"You little brat!" Kyoko reached for Yimi.
"I'm a cat brat!" Yimi scurried behind Tomohisa on her little legs and grabbed the back of his clothes to hide.
She peeked out at Kyoko. Ducked back. Peeked again. Ducked back.
Tomohisa patted her head to settle her down, then looked at Kyoko quizzically. "Did this child do something? If so, I apologize on her behalf—but could you return the test report first?"
This is MY test report, isn't it? The blood type matches mine. The kid literally just admitted she drew my blood!
Kyoko glanced at Tomohisa, who appeared to be the little cat's guardian, and tossed the report back to him.
The telekinetic blood draw was a power that could only be classified as a Magical Girl's ability—and there was no point explaining Magical Girls to an ordinary person. Having experienced firsthand what happened when you told your family about Magical Girl business, Kyoko wasn't about to say too much to this kid's family.
Tomohisa tucked the report away. "If you don't mind me asking—do you know this child?"
Since they were outside a hospital, he didn't question why she wasn't in school.
"Ran into her in Kazamino a couple days ago." Kyoko laced her fingers behind her head, looked down at Yimi, and turned to leave. "I'm out."
Tomohisa scratched his cheek and looked down at Yimi as well. "Was that from when you wandered off? Did you do something naughty?"
"She's the Red Person." Yimi answered a question that hadn't been asked. "Is she a friend?"
Because Kyoko had given her food—and shown her a Soul Gem. Things got less nice afterward, but on the whole, she was a good person.
Except good-but-not-entirely-good people eventually became Witches… Kitty didn't like that one bit.
Kyoko's stride faltered for just a moment.
Why was she being categorized as a friend by a kid that much younger than her? Did she look like the type who got along with children?
Kyoko replayed the test report in her head. She hadn't really understood it, but the gist seemed to be that yes, she was healthy.
The sudden bleeding had startled her. It had to be a Magical Girl ability, right? She'd assumed the kid's power was just shapeshifting into a cat, since when she'd gone back yesterday, the girl was clearly someone who'd changed from a cat into a human.
But she still couldn't figure out why this pipsqueak had drawn her blood out of thin air.
Unless the kid had noticed how rattled she was and deliberately staged the whole thing to put her at ease?
What a busybody.
The irritation she'd felt toward the little cat a moment ago had quietly faded.
Still, that Sayaka really did have an enviable optimism. Learning something like that and still managing to calmly reassure someone else instead.
Kyoko's Soul Gem, currently transformed into a pendant, gave off a faint pulse. She lifted it for a look.
"Mitakihara sure keeps the prey coming."
Hunting Witches on someone else's turf uninvited wasn't exactly polite, but she hadn't scored a single Grief Seed since arriving in this city. Besides, if it were Mami, she'd probably just say something like "As long as nobody gets hurt, it's fine"—right?
A red skirt and the long trailing hem of her top replaced the shirt and shorts she'd been wearing. Spear in hand, the girl plunged alone into the Witch's barrier. The city around her was instantly replaced by the chaotic palette of an art student's mixing tray.
Compared to Sayaka, she was a Magical Girl of considerable experience. The ability that had manifested alongside her contract was a type of Illusion Magic that mimicked clones—so convincing that even Witches struggled to distinguish real from fake.
In her early days, right after becoming a Magical Girl and teaming up with Mami, her signature move had been deploying decoys as distractions before striking the Witch while it was caught off guard.
But after her family's tragedy, she'd rejected her own wish of her own volition, and like Sayaka's healing, the wish-derived ability had become unusable.
Even so, with multiple successful hunts under her belt, she was still a powerful Magical Girl fully capable of soloing a Witch.
She swung her spear in its extended multi-section staff form, smashing through Familiars as she pushed toward the Witch at the barrier's core. Kyoko stole a glance at her Soul Gem, now tinged slightly darker.
Was it her imagination, or was the corruption rate speeding up? No—it wasn't her imagination. It definitely was.
Kyubey was absolutely hiding other things. She'd have to conserve her magic.
