Chapter Text
(Somewhere, someone in this universe cares very much about you, you know.
You aren’t ready to hear that story. Not yet, not now, and especially not from me. It’s okay. I don’t understand, but I’m trying to give you space. I’m trying to be happy enough with just this, for you. I hope it’s working. I hope I’m not just dragging you down.
One day, maybe, I’ll see you again. I think that might be nice.
But this isn’t anything you’ll listen to, right now. Why don’t we return to something a bit more familiar?)
She’s not going to make it.
Madoka jumps, clutching her daemon closer to her chest, at the voice that arises out of nowhere in this torn-apart landscape, buildings being thrown at other buildings, the resounding booms of explosives, and flashes of purple light, appearing here, there, so far away Madoka can hardly make it out.
“She…?” Madoka’s voice comes hesitant, but her eyes are drawn to that purple light, right there in the thick of the destruction. Is that—it is! There, if she squints and her daemon does too, somewhere in the coming-into focus that is both of them looking together she can see a girl, maybe her age or so, with long dark hair and intense eyes, and a lanyard around her neck that keeps flying about in all the wind, at the end of which is some sort of case, the sort of which a fragile insect-daemon might be kept safe within.
Madoka hugs her own daemon even tighter, and the reverb of that crushing hug rattles against her own skin, here here here.
She tried to take this on alone. Not that she ever could, of course. But if she gives up, it’s all over.
“That’s horrible,” Madoka says, faint. Her own heart is hammering in her chest as the cat-creature—a daemon? But there’s nobody else around save for the girl, so far away—hops up onto a fence in front of Madoka, separating her off from the carnage of down below. In her arms her daemon’s ears twitch, somewhat, and instead of the soft grays Madoka remembers them as they’re darker than she’s ever seen them before in this place where the wind is howling, and that strange girl is fighting—fighting feels like the right word—what must be the end of the world.
The sheered-off top of a building crashes into the girl and Madoka’s choked-off scream dies in her throat. It billows up an explosion of dust and building parts, but her daemon stiffens against her when he catches a flash of purple, the girl somehow not dead. Everything is howling, around them, louder than anything they’ve ever experienced.
“Is there any way to help?” Madoka looks to the cat-creature. It’s watching her, not the girl, and at her question it cocks its head sideways.
Well, of course, it says, stretching out its paws in front of it as it stands. Why, you could stop this whole battle right now, Kaname Ildico-Madoka! Change the fate of tragedy and destruction!
“I…could?” Madoka looks down to her hands, to the soft fur of her daemon’s pelt. “How?”
By making a contract with me, the creature blinks up at her, its thick tail curling, and becoming a magical girl!
Madoka wakes up, her daemon in her arms, rabbit-shaped just like he was…
“It was a dream,” he says, blinking fast. He’s patched in alternating rows of cream and gray, so much softer than he was in that—dream. It was all…just a dream. “That girl, the.” He scrambles out of her arms and over to their window, staring out to the soft rising sun just beyond, barely visible through their curtains. “Just a dream.”
“Mmm.” Madoka takes a breath, another. There was—a girl, she remembers. Someone else. The girl’s daemon? It must’ve been, right? There were two parts, just like she and Ildico were both there.
Oh well. It was just an odd dream, and she has a day to prepare for.
Mitakihara Middle School has a new transfer student.
“I bet she’s weird,” Sayaka is saying, leaning over with her elbows resting on Madoka’s desk, her daemon Octavia perched on her back, a tanuki with her thick tail wagging slow. “I mean, who transfers in the middle of the year?”
“Sayaka!” Madoka chides, mostly playful, poking her friend’s arm while Ildico glares up at Octavia. “We haven’t even met her yet!”
“I bet she’s a serial killer,” Octavia says, stretching into a stand and pouncing down onto Ildico, who squeals and goes small, a hamster, launching himself into Madoka’s chest. “Aww, c’mon! Serial killer transfer student is totally fair!”
“They wouldn’t let a serial killer into the school,” Hitomi says, sat in the desk just beside Madoka, her daemon Pryderi watching them both with an amused curl to his bob-tail, twitching one calico ear.
“Well they don’t know, obviously.” Octavia waggles her tail even as Madoka cups her hands around poor Ildico, because Octavia is being very mean and she’ll have no part in this!
