Chapter Text
The streets of Tokyo had never been so grotesque
"Mommy, mommy! Look! The fireworks!" A little boy exclaimed, clutching the older woman’s hand. A small festival was underway in Shinjuku - entertainment for tourists, but a ritual for the locals.
The distracted woman murmured a word of contemplation, stroking the boy’s spiky hair as he hopped with excitement. His eyes drifted from stall to stall, searching for sweets to eat, before landing on a dark, isolated yokocho.
Inside the alleyway, the boy could see a light - a piece of sweet popcorn floating, glowing, its intoxicating scent calling out to him
Slowly, he drifted away from his mother. In the chaos of the crowd, she didn't even notice him vanishing. She simply assumed he was heading toward the nearby kikufuku stalls to ask for something to eat.
He stepped into the shadows of the alley, his eyes fixed on the glowing lure. But as he drew closer, the intoxicating scent vanished, replaced by the stench of stagnant water.
The glowing "sweet popcorn" was nothing more than a piece of rotting trash on the ground.
The boy pouted, letting out a disappointed sigh. He crouched down, staring at the dirty popcorn, feeling nothing but a strange, hot wind brushing against his skin.
He didn't even notice the distorted, sharp teeth surrounding his small body, nor the creature's appendage connected to the discarded popcorn. He couldn't even feel the unsettling sensation of the ground beneath his feet turning fleshy, mucus sticking the soles of his shoes to something
And then, suddenly,
Dark blue blood splattered across the rest of the dark alley, the spirit's corpse fouled the yokocho, contrasting with the area illuminated by the festival lights from where he was.
On the other side of the alley, Sayaka stood, gripping her saber tightly. Her eyes were glazed, fixed on the spot where the curse, resembling a black sea demon, had just been decapitated.
But the boy couldn't see any of it; he felt nothing except for the sudden absence of the warm sensation on his face.
"Are you sick?" he asked curiously, staring at the bandages wrapped around the girl's face.
Sayaka froze
She could see the boy tilting his head with genuine curiosity, waiting for an answer. His small, childish frame was silhouetted by the vibrant festival lights bustling behind him
Her hand trembled slightly before she released the hilt of her saber, which disintegrated into particles of bluish light once more
"I... I'm fine," she murmured, her gaze drifting toward the ground
The boy seemed satisfied by her answer, offering a small smile.
Suddenly, a desperate woman’s voice shrieked what sounded like the boy's name. The moment he turned his head at the sound, Sayaka didn't hesitate;
She propelled her body upward. With a high leap, she vanished into the darkness of the night, disappearing above the ventilation ducts of the yokocho
As she leaped between buildings, fleeing from the festival lights, the contrast began to torture her
The streets of Tokyo had never been so grotesque.
In one of her few remaining memories, Sayaka remembered a school trip with Mitakihara Middle School; visiting a fancy museum in Tokyo back in the seventh grade. She had been so excited, standing alongside a pink-haired girl who watched everything with fascination, and another with well-groomed green hair who knew how to explain every single object. Everything was bright, colorful, alive; Sayaka remembered she couldn't stop smiling.
But now, everything was filthy. Disgusting.
She felt forced to hide in dark alleys and hidden yokochos of the metropolis. Alongside her existed strange creatures that muttered to themselves, beings with multiple eyes and mouths, like fleshy versions of a Witch’s familiars.
They were revolting, and they made her feel revolting too.
From time to time, she would watch families from the deepest shadows of Shinjuku’s alleys, terrified of being seen. It wasn't envy; it was appreciation. She couldn't bring herself to hate this world, because it was real, not a lie.
Not a lie invented by her...
Oh, her.
Sayaka took a particularly high leap between the buildings, for a moment nearly summoning her sword out of pure rage.
She didn't remember much of her life before appearing in this place, but she remembered the girl's long black hair, those violet eyes, and the sin she had committed. She did something horrific, that demon.
