Not to much to say, let's get the show rolling:

Chapter 3: By Any Other Name

"It's good to be back, huh?"
"Not when we're stuck in some new world, it isn't."
"It's all the same anyway."

Yoshiki and Ringo had managed to get away from Sayaka and Kyouko long enough to meet Hakyou. They were in some unknown part of Mitakihara. Unfortunately for them, the architecture and overall layout of the city was subtly different in this universe than theirs, and as such they found themselves getting lost in the city streets constantly.

"Hakyou, buy a damn map." Ringo impatiently barked at him when they got lost again, chomping on an apple.

"No, I don't need one." Hakyou impatiently barked back, grimacing in annoyance at his companion.

Yoshiki sighed. Around Marui, he was the boisterous and energetic type. But around Hakyou and Ringo, he found himself the voice of reason, a fact which sometimes scared him. "Do you two always have to fight every damn time we do something together?" He pulled out a small cellphone in his pocket. Sayaka had given him her number right before he and Ringo had left. Dialing it, he put the phone to his ear and impatiently waited through several rings, before Sayaka picked it up.

"Hello?"

"It's Yoshiki."

"Lost, huh?" She laughed so heartily that even Yoshiki had to feel at ease. "I knew you'd get lost, if you really were like me. So you really are me from another dimension, huh? If I hadn't already been a magical girl, I'd be shocked right now."

"Yeah..." Yoshiki grumbled at the blatant admittance of his and her air-headedness. "Just...we probably could use some help for where we are." He looked around while Ringo and Hakyou continued to bicker. They were somewhere deep within the city center, skyscrapers all around , casting deep and dark shadows all over the road. It was somewhat late, however, so there weren't many cars on the streets, and most of the people around were workers but citizens shopping and walking around. He looked for a few landmarks and relayed the information to Sayaka. "Let's see...we're, uh, on the street that has Matsuda and the train station that runs parallel to the river."

Sayaka "hmm'ed" for a few seconds before replying. "Ah, you're near the mall...you might as well go there and me and Kyouko will meet you. Maybe we can get Mami too. Anyway, go left from there..." Sayaka gave him the directions, and at the end, said goodbye. Yoshiki put his phone away and turned his attention to the two bickering idiots in front of him. "Let's go, Sayaka wants us to hit the mall."

Hakyou and Ringo (who were about to punch each other in the face), stopped their argument at once. "Huh?" Hakyou replied first. "Why are we always following what these girls say? We should get to know the city better instead of always using them."

"We can do that when we have a map or something, but I don't want to aimlessly walk around here all day. We need to get going soon anyway, if we want to find Marui."

"Man, you hang around that guy all the time." Ringo sneered, biting into his apple once more. "You two are lovers, I swear." His voice was muffled from all the apple in his mouth.

Hakyou punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Would you not speak with that half-masticated apple rolling around in your wide open mouth? My word, I live around savages."

Ringo rolled his eyes and took another bite, finishing the apple whole. "Man, I hope Mami isn't as bad as you."

"Ringo," Yoshiki sternly interrupted, his voice sharp and vexed. "We were once enemies who wanted to kill each other...and we can become them once more."

"Man, you know that'll never happen." Ringo beamed and playfully tapped Yoshiki on the shoulder. "Not after all that...you becoming a Warlock and...yeah."

Yoshiki nodded. "Marui said that you gave your life when fighting me...why?"

"I don't know, honestly. I don't think I ever will know." Ringo's eyes narrowed as he remembered that traumatic incident. "Maybe it was because when you died...you were practically the only friend I had. Perhaps I just broke then. But I remember that when I was fighting you...I wanted to make sure you weren't alone in the afterlife. Because this world is already fucked up enough. The underworld's probably worse."

Hakyou rolled his eyes mockingly at the two boys. "And you said Marui and Yoshiki were lovers."

"Shut up, idiot, you got your damn head bitten off."

"Oh fuck you!"

/

The mall was a massive and beautiful complex that appeared to be made completely from glass, the sun's rays lighting up the interior brightly. Yet the mall was never too hot from all the sunshine, the windows perfectly designed to block just the right amount of heat. Mitakihara was truly a modern marvel, so high-tech and cutting edge that it felt like one stepped into a science fiction story when one walked throughout it.

