Chapter Text
At a table, in a garden, the devil herself is watching the world like so many ants within a nest, or so many bees within a hive. A certain pesky bug keeps sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, the devil has started to take notice.
Homura feels it – she feels Sayaka’s eyes prying into the deepest parts of her, feels her blade slotting into the cracks of the tightly-knit armour that covers the world. It’s not enough to make it fall apart, it won’t even so much as leave a scratch, but nobody enjoys the sensation of an insect crawling around in your sleeve somewhere, even if its bite is entirely harmless.
What irritates her most is Sayaka’s insistence. Her complete and utter devotion to the idea that she’s right and the world is wrong. Homura hates her innate sense of justice which even rebirth seemingly hasn’t quelled. Sayaka honestly ought to be grateful she’s alive at all. Homura could have left her for dead if she’d liked. She's not sure if Sayaka remembers, but Homura has told her before that she’s only alive in this world because Homura wasn’t being careful enough.
Though to tell the truth, there wasn’t a single aspect of this world that didn’t require intense thought and focus to create. Do you know what it takes, to singe a new world into being? Do you know how much you have to want it? Sayaka being alive could not have been an accident. But it was a mistake, Homura has decided.
All the girl ever does is work her way into places she doesn’t belong. The cordoned-off downstairs parking lot of a building where they once met, a symphony hall whose empty vault seems to ring with bygone, tragic music… What does she have to be suspicious of anyway? Madoka is safe, everybody is happy, and unlike before, Homura’s labyrinth isn't riddled with inconsistencies or restricted to a single town. Sayaka could be happy too, if she really wanted to be. But it was beginning to seem like she didn’t want to be – it was beginning to seem like all she really wanted was to be right. Even now, she still wanted to be the knight in shining armour, proving that the big bad was out there somewhere if it meant she could vanquish it.
Well, sometimes the devil you don’t know is better than the one you do. Sometimes it’s better to just stay ignorant.
Sayaka never did come to realise how similar she and Homura are. Though unlike Homura, Sayaka has never learned that wanting to save everyone only means you spread yourself too thin, only leads to you dying for your neat-and-pretty ideals. Only when you isolate your efforts do you stand a chance at saving even one person. Homura learned that the hard, slow way, and Sayaka hasn't learned it at all.
Maybe what it will take for Sayaka to stop prying, to stop thinking there is some way she can put the whole world right, is to finally learn that the world is not hers to save. Maybe she should be shown how hard it is to save even one thing. Maybe she should have a turn knowing what it’s like to watch the people you love most leave you again and again. Then she might just learn what it really means to sink your claws into one ideal and never, ever let go.
Sayaka could be great, after all. There was a time, so long ago she has very nearly forgotten, when Homura looked at her like the embodiment of all that is strong and certain and brave and true. Nobody is making magical girls anymore, but Homura feels this itch to turn her into something greater, to wipe out the nasty splotch against her new and nearly perfect world.
And now, Homura has control. Her twelve years of torture are branded into her mind so firmly she should have no issue in recreating it. A corner of her labyrinth just for Sayaka – an endless loop of losing and losing and losing but never being granted the ignorance of death… Maybe that can finally get it through to her. And maybe, though she refuses to acknowledge it, it will make Homura feel less alone. Maybe someone will finally understand.
Every time Sayaka crashed and burned before, she had no time to realise it before her mind devolved into that of a Witch. And in a way, this is a kindness. Maybe after this, she can finally stop throwing herself with reckless abandon into fights she can’t ever win. And besides, it’s something to keep her busy.
It was July 1st when Sakura Kyoko died.
---000--- Mitakihara - July 1st - 7am ---000---
Under the canopy of pink and white blossoms, three girls headed to school.
“The school festival is next week, isn’t it?” Madoka asked, keeping stride between Sayaka and Kyoko. Kyoko was walking with her school bag slung over one shoulder, while Sayaka looped hers over both arms like a backpack.
