After Sayaka left, and the buildings rebuilt themselves, Rei turned back into her... Not human form, but out of her magica form, and returned to the basement. Tsukune decided to follow her back down, trailing behind her as she returned to Apollo, who was waiting there, concerned, "How did it go?"
"Well," Tsukune said, "Akabane-chan's first monster was the second highest power level that has been encountered yet, though at least it wasn't one of the most intimidating types. Yamaguchi-san almost died, so she's already leaving with Blade. We defeated it, though."
"That's kind of terrifying," Apollo said, "But, everyone's okay?"
"Pretty much," Rei said, shrugging, "Yamaguchi-san can't transform for a few weeks, but otherwise, she's managing. And going home, though. Plus, there's this theory that the monster was specifically sent to target her, so you don't have to worry about me. A monster that strong isn't about to just show up here again."
"Well, I guess that much is good," Apollo said, then sighed as he leaned against the wall where he sat on the floor, "I thought that it would be safer for you to actually be able to hold your own against those things, but..."
"It still is," Rei said, "If I wasn't involved in that fight, it might not have been defeated. And if it's not defeated, the damage stays. And since this one actually attacked the school, when it got teleported right on top of it, you and I could have ended up that damage that stayed."
"Oh," Apollo said, "I guess that's a good point. But, you know, I don't want to lose you, Reicchi."
"I know," Rei said, looking away from him, "After all. We're all each other has left."
"You..." Apollo said.
"Yeah, I remembered," Rei said, "The fact that Yamaguchi-san showed up here made it so I couldn't keep pretending. Natsuki is dead. Everyone from the science club is, except for us. Almost everybody who attended Korekara... She killed them."
"She did," Apollo said, "And there's nothing we can do about it now. Do you want to leave?"
"No," Rei said, "Somebody has to be here. In case others come back. Like Yamaguchi-san did. Besides, my research isn't finished yet. Now that I can actually fight the monsters, I can get much more information."
"Are you sure you can handle things here on your own?" Tsukune asked.
Rei turned and wrinkled her nose, "Are you... Flirting with me, Madara-kun?"
"Absolutely not!" Tsukune exclaimed, taking a step back but otherwise not seeming visibly flustered, "I promise you, that wasn't my intention at all. I actually don't flirt with anyone, ever. I'm just concerned that, as a new magica, you might not be able to handle this territory all on your own."
"Well," Rei said, "That's good to know. But don't worry about me or anything. I can handle it, and from what I've seen, you have other obligations. You can't just take a break from a quest like that to help me protect a territory that nobody in the world even cares about."
"I care about it," Tsukune said, holding his hands behind his back as he glanced away, "Wang-kun, he's got his own goals. He wants to find his little sister's body, and use magic to bring her back. She was one of the students who died here, and she was also... My best friend. Wang-kun is only thinking of this as the place where Mayu died, but I see it differently. Mayu loved going to school here. When she was here, she said, she suddenly didn't feel as useless. She felt like if she really wanted to, then people would actually let her be their friend, in person and everything. We became friends because we both felt useless, a lot of the time. So if this place helped her not to feel that way, even for a little while, then it means something to me too."
"I don't think I ever met her," Rei said, "I mostly just kept to myself and the science club, though."
"Well, like I said, she didn't actually try to make friends," Tsukune said, "She just liked the possibility that she could, here. She was still kind of a loner, like, everyone in that chatroom. Except for Kyousuke-san, I guess. Well. He's not social either, but he used to be a teacher, which isn't exactly the chosen profession of a true loner, you know?"
"No," Rei said.
"I got it!" Apollo gave his two cents, "So, don't worry, Reicchi. I can explain it to you later in a way that makes sense."
"Thanks," Rei said, then raised her eyebrows in Tsukune's direction, "But, even if you do care about this place, you've got more important things to do. Come back after you've found the missing ones. I'm sorry that I ended up giving you a red herring... And that's the worst I can do. I can't steal you from your mission too."
"I understand," Tsukune said, "But if you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask. Maybe I won't be able to make it in time, but somebody would, okay? If you're up against something that's too strong for you... Retreat, or just stay alive until you can get backup, understand? Don't try and be the hero."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Rei questioned, "You just met me. Why do you care?"
"I haven't told anybody else this, not even my roommate," Tsukune said, holding a hand close to his chest, "But when I first became a magical boy, I lost a friend of mine. My best friend, at the time, since Mayu was already gone. He thought that we could handle it on our own. He wouldn't retreat or let up, or even hide for a minute, he didn't want to risk the damage becoming permanent. If he'd just gone into a defensive stance, he would have lived long enough to be rescued by the same magica who came for me. And you kind of remind me of him, Akabane-san. So I don't want the same thing to happen to you."
