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Chapter One: Wish Fulfillment

I stared up at the ceiling of my room from my bed; it had been weeks since anything interesting had happened in my life, and the menial nature of the day-to-day work of lounging around the house and dealing with my brothers while my friends were all off to some camp or another was wearing me weary. My cell phone rang, and I snatched it from my side table and opened it. "Hello?" I said anxiously.

"Bri," said the voice on the other end, "it's Diva. I just got back into town, and I've got something I want to show you. Any chance you're free?"

"I'm always free," I replied. "You know that."

"Great!" she replied. "I'll be over in ten." I sighed at the sound of her phone snapping shut. I shoved my into my pants pocket and got up from my bed, walking out into the hall and leaning over the railing. "Mom, Diva's going to be here in like ten minutes!"

"Ok," she shouted back. "Is she going to be hungry? I can make dinner early."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know," I shouted to her. "She just asked if I was busy and said that she was going to come over."

I waited for a few seconds for her response. "Come down here," she shouted. I complied, walking down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Well, when she gets here, ask if she's hungry. Your dad took your brothers to Kai's baseball game, and they're going to go out for pizza afterward, so it's just us three tonight. Ooh, maybe we'll order in. Yeah, that's what we'll do, so that way I don't have to cook. I hate cooking without your dad here to help." She wandered off, talking to herself about what to order, and I went back upstairs to my room.

As I entered, I turned and looked at myself in the mirror. Realizing that I was still in my pajamas, I went over to my closet and pulled out a summer dress; it was yellow with white flowers, and a birthday gift from Diva. "Only a few more months before the weather turns cold," I sighed aloud. After I threw off my pajamas and pulled on my dress, taking my phone from my pocket and tossing it onto my bed, I went over to my dresser and pulled out a long pink ribbon, which I used to tie back my shoulder blade-length black hair into a ponytail. I thought for a moment before letting it down again, shoving the ribbon in my pocket.

I opened the doors to my balcony and walked out, leaning on the railing and looking at the field below; my family's house was, by most standards, rather large, and it sat on an acre of ground only a few minutes walk from the heart of the downtown area. My father was the head civil engineer for the city, and my mother was a former legislator, having retired a few years ago when my youngest brother, Tyler, was born; before that, it was just my twin brother Kai and me.

Kai was a fairly average person when judged by most of our classmates; I had always been the odd one. While we were both "A" students, he chose to follow the safe and expected path; all honors classes, baseball, a place on the student council, and volunteer work through the school in his downtime. I, on the other hand, chose a less conventional route; I only took half my classes as honors for the sake of free time, which I spent on less scholastic endeavors, like hanging around parks and coffee shops with four or five friends, discussing anything from television and comics, usually anime and manga, to the state of political affairs, or usually whatever Diva wants to talk about.

Simply put, our lives had been easy; I'm sure my brothers' still are as comfortable as ever, even having lost me, or maybe more so because of it. Even then, in the midst of civil unrest around the world and a country-crippling state of economic depression, we were safely removed from the troubles of the world by wrought iron gates and private schools and luxury cars with tinted windows and private drivers. Our lives were protected; nothing could harm us, and nothing dared even try. But I wanted more…

"Bri!" Diva shouted as she waved from atop the large stone wall which separated our yard from the adjacent park. She jumped down and ran over, climbing the stairs to my balcony. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed enthusiastically.

"How was your trip toJapan?" I asked. I tried to return her hug, but my arms were pinned to my sides.

"It was amazing!" she shouted. "I bought so much stuff, I had to have them mail most of it back!"

"That's great," I replied, trying not to sound half-hearted, "but can you let go of me? I can't move my arms."

Diva stared at me for a second before letting go. "Sorry," she said. "Hey, I've got something to show you!" She pulled off her backpack and began to rummage through it, the contents almost spilling out all over the balcony; most of it was small figurines and trinkets. "I know it's in here somewhere… Maybe I should have left some of this stuff at home…"

"What are you-" I started.

"Aha!" she said, pulling out a DVD case and handed it to me. "You have got to watch this show!"

"Puella Magi Madoka Magica?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "One of my guides while I was over there gave it to me. It's in Japanese, but it has English subtitles. I've only seen the first episode, but it looks amazing."

"I'm going to guess that you want to watch it now," I said as I handed her back the DVD case.

"Duh!" she shouted, shoving the cases back into the box. "I've been waiting all week for this!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me through my house and down the stairs to our theater room. "Hey Mrs. Williams."

"Hello, Diva," she replied as we passed her office, not looking up from the phonebook. "Wait, how'd you get in?"

"I jumped the fence from the park," Diva replied, walking back to my mom's office, still dragging me by the arm; it was easier to follow than to try to get my arm back.

"Oh, well, are you hungry?" my mom asked, unfazed by her answer; I shook my head. "I was just about to order some Chinese food."

