first rosso fantasma ⚜

[prayed]

The warehouse had probably been sealed off long ago. Already it had begun to fall into a state of disrepair. Sand bags, empty boxes and other supplies were littered about. Abandoned, locked away and forgotten, no longer anything that a person would care to look for. The evening sky, the sun fading fast, made it feel somehow older than it was. Like a relic from long ago. It looks so fragile. The pillars upholding it might just collapse, the beams above might fold in on themselves and bury her.

Even so, it was the perfect place for Kyoko to work though. Unwanted places, unwanted people, they all bred curses and those curses drew out Witches. So, she carried her Soul Gem in one hand as she walked along the concrete floors. The other was occupied with a piece of taiyaki. Kyoko didn't even glance at the cans as she kicked them aside, the papers as they crumbled under her boots. Her mind was wholly occupied by her cause for coming here.

But that cause was no long showing itself. Certainly, since she was still here, somehow still alive, that person should be too. Somewhere, in this place, she was there just moments ago--ah, did she feel a familiar magical signature just then? But it was gone too soon and she was left with only more wandering to look forward to.

"Tch. This is really pissing me off, y'know," she said, to no one in particular. She kicked away a can, more forcefully now.

Comments

[braidstobows]

It had been a long time since Homura had hunted a witch; there was a different enemy now. It was her first sign that something wasn't precisely right in this warehouse. She'd think the difficult search was the trick of a barrier, but no barrier would look so normal, completely bare of the chaotic elements of a witch's mind.

Perhaps, after so long, she was beginning to forget things after all, perhaps it was another long journey in another long timeline, heading towards its own explosive end. Nevertheless, she was there, as if she always had been, suddenly calmly falling into step beside Kyoko.

"Be patient," advised the girl with all the time in the world. She brushed long hair out of her way. "You will not find your quarry by letting yourself become rash in your temper."

[prayed]

"Tch. I don't need you to tell me that." Kyoko glared at the the fellow Puella Magi--not a friend, but the closest thing she's had to an ally in some time--before turning to looking forward once more. Her annoyance was less with Homura, whom she had been left with something of an understanding (vague, incomplete, but enough,) of so much as the situation that had been presented to her. It wasn't like her to have so much trouble hunting down a witch. It wasn't like her to miss the presence of another Puella Magi.

"It's gonna get away if we don't hurry up and find it, y'know!" She added. Her patience was wearing thin, her mind still muddled from the events that transpired before she came here, making it impossible to focus on any one task--even (or perhaps, especially) one simple and repetitive as hunting a Witch.

[braidstobows]

Homura was immune to Kyoko's rough ways; she simply shrugged off the blunt speaking, and said nothing. Her own manner was in decided contrast. Her fellow - yes, she supposed, she could truly call it that now - fellow puella magi was right, however.

She still failed to quicken her pace. "If we go too quickly, we may miss what little we have been able to pick up of its presence." If she was inwardly as impatient as Kyoko, ready for the battle with it imminent, it showed only in her heightened alertness.

"Are you prepared to lose our prey to haste?"

[prayed]

Kyoko didn't immediately respond outside of an annoyed "tch." The only thing she hated more than how this girl liked to show off how much she knew was the fact that she was too often right about things. Her Soul Gem began to brighten as she slowed her pace, giving a better idea of it's position. Kyoko moved up the stairs and onto a mesh grating. It wouldn't be long now.

"We're not gonna lose it. There's no way I'd let this one get away." Although she already had once, hadn't she? She shrugged at her own unasked question.

[braidstobows]

Homura did, at least, refrain from pointing that part out. In fairness, she supposed more of the blame seemed to belong to the soul gems than to Kyoko anyway. (Which was strange, and therefore troublesome. Why wasn't the reaction stronger? Was the thing really that far ahead of them? She would have liked to run ahead to find out.

Perhaps she would.)

"If you do not wish to lose it," she suggested to Kyoko, "Perhaps we should split up once more. We can cover this ground more quickly, and signal to the other when something is found."

[prayed]

It shouldn't have been, but of course in dreams things rarely went as one would have liked them to. Kyoko offered a noncommittal shrug in response to Homura's suggestion. She had the same question about why it was so weak, but chose not to vocalize it. For all she knew this could be her own personal Hell. It seemed likely enough.