“Just think about it, Madoka!” Sayaka dances out of Madoka’s reach before Madoka can try and grab her in revenge. “An unassuming transfer student, nobody thinks anything, and bam! Dead classmates left and right.” Madoka scrambles out of her chair to chase after Sayaka, Octavia laughing, more of a cackle than anything else, as she pelts after them both. Ildico tumbles out of Madoka’s hands and into the air as a russet sparrow, wings beating steadfast. “I’d avenge you, of course.”
“Wait, what? Why am I dead!” Madoka follows Sayaka’s winding path around various desks and other classmates, tracing their way through the classroom.
“Well, because you’re so cute, of course. Who could resist?” Sayaka sticks out her arm for Octavia, who’s shifted into a crow sometime during the chase, and lands rather sloppily there, grinning at Madoka as she does so.
“Sayaka-chan!” Madoka whines, finally catching up with her friend near Hitomi’s desk, the two of them only just avoiding crashing into Pryderi because the cat-daemon is used to their antics and steps off his desk and into Hitomi’s lap, “that’s not fair! You can’t just say I’d die like that!”
“I can and I will!” Octavia tackles Ildico out of the air just as Madoka manages to grab Sayaka, hugging her arm tight to keep her from going anywhere. Their daemons land in a sprawl, Ildico flicking rabbit to tug himself free of Octavia’s grasp, shaking himself. Octavia rights herself, hopping along on the floor.
Very calmly, Hitomi says, “will you two ever not do this in the middle of the classroom?”
Madoka and Sayaka lock eyes. “No,” they say, together, before breaking into giggles, and even Hitomi just sort of sighs fondly at them, and when Madoka kneels down to gather up her daemon, they lean into each other warm and here and happy, before class starts for real.
The transfer student is—
“Akemi Homura,” their teacher says, and then pauses, frowns. The girl herself is standing in the front of the class, her face blank of any particular emotion. Her long hair comes down to the middle of her back, and she’s wearing a lanyard with a small leather case at the end of it, maybe half the size of her fist. “I, uh—your documents are missing daemon name, for some reason?”
“That’s alright.” Homura’s voice is quiet, unassuming. She takes the marker their teacher had been using to write her name and finishes, no daemon-name, no nothing—Akemi Homura, period. She covers her other hand over her heart, where the case at the end of the lanyard is. “He’s shy. He’ll introduce himself if he feels like it.”
Octavia, a tanuki, again, wraps herself around the leg of Madoka’s desk, prodding her muzzle against Ildico, crouched down in Madoka’s lap. She whispers, “I bet he Settled as a dung beetle or something, and she’s too embarrassed to admit it.”
Ildico laughs, swatting Octavia with a paw, who takes it with a smile. Madoka keeps staring at the new transfer student—at her dark hair and her intense eyes—who is staring right back at Madoka like she can see the very shape of her Settled soul.
Madoka’s huddled up with her friends during the class break, the three of them not being bothered because almost everyone else is over at Homura’s desk, peppering the new student with questions. Madoka can hear their voices from here—is it true you were out with a heart condition? Did it do something to your daemon? Is he Settled?—but not any of Homura’s responses, if the girl is giving them at all.
“I dunno,” Sayaka says, frowning. Octavia’s a retriever leaning against her legs, shaggy golden fur falling over her eyes. “I don’t like her.”
“You’ve known her for three hours,” Pryderi points out, where he’s sprawled out across Hitomi’s shoulders, his pale paws kneading against her. “All of which were just sitting in the same classroom together.”
“Okay, yeah, but.” Sayaka drops her hand down to rest on Octavia’s head. “It’s just weird. She knew the answer to every question, and we haven’t even covered most of this stuff before! Besides, anybody who hides their daemon away like that can’t be trusted.”
“She said he was shy,” Ildico chimes in. He’s a chinchilla, right now, silky-soft fur where he’s resting against Madoka’s chest, balanced in the crook of her arm. “A lot of people are shy.”
“Okay, but not even telling us his name?” Octavia shakes her head with a doggish whuff. “You have to admit that’s a bit odd.”
Hitomi shrugs. “Not really.”
“Yeah, but you’re rich. It’s different for rich people. It’s like, you,” Sayaka nods at Pryderi, “never change from being a Japanese Bobtail, even though you totally could—uh, right? Unless you’ve Settled in the past week since I last asked…?” Pryderi shakes his head. “Cool, right, so you haven’t. But you’re still only ever the same thing. That’s really weird if you aren’t rich, and I don’t know about you, but rich people don’t have insect-daemons. And if they did they’d have way fancier protection than just a leather case.”
