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The dark city rose in front of her, glooming like the everlasting nightmare she has to live through ever since. How long is this going on already? She can’t tell anymore. No matter what, it has been too long.
“I don’t know you,” a throaty female voice says. The sound alone lets Shiro’s hair stand on end. “You’re an oddity. Who are you.”
“I don’t care about you anymore,” Shiro says, not even turning her head to the black cat that settles next to her.
A sudden burst of darkness swallows the city’s lights, heralding the birth of a new evil - and the death of a young life.
It doesn’t matter how often Shiro sees this happening, it still hurts. But every time a bit less. The pain becoming natural to her, a constant in her life that dulled her very being. Like a knife that cut too often and now you only felt the pressure of the blunt blade.
“Another one of your victims.”
“It’s their fate,” the female voice answers matter of factly. Voice rid of any emotions. “I gave them what they wanted.”
Shiro clicks her tongue at that. Why did she even ask?
Her long hair dances in the wind that’s heavy with dark energy. The silver strands a stark contrast to the black night. The air smells like suffering. A sharp scent that stings in one's nose and lets your heart sink.
“You won’t get her. You lost, Honerva,” Shiro says and gets out an oval item with golden bands that holds a purple gem.
“You’re one of them,” Honvera figures and if Shiro wouldn’t know better she’d think Honvera sounded surprised. “But I never met you before.”
The gem in her hand glows, encapsulating Shiro in its light. Her appearance changes. Long, white strands of hair are pulled into a neat ponytail, clothes turn into a black skirt with white ornaments and a purple shirt with a bow on the back.
Like that, Shiro jumps from the building, determined to keep the one person safe that means the most to her. More than her own life.
Down in the streets, Shiro locates the witch fast and enters her labyrinth. It’s a twisted version of reality, decorated with forms and colors that resembled real objects and yet distorted beyond real recognition. It would be an interesting view if there wouldn’t be dread hanging everywhere. The darkness that lingered, the pain that screamed from the walls. Every witch’s labyrinth looks different, molded by their emotions and wishes, but the ominous feeling is always the same: despair and suffering.
Shiro calmly makes her way through it when footsteps interrupt the silence around her.
Another girl?
She turns but can only catch a long, dark braid vanishing behind a corner. It can’t be. She can’t be here. Shiro made sure of that!
Sprinting towards where the shadow had vanished, Shiro finds nothing but another dark corridor of the labyrinth. Sudden laughter let her whirl around. She knows this voice, she would recognize it everywhere.
But yet again, nobody stands there.
Shiro clenches her fists but the trembling goes through her whole body. “She’s not here. She’s safe…”, she mumbles quietly to herself. “Get this over with.”
To keep her safe, Shiro has to continue. Getting rid of this witch and every other that would appear. It’s the only way. Shiro is paranoid enough to not even think of her name, afraid it would make her suddenly appear.
As if Shiro’s thoughts would be enough to call out to her soulmate.
Once at the core, Shiro is swift at eliminating the witch. The world around her shakes and blurs until she’s back into reality.
The greed seed falls into her hands, small and black. A compressed seed made of negative emotions and lost hope.
It’s their fate.
Shiro shakes her head and puts the seed away, ready to leave.
“Shiro?”
She freezes.
No, no, no, no.
“Shiro!”
This can’t be. She should be safe - not here!
And yet, when Shiro turns around, a too-familiar girl runs up to her.
“Keith,” Shiro breaths out.
“Oh my god, it’s really you!”
Those purple eyes that used to twinkle in wonder and excitement under a starry night now stare at her in disbelief. Tears have gathered in their corners.
“You’re back…”, Keith chokes and slowly goes up to Shiro, her shaky hand landing on Shiro’s arm before she pulls her in a tight embrace. “I can’t believe it worked...” Shiro turns stiff the moment those words hit her ears. “She was right.”
“Who?!” Shiro pushes Keith away from her, her fingers digging into the slender shoulders. “Who was right?! Who did you talk to, Keith?!”
Keith blinks and frowns while rubbing her hand over her eyes. “Honvera - she promised to grant me any wish. And here y—”
Keith continues talking but her voice fades away, only Shiro’s heartbeat remains. A staggering crescendo, too fast to even recognize the singular beats. Shiro’s hands fall from Keith’s shoulders as she continues to just stand there, staring into the night.
This isn’t how it's supposed to be! How did this happen?!
“-hiro? Hey, Shiro? What’s wrong?”
Shiro closes her eyes, her hands turn into fists. There is water collecting in her eyes but she doesn’t allow herself to cry.
