The Witch of Christmas - Chapter 1

Warning From The Prophet

Homura Akemi walked out of her home while wearing violet winter clothing. She adjusted the scarf around her neck and looked around for a moment, taking in the sight of how much snow had built up over the night. It covered houses, trees and even the pathways. Luckily the the snow wasn't so thick so it was still possible to walk somewhat normally through it.

It was December 1st, so the snow was fitting along with the Christmas decorations that some people had already set up for their homes and around the area.

Homura's own home lacked any festive decorations. The girl hadn't celebrated the Christmas season in a long time. After all, for many years the only thing Homura cared about was saving Madoka. Getting ready for something like Christmas was never on her mind.

But that was the past. Months had already gone by ever since the battle against Walpurgisnacht. That long and tiresome journey was over now. Sometimes it was hard for Homura to believe that she was no longer reliving the same month over and over.

She closed her eyes for a moment and allowed herself to smile.

"Hey Homura? You in there?"

The dark haired girl suddenly realised she was so deep in thought she didn't noticed that another person had already walked up to her. She turned toward the origin of the voice and found herself facing someone she cared about deeply.

"Oh, sorry about that Sayaka. I was just thinking about a few things."

"Like what?"

Homura scratched the side of her face as she felt slight embarrassment building while she looked away from Sayaka.

"Just... I'm happy. Happy to have a life after Walpurgisnacht. If it wasn't for you, I might still be trapped in that time loop."

That's right, while the battle against Walpurgisnacht was a team effort from all the Mahou Shoujo of Mitakihara, there was one person who was more effective against then everyone else.

Sayaka Miki. A Mahou Shoujo who at first wasn't very strong, grew more powerful with time. Homura decided to train the girl in swordplay to the point of becoming an exceptional melee fighter. The girl's raw magical energy also continued to increase to where she could rival even Mami Tomoe in terms of sheer magic firepower.

A lot of things happened, but eventually Walpurgisnacht was finally slain. A feat that Homura knew wouldn't have been accomplished without everyone's help. Sayaka herself was even integral to dealing the final blow against the Witch.

"Come on Homura, that was months ago. You're free to move on from that you know?"

"I know. Sometimes I can't help but think about it though. Fighting Walpurgisnacht was a part of my life for so long-"

Her words were cut off as Homura felt a hand take hold of one of hers. She was forced to face Sayaka's smiling face as she felt a blush creep up on her cheeks.

"Hey now, enough of that alright? It's the Christmas season, no need to dwell on the past. Now let's go get you come decorations. Your house really looks like a drab in the middle of everyone else's, no offence."

Sayaka started leading the dark haired girl by the hand along the path. Homura stared down at the hand that was holding onto to her own. Eventually another smile formed on her face as she allowed Sayaka to lead the way.

The two of them had been dating for a few months now and Homura still found the simple act of holding hands with Sayaka to be somewhat embarrassing.

Although she didn't dislike the feeling at all.

Mitakihara Mall

The two girls went around the mall to various different stores and picked up a lot of Christmas decorations. Lights, ornaments and the like. Homura really didn't know what she wanted to buy so Sayaka had to be the one to point out what might be good to pick up. After having several bags filled with decorations they decided to go have some lunch at a fast food place.

The two girls sat next to each other and made small talk as they consumed the hot food.

"Man, I sometimes forget you're pretty loaded aren't you Homura?"

The amount of decorations they had bought was quite a decent amount, and they hadn't even gotten Homura a tree yet. Sayaka initially planned to at least try to cover some of the cost, but Homura opted to pay for all of it out of her own pocket.

"My parents left me with more than enough money to last a decade. Maybe that's how long they thought I would live."

Homura spoke a morbid statement so nonchalantly that the mood around the two of them immediately dropped. Sayaka was left wanting to divert the topic away from her girlfriend's parents as soon as possible. She knew Homura held little, if any love at all for her parents. They had left their daughter all on her own to fend for herself when Homura moved to Mitakihara.

Sayaka had obviously never met them before, but she couldn't imagine they were great people to have left their own daughter all alone like that.

Homura let out a sigh after she realised the effect her words had on Sayaka. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring down the mood. I guess looking on the bright side of things, I'm free to decorate the house however I want."

The dark haired girl ate a hot potato chip before continuing. "Oh right, you're probably going to have to help me set these decorations up since I've never done this before.

Since she had never before properly decorated her home for Christmas, Homura would need someone more experienced in it to assist her. She took a quick glance at the bags of decorations at her feet. It certainly a fair amount to put up so an extra pair of hands would be nice. That and spending more time with Sayaka was something she couldn't complain about.

The more Homura thought about it, the more she was looking forward to it. To Christmas as a whole.

Sayaka shrugged while taking a sip of soft drink. "That's fine with me, I was gonna offer to help you out anyway."

