All In All

As the sword was brought down, a magical barrier formed around the young girl, stopping it's advance. At the same moment, there was a flash of movement as Asuna darted in between the girl and sword-wielder, her rapier lashing out quickly.

None of the enemy magical girls were expecting an attack right now and if not for a cry of warning from one of the others it would have been a lot worse. Even with the slight warning and reflexes of surviving Witches, they were still caught off guard by the pure speed Asuna possessed. To make matters worse, their large sword was poor in close quarters where she could flank and keep close with her weapons choice and speed.

Luckily for them, their comrades were there to help her. The other one with the staff shot what seemed to be a concentrated beam of ice at the approaching woman, though instead it hit the ground forming a barrier just enough to block one of their strikes briefly. With that brief chance, the woman Asuna was assaulting changed her weapon to a smaller size as it literally changed before their owns to a small size as they attempted to regain their footing from defensive.

The gypsy girl on the other seemed to be just staying back, maybe she wasn't a fighter at all or her powers were more defensive thus it would be harder to notice.

Emus landed in front of the grieving girl defensively but so far, it seemed their attention was now more focused on Asuna at the moment. That was both good and bad. "Don't worry, we're the good guys. You should get out of here while you can."

The unknown girl didn't respond, watching them with slightly weary eyes before she clutched her injured friend closer to her chest and ran out.

Asuna took a defensive stance with her rapier, which started to glow, a magical pulse coming from it, and a low hum of energy. "...Sorry about that, Emus. I know we committed to just observing and letting Kirito handling things, but that girl reminded me of Silica a bit." She kept her eyes on the other Puella Magi, narrowing her eyes. She had to wonder what happened to these girls in previous time loops. Did they help against whatever big disaster supposedly was coming at the end of the month? Did they simply run? Live? Die? At this moment, it didn't matter as much. "What possible justification could you have for doing this to her?"

"Sorry? You know me well enough I'm a bleeding heart and wouldn't stay out anyway?" Emus took a spot by Asuna, keeping a eye on them.

With the question and the slight lull in the fighting, the others tensed. It seemed at first they were just going to ignore Asuna's question and attack before the one with the gypsy outfit simply shook her head. "Not worth the trouble Seno love."

Seno narrowed her eyes but relaxed the grip on her sword slightly. "We don't have to tell you anything. Are you two Hunters or Nobus?"

Emus was tempted to make a smart ass remark, but knew it wasn't the time. "Free lancers."

"All you need to know is these.." She pointed to her Soul Gem. "Are important to our lives. And without something called Grief Seeds which are dropped by certain monsters called Witches, it'll put us risk of dying. That girl has entered our turf again despite us warning them and had the nerve to steal our kill."

Asuna raised a brow at that. "Oh, we know all about Soul Gems, Grief Seeds, Witches, and Puella Magi. We also know that you four are not only not the only group of Puella Magi in this city, but you're not the biggest group. And that larger group isn't trying to run you off, but are doing fine. There are enough Witches in this city to a accommodate all of you, but you're so damn paranoid you feel the need to terrorize and kill a girl that could have helped you. You can try to justify your actions, but all you are is a bunch of scared little girls, just like her. Except she's strong enough to not let that fear turn her into as much of a monster as those she hunts." Asuna lowered her rapier, but stayed on guard. "Get out of here. If I catch any of you acting like this again, I'll take serious consideration in just destroying your Soul Gems and being done with it." It was a bluff, but they didn't need to know that.

Seno thought about the cost of attacking, she didn't want to put her friends at risk since they were more on the defensive side of things.. That and from the brief scuffle, she could conclude that this woman could have killed her easily if she really wanted to She snorted and turned on her heel. "Come on, we wasted enough time." She began leaving along with the other two.

Emus watched them leave before turning to Asuna. "I think we should check on our little friend we just helped just in case. I'm not as good at sensing stuff as you are so you'll have to lead. Besides, her friend looked to be in a pretty bad way. Maybe you can help them."

* *

"Don't worry, I'll protect you this time. We're almost home." Having gotten a bit of distance from the chaos of the scuffle, the small girl continued on their walk. She really wished she hadn't gone out at this time of night. She was hungry, tired and she just wanted to lay down.

Asuna prided herself on her speed, so it wasn't long before she caught up to the girl, slowing down so she could approach more carefully. "Excuse me! Hey, hold on please, I have healing magic!" She was reasonably sure the girl would recognize her enough to not immediately bolt.

