Chapter Text
Nakahara Chuuya’s life was not a great one.
She wasn’t technically an orphan, but with no parents in her life, it was awfully close.
She had no clue who her parents were or what had happened to them. The earliest part of her life that she could remember was age six, and by then, she was already alone on the streets.
Instead of parents, she had the Sheep, her brothers and sisters who had plucked her off the street when she was seven. The Sheep was a ragtag group of kids and teenagers that had no home until they had picked each other up. They survived together by shoplifting goods, dumpster diving, and hiding in condemned buildings or alleys where cops didn’t bother looking.
Most of the Sheep were much younger than Chuuya, meaning she would often protect and take care of them. And of course, they were poor as hell, but at least they had a roof over their heads. Even if that roof was that of a detached garage meant for a house that was never built.
As Chuuya opened the oversized garage’s side door, she was immediately greeted by a small crowd of young children. “Chuuya!” One of them threw his arms around her hips in an attempt at a hug that he was too short for. The rest just jumped around, trying to get a hug or something from her.
“Dang, the kiddos missed you,” said Shirase, a girl about Chuuya’s age. “What took you so long?”
“Turns out I’m banned from most of the stores in town. But, anyway, I got the groceries.” She held up three burlap bags filled with shoplifted food.
Shirase laughed, walking over to take the bags from Chuuya’s hands. “That’s ’cause you keep getting caught.”
Chuuya raised an eyebrow. “If one of us were to get a job…”
Shirase scowled. “We’re just fine like this.”
She and Shirase had had this argument many times before. If the older kids could work for money, their life would be so much easier. But for some reason, Shirase was insistent on remaining street urchins.
“Come on, Shirase. If we had money, we might be able to get a real house one day. The kids could go to school. Why do you love being broke so much?!”
“This is how it is, okay?! I don’t want to live a good life for a minute just for it to go away again!”
“It wouldn’t go away if we kept the damn job.”
“So what about when these employers find out that we’ve stolen from every store in Mitakihara and then some?!”
A pause.
Shirase continued. “We get fired, Chuuya! Better yet, we get arrested, and then it’s just like it was before!”
Chuuya rolled her eyes, prying the child off her leg and walking further into the garage. She’d never win this argument.
She sat down on the bench she’d made a year ago out of plywood, fabric and car parts she’d found in the trash. The wood was softened from water damage and rot, making it surprisingly comfortable. Shirase unpacked the groceries while refusing to make eye contact with her. Chuuya shrugged, going to rummage around the bag filled with books that was kept placed next to the bench. She picked up one that she’d usually read to some of the younger kids, opened it up, and began reading.
---
Roughly a week later, Chuuya was sent out for food again. It was supposed to be Yuan’s turn today, but he’d gotten some kind of cold, meaning that Chuuya was going again. Yuan was the oldest boy in the Sheep, but a bit less mature than her, meaning that he was more likely to get into trouble. Therefore, it was better for Chuuya to be sent out anyway.
Chuuya was currently walking up the road, away from the seedy side of town. That was where she could find the good supplies.
She was also trying to focus on her job, and stop being pissed about another argument with Shirase about working. Her face twitched in anger every time she thought about it.
“It would make everything easier. Why are you so attached to this fucking garage?!”
She kicked a rock to the side of the road.
“This is our home! We’re just fine here! Besides, the kids love going on those ‘adventures’ to find new sheep.”
She scraped her worn shoe roughly against the asphalt.
“And we could do that without being on the edge of starving!”
She glared at a hole in her shoe as she took another step. The ground was much softer now. That was strange.
“You always complain about the people who whine about their problems while we have nothing! Do you want to become like them?!”
Chuuya huffed and kicked another rock. It flashed across her vision, strangely shiny for a rock. She looked up. The street was gone. In its place was a setting straight out of a horrific fever dream.
“What the hell-“
Before she could finish her sentence, she was immediately swarmed by a flock of… something coming from behind her. It left thousands of tiny cuts on her face, and as she turned around to look at it, it looked like a thousand paper cranes from hell. Chuuya immediately tried to look around. She was standing in a rolling field of blackened grass that seemed to go on forever. There were several patches of trees that looked burned and blackened.
