Puella Magi RP

Mia woke with a start, her alarm clock pulling her out of her dream. Tonight, it'd been a good dream, breaking her week-long streak of nightmares. She climbed out of bed and walked to the window, her appearance changing with each step. First, her pajamas changed into an elegant pink dress, ending just above her knees. Her hands were covered by a similarly styled pair of white gloves. On her lower half, a pair of knee-high socks and ankle boots materialised.

11:30 PM. She'd been asleep all day. There were a few other magical girls in the city, most of whom she didn't get along with, so she alternated between days and nights to make sure they weren't hunting in her territory. She'd found a witch yesterday, down an alleyway, but she'd decided against fighting it straight away. After dropping down from her window, she headed there.

Kyoko cracks her neck which sends a reverberating pop through the tense air. She had just lost a witch she had been hunting for the past few days. The witch had led her on a chase through the city and had ended in one of the alleyways. She had chased it outside of the boundaries of her hunting grounds and no doubt if one of the other magical girls found her, they'd be a tad bit angry. Time was running out for her, however. She needed the seed this witch would provide. With determination, she moves to search the alley.

Mia arrived at the Alley after about five minutes of walking, and stopped at the entrance. Standing down there, was not only the entrance to the witches' barrier, but another magical girl. She frowned, because of the low light, she couldn't make out who it was, exactly.
"Excuse me," She said, "I think you're lost."

Kyoko hears a voice call from the entrance of the alley. "No" she asserts. "I'm right where I need to be." She turns to look towards the entrance, but can barely make out who it is from her position. "Who's there?" She asks while brandishing her claws. She can't be caught off guard if it is the witch.

I watched the twinkling lights of the city and the fading glare of my mothers car as it drove off down the road. She was always leaving late at night. I supposed that was really why I'd taken this job. Was it a job? Commitment? Obligation? I mused the words over in my mind. It wasn't a career and it certainly didn't pay, aside from that one monumental thing. I supposed that I could really just live out my days doing nothing. Couldn't I? It wasn't like Kyubey had set a minimum number of witches a year after all.

By the time I looked back out of my window, mothers car lights had disappeared entirely.

Mia watched the girl flail around in the darkness as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, trying to hide her giggling at the spectacle.
"Is that how you fight witches?" She asked, hiding her mouth behind her hand.

Kyoko lowers her weapons. "It's how I deal with people who act like they're hot." She says, taking note of the giggling. "I assume you aren't the witch I'm after. So come up to where I can see you and we'll talk civilly. Unless you want to continue trying your hardest to be condescending."

"I'm not being condescending," Mia said, walking into the alley, "I just wanted you to know that this area's covered, you need to go somewhere else."

Kyoko sees the girl walking and as she grows closer, Kyoko can see her as Mia Cross and, like Mia had said, this was her area. Realizing who it is, she sighs. "Hello, Mia. I know you're covering this area. Sorry for trespassing, but I need the grief seed from the witch." She walks closer to Mia, trying to make her way past her. "I'll look for another one and leave this to you, then."

I sighed to myself and slid slowly down my chair and slumped in a heap on the floor. I realised how much of a slug I was being at that moment.

"Why don't you slide across the floor right to your bed?"

I jumped at the voice, but it was just Kyubey sat atop my dresser with his smug grin.

"You have to go out there, you know? I've assigned you a basic area to patrol and there's already two other girls intruding. You have to at least go and defend your area."

I gave a groan and pushed myself up lazily, dressing in some basic clothing and slipping my trainers on. I grabbed the necklace off of my windowsill and put it around my neck. The heart was a bright yellow, almost pulsating. The source of all the power Kyubey gave me. I hadn't yet used it to be honest.according to him, I'd change clothes when activated too but I had no idea of what I'd change into.

Mia lifted the soul gem around her neck, bringing it to where she could see it. It wasn't that dirty, and she didn't particularly dislike Kyoko.
"Wanna help me kill it? We can share the grief seed."

Kyoko pauses for a second at the notion and finally replies, "Two heads are better than one, they say." She says flatly, taking her own gem in her hand. By comparison with Mia's, Kyoko's is darker. She looks deep into the gem with a cold stare. She had chosen this path and would deal with the consequences if her gem were to become too tainted.

"Okay then!" Mia cheered, letting the soul gem fall back around her neck as she walked towards the barrier's entrance. She flicked hands, spinning two flintlock pistols into them from seemingly nowhere. "Ready?"

