(Homura POV)

What happened to me?

Ah yes, I fainted but why? I thought to myself as I woke to a familiar white ceiling AGAIN... I am really starting to hate hospitals...

The background beeping started to get faster. The heart monitor was speeding up. 120 beats per minute….. 145 beats per minute….. 160 beats per minute… that seems like a bit much. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind then an alarm started going off. The door to my room opened and a man in hospital scrubs walked in. The man came to a stop when he saw me sitting up.

(3rd Person Pov)

"Akemi-san, you seem to have quite an unusual condition here."

"What type of condition?" I question the young doctor... Fearing the worst.

"Well it's not something bad... but its quite odd, your heart was quite weak since you have been admitted here and even the surgery did not have much of an improvement." He paused as he looked quite puzzled, he showed me two scans of my heart.

"What happened?"

"Well, yesterday when you had a fainting spell the nurse found you lying on the floor, and brought you to the ER room" he paused as he looked up from the pulse scans, "but there was nothing wrong."

"The what did you mean when you said that I had a condition, were you lying?"

"That is the condition miss Akemi, there was nothing wrong, the test last week showed that there was no change to your heart since the surgery but since yesterday your heart is healthier than ever other than the slightly high heart rate everything seems to be in order. Its almost a miracle none of your muscles show any signs of atrophy. But we will have to do the rehabilitation just to

be sure nothing is wrong" Normally I would use magic to get out of a situation but there is something wrong with my body so I decided to stay and see if they might be able to find anything.

"So am I clear to go?"

"No, not yet there will be a few tests and other to do before you are clear for release, Akemi-san." "Is there anything you need Akemi-san?" the doctor added.

"No, thank you"

"Then I shall take my leave, have a good day Akemi-san."

(Homura Pov)

As the Doctor left I began to contemplate as I waited for my release to be cleared.

Who was responsible for this? Kyuubey? no... Wait, that voice it called itself the speed force and it said it gave me a gift. Were they responsible for this? If so what do they get out of the deal? Something like this can't be free there must be a downside. Was this it? If so I am sorely disappointed but I supposed I don't have to keep my heart enhancement active all the time, it will definitely improve my efficiency. I suppose it would help me in the long run but I find it unlikely that this is all. I will have to do some testing later. Then again I am not just one month in the past but two months, which give me an extra month to prepare before the incubator approaches Madoka. This must be the gift but the fact the did not ask anything in return bothers me a lot. I can only hope that they are not like the Incubator.

I was so deep in thought that I almost didn't notice the nurse open the door and return me my clothes.

I got out of my hospital gown and wore it... how long as it been since I have worn this dress. It feels a bit tight but it should suffice.

59 Days till Walpurgisnacht

I lay on a cold table in front of a metal doughnut. From behind a glass screen, a rough voice calls out.

"Akemi-san, can you hear me?"

I nod.

"Good. This is Takamichi, the CT tech. In just a moment the table you are on will slide back through the scanner behind you. It's important that you remain as still as possible so we get a good image capture. Do you think you can do that for me?"

I nod again. Honestly, after hundreds of tests in the hospital and years on the bed due to my previous heart condition, you would think they would be assured of my ability to lie still on a flat surface.

"Great! This scan should only take 20 minutes, so just relax and we will get started."

2 HOUR LATER

"Sorry for the hassle Akemi-san, but we if you wish we can try this again in a few days."

I can tell by her tone of voice that Takamichi is a bit frustrated.

"What seems to be the problem?"

The CT tech takes a moment to compose herself.

"I can't get a clean image. Don't worry, not your fault at all. Trust me, after the third scan I had eyes on you and you were completely still. The scans though….. completely out of focus, full of blurriness. We will have to shut down the imager and have it recalibrated.

58 Days till Walpurgisnacht

I was wheeled into what could only be described as a gym. Waiting for me was a mountain with a face and a name tag. The face was kind, the tag read "Minaka" Smiling down at me, Minaka reached out his hand for a shake.

"And you must be Homura"

When I shook his hand and nodded the mountain of a man continued.

"My name is Minaka and my job is to make you hate me."

This was said with the same level of enthusiasm that one would expect from a Cartoon character. My look of confusion was evidently enough to spur Robbie to elaborate.