Standing in the center of her view was what she could best describe as a giant demon. It was clad in robes that seemed like they were made from playing cards and had giant paper wings sprouting from its back. Its head looked like a large fluffy dandelion and contained nothing at all resembling a face.
The thing let out a sound that sounded less like a laugh and more like an emergency alarm. It raised an arm and pointed a spindly, needle-like finger at her. The hell origami, having previously returned to their master, came back at her in a wave.
Chuuya buried her head in her arms, trying to shield it from the wave of demon birds. They passed within a few seconds. She tentatively raised her head and was immediately grateful she’d protected it. The cranes had left much deeper cuts this time.
Now the demon-thing was mad. Its paper wings began to flap aggressively, lifting it into the air. It flew toward Chuuya, who knew that either she would wake up in a few seconds, or she was royally fucked.
The thing came towards her with the speed of a train, charging its arm backward.
But before it could get to Chuuya, her vision was suddenly filled with a flash of blue. She felt something knock hard against her chest before she was sent tumbling across the blackened grass. She laid still for a few moments before the dizziness faded.
Chuuya closed her eyes for a moment to process what the fuck had just happened. When she opened them, she was immediately met with a face mere inches away from hers. The face belonged to a girl about her age, maybe a little younger. Her complexion was pale, one of her dark eyes was covered by bandages, and the other seemed overly wide and had a strange quality to it that Chuuya couldn’t quite place. Her long, dark hair looked limp and greasy, like it hadn’t been washed for a while. The only neat thing about it was the large blue bow fixed at the back of her head, like someone had dressed up a corpse and forgotten the rest. When the girl saw Chuuya open her eyes, a wide smile spread across her face.
“What’s a little girl like you doing here?” The girl asked.
Chuuya scowled. “I’m sixteen.”
The girl raised her eyebrows. “Really? Could have fooled me.”
“What are you even doing here?!”
The girl’s smile somehow widened further. “I’m a magical girl. I’m here to protect you. You see that thing over there?” She gestured toward the demon-thing, which for some reason was just standing idly by.
Chuuya raised an eyebrow. “It’s a little hard to miss.”
“That’s a witch, and it’s my job to fight those kinds of things! Say, what’s your name, small one?”
“I’m Nakahara Chuuya. Who-“
The girl cut her off before Chuuya could ask her name. “Now, little girl, you should stand back while the adults do the scary stuff.” The girl ran off toward the demon, her blue front-slit dress swirling around her legs and the tails of her black ringmaster coat flapping behind her.
“I’m not a little girl!” Chuuya shouted after her. “I’m sixteen!”
The only indication that the girl heard her was a gleeful laugh.
The girl stopped running about halfway along the straight path to the witch. She raised her arm like an orchestra’s conductor. Rain began to pour from the sky, then twisted unnaturally, ribbons of water snaking together into the shape of a cannon. The girl then lowered her arm to point at the witch, who was now sending its paper cranes at her again. The girl snapped her fingers, and the cannon fired, blowing straight from the hole and leaving a sizable dent in the witch’s frame. She snapped her fingers again, and again, and again, each snap firing a shot from the cannon. Soon enough, a hit struck right through the witch’s frame. Instead of exiting through the back, it exploded inside of its body.
The playing cards making up the witch’s body disintegrated, along with the nightmare world surrounding them. Soon, Chuuya was standing on a normal street again. The magical girl bent down to pick something up off the ground before walking over to Chuuya.
“So?” The girl asked, looking down at Chuuya (despite only being a couple inches taller) with a smug grin.
“So what?” Chuuya replied, glaring at the girl in front of her.
The girl’s face creased with obviously-fake hurt. “Aren’t you going to thank me for saving your life?”
Chuuya rolled her eyes. Nevertheless, the girl did save her. “Thanks,” she grumbled. “Now do you want to explain what the actual fuck that was?”
“Goodness, someone ought to wash your mouth out with soap.”
