Chapter 1

One month earlier...

It is Akemi Homura's first day at school today, where she will officially be introduced to Kaname Madoka for the first time.

Of course, for the real Akemi Homura, she has already been through this sequence multiple times. Original timeline Homura was a weak and bedridden girl who only got released from hospital about two weeks earlier, but Magical Girl Homura is a tough, battle-hardened individual who has been going through the motions to fulfill her plans for Madoka for the past two weeks already. She has already gone hunting for the cat-like creature, Kyubey, and also rescued a stray cat to prevent a car accident that was the catalyst to Madoka making her wish and turning into a Magical Girl.

But today is different for Homura. As she walks down a street that she is familiar with, she spots something that is completely out of place. At first glance, that something is nothing but a nondescript building among the buildings on this street. The store's signboard reveals the name of the building: "Hikari Studio", a photography studio.

What piques Homura's interest is that she has never seen, or even heard of, Hikari Studio before. In all her days and multiple time loops walking down this very street, this is the first time she has seen this building. In fact, it wasn't even here yesterday, within the very same timeline!

As she ponders the mystery before her, the door opens and a young man steps out of the building. Appearing not more than 20 years of age, he is neatly dressed in a formal white suit and wears a pink TLR camera around his neck. Seeing her, the man raises his hand to greet her. "Yo!"

Homura is immediately suspicious and her eyebrows narrow. "Who are you?"

"Kadoya Tsukasa." The man is taken aback by her reaction, but answers with a friendly smile anyway.

"Akemi Homura" is her reply, said cold and calmly. She continues her interrogation. "What are you doing here?"

"Me? I'm... err..." Tsukasa hesitates for a moment, and takes a look at his clothes. He feels something in his left shirt pocket - some sort of ID card - and takes a quick look at it. "I'm a school teacher here, apparently!"

Homura is obviously skeptical at the act. He does look the part, but something just feels off about the whole thing. "I don't believe you. I don't know who are or why you're here, but you had better stay out of my way, or you will regret it."

With that, she turns away from Tsukasa and starts walking to school. This delay has cost her precious minutes of her time, and for a time traveler with a strict schedule to adhere to even a few seconds can be costly.

However, after a few paces she pauses. "Why are you following me?"

"Well, I am a school teacher and I guess I need to know how to get to the school?" Tsukasa replied with a wry smile. "Here, it says I teach at Mitakihara Middle School," says Tsukasa as he points to a line on his ID card. "This looks to be my first day".

"I go there too," comes Homura's reply. "Just follow me and keep quiet."

This is really starting to get very suspicious, Homura thought to herself.

"So, do you know if there are Riders in this world?" Tsukasa asks bluntly. He can clearly sense that Homura is no ordinary girl, so there's no point in being subtle about the whole thing.

"Riders? I don't know what you are talking about. Didn't I just tell you to be quiet?"

Tsukasa continues to probe. "No Riders here, huh. So what about Sentai? Are you a Super Sentai member, perhaps?" Kadoya Tsukasa, as Kamen Rider Decade and traveler between alternate universes, has been travelling through enough worlds to know that the first person he meets is usually significant, so he's putting all bets that Homura is indeed the one he needs to befriend in this Rider-less world.

This time he is met by Homura's icy stare. "I don't know who you are, but you clearly are more than just an ordinary school teacher." Her hand moves to reach for a weapon, but stops short as she considers the situation. They are on a public street, after all, and she still doesn't know Tsukasa's intentions. So far he has not shown or indicated any sort of hostility towards her, only curiosity. "In any case, I don't know what you are talking about so stop asking me these questions."

"Okay, okay, no more questions," Tsukasa replies with both hands up in front of him. He senses Homura's hostility and decides not to press the issue any further, at least for now.

The pair quietly resume their walk to school.


Meanwhile, back at the entrance of Hikari Studio, another person steps out. This time it is an attractive young woman who is about the same age as Tsukasa. She also has long brown hair, but wears an orange Monmouth cap and is dressed in a green t-shirt underneath a white jacket.

"Tsukasa-kun, wait!" She looks around and realizes that Tsukasa is nowhere in sight. "I wonder where Tsukasa-kun wandered off to so quickly."

Just then she senses a presence behind her and turns around to confront it. Standing before her is a man in grey overcoat. He wears a pair of oval-framed spectacles and a grey fishing hat.

"Narutaki!" The girl exclaims.

"Again, Decade has brought Riders into a world without Riders. This world shall be Decade's downfall, I'm sure of it this time!" With that he steps backwards and walks into a strange, shimmering wall of energy that simply appeared out of nowhere. In doing so, both Narutaki and the wall disappear from the girl's sight.

"What the hell was that all about?"