The City I Heard About From Her part 1

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Chapter 4, Part 1: Baptism of the New World
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Kyouko: A city where there's too many witches... When I heard about Kamihama City from Mami, at first I thought it'd be the best hunting ground I could ever ask for.
But... when I actually set foot inside that city... I knew exa--ctly what she was talking about. That Kamihama was... an outrageous city that was extremely bizarre.

---Kamihama City, Suburbs ---

???: Are you searching for witches outside of your territory too?
Kyouko: ...Ah? Oh, it's just you. That's right. You should know that already too. That there's not enough witches for me to hunt in Kazamino or in Mitakihara.
Kyuubey: Yeah, I heard from the other magical girls. Every city has fewer witches. Except just one.
Kyouko: Oh, you knew that much too? Then you can guess by now, can't you? That I'm going to go hunt witches in that perfect hunting ground.
Kyuubey: So you're planning to go to Kamihama?
Kyouko: That's right. If you know that, then leave me alone already.
Kyuubey: Mami thinks Kamihama is dangerous. She told me to advise you against getting involved, but...
Kyouko: Ahh... Mami, huh. She told me too. In a really nosy way. ...But, so what? At worst, I'm just guilty of being a single player. I don't need to follow her directions, there's no reason to. I'm well-aware that things are pretty dangerous in Kamihama. But, while being fully aware of that, I'm free to decide what I should do.
Kyuubey: True, Mami doesn't have the authority to limit your actions.
Kyouko: Right? It's weird she even tried to limit where I hunt. Nn, well, for the most part...doesn't she just want to keep it all to herself?

Mami: There's nothing special...about having more grief seeds than you could possibly need.

Kyuubey: I don't think Mami would be the kind of person who'd try to think of ways to get even more grief seeds.

Mami: I need to let Sakura-san know too...that if she gets involved with that city...then she could be in danger...

Kyuubey: Simply put, it seemed to me that Mami was just worried for your safety.
Kyouko: ....... (...That's.........)

Mami: Here, use this.
Kyouko: Are you sure? But this is...the grief seed you got, Mami-san...
Mami: Who got it...things like that don't matter. Isn't it common sense that if someone's in trouble that we help each other out? We're...friends after all.

Kyouko: (...Trying to keep all the grief seeds to herself... even I know that's not the kind of person she is...)
...You don't have to tell me, I know...
Kyuubey: Kyouko?
Kyouko: Sorry, but I don't have the time to spend idling around here. Later.
Kyuubey: ........

---Kamihama City, Sankyou Ward---

Kyouko: ...Hmph. What do you know, right off the bat. As soon as I got here, they gave me a warm welcome.
(...Seems like what Mami said about this city being the only place where witches are gathering turned out to be true...)


Kyouko: Nnaa...!? Another magical reaction...!? ...Hey, hey...Would you give it a rest already? I just took care of one earlier, y'know...So there was no point in me...transforming back.
.........This way, huh.

Familiar: @_!(!@$_)!(!!
Kyouko: Aah? What? Just a familiar? ...Tsk. This one's a dud, a dud. You see, I don't have the time to spend...dealing with some guys that don't drop grief seeds. I'll come back later when you're a witch...
Familiar: shara%&|$-$+@!!
Kyouko: Whaa...!? Tch...! Orrraaa!
Familiar: $+@#%!!!
Kyouko: Ku...! You're a tough one aren't ya...! aaaAaaah!!
Familiar: %!@^&&@!$!!?!?
Kyouko: ...ttch! Tch...you're a tough one, for no reason...that ticks me off...prepare yourself.
...You've got some nerve...causing me trouble, even though you're just a familiar!

Mami: The witches themselves...and even the familiars...were a lot stronger than the ones in Mitakihara and Kazamino...

