be best for them to think their wishes over for a while, to make sure that they chose something truly worth spending a miracle on. For Sayaka to have done so anyways, and on the very next morning… Mami dearly hoped that the younger girl hadn't made her wish in haste.
"Yes." Hitomi confirmed. "From what Sayaka-san told me afterwards, it allowed her to detect that I was in danger, which is why she was there... to rescue me. Due to this misunderstanding however, Sayaka-san ended up attacking Ashtaroth-san."
Mami didn't like where this seemed to be going. From Hitomi's phrasing, it sounded as though "Ashtaroth-san" was another magical girl. With Sayaka having only just contracted, she would be unlikely to be able to defeat someone more experienced than her, unless their magic was one of those rare types not suited for direct confrontation. Hitomi had been speaking relatively well of her thus far, so hopefully Ashtaroth was not one of the more… unscrupulous magical girls that Mami occasionally had to defend Mitakihara from.
"Were either of them seriously injured?"
The unexpected question caused Mami, Hitomi, and Madoka to all turn towards Tira, who shrank back under their combined scrutiny.
"Er... pardon me, if it was rude of me to ask…"
Hitomi shook her head. "Sayaka-san and Ashtaroth-san both suffered various wounds, but all of them were healed by the fight's conclusion."
Mami's concerns settled to some degree upon hearing that, at least until Hitomi continued.
"However, due to a certain type of magic unintentionally used near the end of the battle, Sayaka-san ended up… ah… 'attached' to Ashtaroth-san, in a manner of speaking."
"Attached?" Mami repeated.
"Yes." Hitomi confirmed. "We discovered soon after that Sayaka-san was unable to go more than several hundred feet away from Ashtaroth-san without immediately passing out."
A sort of linking magic then? That was rather rare...
"Is Miki-san in any immediate danger?" Mami asked.
Hitomi shook her head in the negative again. "I do not believe Sayaka-san to be in danger from Ashtaroth-san, no. However, Sayaka-san was extremely upset about what had happened, enough so that she..."
Hitomi trailed off, seeming unwilling to complete her sentence.
"She... had a bit of a breakdown." the green-haired girl eventually finished. "Ashtaroth-san took her with her for the time being to see if she could do anything to help, while I went home. But, I couldn't… I needed to talk to someone about what had happened. Sayaka-san had mentioned that Madoka-san knew about magic, so I called her, but once I had explained, she insisted we must tell you, which... brings us to now."
Mami frowned. While the details of the story were definite cause for concern, Hitomi hadn't presented them in a way that seemed to warrant the sort of barely-muted panic Madoka had arrived with. Something wasn't adding up- she had a feeling she was missing a critical piece of information; that there was something important to understanding this scenario that Hitomi had yet to elaborate upon.
"I'm sorry, I believe I may have missed something." Mami said, wanting clarification. "Could you tell me more about this 'Ashtaroth-san'?"
The name was strange. Certainly not Japanese, so presumably she was a foreigner of some sort? Mami didn't know much about foreign magical girls, and had never really thought to ask Kyubey about them. Did they differ at all from the kind she was used to?
Madoka looked as though she wanted to say something, but couldn't quite figure out how. Hitomi glanced down at the table, her gaze fixed upon her teacup.
"Ashtaroth-san is... fairly experienced in regards to magic." Hitomi said. "I found out about it due to how I was accidentally taken, and asked her to explain it to me once I realized she did not intend to hurt me. She seemed... intelligent, and kind, if somewhat frustrated with her own circumstances, and held no apparent ill intent towards anyone. She-"
"Hitomi-chan, please, you have to tell her." Madoka nervously interrupted. "I know you said Sayaka-chan is probably safe, but..."
Hitomi looked to Madoka for a moment, drew in a breath, and exhaled.
"Ashtaroth-san is... a witch."
