voidtreckers ; application

[wishalone]

Player Information

Name: mala
Age: old
Contact details: Malathyne
Other characters: —

Character Information

Name: Kyoko Sakura
Canon: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Canon Point: Different Story, after death
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: Technically OU, but she's from one of canon's multiple timelines, and Different Story is considered a spin-off/alternate story/not the "main" timeline?
Age: Estimated to be 14-16; I'll be playing her as 15

World Information: Setting glossary | Madoka Magica (main series) | Different Story (canon point)

It's worth noting that the Puella Magi series involves multiple timelines. Kyoko's history with Mami (Different Story, volume one) is consistent across them, as Homura's time loop starts some time afterwards, but the rest of Different Story as well as Oriko Magica are all alternate timelines of Madoka Magica.

Personal History: One, two

While in the anime, we don't know how long Kyoko has been a magical girl, in the Drama CD: Farewell Story (the first version of the telling of Kyoko and Mami's history), it's stated that she was a magical girl for a year before meeting Mami, and then it's estimated that another year passes after that before the start of Madoka Magica. However, in Different Story, Kyoko tells Mami that she's a new magical girl, and Mami is the one who says she'd been a magical girl for about a year by that point.

For the sake of ease, I'm going to assume that Mami had been a magical girl for a little over a year and Kyoko a little under, and that Kyoko assumed that most magical girls survived longer than the reality (she hadn't had much, if any, interaction with other magical girls beforehand). This means, assuming Kyoko is fifteen during the events of Madoka Magica (and similar moments in other timelines), that she contracted with Kyubey when she was thirteen, and then she met Mami when she was fourteen.

Personality:
When people first meet Kyoko, one of the first takeaways is often her in-your-face attitude. She's rude, irreverent, and confident — and, if you're unlucky enough, she's even outright aggressive. It's easy to write her off as a typical "bad girl," and she certainly doesn't care what people think about her or the way she lives. Even though she survives by stealing money, food, and shelter (like sleeping in unused hotel rooms) — and throwing people's lives away — she's unapologetic. Her skin is thick (so long as something doesn't trip her specific issues), and she would definitely describe herself as not being bothered by much. Despite how much she loves to pick fights, she has a kind of blasé attitude as she goes through her day-to-day living, doing what she pleases without concern for others.

There's definitely a ruthless edge to her; she's willing to let familiars kill humans so they'll grow into witches, so that she'll get the Grief Seeds she needs to survive. She openly and derisively criticizes more altruistic magical girls like Mami and Sayaka, who hunt familiars anyway in order to protect the people they would prey on. But this is where we run into one of Kyoko's key themes: what you see isn't always what you get. It is easy to assume here that Kyoko is cruel to altruistic magical girls because she's judging or attacking their way of living, or that she hates the concept of selflessness, or that she's dedicated to her ruthlessness. But the truth is more complicated than that, and to really understand, you have to take a hard look at her background.

Kyoko made her contract to become a magical girl founded on a selfless wish. She wanted to help her family, which had been living in poverty for years, not even able to put food on the table. She wanted the world to listen to and accept her father's preachings, because she wanted him to be happy. So, she made her wish for people to listen to her father's words. It gave her the power — and "duty" — to fight witches, and for a time, she thought she was saving the world alongside her father. Except the truth was that her magically granted wish brainwashed a following for her father — They were compelled to listen, they didn't choose to. And the discovery of this truth sent her father spiraling into despair and violence; he became an alcoholic, physically abusive to Kyoko's mother in one known instance, and called his daughter a witch who sold her soul to the devil. In the end, he would take not only his own life, but the life of Kyoko's mother and little sister, as well as burn down their home.

Kyoko doesn't want to see others making what she believes to be the same mistake she made. She thinks that making a selfless wish to become a magical girl, and fighting in a selfless way, will only end in tragedy, not just for the girl, but for her loved ones. Despite Kyoko's tough attitude, she doesn't want others to suffer the same way she did. This betrays her outer presentation of someone who doesn't care about what happens to other people, and shows that she still is driven by the desire to protect, even if her scope has narrowed considerably to only things that directly affect her out of sheer survival instinct. But it's more than just wanting to protect these girls — Why would she be so hostile to them?