The blue haired girl may also have a slight ulterior motive for wanting to help Homura with the Christmas decorating. She just needed to put a certain item in an appropriate location. Hopefully her girlfriend wouldn't notice anything until Christmas Day.

Unfortunately, there was something the two girls did notice and that was the presence of a Witch being born somewhere in the mall.

Sayaka couldn't help but be at least slightly irritated. She may consider herself to be a Mahou Shoujo of Justice, but that didn't mean Witch appearances couldn't be straight up annoying from time to time.

"Damnit..."

Homura was already getting up from her seat and picked up the bags of decorations. She figured they would have to be stored inside the shield when the opportunity arose. "It can't be helped. This is the life we chose. Besides, it's not like you have any trouble with a Witch anymore these days, right?"

In an far away city, in an unknown country, a young girl collapsed on the ground in the middle of a near desolate dark park. At first one might think she was unconscious, but the lifeless look in her eyes would indicate that she was dead.

The was one other figure in the park. It stood near the lifeless girl. It was towering and shrouded in darkness. The figure stared down at the dead human for a moment before beginning to walk away.

"...Naughty..."

It spoke with a low demonic growl. It was a voice that definitely did not have a hint of humanity in it.

The figure continued to walk away into the darkness. The light clanging of chains could be heard, along with the faint tune of "Jingle Bells" following wherever it went.

Sayaka battled against a large green serpent like Witch in a forest clearing while Homura stood back with a submachine gun in hand.

The dark haired girl shot down any familiar that appeared with small burst of bullets but did nothing to directly help Sayaka against the Witch.

After all, it's not like the swordswoman needed it.

Sayaka pulled her sword back behind herself and shifted her body into a position that would allow her to charge forward in an instant. As she began to focus her magic around the cutlass sword, it soon became enveloped in a blue aura that almost looked like flames.

The serpent Witch shot forward with an open mouth, intending to devour Sayaka in a single move.

Sayaka charged headlong against the enemy and swung her sword in a horizontal slash.

And just like that, it was over. The Witch split in half from the blade as it cut through with ease and started to dissolve while the Labyrinth began to disappear.

The two girls found themselves standing back in the restricted floor of the mall that was still under construction. Sayaka picked up the Grief Seed and threw it towards Homura who put it away inside her shield. Neither girl needed to use it right away so it could be saved for later.

They both smiled at one another before silently agreeing to leave before anyone could catch them in the restricted area.

However the two of them had in fact been caught, but not by any security guards.

As the Mahou Shoujo walked towards the exit door, they stopped dead in their tracks when the girls found themselves facing a very familiar individual leaning her body against the door.

Homura eyed the person blocking the exit closely. She was also wearing warm clothes that suited the winter season, but the moment the dark haired girl took a look at those green eyes staring at them, she knew exactly who it was.

"Oriko Mikuni... what are you doing here?"

The Mahou Shoujo who could see the future. One that Homura had fought before in a previous timeline. A girl who once targeted the life of Madoka Kaname.

Oriko Mikuni. As of now, she was no longer an enemy. After having been convinced that Madoka would never under any circumstance make a contract with Kyubey to become a Mahou Shoujo, she eventually dropped her original objective and agreed to an alliance. One that had Oriko and her ally Kirika participate in the battle against Walpurgisnacht.

Every since that battle however, Oriko had never once chosen to intentionally meet with any of the other Mahou Shoujo of Mitakihara. Kirika Kure being the obvious exception of course. Whenever someone did see Oriko, it was only ever an accidental meeting. Few words, if any at wall were exchanged.

So the fact that she was here now could only mean something important.

"Homura Akemi... Sayaka Miki... I come with a warning."

The ex-time traveler crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "I'm listening..."

Oriko made direct eye contact with both Homura and Sayaka one more time before she began speaking.

"I've had a grave vision, one that I believe you should know about. There is a Witch coming to Mitakihara."

Homura's mind couldn't help but immediately think of Walpurgisnacht, and because of that a feeling of dread started to build up inside her. The other girl continued talking.

"Every Christmas season it awakens, and goes around the world attacking Mahou Shoujo who it has deemed naughty throughout the entire year."

Sayaka had to quirk her eyes brows as her face showed visible confusion. "The hell? What kind of Witch is that? Does it think it's Santa or something?"

An uncomfortable silence passed before Oriko answered.

"Not quite, but you are on the right track. Tell me... have you either of you heard of the legend of Krampus?"

Author's Note: So this something I had in mind but for a while I didn't know whether I wanted to do it because many ideas for this HomuSaya AU are taken straight from my other on going HomuSaya story. As of this writing it still isn't finished. However with the Christmas season upon us I decided to give it a go. I've never written anything related to Christmas before so this is new ground for me.

I don't plan this story to be very long, only a few chapters at most so it should be finished before Christmas Day.

Drop a review to tell me what you think, and I'll see you next time.