“Just answer my ques-“
“That was a witch,” the girl said, cutting her off just for the fun of it. “I’m not sure where they come from, but they curse people into despair or death, causing suicides or just mysterious disappearances. As a magical girl, I made a wish and signed a contract with a being named Kyubey, with no monkey’s paw bullshit. In exchange for my wish, it’s my responsibility to save poor souls like you from such a fate as being killed by a witch. Now, personally, I envy them for getting such an easy death, but a job is a job.”
Chuuya raised an eyebrow. “Right. And… who are you? And do all witches look like that fucking thing?”
The girl kneeled down, grabbed Chuuya’s hand and kissed it. “I am Dazai Osamu, magical girl extraordinaire and generally the most wonderful, beautiful being on this earth.” She returned to a normal stance. “As for the witches, no. All witches are unique—they have different appearances, different familiars and different labyrinths. The one that failed to give me a beautiful death today was Portia, the Bird Witch.” Dazai smiled as she began walking away, beckoning Chuuya to come with her. She flicked her wrist. Her dress shimmered, then transformed into a simple t-shirt and ripped jeans. She looked like any other teenager. The only odd thing remaining was the bandages, still covering her eye and her arms. “Now,” Dazai said, looking back at Chuuya. “Any more questions?”
“Just one,” Chuuya said, momentarily jogging in order to keep up with the other girl. “Am I on LSD?”
Dazai cackled loudly and kept walking.
---
Dazai had followed her around town all day, lingering until Chuuya managed to get everything she needed. Now she was on her way back to the garage, carrying three full bags of food and supplies. By now it was late in the night. The stars were covered by a thick layer of clouds, indicating that it was going to rain soon. Chuuya was about half a mile away, so she had plenty of time to make it home before the storm started.
She was back in the bad side of town now. This meant she had to keep her guard up; she could hold her own in a fight, especially if her opponent was under the influence like most people here were, but anyone with a gun was a threat.
Thankfully, it took her just a few uneventful minutes to reach the garage. She turned the key and opened the door as quietly as she could, knowing that most of the kids were probably asleep by now. The air inside was warm and stale, filled with the smell of old blankets and canned soup. She closed the door gently behind her and sighed, placing the groceries down on the old table they’d taken from an unattended yard sale. The floor was littered with kids in sleeping bags, some of the little kids sharing one, and the only one awake was Shirase. She was sitting on the bench chewing on what looked like a cinnamon stick (where the hell had she gotten that?) and flipping through one of their old books. Her bare foot was moving back and forth across someone’s back. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be Yuan.
Shirase looked up and made eye contact with Chuuya. She gave a small wave and beckoned Chuuya to come sit with her.
“Hey,” Shirase whispered.
Chuuya gave an upward nod in response.
Shirase tilted her head. “You good?”
“Had a weird day,” Chuuya whispered.
“Run into that crackpot again?”
“Which one?”
They both snickered quietly.
Chuuya continued. “Yeah, I did. But there was also this crazy bitch I met, ‘bout my age, definitely trippin’ on something. Tried to drag me into it, called herself my savior.” That was a sanitized, believable version of the story about Dazai.
“Was she hot?”
“Goddammit, Shirase.”
They laughed again. Yuan stirred in his sleep at the noise. There was a pause as they waited for him to stop moving again.
“Sorry for being a bitch earlier,” Chuuya said, twirling her short red hair between her fingers.
“It’s fine.”
“Really? ‘Cause-“
Shirase looked up at her with a strained smile. “Water under the bridge, Chuuya.”
“Water under the bridge.”
---
A few weeks and several job rotations later, Chuuya was out again. She was on her way west to find supplies when she saw a person floating down the river she was following.
“What the hell?”
She stepped closer and saw that, yes, it really was a person. She thought about just letting them drown, but unfortunately, her conscience got the best of her. Two minutes later, she was sitting on a riverbank covered in dead grass, shivering even in the early-June air and waiting for the girl next to her to wake up. The girl was breathing, which was a relief—Chuuya would have freaked out if she realized she’d just pulled a corpse out of a river.
The girl shook herself awake, rolled onto her back and—what the fuck.
“Dazai?!”
