Because Phoenix still wasn't at the office, Maya decided to see if she could find the 'Witches' that Kyubey was talking about. She walked out and started thinking of where to go. I wish Kyubey had told me where Witches are. Maya was pretty confused about this whole Magical Girl thing. It didn't look too hard judging by the shows she's seen, but what if she wasn't as good at it as those characters? Not to mention the fact that none of those shows had anything called 'Soul Gems' in them. Perhaps they just weren't accurate of real Magical Girls.

Maya had been walking for about a half hour when all of the sudden she seemed to be transported to a strange maze of some sort. The word she could best use to describe it was 'trippy', as it almost made her wonder if someone had drugged her burger she had for lunch or something. "Is this that Witch Barrier thing Kyubey mentioned?" Maya said to herself out loud. "Ugh, how do I even transform?!"

"Leave it to me!" another voice rang through the Barrier. It sounded familiar to Maya. Way too familiar. "Pearly?!" Maya panicked and looked all around, to see Pearl in a Magical Girl outfit holding a double-edged sword. "Pearly! What are you-"

"I'll explain later, Mystic Maya!" Pearl said as she leaped into thei air weilding her sword. Pearl started fighting the Witch's minions, slicing them in half and stabbing them. Maya looked on, amazed at how well her cousin was fighting the monsters. Pearl managed to beat the minions in about five minutes. "Okay, now we have to find the Witch!" Pearl grabbed onto Maya's hand, trying to drag her.

"Pearly, why are you-" Again, Pearl cut Maya off. "I'll explain later" Pearl repeated, "Aren't you going to transform, Mystic Maya?" Pearl asked.

"How did you know I was one too?" Maya stared at Pearl, she couldn't believe Pearl had become one too. When did this happen? "I saw the ring you have" Pearl said pointing at left hand. "Anyway, transform! It'd probably be easier to battle together!"

"Uh... okay... but I don't know how to transform..."

"Just concentrate. But you need to take off the ring and have it be a gem instead first"

"Uh... okay then, if you say so" Maya took off her ring and it transformed into a Soul Gem again and started glowing. A Magatama shape appeared on a bow on Maya's Magical Girl shirt, which was similar in appearance to her medium outfit, but significantly shorter, the size of a normal shirt. She gained a skirt and a belt, and kept her necklace.

"Okay, good. Now we need to look for that Witch, Mystic Maya!" Pearl started running, with Maya following after. They ran through the maze, fighting any other minions they happened to run across, finishing them off fairly quickly. Maya's weapon was her Magatama, which she would use her Magical Girl powers to make it gain spikes, and she would through it at enemies and it would come back at her like a boomerang. Her and Pearl finished off the last of the Witch's minions and they came to a door with runes that looked similar to that of the ones on their rings.

"So... we just go in this door?" Maya asked Pearl.

"That's what I did the other times" Pearl walked into the door, and Maya followed. Maya was feeling very uneasy, she didn't quite know why. She figured they'd be able to defeat the Witch easily, since Pearl seemed to have some experience already. The Witch they found themselves facing was about the same size as its minions, probably only two feet tall. It was rainbow-colored and looked somewhat like a cat. Maya and Pearl both grabbed their weapons, ready to fight.

The Witch shot beams out of its mouth, which Maya and Pearl frantically dodged while attacking it with their own weapons. This only went on for about five minutes before the two spirit mediums managed to defeat the Witch. The maze disappeared, and a Grief Seed appeared before them. "We can share this Grief Seed, Mystic Maya", Pearl said, putting her Soul Gem up to the seed. She then handed it to Maya, who did the same. "So, Pearly", Maya started, "Now can you explain why you're a Magical Girl too?"

"Well... yeah, I've been one for a few months now..." Pearl explained, "It was one day when you had dropped me off at the village. A creature named Kyubey was there and I asked it what it was and it asked me to become a Magical Girl. I thought that sounded cool, so I accepted. I just wished for a candy bar, I couldn't think of anything I really needed badly".

"I see... I wished for some hamburgers, myself! Anyway, we should probably start heading back to the office, I'm sure Nick's wondering where I am. Now that I think about it... what where you doing here? I thought I dropped you off at Kurain not too long ago."

"You did, but I decided to look for Witches, and I figured there'd be more here than there."

"Hmm... makes sense, I suppose. Kyubey mentioned to me that Witches bring harm upon people, and I guess that'd mean there'd be more in places with more people." Maya thought out loud.

Maya and Pearl started walking back to the office, and when they did, Phoenix of course wanted to know where they were all this time. "Where on Earth have you two been? Wait, Maya, I thought you said you were dropping Pearls off, why is she still here?"

"Uh.. well, you see, Pearly ended up changing her mind, so when we got there, we just ended up leaving again..." Maya said while staring at the ring on her left middle finger.

"So... you wasted all that time only to come back?" Phoenix asked.

"...well, uh... yeah... Kind of... Maybe." Maya was starting to realize how obvious it was that she was lying, she should probably try making it sound more convincing. Pausing a lot wasn't helping her lie, that's for sure. "So, uh, Nick! Have you ever heard of Magical Girls?" Crap. That was probably a bad question to ask.

"Magical Girls? No, I can't say I have..."

"Okay, good. Anyway, I'm going to go drop off Pearl now! Bye!" Maya said as she attempted to drag Pearl out of the office.

"But... didn't you just come back because she changed her mind?"

"Well, uh... you see..."

"Why are you acting so weird, Maya?

"I'm not acting weird at all! It's just that well...you see... earlier today, after I dropped off Pearl, I found this strange cat-ferret creature that told me if I make a wish I could become a Magical Girl. So I wished for some burgers. Then I came here but you were still gone, and the creature whose name is Kyubey, by the way, told me about how Magical Girls fight things called Witches. So then it left and I went to go look for the Witch things, and I found one and then Pearl was there too and she's a Magical Girl too and we defeated the Witch and then returned here". Maya explained quickly. Wait... I wasn't supposed to say that, was I?

Maya was worried at how Phoenix would react. Was he going to yell at her? Would he just not believe her? Please don't believe me, please don't believe me... Maya thought.

AN: Well, there's the update, finally. Consider this a New Year's present. I know the ending to this chapter really sucks, and just sorta happens. The ending to the first chapter actually felt like an ending. This... doesn't. I just couldn't think of any good way to end it. Anyway, I know the fight scene is really shitty, that's the first time I've written a fight scene (and really this is also my first fanfic, so there's that). I'll try to be more descriptive as this fic goes on and as more things happen. These first few chapters are kind of just setting up the rest of the story. The later ones will be better, I promise.