“I guess that’s true…” Hitomi muses.
Madoka pets Ildico carefully, her gaze drifting over to Homura—or, at least, the crowd surrounding her.
“But even if she was rich,” Sayaka continues, as Octavia begins to pace around the group of them, her golden fur sometimes flashing in Madoka’s vision, “that doesn’t explain why she was staring at Madoka and Ildico while she was being introduced! I don’t think I saw her blink once!”
“So you were staring at her, too?” Pryderi asks, purring.
“Hey!” Octavia shifts crow to flap up to Pryderi, prodding him with her beak, “I only was ‘cause she started it! What kind of person would I be, if I wasn’t looking out for my friends?”
“Madoka’s the nurse’s aid,” Hitomi says, as Pryderi sticks out his paw and pushes Octavia down as she grumbles. “I’m sure someone told Akemi-san who she was, before she started, here.”
“I still didn’t like the staring,” Sayaka says, crossing her arms. Then, “hey, Madoka, why are you zoning out?”
“Why—oh! Um, no, I’m fine, it’s just…” Madoka shakes her head, rubbing at her eyes, as Ildico hops out of her arms to hover beside her as a sparrow. “Sorry. I keep—I think I’ve seen that girl before. Uh, Akemi-san.”
“Really?” Octavia lands on the edge of the nearest desks, hops closer to Madoka. “Where? I’ve never seen her at the hospital before.”
“Do you…” Ildico squints at her. “Do you randomly look into other patients’ hospital rooms?”
“No,” Octavia says, far too fast. Ildico keeps staring. “…maybe. A little bit. When I’m bor—”
“ANYWAY,” Sayaka says, shoving her daemon onto the floor and ignoring Octavia’s offended splutter, “what were you saying about knowing the new girl, Madoka?”
“Just—she looks familiar.” Madoka stares down at her lap. “Don’t—don’t laugh at me, okay, but I think…I think I saw her in a dream.”
Sayaka snorts.
“I said don’t laugh!” Madoka whines, which draws a full laugh out of her friends. “Sayaka-chan!”
“Sorry, sorry, I’m—I swear I’m not being mean, it’s just, your voice, like cracked, I.” She rubs at her eyes. “I’m good. Was it like—one of those prophetic type dreams? A deja-vu sorta thing?”
“I don’t think so,” Ildico says, before Madoka can figure out what to say. The steady beating of his wings in the air is like her heart beat, thump, thump, thump. “I don’t remember that much of it. But I think she was in trouble, and I had to save her. But—I couldn’t. I wasn’t strong enough.”
“Damn,” Sayaka says. Octavia’s clawed her way back onto the desk, a tanuki, now, arching her back. “That’s weird. See, that’s another point for my I don’t trust this weird transfer student argument!”
Hitomi shrugs. “You probably just saw her in the street or something.” She pets Pryderi’s head, and her daemon purrs somewhat. “And subconsciously remembered her face.”
She goes quiet when a shadow falls over them, and Madoka looks up to see the transfer student, Akemi Homura, standing right in front of her. Ildico squeaks, almost, his wingbeats fumbling, and Madoka grabs him before he can fall as he shrinks into a hamster in her hands. Hitomi’s probably right, that Madoka just saw her somewhere and had a weird dream, and she can’t hardly remember much of the dream anyway, so.
“Kaname Ildico-Madoka, right?” Madoka practically has to strain to hear Homura’s voice. “You’re the nurse’s aid.”
“Uh—yeah! I am.” Madoka catches Sayaka’s eye—weird, she’s mouthing, and Madoka huffs, because honestly, there’s no reason to be rude. “Did you need to go to the nurse’s office? I can show you the way!”
“Yes,” Homura says. Whenever she moves it bobs her lanyard, just slightly, and Madoka finds her gaze drawn to the insect-daemon case at the end of it. Hopefully Homura’s daemon isn’t scared to come out! Oh, no, did they overhear Sayaka talking? Madoka hopes that isn’t it. “That would be appreciated.”
“Okay, cool! Uh—I’ll see you guys after, then?” She offers to her friends, getting a nod from Hitomi and a squint from Sayaka, though Octavia’s tail waves in a way that generally means something along the lines of yeah sure, when they aren’t supposed to be talking and Octavia’s being sneakier than Sayaka is. “Here, Akemi-san, let’s—”
Homura’s already heading for the door. Madoka continues, “or, uh, we can meet up there, yeah.”