When she finds her, when she--
"Miki-san!" Kyubey called out, sounding worried as he hopped toward the blue-haired girl. His ears, cat-like and with long fur, had no longer the classic pink tone Sayaka swore she remembered; they were now a shade of green.
"You took too long. I was worried for a moment," the feline-like creature murmured, watching the Magical Girl enter the building. It was an abandoned building, dark enough to serve as a temporary home.
"I’m fine, Kyubey," she replied instinctively, reaching out a hand to soothe him. The creature let out a troubled sound.
"Uhm... I’ve told you, that’s not my name. It’s... Mabayu... have you forgotten?"
"Ah- right. My memory is acting up, sorry!" Sayaka pointed to her head and closed her exposed eye, mimicking a smile from behind her bandages. This caused Mabayu to mutter something to herself, but she didn't elaborate.
The building was an abandoned shell. Using the rubble, they had crafted a makeshift table piled with canned soups of various brands. Some lay open and discarded on the floor, while others remained sealed.
"Did you bring more?" Sayaka approached, picking up one of the cans with curiosity; this one seemed to be chicken noodle soup.
"There’s a shop nearby. I go there and... shoplift," Mabayu said with a slight hesitation, the feline creature climbing onto Sayaka’s shoulder. "Well.. it’s a bad feeling. I always think I’m going to get caught, I feel their eyes on me sometimes," Mabayu murmured before feeling Sayaka’s hand gently scratch her chin.
"Don't worry about that, If someone could see you, we would know." Sayaka said, stepping toward a figure lying on an old mattress, covered by a white cloth.
The eight-year-old girl lay there with her eyes closed, her white hair splayed across the mattress as she breathed softly. To anyone watching from a distance, she would appear to be merely sleeping.
Sayaka opened one of the soup cans and, with a spoon, began to feed her gently.
Mabayu let out a long sigh as she watched the scene "I hope Nagisa wakes up soon," she murmured to herself. Sayaka merely nodded in response.
Nagisa Momoe. One of the few names Sayaka remembered with absolute clarity. She had woken up beside the girl, who was already unconscious on the cold ground. Her body was functional, yet... soulless.
Mabayu had explained that a specific energy permeated this world - the same energy found in every corner like a plague and in those strange familiars-like creatures. It also seemed to dwell within every human born here: some kind of Cursed Energy.
It was this very energy that fueled Nagisa’s body, acting almost as a surrogate soul; however, her consciousness remained nowhere to be found.
Even though Sayaka couldn’t quite remember, she knew that she and Nagisa had worked together for something. Some kind of law, or a higher order.
"Mabayu," Sayaka suddenly said in a serious tone, still feeding the dormant girl. The feline creature looked at her with curiosity.
"If you knew something... you would tell me, wouldn't you?" Mabayu seemed to hesitate for a moment, shifting her purple eyes toward the wall
"Mabayu. Answer me."
"Miki-san, I just want you to know that I’m as confused as you are," Mabayu said after a moment of processing the question, looking directly into Sayaka’s hollow blue eyes, a rare moment of bravery from her "I promise."
Sayaka sighed, the previous tension dissipating. She crossed her arms, leaning back against the concrete wall "Fine, I get it. Now... time to change the seals, isn't it?"
"R-Right! Well remembered!"
Mabayu hopped off Sayaka’s shoulder and positioned herself on one of the makeshift tables. Her small white paw emitted a soft greenish glow, and from it emerged what looked like a strip of cinema film - which, after forming, took on a brown tone, as if it had been immediately soiled
Gripping a simple paint-brush between her small teeth, she dipped it into dark ink and began writing in witches runes across the surface, her movements were almost second nature. As the runes were inscribed, the film strip began to shift, acquiring the texture of an ordinary bandage.
"This thing," Sayaka said, dangling the object between her fingers like a spent cigarette. "It was inside that strange monster at the detention center. It smells even worse than trash, but do you feel this, Mabayu?"