“You made a contract with Honerva,” she breathes out matter of factly.
“Uh...yeah,” Keith says confused until she suddenly gasps. “Wait, those clothes...are you a magical girl as well? Then we can defeat witches together!”
“No, we can not,” Shiro shakes her head and opens her eyes again. “I have to leave.”
Before she can fully turn around, Keith grabs her arm. “No, wait! I just got you back! You can’t just leave me again!”
“No, I have to fix this, I can’t let this happen,” Shiro continues and yanks her arm free. The glances back to Keith and gulps. “I’m sorry, Keith. But I have to save you.”
“Save me? What are you even talking about?” Keith starts following her, but Shiro runs and soon vanishes back onto the rooftops.
She lifts her arm, a round apparatus is fixed to it. It looks like a shield, too small to protect anything, though. Quick fingers turn the outer ring to activate its actual powers. The world around Shiro starts spinning and morphing. Night turns to day in the blink of an eye.
Her heart bleeds and screams at her to turn back and enjoy the moments with Keith as long as they last. To have at least that if nothing else…
No. She can save Keith. She has to. If Shiro doesn’t do anything, Keith will…
Shiro shudders. The thought alone makes her stomach turn upside down. There is no way she lets this happen. Not again.
“I’m sorry, Shiro,” Keith’s voice was a faint whisper. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“No….please…” Shiro choked out as she clutched Keith closer. Her sobs are ugly and full of suffering. The pain she felt in her chest from the shards of a broken heart was nothing she ever experienced before. “Don’t leave me.”
Tears impaired her vision and yet she could see the small smile on Keith’s lips. Blood dripped out of their corners. She lifted a heavy hand and placed it on Shiro’s cheek. It was trembling. “You’re so pretty…”
The huff that left Shiro’s throat was a wet mix of a laugh and cry. What else could she do at this moment? Keith was dying in her arms and still made stupid compliments. She always knew how to make Shiro laugh, how to brighten her day no matter what had happened before.
The smile on Keith’s lips turned into a smirk before she suddenly coughed. More blood covered her hand.
Her red attire had nothing magical on it anymore, darkened with the dangerous amount of blood that she had lost already. Shiro had always loved to see Keith in this outfit. Dark leggings, half a skirt in layered fabric of different shades of red with black lace on its hems. A black shirt and a red leathery jacket over it, that ended on her slim waist. The others always joked it was too small.
How naive they had been.
A high-pitched laugh cut through the air and Keith's eyes widened. “Shiro you need to leave, the witch is still here!”
Shiro frantically shook her head. “No, I won’t leave you!”
“You have to! I can’t be the reason you die..!”
“But I’m the reason you’re here,” Shiro sobbed and leaned her forehead against Keith. Her black hair covered them both from the outside world. Their shaky breath mingled and Shiro could hear how Keith’s faded more and more. The hand that Keith placed on Shiro’s cheek was cold already.
“It’s okay sunlight,” Keith whispered back, her eyes closed. “It’s not your fault.”
“Please don’t leave me..!”
“I'm sorry...I lov—“, before she could finish, her hand fell off Shiro’s cheek.
A scream full of agony echoed through the night.
Shiro snaps out of it, her fingers clawed into her shirt right above her heart. As if she could hold the pieces together with sheer force. But force is not enough, neither is willpower. She has to fix this, nothing else will cut it.
A black cat sat down next to her. “I don’t know you. You’re an oddity here.”
Without hesitation, Shiro whirls around and beheads the cat. Dark blood stains the silver blade in her hand. The lifeless body falls to the ground as Shiro lets her sword disappear again.
“Why so trigger-happy?” Honerva asks from behind her. The cat jumps out of the dark and sits down next to the cadaver.
“Fuck off, Honerva,” Shiro growls and moves on.
“You haven’t answered my question. How can you be a magical girl if I didn’t make a contract with you,” Honerva continues as emotionless as always.
Another spin, another bloodstain on the ground - for another second of silence. It won’t stay long, Shiro knows that but she is so sick of this bastard. Even after all this time Shiro never truly understood what it is that Honerva is after.
In the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. The only thing mattering is Keith being safe and away from Honerva.
The treacherous sound of paws behind her let Shiro sigh.
“You’re a magical girl and you know me and...wait, don’t tell me, you’re—“ This time Honerva jumps away in time to not get hit. “You’ll destroy the time continuum at some point. It’s very interesting though, why are you doing it?”
Shiro decides it’s the best to just ignore her. There’s nothing to gain from a conversation with someone who doesn’t care about human lives in the slightest. It doesn’t make a difference anyway. Shiro knows everything she needs to know about these wicked contracts.
