View source for Last Rites (Madoka Kaname)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2025/01/30
|Location=Hope Concept's Paradise
|Synopsis=Madoka tries to figure out what to do with a corpse, even though the answer is really obvious. [CW: Body Horror, Gore]
|Cast of Characters=33
|Tinyplot=Black Moon Clan
}}
[Shortly after Scene 2281]

The disaster was over. 

Well, not really. 

This was only one Spectre Sister out of four, but the ''immediate'' problems were over. Most of them. All but one.

Hope Concept stared at the floor of her Labyrinth. Down where Koan's corpse still lied among the blood and the scorched frosting where her head ''wasn't''.

All sorts of feelings swam through Madoka's mind. What was this mood? Guilt, maybe? Worry? Questioning herself, for how quickly she was willing to kill? She didn't think she was wrong to cross that line. Amy Faust, Kunzite and Sailor Moon all shared her feelings. It ''needed'' to happen. Koan didn't ''get'' mercy. The world deserved ''better'' than to have ''her'' in it.

Yet this wasn't a reflection of who Madoka wanted to be. Was it?


"She's for real gone," spoke Brai, floating near Madokami's shoulder. "She's like... X-Com dead. No chance to stabilize." Sensing her Bearer's dour mood, the Chara gasped and blurted out, "Wait... you're not actually thinking of..."

'''"No I am not and don't you dare remind me!"''' yelps Hope Concept, trying so hard not to yell that her voice sounds more like a squeak. "Brai-chan... If you're trying to make me feel better, it's not working."

"Are you worried about the cops finding out?" asks Rens, joining in on the conversation. "Because I assure you that our disposal method is foolproof."

Sure. It was so easy. Dead bodies, when left in a Labyrinth, will vanish when it collapses. So all Madoka has to do is turn her world off and on again, and the remains of Koan will go away forever. That's what bothered her. The almost casual way she was planning to handle what was, well... a grave matter.


"Somewhere in this Labyrinth," said Hope Concept, with a slight echo in her voice. "Tetsuya is with Sio, in the part of our world we jokingly call the Daycare Dimension, playing with toys he wont even remember five minutes after he leaves here. He is happy and healthy, assuming my Familiars don't do anything too weird, but here I am burying a ''body'' within that very same space. As if that isn't sacrilege." The magical goddess took in a deep breath, and then let it all out. "I guess I just feel like it shouldn't be that simple. Like... If it were me, I wouldn't want to just be forgotten with no burial."

Brai thought, and then said, "Well... That makes sense. You call this ''Wake'' Labyrinth, after all."

"Right..." said Hope Concept, remembering the layered meanings. "Wake, as in awakening, because I was realizing my potential; Wake, as in aftermath, because this was the result of Homura's struggles; ... and Wake, as in remembrance of the dead." She pauses to consider that, as her infinitely long hair waves behind her. "Treating the fallen with respect has always been important to me, even if they are enemies. If I would treat even the wickedest Witch's Grief Seed with honor, then... I should..."

Tia had joined the group, observing the headless body Madoka was fretting about. "If you want my advice," commented the fancy Chara, "you can show this one her due respect by tossing her in a dumpster."

Hope Concept frowned at her fanciest fairy."No, Tia-chan. It's not a matter of whether or not she was ''worthy''. She was a person. A bad person, who did horrible things, but still a person."


Brai rested on Madoka's shoulder. "Maybe you'd feel better if you said a few words?"

Madoka considered for a moment, and then cleared her throat. "Right... a eulogy." Oh geeze... where should she start? 

"Oh, Koan. We um... well we really didn't know you that well." Why was this so hard?

"We... probably only saw you at your worse, and... you made some... ''really bad'' choices... but..." She couldn't find a single nice thing to say.

"...you were once... so... full of... life!"


The goddess paused. Seriously? That was all she could say? It wasn't really making her feel better. Her words were insincere, and whenever a Chara Bearer acts fake there's always a Chara that will act out of line.

Tia decided to be that Chara. "You fucked around and found out. The end."

"Tia!"

"''Have I not spoken truly?''"


Hope Concept's jaw hung loose as she, in all of her divine glory, made a mortified face at the teacup sipping minidoka. Madoka whimpered, then slumped, divine goddess defeated by the sass of a tiny mascot. "Maybe I should just..." 

"You said you would dispose of the body, Doka-chan. Why the delay?" Wagging her tiny little finger, Tia drove the point home, "A proper lady should be good to her word."

"I'm going to! I'm going to. I just..." 

Hope Concept trailed off, which Tia took as an opening. "You and Sailor Moon are both purifiers, yet neither of you wanted to cleanse her. You know why? Because Koan was too far gone. Her sin was beyond the grace of Godoka. You can only ''afford'' to be nice about it ''now'' because ''she'' is no longer a threat. When she was alive, when it ''mattered'', several of the ''kindest and sweetest people on the planet'' chose to ''kill''." 

"She was specifically targeting ''good people'' who would eventually go on to do ''good things'' because she actively wanted to make the world a ''worse place''. Your problem is that doing the right thing doesn't mesh well with your idea of what's proper. Well ''as the Minidoka of propriety'' I'm telling you that you're being dumb and you should stop it. You know she doesn't deserve anything other than what she got."


Hope Concept gripped the fabric of her ridiculously long dress and remained quiet. Another sip of tea, and the fancy Chara continued. "I mean... would you even be second guessing yourself like this if it was Tetsuya she targeted?"

Madoka's teeth clenched as her heart sank straight into her gut. Tetsuya. Precious. Beloved. Especially by his big sister.

Junichi... wasn't much older than that. To someone else, Junichi was Testuya.

The goddess's mood rapidly grew cold. She turned her back to Koan's body. Her hands gripped into tight balls as, suddenly, she found the words she was looking for.


"We all... we all make choices in life. Choices that reflect some aspect of who we are. Choices that dictate the trajectory of our destiny. Koan... made bad choices. Awful ones. Not many will mourn her, but this death is still a tragedy. A missed opportunity to be kind, to be better, to help rather than harm. A failure to understand the true nature of love and to value those around her." 

"We may wish that she had chosen differently, but that's not up to us. Her fate was of her own making. I would have preferred to have one more good person in the world. I will have to settle for one less bad one. Koan, wherever you are, I hope your next life goes better. I hope your soul learns whatever lessons it needed to, assuming it even works that way. Yet I will not for even one second miss you. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything nicer to say."


Madoka started to float away, and one by one her little Chara followed, through the portal to pick up her baby brother on the way back home. That was the last anyone would ever see of that horrible woman, before the Labyrinth collapsed and erased her remains.

She had no further words for Koan.