"Do what you want. We're gonna have to kill it either way, so as long you don't try and steal the Grief Seed from right under my nose or anything, I don't care how we do it."

[braidstobows]

"I have no intention of robbing you of this night's rewards." This left open the question of what she was doing here, fighting for essentially nothing at all. It was something she found herself doing more and more frequently, at first for all the obvious reasons and Madoka's sake, but now... perhaps habit. She didn't think she was soft enough for it to be more than that.

"However, if it has gotten far enough ahead of us for the signal to be that faint, now is the time to begin hurrying." She wasted no time in following her own words, quickening her pace to a run that only another puella magi could have kept up with.

[lamentoso]

Sayaka was, all things considered, in good enough humour. In her hands, she held a CD enclosed in a bag, griping it tightly as she trotted forward. She seemed almost excited to get to where ever she was going; there was a bit of a dreamy look in her eyes as she pressed onwards.

Kyosuke... he would like this one, for sure!

She was on a mission to get to the hospital, hardly paying attention to her surroundings, and even a certain redhead she passed along the way.

[prayed]

There it was.

The only person she wanted to see. The beacon of hope that she had built up for herself, then crushed without even realizing it. She was back. No longer a witch. The witch that she had locked in on (had it been there at all?) was immediately forgotten. It didn't matter.

"Sayaka..." Her voice was quiet; too quiet to be heard. She raised her hand to reach out to her, but the shock, or rather, the joy of being able to see her again was too overwhelming. It was a couple moments before she came her her senses. "Oi! Sayaka!" She said now, her voice considerably louder than before. She rushed to catch up with her, walked along side of her. The grin on her face was perhaps more friendly than Sayaka would remember--genuinely happy, even.

sob im so sorry kyoko... she'll remember you eventually i swear!!

[lamentoso]

Surprised, Sayaka stopped as the other girl reached her side and looked over with an eyebrow raised. "Do... I know you?" she asked a little indignantly. How did this girl know her name, anyway? She didn't look like any of the juniors she knew from class... "Anyway, I can't really stop and chat right now, I have somewhere to be," she brushed off the encounter, trying to get some speed in her steps again.

idk this might be better since she doesn't know what a big fat jerk she is yet

[prayed]

That was different. Kyoko fell behind, but once more pulled herself together after a few seconds in order to match Sayaka. "O-oi, don't tell me you've forgotten me already! After everything's you put me through I deserve a better greeting than that, y'know!" Her tone was light, joking, but there it was hard to miss her growing concern. Before Sayaka had died, she had turned into a witch. She had lost what had made her human, but certainly that couldn't have meant losing her memories as well.

no worries, our best qualities have a way of shining through eventually......

[lamentoso]

"Huh? Forgot you?" Why was this girl saying such weird stuff? Stopping again, there was a bit of an edge to her growing scowl at being held up. "Do you go to Mitakihara or something?"

[prayed]

Kyoko frowned heavily, folded her arms as Sayaka asked that question. This was starting to frighten her a little and, even more than that, it was starting to agitate her. There was no reason for Sayaka to play these kinds of games with her.

"Oi. You're Sayaka Miki, aren't you? One of Mitakihara's Puella Magi?" She knew the answer to both of those questions, of course, but--something was wrong here and she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

[lamentoso]

At first there was an expression of disbelief on her face, but as she processed Kyoko's words -- her eyes steadily narrowed at what was being said. "Oh I get it..." she frowned, "I see what you're doing. She put you up to this, didn't she? That weird transfer student! Well I'm not going to fall for it! If you want to have your weird fights do it somewhere else! Leave Madoka Kaname and me out of it, all right?!"

[prayed]

For a moment, Kyoko is too shocked for words. Her eyes widen as she opens her mouth to protest, only to be cut off by Sayaka's continued assault. The hurt quickly turns into anger though, and she founds herself shouting.

"What kind of joke is that supposed to be!? Dragging you into our fights. That girl, everyone told you not to form a contract with that annoying rodent, idiot!" She shook her head, took a deep breath. No. This wasn't how she wanted her meeting with Sayaka to go. She wanted things to be better this time. So, she grit her teeth and clenched her fists as she continued, steadying her voice. "Look. If you didn't decide to depend on that thing, great. Only a total moron would do a thing like that, y'know...giving up everything for the sake of getting into weird fights...that's not something that the two of you are fit for, y'know."