She extended the finger toward the small creature; Mabayu’s eyes widened. The Cursed Energy emanating from Sukuna’s remains was dense, too dense
"It’s heavy. It’s filthy," she continued "But it’s pure power. If we don’t find a Grief Seed soon, I might have to find a way to 'eat' whatever is inside this thing just to keep that thing inside me. What do you think? Is it a stupid plan or just.."
Mabayu took a step back, the fur on her ears bristling "That’s... Sayaka! that won’t stabilize you! It’s too much! If you try to absorb that--"
"I know, I know," Sayaka interrupted, tucking the finger back under her bandages with an indifferent shrug "But it’s either this, or nothing."
"..."
Mabayu’s paws touched Sayaka’s old seals, gently undoing them. She averted her eyes while wrapping the new ones around the girl’s skin. It was like winding the tape of a VHS cassette, or at least, that was what she told herself.
As the old bandages fell to the floor, they no longer looked like clean white fabric; they were stained a filthy, damp hue, as if they had been absorbing something.
"It’s getting worse, isn't it?" Sayaka murmured, her voice devoid of its usual edge.
Mabayu didn't answer immediately. She worked frantically, her small paws trembling as she pressed the new bandages against Sayaka’s skin.
The Cursed Energy of the room, that invisible "tar" that seemed to be everywhere, appeared to recoil before the seals. To anyone else, the air would simply seem cleaner. But for Sayaka, it was like being placed inside a decompression chamber.
"It’s not 'getting worse', worse is a heavy word, you know?" Mabayu lied, her voice particularly small "It’s just... adjusting. This world’s energy is heavy, Sayaka. It’s pressing against us. These seals will hold. They will."
"Heavy," Sayaka repeated, a bitter laugh escaping her lips "Yeah. Everything here is heavy. Confusing."
Sayaka’s white cape billowed as she approached the window, the moonlight illuminating her clothes once more
"I need some air." And then, she vanished, leaping toward the rooftop
When she felt her blue boots touch the cold concrete, she couldn't help but raise a hand to her face against the sharp night wind. Stepping to the edge of the abandoned building, the sprawling lights and festivities of Shinjuku unfolded before her.
Sayaka remained motionless as she watched. In her hand, she held the mummified finger, her grip tightening the longer she stared.
Her eyes searched for the small blurs she knew represented people: teenagers, couples, elderly, children, and families - all drifting together, celebrating the simple act of... being.
Every tiny dot was an entire lifetime.
As she observed the flow of life, she noticed in the corner of her eye, on the street just below the abandoned building where she was, a young woman. She was slightly drunk, laughing as she stumbled over her own footsteps on the dark street.
Sayaka’s expression didn't change. Her eyes merely narrowed, focusing on the exact spot where the woman was stumbling
In one swift motion, Sayaka’s hand opened, materializing her cutlass and hurling it like a needle toward the woman
The blade struck the ground just beneath the drunk woman’s heel. She let out a startled cry, losing her balance once more and falling back onto the pavement
However, the blade did not vanish. Sayaka narrowed her eyes even further, as if seeking confirmation
Suddenly, beneath the asphalt, the ground under the blade began to bubble
A grey hand covered in grotesque buboes emitted a small whimper of pain. It emerged from the woman's shadow, its single eye now sliced clean in half by Sayaka’s blade. The spirit contorted violently before dissolving into something that looked like black smoke.
At that exact moment, Sayaka’s blade simultaneously dissolved into particles of light.
"Whoa, what a scare!" the woman grumbled, standing up and dusting off her red dress, not even noticing the creature that had been moments away from dragging her into the darkness
Atop the building, Sayaka had already looked away
She wiped her gloved palm against her cape, concealing Sukuna’s finger within her bandages once more.
"impressive!"
Sayaka’s eyes widened, and she spun around instantly at the sudden voice. How had she not noticed someone was there? Her posture shifted into a defensive stance, her hand instinctively pressing against her stomach, where Sukuna’s finger was hidden.
