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“Ah” the blonde responded with a tone of realisation. “It does seem like we’re in a bit of a predicament doesn’t it?” She had taken the news of the looming destruction pretty well. Actually, she was taking it too well. For someone who Homura knew was a fragile and afraid girl underneath to be taking this so easy was hard to believe.
“Mami Tomoe.” Homura said quite sharply to get the girls attention. “If you’re frightened then there’s no reason to hide that. Fear isn’t something to be ashamed of”. Mami had confided in Homura in a few timelines so far about her insecurities and doubts about this magical girl gig so Homura assumed Mami saw her as someone she could trust? Whatever the reason was Homura never got it. Mami Tomoe would always die before she could tell her, either by straight up dying or by becoming a witch, which wasn’t as common for Mami.
“What kind of senior.. no… what kind of supporter for my juniors would I be if I let them know I’m afraid?” Mami said, voice never stopping its quivering.
“That’s irrational and you know that” The black haired girl responded
“A part of me knows that, but I still worry. This walpurgisnacht thing you’re talking about, it’s supposedly the strongest witch ever right? How am I supposed to support the ones younger than me if they know I’m just as afraid as them?”
“As I said, fear isn’t something to be ashamed of. Fear is one of the qualities keeping you human” Homura responded as if the answer was as clear as day
“Hey Homura.. I have a question for you” Mami started locking eyes with Homura and ironing her resolve. “Your abilities, your magic, is just stopping time as far as they go?” Mami asked
Oh dear. Mami Tomoe was intelligent no force in the world could make Homura disbelief that, but this was the first time she had even as much as suspected Homura’s powers went farther than stopping time. “They don’t. My wish was to redo something, something important to me, so I inadvertently got the power to go back to that moment as many times as I want” Homura admitted
“Time travel. I should have figured it out earlier honestly, such a rookie mistake” the blonde responded to that news well too? Well the time travel thing probably wasn’t a surprise if you think back to all the strange things Homura does.
Homura was interrupted from her thoughts by yet another question. “Do you intend on recruiting the other two for this mission too?” Mami asked curiously
“I do, this is the first time where all three of you have survived this long after all” Homura said getting a visible face of disappointment from Mami
“This is seriously the only time all three of us are alive?” Mami asked hoping she had misunderstood or something
“Unfortunately so. Either you or Sayaka would die first. Well more accurately Sayaka would become a witch and Kyoko would usually kill herself defeating her”
A silence filled the air. Homura knew that news had upset Mami but what else could she tell her? Homura was an awful liar. She could conceal or be purposefully vague but lying wasn’t something she was great at.
“Well then we’ll have to make this time count won’t we?” Mami said sighing and getting up to brew another pot of tea. “What time is it Homura?”
“11:03am, why?” Homura asked with genuine curiosity
“Because I wanted to see if Sayaka would be awake. I’ll call her over but Kyoko might be a bit of a pain to get a hold of” she said looking at Homura with a ‘but you already know that’ tone
“I don’t think that will be a problem” Homura said breaking their eye contact
“Oh? Why’s that? Do you know where Kyoko is?” Mami asked
“According to Kyubey uh k-kyoko is um-“ Homura stammered a bit, getting rosier cheeks by the second while Mami stared at her completely dumbfounded. Homura cleared her throat. “Apparently Kyoko and Sayaka slept together last night. According to Kyubey” she finally said
“Ah that’s nice” Mami said “WAIT WHAT!?” She yelled when she finally decoded what Homura said. “T-they slept together? Are you sure? They’re just kids” Mami said with a tone Homura couldn’t even describe
“Well uh… Kyubey said it had checked up on them and they were sleeping together, but it is Kyubey so who knows” Homura said to Mami while she borough over another pot of tea
“Oh. Well I’m sure it was just innocent you know? Like one of those manga one bed cliché’s” Mami said hopefully
“…”
“Alright fine I’ll just call her” Mami said while getting her phone out, dialling Sayaka’s number and putting it on the table on speaker.
*ring ring*
*ring ring*
“Hello?”
They heard a groggy voice from the other end of the phone.
“Hello Sayaka! It’s Mami. I have something incredibly important I need to discuss as soon as possible. When can you get here? And possibly bring Kyoko with you” Mami said, adding the last bit as a ‘please say I don’t know where she is’ last hope getting a side eye from Homura in the process.
“What could be so important that you’re calling me so early- HUH? It’s already 11?” She said and you could clearly tell what her face looked like on the other end of the phone . “Yeah sure I’ll be over in like 30 minutes. I’ll bring Kyoko with me.” She said
“Oh? You know where she is?” Mami inquired
“Y-yeah something like that” sayaka said quickly
Neither of them said anything. It was that part of a phone call when neither party said anything until the other did. Unfortunately for Sayaka however Kyoko couldn’t keep her big mouth shut and let an audible whine and called Sayaka’s name.
“…”
“…”
“Uhhh yep I’ll be over soon see ya-“ she said cutting the call before she even got to finish her sentence.
Homura and Mami stared at the call ended screen and both let out a noise of acknowledgment and just waited for Sayaka and Kyoko to get there.