Destroying the time continuum? Shiro doesn’t care - if it’s true anyway. By now she has already lost count of how often she has tried to save Keith. After so many jumps she doubts that something will happen. And if after all...as long as Keith is safe in the end, it’s all that matters.
Which is why she has to hurry. Keeping witches at bay and Honerva away from Keith hasn’t helped much before but Shiro only has so many options. There has to be a way to prevent Keith from making a contract and Shiro will find it.
Whether Shiro got better in fighting or something has actually changed, she manages to keep Keith safe for the longest time, longer than ever before. It takes its toll on Shiro, however. She may jump through time but she’s still a human. Magical powers or not. And her energy is running low. More and more often she gets hit. Bruises and cuts cover her skin. With no end in sight, Shiro also never stops fighting.
With every victory, every witch dead, Shiro’s soul gem slowly dimmers more and more. Grieve seeds are used to suck out the negative energy inside one’s soul gem but it’s not a solution forever. Sooner or later a magical girl turns into a witch no matter what. Shiro has to find a way to protect Keith beyond her own life.
There’s a rumor among magical girls of the perfect witch. Gigantic and powerful. The bringer of the end. Shiro turns it down as a myth, to scare new girls.
Until she stands in front of it.
It takes everything out of Shiro until a point at which she’s not sure if she will make it. What other choice does she have, though? With her gone, who will keep Keith safe??
Blood stains her garment as she lies on her back, looking up to the hysterically laughing witch that torments the city. They used to be human, but nothing speaks of that anymore. Deformed and grotesk, they don’t resemble a human at all.
Shiro wonders what she’ll look like as a witch. Their appearance always reflects their inner pain and the wish that turned them into a magical girl in the first place.
“Shiro?!”
The voice that haunts Shiro in every second of her life cuts through her dying thoughts. She turns her head and sure enough, the familiar blackhead runs towards her.
A deep gap between them makes it impossible for Keith to reach her, though. While she stops and looks for another way, Shiro tries to get up to vanish as quickly as she can. Maybe it’s still enough to leave now but her body is too weak to move.
“Do you wish to save her?”
“NO!” Shiro screams but her voice is too quiet. Too weak to reach them.
Keith turns around and spots Honerva next to her. “Yes, of course! Please, help me!”
The black cat nods and Keith gets engulfed in bright light.
What happens next is repeating itself every time. Keith is a ridiculously strong magical girl with powers far beyond any that Shiro ever saw. Seemingly without any problems does Keith get rid of the witch only to appear next to Shiro.
“Shiro! I can help,” she says and uses her healing powers to close Shiro’s wounds. Astonished of her own powers, Keith looks at her hands, then smiles brightly at Shiro. “You’re back! I’m so glad! ...Shiro…?”
The tears on Shiro’s face are not from any physical pain. Nothing would be able to cut this deep, to hurt this much.
She sits up and shakes her head. “Why…? Why do you keep doing this?” Her voice is a whisper. “No matter what I do…”
“Shiro…” Keith reaches out to touch her but Shiro snaps the hand away.
“No! Don’t you understand?! I try to save you! Over and over again! I went back so often to keep you from making a contract but you keep doing it! Why?!”
Keith blinks. “Shiro, what are you talking about? Let's go home and—“
“No, I can’t,” Shiro says and gets up slowly. Her body is still weakened from all the fights. “I need to rewind time again. Go back to before you became a magical girl.”
“Rewind...what? What do you mean? Do you jump through time?” Keith gets up with her.
“I have to! I can’t let you die!” Shiro cries out, tears on her bloody face. “No matter what I do, you always end up like this! You always wish to save me or to see me again or to find me or to help me!”
“Shiro, I don’t understand - please, calm down and explain,” Keith tries to reach for her one more time and it breaks something in Shiro. She wants nothing more than to let herself get hugged by Keith but she can’t. Not like this.
“No! Just forget about me!” Shiro screams and suddenly black surrounds her.
When Keith opens her eyes again, she’s somewhere else.
She turns and looks around. “Shiro?”
No answer.
“Shiro?! Where are you?”
Still nothing.
Keith turns again, trying to identify where she ended up. Is this another labyrinth that Honerva talked about? But where did that witch come from?
There seems to be nobody else here so Keith decides to walk around to hopefully find Shiro.
This truly is a different labyrinth. Keith doesn’t know a lot about magical girls and witches yet, only the small part that Honerva told her right after making the contract. Apparently, witches are all unique and so are their labyrinths. This one is purple and black, with specs of red. Keith can see stars and constellations everywhere. It would be pretty but there is this constant heavy weight that pushes her down. She had felt something similar in the other labyrinth but that was no comparison to this. This feels like suffocating.
