This story takes place Pre Madokami world where Puella Magis either die or become witches.
Meet Amanta, a meek girl who loved arts and her favorite color is green. She like Madoka was always optimistic and selfless. But like any other Puella Magi who isn't Madoka, she always has a selfish side of hers.
Amanta's waist length blonde hair is tied in two pigtails and her eyes were bright green in color. She is a young 14 year old girl who lives with her poor family and loves drawing her favorite stuff such as butterflies and nature. She loved nature in general and sometimes she even wrote stories about her favorite animals and flowers. In other words she was very creative. She often sold artworks and stories to earn money so that she could help her family.
One day, she was walking in a deep forest with her watercolor, acrylic paints, paintbrushes, a pencil, pen, a notebook and a canvas and studied everything carefully. She then sat on a slope which lead to a deep ocean where she kept the watercolor, acrylic paints, paintbrushes, pencil, pen, notebook and the canvas. Suddenly a huge wave of wind rushed through the forest and this resulted in Amanta's paintbrushes, paints, pencil, pen, notebook and the canvas to move down the ocean. She tried to catch all of them but it was too late. Everything she took for drawing fell into the ocean.
Amanta then starts crying because she can no longer draw artwork nor write a story and sell it to gain money to help her family. Since she feels lost, she cannot do anything but watch as suddenly she sees a alligator swallowing her items up, mistaking them for fishes and swims back to the ocean. This made her tear up even more.
"This can't be. I can't help my family now. I only had one notebook and one canvas left and they are gone. Plus they're very expensive to buy and we don't have so much money to buy many of them. Somebody please help me!", Amanta said.
"Do you need any help Amanta?", a strange voice was heard. Amanta then turned back and saw an incubator.
"Who are you? And how do you know my name? Why are you here?", Amanta said in shock and fear.
"I am Kyubey. I am someone who grants wishes and makes them magical girls.", Kyubey replied.
"Kyubey? You grant...what?", Amanta asked.
"Simple. I grant wishes but once I granted it, I turn people like you into magical girls. Do you wanna become a magical girl?", Kyubey replied.
"Magical girl? I remember watching a handful of magical girl shows when I was young. They look so wonderful. It seems like we use magic powers to do anything we want to, don't we?", Amanta was excited.
"Exactly. If you become a magical girl, you have to fight beings in the world called witches. The world would be basically destroyed with them involved.", the incubator said.
"Oh. Then what am I supposed to do now?", Amanta asked.
"Sign a contract and become a magical girl by thinking of any wish you like and I will grant it.", the incubator replied.
Amanta then closed her eyes and said her wish.
"I wish to become a better artist and a better writer."
Suddenly a bright light shone on her chest and she started to feel intense pain through it which caused her to scream. Finally the pain stopped and she opened her eyes only to realize the fact that she became a green puella magi. Her outfit consisted of a puffy green frock with light green frills in the end and on her top. Her dark green butterfly wings were at the back and her feelers on er head pointing on two opposite sides. Her slippers were green too.
"Wow! This looks wonderful. But I wonder how I would defeat a witch with this form though since I don't have anything to defend myself."
"Don't worry. You have a gem on your chest. It is called soul gem. Hold that part of your chest and focus on what would your weapon be.", Kyubey replied.
"Ok."
Amanta does exactly that while closing her eyes and Kyubey then tells her to pull apart. When she did that, she felt something come out of her chest. She then opened her eyes only to notice something on her hand which made her surprised.
"Is...is that...a huge paintbrush?"
"Yes. Now focus on what you want to draw and draw using that paintbrush in the air whatever you want."
Amanta then decided to draw the same canvas that fell into the ocean.
"Yay! I drew the canvas! Now I can draw whatever was lost into the ocean and eaten by the alligator."
She managed to draw all of her necessary items which made her really happy. She then thanked the Incubator. Then the incubator said: "You can also erase whatever you drew with your will too." But Amanta refused to do so because she doesn't want them to be erased.
"Good. Now come back to me whenever you feel something abnormal. Okay?", the incubator said. Amanta replied yes. Then Kyubey disappeared. Amanta then started to wonder who Kyubey really is.