Kyoko raises her claws and looks over them. "Ready" Truthfully, this would be the first witch she would be going after. She isn't too experienced in the whole ordeal, so having someone else helping her would do her some good. Though she doesn't really show that gratitude through her tone or facial expressions.

I walked out of my room, down the stairs, out of my front door, giving my brother a cursory wave as I went past and down the street. Kyubey guided me from the moment I left my door, telling me where to go to the two other girls encroaching on what he had defined as 'my area'. It only took ten minutes to get there, being only a couple of blocks from my house.

I turned into the alley to see the other two girls Kyubey was talking about.
And
I
Panicked.

I flattened myself against the wall in the darkness of the alley and watchedz

Mia stepped through the barrier with a confidence that said she'd done this more times than she cared to count, and entered the surreal world of the witches' barrier. Bizzare patters plastered the walls of the maze, with shadows that looked like children dancing around them. As a spider-like familiar rushed at her, Mia fired both of her pistols into it, a small smile on her lips as she discarded the spent pistols.

A chill runs up Kyoko's spine as she follows Mia into the barrier. A sense of dread fills her next as she takes her surroundings in. She hears two gunshots ring out and she snaps to attention. It appears that Mia has encountered an enemy. She goes to aid her, but another spider familiar drops in from behind Kyoko. She hears it land and spins to face it, claws outstretched. She looks on as the claws had penetrated the familiar. She brings her second set of claws up and slices its underside.

The spider that Mia had shot vanished, and Mia glanced around. Firing another pair of pistols at a familiar above her, she started running further into the maze.
"This way!" She shouted over her shoulder to Kyoko as she ran.

The spider dissipates in her claw and she turns quickly around and gives chase to Mia. It'd be fruitless to just stand in one spot and take the familiars out as they continuously spawn. It's just like a level in a video game designed for the heroes to dredge through the enemies until they finally end up at the boss. Kyoko just hopes there's a boss fountain before that fight.

"Left!" Mia shouted as she rounded a corner, firing two more pistols at a familliar as she did. She'd definitely seen stronger familliars than this, though she'd never seen this many large ones before.
"It was probably a good idea to team up with Kyoko." She thought to herself as she ran, but even with help, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Kyoko follows the direction called out and leaps over a familiar, slicing the top of it as she goes. She goes into a roll as she lands and when she returns to her feet, she continues on and returns to her sprint. She cannot help but feel a form of tension beginning to form as they continue their run through the inside of the witch's domain and no matter how many familiars she drops, this feeling does not go away.

Mia ran down the path, shooting any familliar that came too close. She could see the door at the end of the path. She hadn't mentioned it to Kyoko, but the reason Mia had started to run was the mass of familliars that she'd spotted, almost out of sight. Far too many to beat in a melee like the fight at the entrance. She could, close the door behind her. Kyoko would likely die, but at least it'd buy Mia time to find and kill the witch. Mia reached the door, and placed her hand on the knob. She paused, and looked over her shoulder at Kyoko. She looked back to the door, before turning on heel and walking forwards.
"Jump!" She shouted, throwing a total eighteen pistols in front of her, forming three neat rows of six.

Kyoko hears the order. Mia hadn't led her astray yet, but there was nothing else she could do but to put her trust in Mia. As Mia was flinging her pistols into the air, forming what seemed to be a wall of one use firepower being held up by her magic, Kyoko plants her feet and leaps into the air. At the apex of her jump over the wall of weapons, she looks behind her to see the mass of hostiles. She gulps in fear and looks away from them quickly and lands on her feet beside Mia. "You're hoping to get them all with this?" She looks back to the mass coming quickly to meet them. "I'll get the strays." She says flatly.

The first row of pistols fired simultaneously, cutting down a swath of familliars. The pistols, now spent, dropped to the floor. Mia waited several seconds, allowing the horde to cover a little more distance, before she fired again. The second volley cut down more of them, the familliars vanishing as they 'died'. Mia waited again, allowing the enemy to get dangerously close this time, before letting the final volley go.
"Now!" She shouted at Kyoko, drawing two more pistols into her hands and taking aim.

As I watched, the girls argued in incrementally louder voices. One had a high, whiny voice with the hint of a British accent and the other was clearly a native of LA. Seems they'd both run across a witch two weeks ago and British had stolen the grief seed whilst LA was indisposed. LA was now claiming she was owed a use of the seed whilst British maintained that she'd never even seen LA before, much less stole a seed from her.