Weird! Sayaka mouths, a lot more forcibly, and Madoka rolls her eyes.
“Be nice,” she whispers, as Ildico presses up against her cheek, pressing, we should really go, she probably has medicine she needs to take, soft hamster-fur scratching against her skin.
I know, Madoka responds, and goes to show Homura the way to the nurse’s office.
“Madoka,” Homura says, turning on her heel. Madoka comes to an abrupt stop, Ildico freezing on her shoulder, his thin golden fur fluffed up. On the bridge between buildings the light is spilling in through the windows, illuminating the sharp edges of Homura’s form. “Do you treasure the life you currently live?”
“Do I—” Madoka starts, somewhat blinded by all the light she’s trying to adjust to, coming from inside the school building, where it felt a lot more like Homura was leading her than the other way around, but Homura’s still going.
“Do you consider your family and friends precious?”
“Of course I do,” Ildico says, after a moment. Homura’s words are still hanging there between them, all—weighty, nothing like her quiet voice just from moments before, when Madoka was trying to make small-talk. The insect-daemon lanyard sways slightly. Ildico repeats, creeping his was as far up Madoka’s shoulder as he can get, tiny feet firm against her, “I love them very much, and—and so they’re all very precious to me.”
Homura’s eyes are boring into them both, and Madoka takes a half-step back, unsteady. Ildico ducks his head, trembling slightly. “Do you mean it?”
“Yes,” Madoka says, “I wouldn’t lie about that.”
Should we get the nurse? Ildico is thinking. Is she okay?
“Good.” Homura looks down to an empty space at her side, only for a half-second before she’s staring Madoka down again. “Then if that’s the truth, you wouldn’t try changing the life you have, or the person you are. Because otherwise, you’ll lose everything you love.”
“I—Homura…chan?” Madoka asks, her voice tripping up into a tremble, “are you—”
“Don’t change, Kaname Ildico-Madoka,” Homura says, “stay exactly as you are.”
She turns and walks away, leaving Madoka and her daemon standing there in the light that reflects sharp off the windows, her words echoing heavy in that empty space.
“She said what?” Sayaka says once school is let out and Madoka’s told her and Hitomi everything, Octavia a lion with her hackles raised, growling low, tail lashing. “I told you she was a creep! Jeez, what is that girl’s problem? What did you ever do to her?”
“It’s okay, Sayaka,” Madoka says, softly. Sayaka continues ranting, and Madoka’s not so sure she hears. “Are you doing anything today?”
“Huh?” Sayaka cuts herself off, Octavia’s ears pricking. “Well, I was going to go to the music store if you wanted to come along.”
“Yeah,” Madoka says. She’s…she doesn’t want to be alone, right now. Not after being left on that bridge, not…
She hugs Ildico just a little tighter to her chest, and her daemon doesn’t complain, just rests his head against her arm, long ears brushing against her. He’s soft and familiar and warm, and she can feel all of that and more, through the tugging at her chest, the dull ache of familiarity.
Far out in front of her, Octavia holds her head high, large paws swallowing up great swaths of ground, the sun casting her edges in brilliant gold like the Dust that makes her up.
She’s waiting around for Sayaka and Octavia to pick out what CD they want to buy when there’s a voice in her head, help, help me, please, someone help, weak and pleading and just-a-bit too close to what Madoka’s always just called the bond, even if she knows there’s a more complicated word for it, that space she and Ildico share.
Ildico’s ears stick straight up, quivering. “That’s not you,” he says, “or me.”
“No,” Madoka says, and that strange voice keeps pressing: help. She looks around the store—Sayaka and Octavia are squabbling over the single pair of headphones large enough to fit on both of their heads, Octavia clearly not willing to change form to use the smaller pairs provided. Nobody else in the store seems to be hearing the person crying for help. “We have to help him.”
That she feels in her bond: a surging-up. Words are never so clear, there in the bond—they’re feelings and images and sensations she puts words to, because she and Ildico know each other better than anyone else.
Madoka, Ildico, please…I don’t know how much longer I can hold on for!