Kyouko: (...Come to think of it, Mami also said something like that, didn't she...? That means I can't let my guard down even around familiars... What a pain in the ass this city is, sheesh.)
Haaa...n... ....I'm already tired...
(I got some grief seeds so I should head back soo...)
...?

Water Man: This is our water of happiness, which will quench your dried throat and tired body. Would you like one cup?
Iroha: Ah, yes, thank you very much.
Felicia: Old man! Give me one too! It's free, right!?
Kyouko: Must be my lucky day. (To think, just when I was tired from defeating witches...there was a free water vendor right where I was headed.)

Kyouko: Could you give me some too? I'm so tired from wandering around there.
Water Man: Sure, sure, here you are.
Kyouko: Yeah, thanks.
Water Man: Here you are, young lady.
Iroha: Thank you very much.

Kyouko: ...nn, gulpp...guulp...
---!?
Iroha: I, It's really delicious...!
Kyouko: Hey, is this really water? I can drink this stuff like it's juice!
Felicia: Old man, old man! Give me another glass! I can really down this stuff! I wanna drink another another glass!
Water Man: I'm really happy to hear that, but sorry, only one glass per person per day.
Felicia: Ehhh, what the hell? Cheapskates... You wanna drink more too, don't you?
Iroha: Eh, me? Y, Yeah, I guess so.
Kyouko: Well, if that's the rule here then there's nothing we can do, don't you think?
Iroha: Yeah, that's true.
Felicia: Booo--
Kyouko: (...Now then...I quenched my thirst...) I guess I should head back home soon.

Kyouko: (I guess you could say this city is a troublesome one... But you can get grief seeds here, so... I'll come back to Kamihama some other time)
And when I come back, I'll go to that water vendor again... nnmmuuu! ...Whaa...!?

Kyouko: Haaa? What's with this paper...? Where'd it come flying in from? ...24...That's it? ...Hmph, who cares... Now then, I'm going to head straight home today and sleep...fuwaa...


Kyouko: "...N...nn........."

flap........

Kyouko: ...Nn.........Nna....? ---!! ...'the hell is this...?

Kyouko: The morning after I visited Kamihama, I woke up to the sound of paper scraping against each other. Right by my pillow there were about 10 pieces of paper with numbers written on them. The numbers written on them weren't random or scattered all over. They were neatly sorted in a certain order, not a single number left out.
Where in the world did these papers come in from?
Did someone come to leave them as a gift, late at night while I was fast asleep, just like Santa Claus or something?
...What a load of crap.


Kyouko: ...nn, gulpp...guulp...
Iroha: I, It's really delicious...!
Kyouko: Hey, is this really water?
Felicia: Old man, old man! Give me another glass!

Kyouko: nnmmuuu! ...Whaa...!? What's with this paper...? Where'd it come flying in from?


Kyouko: (...The first time that paper came flying at me was...after I drank the water at the water vendor's? ...If I remember correctly, the first time...I'm sure of it...the first time the paper said 24...)

Kyouko: ...aah? What's with this... Another paper... 23?

Kyouko: And then, even on the way home, another 1, 2 sheets of paper came falling down...

Kyouko: ...And now when I woke up, it's this.
(24...23...right now we're down to 10...)
...What's written down is the...time...? ...What exactly is this trying to say?
...I don't know what's going on, but...seems like I got caught up by something weird...

Kyouko: If I figure out something, I'll let you know too.
Mami: Right...

Kyouko: (Should I ask "her"? ...As if.)

Kyouko: I might share if it's information that would benefit the both of us, but this wouldn't benefit her at all.
Something like this, which would end up just being a conversation about me looking for advice over something I'm worried about...
It's just a chatty, silly story.

Kyouko: ...Anyway, for starters... if she found out that I went to Kamihama, she'd really scold me.
............


Kyouko: Anyway these papers started falling at me after I went to Kamihama. That's the only lead I have right now...


Kyouko: ...If that's the case, first... I probably need to go to Kamihama.