Rei blinked a few times, then ended up just whispering her response, "Okay, I understand. What was his name?"
"His magical name, I don't even remember. It never really mattered much. But his real name was Sugawa. Sugawa Nagata," Tsukune explained, then froze in confusion when he saw the look on Rei's face, "What? Did you know him?"
"Not personally, but I know why he was so reckless," Rei answered, "And why I remind you of him. We've mourned the same person. Natsuki... Natsuki Nagata was the president of the science club. And after her uncle went to prison, Sugawa basically raised her. There's no way that it's a different person with that full name... And he was older than you, right?"
"Yeah, by a few years," Tsukune said, "I think he was twenty-eight. I don't have romantic relationships or anything, so it wasn't weird... So, that would put him at ten years older than a Korekara third year at the time of the attack, assuming that she was a third year, being a club president?"
"Yeah," Rei said, "So chances are, you know, he probably didn't actually care if he got defeated when he did. I was wondering what happened to the older ones after Natsuki died... I only heard that the other triplets ended up dying soon after the attack, themselves. Even though most of her family were raised separately, they were still close. Matsuda and Aikoi were really sick for a while after Natsuki lost two limbs... So I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't live long either, if she died. I tried to deny that for a while, though. I blocked it out, that I knew she was dead. I wanted to believe she lived."
"I understand," Tsukune said, "Well, if that's the case, then aren't you the one who's left to carry on the memory of Natsuki? That means, you need to be careful. Don't do the same thing Sugawa did."
"I won't," Rei said, "Believe me. I won't do anything dumb, not anymore. I'll be okay."
"I trust you," Tsukune said, then turned around and walked away from Rei.
Could he consider her a friend? They'd bonded quite quickly after they met, and he even prompted some degree of enthusiasm from her. He wanted her to be safe, so much so that he even admitted what had happened to Sugawa, which he saw as one of his own biggest failures. After all, shouldn't he have been able to prevent it? Even with Sugawa being reckless, shouldn't Tsukune have been strong enough to protect him? It was a disappointment. Being turned down by Rei was a disappointment too.
The mission wasn't important to him. He'd only been roped into it because he happened to be part of the team which others regarded as the 'Tokyo Magica'. Unlike Yuuri and Sayaka who both seemed invested in the idea of hunting down this big, bad villain who was threatening magic-kind, and unlike Kanoshi who wanted to rescue Horace, Tsukune had no emotional investment in the overall mission, and neither did Zhou. Zhou only played along because investigating this could also lead to information regarding Mayu, and Tsukune supposed that he wanted to help in that endeavor. At the same time, though, he had something else to prove.
He was strong enough now that he could have protected Sugawa, and seeing in Rei a mirror of his friend in some ways, knew that he was strong enough to protect her. He wanted to stay and help her, make sure that she'd survive. Kanoshi and Zhou may have been his friends online, but they were stronger than him, both of them were, they didn't truly need his protection. But Rei had turned him down, all because he was being dragged along on this mission that didn't matter to him at all.
Or maybe not because of the mission. Maybe it was really because Rei was put off by him, that he considered her a friend while she still viewed him as a stranger with whom she had no form of connection. Maybe he'd just freaked her out. Either way, he'd been shot down in his offer to help her. It wasn't that he thought Nagasaki even needed a magica to guard it; But he knew that Rei, of all people, would guard a place like this with her life.
Maybe he couldn't stay here and protect her, but maybe he could enlist somebody else, just to keep an eye on her. It wasn't obsessive; She was just so much like Sugawa. Sugawa, the big-brotherly figure who came and filled a role that Tsukune never knew he needed filled. It was like they were family, for the time that they knew each other. He felt like, where Sugawa had been an older brother to him, Rei could be a responsible younger sister.
How stupid was it, that he scraped for anything resembling family? A family that would actually care about him, unlike his real one. And he realized it was pathetic. First it was Sugawa for legitimate reasons, now it was Rei just because she was the slightest bit similar to him. He started to wonder if, maybe, that was what he and Kyoko really had in common. Maybe she never raised a hand against him because she saw something else in him. Someone else.
And he was definitely getting too much into his own head, if he was starting to think that he could be anything like her. There were so many ways that they were different. Kyoko was a shining star, who could turn at any second into an absolute black hole. Tsukune was neither of those things. He was moderate. Basic. Not necessarily emotionally balanced, but he wasn't in the garbage either, while nobody really thought that he excelled at anything.