“Now that you mention it, yeah. It’s on Friday, right? They’ll probably start canvassing for ideas soon. Got any thoughts, Madoka?” Sayaka replied.
Madoka tilted her head. “I’m not sure… I think a cafe could be fun, but I’m not sure how many people will want to do it…”
Sayaka’s cheeks flushed. “Yeah, I'm not sure how well I'd suit a frilly apron, if that's what you're suggesting… But I bet you’d look super cute.”
“We should do a haunted house!” Kyoko smirked. “Put me in there and I’ll scare the crap out of anybody who dares come in!”
“I don’t think you’re allowed to actually hurt them, Kyoko,” Sayaka chided. “And besides, I’d make a scarier ghost than you any day.”
“Like hell you would,” Kyoko sneered back, leaping at Sayaka with her hands outstretched.
Madoka chuckled and dodged around them.
Kyoko wrestled Sayaka into her grip, biting at her shoulder.
“Ow!! I said not for real!” Sayaka chuckled, pushing Kyoko off. She flicked her hair to get it back in some semblance of order (though it was always a little windswept, even at the best of times).
“Fine,” She continued. “You can be the ghost if you want.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I’ll be the one who rushes in to save the girls you torment.”
“Ah!”
Madoka went to open her mouth to chime in herself when a flash of white suddenly shot past her face.
“What is it?” Sayaka asked, spinning to face her. Madoka opened her mouth, then looked down at her hands and startled again.
“My bag!”
“Hey! Hold it!” Kyoko turned and pointed down the street where a white cat was poised with Madoka’s school bag in its mouth.
“Don’t worry pinkie, I’ve gotcha,” Kyoko said. Sayaka felt a competitive smile spread across her face.
“Not if I get there first,” She muttered slyly, and both of them took off in the direction the thieving feline had gone.
They were both fast, but for all Kyoko’s spunk, she couldn’t quite match the star of the track-and-field club. Sayaka slowly drew into the lead, though not by very much. The cat was having a hard time leading her away from the others.
Have to run, it thought to itself, its long white ears and tail flapping in the wind as it sped underneath a bridge and into an alley. Or she will–...
Sayaka rounded the next corner, only to find she’d come to a dead end. The cat was nowhere to be seen. She turned around, but Kyoko must’ve gotten lost in one of the winding alleys behind her - she was all alone.
“Damn it…” She cursed, kicking one of the nearby trashcans as her chest heaved. She’d let Madoka down, and after boasting that she’d beat Kyoko to it and everything.
Still, there was no use sitting in an alleyway forever. So she turned back, sparing not a single glance to the posters plastered across the brick. If she had, she might’ve noticed the strange runes etched across them, bearing encrypted words of warning.
When she returned to the main road, she spotted Kyoko on the other side. It seemed she was still in hot pursuit of the cat, because she jetted across the expanse of tarmac without even bothering to look either way.
She lifted her head and spotted Sayaka, and then she opened her mouth to call out, and then she snapped against the hood of the car that came towards her.
Sayaka’s feet lagged and time dragged roughly through the air like an unopened parachute. One moment Kyoko’s crumpled body disappeared under the wheels, and then it reappeared again, drawing in a crowd of people as it let out a slowly expanding pool of blood.
Sayaka didn’t even hear herself scream. She didn’t really hear anything, it was like the noises were all distorted and far away. The scenery blurred as she moved forward, like somebody had turned up the long exposure. She reached Kyoko’s side and saw Madoka’s face, sharp amidst her fuzzy surroundings, painted with the same dark shock that seemed to fill the air, coating Sayaka’s lungs and constricting her chest. At her knees, reddened with her blood, Kyoko’s body lay limp and twisted. Her arm was probably broken, and the fabric around her chest had dark tire marks across it. Sayaka’s mind twinged like someone had pushed a needle through it, and a strange sense of deja vu came over her.