—————————————————————
It didn’t take very long for the duo to arrive at Mami’s apartment. Sayaka didn’t that too long getting ready and considering Kyoko didn’t have any clothes to change into she was ready practically the second she got out of bed
“Sayaka Kyoko welcome, please come in”
“Thanks for having us Mami”
They walked over to the coffee table that Homura was already sitting at, sipping another cup of tea
“Oh yay Homura’s here” Sayaka said in a less than enthusiastic tone
“Don’t be mean Sayaka” Mami said “she’s the one who’ll be telling you the important information after all”
“Totally not surprised the enigma knows more than she lets on, but I’m game to hear her out” Kyoko sat sitting down across Homura
“You’re way too open about this” Sayaka said sitting next to her
“Yeah well if I was so adamant on not hearing her out I’d be just like you so”
“I’ll straight kill you”
“If you two could stop flirting I’ll tell you what you came here to hear” Homura interjected slightly annoyed she had to hear this
“We weren’t flirting” they both said in shocking unison which earned a giggle from Mami who had sat next to Homura
“Yeah yeah whatever I don’t care. I need to inform the both of you of a very important upcoming fight against a witch called Walpurgisnacht. She’s basically the most powerful witch ever and she’s due to show up here in mitakihara in 9 days” Homura explained
“I’m not buying that. I mean how would you even know about her?” Sayaka protested
“Yeah I’m calling bogus too. Unless you’re some kind of esper who can read the future” Kyoko agreed
“If you’d let me finish my explanation then those questions would be answered” Homura said tired of their impatience
Homura explained the whole time travel different timeline nonsense to Sayaka and Kyoko very similarly to how she told Mami an hour before. She explained her questionable motives and the potential of this timeline, the only one thus far that all three of the girls in front of her had survived and Madoka hadn’t become a magical girl
“Ok so. You’re saying that you’re a time traveler? And that’s how you know about Walpurgisnacht?” Sayaka asked incredibly sceptical
“That’s correct” Homura replied
“Yeah I’ll believe that” Kyoko said in her usual nonchalant tone
“Kyoko you can’t be serious” Sayaka argued “she could easily be lying”
Sayaka’s suspicion of Homura hadn’t gone away since their first meeting and in fairness to her it’s not like Homura was all that normal
“I am serious. Plus if she’s lying about this big powerful witch what’s exactly the harm in it?” Kyoko said “however if she isn’t lying and we do need to prepare and we think she’s talkin’ out of her ass we’ll get ourselves killed”
Kyoko might’ve been unassuming and cruel but she was an experienced magical girl. She seemed to understand Homura’s line of thinking to a certain extent somehow, so it was easier for her to trust her
“Sayaka” Homura said directing her attention to the blue haired girl “have you tried using your healing magic yet?”
“Huh? Oh yeah I’ve used it, only on myself though”
“That’s good enough” Homura said now facing to Kyoko “I need you to train Sayaka on how to use her swords for combat and how to hone her healing abilities for a group fight”
“You sure you want me to do it?” Kyoko asked laughing “I’ll just kick her ass”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking you. Sayaka wouldn’t listen to anything I’d teach her and Mami would go too soft on her”
“Um I’d like to be taught by Mami actually” Sayaka said futilely while raising her hand
Kyoko punched her shoulder playfully “Yeah not happening blueberry, I’m teaching ya”
“We just need Sayaka to learn how to heal others and how to summon more swords to fight with” Homura restated. “It shouldn’t be too hard for you Kyoko. You fight with spears so you’ll have an easier time teaching Sayaka techniques”
“Alright. When do we start?”
“Right now”
—————————————————————-
Sayaka and Kyoko found themselves in a field on the outskirts of the city. They chose this particular field because it was out of view of any buildings or roads and was quite unknown
“Alright then Sayaka” Kyoko began “you think you’ve gotten better since last time huh?”
“I might’ve. The last few fights I’ve done were while I was disassociating myself with pain and instantly healing my injuries” Sayaka said whilst transforming into her magical girl attire
“So you’ve gotten your own healing down then” Kyoko said forming a small sadistic grin “which means I can go all out and totally kick your ass this time”
“Watch your mouth street rat or I’ll release my hidden potential” Sayaka retorted
Kyoko transformed into a magical girl and pointed her spear towards Sayaka “secret potential? Ha, let’s see how this goes”
Sayaka gripped a sword with both hands ready for Kyokos attack. The redhead lunged for Sayaka and she tensed her grip on her sword intending on playing defensive until she could memorise Kyokos attack pattern
Kyoko increased the length of her spear and used it as a pole vault and flew over Sayaka and punched her in the back of the head. “Didn’t see that comin’ did ya rookie?” She taunted catching her shortened spear from the air
“Oh i see” Sayaka said turning to face Kyoko again “that’s how you fight huh?”
This time Sayaka didn’t wait for Kyoko to lunge at her this time. She made the first move dashing towards Kyoko pointing her sword out so it would reach as far as it could. Kyoko dodged on the right and grabbed Sayaka’s wrist and harshly forced it down a bit forcing Sayaka to drop her sword.