The three boys had taken to a bench outside, in a nice secluded place. Few people were around, and the only thing of note was a small parking lot for about 10 cars, some bushes, and their bench.

"So is this where it began for all of you?"

Sayaka, Kyouko, and Mami had shown up in their school uniforms. They sat down across the boys on the brick wall of the bushes.

Yoshiki answered first. "Yeah...this is where it began. I was listening to some music when all of a sudden Marui disappeared. I saw him running out of the store and followed him." He shrugged. "I didn't know what the hell his problem was, but I kept following him upstairs to the roof-"

All of a sudden, he was interrupted by Mami. "The roof?" She asked, her head tilted in confusion. "For us, it was far down below the first floor in the parking garage."

Hakyou furrowed his eyebrows in interest. "It looks like our lives weren't totally the same. Probably just random static."

"I don't think the differences really matter as long as the same thing happened in the end..." Kyouko nervously replied, pulling out a small can of soda and guzzling it down.

Yoshiki marveled at the can as she drunk it all down. "God dammit, Ringo, she never stops eating, just like you..." Then he returned his attention to telling the story, but someone walked past. Not wanting to sound like a nutcase, he waited until the person passed by. "Sorry, I just don't want to be hauled off to the crazyhouse...in any case, Marui got to the roof and there was that ittle cat...thing, all beat and bruised, but Akiyoshi-"

"I'm assuming that's Homura's counterpart?" Sayaka cut in.

"If she's got long black hair, time powers, uses guns, and is kinda of crazily in love with Marui's female counterpart, then yes. Anyway, Kyubey begged Marui to save him, Akiyoshi jumped onto the roof and wanted Marui to let him kill Kyubey. Then I came in with a fire extinguisher and blasted him-"

Sayaka abruptly lept up and punched the sky passionately when he mentioned that. "Heck yeah! Man, I still remember that!"

"It was pretty awesome, huh?" Yoshiki jumped up as well and mimed holding the extinguisher and blasting Akiyoshi, an excited smile on his face. "I just grabbed the closest thing I could find and blasted him..."

Yoshiki continued to relay the story. Besides the location, it appeared to have little differences from what Sayaka and Mami had gone through. At the end, he leaned back onto the glass of the mall. "And that's how this whole mess started..." Nobody said anything for several seconds, all contemplating on the things which resulted from those chance meetings. The air was silent, but also pensive, as they let those events come back into the forefront of their minds. But besides them, something appeared to be creeping...somewhere. They couldn't quite feel it, yet, but the a feeling of dread washed over them. They played it off as their minds reacting to the tragic events which defined their pasts.

Eventually, Hakyou was the first to speak. "You know...when I got into this, I had no idea that it would get this big." He stared wistfully into the sky. "All this craziness...we're probably special amongst Magical Girls and Boys. Most don't get to see the world rewritten twice like this." Everyone nodded in response. The resulting silence hung rather awkwardly in the air. A feeling of unease, creeping up on them like a heavy mist sweeping the ground, soon began to build up.

There was little noise besides the rustling of leaves in the wind. The sun was beginning to come down, casting deep orange beauty onto the Earth.

Hakyou shifted around on the bench and then got up apprehensively, reaching into his pockets. "It doesn't feel right here, doesn't it? Let's just go into the mall." The others agree, and eventually split up into three groups of Sayaka/Yoshiki, Kyouko/Ringo, and Mami/Hakyou, the girls ensuring that the boys wouldn't get lost.

/

Mami and Hakyou had wandered through the waves of people chaotically filling up the mall for half an hour, mostly by Mami pointing out the various stores and Hakyou mentioned the subtle differences they had in his world.

"And over there's the Kinoyo store..."

"Ah, that was on the other side in my Mitakihara."

They eventually decided to visit a rather fancy tea store on one of the upper floors. It was a place Mami was rather familiar with, being one of the few places in Mitakihara that sold imported western teas. Hakyou recognized the place as they entered, the glass of the outside being replaced by soothing wood paneling. Soft lights coming from the ceiling helped to give the store a slow, contemplative mood. Rows upon rows of teas, some in bags, many loose, all arranged by country of orgin, were everywhere. The aroma of all these various leaves united into an indescribable, and indescribably exquisite fragrance that almost knocked one off of their feet with its intensity. The woman running the store bowed and greeted Mami personally when she entered, but reacted with confusion to Hakyou.