Mami's heart nearly stopped. Hitomi was still speaking, but she could barely hear the other girl over the sudden rush of blood in her ears, the pieces quickly falling into place: Hitomi hadn't been kidnapped, she had wandered into a witch's barrier. Somehow, Sayaka had found out, and made a wish in order to gain the power to rescue her. Upon finding and fighting the witch however, she only ended up managing to take her friend's place... and Mami hadn't even known until Madoka and Hitomi had showed up at her door to tell her, directly to her face. She'd failed; it was her duty to protect her juniors, and it hadn't taken more than a couple of days before one of them had been-
Recognizing the direction her thoughts were moving in, Mami strode over to her work desk and opened the drawer containing her collection of spare grief seeds. Retrieving an unused one from the small pile, she held it to her somewhat darkened ring, sighing in relief as the corruption was expunged from it.
Better. Now then.
"There is no time to waste." Mami announced, returning the seed to the drawer before turning back to the rest of the room. "Shizuki-san, please lead me to your house. I should be able to track the witch's magical signature from there and follow it back to its barrier. If I kill it, its magic should-"
"No, please wait!" Hitomi frantically interrupted.
"…wait?" Mami repeated, confused. "Miki-san is in terrible danger! We cannot wait!"
"Ashtaroth-san has no wish to hurt Sayaka-san!" Hitomi exclaimed. "She wants to release Sayaka-san from herself as well! She is just… unaware of how to do so, I believe. Regardless, I am certain there is a way to re-separate them without the need for violence!"
Without violence? Then what? Witches were monsters, incapable of understanding anything else. Yes, Hitomi claimed to have somehow spoken with this one, but Mami was most certainly not going to try and negotiate with a witch, particularly one clever enough to deceive others to this extent. She could only hope that Sayaka had not yet been killed or eaten… perhaps-
Mami tried to send Sayaka a telepathic message, only for the attempt to immediately fizzle out, going nowhere.
"Kyubey!" Mami called.
<Yes, Mami?> Kyubey psychically replied, causing everyone but Mami to jolt in place upon seeing the small creature suddenly walk out from behind the nearby couch.
"Why am I unable to contact Miki-san through telepathy?"
<Sayaka Miki was forcibly disconnected from the telepathy network early this morning.> Kyubey said, settling down on a small floor cushion. <I was unsure of precisely what happened to her, though Hitomi Shizuki's testimony appears to give reason to believe she remains alive.>
For perhaps one of the first times since she'd met him, Mami found herself actually somewhat mad at her one constant companion.
"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" she implored. "It is already mid-afternoon! Miki-san has been gone for the majority of the day!"
<The cause of the disconnection was ambiguous, and Sayaka Miki's exact whereabouts remained unknown.> Kyubey answered. <Until they could be more accurately determined, I believed it would be best not to worry you, as doing so would have been detrimental to both your health and magic. You have already had to cleanse your soul gem once simply as a result of speaking about this, have you not?>
Mami began to calm, her anger rapidly abating. Of course, Kyubey was simply looking out for her, just as he always did. He had probably been searching for Sayaka all day… still.
"I appreciate your concern, Kyubey." Mami said. "However, I would appreciate even more if you would alert me regardless the next time a situation like this arises."
<Very well, Mami.>
"Ah…"
Kyubey's head turned, his bright pink eyes fixing themselves upon the green-haired girl who had made the small utterance.
<Greetings, Hitomi Shizuki. I am Kyubey.> Kyubey said. < I am normally imperceptible to humans, but as you seem to be aware of magic, I have made myself visible to you.>
"Then… you are the one who makes people magical girls in exchange for granting them a wish?" Hitomi asked.
<Correct.> Kyubey nodded. <Unfortunately, you do not fulfill the minimum necessary requirements to make a contract with me. I cannot make you a magical girl.>
"Oh, that's… that's alright." Hitomi replied, seeming more relieved than anything.
Mami opened her mouth to tell Hitomi that they could be more properly introduced later, once the current crisis was resolved, but was preempted by someone else.
"Excuse me, but if I might ask a quick question?" Tira asked. "Shizuki-san, what exactly does this 'Ashtaroth' look like?"
Hitomi blinked. "I suppose... she was a sort of spire of interwoven straps, sticking out of the pages of a large floating book. She had four thin, flat arms, with a smaller book hovering in front of them, and many circular black and white swirls rotating above her neck."
"…the book witch…?" Tira mumbled.
"Do you know something, Narumi-san?" Mami asked, her voice coming out slightly harsher than she'd intended.