Time kept warping. One second it was too fast, the next it was too slow. The world around her was sepia and almost still, and a strange voice seeped into her ears with a hollow, inhuman echo. It had the same eerie feeling as audio played in reverse, except she could just about understand the whispers.
“A pity.”
Sayaka turned her head and felt it was full of something heavy. Behind her, on the road, just at the end of the pool of red, stood a figure. It looked approximately human, but the resemblance began and ended with its thin outline alone. Its face was pale, its silhouettes bolstered by two massive dark wings, and its eyes were a piercing, cat-like red that seemed to stab into her with uncanny precision.
“And such a preventable loss… It makes me wonder if there was nothing that could have been done to prevent this.”
“Who… Who the hell are you?” Sayaka’s voice came out frustratingly weak. She tried to force herself to her feet, but her body was weighed down by something she couldn’t see. In fact, she could hardly move at all.
“A friend,” said the apparition. “I’ve come to offer you a contract. What if I told you I can provide you a way to undo this tragedy?”
Sayaka’s breath hitched. Really? I can fix this?
It didn’t make sense, but Sayaka didn’t need it to. She’d take any spider’s thread she was offered, she’d think about the consequences later. Because if she turned around to think about this, she’d only be met with Kyoko’s pale face and the lifeless eyes within them.
“Okay, then just do it already! If you can help, what the hell are you waiting for?” Sayaka barked. The being’s eyes narrowed.
“Still so impulsive… You really never change.” Sayaka thought about a response, but before she could, the world seemed to speed back up, and a drawn-out clicking sound gained speed. She fumbled around for purchase and found none, and a single word echoed through her head.
“Fool.”
And just when she thought she was about to fall, she woke up.
---XXX--- Fake Mitakihara - July 1st - 6.40am ---XXX---
She started up in bed like you do when you have a bad dream – and that’s exactly what it felt like, a bad dream. A dream that made sense at first, then didn’t. A dream where you’re falling but you wake up just before you hit the ground.
But it felt much more real than a dream. If she focussed, she could still feel the warmth of the dark blood against her knees.
But the sun was peeking in through the gap in Sayaka’s curtains, loud and perverse, right into her eyes. There was no doubt that even if the dream felt real, this was realer. She cast a look at her alarm clock and realised she was about to be late.
She changed out of her pyjamas, pulled on her uniform, and looked herself over in the mirror. It was just a dream, she told herself once more, and then she set off from her house at a jog to meet her friends.
“Yo, took you long enough.”
“Sorry,” Sayaka smiled sheepishly as she fell into step beside Kyoko and Madoka.
“Did you oversleep?” Madoka asked, throwing a worried glance Sayaka’s way.
“Uh, kinda. But don’t worry about me. Are you looking forward to the school festival next week?”
Their conversation unfurled naturally, and it put Sayaka’s mind at ease. That was until they approached a bend in the sidewalk that would eventually lead them to a road before a back-alley. Sayaka's feet dragged to a stop.
“Sayaka-chan?" Madoka took one look at her tense expression. "What’s wrong? Are you sure you’re feeling okay? There’s no shame in taking a day off if you’re sick or something.”
“Yeah, I take days off whenever I feel like it. Play hooky while you still can!”
Sayaka shook her head at her friends. “I’m fine, really… It’s nothing, but…”
Madoka placed a hand on her shoulder. “What is it, Sayaka-chan?"
I’ll look insane if I tell them about the dream. Plus, Kyoko will definitely make fun of me for dreaming about her, even if it was nothing good. I have to come up with something else if I’m going to be like this.
“Uhh– I just remembered! It’s kinda embarrassing, but there’s meant to be this really cute cafe that just opened along the main street… Yeah! I was just thinking, maybe if we go that way to class, I could check it out."
Madoka’s face bloomed into a smile sweet enough to dispel Sayaka’s guilt over lying and her lingering discomfort over the dream. “Aww, Sayaka, you don’t have to be embarrassed! I want to see, too!”