“Yeah,” Ildico agrees, taking to the air on red-hued wings. For a moment he glances to their friend—Octavia’s now got the headphones in her jaws and is darting just out of Sayaka’s reach—but they don’t have time to explain to them, not when someone is hurt, and needs their help!
Where are you? Madoka tries to think at this voice, unsure how to contact it, as Ildico darts out of the store and she races after him, but the voice doesn’t answer them—just repeats his plea, as she ends up out of the mall entirely, down somewhere in the parking garage, through a door she’s certain she’s not supposed to be going through, and then, nearly crashing into Ildico as he comes to a sudden stop, wings backpedaling—
“You’re hurt!” Madoka races for the creature lying in a pile on the floor like he’s been discarded, covered in red cuts and missing bits of fur here and there. “Are you the one who’s been calling for me?”
The creature makes a weak noise, trying to struggle to his feet.
“Are you a daemon?” Madoka asks, Ildico landing on the ground next to the creature to help him up. Where his feathers touch fur Madoka doesn’t feel anything, so whatever this creature is, he’s not a human, that’s for sure. “What happened?”
“Kyu…” He blinks up at her, large red eyes. She’s…hasn’t she seen those somewhere before? You heard me calling for—
“Get away from it.”
Madoka jerks, Ildico tripping over his own talons. Coming out from the shadows is—is that Homura? The transfer student? Except—no, it has to be, even if she must’ve changed outfits before coming here, and, and is she holding a gun?
“Madoka.” Homura’s voice is sharp, and she doesn’t lower the gun, though it’s not aimed at her—it’s pointed at the creature—the cat? It’s got longer ears sort of like Ildico as a rabbit, coming out from the normal cat-ears. “That thing is dangerous.”
“He’s hurt,” Madoka says, her voice wavering. She can see that he’s shaking, the poor creature, and he drags himself to drape across her legs. He’s cold but no more than that, so—not a daemon. Even if he can talk, but… “I—did you…”
“What I did is none of your concern.” Homura straightens. The only part of her outfit Madoka can recognize is the insect-daemon lanyard, but she can’t see the daemon within. “Please. Move.”
“N-no!” Madoka says, gathering up the creature into her arms as she stands. Ildico takes flight to set down on her shoulder, his talons curling determination. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not just going to sit back and watch you—”
“That’s right.” Homura takes a step closer. She moves like a hunter, Ildico realizes, drawing his wings in closer, pressing to Madoka’s neck, like Octavia does when she’s been a lion for a long time. “You don’t know what’s going on. So let me handle it.”
The weight of the creature in her arms is nothing like Ildico—his fur is thinner and he weighs a lot less, but Madoka still grabs him tighter. Because she knows exactly what happens when Octavia’s been a lion for too long—Ildico’s never managed to avoid her pounces, playful as they are. And if Homura is any similar…
The gun is maybe the scariest thing she’s ever seen, even if it’s not pointed at her.
But this creature asked for her help, for their help, and so Madoka puts on a brave face, and hopes for some way to resolve this situation.
Sayaka throws a fire extinguisher at Homura’s face.
“I said to spray her!” Octavia’s yelling, as Sayaka grabs Madoka’s arm and drags her away before Homura can react, “to confuse her! Not to just clock her over the head!”
“Well it worked, didn’t it?” Sayaka’s grip is a little too tight, Ildico fluttering his wings. Somewhere in the scuffle Madoka lost her grip on that creature, but hopefully with Homura distracted he managed to get to safety. “I knew that transfer student was creepy! Killing some cat or whatever, who does that?”
Octavia growls, the sound echoing loud in the enclosed space. Her fur is golden and her tail lashes as she scores her massive claws against the ground, slowing. “At least she didn’t follow us.” Her ears press flat. “Madoka, Ildico, are you guys okay?”
“I…yes. We’re okay.” Madoka rubs her arm when Sayaka lets go of it.
“Jeez!” Sayaka shakes her head, leaning against Octavia. “You had me real worried there! We turned around and you were gone!”
“Sorry, Sayaka…” Madoka sighs as Ildico flutters over to let Octavia sniff him over, licking the top of his head. “I just—I heard someone calling for help. I had to go and save him. But I don’t know what Homura was doing there, or why she was hunting him down! Oh, I hope he got away alright…”
“I mean.” Sayaka grins. “I hit her pretty good. I’m sure the cat was able to run away in all of that.”
Octavia rolls her eyes, her paws pressing flat some of the scribbled grass underneath, pushing Sayaka off of her. “You should be glad she didn’t shoot you. Did you even see the gun?”