"I…" Tira paused, her gaze flickering to Kyubey. "…could we possibly speak about it without him present?"
Mami tilted her head in confusion. "Why would you want to exclude Kyubey from the discussion? He is likely the most knowledgeable one here, and may even be able to provide assistance in rescuing Miki-san."
Tira seemed somewhat torn, but after a few seconds of indecision, she relented.
"I encountered that same witch late last night." Tira explained. "Shizuki-san is telling the truth; it really did seem intelligent. It did not actually fight me, only plead that it could think, and begged me not to kill it."
"…so you didn't." Hitomi finished for her, eyes widening in surprise.
Tira nodded, and Mami felt a flash of anger run through her. The other girl had shown mercy to something that almost certainly did not deserve it, and as a result, Sayaka was now in grave peril. The witch's actions obviously weren't Tira's fault, but the fact remained that this conversation would not be happening had she simply eliminated it when she had the chance.
"It was actually part of what I was here to speak to you about, Tomoe-san." Tira said, oblivious to Mami's current thoughts. "That witch is not the only one I have encountered that seemed capable of communication. I have begun to wonder if they are not all so… mindless as they often seem, and hoped you would assist me in investigating the matter."
<I take it you were dissatisfied with the information I previously provided on the subject.> Kyubey noted.
"You have spoken to Narumi-san about this before?" Mami asked.
<I have.> Kyubey replied. <For the sake of everyone else present, I will explain once more: witches that are capable of actions appearing to indicate atypical intelligence have indeed occasionally been discovered. However, in previous instances, these displays were found to be only rote repetition of human concepts, performed without any true comprehension on the witch's part. The motivations for such behavior were generally impossible to fully determine, but intelligence was often feigned as a way of luring in human prey.>
"Ashtaroth-san was most certainly not 'feigning' intelligence." Hitomi said somewhat indignantly.
<Perhaps. However, even assuming the existence of a witch with the capacity for true communication, any information it may be capable of conveying would undoubtedly be warped by the natural inclinations of its species.>
In other words, even if the witch wasn't just acting out some sort of twisted hunting instinct, its malevolent nature was likely a foregone conclusion. As Mami had largely expected.
"I would prefer to confirm that for myself, if you do not mind." Tira said.
<I am merely relaying what I know. If you wish to look further into the matter regardless, I will not stop you.> Kyubey finished.
"We are becoming distracted." Mami stated. "All of this is secondary to the fact that Miki-san has been taken, and we cannot take the slim chance that this witch is not like others over the chance that it simply tricked both of you. Shizuki-san, I will ask again: please lead me to-"
"Mami-san...?"
Mami paused, turning towards Madoka. The pink-haired girl had been silent for nearly the entire conversation, making her decision to finally speak up a surprise.
"I'm really worried about Sayaka-chan too," Madoka said, somehow sounding even more uncertain than she did before, "but... maybe we could at least try talking first? The witch wouldn't have let Hitomi-chan go if it was completely evil, would it…?"
"Would you risk Miki-san's safety on that chance?" Mami asked.
Madoka hesitated. "I..."
<You know, if you made a contract with me, you could use your wish to save Sayaka right now, Madoka.> Kyubey said.
Mami blinked. Of course. Why hadn't she thought of that?
"He's right." she said, realization dawning. "Kaname-san, this is the perfect situation for you to make a wish. You can save Miki-san immediately!"
Madoka looked down, apparently considering it. Hitomi reached over and grabbed her friend's hand, slowly shaking her head in a subtle no, but Madoka barely seemed to notice. She opened her mouth to speak-
"If I may, your friend is now a magical girl, correct?" Tira suddenly cut in. "In that case, she should be capable of fighting back should the witch attempt anything, and if Shizuki-san is to be believed, she likely will not need to anyways. I do not think it wise to make a contract for the purposes of something that may be easily resolved regardless."
Mami frowned, and Hitomi's expression grew slightly uneasy, but both of them remained silent. In contrast, Madoka's expression firmed.
"…I trust Hitomi-chan." she said, her voice steadier than before. "And... I want to believe that not all witches have to be evil. If I need to, I'll use my wish to save Sayaka-chan, but… I want to know if it's true, first."