Sweeping aside the Familiars in her path, Kyoko ignored their attacks entirely. She planted the butt of her spear on the ground and vaulted upward. Simultaneously, an enormous spear unfurled beneath her in multi-section staff form like a serpent uncoiling.
This was her finisher—and an expensive one in terms of magic. It went against the conservation plan she'd just made, but compared to the back-and-forth of a drawn-out fight, a single decisive blow was ultimately more efficient. If she spent the whole battle only to need the finisher anyway, that would be the real waste.
As for a Witch that her finisher couldn't handle—why would she stick around?
The speartip blazed with the same crimson as her Soul Gem. Magic concentrated to a single point detonated all at once, obliterating the Witch and its barrier together.
Kyoko exhaled. She looked toward the fallen Grief Seed, then back at her Soul Gem.
The finisher had never cost this much before.
Before she could even pick up the Grief Seed for a recharge, a wave of despair engulfed her once more.
"You're kidding."
Kyoko stared in shock and disbelief.
Was this even possible? Two Witches spawning right next to each other?
Right—this was near Mitakihara Central Hospital. The place most likely to generate despair. And Familiars, after feeding on enough human despair, could birth new Witches of their own.
A naturally born Witch, or a chain reaction caused by the Familiars she'd deliberately left alive?
She turned toward where the first Grief Seed had fallen. The new Witch barrier made it impossible to locate.
"Why is my luck this bad?"
Or was it self-inflicted? But her policy of only killing Witches was actually the norm among Magical Girls—and the approach Kyubey endorsed… Why would Kyubey endorse it?
Before she could think further, a shadow-like Familiar clamped its jaws on her arm.
"A mere Familiar dares?" Kyoko drove her spear through its skull.
She had just barely enough magic left to handle one Witch, but she didn't have Sayaka's exceptional regeneration. With her dominant hand injured, even running away would be difficult.
"Hey—you alright?"
Fortunately, Kyoko's luck wasn't all bad. Backup had arrived.
Sayaka—and the considerably shorter Yimi.
Kyoko clutched her wounded arm. "What, it's Mami's turf and somehow you show up first every time?"
"I came to save you and you can't even say something nice? Can you still hold off the Familiars in your state?"
Kyoko gripped her spear with her good hand. "Who do you think you're looking down on?"
She planted the spear and vaulted up—and for some reason earned an admiring look from Yimi for the move.
"Just don't slow us down." Sayaka drew her cutlass and dashed toward the depths of the barrier.
"Hey, don't just stand there—come help!" Kyoko shouted at Yimi.
"Oh." Yimi summoned The World and sent a Familiar flying with a single punch.
Kyoko: "?"
Weren't Magical Girl powers supposed to be cuter than that?
This kind of coordinated teamwork—she and Mami used to do it all the time. Back then they'd gotten along well enough, and she'd stuck to Mami's side like a little fangirl… reminiscing about that made her physically ill.
With a dry heave, Kyoko glanced toward Sayaka in the distance.
She didn't have to wait long. Cutting straight to the point without detours, Sayaka dispatched the freshly spawned Witch with ease.
"Phew…" Drained, Kyoko dropped her weapon and slumped to the ground.
Sayaka hopped back to her side, a pitch-black Grief Seed in hand.
"This is what you need, right?"
"You killed it, so it's yours." Kyoko lay on the ground with her eyes closed. "But I took one down before you got here. Didn't get a chance to pick it up, though. I'm out of juice—go find it for me."
"You really know how to boss people around." Sayaka scanned the area with displeasure, found the Grief Seed Kyoko had earned, and brought it back. "But how do I use this for you?"
Kyoko gave her a withering look. "Are you actually a Magical Girl? I don't need to teach you how Soul Gems work, do I?"
"How Soul Gems work?" Sayaka paused—then her face went red. She waved at Yimi. "Yimi, turn around."
"Mew?" The little cat didn't understand, but did as she was told.
Sayaka turned Kyoko over and took her Soul Gem.
Kyoko: "?"