Homura had slept soundly throughout the night. As soon as Madoka had crawled into the bed with her she could say it was one of the most peaceful and wonderful sleeps she had in ages. Before she had always felt stressed out in some way when she had gone to bed, always worrying that she might have forgotten something crucial in the days leading up to Walpurgisnacht. Most of the time she didn't get much sleep at all, with the way she had stayed up so late to fight witches at night. She almost saw sleeping as a mere waste of time in that regard.

But when Madoka was lying next to her, Homura felt a warmth unlike anything she had felt before, and after Madoka made her promise to her, Homura had fallen asleep within minutes, and her nightmare-filled dreams were then replaced by pleasant ones, leaving a smile on the raven-haired girl's face as the morning daylight peeked through the window. Homura was still sound asleep though, not even realizing that Madoka had already woken up and was downstairs with Tomohisa.

She also didn't realize that another person had entered the room until she felt the pounding of little fists on her face. Homura's eyes opened up as the pounding was beginning to annoy her, only to be greeted with a big smiling face right in front of her eyes.

"UWAH!" Homura yelped as she shot up in the bed, sending the small child next to her into a fit of giggles. Throughout the timelines she had fought terrifying abominations of witches that would send shivers down the spines of mankind's strongest soldiers. Yet somehow, in that moment the staring grin of a small boy was one of most terrifying things she had scene in her life. Homura then heard a rush of footsteps run towards the room.

"Tatsuya no!" Madoka cried as she came in and saw that Homura was awake. "Oh, I'm sorry, Homura-chan!" Madoka bowed in apology before she picked up the giggling toddler. "Did he wake you?"

"Yes but...it's fine, don't worry." Homura replied, still getting over the shock of that rude awakening.

"Well in that case…" Madoka said as she yanked the covers off of Homura's bed. "Good morning Homura-chan!" Madoka smiled.

"Good morning!" Tatusya chimed in.

"G-Good morning…" Homura uttered, not at all used to being greeted like this early in the day. After Madoka formally introduced her to her baby brother, Madoka brought him back downstairs and put him into his high-chair, where Tomohisa was watching as he made breakfast. Junko was still asleep. Under normal circumstances, Madoka and Tatsuya would have given her a similar wake-up call, but Madoka knew that her mother was still recovering, and decided to let her sleep in. Thus leaving Madoka alone with Homura instead of her mother for her usual morning wash-up routine.

The two of them remained silent as they stood side by side, brushing their teeth. It was Madoka who broke the silence when she began brushing her hair.

"Hitomi-chan said we could study together at the library today along with Kamijou-kun."

"Did she? That's good." Homura replied, gritting her teeth as her mind flashed back to when she froze up in front of the classroom. It almost felt strange to her, accepting assistance from someone she knew was one of Madoka's closest friends, yet she herself almost never interacted with her. Come to think of it, that reminded her of something important. "Actually, how are they?" Homura asked. "I understand that they were also close friends of..." Homura trailed off.

"Hitomi-chan sounded all right when I talked to her yesterday, but…" Madoka trailed off as she gathered her thoughts. "I wouldn't be surprised if they brought it up there." Madoka continued, knowing full well what Homura was talking about. Her head tilted downwards. "Homura-chan, what should we tell them?"

"We can't tell them anything." Homura stated as she brushed her own hair. She gave it her usual flick with her wrist. "You know they wouldn't understand the truth."

"I know but…" Madoka struggled to find a response.

"You're not at fault for anything." Homura assured her, thinking that was what was bothering her. She put a hand on her shoulder. "They have no reason to blame you for what happened. If they did, I won't allow it." Madoka looked back up at the raven-haired girl.

"I don't think they'd blame me, I just feel bad that I know what happened to her and they don't…" Madoka sighed. Homura knew that guilt of hers all too well. She had seen her act the same way whenever Mami Tomoe fell to the witch Charlotte throughout the many timelines. Homura sighed. She wasn't about to let this bother Madoka all day.

"If the question comes up, leave all the explaining to me." Homura exclaimed. "If Hitomi Shizuki is truly your friend, she won't give us any trouble on the matter." Homura looked at herself in the mirror before thinking that she looked all right to go downstairs. "Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We should go and have breakfast now." Not seeing any reason to argue, Madoka thanked and followed her.