Mami looked at Madoka. The statement seemed selfish on the surface, but she knew full well that the other girl wasn't like that. Madoka truly believed that rescuing Sayaka from the witch might be as simple as talking things out with it.
"...very well." Mami finally said, sighing. "When we find the witch, we will attempt diplomacy first, to see if it truly is different than others."
Hitomi, Madoka, and Tira all smiled.
"Thank you, Tomoe-san/Mami-san." each of them said, almost in unison.
"However, we still must first locate the witch in order to do so." she reminded them.
"We may not need to, actually." Hitomi said. "Ashtaroth-san asked me if she could come by my house tomorrow morning in order to check on me. I was hoping we could try and work out how to separate Sayaka-san from her at that time. I have already invited Madoka-san, and I doubt that Ashtaroth-san would mind more assistance, particularly from someone more experienced in magic than us."
Mami blinked. The witch had made... plans?
"Then, Kaname-san and I should meet you at your house at that time?" she asked, deciding to disregard that for now.
Hitomi shook her head. "Tomorrow is a school day. Even if my parents do not notice our presence, the staff likely will. There is a cafe that I frequent not too far away however... we could convene there, perhaps?"
A public area wasn't particularly ideal in Mami's mind, but if this was to happen first thing in the morning, there likely wouldn't be too many people around. It would do.
Tira raised her hand. "Would you mind terribly if I attended this meeting as well? Seeing as how it ties rather directly into..." She glanced over at Mami for the briefest moment. "...into why I am here, after all."
Hitomi shook her head. "I do not have a problem with it."
"I don't either." Madoka agreed.
"…nor do I." Mami said. "However, I will ask that you be prepared to assist me in fighting the witch if it comes to that, Narumi-san."
Tira nodded. "Of... of course, Tomoe-san. Shall I depart then?"
"Ah, we should probably exchange numbers first..." Hitomi said.
By the time things finished up and everyone had everyone else's numbers, it was starting to get dark outside. Madoka and Hitomi left first, with Tira following shortly after. Mami was left alone in her apartment once more, save for Kyubey's presence.
<What will you do now, Mami?> the small creature asked.
"What I must." she replied.
Her clothes flashed, replacing themselves with those of her magical uniform.
<Hmm?> Kyubey remarked, watching Mami as she walked over and opened the large window at the end of the tiny hall. <Did you not tell the others you would try to resolve this peacefully?>
"I said that we would try diplomacy first." she answered. "That is not mutually exclusive with finding the witch before tomorrow morning."
Mami jumped outside and on to the nearest neighboring roof, using a summoned ribbon to close the window behind her on the way out. She typically searched from the street so as to avoid being seen by passerby or wasting magic, but right now she needed to move fast and cover as much ground as possible. The oncoming night would hopefully provide enough concealment that the former issue wouldn't crop up, and the latter was an acceptable sacrifice given the circumstances.
Leaping from building to building, she began scanning her surroundings with both her soul gem and magical senses, hoping to pick up on something as she went. Mami never had gotten Hitomi's address, but the green-haired girl had claimed that the cafe they were planning to meet at tomorrow was somewhat close by, which was at least a start. Unfortunately, the witch's magical signature would have already begun fading by now, and if Mami failed to trace its path directly, locating it would become a great deal harder. She would have little recourse at that point but to search the city at random, a terrible method to use when searching for a specific witch instead of witches and familiars in general, and if that too failed, she would have no choice but to wait until morning as agreed.
Mami swallowed down a lump in her throat as she jumped to the next roof, not liking that she was basically going behind everyone else's backs right now. For Sayaka's sake however, it seemed she had no choice. Madoka and Hitomi were too new to magic to understand, and Tira seemed not to want to understand, but Mami had seen witches of all sorts: ones that looked like pets, ones that looked like cartoons, ones that looked like people; like children, even. Witches that all seemed utterly harmless at first glance... and of which, each and every one had still turned out to be dangerous, without a single exception. Kyubey often described witches as curses upon the world, and this one was doubtless no different, other than the particular way it went about spreading that curse. Mami was fully aware that despite their good intentions, the other three girls' stated goal was all but bound to fail.