Dazai Osamu opened her eyes, which brightened upon seeing Chuuya. “Chuuya! Oh, I was going to be mad at you for interrupting my suicide, but it’s so good to see you!” The girl lunged at Chuuya, throwing her arms around the smaller girl’s shoulders.
“Hey-! Get off me!” Chuuya roughly shoved the brunette off of her and sat back down to pout.
“Why is Chuuya mad?”
“I’m pissed, because I was hoping that my last encounter with you was a fever dream.”
Dazai nodded and patted Chuuya on the shoulder. “I see. That’s alright, I wish my life wasn’t real, too.”
“Should I worry for you or not?”
“Nah.”
Dazai sat back, taking off her denim jacket to reveal her bandaged arms. The two sat in silence for a while, letting themselves air dry. Soon enough, Dazai stood up.
“Well, I must be going. You see, I was on a witch hunt when I got distracted by this beautiful river!”
“You oughtta take your job more seriously.”
Dazai’s smile brightened. “Chuuya is right! I should take her with me as my apprentice!”
“That’s not what I meant at all.”
She grabbed Chuuya’s hand, pulling the smaller girl to her feet. “Come with me, Chuuya. Come with me, Chuuya. Come with meeeeee—“
“What the hell. Fine.” Chuuya brushed herself off and looked towards Dazai, whose eyes widened.
“Really?”
“Sure. I might have a wish in mind. Might as well see how this magical girl shit works. You were telling the truth about the wish thing, right?”
“Of course I was. I may introduce you to Kyubey later.”
The two walked together in silence for a while before Dazai spoke again.
“You know, you’re taking all this nonsense rather well.”
Chuuya shrugged. “Eh. I kinda lost the capacity to be surprised by this kind of shit anymore.”
“That was a grammatically incorrect statement.”
“Shut the hell up.”
They walked in silence again for a while until Dazai saw something on the ground. “Ha!” She shouted almost excitedly. “Grief seed! Oh dear, it’s hatching… looks like we were a little late, huh, Chuuya?” Dazai grabbed Chuuya’s hand as the world exploded around them in hideous swirls of red, purple and black.
When the vertigo faded, Chuuya took a moment to look around. They were in what looked like a dimly lit hallway made of old bricks. The walls were lined with barbed wire, and black oil dripped out of the cracks, almost as though they were bleeding. Down the hallway she could hear crazed giggling, presumably from the witch.
Dazai’s outfit had changed in the four seconds that Chuuya hadn’t been paying attention. She was now wearing the blue dress, black tights and black ringmaster’s coat that Chuuya had first seen her in. She would ask about that later.
The magical girl raised a hand and a small raincloud formed above them.
“We just dried off,” Chuuya grumbled.
The rain came to form a weird looking musket, which solidified into tangible material as soon as Dazai touched it. She passed it over to the smaller girl with a smile. “You should take this. These places aren’t safe, especially for little kids like you.”
“This is a musket.”
“It’s vintage.”
Chuuya kicked her in the shins, but took the musket gratefully as the two began to walk forwards. The hall seemed to go on forever. Dazai eventually had the idea to make mile markers using a piece of chalk she’d inexplicably pulled out of her pocket, so now whenever she felt like it, she would draw a smiley face on the wall along with a number.
After what could have been anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour (Chuuya had no idea, this hall was driving her insane) of meaningless small talk with that awful giggling in the background, they hadn’t made any progress whatsoever. The hall still stretched forward as far as the eye could see.
Dazai was examining the wall while Chuuya paced behind her. “This is fucking ridiculous,” the ginger muttered under her breath. “Labyrinth, my ass.”
“It seems we have a problem, Chuuya.”
Chuuya turned around to face her. “No shit, Sherlock.”
Dazai moved aside, revealing the section of wall behind her. Drawn in gross chalk on the wall was a smiley face with a ‘1’ written below it. Dazai’s first marker.
“What the fuck?!” Chuuya exclaimed. She was no scientist, in fact she’d never gone to school in her life, but she was very sure that this was not, in any way, possible.