“You said you could heal yourself yea?” Kyoko said “well then let’s test that”
Kyoko slashed Sayaka’s arm all the way from the shoulder to the wrist causing the bluenette to shriek in pain. “Ah shit that hurts” Sayaka muttered before dashing backwards away from Kyoko while subconsciously healing her wound
“Oh? You seem pretty good at that” Kyoko praised “I wonder if you could heal broken bones~?”
Sayaka didn’t like where Kyoko was taking this fight. Not to mention that grin was back. It seemed to her that she was being tested, like Kyoko was figuring out what she could and couldn’t do by throwing her into the deep end and letting her just figure things out
Sayaka’s thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Kyoko underneath her, fist clenched ready to make truth of her words. Kyoko boxed Sayaka’s left arm sending it in a way it most certainly shouldn’t go in. Sayaka’s scream of pain was a bit louder this time but considering Kyoko had just broken her arm it was probably justified
Sayaka moved her arm back to being straight and began trying to heal it while avoiding more of Kyoko’s unpredictable and held back punches. Once her left arm was healed she parried one of Kyokos punches grabbed her by the collar and swung her around until throwing her in a random direction.
“Since when was this a fist fight?” She asked
“Dunno. Just wanted to see what you could do with that healing magic of yours” Kyoko responded “can’t especially beat someone who keeps healing like that”
“Yeah probably the smartest observation you’ve made thus far” she mocked back
“Hey now I’m not done testing you yet. Your sword skills are lousy and that’s being nice. And..” Kyoko summoned her spear and held it up against her own arm “i wanna see how heal you can heal others”
Kyoko slashed her own arm, albeit shallower than Sayaka’s injury in case this plan of hers didn’t work, and motioned Sayaka to come and heal it. Sayaka did what she was told and went to heal her friend. It took a bit longer and needed a bit more of Sayaka’s concentration to heal but she did manage to do it
“Hmm interesting” Kyoko said to herself “alright then rookie your dismissed for today”
“Huh already?” Sayaka said with a clear tone of confusion “we barely fought. Actually we didn’t fight you just beat the shit out of me!”
“Haha I know it was great wasn’t it!” Kyoko said transforming back into her casual wear. She took a glance at Sayaka who was looking at her with annoyance and still a hint of confusion. “I need to figure out how to train you. I’ve gotten a sample today of what you can do so I’ve only gotta make up a regiment or something”
“Oh is that all?” Sayaka said “I thought you were too lazy to do anything and wasting a day” she mocked transforming into her casual clothes too
“I would never waste a day at such an important time Ms. Miki I actually kinda like living at the moment” kyoko said turning from Sayaka and walking back towards the city
Sayaka got up and started following her until she eventually caught up walking side by side.
“You wanna come over for dinner again?”
“Not like I’ve got anything else to do with my time”
“Yeah that’s true” Sayaka laughed “but I’m making the food tonight” she said sternly
“Wow my cooking was that bad huh? I thought I still had it but alas” Kyoko said feigning disappointment
“It’s not that it’s just your the guest and I’d feel bad having you make dinner again”
“You and your morals” Kyoko sighed “whatever I won’t say no to a free meal”
————————————————————-
“I’ll go for my bath first if that’s fine” Sayaka said unlocking the door
“It’s your house do what’cha want” Kyoko responded walking past her into the house
Kyoko sat on the couch once Sayaka went into the bath and flicked on the TV
“Sayakas got one of these huh?” She said to herself
“How’s the training coming along, Kyoko Sakura?”
Kyoko was visibly startled by the foreign voice behind her before turning around and realising it was just Homura
“Jeez don’t do that to me” she said bringing her hand up to be heart “could’ve given me a heart attack”
Homura narrowed her eyes “Kyoko. How’s training Sayaka going?”
“Yup going fine” she said putting her arms behind her head “she can heal herself really well and can heal others to some extent, I’m sure if I took her out witch hunting with me she’d learn how to heal me faster. It’s her sword skills I’m worried about though. She’s not very good. Say, in any of these other timelines of yours did Sayaka have a ‘secret technique’ she could use?” She put on her best Sayaka impression when saying ‘secret technique’ to tease her for what she said earlier despite not even being in the room
“Let me think. I suppose she could summon a large number of swords and could send them flying towards opponents” Homura recalled “she was able to rival even Mami in one of the timelines, however she had significantly better swordsman skills than she does now”
“So like how I summon spears and Mami summons massive ass guns she can summon swords huh?” Kyoko inquired “that could be interesting, I’ll have her try that”
“If that’s the extent of your report then I’ll be going now” Homura said
“Yup see ya timetraveler” Kyoko replied turning back to the TV giving Homura a wave from behind her back. Homura disappeared and Kyoko turned up the TV
“She’s definitely still hiding something. But what? I need to find something about those stories cause I doubt she’d tell me”
“-ko KYOKO” Sayaka yelled despite being 6 inches away from Kyokos face
“Ah sorry! Must’ve zoned out”
“Right well the baths ready now so please use it”
“Already on it, oh mighty housemistress. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a warm bath too”
“Shush up or you’re getting no dinner”
And so this cycle continued for the next few days. Kyoko helped Sayaka hone her skills as a magical girl, beat the shit out of her, got a nice warm bath and finished the day with a home cooked meal from Sayaka
Kyoko sat down on day 4 of training for another episode of ‘Masterchef Sayaka’. She was making decent progress in her training, her healing magic had prospered and she was able to heal others really well too. The only thing that still lacked were her sword skills. They were much better than when they’d started but nowhere near ‘I can go up against Walpurgisnacht’ level
“Hey Kyoko” Sayaka began while setting down both bowls on the table “out of curiosity.. are you still living in that run down church?”