Nevertheless, she had promised. Whether she found the witch tonight or was forced to wait until tomorrow, she would try to find out if it was truly somehow benevolent before doing anything else. But if Mami saw any indication to the contrary; if the witch gave off even so much as a hint of duplicity, then she would kill it then and there to set Sayaka free.
Intelligent or not, a witch remained a witch.
As previously noted: writing Kyubey is HARD. If you notice anything he says here that directly contradicts something he said or did earlier, please point it out… careful though, a lot of it is just vague/doublespeak.
...writing Mami is kind of hard too actually, at least in this specific scenario. Hopefully she, as well as everyone else this chapter for that matter, reads as fairly true to their characters here. I did my best.
...writing Mami is kind of hard too actually, at least in this specific scenario. Hopefully she, as well as everyone else this chapter for that matter, reads as fairly true to their characters here. I did my best.
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Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Well, Hitomi certainly danced around the whole witchyness of the kidnapper for longer then I would've thought. I'm going to assume Madoka coached her some before setting off to meet with her, and that Hitomi did not tell her everything Ash told her regarding the magic girl system. A shame Mami is going to try violencing the problem away the first excuse she gets, but it's understandable given her experience. Not sure she'll be showing up in the next bit though, we've still got the night ahead to spend. A bit of wasted foreshadowing, but it also shows how her approach to witches; Kill first, think never. Usually a good policy, but in this case it could cause who knows how much harm.
Real question is what Sayaka will do if she does show up that night. Her actions with Charlotte shows an unwillingness to harm those who have done no harm, but Ash did do a bit of harm when she ate her, and that sore spot combined with the possibility that she'd be freed from Ash could be enough to not act on her own. Not that it'd matter, I doubt even an Ashtaroth/Sayaka/Charlotte/Shemesh super team up would be enough to take down Mami when she's got her guard up. Here's hoping for that slim chance of peaceful first contact!
Real question is what Sayaka will do if she does show up that night. Her actions with Charlotte shows an unwillingness to harm those who have done no harm, but Ash did do a bit of harm when she ate her, and that sore spot combined with the possibility that she'd be freed from Ash could be enough to not act on her own. Not that it'd matter, I doubt even an Ashtaroth/Sayaka/Charlotte/Shemesh super team up would be enough to take down Mami when she's got her guard up. Here's hoping for that slim chance of peaceful first contact!
- Location
- Australia
I have a sinking feeling that either Sayaka or Ashtaroth herself are gonna hit poor Mami with the one-two punch of lichbomb and witchbomb. Sayaka is too traumatized to be careful of what she's saying and Ashy isn't exactly a paragon of tact and discretion. If that happens, the best we could hope for would be Mami getting immediately subsumed and Sayaka getting a roomie, but it's entirely possible that she'd immediately witch out, too.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
mumi no
I'm actually scared for ash. Mami is extremely unstable, and she is known to be very trigger happy, not to mention that madoka and sayaka pretty pointedly excited the witch bomb from their explanation, and I don't need to explain why Mami and the witch bomb don't mix
I hope to god she fails to find Ashtaroth. for both of their sakes
I'm actually scared for ash. Mami is extremely unstable, and she is known to be very trigger happy, not to mention that madoka and sayaka pretty pointedly excited the witch bomb from their explanation, and I don't need to explain why Mami and the witch bomb don't mix
I hope to god she fails to find Ashtaroth. for both of their sakes
Worse, there is still Charlotte in the Labyrinth, and even if Ashtaroth is not immediately dangerous, the same cannot be said of the Sweets Witch. She is after all inclined to mistaken Mami for the cheese.
Mami is right in the regards that ALL Witches are dangerous in one way or other. Even non aggressive or "helpful" Witches can harm people indirectly, often via their Familiars who are less than intelligent most of the time and stuck in their roles even more than the Witches. Ashtaroth herself is harmless to humans but the Witches she will cohabit her fused Labyrinth with, and many of the remaining Familiars, are NOT.