When she was walking in a dark room, suddenly, she sees her parents about to commit suicide. Amanta rushed towards them and asked if they are okay. But they didn't respond and proceeded to commit suicide. She then notices a red mark on both of them and gets confused but at the same time, she feels that the mark is abnormal. She then notices her soul gem shining brightly and becomes confused too.
"What's happening? Why is my soul gem shining? And why is the red mark embedded on my parents?"
Kyubey appears again which Amanta notices him from behind.
"Can you help me? I don't even understand what is happening right now? My parents are committing suicide with red marks on them and my soul gem is shining."
"Don't worry. The red marks are witch kisses. Once they have that witch kiss on them, their minds change and enable them to commit crimes such as suicide."
"So how can I prevent it?"
"Simple. The soul gem shining indicates a witch is nearby. The more the gem shines, the closer you are towards the witch barrier. With your soul gem, you can enter the barrier."
"Okay."
Using her soul gem, she entered the witch barrier. The barrier is basically a desert full of familiars shaped like nomads.
She summoned her giant paintbrush and drew bullets in the air which when fully drawn, automatically fired towards the familiars. Some of them disintegrated but when most of them attacked her, she instantly drew a shield which protected her from being attacked and then the shield disappeared. She drew more bullets which destroyed many familiars and then proceeded.
After she destroyed many familiars, she finally proceeded to destroy the witch. The witch was shaped like a cactus with lethal spikes and spun around to fire the spikes at her. She once again protected herself by summoning the shield which deflected the spikes and then suddenly her paintbrush shone brightly. This caused her to fire a giant rainbow laser that obliterated it completely.
'I did it!", Amanta was excited and jumped in victory.
Suddenly something black dropped from the witch.
"Huh, what's that?"
"It's called a grief seed. Pick it up and hold it against your murky soul gem and t will clean all the grief from it."
When Amanta saw her soul gem, she noticed it is almost black. She then quickly picked the grief seed and pressed it against her soul gem and her soul gem shone brightly again.
"Thank you Kyubey."
"If you ever need help, don't forget to seek help from me, okay?"
"Okay."
Then Kyubey left.
Amanta reverted back to her civilian form and her parents were back to normal again.
"Huh? What happened?", her mom asked.
"Why are there knives and blood everywhere? Did something happen?", her dad asked.
"Uh, no. It's okay. I can clean those blood from the floor.", Amanta replied and she did.
She for a few weeks destroyed many witches with her weapon and the more she destroyed them, the more she felt confident. But her only concern though is that she might accidentally reveal her magical girl form to her parents which might cause trouble. Also her parents started to notice that she is frequently going outside although they knew nothing about Amanta being a magical girl.
One day, when she destroyed a witch, she instead of reverting back to her civilian form accidentally revealed her magical form to her parents. Her parents noticed her outfit and said that they just saw her wearing something different a while ago but now they saw her outfit being completely out of place. They even noticed her soul gem on her chest without wearing it like a necklace.
"Let me ask you something. You have been frequently going out for something for the past few weeks. What is it that you were looking for?", her dad asked.
"Also what kind of outfit is this? You just wore your casual clothes a while ago but now you are wearing this?", her mom asked.
"I...I can explain.", Amanta replied.
"ANSWER ME MY DAUGHTER! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS?!", her both parents were angry.
She tried to come up with excuses but since she could not do that, she accidentally blurted out the truth.
"The truth is that...I am a...um...a magical girl if you ask me."
"What's a magical girl?", her dad asked.
"Magical girls are girls with superpowers who fight against witches. By doing this, they save the world and bring hope to all of us."
"Who are witches?", her mom was bewildered.
"Well...they are...um...monsters who...um...spread despair. You know, last time when you both saw blood sprayed everywhere with two knives on the floor, you both were about to commit...um..."
Amanta was afraid to say this but she felt like she was forced to say it.
"Um...commit suicide."
Her parents were shocked but she continued.
"The reason why that happened is because you both were influenced by the witch so you guys didn't know what you were doing at that time. It's only after the witch was destroyed, you both felt normal."
This made her parents very angry to the point that they told her that she is not the one they knew and loved.
"WHO ARE YOU THEN?! YOU ARE NOT THE AMANTA WE CHERISHED SO MUCH?! STOP PRETENDING YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER AND PLEASE GET OUT OF HERE! STOP SPEWING FANTASIES FROM YOUR MOUTH AND GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!", her both parents angrily replied.