“Yup. Have been for a while now”
“Ah right..” Sayaka trailed off clearly trying to muster the courage to say something and collect her thoughts “well then maybe.. if you wanted you could.. live here with me?”
“Huh?” Kyoko was so shocked she dropped her spoon back into her bowl
“D-don’t get the wrong idea or anything! It’s just we’ve been training together everyday since Homura told us about Walpurgisnacht and u-uh..”
Kyoko slammed her hands down on the table and stood up “hold it just a second. You want me to live here?”
“Y-yeah I mean.. I figured it’d be better than that church and well.. it’s lonely living on my own” Sayaka said that last bit quieter, but not quiet enough for Kyoko to miss it
There was an uncomfortable silence between them. Well actually more accurately the silence was only uncomfortable for Sayaka, Kyoko was sitting there with a mix of dumbfoundment and utter confusion on her face
“…Yeah sure” she finally said collapsing back into her seat beginning to eat the meal in front of her
“Wait r-really?” Sayaka’s eyes lit up and she could hardly contain her excitement. “we can set up the guest room together and do fun sleepover things and- oh I’ll have to tell my parents in case they come back to surprise me for my birthday or something and see a street rat in the house. They’d probably think we’re being robbed or something”
“Watch your mouth I’ll kick your ass”
“I’ll tell my parent next week then” Sayaka said clearly not listening to what Kyoko just said
“Next week?”
“Yup. After the whole Walpurgisnacht thing y’know”
“Sayaka.” Kyoko said sternly knocking the bluenette out of her trance of planning. She stood up to loom over Sayaka “you’re still nowhere near good enough to help in the fight against Walpurgisnacht, you know that right?”
“Well then I’ll just have to work harder” she responded making a start at her own dinner
Kyoko sighed. Clearly Sayaka didn’t understand just how bad she really was. Kyoko would have to dial training up to way past 11
“Sayaka.. I’ve made up my mind..”
“Hm? What does that mean?” Sayaka said with her mouth full
“I’m not moving in until we’ve defeated Walpurgisnacht. I can’t trust you to take training seriously unless I do this”
“What?!? Do you see me as some kinda slacker, street rat?”
“Not a slacker per se.. let’s just go with I’m doing this as a motivator to help you train properly”
“Alright then! I’ll totally beat you in training tomorrow then”
—————————————————————
Sayaka, in fact, did not beat Kyoko in training the next day. In fact it wasn’t even close, it was a total beat down. Kyoko had gotten used to Sayaka’s repetitive fighting style with her sword and her healing abilities that she could easily counter and strike back with attacks that most certainly could have been lethal
“Sword skills still need work” Kyoko repeated for the thousandth time
“I’m well aware”
“Actually, Homura told me you were capable of summoning more than one sword that you could use as projectiles, so try that” Kyoko said folding her arms
“Projectiles huh? Like Mami’s guns?” She looked at Kyoko who gave her a nod “I guess I could give it a shot”
Sayaka managed to summon three swords from behind her, which she instructed to go flying at Kyoko who promptly dodged them. They were fast Kyoko would give her that but still not good enough
“Try again with more”
Sayaka did as she was told and summoned more swords to shoot at the redhead. They were slower than before, probably because there were more of them or because Sayaka was running out of energy? Whatever it was it wasn’t good
“I’m calling it here. You need to be able to summon more of these and shoot them faster than the first three got it?”
“Of course, o wise one” Sayaka said sarcastically while fake bowing
“Zip it or else”
They trained for hours over the next few days until the last day of training before the big fight. They decided to have another serious spar to see if Sayaka could at least hold her own against Kyoko, something she couldn’t do a mere 8 days ago
“I ain’t pulling any punches today you got that?”
“Wouldn’t want you to anyway”
They both transformed into their magical girl wear and squared up for their final training match before the big day. Sayaka held her sword very similarly to how she did on day one but something seemed different about her. She seemed to have more experience using the sword instead of being comparable to an infant wailing around a plastic toy. Predictably and preciseness were two of the things Sayaka had to be aware of when fighting Kyoko. If she was too predictable she’d get her ass handed to her and if she wasn’t precise enough she won’t land any hits and lose. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, ready for whatever Kyoko threw her way
Kyoko was just standing there, leaning against her spear waiting for Sayaka to make a move. There wasn’t a reason for Kyoko to attack first, she’s stronger than Sayaka and lunging in could give her a disadvantage, especially after all the training she had done with her. She felt a few swords summoned behind her trying to sneak a few scratches in before Sayaka started for real. Kyoko chucked and picked up her spear from the ground and with one wide and strong sweep Kyoko deflected all the swords Sayaka had tried to surprise her with. She could tell Sayaka was already coming up from behind her to overwhelm her with a bombardment of attacks but Kyoko had faced far too many stronger witches to let her do that
“Tch, you’ll have to do better than that Sayaka” she scolded while turning around spear in tow to not only not see Sayaka, but see three more swords shooting straight for her
She swept the swords away the same way she did before and felt a stab into her left shoulder. She turned around to see Sayaka spinning around a new sword mocking Kyoko. Sayaka had used Kyokos arrogance and her own nimble and athletic abilities to hide her presence from the redhead and land a hit
“I thought you said you weren’t gonna hold back? Was that a lie or something?”