- Location
- Kansas
I think one think that is useful to keep in mind with Kyubey in this situation, is that he only speaks the truth as he knows it. If he honestly thinks that no witch is intelligent, that is what he will say. While he knows a lot he is not all knowing, so he could say things that aren't true about Ashtaroth, because that witch is abnormal and acts differently then a witch should. Basically, a glitch in the system that Kyubey helps run.
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If the previous update was a closure, then here the plot shifts to a higher gear.
I find Mami being reasonable here: she has all the reason to believe Ashtaroth is a monster who must be killed as every other witch. If it wasn't for MC 1st person perspective we wouldn't know (and we sill don't know why she has humanlike intelligence when while other witches don't)
I also believe and hope Mami won't find Ashtaroth tonight, as Ashtaroth has taken the barrier very high so she's unperturbed. It's a bad thing for Mami her reputation precedes her this time.
But if they were to meet there are several things it could happen: there are risks of Ashtaroth/Sayaka dying, multibombing Mami*, and whatever may happen to Narumi, Sayaka and Madoka if they meet the next day. Now with adding a new tenant in the barrier (Charlotte, who I'm still worried about being left alive) things are going to become.... interesting to read but prossibly quite problematic for the characters there.
*I'm curious how Hitomi went with the wording in her story, as it'd be easy to wrongly presume veteran MG Mami knows about the bombs. I guess the objective was dancing around the fact Ashtaroth was a with as long as possible which hid the bombs as an unintended side effect.
I find Mami being reasonable here: she has all the reason to believe Ashtaroth is a monster who must be killed as every other witch. If it wasn't for MC 1st person perspective we wouldn't know (and we sill don't know why she has humanlike intelligence when while other witches don't)
I also believe and hope Mami won't find Ashtaroth tonight, as Ashtaroth has taken the barrier very high so she's unperturbed. It's a bad thing for Mami her reputation precedes her this time.
But if they were to meet there are several things it could happen: there are risks of Ashtaroth/Sayaka dying, multibombing Mami*, and whatever may happen to Narumi, Sayaka and Madoka if they meet the next day. Now with adding a new tenant in the barrier (Charlotte, who I'm still worried about being left alive) things are going to become.... interesting to read but prossibly quite problematic for the characters there.
*I'm curious how Hitomi went with the wording in her story, as it'd be easy to wrongly presume veteran MG Mami knows about the bombs. I guess the objective was dancing around the fact Ashtaroth was a with as long as possible which hid the bombs as an unintended side effect.
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Takareer
Words and feathers
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
Aaaah, a delicious long chapter! I love it so!
Kyuubey probably would feel pleased with her for such thinking, if it could feel.
- Location
- Kansas
So we still don't know what our original wish was. We do know it gave us shapeshifting powers when we were a magical girl.
We also know that for some reason we are intelligent unlike most witches appear to be. My guess is that our wish was something about having control over our life. Losing our mind by becoming a witch would be a direct violation of the wish, so us being an exception due to our wish makes sense.
While I like the underlying emotions at play here with Mami (and Hitomi - Madoka feels maybe a liiiiiittle bit off, but I can't quite put my finger on the 'why' of it just yet), and I admittedly haven't been following all of the backstory changes - where's Homura during all of this?
I can understand Ashy laying low and not drawing her attention right away, (and that we've spiralled out of 'canon' by several degrees at this point, what with capturing Charlotte) but now that Sayaka contracted 'early', and Madoka is involved, one would imagine that, unless she's off going through her checklist of 'things to do' in another area, she'd be intervening pretty darn soon.
Also curious on the (seeming) lack of explanation to Hitomi that 99.9% of witches will kill ya dead - I imagine it will come up later, certainly, but she could be in for a world of hurt if a different witch finds her in the future - I know Sayaka brought it up originally while inside the barrier, but it doesn't really seem to have 'sunk in'.
I can understand Ashy laying low and not drawing her attention right away, (and that we've spiralled out of 'canon' by several degrees at this point, what with capturing Charlotte) but now that Sayaka contracted 'early', and Madoka is involved, one would imagine that, unless she's off going through her checklist of 'things to do' in another area, she'd be intervening pretty darn soon.