“What the fuck indeed.” Dazai snapped her fingers, and a cannonball appeared (likely from her water trick) and fired straight into the wall. A section of the wall crumbled, and Dazai stepped through. Chuuya reluctantly followed suit. They were now in what looked like a cathedral, but wrong in every way possible. The stained-glass windows were all red glass, the ceiling looked like it was miles above them, and the floor was flooded with three inches of muddy water.
And, of course, there were the creatures around them. The small things all looked like assorted mixed clumps of razorblades, barbed wire and bandages. They each had stick figure limbs and thin lines that were probably meant to look like smiles. But the giggling was coming from the thing in the center. It looked like an empty blue coat at first. Its ‘face’ was wrapped entirely in bandages with razorblades sticking out of every nook and cranny. It had a wide smile drawn onto the bandages.
The thing raised its sleeves, and barbed wire shot out of them like stretching arms. The wire targeted Dazai, who dodged the attack with a simple sidestep. The giggling raised in pitch as Dazai grinned. “Chuuya, meet Cassandra, the Puppet Witch.”
“Why do you know these things’ names?”
“Eh, they just come to me,” Dazai replied as she summoned a cannon that appeared in front of her. She snapped her fingers, and the cannon fired toward the witch’s coat. The coat simply bent at the force, and the cannonball shot straight through. The giggling grew louder. Another barbed wire attack came towards Dazai, who crouched behind her cannon. “Chuuya, would you mind taking care of the little things for me?”
Chuuya nodded. She’d used a gun before, besides, this one was magic. Confidently she began to shoot the small things down.
“Good dog!” Dazai exclaimed as she continued firing her cannon.
“I’m not a dog!” Chuuya shouted back.
Eventually, one of Dazai’s cannon blasts hit the right mark. The giggling quieted as the witch’s ‘head’ deflated.
“Now, then. Let’s finish this dumb sermon up.”
A final shot from the cannon caused the witch’s body to disintegrate, taking the labyrinth with it. They returned to the riverside road they’d been on before. Dazai walked forward to pick something off the ground, then returned to show it to Chuuya.
“This,” she said, “is a Grief Seed. They’re like seed pods for the witches. They hold all the darkness and such.” Dazai’s outfit changed back to the clothes she’d been wearing before, and a blue egg-shaped jewel appeared in her hand. “This is my Soul Gem. It’s the source of my power. You see how the color is dull and gross?” She held the Soul Gem next to the Grief Seed. It seemed like the Grief Seed sucked the darkness out of the soul gem. “We use Grief Seeds to purify it.”
Chuuya nodded along as she explained. “That makes no sense at all, but okay.”
“It actually does,” said a new voice. Chuuya turned around to see a creature that looked like some sort of alien cat, with strange antenna extending from his head and a cheerful smile on his round face.
“Hello, Kyubey,” Dazai said cheerfully.
“The Grief Seed absorbs the corruption from Dazai’s Soul Gem, rejuvenating her power.”
Chuuya stared for a few moments at the creature. “Is this the thing that made you a magical girl?”
Kyubey answered instead of Dazai. “That’s right. Dazai signed a contract with me, made a wish, and became a magical girl.”
Chuuya looked back up at Dazai. “Why does he look like that?”
Dazai began to giggle as Kyubey tilted his head in confusion. While still giggling, she tossed the Grief Seed at Kyubey. A hole opened up in his back, swallowing the Grief Seed. Kyubey then started walking away.
“I should go back to getting supplies,” Chuuya said after a few more minutes of listening to Dazai laugh.
“Can I come with you, Chuuya?” Dazai begged, placing her hands on the smaller girl’s shoulders.
“No.”
“I’ll buy you things!”
“…manipulative bitch.”
---
After two hours of wandering around grocery stores and Dazai paying for all the supplies Chuuya needed while boasting about her greatness, Dazai finally left her alone.
Now Chuuya strolled happily to the East to get back home, holding canvas bags fuller than they’d been for a long time. She didn’t even let the pervert who kept talking to her dampen her mood. She turned the key to the garage and opened the door. She was greeted by Akira, a boy of around twelve. “Do you want help, Chuuya?” The boy asked, already reaching for one of the bags. Chuuya carefully gave it to him, watching his arms droop under the weight. “You got a lot of stuff,” the boy said with slight wonder.