"This is physical therapy. Now I know you're a teenager and are evolutionarily designed to sleep all day and every day, but years flat on your back without waking, walking, sitting, writing …. well it can play havoc on everything from your ability to walk to your ability to hold a cup to tea even with some strange miracle enacted by kami or even magic. With that in mind, today we are going to do a general assessment of your physical capabilities, note any deficits, and come up with a plan of action to get you back in shape. You will visit me one more time before you are discharged so we can make sure you are comfortable with the program we develop, ok?"

I nod hoping to get this done with and maybe find something interesting.

Smiling, Minaka gestured to a pair of parallel wooden railings.

"We are going to start with the big stuff and work our way down. It may seem backwards, but just from watching you move your arms around, how you manipulate that wheelchair, so I'm not too worried about your wheelchair skills as much at the moment."

Minaka walked behind me while talking, taking the handles of my chair in hand and wheeling me between the bars. One in the position he locked the wheels and walked back around to my front. Reaching up, he grasped a harness I noticed for the first time. It was attached to the ceiling by a cable. A peddle on the floor allowed him to pull slack from the line.

"What we are going to do here is pretty simple. I'll help you slip this harness on and then, with me using some counterweights, we are going to get you on your feet. I'll then decrease the counterweight and we will see how able you are to stand on your own. Then I'll have you walk back and forth using the bars here for support. Don't worry if you can't do much without relying on the counter weight"

It took me a moment to think my way through that.

"Understood"

Getting the harness on took about a minute. While this was going on someone else came into the room, a young girl, also in scrubs. She was pretty, with dark skin and hair cropped close to her scalp. Taking note that I noticed the new individual, Minaka introduced her.

"This is Matsu-chan, she will be assisting us today."

Matsu-san gave me a smile as she moved behind the wheelchair and took hold of the handles.

Mnaka gave the harness a final tug to make sure it was good and secure. Apparently satisfied, he backed up and moved his foot to another peddle.

"Ok Homura-san, here is how this is done. Reach up with each arm and grab the railings. I'll press this peddle which will start to retract the cable attached to your harness. Matsu will pull the chair out from under you once you are in a standing position, but will remain on hand to put it right back if you need it. I want to stress, you WILL NOT fall down. The cable will automatically lock should you drop more than 2 inches. That said, if you feel like you need to sit down, please tell me. We are here to assess you today, not push you."

Again with that grin.

"Pushing you comes tomorrow." It appears he is a smug little shit.

Challenge Accepted Mr Smug.

2 HOURS LATER

"Ok, Homura-san I think that's enough."

Between easy breaths, I called out from the treadmill.

"Are you sure? I feel like I could keep this up all day!" I smirked I knew I won, he knew it as well but still looks life like I win Smug-san.

Muffled though my answer was, he clearly heard me. Reaching over, he pressed a button which forced the treadmill into a cool down mode. As I slowed to a brisk walk, Matsu began unhooking me. The wires which were reading my heart rate, the breathing mask measuring my oxygen consumption, the temperature sensor, and a few other wires and stickers that I'm sure Minaka-san stuck on me out of sheer frustration came off.

As I stepped off the treadmill I began to contemplate so my endurance has been increased several folds. Which will definitely come in handy

Minaka-san scanned through the print out again and again as if he wanted to burn it to ashes, the before addressing me.

"Instead of weakness, you are showing remarkable endurance. You just ran the equivalent of 6 miles in under an hour. Oxygen usage is low, blood glucose is normal, heck girl, you're hardly sweating. As far as I can tell, you have zero muscle atrophy."

I walked into the little shower room and I undressed. Alone, I stepped in front of a floor to ceiling mirror. Minaka was not wrong. Not only was my muscles not atrophied….. I was decently muscular. Covered in lean, defined muscles. Corded legs, 6 pack abs, rounded shoulders, the works.

Interesting...

57 Days till Walpurgisnacht

Nothing scheduled for today. I have to stay in the hospital until tomorrow, that is when the CT machine will be ready for another round.

I asked the hospital staff for some Newspapers in order to catch up on events as I hadn't the slightest Idea what was happening this month. They didn't have any... Apparently, newspapers were too unclean or so they said so they gave me a magazine.

I had started reading at about 9:07 am. When I finished the book, I expected to find myself looking a the wrong side of 10:00 am. Instead, I was looking at 9:09…..am. I clicked on the tv and went to the guide channel. 9:09 am. Checking the last page of the book I noted with surprise that, in the span of two minutes I had read 350 pages. Cover to cover, start to finish.

A thought occurred to me. A huge, monumental thought. I couldn't bring myself to face it yet.