Also curious on the (seeming) lack of explanation to Hitomi that 99.9% of witches will kill ya dead - I imagine it will come up later, certainly, but she could be in for a world of hurt if a different witch finds her in the future - I know Sayaka brought it up originally while inside the barrier, but it doesn't really seem to have 'sunk in'.
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Xexilf
Oblivion Sempiternum Daemonis
May not be that bad. In canon, IIRC Charlotte didnt do anymore than look at mami and try to evade until mami shot her a dozen times.
If we assume a non-hostile/evil charlotte, its very much possible to consider the result karma and/or self defense.
Tempestuous
Words are wind, so I write.
- Location
- CA
I think Kyubey was written very well. There is a lot of wiggle room in its statements. To wit:
At no point in the conversation does Kyubey say it does not know what happened, only that it did not know. None of the girls are suspicious enough to notice the difference.
On the surface, this is slightly less ambiguous, but still firmly rooted in past precedents. However, digging in deeper, Kyubey omits any absolutes from its statements here. It says:
This is the most 'interesting' bit, because it implies that there are some known <natural inclinations> in a hypothetical situation which has already been acknowledged as unprecedented. If an intelligent witch is truly a Black Swan for Kyubey, there is no data for this kind of assumption unless it's treated as trivial—in other words, reduced to "all perspectives are biased." However, that statement is technically true, so we could assume Kyubey's just trying to poison the well, in case Ash says something it needs to muddle later.
Moving on!
I don't think witching out is as fast a process as a lot of people treat it as, at least outside of the "casting from HP straight into negative numbers" sort of magical overexertion. Remember, canonically Mami did not witch out even from the witchbomb.
She immediately tried to murder-suicide the entire group instead.
So, that, basically.
Hopefully Mami isn't used to three-dimensional thinking. I don't think any non-intelligent witches would move their barriers farther from prey, so there's a good chance she has no reason to look upwards.
Ash is almost certainly an aberration in the timeline, so Homura may be housecleaning elsewhere on the assumption that nothing is going to happen yet. Which makes me wonder if, perhaps, Madoka's previous-timeline wish (whatever it may have been) has some relevance to her condition. Or perhaps this is simply one of the non-deterministic things that crop up, like Oniko's interference.
Didn't Ash give this spiel to Hitomi? I seem to remember something about "I'm not an evil witch but do not assume I am not unique" coming up during their talk.
At no point in the conversation does Kyubey say it does not know what happened, only that it did not know. None of the girls are suspicious enough to notice the difference.
On the surface, this is slightly less ambiguous, but still firmly rooted in past precedents. However, digging in deeper, Kyubey omits any absolutes from its statements here. It says:
- Witches have behaved in ways that indicate intelligence in the past.
- In [some but not necessarily all] previous instances, these displays were not indicative of true intelligence.
- The motivations are generally [but not always] impossible to determine.
- Intelligence was often feigned as a way of luring in prey.
This is the most 'interesting' bit, because it implies that there are some known <natural inclinations> in a hypothetical situation which has already been acknowledged as unprecedented. If an intelligent witch is truly a Black Swan for Kyubey, there is no data for this kind of assumption unless it's treated as trivial—in other words, reduced to "all perspectives are biased." However, that statement is technically true, so we could assume Kyubey's just trying to poison the well, in case Ash says something it needs to muddle later.
Moving on!
I don't think witching out is as fast a process as a lot of people treat it as, at least outside of the "casting from HP straight into negative numbers" sort of magical overexertion. Remember, canonically Mami did not witch out even from the witchbomb.
She immediately tried to murder-suicide the entire group instead.
So, that, basically.
Hopefully Mami isn't used to three-dimensional thinking. I don't think any non-intelligent witches would move their barriers farther from prey, so there's a good chance she has no reason to look upwards.
Ash is almost certainly an aberration in the timeline, so Homura may be housecleaning elsewhere on the assumption that nothing is going to happen yet. Which makes me wonder if, perhaps, Madoka's previous-timeline wish (whatever it may have been) has some relevance to her condition. Or perhaps this is simply one of the non-deterministic things that crop up, like Oniko's interference.
Didn't Ash give this spiel to Hitomi? I seem to remember something about "I'm not an evil witch but do not assume I am not unique" coming up during their talk.
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