"Tomoe-san...who is he?" The slightly old woman, her hair starting to turn slightly gray, asked Mami.

Mami, realizing that she hadn't thought about this at all, stumbled over her words and nervously laughed. "Um, well...he's a relative. I'm showing him around." Hakyou gave her a confused look, but quickly nodded when she jabbed him painfully in the gut.

"Ah, I see. Well, I hope he enjoys tea much like you do."

"I quite do, ma'am." Hakyou bowed and grinned like a high-class aristocrat. "Why, you could say that Mami here got her love of tea from me-" He stopped as Mami inconspicuously stamped on his foot with intense conviction, the sharp pain flying up his leg nearly making him crumple over. Biting his lip to avoid showing signs of pain, he only gave her a nasty look as she led him to the European part of the store.

"I'm assuming we have similar tastes?"

Hakyou nodded. "I saw your collection in your apartment before you rather rudely threw me out. Highly similar to mine."

"Well then, you might as well grab the kind you know I would like." Mami said with a wink.

"Alright, then..." Hakyou scanned the rows for a few of his and Mami's particular favorites.

But right as he reached for one., a subtle feeling, something normal people wouldn't notice, almost imperceptible, yet paradoxically massive, rippled through the air. Or, more, it was that the air itself rippled. The very fabric of space itself looked as if it had warped for a slight second, a dull ringing reverberating through the air-a ring that sounded muffled yet sharp, as if it had come from their location and yet hadn't come from it.

A Wraith.

But his blood did not turn to ice, like most people's would have. He knew these creatures, had fought them before. Without even saying a word, he turned back to Mami, who nodded, having felt the presence too. Both of their faces were grim.

"Just when you're having fun..." He grimaced. Not that he didn't enjoy fighting and saving people from them.

"It's our duty." Mami quietly replied, in order to not let the shopkeeper in on their conversation. "I hope you don't feel like you can shirk it."

Hakyou's face instantly went from a grimace to a cocky smile. "Heh, of course I don't. I wouldn't shirk it for anything in the world. Let's go find it."

They quickly left the store afterwards, the shopkeeper somewhat surprised that they hadn't bought anything. In the chaotic commotion of the mall, it seemed as if hearing anything would be impossible-but they weren't normal humans.

It could be argued that they weren't humans at all, indeed.

Hakyou reached into his pockets and pulled out a small, gleaming object, golden in the center and strung with bands of metal, inlaid with smaller golden gemstones-his soul gem. Flipping it into the air nonchalantly, he watched it twirl through the air, flipping end over end, and caught it with a single lightning-quick snap of his arm. Uncurling his hand, he observed its glow. The gem was pulsating weakly, barely lighting up. "It's not anywhere nearby...damn why don't these things come with a compass?" He called out to her.

"Yes," She replied, sticking close to him so he could hear. "But since we have two, it might be possible to figure out the basic direction if I go away from you and see if it gets stronger."

"That makes sense..."

Mami nodded and quickly ran several feet west from Hakyou, dodging waves of people chatting or walking through the mall. When she got far enough away, she checked her own soul gem, one with a highly similar design. It was glowing slightly stronger than Hakyou's. Running back to him, she relayed the information. "Let's go west then."

The sun was blazing through the massive walls of the mall, lighting up the whole building grandly, sitting low and orange on the horizon.

"That wont be necessary."

All of a sudden, the entire area stopped. The throngs of people, the birds outside, the cars on the roads that could be seen through the walls did not merely stop-they froze, as if someone had just stopped time.

Now it was time for Mami and Hakyou's blood to turn to ice.

They both knew only one person who could stop time at will.

Akiyoshi was behind them.

/

"The grand power that Homura has is stunning at times." He smirked as they turned around to face him, their faces grim. "Just look at how she was able to conceal my presence for this long."

"Akiyoshi, you fucking..." Hakyou wanted to punch him in the face so badly it took all of his willpower to keep his clenched fist from flying forward. "What kind of nonsense are you trying to pull now?"

"So this is Homura's counterpart..." Mami surveyed Akiyoshi with her eyes and quickly took a step back, nearly bumping into a time-frozen person. "I don't know much about Magical Boys, but you don't look transformed."

"He isn't." Hakyou quickly replied.

Not a single sound besides their voices could be heard.