The collection of firearms drops one row at a time, mowing down the opposition. As soon as the final row drops, Kyoko leaps forward at one of the familiars. One of her clawed hands goes into it and as soon as it disappears, she hops onto another. She sticks both claws into this one and rips it apart. She drops onto the ground and looks to Mia to see how she is faring, but when she stops. A familiar drops ontop of her she wriggles a bit under it just enough to get her claws into it. She lays there and watches as it disappears. She is nearly out of breath and needs a second to get her bearings.

Mia fired her left-hand pistol into a familiar in front of her, while firing her right pistol into one above her, trying to ambush her. She dropped them both, doing a backwards cartwheel as she avoided several more. As she came back to her feet, Mia was surrounded by a ring of eight pistols. They fired, clearing the area around her.

Kyoko takes a deep breath in and releases it before standing back up once again. Facing two more familiars she goes into a stance. They leap at her at the same time. She hops back quickly and leaps forward at the two of them. She uppercuts one and in one smooth, fluid motion, she spins and catches the other. They both fade away and she makes a run to meet back up with Mia. "Let's go, they've been shaved down enough to let us through."

Mia backed up to the door, not taking her eyes off of the narrow tunnel they'd come through. She opened it, and stepped through. This room was much larger, and Mia waited for Kyoko before going any deeper.

Not hesitating for a moment, Kyoko gets through the door. She looks around the large room and enters into a combat stance. This room, in game terms, may be considered the boss room. She feels slightly disappointed if this turns out to be true. They had plowed through the droves of familiars without any form of puzzle in between then and now. Then again, it may be best to get it over with and kill the boss and claim their treasure before they end up dead.

Tentatively, Mia walked deeper into the room, her head on a constant swivel as she looked around. She made it to about a third of the way through, before the circular wall around them began to spin and lift away from the ground. Mia was thrown across the room, slamming into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust as she landed. Coughing, she dragged herself back to her feet.
"Did you see it?" She asked Kyoko, shouting from across the room.

Kyoko looks on as the wall spins and lifts from the ground and notices Mia being thrown to the other side of the room. Her eyes widen as she looks around for the enemy.

"It was too fast for me to see." She responds, yelling across the room.

Mia scowled, this was far worse a situation than she'd expected, and was seriously doubt that the two of them could beat it; they couldn't even see it. The only chance to see it would be when it was attacking.
"Kyoko!" Mia shouted, "Run to the middle! I've got a plan!"

Without skipping a beat, Kyoko runs towards the middle of the room. Keeping her guard up the whole time as she runs. Once she is there she looks around for the mysterious invisible foe. "Let's go. I don't have all night." She calls out to their adversary, baiting it to attack with only her words. Hoping it would work.

Mia kept a close eye on Kyoko, watching out for it when it attacked her. As expected, the attack came; Kyoko being thrown into the air.
"It's the shadows!" She shouted, "That's where it attacks from!"

Mia noticed something else. Her own shadow, and probably Kyoko's, was moving very irregularly. Changing speeds and direction at random. That made it hard to predict where the witch was going to attack from. "I've got a plan!" Mia shouted, "Hit it hard when you see it, keep it on you!"

Before she realized it, Kyoko was in the air. Just seconds ago, she was planted squarely on the ground and now she was in the air. She caught a slight glimpse of the witch before it had happened, but the movement was so quick she couldn't grasp what had just happened to her. Despite that, however, she recovers in the air and lands right back on her feet with a thud. She hears Mia's plan and nods in response. "I've got it." She keeps her eyes out for another glimpse of the witch and with nary a single heartbeat passing, her left arm rockets forward and makes an impact with their adversary. She follows it up with having her right hand shoot in as well. A cry follows each strike and as soon as the screams of pain end, she is launched right back into the air. Her own lungs bereft of precious oxygen once again.

As Kyoko took her beating, working incredibly well as bait, Mia began preparing. She moved around the room, occaisionally seeming vanish. She didn't seem to be doing anything interesting, just darting around the room, pausing for a few seconds and repeating. At some points it looked like she'd vanished, but then she'd be somewhere else in the room, doing the same thing. After doing a full circuit of the room.
"Kyoko! Move!" Mia shouted, already shooting down the massive chandelier hanging directly above the green girl.

With ragged breaths, Kyoko runs from the middle of the room to one of the sides. She looks back and up to see the chandelier and the plan that Mia had conjured becomes clear. She had taken a beating, sure, but she is confident that she had delivered the same beating back and adding in the chandelier dropping; there is no doubt the witch would fall before them.