Kyoko's life hasn't really taught her how to be vulnerable, or often rewarded her for it. She wants to protect herself, just as much as she wants to protect others. Unfortunately, this means she isn't very good at baring her emotional vulnerability, and is prone to lashing out instead of communicating her real feelings. In both Madoka Magica and Different Story, there are scenes where Kyoko attempts to speak more honestly, only for her to get carried away with her frustrations and urges to defend herself, and speak cruelly or say things she didn't necessarily mean or believe, and therefore worsen her relationships instead. Open communication can be difficult for her, especially when she doesn't feel like the playing field is even. And it's partly why she seems to love fighting so much — It's a method of communication that feels emotionally safer to her, even if it's physically more dangerous.

But another undeniable factor in that is how confident she is in her combat skills — and it isn't undeserved. In order to stay alive after rejecting and suppressing her natural illusion magic, she had to re-learn how to fight, and is so successful that she survives to be considered a veteran — and very strong — magical girl. This showcases one of her understated strengths: her ability to adapt. When her family was destitute and struggling to have food on the table, she chose to act and learn how to steal in order to provide for them. And her ability to adapt applies even to her ideals; when she came to the conclusion that her ideals were wrong, and that they had led her family to ruination, she changed to new ideals. (Even if those old ideals are buried, but not dead. Kyoko loses sight of her belief in heroes and friendship saving the day, but never actually loses them. They're still an intrinsic part of her — Something she can deny and repress, but never rid herself of permanently.)

At the end of the day, underneath all the coping mechanisms she developed in the face of her harsh reality, Kyoko is dedicated and willing to do whatever it takes to protect what she cares about, whether it's her family, herself, or her ideals. It's difficult for her to leave well enough alone and stay out of things once she's invested. She has to act, she has to do something, even if her methods can be considered to be on the "brute force" end of things more often than not. There's definitely a better girl here than people expect — one who simply wants to live happily with her friends and her family — even if she's hidden under all her layers, disguised in an attempt at self-defense.

At the end of the events of Different Story, Kyoko was making her first steps towards "coming home" to herself. By working with Homura, she was given someone reliable who would back her up, providing the start of a stable foundation to build off of. In seeing Sayaka's struggles with the ideals of heroism and holding herself to impossible expectations, she saw both herself and Mami, and painfully reminded of everything she had cast aside. In meeting Mami again, she realized that she wanted to reconnect with and fight alongside her again. In being befriended by Madoka, she learned their stories, and began to process her own story and her own feelings in an open, easy, safe atmosphere. When the time came for her to attempt to save Mami from herself, Kyoko had come back around to accept what she really wants out of life — the way that she really wants to use her power: Not for herself, but to protect her friends and family. She knows she's made too many mistakes and hurt people she cares about, and is dedicated to living on in order to make amends for them. And that's one of the biggest tragedies in her following death... She doesn't get to follow through and make these desires a reality.

Key themes:
Appearances are deceiving
The symbolism for this goes deep into her character design. The fact that her magic is centered on illusions — The fact that her weapon appears to be one thing, but is actually more than just that — The way she's presented in the story, all hostile and angry and cruel, only for her background and true nature to be revealed later... Even in her personality, as addressed above. Kyoko's story is an exercise in "don't judge books by their cover."

Faith
Unsurprising for a character with a family background like Kyoko's, but faith for her isn't really about religion at all. It's the faith in yourself, in your loved ones, in your beliefs. It's the loss of faith in all these things. It's the rediscovery of faith, and rediscovery of yourself in the process (rebirth, even).

Reliance on others
Kyoko struggles to lean on other people. It isn't really the stubborn, proud independence it looks like — She does not want to be a burden, and does not want to drag others down. This comes from her background where being another mouth to feed presented difficulties for her family. She feels the need to do everything by herself... leading to her keen sense of loneliness, which underlies all of her storylines and informs her behaviors.

Main Motivation:
While Kyoko's heavily motivated by a few aspects (not wanting to be a burden; not wanting to be alone; wanting to survive and wanting her loved ones to survive), nothing will light a fire under her ass more than her drive to protect the people she cares about.

"You've gotta focus on the one thing that means the most to you, and protect it to the end. It's funny... All this time, that's what I thought I was doing."

Skills: Buckle in, y'all.

Magical Girls and Soul Gems
Despite her anti-hero and tsundere nature, Kyoko is a magical girl. To become one, a girl must have the potential and be approached by Kyubey, who will offer to grant her a single miracle in exchange for her accepting the duty of fighting witches. If she makes a contract with him, then he removes her soul from her body and houses it in a Soul Gem. This shields her from the worst of the pain of combat, and keeps her from dying when a normal human otherwise would, so she can heal her body with magic and keep fighting. It also allows her to control her body from a distance of a hundred meters away from her Soul Gem. If her Soul Gem goes farther than that, then her body collapses and is indistinguishable from a corpse, and it will begin decomposing in three days.

