Chapter 203: Chapter 9: Researching the Contract (Bonus Chapter for 150 Power Stones)
She’d said no, but when faced with a little girl who couldn’t even explain where she lived, kind-hearted Junko Kaname still set up a room for her.
Because Madoka’s father, Tomohisa, had gone to bed early, it wasn’t until morning that he discovered there was an extra person in the house.
Yimi clung to the edge of the kitchen counter, rising on her tiptoes, eyes locked on whatever Tomohisa was doing with his hands. Just an ordinary breakfast—bread, eggs, the usual nutritious spread.
"Um... Junko, this child?" Tomohisa glanced over at his wife and daughter brushing their teeth across the room.
"Probably a lost child from the neighborhood? Madoka brought her home. Hmm... could you handle putting up a found-child notice?"
"’Brought her home’—what a casual way to put it." That said, Tomohisa still cracked an extra egg.
He placed a hand on Yimi’s head and gently turned her around. "Don’t stand so close. The oil will splatter on your face."
"Oh."
Yimi shuffled away in tiny steps, then looked down at Madoka’s three-year-old brother, Tatsuya. Apart from the little girl who’d lent her the wiggle car back then, this was the first person she’d met whose human form was smaller than hers.
"Why is it like this?"
Madoka, meanwhile, was at a loss. Wasn’t Yimi supposed to be a mascot creature that formed Magical Girl contracts? According to every anime ever, those things were either invisible to normal people or cute little plush-sized critters. The cat disguise would’ve worked fine—so why had she shifted to human form right there on the doorstep?
"Oh, look at the time—I need to head to work." Junko grabbed her breakfast and walked out the door.
"Be careful out there."
"Then I need to get to school too." Madoka kept glancing back at Yimi.
You’re really not coming with me?
But even in cat form, she couldn’t exactly waltz into a school with a pet.
And so Yimi—having first infiltrated Homura’s home, then been carried off by Madoka—was now left behind at the Kaname Residence. She wasn’t alone, though. The house still had Tomohisa and three-year-old Tatsuya.
Tomohisa crouched down. "So, can you start by telling me your name?"
"Yimi."
"Hm, sounds a bit like a foreign name. Where do you live?"
"Another world."
"Uh-huh. Where did you get lost, then? Do you remember your mom or dad’s phone number?"
The little cat stared straight at Tomohisa, unable to answer any of it.
This is going to be difficult.
Still working out what to do, Tomohisa noticed Yimi suddenly point at him and ask, "How come you don’t—go to work?"
"Being asked that so bluntly by a kid is a little embarrassing." Tomohisa turned his face aside. "I’m a househusband."
"Househusband?"
"It means I devote myself fully to taking care of this family." He snagged his wandering toddler son and set Tatsuya on his lap. "Junko really loves her career—she thrives on the feeling of conquering one challenge after another. So to make sure Madoka and Tatsuya don’t lack for attention and care, I quit my own job to look after the household."
In this part of the world, stay-at-home arrangements were fairly common, though it was usually the woman. His situation was an outlier.
Tomohisa held up a finger. "Don’t underestimate a househusband, you know. When Madoka was little, I had to walk her to and from school every single day. Then grocery shopping, trying to keep the menu different every day so everyone had something to look forward to after work and school. Then all the housework, start to finish. Some days there’s literally not a moment to rest—"
"Can you cook?" The young cat filtered out only the information useful to her, looking at him expectantly.
"Of course I can—you’re eating the proof right now."
Yimi pressed on earnestly: "There’s a body—it tastes awful when you cook it. Bad texture, weird flavor. How do I make it good?"
"Calling an ingredient a ’body’ is a bit horrifying, but if it tastes bad cooked—are you talking about salmon? Getting the heat right for cooked salmon is extremely tricky, which is why around here it’s usually just prepared as sashimi."
"Sashimi?" Yimi had never heard the word.
"Basically, you only use knife work on it, then eat it raw. As for the flavor issues, wasabi paste usually takes care of that. But eating raw like that makes parasites a real risk, so for the family’s sake I rarely go that route."
"Wasabi?" Yimi nodded.
She’d never heard of it, but it sounded worth trying.
She turned and headed for the door, planning to catch another Kyubey and test this out.
"Don’t just run off! I still need to take your photo for the found-child notice—hey, wait!"
...
Finding Kyubey was never hard. Without Homura around, the creature tended to stick to Yimi like glue on its own.
Yimi walked along the raised curb of the sidewalk, arms spread wide like Rumia, balancing as she went.
"You seem to have quite the obsession with cooking." Kyubey had indeed shown up, though this time it was smart enough to keep a good ten meters between them.
Despite its small frame, Kyubey’s agility was impressive enough to dodge Homura’s gunfire at medium range. Last time it failed to evade The World only because the attack had been completely unexpected—and because The World’s speed exceeded that of bullets.
"That manifestation of spiritual energy last time—we’ve researched similar phenomena before. The results were never quite like that, though."
The result of that particular research was the modern-day Witch.
Yimi didn’t rush to grab it. Instead, she crouched and asked: "How do you turn someone—into a Magical Girl?"
"I’ve already explained this, haven’t I? Form a contract with me to become a Magical Girl, and in return I’ll grant you one wish. Sound good? If it’s you, any wish at all can come true."
Kyubey fixed its vacant pink button-eyes on Yimi.
This child—and that girl called Madoka Kaname—two girls with aptitudes so terrifyingly high that contracting even one of them would yield benefits to the universe beyond all imagination.
"The specific steps, though?" That was what Yimi cared about.
She needed Magical Girls, too, and the blue-haired one from yesterday had been weirdly expectant of her.
"Asking about someone else’s techniques right off the bat? That sort of thing is obviously not—close call."
Kyubey leaped, dodging The World’s grab, and continued while running: "If you formed a contract with me, you could wish for all the recipes in the entire universe, or to taste flavors you’ve never imagined. How about it?"
Form a contract with Kyubey.
The answer was in Kyubey itself.
After one evasive leap, Kyubey’s body slammed into Yimi’s other Stand. This time, it couldn’t escape.
Kyubey looked up at Famine. "There’s a second one? Incomprehensible. Do you have a split personality?"
No further discussion. This body got its neck snapped too.
Yimi held the fresh Kyubey corpse, examining it up and down. She’d never noticed before, but the markings on Kyubey’s back seemed rather distinctive.
But to do proper research, she still needed to observe an actual Magical Girl. Yimi vaguely recalled that both the Black One and Yellow Person each had some kind of gem that condensed magical power.
She stowed the Kyubey body in her storage space and, going off memory, headed toward Mitakihara Middle School. Partway there, she spotted something through the open door of a shop that looked suspiciously like a Soul Gem.
The little cat stood there, staring at the Soul Gem–like object for a long time, utterly perplexed. She couldn’t sense any magic from it.
Could it be that Magical Girls first purchased a magic-less Soul Gem, and the magic came later?
Yimi walked into the shop.
"..."
"Shoo, shoo—whose kid are you? This isn’t a toy store. There are no ’gems’ here." The shop owner pressed a hand to Yimi’s head and ushered her right back out.
"Hmph!" Yimi shot an indignant glare over her shoulder at the shop.
Adult goods store—this kitty will remember you!
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