748/Puella ER Episode 748: Trauma Center

Puella ER Episode 748: Trauma Center
Date of Scene:	12 November 2023
Location:	Mitakihara General Hospital
Synopsis:	CW: PTSD Mami stops by Mitakihara Hospital to see if Magda is available to heal a wound she sustained fighting a witch. Magda heals Mami's physical wounds, but Mami pokes at Magda's psychological ones, bringing up Walpurgisnacht. In the end, Mami stays to help Magda with her homework.
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Magda Faust

---

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami didn't get hurt all that often. Her combat style focused on control and ranged attacks. So, when she did get hit it didn't tend to be that severe. Small cuts and bruises would just heal themselves. She'd even stitched herself up a few times. But tonight was different. Tonight the witch she had been tracking caught her by surprise and managed to skewer her through the abdomen. If it weren't for her magic, she'd have died in the Labyrinth. As it were, she was only slowly bleeding out. At least she got the grief seed.

She remembered that Magda had offered to heal her, should she ever need it. She'd said of course she'd come by, but never expected to do it. Mami hated being wrong, but on the bright side, it would be good to get closer to these foreign Puella. They all seemed nice, and she could use more friends.

As she approaches the hospital, she pulls out her phone and texts: <Hey, are you at the Hospital? I need your help.>

Magda Faust has posed:
    After a pause of a few seconds, Mami gets a message back.
    TXT to Mami: Hello! Yes, I am here. I almost always am.
    TXT to Mami: Should I come downstairs? I am on the third floor, but I can be down in a moment if it is an emergency.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami is not sure how to answer Magda's texts. She looks at the hospital as she approaches it. She considers the entrances. She did her best to staunch the bleeding, but her clothes are still a bit of a mess.

TXT to Magda: Probably better if you meet me down here. I'm kind of a mess.

That's really an understatement. Mami stops just short of the entrance and waits. The younger girl would be there in no time, she was sure of it. She wasn't going to bleed out. Everything would be okay.

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda comes down quickly enough, it's true. It's a matter of seconds before a multi-braided green-haired girl in a magical girl nurse's outfit falls out of the sky and lands next to Mami. "Oh..." she says, belatedly realizing what she just did. "I really hope nobody saw me jump out the window. That would be bad. Someone might draw the wrong conclusion--Oh my gosh, you're hurt!" She scurries over worriedly, starting to examine the older Puella before she even knows what she's doing.
    Her Puella outfit disappears in a burst of green light, as she crouches down. She apparently gets a good idea of what's wrong without even needing to ask, or to examine the injury without clothing in the way, because she doesn't bother asking what happened until after she holds one hand a few centimeters away from the entry point, and a soft green glow beginning to emanate from her palm. The wound begins closing from the inside out basically immediately.
    "How did this happen?" she asks. She can guess, but it's better to know for sure.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe stands there silently as Magda inspects her. "Oooh," she intones when she feels the magic stitch her body back together. She's about to say something about how it feels, when Magda asks her the question of the hour. How did this happen?

"I've been tracking a Familiar that escaped from the Labyrinth of a witch I killed just before I met you. It's been rather elusive," she explains. Which is mostly true. She maybe also waited until she was sure it would yield her a grief seed. It's in the long-term best interests of everybody if she continues to be around long-term. It's for the greater good, after all. "I had help when I took out the first witch."

Her eyes turn away, looking a little bit ashamed. "I should have called for help this time."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda nods along as she listens, focused on restoring flesh and muscle and lost blood and all the other details. She can just heal someone magically if she wants, but doing it step by step, carefully, with an understanding of the parts involved puts less stress on the patient. "Oh, geez. Was it a dual-Witch situation? We had one of those a month or two ago. Even with help, I don't know if I'd be brave enough to tackle that kind of battle." Then, Magda puts her hand on the back of her head and rubs her hair embarrassedly. "But I'm not so good at fighting, so I probably wouldn't be there regardless..."
    Pause. "Oh! I'm done, Mami-senpai!" Magda gets up from her crouched position and brushes her knees off of any hospital sidewalk dust or whatever is lying around out here. "I can fix damaged clothing too, but inanimate materials aren't the targets of my magic, so it'd basically be the same as if you were doing it yourself."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe shakes her head. "Nothing like that. I just wasn't paying enough attention," she says. Obviously it's all her failure. If she'd just worked harder. If she'd just been better, she wouldn't have been injured in the first place. "This one was different than the witch who spawned it. Attacked differently. It attacks fast. The last one got me, too, I just had someone there to back me up. This time it was just me, and I didn't dodge fast enough."

When Magda rises up Mami brings her hands up to feel her abdomen. It's all fixed. The only holes that are left are the ones in her clothes. "Oh, that's alright, Magda-chan, I can fix my clothes," she says. Or not. They're also all blood stained at this point. She'll figure out something. "I just couldn't fix this," she adds, patting where the would had been. "Your ability is really amazing."