Clocks were everywhere, going backward and forwards, spinning wild in chaos. Keith comes to a halt in front of one that seems to twitch and flicker as if you could see through it if you’d look close enough.
“What the…”, Keith breathes out.
The clock reveals scenes of Shiro and her - but it’s nothing she remembers. They’re at university together, but Shiro vanished years ago before Keith entered college. How can this be? And why is this here?
The more Keith walks into the labyrinth the more scenes she sees; of a life with Shiro that never happened. They laugh and spend time together. Then the images suddenly change. Keith cries, they argue and then Keith is a magical girl? There’s a fight, and Keith…
Keith shakes her head. Nothing here makes sense. She has to get out quickly - but first, she has to find Shiro.
“Shiro? Shiro, where are you?” Keith shouts in every direction she can find, walking aimlessly in this maze.
“She can’t hear you anymore.”
Keith whirls around. Honerva stands there, licking her paw. “Honerva, what is going on?” Keith runs up to her. “What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t you understand? This is Shiro’s labyrinth.”
“What? I thought only witches have labyrinths,” Keith feels a cold shudder running down her spine.
“Exactly and Shiro became one,” Honerva continues unphased.
“What?! No! She can’t! She’s a magical girl!”
“And it’s their fate to end up as the very being that they fight. This is the cycle.”
“No! This is not what you told me! Why?!” Keith cries out, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
“I told you all the necessary information.”
“You bastard,” Keith growls deeply, her fists clenched. “How dare you trick us like that?! How can I help Shiro??”
“There’s no way. She’s too far gone. The only way to help her is to end her.”
“No! Never! You promised me to be able to save her!”
“You did at that moment - and now you can save her by ending her torment,” Honerva explains and leans her head to the side.
“No, I’ll find a way!” Keith says and runs off.
Killing Shiro? How should Keith ever be able to do so? Shiro is her best friend, her most important person. There has always bloomed more inside Keith but she never dared to say it out loud. Now she fears she’ll never be able to tell Shiro.
Keith passes by endless tunnels that are lined by a whirl of clocks and stars. Shiro had said she traveled through time. Are those scenes that Keith sees actual memories? Of a past timeline?
The labyrinth ends in an open area and there is where Keith sees her: the witch.
“Shiro! Please, listen to me!” Keith tries but is attacked immediately. She dodges and jumps closer and closer to the gigantic figure that once was Shiro. “Shiro, please! I know you’re still in there!”
A high pitched scream rings in Keith’s ears and it’s hard to concentrate.
“Shiro! You can’t do this to me again! You can’t just leave me here!” Keith screams just as a blow is about to hit her. She’s not fast enough to jump away. “Please Shiro, fight!”
Suddenly everything is white. It’s so bright that Keith has to close her eyes and cover them with her hand.
“Keith..?”
“Shiro?” Upon opening them again, Keith can slowly make out a figure in front of her. “Shiro!”
Shiro looks around. “Where are we?”
“I’m not sure. Do you remember what happened?”
“No…” Shiro frowns and looks around them once more.
“You...you turned into a witch,” Keith says.
“What?!” Shiro whirls around to face her. “No! I have to go back and—“
“But that won’t change anything!” Keith interjected and holds Shiro’s hand that was about to grab the strange device on her arm. “You said it yourself. We always end up like this. There has to be another way. How can I save you??”
Shiro looks up with big eyes, then she smiles and laughs. “This is what it all started…” she breathes out and looks at her arm. “I told you I was sick, that my time was limited and there was nothing to help me with. We argued about it, you demanded that we should be able to do something. You ran off and found Honerva. She granted your wish and for that turned you into a magical girl. It seemed great at first, you enjoyed helping others and of course, you were happy that I was healthy but then…” Shiro takes in a shaky breath. “A powerful witch arrived and...you...you died in my arms…”
Keith feels her heart sink. Memories of something that hasn’t happened in this timeline start to resurface.
“And Honerva was there yet again. Granting me my wish to be able to save you,” Shiro continues and lifts her arm on which the small shield-like object is strapped on. “I got the power to travel in time. But no matter what I did. No matter what I tried, you always ended up a magical girl… I even tried to erase myself from your memory.”
“Is that why you were gone for so long?”
Shiro shrugs. “I’m not sure. Maybe. I tried to not let us meet and it seemed to work but in the end, you always remembered me.”
“What do we do now?” Keith asks and fears the answer.
