"Honestly, Sachiko," says the nanny for the tenth time since picking the girls up from the playground. "I don't know what's gotten into you!" Sachiko has hardly done much of anything at all. She refused to buckle her own seatbelt in the car, didn't eat more than a bite of her dinner, barely brushed her teeth, and Momo and the Nanny both had to help her change out of her shorts, tights, and teeshirt and into one of her nightgowns.
Now, Sachiko and Momo both have been put into a large queen-sized bed on the third floor of the mansion, tucked under the sheets and offered a little time to read in bed before bedtime. The nanny has gone off to her own evening activities, whatever those may be.
Sachiko's bedroom is large. Probably larger than any bedroom Momo's spent much time in. It feels even larger for the lack of things in it. There's a teddybear, all battered and stained, in the center of the room. A bookshelf with only a small selection of age appropriate titles. A dresser with her clothes, and a small rack of shoes (only three pair; a fourth with Momo's there). She's going to need so many toys, but being in this home is still so very new. There's a massive double door that leads out to a balcony, but the nanny checked and locked it on her way out. Not that it would be hard for seven-year-old fingers to turn the lock again, but that means Momo hasn't seen what's out there. At least not yet. Maybe that's where all the toys are kept?
Sachiko lies in bed with a book in her lap. She hasn't opened the pages. She's just staring up at the ceiling, uselessly.
"Sachiko, why don't you read your book? We can read together?". Momo was sinking into the bed, mostly on purpose. She'd never laid in a bed this comfortable and it was like laying on a cloud. She was struggling to stifle giggles of enjoyment, seeing as her best-friend was sitting there staring at the ceiling.
She dragged herself across the bed, trying to resist the desire to just curl up and go to sleep on it as she neared her friend. "Want me to read it to you, maybe? I can read big words, sensei said so.".
The bed is ridiculous. It's actually hard to move on. Which m eans when Momo moves towards Sachiko, and Sachiko in turn starts moving towards the edge of the bed, neither of them makes terribly much progress. "What's the point in reading?" Sachiko asks quietly as she starts trying to slip off the edge. Momo can catch her. Probably.
Momo Akatsuki tries to push herself hard against to bed, just managing to grab the edge of Sachiko's nightgown. "It's fun, and I'll read to you. Sachiko, you've got to do something. Please?". Momo pleads with her friend, having seen how she's acted since the thing was taken from her. Momo was still really unsure what had happened, but she had promised to be there for Sachiko.
Sachiko tugs against Momo's hand only a moment, then hesitates once she realises she's been grabbed. Turning, she peers at her friend, then sighs. "What do I have to do?" she mumbles. "Why should I bother doing it? You're a magical girl," Sachiko points out quietly. "Just like An-chi was. But now she's dead. And you're probably going to die, too. And then neither of you will see me dance."
Momo scoots up behind Sachiko and wraps her arms around her, resting her face against her friend's back. "I'll see you dance. I won't let anyone hurt me or you, you're my bestest friend ever and forever and ever.". She blows a lock of her own hair from her eyes, watching to see if Sachiko tries to get away again.
Sachiko sighs and slumps back into the bed, twisting in Momo's arms so the girl's face is in her chest instead of her stomach. "Momo-chan," she says quietly. "You're never going to get to see me dance. You're going to die before then. Or maybe I'll die before then. It's hopeless. Why do you keep trying?"
Momo snorts softly against Sachiko's chest, and starts to speak. "Because I have hope, and I promised I'd see you dance. Don't you remember? I pinkie-promised and I keep pinkie-promises.". She hugged her friend tightly from her position against her.
Sachiko sighs and reaches down to pet Momo's hair, gently, sinking further into the squishy bed. "Whatever you say, Momo-chan," she mumbles quietly. "I wish I could make sure you never died. But that's hopeless."
"Actually," says an almost cheerful voice from the foot of the bed, "you could wish for that, if you want, Sachiko Hayakawa."
At the foot of the bed, a fluffy white creature with catlike features, a foxlike tail, and a second pair of loppy white and pink ears is seated, staring at the two cuddling girls with beady red eyes.
"Do you want to make a contract with me and become a magical girl?"