She dips her head in a little bow. "Thank you so much."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda waves off the thanks bashfully. "Iie, iie, iie! It's the only thing I'm good for, really. If I couldn't do this, I might as well just be dead." She tries to figure out the explanation about the Familiar, but eventually her earnest attempt to maintain a 'thinking pose' just ends in her saying, "I'm sorry. I'm not an expert on that sort of thing... An Irregular or Deviant Witch or Familiar is about the only thing I can think of as an explanation. Somehow, during the process of forming, the rules they should abide by, like their behavior, form, abilities, and so on just... Change. Like a mutation during cell replication? ...I guess?"
    Shrugging, Magda says, "It's cold outside. Would you like to go indoors?" Magda realizes she's wearing a short skirt, thin white shirt, with a sleeveless sweater-vest overtop with autumn leaf patterns. It's not exactly the warmest thing to wear in this weather. Not even with knee-socks! "Ah... Actually, let me rephrase: It's cold outside. May we please go indoors?" That explains why she's shivering, at least!
    "Eheheheh... According to Teresia-senpai, if you wish for healing then you get one of two results. Either the ability to heal yourself, or the ability to heal others. It seems to depend on the wish, but asking for healing for yourself tends to grant the power to heal others, and the reverse for wishing to heal someone else, but statistically there's a surprisingly low number of wishes to heal the magical girl herself. I guess being able to heal others now is a way to make up for such a selfish wish as I made..." She holds up a noodly-thin arm like she's showing off her muscles, and pat-pats her totally non-muscular bicep. "I have to pay forward the good will that was shared with me by Kyubey-san!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe in that moment, Mami looks surprised. She's not sure what she was expecting, but she hadn't really thought about what would happen after she was healed. Continuing the conversation inside was good! Friends do that!

"Yes, of course, let's go inside. Now that I'm not bleeding everywhere, I would love to see where it is you work," Mami says with a smile. She looks mostly presentable. Mostly. Her hair is perfect, at least. She'll follow Magda wherever the green-haired girl leads her. She trusts her.

"I've often wondered why things like that happen with Familiars that spawn from witches and turn into witches themselves," she says. Then she shrugs. "They're always keeping us on our toes, that's for sure. Like this one you all are tracking. Adalinda-chan showed me." She shakes her head. "Every time I think I've seen the worst thing."

But then she looks up to Magda and smiles. "But that's why it's good we're all here. You especially."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda walks up to the front doors, and they open for her thanks to the motion trigger, before she realizes people would be seeing her re-entering the building after supposedly already being inside, turns on her heel, and returns to Mami. "Eheheh... Do you, um. Do you mind if I jump up and then come down in the elevator to meet you in the lobby? So people ask fewer questions?" Hopefully, no one will be looking when she heads up again.
    When Mami mentions the Witch that they're hunting, all the color drains from Magda's face. A forced, thin smile with bloodless lips, and the words, "Ah. Yes. That." is her only reply concerning that particular Witch. "It's uh..." She transforms quickly, in another burst of green light, clovers, and 'plus' symbols. She gestures vaguely and then just jumps up without saying anything else. Second floor, third floor, window's still open, Magda slips inside and makes sure no one comes into the room, then releases her henshin and hurries back through the building, using the time on the elevator to get her composure back.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami just looks at Magda for a moment as she considers what the girl is suggesting, then she laughs, smiles and shrugs all at once. "Sure! I'll just step inside and you can come down and meet me," she says. And that's just what she does, but not until after she's watched Magda leap back up and given her a few moments to get to the elevator.

So she's standing there patiently waiting, acting like she belongs right where she is, so nobody needs to ask any questions thankyouverymuch. Girls with hair drills like that know what they're doing. They're not insecure messes on the inside. Nope, not at all! Really, this was going well. Mami was making friends. It was good.

When the elevator dings open and Magda is there, Mami turns around and waves like she hadn't just seen the other girl. "Magda-chan! It's so good to see you!"

Magda Faust has posed:
    Some of the color has returned to Magda's face, but she still has a cold sweat going on and seems pale. "Haha... Yes.. Long time no see, Mami-senpai." she says with a wobbly smile and a stilted wave. "Um... Going up?" she asks.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe giggles and nods, she walks right into the elevator. "What a coincidence you'd happen to be coming down the elevator just now, as I was arriving," she says, as if it's not totally obvious what happened. It isn't, to most everybody else.

Once the elevator doors close she giggles. "So, what is it that you do here most of the time?"