A tall man stepped out from the shadows. He wore a loose, high-collared dark blue jacket, with the same deep tones carrying through his entire outfit.
The only contrasting color came from what appeared to be a small paper bag, its brand suggesting it came from one of the festival stalls she had been observing just moments ago.
It didn’t take long for him to act, reaching his free hand into the bottom of the paper bag, completely indifferent to Sayaka’s guard. The sound of the paper crinkling as he searched for something was the only thing filling the silence between them.
Her eyes remained fixed on the movement of the bag.
When his fingers closed around something long and rigid inside the packaging, Sayaka didn’t wait to see what it was.
Before the tip of the wooden skewer could even clear the edge of the paper, Sayaka summoned her sword, pointing it at the man with a sharp breath.
Gojo, for his part, didn’t even blink. He finished pulling the dango skewer from the bag, bringing a rice ball coated in sweet syrup to his mouth with an infuriating calmness.
"Whoa there," he murmured, his voice muffled by the food, as he pointed stick in her direction, mimicking her stance in an almost playful way. "It’s just sugar. Want one?"
Sayaka didn’t answer. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword until her knuckles turned white, her heavy breathing the only sound between them. She finally met his gaze, narrowing her eyes.
Gojo swallowed the dango with a comically large bite and wiped a bit of syrup off his thumb while tilting his head. Sayaka couldn’t see his eyes because of the blindfold, but she felt that the man could see her perfectly well.
"The silent type, huh? I get it. Melancholy teenager, the classic 'I am 14 and this is deep' phase. I know a certain grumpy kid who’s exactly the same." Gojo chuckled softly, tossing the now-empty wooden stick back into the paper bag. He took a casual step forward, just a single one, but Sayaka couldn’t help but feel even more tense.
He stared at her, grinning, and without breaking eye contact, he spoke in a dangerously playful tone. "You know, the lighting back there is a bit… off. Are you a Shikigami? You can come out now, I've already seen you."
Sayaka’s eyes widened. A chill ran down her spine.
Mabayu?
"Mabayu! The hell are you doing here!?"
A small figure materialized. The feline creature stood frozen, as if she didn't know how to react to being seen.
"I... I just thought you were taking too long," Mabayu murmured, her voice faltering.
Before Sayaka could ask for her to explain herself, she looked toward Gojo, feeling that crushing pressure radiating from him.
Her fur bristled in a shiver as she noticed the man now looking at her. "Miki-san, he’s not like the others.... I can feel it. That energy takes up too much space."
Gojo didn't bother looking at Mabayu for more than a second. His interest remained locked on Sayaka, or rather, on what she was clutching against her stomach.
"You're right. I do take up a lot of space," Gojo said, his grin widening as he took a step forward, completely ignoring the blue blade pointed at his body "But you know what else takes up space? That ugly finger - it's even souring the taste of my sugar. Just give it to me, answer some questions, and I promise I won't call your parents."
Sayaka noticed the man closing the distance with every playful comment he made, as if he were trying to get her to lower her guard. Instead, it only caused the intensity of her gaze to burn even brighter. She wasn't going to hesitate.
"Stay. Back."
"Make me," he countered playfully, Sayaka could feel a weird pressure in the air after he said those words.
Suddenly, the man’s hand reached out. He didn’t grab her, seeking only to rest his hand on her clad shoulder.
And then- what?
She could feel a sudden pressure against the tip of her sword, like a magnet preventing it from advancing. The blade was trapped against the man's arm, inches away from reaching him.
She strained against the strike, trying to push through whatever it was, but she only felt her sword becoming heavier, as if the air suddenly became difficult to cut through.
"Miki-san, stop!"
"Do you think this is funny?" Sayaka narrowed her eyes with rage, staring directly at the blindfolded man. He didn't answer, maintaining that same infuriatingly expression, his smile fading for a moment.
