As the gang walked in the same mall they had first all met in, Azuma wrote some stuff down in his own journal. As he wrote, Sayaka looked over at him and said, "What are you writing, Azuma-kun?"

"Hm?" Azuma was slightly startled. "Oh! Just writing down my schedule, that's all." He was lying to her, actually. In reality, he was writing down the day's events in English.

You know, it feels like I'm living in some cliche. Isekais are so overdone, they banned them from that one light novel contest or something in Japan. It doesn't feel right, for some reason. It feels like canon defilement, though I doubt I'm actually changing canon in the old world. Anyways, today I'm going to be present for the latter half of Episode 2. I didn't get to see any of that rooftop conversation Madoka and Sayaka had with Homura, but I'm guessing that from what Mami told me, nothing changed. Homura must be confused as to why I'm suddenly present in this timeline and not in any others. Well, not me. Perhaps I share more with whoever Azuma Inubouzaki was before I came to this world than I realize.

"Okay, gang," Mami said to them all as they stood outside the music store from the other day. "We're back at the music store." She then pointed to Sayaka and Madoka. "Show me how you two got caught in the renovated rooms upstairs."

"Sure thing," Madoka said to her, pointing towards the direction she took to get upstairs. "I first heard Kyubey calling for help from around that area. I just kept following the voice from there." The four of them then walked into the store. As Madoka led the way, Azuma couldn't help but look around the store to see if anything had changed since he last came to it.

Finally, after some searching, they made their way to the closed-off second floor. As Mami emerged first to the dusty floor, she grabbed her soul gem and looked at it. "Yep, we're definitely catching a trail." She then showed the other three her soul gem. "When it starts sensing magical residue, it begins to glow and pulsate like this. This means we're getting closer. While on patrol, we hunt only by foot, using this to determine if and where we found any sort of witch activity. In this case, it's highly likely the witch moved ad left a trail. All we have to do is follow it. Witches tend to not move so fast, so we'll easily be able to catch up to it."

"Sounds pretty easy," Sayaka noted as the four of them walked on the trail the witch left behind.

"Not quite," Mami replied. "Trails will fade away after about a day or two. We caught this one in the nick of time."


As they continued their trek over a bridge, about half an hour after arriving at the mall, the sun began to set. Azuma looked over at Mami and found himself seemingly caught in a trance as the sunlight reflected off of her, making her almost glow. "Something keeps drawing me to her. I tell myself to fight it, but..."

Mami noticed this and asked him, "Hey, are you okay?" She was confused as to why he was seemingly staring her down.

"Oh," Azuma replied, startled. "Sorry... I was looking over at the sunset." He quickly turned away, blushing.

The blonde smiled. "Ah. I must say, it's particularly pretty this time of year." She then turned to Madoka. "Isn't it?"

"Oh, yeah." Madoka had been thinking about Homura when Mami interrupted her. "Sure... It is." She thought to herself, "Is... Is Homura really a terrible person, or is there something hidden we don't know about?"

"If you don't mind answering," Sayaka asked of Mami, unsure of how she would react to her question. "How many people have you rescued from barriers or whatever they're called?"

"I've been a magical girl for about two years now," Mami began as she thought to herself. "So... Hmmm... I'd estimate about 30. I have a book at home of my saves, but I can't remember off the top of my head." She then sighed as her tone became more somber. "That same book also lists people I couldn't save. That number I do sadly remember off the top of my head, and it's 8. Going through both parts of the book helps me sober up to some of the realities a magical girl faces at times."

Madoka said to the blonde, "That sounds so sad."

"It's fine," Mami assured her. "I've accepted that this is a business where you will see death stare you right in the face. The only thing I can do is not let it get to me, because if I do, it will only hurt me and the people I'm supposed to protect."

"Sorry I asked, "Sayaka replied, feeling that she brought the whole mood down.

"You're fine," the blonde told her as she patted her on the shoulder. "I don't mind answering those questions, especially for newcomers like you and Kaname-san. Anyway, to change the course of the conversation, I can tell you where you can find traces of magic residue."

Azuma interjected, "It would be places of suffering, right?"

"Correct," Mami replied as she pointed to the road next to them. "You'll find it at bad accidents, so I like to go to busy intersections. From there, I can go to the red-light district, since drunk idiots like to fight there over the corner girls there, and suffering of course exists from both customers and prostitutes. I will say that on more than one occasion, I've been offered money to do certain things by some of these creeps because they think I'm one of them, especially when I haven't transformed back into my regular clothes yet. Thankfully, they all have enough basic human decency to run away when I tell them I'm a third-year junior high schooler, and I'm gonna call the police on them for trying to have sex with a minor." The four of them then paused to laugh.