"Whatever you order sounds great," Diva replied, pulling me once again toward the theater room. "Ok, starting from the beginning, we should be done in… Six hours." She pulled the DVD from the case and put it in the player as I turned on the projector.

"You're not planning on doing it all in one run, are you?" I asked.

"Of course I am!" she replied. "Otherwise, we'll forget what's happening!" She pressed play and started the first episode.

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"Hey girls, food's here," my mom said as she carried in the bag of food and some plates and forks. "What are you watching?"

"Shhh!" both Diva and I said; she took a seat and watched with us. On screen,Charlotteleered down at Mami; Mami stared up, paralyzed in terror as it moved closer, its grin growing ever closer.

The scene changed and Homura fell from her bonds, watching as the remnants of Mami's ribbons dissolved in her hands. "Impossible," she said. The scene returned to Mami, her body, visible from the shoulders down, twitching as, off-screen,Charlottedevoured her head.

Diva and I watched in shock as the rest of the episode played out, only leaving our trance when my mom turned on the lights. "That's…" she started to say. "That's what kids watch inJapan?" We didn't reply. "Wow, that's kind of graphic. Although, I guess it isn't any worse than half the movies you see on television these days; the uncensored version of Saving Private Ryan was on a few days ago, right during primetime. Changing times, I suppose." She paused the show as the next episode started. "Come get your food before it gets cold."

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"No!" Diva shouted as the ending credits ran for the last time. I sat silent, trying to take in the final scenes; my mom had long since gone to bed, and my father and brothers home and to bed. "It's not supposed to end like that!"

"I thought it was… Fulfilling," I said finally. "Sad, but fulfilling."

"What do you mean by that?" Diva asked, still an edge to her voice.

"Well the story wasn't a happy one, was it?" I asked. "So to tack on some sort of peaceful, all-is-well resolution would be a disservice to the wonderful story which they had created up to that point and a betrayal of the audience's trust."

She stared at me for a moment, her eyes betraying her thoughtlessness, before standing up and stretching. "Man, what a world," she said.

"What do you think it would be like? To be a magical girl, I mean," I asked.

"I think it would be awesome!" she replied. "You get magical powers, and you get to fight bad guys all day."

"But what about becoming a witch?" I asked, a bit surprised at her excitement.

She leaned over me, her hands on the back of my seat, and said, smiling and whispering, "I'd never let you become a witch, dear." I squirmed nervously and she laughed. "I'm just kidding!"

"I-I know!" I insisted.

"Hello!" Kyubey said.

Diva fell backward and I jumped out of my seat; we both screamed. "You're not real!" I shouted as I turned around to see him.

"I assure you, I am very real," he replied, jumping down to us. "I found a way to create a path into another dimension by studying Homura's inter-dimensional jumps." We stood there, staring at him as he sat on the back of my chair, stuck dumb by the impossibility of the situation; neither of us could find words. "I have come to offer you the impossible; I can make you magical girls!"

"Hell yeah!" Diva shouted. She grabbed my hand. "Make us magical girls!"

"Wait!" I shouted, pulling my hand back. I was too late; the world went black.

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"Um… Hello?" I heard a voice ask from beyond the darkness; I found myself laying on the ground, cold and rough and hard, with my eyes closed and my head feeling as though it were about to split in half. "Are you- are you alright?"

"Diva?" I asked impulsively as I opened my eyes and waited for the blur to fade and my sight to return.

"No, I'm…" the voice said again, "I'm Kaname Madoka. What's your name?"

I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn't respond. "Kaname Madoka?" I asked weakly.

"Y-Yes," she replied. "And this is-"

"Miki Sayaka?" I asked, my mouth dry with fear as I pieced together the situation.

"How'd you know?" Sayaka asked.

"Have you…" I started to say, hesitating, wanting to be sure. "Can you help me sit up?"

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So here I am, sitting, my knees held tight to my chest, tears running down my cheeks as Madoka kneels by me and Sayaka stands by her side, as I'm wondering where Diva has gone, wondering… No, I'm not wondering; wondering is the wrong word… Dreading… I'm dreading what comes next; I've seen the show, and I know that, in the end, Mami will die and the only way to beat Walpurgisnacht is for Madoka to make a wish so powerful that it unmakes the universe or kills her, and that terrifies me more than anything else.

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Author's Note:

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first story in the Negai series, which take place in a completely different universe than Final Jump. Unlike most story series, each one of the Negai stories is stand-alone, existing in its own universe, with no direct ties to any others (I might throw in a few references for fun, and maybe a giant universal party at the end, but nothing plot-reliant). This one is a collaborative work between me and Kitefire; Kite's throwing me the story ideas, and I'm making them work out. If you've got an idea and want to work with me on making it come into existence, send me a message with the plot/characters/whatever you have, and I'd be glad to take a stab at it.

Rewrite Notes:

I've decided to make Sabrina's dialogue, and her narrations, more elegant. It's more natural for me to write that way, so I think it'll read better, as well.