They called themselves the SPEED force, it was kind of fitting, if this was the gift they were talking about then I suppose I can't be disappointed. With this Kind of speed, I can get a LOT done to prepare for Walpurgisnacht but let's see if it really was a gift. I got out of bed and entered the lavatory in order to hide from prying cameras. Can't have them see my soul gem. Once the door was securely closed I removed my hair ribbon and brought out my soul gem to inspect it.

Well, It seems like it really was a gift after all. There was a very tiny bit of grief as what I would expect for staying in the hospital for a few days without using magic. It was still shining quite brightly. As a magical girl, our bodies are just remote controlled drones of flesh and blood. So Even moving our body requires a negligible amount of magic power, but it still generates grief. As such I expected My grief level to be much higher than that but it seems that not every entity is out to abuse humans as a mean of energy after all I will need to test this before I can be sure of it.

I changed my soulgem back to ring form and walked back to the bed, picked up the second magazine and flipped to the back. 240 pages. I looked at the clock, 9:10 am. Turning to the first page I began to read as fast as I could.

When I finished reading page 240 I slammed the book closed and looked at the clock. 9:11 am.

Well, this is certainly interesting.

Today was the second CT Scan.

"Akemi-san can you hear me?"

I nodded.

"Good. I'm sure you remember the procedure two days ago. Just stay as still as possible and we will get this scan done as quickly as we can."

I gave a grunt of affirmation. The table began to slide me back through the scanner.

20 Minutes Later

"I'm sorry Akemi-san, but we just can't get a clean scan on you."

Dr Miya, apparently the chief Radiologist, was trying to explain to my Guardian why the machine wasn't working, but why we were still going to be billed.

My guardian likely didn't care either way, after all, it was not his money. So why would he?

"The problem isn't the machine Karin-san. After the anomaly on Akemi-san's first test, we had it recalibrated by one of the manufactures certified technicians. It has worked perfectly for every patient scanned yesterday and today. The only time there is a problem is when we tried to scan Akemi-san. For some reason, we always get movement. It's honestly like she's vibrating throughout the entire scan." From what Miya-san had been saying, even though I was laying perfectly still, the scans all read like I had been moving. Tiny movements, but really fast. She said it sort of reminded her of when she had been halfway through a scan and a patient had started having a seizure, just way more subtle. What caught my attention though was her reference to moving really fast.

My stoic guardian simply agreed to pay... I was right after all. He didn't care well not that it was going to affect me. Within minutes I was released and we were heading to the house that was provided, Mother and father. It can't be called a home, after all, I am the only one staying in it.

"Akemi-san, you will be enrolled in Mikitahara next month is that alright?" I nodded "very well then Is there anything else you need?" and I replied in negative. "Very well Akemi-san, have a good day", he said as he drove off after dropping me off.

I turned back towards the mansion. Before entering it and Preparing the house, making it a livable place again. All the supplies I need were in my shield so didn't need to really go out. I prepare some cup ramen and proceeded to wait for three minutes before consuming it.

Night time

I put my back to the door and faced the end of the living hall. I kept the magazine I received from the hospital on top of the fridge. I decided that I would run across the room and grab one, running back as fast as I could. Bracing myself for the rush of speed, I RAN!

They say all actions are clear when reviewed. They are right. From my perspective, I ran across the room, picked up a book, and ran back. I have no idea how fast I was because there was no one else in this house to compare to. For taking two magazines I would watch the second hand on the wall clock. This would probably slow me down a little, as the clock was above the door, so I would have to start facing it, turn and run across the room and back, then note the second hand again. Getting back to my starting position I noted the clock:

10:07:05

I RAN

Across the room, pick up a book, run back, look at the clock.

10:07:05

Interesting, according to Einstein's theory of relativity, time actually runs differently depending on relative speed, so that time effectively passes at different rates for different observers travelling at different speeds, an effect known as time dilation. Thus, two synchronized clocks will not necessarily stay synchronized if they move relative to each other. There is a related effect in the spatial dimensions, known as length contraction, whereby moving bodies are actually foreshortened in the direction of their travel. It was Ironic for a girl like myself who uses time magic.

I fairly vibrated with my excitement. Hmm, I would need to keep an eye on that.

I opened my eyes, still laying on my bed. I took a slow breath in, then let it out.

I suppose It was time to go hunting for witches.

and done... damn My fingers are Aching... I hope this is Ok AS I am quite new to this... Feel Free for constructive criticism.