“I...I don’t know…” Shiro shakes her head. “I tried everything. I…” Shiro suddenly looks up. “You! You can end it!”
Keith frowns. “W-what? How?”
Shiro puts her hands on Keith’s shoulders. “I can send you back in time! You need to—“ She stops for a second.
“What? What do I need to do? Tell me, I’ll do anything.”
“You need to kill me.”
“What?! NO!” Keith steps away from Shiro. “Stop saying that! I could never kill you!”
“But it’s the only way! Even if you end me now as a witch, you can’t escape your own fate! Please, Keith. Do this for me. Travel back and end me before we meet. So that you’ll never end up a magical girl because of me,” Shiro steps up to her slowly and takes her hands. “Please…”
Hot tears run down Keith’s face. Shiro lifts a hand to wipe it away. “Why can’t we just be together and happy?” Keith murmurs.
“Some things are not meant to be,” Shiro whispers back, but smiles as she leans in closer. “But I’m thankful for every second I got to spend with you.”
Keith sniffs and shakes her head. “I can’t do this.”
“You can. I believe in you, Keith,” Shiro whispers, her forehead against Keith’s.
The moment Keith tries to lean in more to feel Shiro’s lips on hers, she is suddenly pulled back and Shiro vanishes. Everything whirls around her as he time travels backward.
Shiro wakes up in her bed. For a couple of seconds, she just stares at the ceiling. What a strange dream.
Wait. Was it a dream?
No.
It was real!
She had tried to save Keith, turned into a witch, and then..!
Keith didn’t do it. She didn’t end her.
Shiro whines out loud and wants to put her arm over her eyes but nothing happens. She turns her head and lifts her arm again.
It was gone. Her whole lower arm was gone, including her elbow?!
What the…
Confused, she gets up. This is her room that she had in college. She hasn’t been here in what feels ages. And at the same time, it feels so normal to be here. To be home.
Moving around, Shiro has a constant feeling of walking on eggshells. Everything feels so much...more. As if she had woken from a deep slumber that had numbed her.
It suddenly hits her. She looks everywhere for it but can’t find it. It’s gone. She’s not a magical girl anymore. Her soul is not trapped inside a gem. She’s free.
But what about Keith??
As if on cue, her phone vibrates.
Hey, meet up on the usual spot? - Lance
Already ahead of you - Pidge
Hey, gimme a sec! - Hunk
Shiro, u coming as well? - Keith
A group chat? Shiro frowns but types a response. She’ll check it out. Something tells her she knows the spot they talk about.
Sure enough, it’s where Shiro had expected them to be. There are all here. Her friends she hasn’t seen for so long. And Keith. In normal clothes. No magical girl, no Honerva, no blood.
Is this a dream?
“Yo, Shiro!” Lance waves at her. Keith turns around and her smile makes Shiro’s knees weak. It has been so long…
Nobody seems disturbed by Shiro’s missing limb, neither does anybody remember what had happened. They’re all just college students enjoying life.
Shiro sits down a bit apart from them on the edge of the roof that they had met up on. She has a beautiful view of the city. No dark cloud, no resentful energy. Just the blue sky.
“Mind if I join?” Keith asks with a smile.
“Of course not,” Shiro answers and looks a second too long at Keith, marveling in her sight.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Keith nods to the city as she sits down.
“Yeah,” Shiro says, still looking at Keith.
They stay silent for a moment, both watching the city.
“I’m sorry about your arm,” Keith starts, prompting Shiro to look at her. “It was the only way...I couldn’t just…” Keith shudders but then she smiles at Shiro brightly. “But I figured it out. I found a way. I...had to cut off your arm but with that, I reversed my very first wish. You’re not sick so I never had to wish for you to be healed.”
Shiro blinks. “You remember,” she breathes out. “So this was not a dream..?”
Keith's smile is sad. “No, it was not,” she places her hand onto Shiro’s. “But it’s over now. We made it. You made it, Shiro.”
“What about Honerva?”
Keith sighs and lets her eyes glide over the city. “She’s still out there. Turning innocence into witches.”
“We have to stop her then!”
“No. We can’t.”
“But!”
Keith turns towards her, her hands on Shiro’s cheeks. “I know it’s hard, but you can’t save everybody, Shiro…”
Shiro shakes her head, tears in her eyes. “They will all…”
Keith nods in silence and kisses her forehead. “I know. We will save them. Just not now,” she whispers and smiles as Shiro.
Shiro gulps and nods as well. She strokes over Keith’s cheek. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“It’s good to have you back,” Keith says and leans in until their lips are centimeters apart. “I love you.”