Momo eyed the creature, her brows creased as she did so. "What are you supposed to be?". She had seen it before around Sachiko, but she still had no idea what the creature was. Nobody had told her yet either.
"Hello, Momo Akatsuki," says the little white creature, as she turns to peer at him. "I am Kyubey."
Sachiko twists and disengages from petting Momo. She turns over on the bed, climbing entirely out from the sheets to crawl on hands and knees towards Kyubey. The cat-like creature doesn't object as Sachiko picks him up in one arm, then turns and crawls one-handed back towards Momo again. "Kyubey is my familiar," Sachiko explains to Momo as she lays back down next to her friend with Kyubey in her arms.
It's not anything close to the truth, and Kyubey is quick to interpose, "Actually, a familiar is a monster divided from the essence of a witch. They usually defend the witch's barrier! I am a messenger of magic, and I grant the wishes of young girls in exchange for their wishes. All you have to do is make a wish to agree to the contract, Sachiko Hayakawa, and then you can be a Magical Girl to fight against Witches, just like Anshi Hayakawa was."
Momo briefly stares at the creature before wrinkling her nose. "You're weird, even if you are cute.". Momo tries to grab hold of Sachiko's foot, her hands grasping at the other girl's bare foot. She lost a lot of effort getting tangled in the cushy covers and the bed itself as she reached for her friend. "Don't go near it, it might be evil!".
Sachiko peers back at Momo, tilting her head at her. "The Kyubey isn't evil," she says softly as she pulls her foot out of Momo's hand. She brings him over to cuddle between the two girls and sighs at Kyubey's pitch, yet again. "Besides, he's been coming here every night for days. And at my last house, too."
Sachiko reaches up to gently pet Kyubey's head, and the little creature just stares at Momo with those lifeless, beady red eyes. "Making a wish would be useless, Kyubey," she tells him. "Even as a magical girl, I'd never be as good as An-chi was."
Momo just shakes her head and gives out a sigh of exasperation. Maybe letting the weird thing stick around would excite Sachiko more. "So you just grant wishes?". She addresses the question to Kyubey, while briefly looking at Sachiko with a hopeful look. It would be wonderful to just wish her friend's happiness back or something like that.
Kyubey tilts its head at Momo. "I do grant wishes," it says, "but only if a girl agrees to a contract to fight Witches as a Magical Girl!"
Sachiko continues quietly petting Kyubey while he explains this story. She sighs and looks up to Momo. "I don't think he can grant your wishes. He said he can't do it for people who are already magical girls. And I'm not a real magical girl, am I? It was always hopeless. I could never have saved An-chi."
Momo blinked at Sachiko for a moment, completely ignoring Kyubey despite the fact she'd asked it a question. "You're as magical as anybody I know! Magic doesn't make a magical girl, I think. At least I don't feel like it does.".
Now she looks at Kyubey for a moment before speaking, still to Sachiko. "Bunnything might say different, but I think you're plenty magical without making a wish and having to do something. You should get to decide, I think. Decide if you want to fight, and work for a wish. That makes it a lot better I think.".
"Sky Jack-onii-san and Greta-chan think I shouldn't make a wish with Kyubey," Sachiko says quietly, staring at the little white creature. "They say wishes always turn out bad. But Kyubey says An-chi got her wish, and she got to help a lot of people. And Greta-chan says An-chi was very brave and strong."
Sachiko takes a deep breath, then lets it out as a heavy sigh. "I don't know what to do," she says to Momo quietly. "I feel like every option is useless. Like I can't do anything. I'm probably just going to die like An-chi did, when some monster comes to hurt me. It keeps happening and none of my attacks work to defend me."
Momo puzzles for a moment before replying to Sachiko. "Well, I'll beat them up and maybe I can help you find a way to have magic without making a wish if all the big kids think it's bad to make a wish. How does that sound Sachiko?".
She shifted on the bed, moving closer to her friend in her pink and frilled pajamas. The top featured a slice of grapefruit and had the text 'Pink Sweet!' across the top in bubble letters. It was, in fact, Momo's favourite set of pajamas and she'd hoped to show it to Sachiko, but they hadn't had time to do so today.