He probably just needed to get some rest. Though he'd technically been sleeping for weeks while locked into the vision that Future Style put him through, everyone knows that a sleep filled with nightmares could never even try to be a rejuvenating one.
----
Zhou decided to go off on his own to investigate the town. Kanoshi and Yuuri were fine at investigating, from an objective standpoint, but as far as Zhou was concerned they didn't even know what they were looking for. Finding any hint of where the magica who disappeared could be, that was the aim, and any hint was much too broad of an idea. Zhou had something specific he was searching for. He was looking for bodies, or logos, or paperwork. He wasn't looking for information on the missing magica, but information on where the recovered bodies were sent after the massacre. Even the families which would have wanted to have a proper funeral never received the bodies of their loved ones.
He knew it was important to find the missing magica, of course. He was worried about them, as much as he could worry about people he'd never actually met, whose plight began after his own personal one. Maybe it was selfish of him, but the thing was, they'd already determined that this location had nothing to do with that problem, but it still had everything to do with his. This was where Mayu died. This was where he could find his information, when the main investigation had nothing to be found.
Not to mention, Zhou could basically scan the entire town for the few specific things that he was looking out for, using his magic. Such versatile magic as his was quite overpowered, but it did have its disadvantages. It took heavy concentration, more than most other types, and it did take quite a bit of magical power too. After all, he basically had to ignore small fry to even stand a chance at accumulation. He probably could actually go down to level three and still break even, but with his overall goals in mind, it wasn't worth it.
He and Mayu both, had always been selfish, hadn't they? He thought with their upbringing they might be humbled, but every time he stopped to think, neither of them had ever done a single truly self-sacrificing thing in their lives. They wouldn't have ever turned on each other, sure, but they were always looking out for themselves. Even now, the fake Mayu in that vision had emphasized it. Zhou wanted her back for selfish reasons. Knowing Mayu, she wouldn't want to be brought back to life if she'd already been killed.
But he was lost without her. He needed her around, and he didn't even know exactly why. She was always a reason for him. A reason to succeed, a reason to survive, a reason to raid the fridge at midnight because if she didn't complain about how hungry she was, he wouldn't eat. Without Mayu, he had no reason to do anything. He didn't love what he did for a job. He didn't care about protecting the world. It was always to help her, and even now, it was to help Mayu. To bring her back. So that he could have direction again.
What a terrible cycle it was.
---
Yuuri sat on a chunk of rubble, holding a teacup in one hand. Kanoshi didn't know when Yuuri had gotten that, but he knew it was from Rei's basement. He sat down next to him with a heavy sigh, "Do you think that Yamaguchi-chan is going to be okay?"
"Yeah," Yuuri said, "I mean, come on. She's Red. Do you really think that she could die before we did?"
"That's fair," Kanoshi noted, "If any of us would end up being the sole survivor, it's her, but... I'm worried. She always seemed like such a strong and perfect magical girl, but today..."
"Today you got to see her big human flaw bleed into her magical girl work," Yuuri said, shrugging, "She's got a temper. A bad one, and we see it all the time, she's brash and aggressive, just like me. And that monster pissed her off, so it clouded her judgment. It's not like when humans piss her off and she has time to think, formulate a plan of revenge, set up her magic. Her magic means nothing against monsters, and there's no time to think hard."
"I guess," Kanoshi said.
"We're similar in a lot of ways, me and Sayaka-chan. That's why we were friends before you even became a magical boy," Yuuri said, "We have magic that works better on humans and magica than on the monsters we're meant to be fighting. We've been through a hell of a lot of shit. And we've got impulsive tempers."
"Yeah," Kanoshi said, "And that's what worries me about you, too, you know. I don't want it to get you in trouble. Though, I guess that I never thought about how Yamaguchi-chan had the same sort of issues. She came out of nowhere and always just, really seemed like she completely knew what she was doing."
"She's just as much a disaster as I am, underneath it all," Yuuri said, "She just doesn't let it hinder her as much. She was always more skilled at combat than me, even as a human, and she became a magical girl within a month of the distributors showing up to begin with. She never told me exactly when, but it can't have been long after Horace did. She's got all sorts of experience on her side. But, at the same time..."
"She's still a kid," Kanoshi finished, "Well, she's nearly an adult now, chronologically. But, I get it. Acting like she's just so much better than us all of the time glosses over the fact that she's not an adult yet. She's still growing up and she's still got so much to think about, but she got wrapped up in this stuff that's so much bigger than her. I don't think... Anybody younger than you, Ruka-kun, should be a magica. They've got enough to worry about."