Soul Gems are also the source of a magical girl's power. All of her magic is stored there, and when she uses it, the Soul Gem becomes tainted and its glow dims. It's worth noting that despair can also darken a magical girl's Soul Gem. In these situations, if her despair is strong enough, even if her Soul Gem is cleansed with a Grief Seed (see below), it's possible for it to become tainted again and quickly.

Soul Gems can be transformed into engraved silver rings for safe keeping when a magical girl isn't transformed. While most of the time, magical girls cannot use magic when they aren't transformed, they can project smaller versions of their weapons from their rings.

Grief Seeds and Witches
In order to refill her magic and restore her Soul Gem's luster, a magical girl's only option is to use something called a Grief Seed. Grief Seeds are dropped by witches once they are killed, and they are basically the "eggs" of witches. If a Grief Seed absorbs too much impurity from Grief Seeds or from the world at large, then it will hatch into the same kind of witch that dropped it, so once a magical girl uses up a Grief Seed, Kyubey takes it and processes it safely.

Witches are very powerful magical beings who can create their own worldspaces, called labyrinths, which overlap reality as if a separate plane. They use labyrinths to hide from the sight of regular humans, which they prey on and lure into their labyrinths. It is said that witches spread curses, as they can affect humans near their labyrinths, twisting their thoughts and behaviors to cause them to do things like commit suicide, murder, arson, collect or lure other humans to the witch, etc. Humans affected by witches will have a symbol on their body called a "witch's kiss," and the symbol each witch bestows is different.

Witches can also create lesser magical beings called familiars, which serve their mistresses and fulfill specific purposes for them. Usually, they occupy the labyrinth, but occasionally slip out into the world, where they can create their own barriers and spread curses. However, familiars cannot drop Grief Seeds, as only witches do. If a familiar "eats" enough humans, it will grow into another copy of the witch that spawned it.

Unfortunately, the magical girl system is designed to doom them. Whenever a magical girl's Soul Gem becomes completely tainted, whether it's from using too much magic or from despair, her Soul Gem becomes a Grief Seed and she hatches into a new witch. In the process, a great amount of energy is released, which is Kyubey's true goal.

"Kyubey" is the Japanese name for his kind, whose true name is Incubator. (We're shown in Puella Magi Tart Magica that he's been called many things across time and across the globe; in France, he was called Qube. It also isn't uncommon for him to be mistaken as an angel or other mythological figures.) Incubators are from another planet and seek to solve universal entropy through the magical girl system.

"Our civilization created technology that could convert the emotions of a sentient lifeform into raw energy. Unfortunately, our species does not possess the capacity to experience emotion. So we studied various species throughout the universe until, finally, we found you humans. With the size of your population and the rate of reproduction, the amount of emotional energy produced by a single human is greater than the amount used between its birth and growth. Human souls truly are the energy source that could counter entropy! And the most effective of all are girls in the second stage of development, who experience the greatest fluctuations between hope and despair. In the moment when your Soul Gems flare out and turn into Grief Seeds, enormous energy is created. It is the job of us Incubators to collect that energy."
— Kyubey, Episode 9 of Madoka Magica

Each witch is understandably unique to the magical girl she used to be, drawing powers, design, and symbolism from her life, her wish, her powers, and even where she became a witch.

Magical Girl Powers
There's a suite of abilities that all magical girls possess. The first is the ability to "transform" into their magical girl forms, which changes their outfits, enables them to use magic, and spawns their weapon(s). It's worth noting that while outfits and transformation sequences can happen naturally with the magical girl having little to no control over them, it's possible for them to completely influence both things.

A magical girl also has some amount of influence over her weapons. However, she is limited by what she understands; Mami's signature weapon is the musket, but she failed to create other kinds of guns because she didn't understand how they work. Homura had to learn how to make bombs from the Internet before she could magically create her own. Weapons can also be bestowed upon them, as Perenelle does for the magical girls in Tart's group in Tart Magica.