“Yeah,” Chuuya said. “One of the stores I’m banned from forgot about me.”
Akira laughed as he carried the bag over to the table.
The Sheep were spread somewhat evenly across the garage. A group of five little kids plus Yuan were puzzling over a thicker book that he had found last week. A couple of teenagers were chatting and snacking on the remains of a bag of jerky. A few of the little kids were sick; they were tucked away in a corner sleeping. Shirase was measuring and rationing the supplies left over from the last grocery run.
Chuuya placed the remaining two bags on the table, then walked over to her. “I got a great haul today,” she said, gesturing toward the table.
Shirase followed her hand to look at the full bags. “Dang. How’d you get all that?”
Chuuya had been working on formulating a story without Dazai in it for a while before. “Someone stoner left their trunk open for, like, half an hour. I helped myself.”
The other girl laughed. “Man, why’s it always you that gets lucky?”
Chuuya just shrugged.
The sun was going to set soon. The Sheep began taking their sleeping bags out from the corner where they were stuffed and dragging them towards the middle of the room. A few kids started fighting over who would get the better spot and such. Some of the smaller ones argued over who would have to share a sleeping bag with who. All in all, it was a normal night. Chuuya walked over to the corner to grab one, beckoning Shirase to do so as well.
Once everyone had reserved a spot, they walked to the table to look at their dinner options. A couple of the older kids took a can opener to the soups and chilis, while everyone else grabbed an empty can—they always saved those to use as dishware—and a plastic spoon.
Each person took about half the can or package’s worth of food, then went back to their sleeping bag to eat. Chuuya took half a can of chili and went to sit by Shirase, who had some sort of beef stew. The two sat together in silence as they ate.
After they finished, everybody rinsed their cans using the rusty old sink on one of the walls. After that, there was nothing more to do, so they switched off the old lightbulb and went to sleep.
Chuuya began to drift off almost the second she laid down. After a few hours, she was asleep.
Bang.
Chuuya’s eyes snapped open, but it was too dark to see anything.
A little girl screamed. Another bang, followed by more screaming.
A boy was crying. A girl screamed a battle cry as the sound of a punch landed. Two more bangs, and those two voices stopped.
Someone screamed her name.
Chuuya sat up, hand flailing for anything that might help. She touched something—someone’s leg, completely limp. She couldn’t tell who it was.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three fewer voices were screaming.
Bang.
Blinding pain shot through Chuuya’s waist, and her upper body crashed back down. She screamed, but her voice was lost in the crowd. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag, trying to look around, but it was completely dark.
“Please!” She heard someone cry.
“Shirase!”
“Leave him alone!”
“Help us!”
“Akira, where are you?!”
Four more bangs. Those voices were gone.
One of the little kids was crying. Shirase was yelling her name. Her heart was pounding. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was screaming. Everyone was screaming.
Who was doing this? Why?!
“Please—he’s only seven—”
“What do you want?!”
“Chuuya—Chuuya help—”
“Someone, please-“
“It hurts-“
“Why-“
“Who are you-“
“Chuuya-“
Screaming. Banging.
The banging stopped. Footsteps.
After an eternity, it was silent.
“Shirase?” Chuuya croaked. “Yuan?”
No answer.
Her voice grew quieter, more strained. “Anybody?”
The wound in her side hurt so bad, but that didn’t matter. Everyone was gone. Her family was gone. Someone had followed Chuuya home, and she didn’t notice, and now they were gone. And she was dying.
The door had been left open. There was just a little bit of light, but what she could see was blurred with tears.
She closed her eyes as sobs racked her body, and fuck, it hurt, but she didn’t care.
There was a soft pitter patter of tiny footsteps. Perhaps a stray cat had come in here.
“Do you want to make a wish?” A high-pitched voice asked.
Chuuya’s eyes snapped open. Kyubey.
“Yes,” she croaked.
He sat down in silence beside her head.
“I wish to live… a better life.”
---
“So,” Dazai said, swinging her legs over the bridge’s rails.
“So what?!” Chuuya demanded.
“Congratulations, Chuuya.”
Dazai smiled.
“You’re a magical girl now.”