“You did, same thing.” Sayaka tosses her head. “C’mon, let’s get out of here. I still need to go pay for that CD.”
twisting around so odd so new so fresh i bet you like to trample roses i bet you little sap-sucking pests think you think you think well didn’t you hear? didn’t you see? claws so sharp out of my garden how dare how dare how dare.
“Yeah, it’s…” Madoka trails off as Ildico returns to her, settling down as a rabbit in her arms. It’s dark, she was going to say, because it was, just moments before, deep within a parking garage, but…it’s not, anymore. It’s—but that can’t be the sky, they’re still underground?
Octavia pauses, her tail cutting sharp through the air, her claws extending out. Her hackles raise, eyes narrowing. “This isn’t…”
watch the roses mind the roses need more roses beautiful things more than anything else could be roses.
Something tumbles in front of them and Madoka shrieks, leaping away before it can brush against her. It’s—it’s—
“Madoka,” Sayaka says, and her voice is even in that way it gets when she’s forcing it to be so, “that. You’re seeing the. Mustached puffball. Right.”
“Um.” Madoka swallows, Ildico’s paws wrapping around her arm. “I…am. Yeah.” They aren’t—she doesn’t know where they are. But it’s not where they were. Not anymore.
The puffball lunges.
Octavia tackles it out of the air, landing heavy on the ground so hard Madoka sees Sayaka flinch, too, and hurries over to help her stay up. The puffball is—writhing, it looks like, even as Octavia tries to bite it, but her teeth clamp around fluff that doesn’t seem to tear, and Madoka can already see more of them coming, more of these—these monsters, they must be.
“Octavia!” Ildico calls, when an edge of the puffbull cuts deep into her, and she jumps off of it with a yelp, bits of golden Dust trickling out from the slash down her shoulder. Madoka stiffens. Octavia’s tackled Ildico as a lion many times before, and even though she’s always just playing Ildico can feel the strength in those massive paws—if even she isn’t enough to take out one of these puffball things…
good good good closer now so close indeed you hurt my roses you want them dead i wont let you i cant let you close close close come to me see me right here here here follow listen yes good so soon now.
“This is why you should’ve just sprayed her with the fire extinguisher!” Octavia snaps, retreating back to them, baring her teeth at the puffballs now blocking the way they came. Not that Madoka thinks it would do them much good—she can’t see the parking garage whatsoever. Just this world of paper bushes covered in flowers, and what looks like the sky but patched in thousands of different shades of blue. “Then we could’ve taken a few of them out!”
“What, like you just failed to do?”
“Don’t fight!” Madoka says, grabbing Sayaka’s arm, while Ildico—and it hurts, to be in such a scary place without him right there, but she has Sayaka—tumbles over to land on Octavia’s back, shrinking small into a hamster. “There has to be some way out of here, we just…”
Her voice dies when a new shape emerges out of the flower bushes.
It’s—it’s like the puffballs in that it’s made out of many pieces put together. It has the head—well, not a head, but what else could Madoka call it?—of a bush, the leaves all hanging down, flowers turned upwards. It’s hunched over somewhat, the main thing Madoka’s calling its body mottled with clay-red carvings of shapes she can’t make out, and iridescent butterfly wings poking out of it’s back.
“Oh, so we’re just dead,” Sayaka says, staring at it wide-eyed, pulling Madoka behind her. “What even is that! What the hell did that transfer student do?!”
“I don’t think this is her doing,” Ildico says, voice weak. Octavia’s growling, much good as that can do—she’s a lion, she’s way larger than any form Ildico’s ever taken, and this—this thing easily dwarfs her, and clearly Octavia knows it, too. She growls but she’s not even crouching to pounce—just curls herself around Sayaka, her tail twitching close to Madoka’s legs, like maybe that’ll be enough to get them out of this.
see you now.
Encircling them are those puffballs. Before them is whatever this bush-butterfly monster is.
Madoka thinks, as Ildico’s tiny claws dig so deep into Octavia’s fur, Mama, I’m so sorry you’ll never know what happens to me—
prey prey prey prey save the roses more roses prey hunting now now now now now now NO—
“I don’t think so!”
“Who are—” is all Sayaka is able to get out, Madoka too stunned to even say anything, because suddenly they aren’t alone anymore.
