Chapter Text
Kure Kirika was having a bad day. Not that this was unusual, most days were rather empty at best but today was turning out even worse than normal. She had gone shopping and her change had slipped through her fingers. So now she was stuck picking it all up while the people behind her got increasingly annoyed and loud.
On the floor scrambling to pick up the coins and bill that had slipped she had a fleeting thought, she wished someone would care enough to help. Of course, no one did, no one ever would.
In the end despite the shouting of the people behind her and how much the money had scattered Kirika managed to pick it all up and finished paying. Never once knowing how much meaning this rather terrible day could of had for her in another world.
It was a tiny divergence really. Oriko rather than going shopping on this particular day decided to stay in to study.
After that day in which nothing of importance happened, time continued to pass. Kirika occasionally had pointless vapid conversations with her classmates when she bothered to turn up to school.
She continued to move aimlessly forward mimicking a functional person. She simply drifted purposelessly in a world which felt empty of meaning.
Kure Kirika was having a bad day. Not that anything special had occurred today yet though, hell she had bothered to get up and go to school which was more than she could say for herself half the time.
As the day went while on the way to get lunch, she wondered why she had bothered to turn up. Not like she was learning anything or had any friends here. So stuck in her thoughts Kirika didn't notice when while walking up the stairs a foot slipped.
She fell, not far she hadn't walked up too many steps but enough to hurt her leg and get a rather nice view of the floor heading rapidly towards her face.
Yet she never hit the ground. Someone caught her.
"Are you ok?" asked her saviour.
Kirika didn't reply for a second as she looked up at the person who had bothered to catch her. She had amethyst coloured eyes, long beautifully taken care of hair and had to be very physically fit to stop Kirika's fall without even stumbling.
Kirika after freezing for a second managed to pull herself out of the arms of the girl who caught her. Eventually, with a blush on her cheeks, she managed a rather breathless "thank you" before trying to run off.
Trying being the operative word here. What she had forgotten was that she had hit her leg on the way down and so her attempt to escape this rather embarrassing situation was hindered by the fact she was limping rather than running.
"I think you should go to the nurse's office that doesn't look healthy," said the person whose name Kirika really needed to learn.
"Oh, yeah good point, I um know the way, um thanks for catching me" Kirika replied.
"I'll take help take you, you really shouldn't be putting more pressure on that leg" saying that she took Kirikas arm and helped her to the nurse's office.
"T-thanks I'm really sorry for the trouble" Kirka stammered out.
"It was really not much trouble" saying that she started to set off "Oh and get well soon".
Once her saviour had left Kirika sat in the nurse's office. She had been given an ice pack which she put on her injured leg as she waited. However, as time passed she found she couldn't get her mind off the person who had caught her and been so nice to her.
She wished she had managed to get her name but she just could not muster the confidence at the time so now she just had to hope she would bump into her again.
After her leg had recovered a bit she went back to lessons keeping an eye out for the person who had saved her, despite this by the end of the day she hadn't seen her.
Still, today wasn't as bad a day as usual, after all, she had met someone nice, someone who seemed so much more than all the empty people who she existed around, someone who seemed so much brighter than her.
Like a moth to the flame, Kirika could not help but want to see her again even knowing the girl would likely have already forgotten her. When she slept that day she dreamt of a world where she was no longer alone.
When she woke up Kirika felt actual enthusiasm for going to school. Something she hadn't experienced for years.
Full of energy from knowing exactly what she wanted she got dressed, brushed her teeth and set off to school ready to get her saviour's name and get the chance to talk to her properly. She couldn't wait.
Kirika had a problem. She was utterly incapable of approaching her. While she had finally been able to catch sight of her (out of the window of her class) watching her in physical education just showed how amazing at everything she was.
While Kirika did manage to see her at lunch she just found herself hiding away when the purple-eyed girl's gaze wandered towards her direction.
She truly did try to gather her courage but in the end she was a coward who could only watch unable to even stutter out a hello to such a kind and incredible person who had helped her.
Every time she tried and failed to approach she only felt worse.
To make things worse people noticed she was distracted. Kirika could hear the whispers around her. People talking about why the loner girl was so spacy today.
It didn't help that she found herself incapable of paying even the tiniest scrap of attention to her teachers less so even than usual.
Despite waking up filled with hope and enthusiasm by the time she was walking home Kirika was distraught.
Her leg still hurt, she hadn't even managed to pretend to be normal today and she was too much of a coward to talk to the one person she had planned to.
Really what was even the point? Of course, she would never get to talk to her, even if she did it's not like that wonderful person would ever be interested in or care about her. Really she was just wasting her time being so pathetic what was even the point? why doesn't she just...
Kirika opened her eyes, she didn't know when she had closed them but she wished she had kept them shut. The sky was suddenly a kaleidoscope, seemingly made of tied-up strings of a variety of nausea inducing colours that seemed like they didn't quite fit reality.
Everything was wrong. How did she get here in this strange world of string and impossible colours? What happened?
Before Kirika could think more deeply about how she had gotten stuck here something approached her. It looked like a vagally humanoid doll made up of needles and strings.
It lurched toward her like it was being pulled by an invisible puppeteer. Its only other feature was that rather than hands it seemed to have scissors something that became rapidly apparent as it lunged at her.
Kirika stumbled back avoiding the thing enough that it only gave her a small cut across her shoulder rather than cutting off her entire arm when it snipped its hands.
