It wasn't obvious, at first. Between school and hunting wraiths, Homura barely had enough time to sleep, and less still to just stop and think. But as the days passed and the uneasiness in her heart grew, she could no longer deny it.

It was the breath crystallizing in the cool winter air. It was the dew bending blades of grass in the morning. These things had had meaning to her, and that meaning was gone.

She could no longer deny it when she went to bed in her empty apartment with high ceilings and the comfort she'd felt as she drifted to sleep in days past was gone. And when she dreamed of something so very important that she couldn't hang on to when she woke, except in the tears it left drying on her cheeks.

Nothing added up. Living as a magical girl with no family and comrades who she would one day see fall in battle, if she didn't first, should have broken her, but she kept fighting. She couldn't remember why, and that terrified her.

So when Mami asked why she wasn't wearing her ribbons, and she couldn't remember ever having any, she looked everywhere. She retraced every step she took over the past two weeks, her route to school, every place she had fought wraiths. But no matter where she looked, she couldn't find them.

"I can't live like this." Homura said after she checked the last possible place. Tears welled from her eyes before she roughly wiped them away. "I can't take this, M-," and Homura stopped, forgetting what she'd been about to say.

She didn't sleep that night.

"Um, here." Kyoko said the next day after school, handing her a small, felt jewelry box embedded with lace. She shifted uncomfortably and looked embarrassed, but Homura didn't care, because somehow she knew. She barely managed to restrain herself from snatching it out from Kyoko's fingers, and when she opened it she was unable to hide her relief at the sight of the pink ribbons nestled there.

"Where did you find these?" Homura said as she lifted her hair to tie the ribbons.

"Well, you won't believe me, but…" Kyoko turned away slightly. "I had this dream and an angel told me where to find it. I didn't believe it myself, but I checked, and there it was."

"I see." Homura said, and she did because now she remembered everything, and she was so happy.

"Oh, and she also said I should tell you that you would see her again. I'm not sure what that's about."

"I know." Homura said, and she smiled.