"Of course you'd say that," Yuuri chuckled, "I think you're right, though. And Sayaka-chan didn't even get to have a normal childhood before, either. I just... You know, you ever wonder why she became a magical girl in the first place?"
"Of course I wonder," Kanoshi said, "Never asked, though."
Yuuri nodded, "Yeah, me neither. But, with the way she was acting here, and with what Akabane-san said to her, just before she got beheaded during that last fight... And the timing of it all... I kind of have to wonder. The way that she survived, that's what Akabane-san said. The way she survived the massacre, I think, maybe... She was still in critical condition when she became a magical girl."
"Wait," Kanoshi said, "You mean..."
"If she hadn't become a magical girl," Yuuri said, "Sayaka-chan would be dead right now. That's my theory, anyway."
"And she still came back here?" Kanoshi questioned, "She really shouldn't have..."
"Well, she determined that after the fact," Yuuri said, "And Akabane-san said it too, though, not in as many words. Box Hako is still out there. She didn't die. She's somewhere."
"That..." Kanoshi trailed off, "Well, that doesn't really surprise me, to tell you the truth. In the nightmare that Future Style gave me, I actually met her. I know that was just a nightmare, sure, but I guess that in a way it prepared me to hear that news. Do you think there could be some truth to those things?"
"Well," Yuuri said, "I certainly hope the fuck not!"
"Me too! Obviously..." Kanoshi said, waving his hands in defense, "But it's possible, isn't it? It's a bad thing, a really bad thing, but that doesn't mean that it's totally implausible that there could be a grain of truth. It's not like the stuff will really happen like it did in the nightmares, they were way too surreal for that."
"Even so," Yuuri muttered, "I don't want any of the stuff from that nightmare to come true, except, I guess there's one bit I'd be okay with. In the vision, the reason I thought it could be real for a little while, was because it confirmed my suspicion that Hikari didn't die, that she ran away."
"My vision said the same thing too," Kanoshi admitted, "It showed me Ayano and Hikari, but they were magical girls now. And they taunted me for being a bad teacher, which... I guess isn't really like either of them, now that I think about it."
"It's probably just because Hikari's disappearance had a big impact on both of us," Yuuri said, "It was pulling from our brains, for what would fuck us up. I want to believe that she's not dead, that she just got out, but at the same time I know that it's not likely. Maybe the fact that I saw it in that nightmare makes it even less likely, not more likely."
"You never know," Kanoshi said.
"I really don't want to get my hopes up," Yuuri rebuked, "I'd rather think that it's nearly impossible. Then I won't end up disappointed."
"That's true," Kanoshi said, with a heavy sigh as he looked up at the sky, "How did we get here? I mean. How was this one tragedy exactly horrible enough to send the world towards the apocalypse? Everything's happened because of Box Hako's actions, right here, in this town."
"Maybe it was engineered this way," Yuuri said, "I mean, it wasn't really her. It was the AI that got hacked. Whoever made her do this knew exactly what they were doing, probably. Nishimura was allowed to escape so that she'd open the portal and invite strong magic into the world. It's kind of worse, to think that maybe somebody knew the full impact their actions would have on the world, that somebody wanted to see the world in this state, but at the same time..."
"It's too much to just be coincidence, I agree," Kanoshi said, "That group that took credit for the incident, I don't know a lot about them, but this doesn't seem like it goes against their ideals. The real question isn't why they'd want the world to end up like this, but how they knew that this would happen."
"I can answer that," Tsukune said, and they turned to see him approaching from behind, "I couldn't help but overhear. The thing is, I thought about this too. And the reason they'd know this would happen, is, that they actually didn't. Have you heard of espers?"
"Everyone who doesn't live under a rock has heard of espers, but are you saying they're real?" Yuuri questioned.
Tsukune groaned, "There are demons and monsters and magica in this world. Espers are just people who are more in tune with a population's psychic energy than most, that's way more plausible than any of those things which are obviously real. Anyway, my guess is that Box Hako is an esper, and that AI is aware of it. It's done vastly different things in vastly different timelines, and this one is just the perfect storm. The outcome that the hackers wanted, the worst possible timeline stretching out from Hako-sama's actions."
"Hako-sama?" Yuuri asked, giving Tsukune a hard stink-eye.
"Yes," Tsukune said, "If my theory is correct, then in some sense, she's like a God, isn't she? Her actions irreparably altered the course of history for this version of the world. And since we're trapped here in this version, she's to blame for everything that's happened to us since then. And, if Akabane-chan and Yamaguchi-san's conversation is correct and we're interpreting it right, Hako-sama isn't even finished yet. She's become a magical girl and continued taking action to modify our destinies."
"Do you think she could be responsible for the kidnapping?" Kanoshi asked.
Tsukune shook his head, "No... I mean, from the thinking I've done, from what little I know about her, there's no reason she would want to do something like that. I'd imagine it's more likely that she can command others to do as she wants, it would suit her personality more than the power that seems to be behind the disappearances. It wouldn't shock me if she was working together, in some capacity, with whoever is responsible. So from where we stand, we have four main enemies."
"Four?" Yuuri asked.
"Yeah. Monsters, Magica Killers, The Kidnapper, and Box Hako," Tsukune explained, "Assuming I'm correct. Again, I could be very wrong. I know it wasn't until recently that I ever bothered to exhibit the fact that I'm good at making deductions, and when even I doubt me, other people certainly should. Even so, I'd say that I'm probably correct at least on the matter of these four enemies. Magica Killers being the bottom twenty-nine in the rankings, of course. Any of those who don't fit into the rankings are bound to be quite ineffective. Which also means that the Kidnapper and Hako-sama are not killing magica, or not doing it at a high enough rate to outdo the horribleness even of Future Style, who is not a killer. They're acting in different ways, since we already know that those two have to be both unranked and under the purview of a less famous distributor than any of the ones we're personally familiar with. The sort who only have one or two in the entire rankings."
"God, Madara-kun," Yuuri said, "Why didn't you pull out any of these theories before?"
"Because I didn't trust in them enough before," Tsukune said, "This trip wasn't a bum lead at all, from where I'm standing. We did get additional information. In fact, if not for Future Style's interference, I probably couldn't have come up with this. But now that we know, thanks to her, and thanks to that monster, that the kidnapper's ability is to teleport things undetected... We can also assume that the kidnapped magica are indeed somewhere. If not for that information, I couldn't have determined that we have multiple enemies here, or most of what I just told you, to be even potentially true."
"Still," Kanoshi said, "At least we have some idea of what we're up against now, right?"
"Yeah," Yuuri agreed, "It's good to know, at least a little bit... So, basically. We have to be prepared at any time for an unexpected, high level monster to be dropped directly onto our location?"
"As far as I can tell, yes," Tsukune said, "Except for the time it takes for the magica responsible to replenish that power. Though I guess if they saved it up, they could do it several times in a row..."
---
Sayaka Yamaguchi sat on the train, returning to Tokyo. Tokyo was her home now. More a home than Kobe, more a home than Nagasaki. Both of those places had been ruined for her after the massacre. One for obvious reasons. The other... For reasons that she would prefer not to think about.
Sayaka had no idea how Yuuri had managed to go a full week with a self-inflicted cut in his question mark. Admittedly, it didn't hurt anywhere near as badly now as it had in the moment she received her injury, but at the same time, the burning sensation that persisted across her chest was so bad that if she failed to distract herself for even a moment, she felt like she was going to throw up. And it wasn't as if she had a low pain tolerance. Blade did admit to her that the burn she had across the entire thing was less life-threatening but more painful than the cut Yuuuri had, but even so, she couldn't imagine he had any comfort during his recovery.
Sitting on the train for hours on end, Sayaka didn't even care about hiding her tattoos at all. She'd shed the black undershirt and let the ones on her arms be fully visible, just because she wanted to let the burn breathe. She didn't have the right sort of outfit to actually let the mark see sunlight unless she was actively holding her shirt away from it, a button-up would have been a better idea, she knew. At the first transfer, she wasn't able to buy any clothes, but at least a few snap-activated ice packs to keep it from hurting quite so horribly as her trip continued.
Blade made no qualms about being visible either, sitting right next to her on the train. Others gave them a wide berth, as usual, when they traveled like this. Sayaka was glad for that. She didn't want anybody to see her in pain, more vulnerable than she could actually ever remember being before. Well, once or twice. Still, this was the most vulnerable she'd been since becoming a magical girl, and that somehow seemed worse. She didn't become a magical girl for the same reason as Yuuri, to be able to keep herself from ever getting hurt by anybody again. That wasn't why she did it.
She did it because she didn't want to die.