"Everything is a joke to people like you, isn't it?" she hissed, her voice trembling with the weight of her frustration "The filth, the monsters, the lives being torn apart in those alleys... and you're just here, eating sugar and laughing."
Sayaka allowed herself to calm down for a moment. She took a deep breath, feeling her shoulders tense from the grip on her sword. This was no time to lose her cool.
If this man, someone with the power to maintain a barrier like that, decided to get serious, the impact alone would be enough to destroy their entire refuge. She couldn't afford a duel. Not here, not now.
"I don't have time for your games," she hissed before letting go of her sword and launching herself downward,
falling.
Plunging through the shattered window of a nearby building, she hit the floor in a tight roll, breathing heavily. Her adrenaline was still peaking. She cast a quick glance upward, toward the rooftop she had just abandoned
Did I lose him?
No.
Her eyes widened.
A sudden displacement of air brushed against the back of Sayaka’s neck, stirring her hair. She didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
The man’s presence expanded like a shadow, his hand already moving in a swift arc toward her neck to end the chase.
Driven by pure reflex, Sayaka immediately lunged to the side, her hand snapping onto a fire extinguisher gripped to the wall. In her desperation, she infused the pin with her own magic, and the extinguisher exploded.
A thick curtain of white foam, laced with particles of her magic, filled the hallway and completely covered the man’s body. She didn’t wait to see if it had worked and threw herself through the window once more, this time diving toward the alleyways.
She slid from wall to wall, moving as fast as her limbs would allow, unsure of how long that man would remain distracted.
That’s when she saw it;
A girl with bright pink hair and a pompous dress, the same one from her memories. She was almost translucent, enveloped in a radiant aura, sporting a gentle smile that contrasted with the emptiness where her eyes should have been.
"Madoka...?" The name escaped her lips instinctively.
Suddenly, the girl’s head distorted unnaturally before exploding with a silent ‘pop,’ like a soap bubble. In the moment of the burst, she erupted into a kaleidoscope of unreal colors
Childish laughter began to leak from the 'ink stain' the girl had left behind. Suddenly, Sayaka felt herself sinking, violently pulled inward.
Suddenly, the floor hit her.
It wasn't concrete, and it wasn't metal. It was a soft sensation, yet fundamentally different from the visceral flesh seen in those monsters she was fighting.
Sayaka looked around as the environment expanded into what looked like a fever dream. The stifling pressure of the 'Cursed Energy' from the outside was gone, replaced by something far more familiar.
Familiars hummed in a joyful, rhythmic chant as reality continued to warp around them. The sounds of swirling and spiraling echoed as she was "welcomed" into the place.
‘A Witch’s Labyrinth.’ It clicked in her mind, and for a moment, she felt a surge of confidence.
This, she knew how to deal with. This was familiar territory.
"Geez... now this is new."
Sayaka straightened her posture as she whipped her head around. There he was. Again.
Standing just a few meters away, the blindfolded man seemed less intimidating and more like a tourist.
This time, his blindfold was pulled down, resting against his neck, revealing brilliant blue eyes. He wasn't even looking at her, focused entirely on staring at the labyrinth with an expression she judged to be slightly serious.
Sayaka felt her confidence waver for a moment, but not out of fear. It was the weight of responsibility. This place was her burden; she knew that. It didn't matter how powerful he had seemed back there, this was no longer anyone else's obligation.
No one's but hers.
"Stay behind me," Sayaka said as she stepped between him and the Familiars prancing ahead. She tightened her grip on her saber, her eyes fixed on the path "If we’re lucky, I’ll find a rift you can escape through. And don’t touch anything."
Gojo finally pulled his gaze away from the vast expanses of the labyrinth and turned toward Sayaka. He didn't seem offended by the suggestion; if anything, he looked curious.
"Lead the way, kid," he said in a slightly playful tone - even though it lacked the overt humor he had used before, as he took a step back, moving behind the younger girl .
The first horde of familiars emerged from the walls, emitting cries that sounded like out-of-tune violins.
She drew her sword.