Sayaka said as she collected herself, "That's a great way to get creepy old men off your back, Mami-san!"

"That's fucking great," Azuma replied as he hi-fived Mami. "Got any interesting stories?"

"As a matter of fact," the blonde replied as she wiped her eyes of tears from laughing so hard. "I do. This one time, it was early into my career, and it was my first trip into the red-light district. Now, Inubouzaki-san, I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable about girls talking about their bodies and stuff, but you'll have to bear with me here."

"I'm perfectly fine with that," Azuma assured her, wanting to hear her story as he gave her a thumbs-up.

"Good," Mami replied. "So, I was an early bloomer, okay? I got my period the month I turned 11, I always looked older than most people in my class, you get the gist of it. On my first patrol in the red-light district, I just got out of a barrier, and I hadn't transformed back yet. I had turned 13 a week ago, so I was very young. This guy comes up to me and asks if I'm "ready for the appointment." Apparently, he thought I was this second-year in high school he was doing this "compensated dating" thing with, and that I was in a cosplay of some random anime character. I tell him he's got the wrong girl, and just as I'm about to use my magic to wrap up his mouth shut, the actual girl he's paying comes up in her uniform." By now, the other three were laughing once more. "He apologized to me, actually, and even paid me 4000 yen to keep my mouth shut about the confusion. He was definitely creeped out when he realized I actually was 13, but I guess he had no qualms about doing compensated dating with a 16-year-old girl even though he was like 30-something. But hey, he paid me to do basically nothing, so I can't entirely complain."

Madoka said to her, "That's funny and all, but what exactly is compensated dating?"

Sayaka looked her straight in the eye and quoted right from Game of Thrones, "Oh, my sweet summer child... Madoka-chan, you're too innocent at times."

Azuma then explained to her, despite the weirdness factor, "It's when some older dude pays a girl to basically date him without calling it prostitution. High school girls and even some in junior high may engage in it, though it's much rarer than some people want you to think. It's creepy as hell, and even moreso when it's a girl our age or even a few years older being courted by some guy in his 30s or even 40s, or even older."

Madoka looked in horror at the realization of what it could mean for the girl. "Oh... That's... That's disgusting... I can't imagine doing that with a boy my age, let alone one twice my age."

"Exactly," Mami replied as he patted Madoka on the back for comfort. "Don't worry, though. With me, you'll be safe from any threat, witch-made or man-made, male and female, and anything in between. Anyways, moving on from that area of the city, the other big spots I look at include spots where people like to go to commit suicide. As I mentioned the other day, witches may be the cause for some suicides, especially those that seem to happen out of nowhere. Then, there's the hospitals. Those are the absolute worst, because the witches there drain the life force of helpless people who are already weak from illness or injury." Suddenly, she felt her soul gem pulsate again. "Huh?" As she looked at it, it glowed intensely. "It must have picked up on a recent trail. We're close by." She then pointed to an abandoned building that was about 4 floors tall nearby. "It must be coming from that direction! Let's go!"

The four of them then bolted for the building. Azuma thought to himself as they ran, "This is the building that woman jumps off of in Episode 2! This is the real deal!"

As they ran to the front, Mami looked once more at her soul gem, which glowed even brighter now, and told them, "There's no questions about it. We're here!"

Sayaka then gasped as she looked up and pointed to the roof. "Oh my God! Look!" as the gang looked up, they saw a woman in a business casual outfit standing on the ledge of the building, looking down and getting ready to jump.

Azuma called out to her, yelling, "Ma'am, stay put! We're sending help to you right now! Whatever you do, do NOT jump!" He knew his words would probably be in vain, but felt that he still had to try.

Sure enough, the woman jumped anyway. Madoka called out, "Oh no!" Mami immediately transformed with the snap of a finger as she looked up at the woman. As soon as she finished, she summoned several ribbons to create a blanket for the woman to land on, cushioning her fall and stopping her from hitting the ground. As the woman fell slowly to the ground, falling asleep as she did so, the other three ran to Mami to look.

"A witch's kiss," Mami said to them. "Of course." She then got up. "She'll be fine. She's just asleep right now. Let's focus on the witch now that we have her out of danger." Madoka, Sayaka, and Azuma all looked to each other and nodded before running in with Mami.