"Good morning you two!" Tomohisa happily greeted the two girls as they came downstairs, upon which both girls returned the greeting. "Breakfast should be ready in just a few minutes." He stated as Tatsuya had let out a happy squeak from his high-chair upon hearing that.

"Breakfast! Breakfast!" The toddler bounced in his seat, eagerly awaiting his morning pancakes.

"Moooorning…" Junko yawned as she entered the kitchen shortly afterwards, still in her pajamas.

"How are you feeling?" Tomohisa asked, pouring the batter on the hot pan.

"Much better. Gonna take it easy for today and I should be back at one hundred percent tomorrow!" Junko smiled, to which Tomohisa returned. Soon, the pancakes were ready and the family all sat down together to begin eating.

Homura gazed at the three giant pancakes in front of her for a moment after thanking the family for the meal. The only other person she could recall herself eating with was Mami Tomoe, a long, long time ago. After pouring a little syrup on them she slowly cut her food and took a bite.

Her eyes widened as the taste of the pancakes enveloped her mouth. The juice of the syrup squeezing out from the soaked pancake. The texture of the food massaged her tongue and softly slid right down her throat. An sudden warmth erupted throughout her chest as she cut a piece and took another bite. The food was cooked to perfection. She had never tasted anything like this before.

"Oho...looks like you outdid yourself this time honey." Junko quipped, noticing the stunned look on Homura's face as she continued eating. "There's a lot more where that came from, so if you want seconds just ask!"

"I don't think I've seen you look this happy before, Homura-chan!" Madoka giggled. Homura realized at that point that her lips had contorted into a wide smile as she was eating. She couldn't even control it as she continued putting pancake pieces in her mouth. It was like every bite she took filled her with feelings of acceptance and welcoming.

Homura basked all of it and gazed at Madoka's smile. Tears threatened to leak from Homura's eyes as as the smile on her face showed no signs of leaving anytime soon. These were the fruits of her hard labour across those countless timelines.

"Yes...this was the happiness that I wished for…" Homura thought as she continued to eat, thanking whatever gods or higher beings were up there for gracing her with a moment like this.

"So if you just remember the steps in this order, you should have no trouble in solving derivatives, Akemi-san."

"I see. I think I'm beginning to understand this now."

After finishing breakfast, Madoka and Homura left the house and headed straight towards the public library, where Hitomi and Kyousuke were there waiting for them. The timing had been perfect for a study session. The library had just opened and there weren't many people visiting that early on a Sunday morning.

Homura had found Hitomi to be an excellent tutor. If she didn't know better she would have thought she was better at teaching than their actual math teacher. Madoka was the only one there to actually voice that praise, however. Homura had stayed mostly silent throughout the study session, only speaking up to ask the occasional question.

"Wow...I didn't think it would be that easy!" Madoka had said, amazed at how natural solving the math problems came to her now. "You're amazing Hitomi-chan!"

"It's all about how you break down the problems." Hitomi replied with a smile. "Once you figure out all the steps, it just takes practice from there." She pointed at the questions she had solved with Madoka in the text book. "Try doing those same problems over and over again for a bit. Train your mind to memorize the process so you don't make any mistakes."

Homura couldn't help but clench her fists on her lap after hearing those words. Her face had also darkened a bit as well the more she thought about them, to which Hitomi noticed. Hitomi at first didn't know what to make of Madoka asking to bring Homura along with her for a study-group. The transfer-student didn't seem to have time to hang out with anybody after school. While she was generally polite, there was a certain cold aura to her that Hitomi couldn't help but feel a bit unnerved by. Nevertheless, she attempted to start a conversation with her.

"So Akemi-san, how have you been finding Mitakihara?" Hitomi asked, causing the raven-haired girl to look directly at her, those violet eyes seeming to stare directly into her soul, while at the same time containing no hint of emotion whatsoever. "It's been about a month since you've transferred here, hasn't it?" There was a bit of a pause before Homura responded.

"It's fine." Homura bluntly stated. She then looked back down at her work, seemingly having nothing else to say on the matter.

"I see. I hope that nasty storm the other day hasn't affected you." Hitomi replied, not wanting to stop talking there. "Our house took a lot of damage and we have to stay over with some relatives until it's repaired."

"My apartment didn't sustain any damage. Madoka and I were fortunate enough to be living far enough from the city to avoid the brunt of the storm." Homura replied, hoping against hope that the green-haired girl wasn't about to bring up the subject she had dreaded talking about with them since that morning. She began thinking of ways to change the subject, when she noticed something in the corner of her eye.

Kyousuke, who had mostly been silent until now, was staring at Homura with an analytical look on his face. "Huh...interesting…" He uttered softly before looking down, causing everyone at the table to look at him.

"What is it?" Homura asked. "What were you staring at just now?"

"Huh?" Kyousuke perked up, noticing that all eyes were on him. "Oh it's nothing, don't worry."

"K-Kamijou-kun!" Hitomi spoke up, raising her voice a bit. "Why were you staring at Akemi-san? You've hardly said a word to me since we arrived here!" Hitomi gasped, tears beginning to fill her eyes. "No...it can't be...you've gotten bored of me haven't you?!"

"N-no! Hitomi-chan, that's not true!" Kyousuke quickly waved his hands in front of her. He and Madoka both knew that once she began her over-emotional ramblings it was difficult to get her to stop.

"Then what is it?!" Hitomi practically pleaded for an answer. "You don't stare at a pretty girl for a few minutes for nothing! Tell me the truth, please!"

"Okay, okay!" Kyousuke sighed, before looking back at Madoka and Homura. "I was just wondering if I had seen Akemi-san before when I was in the hospital, that's all." This caused Homura to furrow her eyebrows at him. She didn't recall seeing him there, nor did she recall seeing him much at all before today. The only thing she knew about him was that he was the reason Sayaka made her wish. She had always felt a twinge of resentment towards the boy for that. Indirect as it was, a lot of trouble Sayaka Miki had given her throughout the countless timelines Homura had been through wouldn't have occurred had it not been for him.

"I'm sure you must be thinking of someone else." Homura replied, reaching into her bag and taking a drink from her water bottle. "I don't recall seeing you there at all."

"Are you sure?" Kyousuke asked again. "Now that I think about it, you do look familiar. Actually…" Kyousuke turned towards Hitomi. "Hitomi-chan, can I borrow your reading glasses for a minute?"

"Sure! Anything for you Kamijou-kun!" Hitomi responded, wasting no time to fulfill her boyfriend's request, causing him to roll his eyes. She took the scarlet glasses off her head and handed them to Kyousuke, who proceeded to hold them up in front of him, towards Homura's face. Homura couldn't help but raise an eyebrow towards him, wondering what he was up to. A sudden realization of what it was came to her as she quickly turned her head away.

"It is you…" Kyousuke uttered. "You're the girl that bumped into me in the hospital that day!"

"Eh? Really?" Madoka asked, becoming intrigued by this topic of conversation too, much to Homura's dismay.

"Yes, it was when I was still going through rehab." Kyousuke began to explain, the memory from that time becoming clearer to him. "I apparently had overdid it that day and was pretty sore in my legs as I was being escorted back to my hospital room in a wheelchair. We had just turned a corner at the same time when you seemed to have been turning it, and the next thing I knew you tripped and knocked yourself into me." Kyousuke paused as he got another look at Homura's face. The raven-haired girl's eyebrows had furrowed even further as he told his story. "Looking at your face, I think it was definitely you. The only difference is that you were wearing glasses and your hair was in long pigtails."

"Really?" Madoka said aloud as she tried to picture it in her mind. The calm, cool, and collected Homura wearing glasses and having her hair in pigtails? It seemed unbelievable the more she thought about it. At the same time though, she thought Homura would look incredibly cute in an outfit like that!

"Like I said," Homura replied, not sounding at all amused. "You must be thinking of someone else. Let's just get back to studying."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was you." Kyousuke argued. He then frowned. "I should probably apologize. I got really mad at you for no reason back then."

"What do you mean?" Madoka asked as Homura clenched her fists under the table.

"I...wasn't exactly in a good mood when I was recovering. I'm sure Sayaka must have told you about that." Kyousuke replied sadly. "I kinda yelled at her in anger, telling her to watch where she was going. I didn't even care about how much pain she seemed to be in when she fell, nor did I care about how much you were apologizing." Kyousuke then bowed slightly towards Homura. "For that, I'm really sorry Akemi-san."

"Well your apology is wasted because I told you that wasn't me!" Homura shot back, standing up and slamming her hands on the table. This shocked both Hitomi and Kyousuke, having not seen that kind of emotion come from her in the past month. As much as Homura wanted to deny it, a twinge of what Kyousuke was saying seemed to be resonating within the deepest parts of her mind. Although she couldn't really remember it happening, it didn't really seem like he was lying.

"Homura-chan…" Madoka uttered softly, pulling on the raven-haired girl's sleeve. She motioned for her to look around. More people had entered the library at that point, and Homura's outburst had caused more than a few eyes in the room to be on them. Noticing this, Homura sat back down and regained her composure. Madoka's eyes told her everything in that moment. These two weren't worth getting angry about.

"You can insist it was me all you like, but I have no recollection of ever meeting you before." Homura continued, her voice once again returning to her usual emotionless tone. "Whatever the case, that's all in the past now. There's no sense in worrying about it."

"R-right, I guess so." Kyousuke replied, finally dropping the topic of conversation. Although he was now convinced more than ever that Homura Akemi was the girl he saw that day, he could see that she didn't enjoy talking about it. An awkward silence filled the room for a few minutes before it was broken by Hitomi.

"I knew it…" Hitomi uttered, shaking in her seat. She stood up, her eyes gazed towards the floor. Everyone at the table noticed the dark expression that had suddenly appeared on her face. "There's no other explanation for this…You...Akemi-san..." She trailed off as her head shot upwards and pointed an accusing finger towards Kyousuke. "You two are long-lost childhood friends, aren't you?!"

"W-what?!" Both Kyousuke and Homura cried out, not at all expecting that answer from her. "How in the world did you come to that conclusion?!" Kyousuke stammered.

"Oh no...here she goes again…" Madoka thought to herself, knowing full well about the act Hitomi was about to perform.

"It all makes too much sense! A girl who can't recall her memories, you having faint recollections of her, an embarrassing first meeting, it's too obvious what this all means!" She rambled as her hands clenched into fists and tears began to fill her eyes. "I should have known the strings of fate wouldn't have let you be together with a boring ordinary girl like meeeeeeeeee!" Hitomi cried out as she ran away, earning the group several unpleasant stares as she passed by several bystanders.

"Hitomi wait!" Kyousuke cried out as he walked after her as fast as his healing legs would allow him, leaving Madoka and Homura alone at the table.

"...It seems I said too much." Homura closed her eyes and quietly apologized to Madoka, who politely shook her head and sighed.

"No, Hitomi-chan is always pretty dramatic, it's not your fault." Madoka replied, knowing the green-haired girl would be back to her normal self eventually. The pinkette then looked back up to Homura. "But, Homura-chan, why did you get so angry at Kamijou-kun?" The raven-haired girl looked down at Madoka solemnly, afraid that she would ask that question. "I mean...if that really wasn't you who he was talking about…"

"I'm sorry I acted that way in front of you." Homura sighed. "To tell the truth, I really don't remember seeing him." She looked down at her hands. "It's just...hearing the way he described who he ran into, brought back unpleasant memories for me." Homura gazed at her Soul Gem ring, the very symbol of who she was right now. "The kind of person I was before I became a magical girl...it's not a subject I enjoy talking about."

Homura had mentioned next to nothing about her past life as a normal human to Madoka before. The only details she gave her were that she had grown up in an orphanage, and not much else. Based on that, Madoka could tell that Homura must have had a very lonely and sad life. The fact that Homura was able to be so strong in spite of all that was another reason why Madoka liked her so much. But still, for the way Kyousuke had described the girl he bumped into to make Homura that angry...just what kind of person was she?

Madoka scooted closer to Homura, and proceeded to grab Homura's hand, holding it close to her.

"Whoever you were in the past doesn't really matter anymore right?" Madoka asked as Homura's eyes gazed over to her in surprise. "That's why it's in the past, after all. I like the Homura-chan that I know today. Even if the person who Kamijou-kun described was you, I wouldn't think that was a bad thing."

"...Thank you." Homura replied after a pause, taking Madoka's words to heart. She leaned back and closed her eyes. Truth be told, what Madoka thought of her wasn't what bothered her. Homura knew that Madoka would still be her friend even if she was still the timid, useless girl she had been in the past. No, Homura herself wasn't entirely sure of just what part of Kyousuke's description irritated her so much. It was as if simply hearing about her old, useless self had struck a nerve in the back of her head. Nevertheless, she did everything she could to keep it there for now. "You're right. It's in the past. It's nothing I need to worry about."

A few minutes later, Kyousuke and Hitomi returned to the table. The rest of their study session went as smooth as it did before, but no further attempts at a conversation were made.

After saying goodbye to Kyousuke and Hitomi, Madoka and Homura spent the rest of the day together. The both of them bought lunch at the mall, listened to music at the music store, and continued doing everyday mundane activities normal teenage girls were meant to do.

Late in the day, as Homura began to walk Madoka home, she felt a vibration in her pocket followed by the sound of a bell, indicating a notification popping up on her phone. This confused her. Homura didn't have any social media accounts, and the only person who could have been texting her was standing right next to her now. She picked up her phone and looked at it. Her eyes widened for a moment before returning to their normal blank state.

"Homura-chan? Is something wrong?" Madoka asked,

"No." Homura replied, putting the phone back in her pocket. "It was just a reminder that I had set long ago to return to the hospital tomorrow for my usual check-up." She had quickly scrolled through the calendar app on her phone, and she had seen dozens of those little reminders scattered throughout the following months. It was yet another thing she had forgotten about during her quest to save her only friend.

"Oh…" Madoka said. "So I guess you'll be missing school tomorrow then, huh?"

"I didn't say I would be going." Homura replied, flicking her long hair in her usual cool fashion. "I healed my weak heart with my magic. There's no point in me going to the hospital anymore."

"That's no good, Homura-chan!" Madoka pouted, causing the raven-haired girl to look back at her. "Even if you did use magic to heal yourself, you shouldn't skip your doctor appointments like that! What if something else is wrong with you and you don't know about it?"

"There's really nothing to worry about. If something else is wrong with me, I'm sure I can heal that with magic as well." Homura retorted. "Going back there would only be a waste of time."

"That's not right." Madoka stated. "I don't think magic should be used like that if you don't need to." Homura looked at Madoka with confusion after she said that, causing the pinkette to clarify what she meant. "It's good that you healed your heart with it, but wouldn't it be better to save your magic for emergencies? Also, if something was wrong with you, isn't going to the doctor how you find that out?"

Homura didn't respond at first. She knew what Madoka was saying wasn't false. In reality Homura really did not want to go back to the hospital under any circumstance. What little memories she could recall of that place only filled her with disgust. Maybe it was the sterile, colourless atmosphere of the whole place. Maybe it was the doctors who gave fake smiles they probably gave to every patient. Maybe it was the fact that she had spent half a year there feeling like human trash. What it probably was, however, was the fact that it also served as the place she woke up in after every failed timeline.

Regardless, she couldn't deny the logic behind Madoka's words. Homura also couldn't help but assume that she couldn't avoid her appointments forever. The last thing she needed was people getting unnecessary concerns for her and needing to come up with half-baked excuses.

"I suppose you're right." Homura sighed, conceding defeat in this argument. "I'll go tomorrow then." She added, causing Madoka to give her a warm smile. It was yet another reminder to Homura that her own personal desires and pains meant nothing to her as long as Madoka was still able to smile and live her daily life. The two then continued their trek back to Madoka's home.

"Hey." A familiar voice rang in Homura's mind, causing her to stop in her tracks. "Up here." Homura's head tilted upwards, looking at the buildings around her. Sure enough, to her left she spotted a familiar red-headed girl on top of one of them. One of the five girls who helped them defeat Walpurgisnacht, Kyouko Sakura. The redhead looked at Homura for a moment before receding towards the center of the rooftop, out of sight. "You mind meeting me at the arcade tonight? Alone? There's something I gotta tell you."

"Homura-chan? What's wrong?" Madoka asked.

"Oh, it's nothing Madoka." Homura replied. "I was just thinking." The raven-haired girl added as she continued walking with her again, with Kyouko Sakura's words echoing in her mind. Homura hadn't seen her much after the Walpurgisnacht battle. Whenever she did, she never acted like her usual bratty self. Homura expected that much, of course, considering what happened. But Kyouko wouldn't speak much or stick around for long on the few occasions that Homura did see her. That was going to change tonight, it seemed.

The raven-haired girl and the pinkette remained silent with their own thoughts the rest of the way to the latter's home.

Homura had stayed for dinner at Madoka's house when she got there, courtesy of Junko's invitation. Despite the raven-haired girl's insistence of not wanting to be a burden, the older woman was quite insistent on the matter.

After saying goodbye to Madoka and leaving, It was 8:00 at night when Homura arrived at the arcade. She stepped through the small doors and into the brightly lit area. At this hour, the arcade was fairly packed. Children, teenagers, and adults of all ages were at the various machines, with smiles and excitement all over their faces. If one were to look at the scene, they could hardly imagine that the city they lived in had recently been hit with a large storm.

Homura walked past all the various machines and towards the one she knew Kyouko would be playing at. If she wasn't there right now, she knew she would be there eventually. The dancing video game was the one she always found Kyouko playing throughout the timelines when she came to discuss the matter of Walpurgisnacht.

"Took you long enough."

Sure enough, Homura had arrived exactly on time and was right on the money. The redhead was stomping her feet away, moving at a brisk pace as she kept up with the arrows on the screen. She had a Pocky stick hanging from between her teeth, and was grinning as she moved about. This was a good sign, Homura thought. This was the Kyouko Sakura she knew. Energetic, bratty, always eating, and all around strong. Both physically and emotionally. Although Kyouko was only exhibiting three of those traits at the moment, three out of four was still an improvement from none.

"You wanted to talk?" Homura asked.

"Yeah. Gimmie a minute here though." Kyouko replied, grunting as she tapped her feet on the machine even faster as the screen filled with even more arrows. She must have been playing at the highest difficulty, Homura thought. She guessed if she had stopped time to look at the screen, even she probably wouldn't have been able to tell just what order those arrows were supposed to be pressed in. Yet Kyouko seemed to be getting every step right almost effortlessly. Her feet seemed to be tapping faster and faster, until finally the song came to a close, the characters in the game giving the redhead an over-enthusiastic congratulations. "Aaaaaand that's the high score. I'd like to see anybody else in this city try and beat that." The redhead smirked at Homura as she handed her a box filled with Pocky. "Want some?"

Almost instinctively, Homura reached out and grabbed a stick. She ate it quickly, not wanting to waste any time.

"You haven't been yourself ever since the battle with Walpurgisnacht." Homura stated bluntly, wanting to get to the point. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Homura asked, although she had already gotten an idea before she arrived at the arcade.. "Does this have something to do with-"

"Shut up." Kyouko shot back in a dry tone as she stepped off the machine. She walked behind Homura and gave her a pat on the back. "Go on, give it a shot. I wanna see what moves you got." Kyouko grinned with the Pocky still in her mouth.

"Kyouko I-"

"Do it." Kyouko interrupted, not taking no for an answer. Homura sighed as she stepped onto the machine, and put her money in it. Whatever Kyouko wanted, she didn't seem ready to talk about it right now. This was clearly an effort of stalling things on her part. "Oh, and no cheating by using your magic." She added. "If I can do this without it then so can you."

"Very well." Homura replied as she scrolled through the list of songs, looking for one on the normal difficulty. After selecting a song titled: "Colorful", Homura's eyes focused on the screen as it began to slowly fill with arrows and the music started. Homura frowned as she began rapidly moving her feet to hit the right arrows at the right time. This game was harder than it looked. Even with the arrows moving slower, Homura still had trouble moving her feet at the right pace. From Kyouko's perspective, it looked less like Homura was dancing and more like she was doing some strange exercise. Homura grunted as she heard Kyouko snickering behind her. Every time she missed a step the game would flash the word "BAD" at her and it would slightly distort the sound of the song. It happened so often that Homura could barely even hear the music around her as she struggled just to stay in the game. When the song was over, Homura was greeted with a sad anime character on the screen chastising her for her poor performance. By then Kyouko was chuckling softly.

"Man, when you're a magical girl you're all cool and badass, but you're really kind of a dork doing normal stuff like this, aren't you?" Kyouko teased.

"Kyouko." Homura spoke in her usual emotionless tone as she stepped off the machine, wanting to erase the memory of her having done that from her brain. Homura decided to inquire what she had an inkling of what was on Kyouko's mind. "Enough stalling. What did you want to talk about?"

"Always gotta get to the point right away with you, huh?" Kyouko sighed, the teasing smile on her face vanishing and being replaced with a solemn one. "All right, here's the thing. I'm leaving Mitakihara tomorrow."

Homura's eyes widened. She certainly wasn't expecting that answer. Her mind raced to find a possible answer on why she planned on leaving, and came to what she thought was the obvious conclusion. "Does this have to do with Sayaka Miki and Mami Tomoe?"

The redhead looked down as she swallowed what was left of the Pocky piece in her mouth. "Yeah."

"You know what happened wasn't your fault." Homura replied.

"I know." Kyouko growled, clenching her free hand into a fist. "But it sure damn feels like it was. Just when me and Sayaka were finally starting to become friends, she had to go and..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it. "I thought that I had snapped some sense into her but then she and Mami had to go and get themselves killed in a blaze of glory like that!"

Homura closed her eyes in remembrance of her fallen comrades. The truth was that this was more of a bittersweet ending than it was a happy one for her. Despite her finally being able to unite the three of them and lead them into battle with Walpurgisnacht together, she and Kyouko were the only ones who walked away alive from that fight.

"I could have stopped them, damn it." Kyouko's fist began shaking. "I was an idiot to think she was okay. If I had just said something before the fight started maybe they wouldn't have pulled something like that." Homura gazed around as Kyouko spoke, looking at all the happy children and teenagers playing the arcade games without a care in the world.

"I don't think their minds would have changed regardless of what you said." Homura replied. "You saw how Tomoe reacted when she learned the truth, along with the rest of you. You wouldn't be here right now had I not stopped her in time." Homura looked back towards Kyouko. "Also, you managed to prevent it from happening to Sayaka Miki. Be proud that she didn't fall to that fate in the end."

Kyouko grit her teeth at the memory. Calling the scene where the dark truth about Magical Girls was revealed to them ugly was an understatement, to say the least. Homura had managed to get Kyubey to tell them by asking him key questions she knew he wouldn't be able to twist his answer in any other way than the direct truth. Homura had planned for that though, knowing how Mami reacted to the truth beforehand and managed to restrain her before she could break down and kill them all.

Sayaka was another story. She was already in a bad enough mental state when she learned about her soul being out of her body. But being destined to become one of the monsters she worked to fight against? It seemed to have sent shivers down her spine. Homura later learned that It was Kyouko who managed to snap her out of it, wanting to do everything she could to make sure it didn't happen to her.

"Yeah." Kyouko growled, finally responding. "Still doesn't change the fact that she's dead." She continued, grabbing another Pocky from the box and chomping down on it. "Anyway, with her and Mami gone, I don't have any reason to stick around. Just gonna move on to the next city I guess, like I always did before."

"We could always just split the Infinity Grief Seed." Homura inquired. "With that, there's no reason for us to continue fighting as Magical Girls."

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that." Kyouko retorted. "Kyubey said that that Grief Seed would last a lifetime, not two lifetimes." Homura's eyes widened as she realized that truth. "It doesn't really matter anyway Homura. I've already made up my mind." Kyouko turned around and looked outside the window of the arcade, staring at the city streets. "What with Sayaka and Mami having lived here, and the fact that my Dad's church is on the border of this place, if I stay here any longer it probably won't be long before...it happens to me." Kyouko gave off a slight shudder as she said those words, hoping that Homura knew what she was referring to. She turned around and gave a sad smile that the raven-haired girl had never seen Kyouko make before. "And I sure as hell don't want you or Madoka to be around to see that."

The both of them stared at each other for a few minutes, not saying a word. They had tuned out the lively, happy atmosphere of the arcade, making it feel like the both of them were the only people there. Homura didn't know what else to say at that point. If Kyouko was truly going to go through with this, she saw no reason to deny her.

"I see." Homura broke the silence. "So this is goodbye then."

"Yeah." Kyouko replied. "Take care of yourself, and Madoka too, okay? You got a second chance now. Hold on to it as tightly as you can." Homura nodded as Kyouko turned around and lifted up her hand. "See you later Homura." Kyouko said as she started walking in the direction of the arcade's exit empty-handed. Homura noticed that Kyouko left the box of Pocky on the edge of the windowsill. There was still lots of Pocky inside it.

"You're not going to finish it?" Homura asked, grabbing the box.

"Nah, I lost my appetite."

Sorry for the long wait! This chapter was pretty difficult to write. I really didn't want to do a mediocre job on these scenes.

So yeah, as I've been hinting, Sayaka and Mami are both dead in this story. This is primarily a story focusing on Homura's life as a human being instead of a Magical Girl, and if those two were still around it'd make it difficult to keep that focus.

Don't think this is the last you'll see of Kyouko though. I'm not that heartless. :P

See you next chapter!

-TTGL Machine