--Kamihama City, Sankyou Ward --

Kyouko: (...I'm sure it was around here...)


Water Man: This is our water of happiness, which will quench your dried throat and tired body. Would you like one cup?


Kyouko: ...No one's here... Are they only open on certain days? (...Well, for starters...I'm not sure that the cause is that water vendor anyway...)

Kyouko: I guess I'll...try thoroughly revisiting places I've been to...


Kyouko: (...There's a lot of students here. Maybe I'll try asking...if they know about that water vendor.) ........
--!?
What the heck is that...!?


rumor: "Hey, did you already hear about it? Who did you hear it from?"

Kyouko: As I wandered around by the school, what I found was a guy I've never seen before that just kept repeating something weird that sounded like a poem.
When I found it, for a second I thought it was a familiar, but it didn't have a barrier and when I got close and looked closely, I realized they were different.
On top of that, a student that was next to it acted friendly towards it and was talking with it so yeah, I was surprised.

Kyouko: That wasn't... a familiar, was it? Then what the hell was that...
???: Hey, there's something I'd like to ask you, but...
Kyouko: Aah? Who are you...?
Yachiyo: I'm Nanami Yachiyo. A magical girl.
Kyouko: ...Huh, to think you'd introduce yourself like that...
Yachiyo: You're the same, aren't you?
Kyouko: Well, yeah. I'm Sakura Kyouko, pretty much a magical girl. And? Why did you come up to me and introduce yourself as a magical girl? This isn't the kind of town where you spill each other's blood and steal hunting areas from each other, right?
Yachiyo: True, I wouldn't waste my breath doing something like that. What I wanted to ask was about that thing that disappeared earlier.
Kyouko: Ohh, that. What was that thing? It didn't seem like a familiar either. I have no idea what that was.
Yachiyo: .... I see, so you don't know either.
Kyouko: Rather, it's the first time I've seen that. Ah, damn, not again...
Yachiyo: ---!? You...that paper...

Kyouko: Yeah, you see, ever since yesterday, for some reason they keep falling down on a regular basis...
Yachiyo: Could it be that you drank the water? The one with the owl sign....
Kyouko: Yeah, yeah, I drank it. It was rea--lly good. What does that have to do with this?
Yachiyo: Those papers... the cause is probably because you drank the water.
Kyouko: Aaah? If you drink water, paper comes falling down? What kind of messed up reasoning is that? That thing from earlier, and the paper too... Could you stop talking about bizarre crap like this one after another, please? I don't know what you're talking about.
Yachiyo: Is that so? Understood. In that case, I'll explain so listen carefully.


Kyouko: Nanami Yachiyo. The girl who named herself like that told me that apparently I'd gotten involved with something like a rumor that becomes real.
But, she didn't know the details about this rumor. Or about what would happen if the number that keeps decreasing one by one reached zero...
...But that being said, it seems like the origin of this unnatural phenomenon of "rumor becoming reality" is a thing called a Rumor, which is a monster that's completely different from a witch.

Yachiyo: So that's why I have a proposal for you: would you like to investigate the rumor with me?
Kyouko: ......Nope, I'm good, thanks.
Yachiyo: Why!?
Kyouko: It's not really that complicated. If that Rumor you're talking about is a witch, then I don't mind working with you. If we defeat it, we can free people who've fallen under its spell. But Rumors are completely different from witches, right?  In that case, there's no guarantee that you can save anyone the same way you can with witches. And I don't really feel like being buddy-buddy. I'd like to pay you back for the info but not to the extent of a life or death kind of thing. Sorry, but I'll be going now.
Yachiyo: Wait, Sakura-san!


Kyouko: (Join forces in order to survive? No thanks. Even if it ends with...someone needing to sacrifice something so that someone else can be saved... Can anyone really go through something like that without complaining once? By the time it ends, it'll be too late for regrets.)
If that's the case, then I'll...choose to do it solo from the start.