She ran, she ran as fast as she possibly could as the string-bodied, scissor-handed things chased her.
Maybe if her leg had not still been hurt from yesterday she could have lasted a bit longer but as it was she stumbled and then fell.
It's funny, despite what she had been thinking earlier she really didn't want to die. She still wanted things.
She hadn't been able to tell that girl how she felt, she hadn't gotten to do anything she really enjoyed or even found anything to do with her life.
Yet her wants didn't matter, did they? She was going to die in this weird hellish dimension and no one would even know what happened to her. She wondered how long it would take before her mum noticed she was gone. She wondered if anyone would remember her. She doubted it.
Yet before the scissors could close around her she heard a gunshot. It was terrifyingly loud yet she didn't think she had ever heard a sound more beautiful.
The doll who was about to bisect her had fallen over. its strings falling apart as it collapsed into a heap.
She looked over to see just what had saved her even as the other string dolls got shot and collapsed. It was her, her saviour.
The girl walked over to her "Stay beside me if you don't want to die" the girl spoke in a grave tone.
"Ok will do. What is this place, what were those things, how did I get here" Kirika's questions flew through her like a torrent her confusion and fear temporarily overriding her instinct to keep silent and not embarrass herself "What's your name" Kirika managed to just about get out before falling silent. Her last question being the one she cared about by far the most even despite the horrifying circumstances she had fallen into.
"We are in a witch's labyrinth, those things were familiars, the witch likely pulled you here to eat you and, my name is Akemi Homura," she said mechanically she went through them like a list only pausing slightly before answering the last question.
Kirika followed Homura through the labyrinth watching her kill any familiar that got too close with a hail of gunfire.
Eventually, they reached a door.
"Stay here, I've cleared out the familiars so you shouldn't be in too much danger, I need to kill the witch" saying that Homura stepped through the door while Kirika looked through frozen by the sight beyond the door.
Beyond the door was a cloud of needles each carrying thread each thread ending in a scissor. It formed the vague shape of a spider before shifting to a snake and then a wolf endlessly shifting between forms.
The needles endlessly sowed shapes that got cut off by the scissors before they were able to form anything approximating a design. Leaving a trail of ruined works wherever the witch went.
Homura ignoring the frozen form of Kirika behind her stowed her rifle back in her shield before disappearing. An instant later she reappeared and the mass of needles, thread and scissors exploded. The storm of needles and blades did not die however and it responded by sending thousands of needles shooting towards where Homura stood.
For a second Kirika thought that it was over, that Homura had been impaled by the cloud of needles that moved faster than the eye could see and certainly faster than any human could dodge.
Yet before she could despair over the death of her saviour Homura reappeared and the cloud once more exploded. The pattern repeating itself as the mass of the witch is increasingly reduced until eventually whatever force holding the witch together fails and the labyrinth falls apart.
As she finally sees the sky, blue with clouds as opposed to being made of shifting colours and thread, Kirika breathes in a lungful of fresh air.
She looks over at her saviour who seems to be putting a black gem into her shield "You were incredible" she breaths out.
"I was just doing my job, it is the duty of magical girls to kill witches" replies Homura.
"So you're a magical girl, I mean you seem pretty magical so that makes sense" Kirka starts before blushing and swiftly ending her sentence.
"It's not something to be proud of, it's a lonely existence without a happy ending, I'm barely even human." Homura replies before adding "If a white rat ever offers you a wish say no, nothing is worth this, keep your future, you're better off forgetting this ever happened". Saying that she begins to walk off.
"Thanks for saving me again, I'm sorry you're alone, a person as amazing as you doesn't deserve to be alone. I know I can't be any help but my name is Kure Kirika and even if you're not proud of being a magical girl you still saved me and I won't forget that" The words come out in a rush Kirka, wanting to make sure she's heard before Homura is out of hearing range.
Homura turns around for a second before shaking her head and continuing to walk away.
Kirika seeing that Homura is gone and knowing it would be a miracle for her to be able to get even a single other word out to her even if she wasn't, she walks home, her mind filled with wonder at the girl who saved her.
Yet a part of her was also sad to know that such an incredible person was so alone. Kirka knew why she was alone, but surely such an amazing person deserved to have friends and loved ones who cared about her.
As she reached home she found a white cat/bunny looking thing with rings around its ears. Hello, she hears a high androgynous voice speak in her mind.
You have potential so I've come to make an offer, make a contract with me and become a magical girl. In exchange, you get a single wish that could be anything you want.
Kirika thought back to Homura's despairing words about the life of a magical girl "What's the catch."
In exchange for your wish, you will have to spend the rest of your life fighting witches created by the curses of humanity.
"So I'd have to give up the entire rest of my life, my goals, hope and ambitions in exchange for a single wish."
Yes but you can have literally anything in exchange, it is an offer to change anything in a way impossible otherwise. Also, you would not necessarily give up the rest of your life, some magical girls have managed to live years acting as they choose while doing their duty of fighting witches.
"Luckily I don't really have any goals, hopes or ambitions so that doesn't sound like too bad a deal" Kirika replies.
Even though Homura told her not to, the truth is Kirika does not believe that she truly has a future to keep as she is now. She has nothing of value to lose and so she speaks the wish that would make her soul gem shine.
"I wish that I would change and keep changing until I'm a person who can stay and fight by Homura's side no matter what so she never needs to be lonely ever again."