"And they all lived happily ever after—the queen and the princess."
After finishing the story, Tomohisa glanced at Yimi. The little girl who'd already napped before dinner had fallen asleep again, all quiet and rather adorable. The doctor had mentioned that sleeping on her back might compress her tail, though—one of the few physical inconveniences that came with the little cat's body.
Tomohisa tiptoed out and sighed. "If only she could make some friends her own age."
"Now that you mention it, there really is something odd about this child." A slightly tipsy Junko was draped across the table.
Sometimes it wasn't just work events—if something at the office was bothering her, she'd come home and have a couple of drinks to help her sleep. She was always careful enough to stop before getting truly wasted, though.
"You've noticed it too?"
"It only hit me when I was giving her a bath earlier." Junko propped her chin on one hand, fixing her husband with a serious look.
Tomohisa swallowed.
Because Yimi had a pair of ears on top of her head, bathing on her own risked water getting inside them. Add in her tiny arms and legs at that age, and the job usually fell to Madoka—or on nights Junko got home early, to her.
"This child has apparently never peed standing up." Junko rubbed her chin in deep thought.
"?"
Tomohisa reached over to feel her forehead, laughing nervously. "Let's get you to bed. You've got an early morning tomorrow."
He was clearly convinced his wife was drunk.
Junko gently moved his hand aside. "I might be a little drunk, but you wouldn't understand—peeing standing up in the bath is something every girl does at that age. Like Madoka, for example..."
"How is that even strange?" Tomohisa pressed a hand to his forehead, then registered the actual issue. "Come to think of it, I always make Tatsuya use the bathroom before bed to prevent accidents. But aside from that one time at the hospital when she made an excuse and slipped away, I've never actually seen this child go to the bathroom."
BANG—
The front door was violently ripped open. Kyoko—whom Tomohisa had met once before—burst in looking frantic.
"That idiot, that moron, that fool—"
"Who are you?"
Kyoko didn't answer. She sized up Tomohisa for a second, then clutched the Soul Gem in her hand.
She'd gotten the address from Sayaka. Their current relationship was somewhere between awkward and... something she couldn't quite name.
This wasn't about whether she could win the fight. Battling someone who'd been her comrade until moments ago was simply going too far. Kyubey's coldness and cruelty could only be truly comprehended when you faced it head-on.
She bolted toward the bedrooms, throwing open doors one after another. She locked eyes with a bewildered Madoka for exactly one second before moving on. Finally, under the stunned gazes of Tomohisa and Junko, she hauled a groggy Yimi out of her blankets, scooped her up, and headed for the exit.
"Just borrowing her for a bit!"
"Ah! I just got her to sleep!" Tomohisa stretched out his hand after her.
"Who even are you? This is way too much no matter what!" Junko tried to intercept her but couldn't come close to matching Kyoko's speed.
Was this a home invasion kidnapping??
...
Maybe it was already too late. But as long as there was even a sliver of hope, you had to grab it. That's just how kids were, right?
What was that blonde idiot doing, wallowing in despair on her own? She was always the one saying people don't listen, yet the second she learned the truth, she didn't even ask a single question before going and turning into a Witch. What was the point of that?
Kyoko glanced at her own Soul Gem. Recalling the terrifying reality of Mami nearly blasting it to pieces earlier, it felt like she'd truly seen who Mami was for the first time today. If her Soul Gem had still been the original one, Mami would've killed her right then and there.
No—from the moment Mami engaged her, something had felt off. The woman was nothing special against Witches, so why did she go absolutely berserk the second she fought Kyoko?
"Don't sleep, please, come on—there's still a way to fix this, right?" Kyoko shook the little cat in her arms.
Since being snatched away, Yimi had simply rested her head on Kyoko's shoulder and kept right on sleeping.
Kyoko blew a sharp puff of air straight into her ear.
"Pee pee pee pee pee!" Yimi's little paws lashed out in a flurry of slaps.
But they'd already arrived—inside the Dessert Witch's Labyrinth.
A Witch born of despair retained certain qualities, and one transformed from a Magical Girl preserved the traits of who she'd been in life. The Dessert Witch was a perfect example.
Inside the Labyrinth, cheerful processions of tea marched in orderly lines—a reflection of Mami's favorite pastime in life. Rainbow bridges, teacups, and apple trees decorated the space.
As for the Witch itself, it feared loneliness and would never allow anyone who entered its Labyrinth to leave. Kyoko had barely managed to break out earlier.
Like a child's watercolor painting, one could only vaguely make out the rough outline of a skirt from the body's silhouette, a massive nameplate-like object connected to the head, and two pigtail-esque yellow ribbons. That was the Witch's form.
Compared to other Witches, it lacked any particularly aggressive tendencies—but its refusal to let anyone leave was certainly dangerous enough.
"Looking all evil like that—weren't you always acting like such a nice person? What's the deal with this form? Why are you so easily crushed by despair?"
She grumbled in frustration, as though hoping the Witch might still retain some trace of Mami's consciousness. That hope, of course, was hopelessly naïve.
Kyoko stared at the Witch and violently shook the girl in her arms—the one she'd carried out without even letting her put on shoes.
"You can fix this, right?"
At this point, the only one she could count on was the little cat who'd already changed Kyoko's own gem once before.
"Mm... what's... going on?" Yimi rubbed her eyes with her small hands, grudgingly surfacing from sleep.
Kyoko spun her around to face the unspeakable form of the Dessert Witch. "What do we do? Mami turned into a Witch! You can save her, right? That damn Kyubey—I'm gonna catch it and stew it..."
"You can't... stew Kyubey meat... Yellow Person?"
Yimi patted her own cheeks, swallowing down her crankiness at being woken up. She parted her lips slightly.
She'd been so preoccupied delivering pork-floss buns to the other Magical Girls that day—the kitty had forgotten to save Yellow Person!
The Dessert Witch extended its ribbons. Rather than an attack, it felt more like an invitation to a tea party—but a pair of fists the size of Yimi's head shattered them without mercy.
"What do we do? If you can save her, I'll make Mami eat as much nasty food as you want!"
"Mm..."
The kitty found this proposal very tempting. She raised her head toward the terrifying thing that could give a child her age a solid month of nightmares.
"'The World!'"
The towering heavenly Stand manifested once more. He flew straight at the Witch and drove a fist that now rivaled Star Platinum's into the Dessert Witch's face, the sheer air pressure nearly warping it out of shape.
Then he paused for a second, as if waiting for something.
Yimi sensed what The World needed. She opened her mouth and let the clear notes of a child's voice ring out: "MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA, MUDA!"
A machine-gun barrage—a hundred punches packed into two seconds—pummeled the Witch.
Kyoko: "?"
"Finished her off."
Kyoko: "??"
I told you to save her, not kill her!
Congratulations, host. Achievement unlocked: [Keep Beating Her Until She Reverts to Her Original Form]. Reward: portal energy +5%.