At first it looked like the girl would bolt, but relaxed slightly a bit after. They were still tense though and seemed a bit weary of them still. The woman and now the man that appeared had helped her, so maybe she could trust them?

Biting her lip, she held up her friend. "Here. Just please don't hurt Olivia, she's my friend."

Asuna nodded, placing her hands gently over Olivia and concentrating. Her hands began to glow, followed by Olivia herself as the magic began to do it's work.

Just before her eyes, she saw the wounds began to close and for them to regain a bit of their previous color from being rather pale from before. Fresh tears began to appear as they hugged the tiny dragon but were careful not to do so tightly.

"Glad you're both okay now. My name is Emus and this is Asuna. Can we have your name?" From what Emus could tell, they were no longer tense and weary like they had been before. A good sign.

"Emiko. Thank you for helping Olivia miss Asuna." Emiko wiped her eyes with her sleeve which on closer inspection was slightly too big for her. "Um..can you two walk me home? I don't want to walk by myself.."

Emus smiled. "Sure. Kinda our job. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" She looked pretty young to by herself.

"I'm seven." She bit her lip a bit. "Risa is going to be really upset. I'm not suppose to be out by myself.."

Asuna placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, nodding. "Just tell us where to go, Emiko. And who is Risa, and why aren't you supposed to be out?"

"Risa is my guardian, and um, I'm not suppose to be out by myself because I'm too young. But I have to keep this cleaned, see?" Emiko said, holding out her Soul Gem. "If I don't bad things will happen. I don't want Risa to get hurt."

Emus was tempted to ask just what she meant by 'bad things'. "What kinds of bad things?"

At the question, Emiko seem to withdraw a bit. "I don't want to talk about it."


It didn't take too long for the three to reach their destination, which was a large house that was a bit out the way. Emiko was the one who reached the door first and knocked. At first nothing happened and then moments later a woman in a maid outfit came from inside, looking worried at first before shifting to anger before reeling themselves in, taking a deep breath.

"I'm not going to yell, but Emiko Ikeda, we're going to have a Long time after this. Understand?" Emiko just mutely nodded head down a bit. The woman's gaze turned to the two. "I assume you two escorted her, thank you. I'm Risa Sato. Are you two from Nobus or Hunters perhaps?"

Besides the maid outfit, would also stood out was her bat-like wings but on earth that wasn't really often worth a second glance.

Asuna glanced at Emus. "Something like that. We are Magic Knights, I suppose our job is... somewhat like Magical police. Is it alright if we come in and talk?"

Risa eyed them for a brief moment but nodded, moving aside so they could enter as Emiko slowly walked with her head down. Without a word Risa motioned for Emiko to move a bit closer before crouching down and giving her a hug. "Please don't do that again. I'm going to talk to these two and I'll be with you soon but make sure Olivia is taken care of."

There was a mumbled 'ok' and with a sigh Risa rose back up turning to the two as the little girl wandered up stairs to her room. "Do either you two want anything to drink like tea while we discuss things?"

Emus shook his head. "Can't speak for my partner but I''m fine."

Asuna shook her head. "I'm fine as well. So, to start off... I assume you'd like to know what happened with Emiko, and why we escorted her home?"

"Of course. I want to know absolutely everything that happened." The older woman sat down, watching the two intently. "I do have a idea already but its best its actually clarified before I say anything for sure."

Asuna nodded, then carefully detailed the encounter they'd witnessed between Emiko and the older Puella Magi that had been harassing her.

Risa didn't react much to the story as it was being told to her, her features were for the most part rather passive but during certain parts she gripped her seat tighter then normal. Other then that, her facial expression didn't really give much of anything away.

When Asuna finished, she closed her eyes before opening them. "Thank you." She said finally at the end, sounding sincere. "Emiko is all I have left, I'm not sure what I would do if something were to happen to them. She's my little sister but not by blood you see. I was adopted and have been taking care of them since our parents passed. It had its ups and downs but it was better before this 'Kyubey' came along. They're the source of Emiko's powers, but she won't tell me exactly why these 'Soul Gems', that is the thing she carries with her, are so important." She sounded a bit frusterated.

Asuna glanced to Emus again. "We... don't have any concrete information on Kyubey. We have a partner who is working closely with other Puella Magi, trying to find out what he can without Kyubey finding out. Hopefully, we'll know before too long just what is really going on. For now, we just have theories... though none of them are good, admittedly."

Risa didn't think she was going to like any of these theories; whatever they certainly had to be bad for Emiko not to tell her anything. "Please. I would like to know what these might be since Emiko won't tell me anything."