Oh Kyoko was pissed now and it was clear as day on her face. She split her spear into multiple chains to keep Sayaka busy whilst she beats her to a pulp. To Sayaka’s defence she wasn’t doing too poorly against the barrage but she wasn’t doing good enough. She was being stabbed by small spears and being restricted by Kyokos chains as she only rapidly got closer. Her healing magic was doing all it could and she was making use of the pain suppression technique she learnt to focus purely on Kyoko and the chains. She summoned more swords to disrupt the way of the chains so instead of chaining up her arms or legs they’d chain up the newly created sword. Sayaka gripped the sword in her hands and readied herself to parry Kyokos attack. Kyoko was far too experienced to let a total noobie block her attack again so with as much force as she could she swept up with her spear knocking the sword out of her hand and creating a massive cut down Sayaka’s palm
“Ah shit that hurts” She said to Kyoko who was still in front of her
Kyoko dropped her spear and created a fist “You really shouldn’t say that to an opponent y’know? Could really motivate them to keep going” she said before boxing Sayaka in the abdomen winding her in the process
Kyoko then round-house kicked Sayaka in the back of the head knocking her out in the process
“Oh shit. Didn’t mean to go that far” Kyoko winced “she’ll probably be fine.. but I should get her home”
—————————————————————
Sayaka woke up in her bed at home with a bit of pain to her head. She looked to her side and saw Kyoko sleeping in a chair she had lugged in, legs resting on the bed. She thought back to the fight. It felt like it lasted a while but it realistically couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes. Kyoko woke up by Sayaka’s movements and smiled
“So I didn’t actually kill ya.. that’s good” she said looking away “I guess I would’ve been pretty upset by that”
“Yeah yeah flatter me another time” Sayaka said out of breath “so how did I do coach?”
“You did ok, that’s really all I can say” Kyoko responded
“Only huh? I guess I haven’t gotten that much better, I lost after all”
“That’s not necessarily true” Kyoko began “you’ve certainly gotten better at healing, not only yourself but others as well, and your sword skills have come a decent bit. You over exerted yourself in that fight though. Your magic couldn’t handle all of what you were doing. You were healing wounds dealt by my spears that you were already suppressing and subconsciously summoning swords to make sure you wouldn’t be bind by my spears. You lost focus when you saw the visible wound I did to you meaning you couldn’t suppress it well enough, and not to mention I did wind ya right after that.. so I guess it’s my fault you passed out too..”
Sayaka regretted asking where she went wrong in that fight as Kyoko had gone on an entire monologue about what she did wrong
“But you were able to keep yourself from dying for a while so that’s something I suppose” kyoko said trying to be reassuring
There was silence. A silence they hadn’t experienced in a while since they became better friends
“…be honest. Am I.. ready for Walpurgisnacht?” Sayaka asked avoiding eye contact with Kyoko
Kyoko sighed. “You’re as ready as you’ll ever be. But you should get some rest”
Sayaka hummed in agreement and turned on her side to face away from Kyoko
“Um but before I leave.. could you heal my shoulder that you stabbed please? You’ve kinda already healed yourself so..”
“Oh god!” Sayaka shouted sitting up in her bed “I’m so sorry! Have you been sitting like this earlier?!” She asked starting her healing
“It doesn’t hurt that much anymore but.. yeah I have been. Didn’t wanna wake ya y’know?”
Sayaka blushed at the thought of Kyoko carrying her back home, tucking her into bed and then sitting at her bedside until she woke up like some kind of worried lover
“B-be quiet or I’m not healing you”
“Wha? What did I do?”
—————————————————————
On the night of the big Walpurgisnacht fight Homura decided to have the other three magical girls over to her apartment to come up with a game plan and do some overall preparations. They were supposed to show up at 10am sharp Homura said. Of course she wasn’t shocked that Mami got there earlier than the appointed time and Sayaka was about a minute or two early as well. Kyoko however, frankly to no one’s shock, was running a bit late. The reason being that Kyoko didn’t have a smart phone, or any phone actually, so she was given Homura’s address by Sayaka on a small piece of paper which she promptly lost. She got there eventually, only a fashionably 20 minutes late, which wasn’t too bad right?
Sayaka and Mami had already gone through the snacks Homura had given them to ‘help them be productive’ but they left Kyoko a plate knowing her infatuation with any kind of food
Kyoko sat down at the table and Homura started. “Now that we can finally start” she said glaring at Kyoko who raised her hands guiltily“it’s time we prepare a plan for Walpurgisnacht tonight. Later today the entire city will be placed on alert and people will be told to go to evacuation centres for shelter. Our number 1 priority is ensuring that Madoka Kaname does not become a magical girl”
“Why Ms. Kaname?” Mami asked
“Everytime Walpurgisnacht was defeated in previous timelines, Madoka was a magical girl.. and every time she either died or became a witch..” Homura was having a hard time recounting her memories of Madoka’s deaths but she had to
“Yeah, so what if she became a witch? Walpurgisnacht was already defeated wasn’t it?” Kyoko asked stuffing her face with cookies left for her
“Madoka is different. The reason Kyubey is so obsessed with making a contract with her is because she’s much more powerful than Walpurgisnacht… a witch capable of destroying the planet in a mere 10 days..”