It’s not anybody Madoka knows—she’s older than them, with curling blond hair done up in pigtails, wearing a beret with a metal flower on the side of it, a yellowish-orange gem set in the center, that almost seems to ebb and flow like waves of the ocean. At her side is her daemon, a large dog with mostly-fawn fur and a black muzzle and ears. He’s wearing a spiked collar, wrapped around his neck almost like a bow.
The daemon looks back at them. “Don’t worry,” he says, as the girl curtsies, and out from her skirt comes two rifles, and Madoka’s decided actually, she’s just not going to ask any questions. The transfer student has a gun. This girl she’s never seen before has rifles. Sure. Why not. Ildico presses himself deeper into Octavia’s thick fur. “You’ll be fine. We’ll get you out of here. Just, uh.” He plants his paws, nods over at his human, “yell if any of the familiars jump at you, but I’ll try to make this quick.”
“Familiars?” Sayaka asks, as Octavia says, “who are you?”
The dog daemon wags his tail, and then he and his human are a flurry of movement.
The daemon lunges for the puffballs, which have started to dance and twist, but out of the air manifest bright yellow strings that piece through them and reduce them to nothing, and those that avoid the strings are stabbed instead by the collar, or pounded into nothingness with the weight of his paws. The girl leaps into the air, grabbing the rifles and firing at the large monster in the center of it all, knocking it off-balance, and even when she fires the first two, there’s just—she keeps making more.
Madoka clutches Sayaka’s arm. Octavia’s frozen in front of them both, her jaw practically on the floor.
just wanted more roses they started it you dare come in you dare invade my home my labyrinth my place you will not leave you will not destroy you will not.
The girl grins. The monster sends attack after attack chasing her, but the girl dodges, and keeps up her volley of bullets, and doesn’t stop until it ends.
“What…” Sayaka’s the only one to have any words, as the world around them dissolves back to normal, and the girl lands. Her appearance shimmers as she does so, and suddenly she and her daemon are just—normal, again. She could be a student at their school. In fact, based on the uniform, Madoka’s pretty sure she is.
Ildico flaps his way back to Madoka, and she catches him in her hands.
“Sorry about that.” The girl frowns, her daemon bending down to pick something up off the floor—it’s black and sharp and something about it makes Madoka’s stomach turn. “I came as fast as I could, when Kyubey told me there were two people stuck in that labyrinth. Are you both alright?”
“Kyubey?” Madoka asks, while Octavia says, “labyrinth?”
A labyrinth, says a familiar voice in Madoka’s head, and based on the way Sayaka jolts, Octavia’s fur stands on end, it’s not just her. That monster you saw was a witch, and the place it hid in was its labyrinth.
A creature leaps up onto the girl’s shoulders, his large red eyes meeting Madoka’s own.
“It’s you!” she breathes, because that’s the cat-creature she saved—and he looks better, too, Ildico notices, his cuts having healed. “You’re okay!”
I am, thanks to you for coming to save me, Kaname Ildico-Madoka. And you too, Miki Octavia-Sayaka, for providing the distraction that allowed me to flee. When I saw that you both were trapped, I knew I had to repay the favor.
“You’re…” Sayaka blinks, stumbling into her daemon. “What’s going on?”
“Ah, yes.” The girl laughs. “It must be very confusing for you both, no? I promise I’ll explain everything to you both, but first, introductions are in order, don’t you think?” Her daemon trots up to her side, and she rests her hand on his head. “I’m Tomoe Kerze-Mami, and I’m a Magical Girl! And this here,” she tilts her head to indicate the creature still sat on her shoulders, “is a friend of mine.”
I’m Kyubey! His tail curls up over his back, twisting in a way that reminds Madoka of the curling delight from Ildico when he does the same, in those few times he was a cat, and I want you both to make contracts with me, and become Magical Girls!
Magical Girls, Madoka and Ildico learn, sat on pillows around Mami’s table in her apartment, work like this:
She is granted one wish. Any wish, no matter how outlandish, no matter how miraculous, and she gets to watch this wish come true around her. In return, her Soul Gem is made, this gleaming crystal so deep she could drown in it if she stares at the wondrous colors for long enough, the source of the new magic she now possesses. And that magic is a great thing indeed—faster, stronger, more than any normal human-daemon pair. No longer does she have a range, that will ache like a knife in her chest if she and her daemon get too far from each other—but she and her daemon are free to spread themselves out as far as they wish.