She'd been with Blade since the very beginning. She was its first magica in this world. That was why they were so close. Why Blade spent so much time with her. Why she was its favorite. It had nearly burnt itself out giving her that opportunity, taking an extra long time to recharge after turning her. She couldn't speak at the time. She wasn't awake. Blade had gone to great lengths to communicate with her in spite of it, in her mind, to give her the opportunity to come back to life. Box had nearly killed her. Sayaka was skilled, she was capable, and still she didn't stand a chance. It was like Box had practiced over and over again. She knew exactly what to do to get past Sayaka's defenses.
She couldn't protect anybody. She couldn't even protect herself.
Maybe that was why she didn't care about Blade's lie. Some part of her already knew it. Her question mark avoided placing itself anywhere that she was already injured by Box, and she made a miraculous recovery. She survived the single most tragic event in the history of Korekara Academy, not because she'd spent her entire life in combat, not because she'd trained and trained to stay alive, but because Blade thought she was worth it to save.
After something like that, though...
After she had practically gotten killed by a classmate of hers, of course her family wanted nothing to do with her. She was a disgrace. She'd failed. Failed so badly she would have had each of her fingers cut off for it if they even thought for a moment about letting her stick around. She didn't take her chances. She ran away. Like Kaiba did. As if she couldn't tell, that Kaiba was operating on her own now. They were the same, in that respect. They'd run from the mob and become magical girls instead, from one dangerous lifestyle into another.
"Red..." Blade started, about halfway through the trip, the first words that it tried to speak from where it sat, right next to Sayaka the whole time, "I really am sorry, you know. About lying. And about what happened..."
"It doesn't bother me," Sayaka said, her voice shaking in spite of her best efforts. It just hurt too much, "The lie, I mean. I sort of thought that this was the case all along. I knew it in my subconscious, at least, enough. My nightmare showed Kyousuke with a bullet through his eye. Rukkun with his right arm cut off. As for what happened, this was my own fault. I was an idiot. I didn't think that her magic would hurt me the way it did. And I thought that... If this happened to me, I'd still be able to fight. That I'd be strong enough to weather the pain."
"Nobody is, though," Blade said, "That's the point of making the pain so terrible. So you can't do it to yourself. Though, I guess somebody with enough adrenaline could still manage. It'd basically be a death sentence. I'm glad you didn't. I'm glad that you let yourself be incapacitated."
"Blade," Sayaka said, "Why me? Why save me? Of everybody who they were trying to rescue..."
"You were the one who wanted to live the most," Blade said, "It doesn't have to do with thinking you would be the best magica, of those girls. I wish I could have saved all five of you. But the other four girls who ended up dying in the hospital, who were in a condition just as critical as yours, they weren't fighting to survive. As you were making your contract with me, Sayaka, two of those other girls died, because they simply weren't trying to live. They didn't have the willpower to go on, after such a traumatic event. You did. So I saved you. I didn't want to save somebody who would resent me for it."
She took a deep breath before speaking again, "The version of you that was in my nightmare asked me why I wanted to become a magical girl. Why I'd take the chance to extend my lifespan like this, frozen at this physical age, when I'd always be a victim my whole life. When being in this position would just give me more time to suffer."
"That's not what life is about," Blade said, shaking its head, "I don't think so. It's not at all about the time you spend suffering. It's about the friends you can make, and the good you can do. It's about what you want, not about what is forced upon you. You and I are a lot alike. That's why I wanted somebody like you. We both want to live a while longer. We both want to do more before we die. We both want to tip the scales in the direction of our own happiness, no matter how long it takes."
"I understand," Sayaka said, "This too will pass..."
"It will," Blade agreed, relaxing against her side.
When they both woke up, it was to a horrific crunching sound. They startled, and looked up to see that the ceiling of the train was collapsing inward. Sayaka rushed to the door and forced it open, conjuring up all of the strength she could muster in her current physical state. She and Blade left the car just in time, because before their eyes it was crumpled the rest of the way under the weight of what looked like an elephant's foot, but was somehow wrong. The coloration looked sickly, especially the toes, which were yellow and infected. It was immediately clear that this was a monster.
"Are you kidding me!?" Sayaka shouted at the foot, though she didn't stop moving, running along the path at the side of the subway tunnel to find a way out of here. Clearly, this was a dangerous place to be at this moment. With her mark incapacitated, she even lacked her usual benefit of having magical-level endurance without transforming, and she was never more grateful for the fact that she was an athletic person in general. She was also grateful that the train hadn't gone far since the previous stop, and she soon reached one. Upon arriving to the station, she found that this was, in fact, Tokyo. She didn't hesitate to climb the stairs aboveground, and found that the monster who held ownership of that foot was an absolute unit.