“Madoka can do that..?” Sayaka asked in disbelief
“On another note, Sayaka” Homura said turning her attention to the bluenette sitting diagonally from her “how competent will you be during this fight? This is the first time you’ve made it this far after all”
“Hey now Homura, you start insulting Sayaka you start insulting my teaching skills, so watch your mouth” kyoko said half sarcastic half defensive
“It’s fine, Kyoko” Sayaka said “I can act as support in case any of you get injured too hard and can handle myself enough to not be a burden. Sure I can’t especially create loads of swords like Kyoko or Mami but I can still handle on my own with my other skills”
“Right.. well I sure hope so. Mami..” she said turning to Mami beside her “..could you stay close to Sayaka during the fight? It’s better to split up into teams for this and you and Sayaka would work better than anyone else”
“Of course. It’d be an honour to support my junior”
“So I guess that means you’re with me then huh?” Kyoko said glancing at Homura
“Yes we will. We will be targeting Walpurgisnacht herself. Mami is much better at dealing with the smaller witches during this fight while your unpredictable and ruthless fighting style is much better for fighting the actual thing. I believe that the bombardment of our two abilities will make Walpurgisnacht weaken enough to be taken down by a group shot”
“Right right got it quit your yammering” Kyoko said loudly
“Alright then. Meet me at the park at 7pm tonight and we will take down this witch this time” Homura said dismissing the other magical girls
The three girls got up and began to left. Kyoko decided to stay back just a bit so Sayaka and Mami wouldn’t notice her not being behind them. Homura’s appointment door closed with Kyoko still in the doorway faced away from Homura
“Homura.” Kyoko said in one of the most serious tones Homura had ever heard her use in any of the timelines. She turned around to face the other girl. “In these other timelines where we did defeat Walpurgisnacht, you said you went back because Madoka became a more powerful witch right? Or if Madoka died..”
“Are you trying to say something, Kyoko Sakura?”
“Not really, just an observation y’know? Kinda weird you only went back when Madoka died instead of any of the rest of us, after all you said this was the only time Sayaka has made it this far” Kyoko said gritting her teeth. For some reason that fact pissed her off. That in every other timeline she was too late, or worse simply didn’t give a shit to try and save her
“Well… u-uh.. Madoka is-“
“I don’t care about your thing for Madoka” Kyoko said cutting her off
“I-it’s that obvious?” Homura said concerned. If it was that obvious maybe she was making Madoka uncomfortable or something. What if Madoka wanted nothing to do with her now?
“It’s obvious to me honestly, not sure about anyone else though, haven’t gotten the vibe they know yet” Kyoko said stepping towards Homura “but the reason it’s obvious to me is because we’re fighting for the same reason. Both of our families are gone, and now we’re fighting for the people who will bring that family feeling back” she said reaching her hand out to Homura “so we better not lose tomorrow, or I’ll kill ya”
Homura was taken aback “..it seems I underestimated your compassion Kyoko. I wasn’t aware you could speak such encouraging words to someone like me like that” she said taking Kyokos hand and shaking it, as if promising she would do everything in her power to not lose later that day
“Yeah well tell anyone I said that and I’ll deny it, got that?” She replied breaking off the hand shake and making her way to the door. “Oh and Homura.. after we kill the bitch later I’ll help ya out with your little girl crush alright?”
Homura blushed and groaned as Kyoko left the apartment laughing at how easy it was to make the Homura Akemi squirm with only a few words
—————————————————————-
The four magical girls met at the park when and where they said they would. The city was dark and tense. Walpurgisnacht would be showing up in just a few moments after all
“Madoka just texted” Sayaka said “she said to be careful and good luck”
“Well ain’t that nice” Kyoko said “eh Homura, isn’t it?” She emphasised teasing Homura
“Enough of that Kyoko, I need to make a few preparations and I advise you three do the same, I’ll be back in a second” Homura said
“What’re ya doing? Setting up a nuke to blow the head of this bitch or something?” Kyoko said grinning but still hopeful
Homura gave her a glare before disappearing and reappearing behind her. At that moment she emerged. An amalgamation of different witches and familiars being controlled by one big witch hovering over the city. The weather started to become noticeably worse meaning that the fight had begun
“Damn that thing’s ugly huh?” Sayaka asked
“It certainly is” Homura replied agreeing “alright Sayaka and Mami can you handle most of the smaller witches and familiars?”
“Of course” Mami replied confidently
“I still don’t understand why Mami is fighting the witches and familiars linked with this thing, she’s the strongest here isn’t she?” Sayaka asked?
