Cibus Esculentus Madoka Magica: by W.C. Hotchkiss

Chapter 5: Akemi, Homura

Pia's heart skipped a beat. "What was that?"

"Unfortunately, Madoka Kaname has just been killed," Kyubey said. He was prodding circles around a pile of rubble, making it more comfortable to sit upon.

Pia balled her fists. "What about my wish?"

"No need to be upset, Pia, just look within. Don't you feel that energy growing within you?" Kyubey asked.

"Yes, I do...What is this?"

Kyubey twitched. "You wished to embody Madoka's hope, right? Well, the only way you could do that is if her hope was absent from the world."

Pia blinked, "But that means..."

"Exactly," Kyubey said, "In order for you to embody Madoka's hope, she first had to die."

Pia began to glow green. "Then I have no choice," the girl said. "I'll just have to get my kills. I'll have to do what I was sent to." Then, like magic, Pia started walking on thin air. It didn't matter how big she was, how fat she looked. Pia felt weightless...and so she was. The wind took her arms and raised Pia high above the wreckage. This was Kyoko's last sight, drained of all her life. It was something behold. Pia was an emerald light in the sky. Wind Pier moved so fast that she seemed to be everywhere at once. Hundreds of beautiful jade lights, all formed to contain the super Esurientes.

PIa also appeared in front of Homura. The raven-haired girl couldn't believe what she was seeing. "It's you...of course it's you.."

The green apparition of Wind Pier hugged Homura. "No, this is because of Madoka. This is her hope for you. Madoka asked for someone to protect you. Now, her wish is about to come true. You know what comes next."

Tears ran down Homura's face. "But I keep trying and trying!!! I can never save her!"

Pia let Homura go. "The only way to save her is to save yourself. You both must break the cycle."

Homura had never heard that before. "How can I...How would I do that?"

Pia smiled gracefully, "You know what comes next."

Homura smiled back, raised her hand to the mechanical shield on her left wrist, and vanished.

Wind Pier turned her attention to Kyubey's hell-spawn. All of her vibrant green glowing copies readied their swords to strike. The Cibus took a great valiant breath of air, "WIND RISE," she cried, "ASSAULT!!!!"

From each glimmering emerald projection, green beams of plasma shot forth into the Esurientes, burning it deeply. The monster screeched in pain and a thermal nuclear explosion detonated above the city. The tops of the skyscrapers cracked and collapsed. Pia was thrown off balance and fell to the scorched earth. She groaned and lifted her head off the ground.

Kyubey's great owl of fire had been mortally wounded, yet still, it struggled with fury. The Esurientes made a crater of destruction. Pia had to kill this thing here and now before the whole city was gone. Wind Pier only needed one more strike. She leaped off the ground, avoiding a firey wing. She moved rapidly up the monster, then got ready to strike. "Stay down monster!" Pia yelled and drove Wind Pier straight into the Esurientes forehead. It was about to unleash a final deadly screech, but Pia stopped it cold.

Pia put her jade shoe on the base of the wound. She propelled herself off the owl, backflipped, and landed some distance away. Just in time too, for the Esurientes oxidized almost immediately on death. Pia sighed with relief and regret. She was the only one left now.

"Well done, Pia," said Kyubey, walking among the ashes. "I honestly wasn't sure if you'd be able to acclimatize with Madoka's magic."

"The fusion wasn't perfect. I'll need to keep killing. I'll need to harvest as many Esurientes as possible, to contain Madoka's power," Pia explained.

"I see. That means you now have the potential to be the god of this world," Kyubey said.

"A god you say..." Pia thought about this. "Then wouldn't that make you a devil?"