It towered above the city, and kept its weight on nine other legs as it wiggled that foot free. Its legs were incredibly long, each one matching the height of most high-rises in the area. The main body of the thing was amorphous, looking quite like a snake as it weaved around the roofs it wasn't quite tall enough to clear. At either end of the slinky torso was a mouth, wide open and with rows upon rows of teeth like leeches.
And, fighting against it alone, was Fukushima. Kaiba. Armed with her massive sword, and utilizing water from every fire hydrant around, that she'd popped open with her blade for her own purposes. She used both of these factors for a combination, attacking the monster with both and simultaneously utilizing both for mobility. It didn't seem like Kaiba had any trouble avoiding its attacks and striking back against it, but she had to keep moving, she couldn't stay still. And Sayaka could see in Kaiba's face the toll that this strategy was taking on her, heavy breaths breaking through the mask.
At first glance, she seemed unscathed other than this exhaustion, and Sayaka let out a rough breath, tipped with her concern, "Where's her backup? This thing's level six, she needs at least one person helping her..."
"They're in Kobe," Blade assumed, "Where this monster was supposed to show up."
"Another one got teleported!?" Sayaka questioned, "Are you serious?"
"I thought this might happen," Blade said, "Not that it would be here, per say, but I thought when you defeated the level seven in Korekara, another one could be sent immediately. After this, we'll probably be in the clear for at least a month, but... Someone who sent two things after you already, probably wouldn't have stopped preparing at two."
"Then, I have to help her!" Sayaka exclaimed, then found an unprompted and awful sound fall from her mouth as her attempt to transform fell flat, shooting pains throughout her body.
"Red, no!" Blade exclaimed.
She tried again, and fell onto the ground.
"Sayaka!" Blade yelled, leaping towards her, and in that moment restraints wrapped around her body, fully immobilizing her. Blade landed on her arm, leaning toward her face with the closest thing to a distraught expression its face seemed capable of, "You can't do that! You can't possibly transform when you're injured like that, all you'll do is hurt yourself even more..."
"But... Kaiba-nee..." Sayaka said, and Blade was struck by how pathetic she sounded.
"No, she's holding her own just fine!" Blade assured her, "She might even beat it before the backup gets here!"
"Her hands..." Sayaka said, "Look at her hands, Blade! Her mark is in her palm!"
Blade turned to look, and spotted what Sayaka was referring to. Kaiba looked unharmed, but her hands were bleeding. There was dark red blood on the hilt of her sword, and Blade realized why. While Kaiba had in fact done a spectacular job at avoiding any attacks from the monster, she was paying a price for that. Too much friction on her sword, with the extent she was using it. Even with the endurance monster, she could at least pace herself, not to mention the fact that with it being a slime type she was mostly just using her magic. That clearly wouldn't fly with this creature.
"Blade!" Sayaka interrupted its train of thought, "You have to let me go!"
"No! I don't have to do anything!" Blade said, "You can't do anything. You can't transform. There's nothing that you can do right now."
"Just because you've never seen anybody transform while their mark is injured doesn't mean it's impossible! You told me that somebody could fight through the pain if they had enough adrenaline and I'm pretty goddamn sure I'm in that state," Sayaka protested.
"No, she's in that state," Blade said, flicking its tail in Kaiba's direction, "And even if you could transform, what would you do? It's probably too late, if she's already bleeding that much."
"Then you have to tell her," Sayaka sobbed out, "Just tell her what's going to happen to her if she keeps this up! If she's still standing then there's still time, right?"
Blade almost tried to protest. Give its excuse about how dangerous it was to be spreading this information, but it knew that if it refused Sayaka's request, no matter what happened after, then she would hate it. And Kaiba would probably die either way. Blade knew that Sayaka needed it. Especially once Kaiba died. Especially then. If she pushed it away, then she wouldn't have anyone left to take care of her. Everyone else in her life thought that she was just too strong, too capable to ever need anybody taking care of her. Kaiba always looked out for her, though. Blade did too. Sayaka needed at least one of them in her life. So it bit its tongue, and instead, leapt away to jump between buildings until it got close enough to Kaiba, "You need to stop. If you put much more friction on your hands, then you'll die! Your question mark is what keeps you alive and if the connection is entirely severed, then you're going to die!"
"You think I couldn't have figured that out the minute that it started hurting more than anything in my life!?" Kaiba questioned, not slowing down even for a second, "What are you doing back here, anyway?"
"I came back with Sayaka," Blade explained, "She got injured though, and she can't transform right now. She's down on the ground right now and she begged me to come and tell you this. She doesn't want to see you die."