“She compensates for your unknown abilities I’m afraid” Homura said bluntly “and I believe the two teams I’ve constructed work well together, that’s all”
Their unimportant conversation was cut off by a dozen witches rushing them. The four girls did what they discussed they would and split into the teams. Sayaka and Mami had little to no trouble dealing with the witches and familiars, though that was mainly Mami’s expertise at work, but Sayaka wasn’t doing too poorly either. Homura and Kyoko made their way up to the massive witch lurking over the city, Homura at the ready to stop time if needed and Kyoko with two spears on both her sides
Kyoko and Homura were in charge of not letting any high level or dangerous witches from getting down close to the city. The barrage of witches wasn’t exactly new to Homura but to Kyoko it was madness
“Yo what the hell! Why’re there so many of them huh?” Kyoko yelled at Homura before looking down and noticing one witch had gotten past them “Homura one got down!”
“There’s no time to fret about one, Mami Tomoe is more than capable of dealing with one witch, especially with a healer with her” Homura said quickly
Kyoko took this answer as good enough and continued her accent to Walpurgisnacht. Much to her own unamusement her and Homura made a good team. Homura was calculating and had good strategies and Kyoko just wanted to kick some witch ass and her fighting style was overwhelmingly offensive. She decided to give Sayaka and Mami a heads up of the witch though
“Yo Sayaka, Mami a witch got past us and is headin’ down to you two, watch your backs alright?”
“Thanks for the warning Kyoko we’ll keep it in mind” she got a reply from Mami only a few seconds later telepathically
A few seconds after Sayaka and Mami encountered the witch Kyoko mentioned. Its fighting style was similar to Charlottes, using its mouth to chomp down on its opponents to try and do them in. The two girls had dealt with a witch like this before but this one was tougher than Charlotte. Much tougher m
“Sayaka help me out with some sword support please” Mami requested
“Got it!” Sayaka responded quickly while summoning a dozen or so swords to help Mami in her endeavour against this witch while Sayaka continued to fight the smaller ones they were tasked with
Mami intended to use Sayaka’s swords as diversions to draw the witches attention away from her bombardment of guns. It worked for a bit and Mami did get a few good shots in but the witch was able to withstand all of them. The witch, seemingly having enough of Mami’s abuse, turned her attention to the weaker girl fighting other familiars and witches. It rushed Sayaka with its mouth agape
“SAYAKA WATCH OUT!” Mami yelled so loud that even Homura and Kyoko could hear her. They’d never heard the delicate girl be so loud before. Something must’ve been wrong
Mami used her ribbons and wrapped them around Sayaka’s waist and yanked her towards her, hopefully having her avoid the witch. She was mostly successful until she noticed the witch had been able to sink her teeth into Sayaka’s shoulder pretty deep. Sayaka looked up and saw Kyoko stationary looking down in a panic
“Keep going Kyoko I’m fine” she reassured
“I’m so sorry Sayaka! If I had warned you sooner, or pulled you a different direction or-” She was snapped out of her trance by Mami’s constant apologetic gibberish
“It’s Mami really. I’d be dead right now if you hadn’t had split second reaction time. I’d prefer having an easily healable wound than be dead you know?” Sayaka said to her senior which seemed to calm her down a bit
“Right then. I intend on avenging you, Sayaka” Mami said in a murderous tone whilst wiping her mouth
She summoned several dozen guns and pointed them up at the remaining witches, but focused the majority of them on the witch that had injured her junior. Unlike her previous shots that had been one shot per gun she had every gun she summoned fire multiple rounds of ammunition into every single witch in her way. The familiars didn’t even last one shot and the weaker of the witches weren’t much better, and with every witch defeated that was just one more gun that she could focus of the strongest of the witches. Eventually after hundreds of shots the last witch, the witch that had hurt Sayaka finally perished. At that point Sayaka was well healed but couldn’t exactly do anything to help, so she sat there amazed at Mami’s pure strength as she readied herself to continue facing the smaller witches
Homura decided that she and Kyoko were far enough up to start the barrage of guns, explosives, buildings, oil tankers and basically everything else she could acquire to ensure this thing would go down this time. She froze time and put everything in place, positioned every bullet to hit the big witch and every explosion to go off in the most efficient place. She unfroze time and watched her work unfold as she and Kyoko dealt with the last of the big witches this close to Walpurgisnacht
“Holy shit!” Kyoko yelled with genuine shock “I was joking about the nuke thing y’know”
“This isn’t the time for snarky comments Kyoko Sakura, start attacking it” Homura said to her partner
Kyoko smirked at Homura’s lacklustre reaction and started pelting spears at the witch. Homura couldn’t do much else apart from perfect the trajectory of the spears and continue her barrage of premeditated attacks. At this point all the witches and familiars had been dealt with by the four girls, Mami having the highest kill count thanks to her outburst and a few stray bullets reaching all the way up to where Kyoko was fighting other witches. Sayaka and Mami began their own accent up to Walpurgisnacht
“Hey we’re coming up, we’ve dealt with everything down here faster than we thought we would” Sayaka told them both telepathically
Noticing this, or maybe because her weaker witch forces were diminished, Walpurgisnacht let out an ear piercing shriek and unleashed a massive EMP attack. Kyoko was able to block it with a wall of spears, that did end up shattering due to the attack, but Homura wasn’t able to dodge. This was a move she had never seen before, how many more moves did she have that Homura didn’t, and couldn’t, account for. She started losing focus and resolve, which Kyoko noticed quite quickly because of the expansion on the black haired girls face
“THE HELL ARE YOU DOIN’?!” She yelled “You wanna beat this thing don’t ya. Then stop moping and get back up here. Do you not remember our talk earlier, what we’re both fightin’ for!? GET UP AND SHOW US WHY YOU’RE BETTER!”
