It's been days now, and Kyouko hasn't seen the outside of this room. Somewhere in WPS headquarters, it's basically a medical exam room, like you'd find in any hospital or doctor's office, except all the cabinets and counters have been removed, leaving only a padded medical exam table in the middle of an empty, white-tiled room. Kyouko is not strapped to the table anymore (like she was when Hannah first brought her in), but her hands are bound behind her back- some form of technologicy-looking handcuffs that not only bind her hands together, but completely cover them in mitten-like metal orbs, so she can't manipulate or pick anything up.
And there's been all the 'testing'.. the poking and prodding, the experiments. It hasn't been a super fun time, even before Homura showed up to depress her the previous night. Now Kyouko is just in a foul mood, as if she hadn't been before. She sits on the edge of the table, staring at the wall, a scowl on her face. There isn't much else to do. Her Soul Gem has been taken away- luckily not far enough to cause her to keel over, but she certainly can't use it to henshin, dressed in her normal civilian clothing at present.
And then, from out of one of the corners of the room, comes a voice that is very familiar to Kyouko - and one that by all rights shouldn't be in there. But sure enough, sauntering up from behind her comes Kyubey - the creature who gave Kyouko her powers, who granted her wish - the source of her power and her suffering.
"Didn't I tell you to be careful in this part of town, Kyouko?" he says, sitting down and bringing up a hind leg to scratch one of his ears. "Things are different now. There are things going on even I don't understand - like how one of the best Puella Magi in Japan ended up here. Would you care to enlighten me?"
Kyouko has an odd relationship with Kyubey- she's not openly antagonistic to him the way that Homura is. She should probably blame him for what happened to her family, but she doesn't. He only did what she asked him to. She blames herself for that. She does, however, sometimes get annoyed with him. The way he doesn't seem to understand how humans actually behave. But it's more an abstract annoyance than actual anger.
She doesn't react in any particularly surprised way when he shows up in the locked, guarded room. "Took you long enough." She grumps. "Figured you'd show up sooner or later. How did I end up here?" She barks a short, cynical laugh. "Hit Miss White's girlfriend in the face with a coffee mug. Totally by accident. Turns out that chick is scarier than I gave her credit for. Lesson learned. I'll be ready next time we tangle." She doesn't seem to even consider the fact that there might not be a next time, despite her current predicament.
Kyubey does consider it, and he brings it up. "Do you think she's going to let you go? You've been here for a while, and you haven't gotten out yourself. I think there's a very real chance you could be in trouble." Much like an Earth cat, Kyubey busies himself by rubbing the side of his face against the corners of cabinets.
"And of course, Mami's still prowling around here too, and last I heard you two were not exactly on the best of terms." There's a pause. "Why did you come to this place, anyways? There's so much more competion in these wards than in Kazamino City."
Kyouko scowls at the cat-rabbit. "I came here because /you/ said it was a rich hunting ground!" She exclaims, exasperated. Which technically is true, although Kyubey may point out that he never actually said she should come here- she inferred that part. Which gives him plausible deniability. "Anyway, Mami's no trouble. We.." Well, they hadn't made up exactly. She searches for the right word. "Have an understanding. Anyway, I beat her once and I can do it again." A story which varies wildly depending on who is telling it.
"As for Miss White.." She shifts on the table, feet swinging above the floor, not tall enough to touch. "Don't you worry, I'll get out. She can't hold me forever. "That staunch refusal to admit defeat, to give in to despair. This is why Kyouko is still around, despite all that has befallen her. "And I'll make her pay for this, ohhh yes." There's a grim note of promise in the redhead's voice. Then she eyes Kyubey. "I don't suppose you'd open these handcuffs for me, huh?"
"I merely mentioned that there was a lot of Witch activity here. You took it upon yourself to come by. I even mentioned it was very contested." he says. "And there's now forces I am not even responsible for - like this Ms White - I don't know where she derives her strength from. It's not from a soul gem, like yours." He stretches himself out, then falls to the floor sideways, little paws batting at dust motes.