"There's nobody else here," Kaiba said through heavy pants, "And just look around, Blade. I can't just let this damage to the city fly. I can't let it become permanent. This place is Sayaka's home, Kotomi's home... And it's Tokyo. It's too important to let a monster like this wreak havoc. Destroy the subway system like this... this is bigger than me."
"There's nobody else here because this monster was supposed to show up in Kobe," Blade said, "So your backup from the surrounding cities went there instead, because a level six is still a pretty good catch, for a group. For one person, though... Fukushima, this monster was sent here knowing you'd be facing it alone. If you let yourself get killed by it, that's exactly what the one who sent it here wants!"
"It doesn't matter if it's what the person who sent it here wants. I can't turn my back on this city," Kaiba said, "I have to defeat it, even if it does kill me. And if that happens, I'll give my magic over to Sayaka. She may as well get something out of needing to see this."
"...I really can't convince you?" Blade asked.
"Nah," Kaiba said, then slipped her mask from her face and grinned in its direction, "I never thought I'd have a heroic death."
Blade jumped back down to where Sayaka was lying on the ground, tied up. It stared at her for a moment, and she looked so weak. Exactly as weak as she'd looked in the hospital when it first made her into a magical girl. For all of her posturing, she was scared, and small, and had no idea what to do. And Blade had to make it worse.
"Sayaka..." Blade said, quiet, worried, "I told her. But, she didn't want to listen. She refused to stop fighting."
"No," Sayaka breathed, staring wide-eyed at Blade, "You told her the truth?"
"I told her more than the truth," Blade said, "I told her it would kill her. I told her you begged me to tell her that. I told her that if she dies here, then she's giving in to the one who sent that monster here. But she's a righteous person and a good magical girl, Sayaka. She said that she'd go down fighting. That she'd die a heroic death. Even if this was what the person who sent that thing here wants, she can't just let it destroy the city."
Sayaka could have chosen not to believe Blade. To think that it didn't say anything at all like that to Kaiba, to keep its own secret. But she did believe it. Blade listened to her request, and even that hadn't been enough.
She took a deep breath, then whispered, "Can you please untie me?"
"Promise you won't transform?" Blade asked.
"It wouldn't do any good now," Sayaka said, squeezing her eyes nearly shut, closing them just in time to not see the final moment of Kaiba's last endeavor. The monster was defeated, Sayaka saw that much, but she didn't see Kaiba drop to the ground. Blade undid the restraints, and Sayaka sat up, eyes still closed. She felt a strange surge of energy, as if she'd actually been involved in the fight against that monster, but stronger. She opened her eyes, and Kaiba's body was right there. A few feet away from her.
Her eyes were shut, and there was a smile left behind on her face. She'd been transformed back to her usual attire, but for some reason, the mask she normally wore was just as absent as the one for her magical outfit had been. The sword was gone, and her hands were open. In her palm, Sayaka saw the abrasions which had worked their way through the mark, severing its line and her life along with it. Out from the mark, a black goo seemed to be oozing out. Sayaka crawled over, reached out, and touched it. It burned to touch, like acid, and she withdrew her finger quickly. She noted that it was starting to eat away at Kaiba's hand.
"It won't destroy her body," Blade assured her, "Just her hand. It'll take a while. Until that's done, she's technically still alive. But, she can't control any of her own muscles, or anything like that. She can just feel the pain of her hand being eaten away slowly by the acid. That's what makes dying as a magica so utterly painful. But you knew that already, more or less."
"She's still in there...?" Sayaka questioned, then reached out and grabbed Kaiba's other hand in both of hers, "Can she hear me?"
"I don't know," Blade said, "That's not something we ever considered. We barely know how our own magic works... The only reason we even know that the melting pain is still felt is because we've taken a visit to a magica's mind during that period before. Nobody was trying to talk to that one, though."
"Kaiba-nee..." Sayaka whined, leaning against the body, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... This is all my fucking fault, if I'd just stayed here, or if I hadn't got myself hurt in Korekara... There's so many little things that would have fixed everything if they were different but instead I had to be selfish and run off with those guys back to Korekara because, fuck, I needed to prove myself? Prove that I could go back there in spite of everything? But I couldn't. I really couldn't. And now you're gone, because of me."
"Sayaka..." Blade said.
"I'm done," Sayaka said, voice flat as she turned to look at it again, "I'm done trying to deal with this bullshit. Who cares about Stripe. Who cares about Horace. I'm staying here. Right here. I'm never going on one of those fucking investigations again. I'm done."
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