"But...but-"
"NO! YOU ARE EVIL! YOU ARE NOT MY DAUGHTER! I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU!"
She was kicked out of her house by her parents and ever since then, she became more and more lonely and depressed. Her soul gem darkened a little. She ran away to a hill, crying but she tripped over a rock and fell. But for some reason, she didn't feel anything. This is something Amanta noticed it. She then wondered how she didn't feel any physical injury when she fell. Kyubey appeared again.
"Do you need help?"
"Um, yes."
"What is it?"
"How come I didn't experience any pain when I tripped over a rock and fell?"
"Good question. You know why? It is because your soul is in a soul gem now."
"Eh?"
"Ever since you've become a magical girl, your soul has been detached from your body. This is why you don't feel any pain when a witch, a familiar or a magical girl hurts you. You only experience pain whenever someone or something targets your soul gem because your soul gem is where your soul lies."
"Does that mean...I'm a...zombie?"
"Being a zombie is how you interpret it."
"Do you do this to any other girl who becomes a magical girl?"
"Not only that but once you throw the soul gem 100 metres away from your body, your body shuts down. Also once you become a puella magi, you fight witches until death. This is how being a Puella Magi works."
Amanta couldn't help but feel her blood boil from inside.
"Kyubey, what have you done? You've endangered our lives by turning us into Puella Magis and then telling us the truth afterwards? Who are you then?"
"Simple. I am an Incubator who collects grief from magical girls like you and use it as an energy to save the universe from dying."
"So you are basically using us as tools for energy?"
"Why do you humans like to exaggerate things so much? Is that because you cannot accept the way the world works because of your idealistic views about the world?"
"Kyubey, you're evil! You must die!"
Before Kyubey said anything, Amanta transformed into a puella magi, summoned her paintbrush and drew energy balls which killed the Incubator. This made her satisfied until Kyubey reappeared again to eat his own dead body. This made her shocked.
"It is pointless to kill me because no matter how much you do, I will keep coming back."
This made Amanta's anger rise even higher and tried to kill Kyubey many times yet ended up failing because Kyubey kept coming back and eating his own body.
Once when Amanta was walking, she suddenly notices a puella magi whose soul gem has completely darkened screaming. She then notices the soul gem became a grief seed and the witch hatches from it. Amanta couldn't help but stand there with a surprised look. But since the witch is about to attack her, she defended herself as much as she could with her paintbrush. Finally, when the witch is defeated. she became traumatized when she saw the grief seed left.
"Do puella magis really become...witches?"
The mere thought of this was too much for her and she fell to her knees because of this.
"If...if that's the case, then...then what's the point of becoming puella magis? Is Kyubey turning us into puella magis because he wants us to be deceived so that we can suffer?"
Even though the grief seed is right in front of her, she refused to clean it ever since then.
"Firstly I had to deal with my parents whom I was forced to abandon them because I blurted out the fact that I was a puella magi which made them hate me. Secondly, I learned from Kyubey that ever since we become puella magis, our souls become trapped in soul gems and our bodies shut down once our soul gems are 100 metres away from our bodies. Thirdly, we one day become witches, the very same beings we fight to protect everyone. If that's the case then what's the point of living. It's better to die than suffering as puella magis. Although I was a good artist and writer from before, I wasn't that good. But my wish allowed me to become an excellent artist so that I can earn money by selling art and my stories so that I can help my family. Yet is this what I get?"
Her soul gem darkened even further and she threw the grief seed in front of her because she thinks there is no point in living. Her soul gem that was once vibrant green became completely murky to the point that even the grief seed cannot revive her anymore. This means she is beyond saving. Amanta could do nothing but sit there and let despair overcome her and as a result, her soul gem turned into a grief seed and she became a soulless witch that hatched from it with her entire labyrinth having ceilings, walls and floors with notebook lines, familiars looking like paintbrushes, pencils and pens and her entire witch form comprising of a giant canvas as her head with many markers as her limbs, watercolor paintings on the canvas head as her eyes and she is carrying a giant paintbrush which is about the size of a skyscraper and she is ready to curse anyone who is close to her. Sadly, she is defeated by another puella magi and turns into a grief seed.