"Kyouko, don't be silly. You know I don't have thumbs. I cannot open those cuffs for you." he adds. "I don't know how you could possibly get yourself out of this predicament." he adds. He has some ideas on how he could help, but he's thinking of the despair Kyouko's witch could create, first and foremost. "You always get yourself in over your head, Kyouko Sakura. It started with your wish and continues even now. I'm not sure how you keep going."
His words sting, but Kyouko isn't that easy to needle.. or rather, she's extremely easy to needle, it's just the end result is usually anger instead of despair. "You little shit." She grouses, standing up and walking over to prod at the playing Kyubey with a booted foot. Not hard enough to cause damage, just to show she's annoyed, and to excercise what she perceives as power over him.. even though she knows full-well that anything she does to him will be futile.
"If you're not going to help me, why are you here? Just come to rub it in my face?" She turns and walks back away, facing the wall, scuffing her boot against the white tile floor, seeming satisfied by the unsightly mark it leaves on the sterile-looking surface. "That seems like a waste of time, even for you." She doesn't know about the whole witch thing, of course.
"I'm curious." he says. "I don't understand humans, and I don't understand you even more than the average human." This isn't a lie. He's frankly confused (and a little annoyed, as annoyed as Incubator can be) at the fact that somehow she's managed to avoid witching. "You seem remarkably upbeat for someone trapped in a laboratory, as a madwoman's plaything, after all. I am begining to wonder if you might be damaged, perhaps mentally?"
"So I thought I would come talk. Maybe I could help you think through your predicament, help me to understand while I help you understand."
Kyouko laughs, and maybe it does sound just a little bit unhinged as she walks back to the table and sits down on the edge of it. "Damaged? Yeah, probably. Show me a Puella who ain't a little nuts. I sure as hell ain't ever met one. If there's anybody who should know that much, it's you." She crosses her legs at the ankle, leaning back on the table, still scowling.
"Oh, you haven't even seen me upbeat yet, Kyubey. You just wait, I'll burn this whole damned place down and then I'll be smiling all the way home." There it is again, that unfounded but unwavering confidence that /somehow/ she's going to end up on top. She just seems to believe it, without needing any kind of proof or encouragment. "You can try to understand all you want. I understand perfectly well. Miss White, she wants to know how I tick. Well, I'll show her that sometimes, that ticking, its a bomb waiting to go off."
If Kyubey could laugh, if humor was something his species could process, he'd probably have lost himself at that comment. Instead, all he says is "Yes, I do firmly believe you are something like a bomb ready to go off." His delivery is deadpan though, and honest. And more than a little creepy.
Then, after a short pause. "Would you like me to tell some of the other Puella Magi where you are, and see if they would like to help you?" he asks. "Or do you want to stay here and wait for your moment, whenever that might be?"
Kyouko glares at Kyubey, though her scowl is a bit more contemplative now. "You'd do that? Seems a little out of character for you.. usually you just prance around and gloat whenever I get in trouble." After a moment though, she sighs.
"Tell Mami, alright? Don't.. don't ask her to help me. Just tell her where I am." Maybe she'll help on her own, maybe she won't, but Kyouko does /not/ want Mami to think she's asking. She'd never live that down. "Not that I need her help!" She clarifies quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly. "But.. well, I dunno. Just tell her."
Kyubey nods a bit. He has his own reasons. One of the big reasons is not wanting Miss White to discover the secrets he's trying to keep."I didn't come here to gloat, Kyouko Sakura. I don't take any pleasure in seeing you like this. There is no joy in it for me." he says. Of course, there's really not much joy in anything other than the efficent completion of his duties.
"I understand... You don't want Mami Tomoe to see you as weak. I will try to provide her with the information delicately, so as to spare your sensibilities, Kyouko Sakura."
"Uh huh." Kyouko says, not believing that for a second. "Just tell her alright. But /don't/ say I asked." She figures he'll just do whatever he wants anyway, but the more she stresses it the more she can truthfully claim she didn't ask later. "At least you're helpful sometimes." She hoists herself back up onto the table, sitting again and swinging her legs.
"I have been helpful to humans for longer than you've been alive, Kyouko Sakura!" he adds, rather firmly. Then, as suddenly as he showed up, he walks behind the medical table and... he's gone.
"Wish I could do that." Kyouko mutters to the empty room.