“Yeah, jeez, you think we’re gonna stick our heads up your ass over that? I guess I can handle a detour. If you buy me something from there,” Kyoko snarked, folding her hands cockily behind her head. Sayaka couldn’t help but smirk at it.
“Wow, some friend you are, having me bribe you for your kindness.”
“That’s just the law of equal exchange, Saya,” Kyoko rebuffed.
“No way, since when do you actually listen during science class?”
And so, the three of them turned and headed back the way they’d come. A white cat watched them from the shadow of a street corner.
---XXX--- Fake Mitakihara - July 1st - 12.34pm ---XXX---
“Can everybody please stand back? It’s a little awkward when you all crowd me…”
“Ah, sorry Mami-san!” Madoka flushed and tried to move courteously backwards whilst Kyoko started trying to yank Sayaka away by the shoulders.
“Make way! Make wayyy! Mami said she needs space!!”
“Hey, quit it! I’m further away than you are!” Though Sayaka tried to sound mad, she was fighting giggles.
Mami cleared her throat, bringing the two to a stop. Then she and the rest of the crowd redirected their attention to the as yet unopened lid of her bento.
“Three… Two–”
“One!” Madoka cut off Kyoko’s countdown, probably unintentionally, and Sayaka mirrored Kyoko’s frown with a grin of amusement.
Mami lifted the lid off her bento to reveal an ornate work of art. Fluffy white rice, adorable octopus dogs, vegetables cut into the shapes of hearts and flowers… There was even an onigiri with seaweed detailing that made it look like it had a smiley face.
“Woah,” Sayaka breathed. “You really outdid yourself!”
“I agree!” Madoka went on. “It’s like you keep getting better every single day! It's amazing!”
“Well, it sure looks good, but everybody knows the real proof of quality is in the taste–”
Kyoko reached out to grab one of the octopus dogs before anyone could stop her. She popped it into her mouth and chewed with a serious-looking expression.
She swallowed. Everybody watched with baited breath as a grin spread across Kyoko’s features.
"Pretty damn good, like usual. If only Sayaka had your skills.”
Sayaka clobbered her on the shoulder. “Hey! That’s no way to treat the person who feeds you out of her own pocket!”
“It’s out of your parents' pockets, that’s not the same.”
“Is too! And besides, I use my allowance for it,” Sayaka admitted sheepishly. Kyoko sobered a little and looked at her.
“Wait, really?”
Sayaka fought the blush trying to encroach on her cheeks.
“Well, yeah… I-it’s fine. Anyway, let’s eat.”
She turned back to her own seat and rummaged through her school bag. Then she rummaged some more. Then Kyoko got curious and leant over as well.
“What’s wrong?”
Sayaka kept her head down to avoid looking at her.
“I… Forgot,” she muttered.
“You forgot?”
Sayaka straightened, hands on her hips in frustration. “I was in a rush this morning, and I must’ve left them in the fridge. Ugh, this is so annoying!”
“Yeah, tell me about it!” Kyoko growled. “You are gonna buy me lunch to make up for this, right?”
“Don’t you ever stop thinking with your stomach?” Sayaka prodded Kyoko’s midriff as she fished around in her bag one-handed for some change.
“Let’s see what we can get with this,” she said, then told Madoka and Mami where they were going before slipping off down the hall towards the canteen.
“What do you feel like? Keep in mind we’ve only got about eight hundred yen,” Sayaka asked as they strolled down the bright hallway. The sun was high in the sky, casting long, pale blue shadows across the floor.
“Hmm, I’m in the mood for croquettes. With tons of mayonnaise!”
Sayaka made a face. “Croquettes and mayo is so gross,” she said. “I seriously don’t understand you.”
“That’s because of your tiny intellect,” Kyoko said matter-of-factly. “You can’t help it, so it’s fine.”
Sayaka considered leaping at her, but seeing as they were at the stop of the stairs, she didn’t.
“Well, I’m going to see if they have any salads. I had this really good one at the mall the other day, and now I’m craving– Woah– Kyoko!”