As they looked around at the decrepit building, Azuma noticed writing on one of the walls that inexplicably was in German. "I don't think they ever explained why this was here in the show." He then said to Mami as he pulled his crowbar out, "I got my crowbar out. I'm ready."

"Good," Mami replied. "Bring it here and I'll modify it a bit. Same with your bat, Miki-san." As she grabbed their weapons, the entrance to the barrier suddenly opened at the top of a staircase in front of them. "You won't get away this time."

Sayaka looked in amazement as the bat changed shape. "Woah! That's so cool!"

"It'll help it," Mami explained as he walked up the stairs. "Now, I want you three to stay with me and under no circumstances leave me, okay? This is a dimension that is immediately dangerous to life and health. Sticking together saves lives in here." She then hopped on through the barrier's entrance.

Azuma followed her in first, yelling out, "INUBOUZAKI AZUMA HAS NO WEAKNESSES!"

The bluenette with the baseball bat said to Madoka, "He seems confident." The pinkette nodded. Then, Sayaka charged in, yelling, "HERE I COME!"

Madoka then timidly followed in behind her, unsure of how to handle herself in the barrier. She thought to herself, "This will either go really well, or end really badly."

The portal led to another longer set of stairs in the barrier, flanked on all sides by rows of various familiars all dancing and seemingly ignoring the four of them. As they ran up, Azuma looked around and could not help but pull his phone out with his free hand to start taking pictures. He thought to himself, "In a way, the world within the barriers of a witch is so beautiful. These things really do take your breath away in person."

Then, at the top of the stairs, Mami reached her arm out to get the others before her to stop. "Hold on!" She noticed that at the top were several flying familiars. "I got this!" She quickly used her ribbons to summon forth a musket to despatch the familiars with ease. As they were vaporized by the bullets, Azuma got his crowbar ready just in case.

As they went along the complex maze within the barrier, going through various doors, corridors, and windows, Sayaka and Azuma began to put their weapons to use, bashing some familiars as they tried to rush the four of them. At one stop, Azuma grabbed a familiar with his bare hands and dragged it towards him to beat it across the head with his crowbar, causing it to disappear after hitting it several times. This startled Mami, who has just despatched another familiar by way of musket. She asked him, "Are you crazy?!"

"A little," he replied as he wiped away sweat from his forehead. "Just a little."

Eventually, they got to the final obstruction in their path. Before them was a giant field of Anthony-class familiars, all wildly dancing with scissors. Mami again held her arm out to keep the rest of the team back. She then held her other hand up to summon forth 10 muskets, enough to kill all the Anthonys. As the muskets loudly fired, the other three covered up their ears. Sayaka yelled out, "Those things are loud as hell!"

"They sure are!" The blonde then turned around with a smile on her face. "Okay, they're all gone! Let's go get the witch." To get to the witch, the gang would have to open several brightly-colored doors in their way. Thankfully, this time, there were no obstacles in their way.

Once they finally reached the witch's lair, Azuma looked out beside Mami as Madoka hid slightly behind Sayaka. Azuma said to Mami, "That's our witch, huh? It's just like my cousin described, all deformed and all." The witch had large wings and a head covered in roses and bushes. Seeing it up close for real made Azuma realize just how deformed witches looked like compared to seeing them animated.

"Indeed," Mami replied. "Kyubey, do you have a name for this one?"

"I do," he replied to her. "This witch is referred to as Gertrud."

"Got it," Mami replied. "So, what do you girls think?"

Sayaka was disgusted by the appearance of the witch. "It looks ugly."

"Are you really gonna fight that?" Madoka was worried for Mami's safety.

"I'll be fine," the blonde reassured all of them. "I don't lose." She then summoned ribbons to separate the rest of the team from her to protect them. "I'll be right back!"

As she jumped down to fight the witch, Azuma filmed on his phone. "I gotta get this on video. This looks incredible!"

"I can't blame you for doing that," Sayaka replied, looking at his viewing screen. "My phone's kinda dead, so I can't do it." She then chuckled.

Suddenly, just as it seemed that Mami had it all under control, she was tied up by a band of lights and constricted by the witch, causing her to scream out in surprise. Azuma yelled out, "Tomoe-san! Mami!" He had just called her by her first name for the first time since he came to in their world.