Magda Faust has posed:
    The doors close. Magda presses the button for the third floor. The elevator begins to hum as it lurches and heads upwards. Mami tries to engage in small talk. But Magda's throat tightens, like it always does on the elevator.
    A flash of movement and pulsing red light.
    The green-haired girl looks up at the numbers as they light up. "Say... Mami-senpai..."
    Deafening noise in a rush of air and flame as she falls and lands across a steel beam directly on her mid-section.
    "What else... Did Linda-chan tell you about it?" she asks hesitantly.
    Structures toppling, fire gutting them, a skyscraper tipping over and then hanging in the air, as something like an upside-down circus tent floated in silhouette, barely visible against the night sky, thanks to the illumination of everything burning.
    "Like.... Um... Did she tell you..." She taps her forefingers together in front of herself nervously.
    The skyscraper hurled towards her, filling everything in her sight, a terrifying amount of mass moving at terrifying speeds, as she slipped backwards off the crumpling metal when it became unbolted, scrambling with her hands to hang onto any sort of traction or stability before freefalling through an inferno, hearing the sound of metal tearing and machinery exploding until she landed flat on her back, on top of an elevator roof, through the roof into the interior, where a bunch of terrified people were clustered together and screaming, and then the skyscraper hit and--!
    "...Why we're chasing it?" Magda finally asks, hyperventilating by the time they pass the second floor, forcing her to put a hand against the wall to steady herself.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami watches the numbers as they light up, but she's acutely aware of the emotional struggle taking place next to her. That's why she's watching the lights.

"She did. She said it doesn't need a Laybrinth, and that it destroyed your home town," Mami says quietly. Then she closes the distance between them so she can put her hand on Magda's shoulder in a sort of reassuring way. "It must have been terrifying, Magda-chan. I'm sorry I stirred up the memories."

She gives a gentle squeeze and then lets her hand fall away. "This time it's going to be different. There's so many of us."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda is shaking when Mami touches her shoulder. The third floor lights up, the doors open, and Magda staggers out, off-balance, and then bends over in the hallway, hands on her trembling knees, as she catches her breath. Carefully. Eventually, though much shorter than a normal person would take, Magda gets back under control, and straightens up slowly. "It's... It's fine. I just, um. I'm claustrophic? I guess? Heh... Ever since..." I was buried alive with a bunch of dying people in a broken elevator, having to listen to them begging for help, crying out in pain, trying to crawl through the rubble and then getting crushed, unable to do anything to help, waiting for the wreckage to collapse in and take me too.
    "I mean, it's fine. I'm... Usually fine. I just don't think about it when I'm in there, usually... I got over my fear of hospitals. I can... Handle this too." She's still shaking as she says this, and turns around, eyes still wide, as she raises a trembling hand to give Mami a thumbsup.
    Then she drops her hand and takes several more slow, deep, steadying breaths. With her eyes closed. Listening to the sounds of an open space. The echo distinct from something small and tight and suffocating. Finally, she seems to be back in control. "So... I usually go from room to room, helping where I can. This is the empty room I was using to try to do my homework before doing my rounds..." she wanders over to a vacant patient room, where her school text books are laid out under a small adjustable lamp, on a side-table. She pulls out her chair, and carefully sits down.
    After several seconds, she says, "It doesn't need a Barrier. It doesn't need a labyrinth. It's... We had no affect at all. When Teresia-senpai showed up, she managed to chase it out of town, but she... She says it was already on its way out. But the Witch couldn't touch her. Not a single scratch." She turns with a stronger smile to look at Mami. There's love and admiration in her green eyes, still a bit bloodshot. "If it was Teresia-senpai, I'll bet she could fight it all by herself." Then the smile fades. "Though, I guess we're going to find out if Linda-chan is right."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe listens as she follows Magda. She reminds Mami of Hotaru, just a little, if Hotaru were a bit older. If she were magically healed of her illness. The poor girl has clearly had her share of trauma. Her share of things she can't really talk about. Mami hates how they all seem to have these stories.

"Yes, we'll all find out soon enough, won't we," Mami says, her jaw setting to one side. She's been so casual talking about Walpurgisnacht, but the way she says that, it's clear she understands the threat. She just doesn't have PTSD to contend with. At least, not triggered by that.

She walks into the empty room and looks around. They're in the same grade, and so they have a lot of the same homework. "Do you need help with this? I got all of my assignments done before I went out hunting tonight. I'd be happy to stick around and go over them with you."

Magda Faust has posed:
    Magda seems relieved for the shift in topic. "Could you? I'm not very smart, so I could use the help." She smiles brightly, energized by having a senpai to help her through things. It takes her a moment to realize Mami is in the same grade as her. "Eh? I thought you were older than me. We're in the same grade?" Huh. Well, maybe Mami is right. Maybe if they all work together this time, they'll be successful.
    And in the meanwhile, she'll get to make some more friends, who seem to understand the struggle of being a mahou shoujo. She feels warm inside with the thought of being supported by everyone, and being able to support them in turn.
    "Yeah. Yeah, we'll handle it this time." she mutters with a tentatively hopeful smile. Then they can all be magical girls together, and nobody else will ever get hurt or die. She can finally be a real magical girl, like she always thought of when she was younger.
    Magda looks at where she just doodled Mami in alongside the existing doodle of Magda and Kyubey in the corner of her homework.
    I think that would be truly wonderful.