She saw Kyoko’s outline flash from the edge of her periphery out in front of her– at first she thought she might’ve jumped the last few stairs, as she sometimes liked to do. But they were still so close to the top– and Kyoko hadn’t landed right. In fact, she hadn’t landed– at all.
She’d fallen into a splayed-out heap at the bottom of the stairs. She must’ve tripped, or– Sayaka spun around, and she thought for a second she saw the figure from her dream.
The dream.
No, no– I don’t want to think about that. That’s nothing like this– this is different! She just fell! She’ll be fine– Kyoko is tough, she’s–
She turned to look down the stairwell again, only to see people crowding around Kyoko's form so tightly she could barely see her. A teacher was trying to make people move back. Somebody pulled out a cell phone and spoke into it urgently.
Sayaka’s gut went cold, and she was grateful she hadn’t eaten anything she might’ve then thrown up. The colour drained from the world slowly, and she heard a warped voice snake past her ears.
“Do you remember how you did it the first time?”
“Did what..?” Sayaka breathed. There was no response, but she felt time settle into her hands like someone was handing her a heavy, blunt instrument.
Like the first time, Sayaka thought, unable to tear her eyes away from the flashes of Kyoko’s body she saw between the legs of the other students. Unmoving. Twisted wrong. I can make this a dream too. I’ll wake up, and none of it will be real.
Slowly, like pulling up on a long, heavy rope she dragged time backwards, back up the stairs. She kept going even as her vision failed her, and as the clicking noise sped up, until she was sure it was safe to let go.
And then, Sayaka woke up.
---000--- Real Mitakihara – July 1st – 7am ---000---
“My bag!”
Kyoko looked back at Madoka, who was staring at her now empty hands in shock. She turned and glanced down the road to see a white cat poised with her school bag in its mouth.
“Don’t worry pinkie, I’ve gotcha,” She said. Sayaka grinned challengingly out the corner of her eye.
“Not if I get there first,” She muttered slyly, and both of them took off in the direction of the thief.
They were both fast, but for all Kyoko’s effort, she couldn’t quite match the star of the track-and-field club. Sayaka slowly drew into the lead, and before long, she’d disappeared across a road and round a corner, out of Kyoko’s line of sight.
Damn it. I need to get faster– I can’t keep letting her gloat.
Kyoko slowed, allowing herself to catch her breath as she approached the road. There was no sign of Sayaka or the white cat anywhere.
She waited until it was safe to cross and headed into the alley opposite. It was a dead end, and Sayaka’s blue windswept hair wasn’t visible down either end of the adjacent street either.
“Sayaka?” Kyoko called, but the only response was her voice bouncing off the alley walls. She was sure the back wall was too high even for Sayaka to climb.
Just then, something caught her eye between two trash cans in the alley’s corner. She nudged them aside and yanked out Madoka’s schoolbag.
“Ah, you found it!”
Kyoko turned to see Madoka jog into the alley, already out of breath. Kyoko held onto the bag for her and returned to the street to look around.
“Hey, did you see Sayaka?” She asked. She started poking her head into blind alleys between buildings, but they were too narrow for a person to really fit down to begin with, and Sayaka wasn’t there.
Madoka trailed after her. “No… Can you not find her anywhere?”
Kyoko stood back, worry starting to spread through her chest. “No…”
They were both silent a moment, wrapped up in a mutual dark concern. Sayaka was fourteen, and right by a road with cars going down it. It wouldn’t be that hard for some guy to stop, open the passenger door, and–
“Ah! Maybe she took a shortcut! To school, I mean!” Madoka suddenly said. "It's possible, right?"
Kyoko turned to her, trying to blast out the remnants of her fear. “Right! That’s gotta be it. I mean, it’s not like she woulda gotten kidnapped or anything. Her?”
Madoka chuckled in a way Kyoko felt was also trying to mask fear. “She’d beat the guy up before he could even try it.”
They both cast one more uncertain look down the alley before heading towards school.