Kyoko wasn’t very good at motivational speeches, or any ‘you can do this, I believe in you’ speeches, but tough love was exactly what Homura needed at this moment. She couldn’t believe she would lose her cool that easily, especially when the other three were trying so hard. Homura let out the last of her attacks and heard a shriek from Walpurgisnacht once again. But this time was different, a shriek of pain maybe? Well whatever it was it was good for them
“Kyoko Mami Sayaka I think it’s time we let out our last resort” Homura suggested
“I think so too. It doesn’t seem to have much strength left” Mami agreed
“So we really are doing this power of friendship shit then huh?” Kyoko asked dejected
Sayaka summoned as many swords as she could muster and replied “doesn’t matter Kyoko, let’s just kill this thing”
Kyoko and Mami summoned hundreds of their respective weapons and began firing them at the witch. Homura froze time again and repositioned every gun and spear to the most effective place and used up the last of her weapons that she had on her person, mainly just hand grenades and three hand guns. She purposefully didn’t move any of Sayaka’s swords for the main reason that if Walpurgisnacht tried to move out of the way it’d be hit by a few swords and subconsciously move back into the barrage of stronger attacks. That was the plan anyway
The attacks were working and Walpurgisnacht started to deteriorate
“Yo Mami finish this thing off with the big ass gun you use!” Kyoko yelled
Mami readied herself and positioned her gun “excellent idea, Kyoko” Mami pulled the trigger and an echo of a loud gunshot pierced the air “Tiro Finale!”
And with that the remnants of Walpurgisnacht were no more. The blue sky crept through the clouds as the girls looked back at the city to get a grasp at the damage. It was bad . Like really bad. Holes in skyscrapers, a crane had fallen onto a few suburban houses probably due to Mami’s bullet barrage and roads were totally destroyed. The girls stood on top of a building that wasn’t exactly in tact, but it was still standing so good enough right?
“Stellar work girls” Mami praised
“Yes I have to say I’m impressed at how efficient we were dealing with her this time” Homura agreed “now if you’ll excuse me I need to ensure Kyubey hasn’t manipulated Madoka into making a contract” she said disappearing
“Gotta say I’m glad none of us died there. Would’ve sucked to have a funeral after something like this. We gotta celebrate or something!” Sayaka said
Kyoko smiled. Maybe she was right, a celebration was in order, but she wasn’t paying for anything she’d let Sayaka do that “you’re paying blueberry” she said grinning
“After much consideration I’ve decided the celebration isn’t a good idea” Sayaka said monotone not even a second later
Mami giggled “I’ll arrange a party at my apartment girls don’t fret. You can swing by in a few hours if you’d like” she said excusing herself
“Why’s everyone leaving? We just beat like the most powerful witch ever right? Shouldn’t there be some big group hug or high five montage or something?” Sayaka asked kind of upset. She turned around to see Kyoko trying to leave too
“Hey! Where’re you going huh? At least the other two said something!”
“Sorry Sayaka, I’ve gotta pack my things for my move don’t I?” Kyoko asked looking at Sayaka over her shoulder
“Oh yeah… so you do” Sayaka whispered “I guess I’ll go check on Madoka or something”
Kyoko went back to her house, the abandoned church she lives in, and packed her stuff. It didn’t even fill two boxes, but is that really a shock? She decided that before she left this church for good she’d go to an actual church to pay her respects or something? Paying a homage to her past is what she told herself
It was late and not even an hour after a massive ‘storm’ so she didn’t expect anyone to be there. Much to her surprise she met a blonde haired girl sitting in the back right bench on the aisle. She sat on the left bench on the aisle and struck up a conversation
“Never pegged you for the religious type Mami”
Mami opened her eyes and turned to Kyoko, who she hadn’t noticed come in or sit down “Oh I’m not, I just come here after I kill a witch” she said thinking “maybe I hope that this will help them pass on peacefully, to wherever they go. I could say the same to you though, Kyoko. I never expected after everything that happened to you you’d still come to church”
“I don’t go to church, I just came here on a whim you know?”
“Ah I see” Mami said standing up “I’ll be taking my leave then, I do have a party to arrange”
“Ah right, see ya” Kyoko waved
“Yes, see you. And good luck Kyoko”
“Huh? With what?”
“With Sayaka of course” Mami said with a small grin
“I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re implying, cheese hair” she retorted
Mami laughed and left Kyoko alone in the church. This was nice, going to church with a friend after a big accomplishment, and now she got to go home to Sayaka, the person who she fought for, the person who she thought of when the word family came up. What was Sayaka to her? Eh whatever, probably nothing more than a friend anyway
She left the church and headed back to get her boxes and arrived outside Sayaka’s house, set down her stuff on the patio and rang the doorbell. “This’s gonna be somthin’ huh?”