As soon as the chandelier hit the floor, the lighting in the room abruptly changed. Instead of being well-lit, with shadows dancing around the edges, constantly moving. The room was plunged into darkness, only a small pool of light near the edge.
"It's in the shadows!" Mia shouted excitedly, the fact that the witch could now be anywhere in the room not seeming to phase her. She seemed almost manic, completely oblivious to how bad she'd just made the situation.

Until the room lit up with the muzzleflash from numerous groups of her flintlocks, positioned all around the room in groups of five and facing in every direction. She was hit numerous times, each time making her shout out in pain. Kyoko was probably also hit, but it did the job. The witch fell out of one of the walls, its body slightly darker than the shadow around it, before it and the barrier vanished. Mia dropped to one knee after the barrier fell, blood dripping out of her mouth. Immediately, she started glowing as she healed herself via magic.

She had been taken aback by Mia's sudden outburst of madness, at first, but then as Kyoko watched on as the barrage of gunfire hit the witch, the lights from the pistols illuminated the surrounding area and flashed almost rhythmically along with each explosion from the firearms. She felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder and then another in her left leg, there might have been more, but she could not tell as these areas of pain grew together and allowed herself to dwell in this pain. Maybe she had try to feel as the witch felt at that very moment before, ultimately, the charade ended and the curtain of the barrier finally being lifted. She looks to the afflicted areas, seeing blood staining her clothes. She begins to glow slightly in order to heal these wounds.

As Mia finished healing, she stood up and strode over to the grief seed and picked it up.
"We got it!" She said happily, her face beaming. She raised her soul gem, which was now noticeably dirty and cleaned it, the grief seed soaking the dirt out and leaving her gem looking brilliant again. She threw it over to Kyoko as Kyubei appeared on the fence next to her.

The seed hits Kyoko on the shoulder and falls into her now opened palm. She cleans her soul gem, the dark coloration fading out quickly from it. She barely recognizes the lustrous gem now that all of the corruption had been brought out. She looks deeply into it and her mouth breaks into a smile. "Good work." She looks up to where Mia is and also sees their new guest, Kyubei.

"That grief seed's at capacity," Kyubei said from his perch, "It'll hatch into a witch soon."
Mia yawned, stretching out her back with several audible cracks.

Kyoko's smile vanishes as she purses her lips before responding. "Then we'll kill it." She drops the seed and as it hits the ground, her weapons disperse. "After all, we just killed this one." She says coldly with a hint of confidence behind her words.

"Or," Mia said, picking up the seed, "We get rid of it now." She threw it over her shoulder at Kyubei, who caught it expertly on the top of his head. He balanced it for a moment, before rolling it down his back into a hole that had appeared there.

"Well, Kyoko," Mia said, "I suppose I don't have to chase you off, as long as you keep to hunting south of here and don't do anything stupid."

Kyoko gives a blank look at Mia and then shrugs. "Fatalities are common. Especially in our line of work. Sooner or later we'll slip up, but isn't it somewhat fun knowing that?" She puts it all out bluntly. "Doing stupid things is how we learn and if we are skilled enough, we survive the stupid thing we did. It's all like a game." For the most part, her speech is very monotone. Only ever springing to life when she begins equating real life to games.

"I'll stay out of your area until you need my assistance again."

"If you see any new girls, make sure to let them know not to come up here, 'kay?" Mia said, ending it with a cute smile. "I'll see you around, Kyoko." Mia said, waving as she left. Kyubei followed her silently, aside from saying his goodbye to Kyoko.

Kyoko brings her hand up to give them a farewell, but drops it midway through. She is tired, exhausted even. Every part of her body is calling out, pleading for rest. She looks to the sky. The night washed header blankets them all. She was used to staying up late, but this was different. She needed to cover herself in her own blanket and drift off to sleep. She makes her way back home to rectify her needs.

"You're going to let her stay?" Kyubei asked Mia as she walked home, the cat-thing jumping up to rest on her shoulder.
"It looks that way," Mia said, "It's not like I've got any reason to get rid of her."
"You didn't have any reason to get rid of the others, either." He replied.
"They didn't respect boundaries," Mia replied again, "She doesn't seem like the type to keep coming back."
Kyubei didn't respond, going quiet again as Mia climed back up to her window. Her costume vanished, leaving her in her pajamas again, and she climbed into bed.