Kyubey seems utterly unphased by being petted by Sachiko, who continues to pet him even when Momo moves closer, squishing the little white fuzzball in between them. "It sounds hopeless," Sachiko quietly says to Momo, as she lowers her head to avoid meeting Momo's eyes. "I'll never be a magical girl. And even if I made a wish, I'd probably be a bad one. I don't even know what to wish for, anymore. All of my wishes were stupid and useless."
Pink eyes watching Sachiko, Momo gives a little sigh. "Nothing about you is stupid or useless, Sachiko. You're my bestest friend ever, and that has to mean you're super important. Even if it is to just me.". She smiles at her friend, sadness in those eyes of her's. She reaches past Kyubey for Sachiko's face, gently cupping her chin.
That touch draws Sachiko's face back up, and although she could fight Momo's touch, she doesn't. Their eyes meet, and all of the fear and doubt and uncertainty become all-too-evident for poor Momo. Sachiko isn't merely depressed--she's lost all inspiration and motivation for anything at all! This is a girl who has lost everything: her mother, her sister, her father, her life, and now she's even lost the will to live, herself.
"Everything about me is stupid and useless," Sachiko says, voice cracking a little as she defies Momo, and pain and misery follow. She lets Kyubey go, and the little rodent crawls out from between the two girls and pads down to the edge of the bed--he knows when he isn't wanted or needed, and he's hasty to make a retreat, for now. "Everyone who's ever cared about me gets hurt. And they get hurt because I'm so useless," Sachiko says quietly. "If I wasn't such a burden, mama wouldn't have hated me. If mama hadn't hated me, An-chi wouldn't have had to protect me from her. And if An-chi hadn't wanted to protect me, she wouldn't have needed help--she wouldn't have had to become a magical girl. And then ..." she trails off, sniffling, "... and then they wouldn't be dead, Momo. They're dead because of me. Because I wasn't good enough. And now you're going to die because of me, too, and I don't want you to die."
Momo clucks her tongue softly, like a mother hen to her chick. She moves across the bed, managing it better now as she closes the space between herself and Sachiko that Kyubey had previously occupied. When she gets close, she just wraps her arms tightly around the other girl, clutching her to her chest.
"Stop that. Stop it. You're smart, cute, precious, lovable, sweet, kind, loving, purposeful, courageous, and lots of other words. You're more than just stupid and useless and you've got to be my friend forever and ever. I won't die ever, and if I do I'll come back over and over, because magic is like that and I won't ever abandon you because we're best-friends.".
The words are small comfort to a girl whose inspiration has been magically removed. But small comfort is massive when you have none for yourself, at all. Sachiko begins to cry, as she melts into Momo's arms, no longer able to even pretend at being disaffected by all of this. But crying this hard, she hasn't got the words to respond to Momo. Poor Momo, dealing with such a big issue at such a young age.
Momo Akatsuki just clutches her friend close, pressing her lips against the cinnamon coloured hair without saying anything. She had hope enough for Sachiko and herself, if she had to even as a seven year old she'd do her best to get everything worked out for her friend.
The crying isn't just because she's hurting, though. It's also because she's found a safe place to let it go. Safe places are rare and hard to find in Sachiko's life, and right here, with Momo's promises, Sachiko feels as safe as she's felt since the last time Anshi took her anywhere. It's not an experience she's expected to have in a long time. These aren't just the tears of a girl who has had a bad day, but rather of a girl who has kept endless bad days pent up for three months. They all come flooding out, now, in Momo's arms. Eventually, those tears begin to die down, but not because she's no longer experiencing the motion. Instead, it is because exhaustion claims a heavy toll on Sachiko, and with Momo's presence, Sachiko's little body is finally relaxing enough to make sleep a possibility. Soon enough, the seven year old wihtout hope is deep in slumber, her face pressed to Momo's shoulder, but her breathing light. For now.
Momo stayed strong for Sachiko, not letting herself shed more than a few tears as she kept her lips pressed to her friend's hair. When Sachiko falls silent, Momo holds her for a few moments longer before her own eyes close as her breathing slows. She remains slumped against Sachiko, even as the other girl is slumped against her secured in the position by only Momo's arms around Sachiko.