And, indeed, might need to: because in exchange for these powers, for her wish, she is now tasked with battling the witches of the world. Invisible to normal human-daemon pairs, tucking themselves away into otherworldly labyrinths, creatures that spread despair and take the unsuspecting with them, unraveling the delicate bond between human and daemon until there is nothing left. If there is nobody to fight them, countless innocent people will be caught by their traps, and killed, allowing the witch to grow stronger.
“Wait,” Octavia says, lifting her head up out of Sayaka’s lap, still a lion. “Witches? But in all the old stories, aren’t witches like—aren’t they just people without any limit on their ranges?”
Kyubey sits up taller where he’d lain out across Mami’s couch, shaking his head. Magical Girls have existed throughout history! And in that time, they have been known by many names. One such name is witch. It is merely coincidence that witch also happens to be the name of the creatures that you fight.
“Yes,” Mami says, setting down her cup of tea. Madoka sips hers. It’s warm. “But rest assured, all those old stories of witches are talking about Magical Girls—normal people just don’t know what we’re truly called. Besides, how would a witch have an unlimited range? They’re creatures of despair; they aren’t people. It wouldn’t make sense.”
“Ha, yeah.” Sayaka rubs the back of her neck. “So—all those old witches in history, were they really Magical Girls?”
Possibly, Kyubey says, licking his paw and running it over his head. Though, like Mami said, normal people do not know what Magical Girls are. While some of those called witches were probably just Magical Girls, others could’ve just been normal people. There is no way to know. But now that you both know about Magical Girls, it is easiest to simply use ‘witch’ to mean the creatures you fight—those with no limit on range between human and daemon are, after all, just a Magical Girl!
But the nuances of language are neither here nor there. Magical Girl: she who is granted a wish in exchange for fighting the witches of the world. She who comes into her own, who—
Ildico asks, quietly, “you Settle?”
Kerze nods. “You do. Becoming a Magical Girl is a serious decision—choosing it shows clearly what sort of person you are.”
“Wow,” Octavia says, “that’s—that’s so cool!” She tumbles out of Sayaka’s lap and prances over to Kerze. As a lion she’s taller than him, though not by that much—being young and Unsettled, she’s not full-grown, while Kerze clearly is. “What sort of dog are you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen your breed before.”
Kerze barks out a laugh, patting Octavia with a paw. “I’m a Kangal Shepherd,” he says, “you wish to Settle as a lion, then?”
“Well.” Octavia sits back, ducking her head. “I dunno yet. I guess it would be cool. Strong and brave and noble. That’s what Magical Girls are like, right?” She tilts her head. “Maybe if I made a wish and become one, that’s how I’d end up.”
There sat in Mami’s house, Madoka and Ildico wonder: just what would we even wish for?
This is all so much, Madoka thinks to her daemon, on the way home, isn’t it?
Yeah, he says, but…we have Sayaka and Octavia with us, too. And Mami and Kerze promised to let us tag along on some of their witch-hunts, to see if this is even something we’d like to do. I think we’ll be fine.
Do you want to do it? Madoka asks.
For a moment Ildico is quiet, peering up at the darkening sky. It would be cool, wouldn’t it? We’d be really, really cool.
Yeah, Madoka agrees, and she hugs her daemon to her, we really would be.
The next morning Kyubey joins Madoka on her walk to school, trotting at her side, and when she meets up with Sayaka and Hitomi, Octavia jerks and actually sits on Kyubey as if to keep him hidden, going from tanuki into the much larger lion in a heartbeat.
Octavia-Sayaka-chan, don’t worry! Madoka says, and her friend jumps again, jerking around to stare wide-eyed at Madoka as Kyubey wriggles his way out from under Octavia, shaking himself. Kyubey has been with me all morning. He’s telling the truth. Normal people can’t see him at all!
You’re telepathic? Did you become a magical girl already, without—WAIT, I’M TELEPATHIC TOO?
Of course you aren’t, comes Kyubey’s calmer voice, I’m merely able to facilitate communication between you. This way you can speak on sensitive matters without anybody else hearing.
Waiting near the school steps, Madoka catches a flash of Homura, her eyes digging into Madoka, making her skin prickle. Ildico presses himself a bit closer to Madoka’s neck, as Kyubey hops up to balance on her other shoulder.
Homura doesn’t say anything. But she doesn’t stop staring, either.