"Mami Tomoe, huh?" Akiyoshi was the once to survey her this time. "I can see the resemblance...Homura told me about you."

"I can only hope what was said was good."

"Not really...like Hakyou you're really such an unstable person." Akiyoshi raised his hand to his neck and mimed slicing it open. The implication was clear. "Tying her up and then getting your head bit off? Reminds me of Hakyou and his idiocy resulting in his own head getting bit off. Our lives intersect in so many ways, don't they?" He was talking in an airy tone, as if he was some supreme being looking down on them. Like he didn't even care one bit for the opinions of someone so far below him.

Mami's eye twitched from the insults. That event still laid heavy in her mind. The way she had lost it...the way she had let her joy overcome her and destroy her. It tore into her at times. Especially knowing the truth behind the Magical Girl system. Was that simply the ironic end of her wish? "I don't see how I'm worse than a nutjob who does something as extreme as rewrite the universe to suit her own desires. We need to take care of the wraith, so get out of the way." Mami gripped her soul gem and quickly transformed with a flash of golden light. As soon as she was done, she pulled one of her ornately detailed muskets out and pointed it straight at Akiyoshi's face. His brow furrowed in response, admiring the detailed weapon, knowing that despite its antique-appearance, it was a deadly weapon that could tear him to pieces.

"You're not going to fire on me that quickly, are you?"

"I still remembering fighting Homura in her witch barrier. I'd say I won that one."

Akiyoshi didn't respond at first, simply letting Mami stare him down. But his muscles were prepared for the slightest action that could possibly escalate to a violent battle. He didn't need that. Not while Homura was testing her latest theory out. "...Heh, if you must know, I am the wraith. I should be a Warlock, but since this is a world with no other witches except Homura, it treats me like a wraith, as that's the closest equivalent."

Mami lowered her gun towards his foot. "Then maybe I'll destroy you."

Akiyoshi bit his lip in annoyance at the regal bitch in front of her. "If I wanted to fight someone, I'd the man I knew." He pointed one finger at Hakyou, who clutched his soul gem even harder, bleaching his knuckles white.

"Maybe we should just duke it out here." Hakyou smiled maniacally, beckoning Mami to step back

Mami refused to step back, however. She kept the gun focused on Akiyoshi. "If he's like Homura there's no way one of us could take him on. I'm just keeping him focused on one spot. Since he's already stopped time, he can't just dodge it with his ability. If he stops time to use it again, then everyone'll see the battle." She waved her arm around at all the frozen people surrounding them. "Now how about you leave, and we can deal with this later?"

Akyoshi shook his head emotionlessly, his purple eyes remaining locked onto Mami. "I've got to keep you busy for Homura."

"Just what is she planning on doing?"

This prompted a smile from Akiyoshi that could only be described as horrifying. The smile of a madman about to bring his creation to life. Even before he spoke, Mami and Hakyou knew that something was horribly wrong..."

/

Homura was more than a witch.

In all honesty, she was a complete goddess. Her power was far greater than witches, and she had kept her own human form by internalizing her love and grief into a potent power.

Witches all kept familiars. Those bizzare cotton creatures of Gertrud, Charlotte's mottled spider-beings, Homura's own Clara Dolls...these were offshoots of the witch's power that manifested as guardians and beings. But inhuman beings, all the same. Even Homura's own Clara Dolls were merely humanoid.

A Devil much like herself deserved much more powerful familiars. Perhaps, even humans granted powers by her. She had little want for dirtying her own hands with the blood of those Magical Girls who would inevitably follow Madoka.

After, the Incubators granted wishes using the karmic power of the girls they scouted. Who said that Homura couldn't do that herself? Especially after she had already subjugated that awful creature, Kyubey, and tore his mind open to learn the secrets of the Incubators.

Understanding this, she grasped the phone in her hands, given to her by Akiyoshi, and dialed a number, punching every key in carefully.

It rang dully for several seconds. Then a click.

"Hello? This is Shizuka Hitomi..."

"Hello, Hitomi."

"Akemi-san? Why are you calling me from this odd number?"

"I simply wanted to know...what is it that you wish for the most?"

Familiars were below Witches, who kept them as familiars. Devils were above Witches, and thus it was fitting that they keep them as familiars.

And what were Witches also known as?

Magical Girls.