However, a magical girl doesn't have to be transformed to have access to all of her abilities; the only magic limited to transformation seems to be combat-related magic. She always has access to her sixth sense, telepathy, physical enhancements, and imbuing objects with magic. Her sixth sense allows her to be able to sense other magical girls, witches, and other uses of magic. It is through this sense that she can track familiars, witches, and magical girls, and identify the individuals that created those magical signatures. She can use telepathy to communicate not only with other magical girls, but regular humans as well, limited ambiguously by range (a la "speed of plot"). She cannot use telepathy to read thoughts or emotions, only speak directly to her targets' mind.

A magical girl's physical enhancements are left ambiguous in canon, but given that they've been seen doing things like scaling tall buildings like a typical powered anime character, even without being transformed, there has to be some amount of it going on. Relatedly, they can also heal their bodies with their magic, allowing them to recover from the injuries they get from fighting witches (or other magical girls). They can also heal other magical girls with this same power, and even use it to keep corpses fresh, so it's likely they can heal regular humans as well, though there isn't an example of this in canon.

There are times in the series where magical girls imbue objects with magic, enhancing them and even turning them into magical weapons. Examples include when Mami turns Sayaka's baseball bat into something that would help fight off familiars; when Kyoko enhances public use binoculars to see (and hear?) from miles away; and in the mobile game Magia Record where magical girls who are not very strong create makeshift weapons by imbuing pebbles or regular cloth with magic. The capabilities of the imbued object likely depends on how much magic the magical girl put into it.

All magical girls also have an ability unique to them based on what wish Kyubey granted. Examples from across the series include advanced healing, greater healing of others, permanent invisibility, time travel, teleportation, self-glamour, turning into and traveling between shadows, and sensing enemies.

Kyoko's Powers
Kyoko's weapon appears to be a long spear with a large red spearhead, but it can break down into sections connected by chain at her will. She can also create and throw shorter versions of it (seen in Episode 9 when she opens the barrier to the witch Oktavia's labyrinth), and seems to be able to cause it to lengthen at will (as shown in her fight with Sayaka in Episode 5).

Kyoko's wish was for people listen to her father's preaching, which created a congregation for him but they were brainwashed into following him, instead of choosing to do so by their own will. As a result, her unique power was centered on illusions, called "enchantment" by Mami and Kyubey in Different Story. She was able to create multiple mirror images of herself, similar to stereotypical ninjas. Mami called this power "Rosso Fantasma." Her illusions became more and more believable the more she worked on her powers. However, because her wish ultimately led to the destruction of her family, Kyoko came to reject the power that came from her wish, and psychologically repressed the ability to use it. In Different Story, she describes it as having forgotten how to use it.

However, it also shows that she's able to regain that power once she begins to process her trauma — At the end of Different Story, Kyoko has decided she wants to use her power to protect her family again (in the context of considering Mami the only family she has left). Still, Mami comments that her illusion magic isn't as refined as it used to be (as Mami recognizes the magic when she came in physical contact with it), probably due to that skill being unused for so long, as well as the fact that Kyoko is still re-learning how to use it. Over time, with practice and probably also with more trauma processing, her illusion powers would likely only grow stronger and more refined again.

In order to survive, she had to learn how to fight with this handicap. Kyubey did not expect her to live long after she repressed Rosso Fantasma, but Kyoko trained herself back up, and became even stronger than she was before. As a result, coupled with her status as a veteran magical girl (having been one for two years), she's known for being powerful. One such ability that she has retained or learned afterwards is the creation red chains, which she often uses to make walls (seen in Episode 4 and 9, when she kept Madoka out of both fights; and in Different Story, Kyoko is able to create chains without being transformed, so long as her Soul Gem is in its true state instead of being a ring). This ability is referred to in an obscure corner of canon (which I can't seem to track down for the life of me, probably the PSP game?) as "Latticework Barrier."

Her special attack, called a Magia (which uses a lot of magic), is called Kugatachi. This is the move she uses when fighting Oktavia at the end of Episode 9, and a version of it can be seen in Magia Record ([video], no spoilers).

Kyoko's Skills
Kyoko's most notable mundane skills fall under how adaptable she is. She chooses to be homeless, and lives off of street smarts, stealing money and food, and crashing in unused hotel rooms. She first developed such skills when her family was destitute, and she was stealing food for her family to survive on, but after she loses her family, she dedicates herself entirely to that lifestyle. While we don't know details of her day-to-day living, it's clear that her skills in thievery and breaking and entering and other such activities are at least good enough for her to avoid being arrested.

Item: Her hair ribbon and her father's holy symbol (she'd given these to Mami at the end of Different Story, just before her death)

Sample: Test drive

Notes: