The creature’s maw opened wide, its almost comical looking teeth glistening terribly.
Mami couldn’t help but stare into the darkness before her. Her previously renewed
strength and conviction was smothered by the abject terror as she realized her death.
The darkness swallowed her, the teeth closed down around her.
No…
Charlotte paused, however, suddenly curious to the strange whistling sound from a small
distance away. Odd, it seemed to be getting closer…
Charlotte’s face lurched abruptly away, the side of its face erupting in a fiery blossom of
smoke and shell. It screeched in pain as it recoiled from the explosion, tearing itself away
from its momentary snack and facing the new threat.
“Wh-who?!”
“L’CHAIM!”
Over a hill of cake, a strange contraption soared over it at high speed. It was like a tank,
but comically stout and small. With a barrel that made up almost a third of its turret, rather
toothy-looking treads, and a large-caliber rotary Vulcan cannon in the back, the vehicle
crunched onto cake. The rotary cannon aimed forward, spinning up in anticipation.
Charlotte could only gaze upon it in utter confusion.
A voice came from within the vehicle, blasted through external loudspeakers, “You want
cheese? I got cheese right here!”
The Vulcan cannon roared to life, a heavy stream of 12.6mm bullet hell tearing into
Charlotte’s face and body. A short distance away, Madoka and Sayaka covered their ears
from the noise not unlike ripping canvas.
“There be magical girls here, and ain’t a single one dying on my watch!” the same voice
came from within.
“Quite.”
The rapid fire chatter of another weapon was almost lost amidst the roar of the gatling
gun, a single man suddenly standing next to Mami. Following a long burst of machine gun
fire, a small grenade belched out from an underbarrel attachment.
The creature Charlotte howled in agony, its body torn apart by the combined barrage.
With another screech, it dove for the tank.
“You two, out of the way!” the man with the machine gun bellowed, driving Sayaka and
Madoka out of their hiding space. They screamed as the tank suddenly lurched towards
them, bouncing off a strawberry and going airborne just as Charlotte’s face smashed into
the tank’s previous position. At the same time, the tank cannon thundered as a second
shell arced beautifully to pound into Charlotte’s head.
Though small and stout, the vehicle was heavy enough to smash the pastry the girls were
hiding behind into bits.
“Did I land on something? I could have sworn there was a white critter here,” despite the
question, the tank ground its treads into the crushed donut in an effort to get some traction.
“I think you’re clear.”
“Cool.”
By now, Mami had dropped to her knees, overwhelmed. As much as she wanted to stay
standing, her legs just would not let her. A strong hand grabbed her by the back of her
blouse and lifted her up.
“Second year student Tomoe Mami. You’re an A-ranked Inquesta, and you’ve even
passed my combat course, so why are you kneeling like a weakling?!” a familiar voice
yelled at her from right behind her. “You’ve still a job to finish! On your damn feet!”
“S-Sensei?!” Mami finally recovered from her initial surprise, staring at her teacher.
“Tomoe,” Coach nodded in greeting. “You almost lost your head.”
The tank’s hatch popped open, allowing a familiar man to crawl out, “Oy oy, don’t be
forgetting Papa D here!”
“D-Sensei too?!” Mami looked between the older men with incredulous eyes. “What are
you two doing here?!”
“As if I could leave my cute student to die!” the man pouted, leaning against the hatch.
“Our presence was requested here, so we came as fast as we could,” Coach explained
as he looked at the strange creature that was called Charlotte. “I doubt that thing is
human, so Butei Law Article Section nine won’t count here. D-Boy, finish that thing off.”
“That bitch is going down!” he ducked back into the tank. “Loading Armor Piercer!”
“But, this is a bounded field! Normal humans can’t just enter this as they please!” Mami
stared at the older man, terribly confused.
Coach just shrugged, “Someone else pulled us in.”
A terrible screech announced Charlotte’s revival. A deafening BOOM was their reply. The
127mm low-pressure cannon’s AP round not only flew straighter, but its warhead was
both dense and packed solid full of fantastically explosive materials. The Armor Piercer
round punched right through the cartoony face of Charlotte, driving through its body
before it exploded beautifully deep in its gullet. Despite all that, a new, unharmed copy
squirmed out of the dying one’s mouth like a shedding snake.
“It’s still kicking. I think we need to hit it again.”
“We need to hit it with something bigger. What about that big-ass cannon earlier?”
Coach looked at the blonde girl, “Well? Can we use that?”
“I… I think?” to say she was still stunned was an understatement.
“Oh! Oh! D-Boy has an idea!” the tank shuddered, the turret abruptly raising itself as the
treads were somehow retracted and legs folded out of the chassis. The gatling gun folded
out to become one arm, as another folded out to reveal a revolver chambering a giant
metal spike. Within the turret’s view slits, a monocular “eye” glowed. “Bring me closer! I
want to hit it with my spike of DOOM!”
“Ridiculous, but that’ll probably work, knowing you. Tomoe, could you help us?”
The request seemed to snap the girl out of her daze at last, “Y-yes! Yes, I can. I just
need to look at the spike first…”
She approached the transformed tank, laying a hand upon its pile bunker spike.
“H-hey! Be gentle, okay?” The eye swiveled to look at her.
“Of course, D-sensei,” Mami looked up at the turret and smiled.
She placed her other hand on the spike and did nothing else. She smiled again, a happy,
quiet, and grateful smile. Unseen by the driver, the spike began to have magical glow to it.
“I will prepare the cannon now. D-sensei, please get ready.”
“Don't be afraid, dear: stand up, be proud, and clench your teeth. The choir's singing, and
it's time to face the music and release yourself from this distorted love!” hunching low, a
pair of wheels slammed into place at the tank’s ankles. They screeched like squealing
tires as they dug into the strange ground, propelling the tank forward with surprising
speed.
Mami blinked, at both the parting words and the strange vehicle. She smiled though,
nodded, and turned to face her foe. The witch, Charlotte, squirmed and writhed like a
wounded snake. Yet, it still lived.
“This is it. I will end it with this last shot!” she held out her hand, a single rifle sliding into
her grip.
“Tiro!” a golden glow encompassed her weapon, her rifle transforming once again into a
cannon even bigger than before. Even German artillery pieces paled in comparison.
“Finale!”
The very earth trembled as the cannon fired, just as D-Boy’s tank cleared a high mound
of meringue. For a moment, it seemed to hang there, just as the cannon blast slammed
into the tank’s back. Rather than completely obliterate the vehicle, however, the shot
seemed to boost the tank forward.The tank, with its pile bunker arm cocked back and
burning red, screamed towards Charlotte with blinding speed. All the while, D-Boy
bellowed his mighty warcry:
“MAGNUUUUUMMMMM~ OOOOOPPPPUUUUSSSSSS~!!”
“Oh hell, he’s yelling random things again.”
The pile bunker spike slammed into Charlotte’s face like the fist of an angry god, the
blazing tip tearing through the witch’s body as if it were soft jello. The creature couldn’t
even let out another scream, its entire body inverted into itself from the sheer force of
impact. A short distance away, D-Boy and the tank landed relatively safely upon a chair,
completely ruining the furniture and whatever the hell sat on it (some kind of creepy doll,
apparently).
“In the face, ugly!” the pile bunker’s revolver cartridge popped open, letting a single
smoking shell slide out. “You fought the law, and the law won~!”
Charlotte’s strange body seemed to disintegrate like ruined foam, its polka dotted body
falling apart and shriveling up. As its final bits came to pieces, a blackened orb-like thing
landed on a ruined table. Mami was first there, gingerly picking up the Grief Seed and
staring at it. This was the prize of victory…
The world around them shimmered and wavered, shrinking upon itself not unlike its late
witch master. Madoka and Sayaka looked around them, seeing their world return to
normal. They breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief as Mami continued to stare at the
Grief Seed. So distracted she was, that she didn’t even notice D-Boy’s tank roll up next
to her. The clank of the hatch opening seemed to startle the girl out of her daze, though.
“Whooo man, I thought I’d seen everything in SSR, but that definitely took the cake,”
D-Boy grinned at his pun as he crawled out of the machine. “You missed a lot of classes,
girlie, but I see why now. You sure you don’t want to transfer to SSR? I’d be your teacher,
ya know? That way, I can keep an eye on you and keep you out of trouble.”
“Don’t listen to that loony,” Coach interrupted, suddenly next to her with his weapon slung
over a shoulder. He looked the girl, his expression surprisingly gentle. “Tomoe, it’s no
shame to ask for help. In the bigger picture, we’re all in this together. Be it shadow wars
or whatever the hell that was with the cakes and sweets, Butei stick together. So, if you
ever need it, just ask. We’re your teachers, so, we’ll do everything we can to help. Okay?”
“I understand now,” the blonde nodded softly, her hands wrapping around her prize gently.
For once, she felt like she earned it, and not for selfish reasons. “I understand that I am
not alone anymore.”
And never again.
Mami struggled to keep her tears contained. Many life-changing things had happened, all
of it so fast. It was absolutely dizzying; heartrending, even. After so long…
“Now then, your friends are waiting for you.”
She blinked, turning to see two girls waiting eagerly for her.
“Mami-saaaan~!” Madoka dashed over to hug her friend, burying her face into Mami’s
warm body. “That was so scary!”
“That. Was. Awesome!” Sayaka cheered, her hands clenched in fists of excitement. “First
was bang! Then the bam bam bam! Then BOOM! And the yelling and more shooting
and ratatatatat~!”
Mami couldn’t help but smile as Sayaka tried to emulate gunshots. Absently, she patted
Madoka on her head.
“But man, that snake thing was scary! Was that really the witch? What the heck did it
turn into?!”
Madoka snapped her head up; the worried look she had was absolutely adorable, “That’s
right! Mami-san! When that thing opened its mouth, I thought it was all over!”
“Yes, it was quite scary, wasn’t it?” Mami smiled again, despite the terrifying memory. She
had frozen completely when Charlotte came for her head, those glistening teeth ready to
chomp down… “But, I was lucky. My teachers from school came in to help me.”
“Ne, Mami-san? Are these your teachers?” Madoka looked to the two men in wonder as
Sayaka gushed over the larger machine.
The blonde girl gasped, bringing her free hand up to her mouth, “Oh my! How rude of me!
Please, let me introduce them! This gentleman here is Coach-sensei.”
“Coach-sensei?” Sayaka looked back from the tank, confused.
“It’s just a nickname,” the man in question shrugged. “Nice to meet you two.”
“And the one in the tank is D-sensei. It’s also a nickname…”
Still leaning out of the hatch, D-Boy saluted the girls, “Howdy, little ladies! Just call me
D-Boy! Thanks for looking after one of my cute students!”
Mami blushed at the compliment, “They are high-level Masters at the school. Although,
I’m not to sure how they got here…”
“That would be my responsibility, Tomoe,” like a spectre, Akemi Homura seemed to
appear out of nowhere.
“Homura-san!” Madoka gasped, clinging closer to Mami.
“I summoned them here and beseeched their assistance. When they heard it was you,
they agreed immediately.”
“But, why would you call for them?”
“You needed help,” Homura answered, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “We all
do. You were about to be defeated had it not been for your teachers, right?”
Mami stifled a jerk, managing to suppress it to a mere blink, “How did you know?”
“I’m actually glad I called them. I didn’t want Madoka to see one of her friends be killed right
in front of her…” the raven-haired girl evaded smoothly as she glanced at the other girls,
her gaze lingering on Madoka the longest. “It took me… a very long time to understand that
it’s okay to ask for help, that I can’t always fight my battles by myself. I surmise you’ve
come to understand that as well.”
“Yes, I have,” Mami agreed without hesitation. “I just wish I had realized it earlier.”
Homura shrugged, leveling an even gaze at the girls, “So long as you understand. We
may not be friends, but I will not allow an ally to fall.”
“…Thank you, Homura-san,” Mami took a moment before answer, but she bowed her
head as she did. “That means a lot to me.”
“My only request, however, is to not involve civilians like them ever again. They do not have
our powers, and we cannot afford to split our attentions between protecting them and
defeating a witch. Our battles will only get more difficult from here on.”
“Hey hey, I know this doesn’t exactly involve us, but seeing as we took part in it, I felt I should
mention something…” D-Boy cut in abruptly, hanging out of the hatch by his waist in a
particularly awkward way. “You guys won! That calls for a celebration, don’t it? Worry about
those details later! Go party somewhere and cheer for your victory! You’re alive, right?”
The mysterious girl Homura stared at the strange man D-Boy, speechless and incredulous.
D-Boy just stared back with puppy-dog eyes. They stared, and stared, before finally Homura
backed off with a sigh. “Very well. A celebration would be called for, wouldn’t it?”
“Awwww yeeeah!” D-Boy pumped his fist, almost falling out of the hatch. Recovering quickly,
he added, “Heck, we’ll cover the tab! You kids just have fun, yep.”
Homura sighed again, knowing that she had been beaten here.
“For once, I agree with the Yank,” Coach shrugged, showing a rare smile. “Savor the victory
now, then get to planning later. I’m not too sure what is going exactly, but morale is fairly
important to any battle, right?”
“Hmm… indeed.” Homura looked over to the other girls. Mami smiled as Madoka chattered
on excitedly about what she had seen, with Sayaka cutting in occasionally with her own glee.
This step and the next… would be a dangerous one.
“Ne, where’s Kyubey?”