Puella Magi Rei ♥️ Magica: Afterglow

Chapter 21: "Breaking the Cycle"

Manami is property of cakestories and Hotaru is property of theislandofsicily ! This should go without saying, but Gin is property of Hisoko, who very graciously allowed me to use her for all of these crazy stories that I've had the privilege of coming up with. ♥

Sayaka slowly covered Tatsura up with a thick, wool blanket, as Ring, Tsuki, Gin, and Ami stared down at her, remorse in their eyes. ".. D-Do you think she'll be okay?" Ring softly asked.

".. She exerted a lot of her energy, but.. Her soul gem is still clear. She'll be fine, once she recovers.. We'll just need to keep an eye on her and.. Monitor her." Sayaka whispered, slowly letting go of Tatsura's hand.

"All of this because we didn't focus enough on Ryu.." Tsuki frowned.

"We couldn't have expected he had the capability of doing something as big as this.. He almost got away with it too.. If we didn't have Gin.." Sayaka looked toward Gin, who scratched the back of her head, awkwardly. ".. My time manipulation abilities were finnicky.. We still would have been screwed if I couldn't pause time.. We gambled our lives, and we're lucky it went in our favor." She explained.

"Plus, now Mami has the culprit right now, working on placing Homura's grief seed in stasis." Ring breathed a sigh of relief. "Maybe now, everything will go back to-"

"Shh!-" Tsuki quickly placed a finger over Ring's mouth. "Don't jinx it. We're this close, don't go jinxing it now."

"R-Right. Sorry." Ring anxiously laughed.

"I'm gonna.. Check on how it's going with Ryu." Gin nodded, before making her way from the living room, to Mami's bedroom.

Slowly opening the door, the dark room was filled with a violet light, Mami had her musket pointed in front of her, as Ryu got to work on Homura's grief seed. It reverberated with dark energy, Ryu let out a soft sigh. ".. You're lucky you found me when you did. Any second later, the lady in black would have emerged again-"

"I don't care. Just finish the job." Mami hissed.

".. Hey Mami.." Gin whispered. "D-Don't turn to look at me or anything, keep your focus.. I just wanted to see how you were doing after all that."

"I'm fine.. Little sore but okay." Mami stated. ".. How's Tatsura?"

"Sleeping. Ryu took a lot out of her, but she should come around eventually.." Gin crossed her arms. ".. How close are you to being done, Ryu?"

"Just a couple of more minutes, and Homura will sleep forever." Ryu said, remorse in his voice.

".. Hey Mami, could I have a few minutes alone with Ryu?" Gin asked, her hands folded behind her back.

".. Are..-" Mami stared at Gin, before glancing at Ryu. ".. Are you sure you can keep him from trying anything?"

"I'm positive. I have all the time in the world." Gin smiled.

".. Very well.." Mami nodded, before slowly turning and exiting the room, gently closing the door behind her.

"Get me behind closed doors so you could kill me after I'm done with Homura?" Ryu said, bitterness in his words.

"No. Quite the opposite actually." Gin locked the door, before making her way toward Ryu. She slowly knelt down, running a hand through her silver hair. ".. I need your help."