Then, the witch slammed her into a wall, causing it to crack and buckle, before suspending her above her mouth. At the moment where the entire team feared the worst, Mami opened her eyes and gave a smile. "I'm alright! I can't let myself look uncool in front of my friends, after all!"

As she began to unwind herself from her binds, Azuma looked on, knowing exactly what would happen next. "Time to see her ultimate attack in person!"

Mami summoned her largest weapon, a giant musket that looked more akin to a cannon than a gun. As the witch struggled against ribbons summoned by the blonde to restrain it, she smiled and said, "It's over." She quickly aimed it at Gertrud and shouted, "TIRO FINALE!"

The sound of the gun was akin to a volcano going off, and reverberated throughout the whole barrier. As the bullet pierced straight through Gretchen, it screamed out in pain. It then shook violently before it began to disappear. Once it did, it dissipated as Mami landed calmly on her feet, a teacup in her hand. As a Grief Seed landed next to her, she took a sip of tea and smiled, another witch taken care of with relative ease.

Azuma stopped filming on his phone and called out, "That was amazing, Tomoe-san!"

Sayaka agreed with, "You won! That was so cool!"

Suddenly, to the surprise of Sayaka and Madoka but not to Azuma, the witch's barrier around them disappeared, giving way to the empty corridors of the abandoned building they were in. As Mami transformed back to her regular self, she admired the sights around her. "You know, I've always wanted to do some urban exploration at some point."

"Same here," Azuma replied, interested that Mami was into such a thing. "I've been interested in urban exploration myself for a while."

Mami then picked up the Grief Seed. "Remember how I said that magical girls can get rewards? This is that reward. It's a Grief Seed, basically the egg of a witch."

Madoka, concerned, asked, "Is it dangerous?"

"Not at all," Kyubey replied. "In fact, in that form, it is very helpful."

"Indeed," Mami replied. "Just watch this." She hen pulled her soul gem out with her other hand. "Notice that it's a bit duller than last night? Well, watch this." She then placed the Grief Seed next to her soul gem, causing a black mist to travel from her soul gem to the Grief Seed, removing any impurities in the soul gem. "And just like that, everything is back to normal once more."

"So cool," said Sayaka, still in awe over how magical girls worked.

Mami then suddenly threw it into a darkened corridor. "It's good enough for one more use, Miss Akemi Homura."

As the black-haired girl herself walked out from the shadows, the thrown Grief Seed in her hands, Sayaka said to her, "What do you want with us?!" She still was hostile with her, thinking she wanted to harm Madoka.

"Take it back," Homura said, completely ignoring Sayaka's remark. "It's your kill." She then threw the Grief Seed back to an annoyed Mami. "I'll probably see you around at some point later." She then turned around and walked away. "By the way, I will keep telling you this: that boy does not belong." Azuma was getting more and more annoyed by her disparaging remarks about him.

"She bugs the hell out of me," Sayaka remarked. "What's her deal?"

Madoka, still having some hope in reconciliation, asked, "Why can't we just be friends?"

"She has to want to be friends," Mami replied to her. "Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case."

Azuma thought to himself, "You have no idea how wrong you are about that, Mami."

As she continued to walk away from the group, Homura spoke under her breath, "How troublesome." She thought to herself, "Mami-chan, you're wrong. I want to be friends like when we first met so many loops ago. It pains me to have to fight with anyone Madoka cares about, but especially you, given you were her friend and protector in that first timeline. If I can get you on my side, that would make things so much easier."

(JOURNAL ENTRY: EPISODE: THAT SOUNDS WONDERFUL)

I witnessed Mami kill Gretchen, which was cool. She moves so elegantly in battle. I'm pretty sure I kinda ruined the shots I took of the video of the fight because I was so mesmerized by her. It feels like every move she makes is a work of art-

Wait, why am I writing so much about that?

Anyway, that will be the end of the happy parts of this world. Up next is the fight with Charlotte. I want to try to stop her death, but I don't know if I'll just either get myself killed or save her but trigger something worse that happens later in exchange for her not dying. If I do decide to let her die, I don't know if I will be able to live with myself. Part of me wants to skip that fight and be told of it after the fact, but another part wants to go to it and see it up close. I will have to decide whether to act or just watch when I get to that point. Whatever it is I decide, I do it not out of any malice for her or for anyone.

Homura is getting on my nerves. I never thought I'd say that. What the hell did I do to get her to call me not wanted? She should know that random things can happen in her time loops. Wasn't Kyousuke a guitarist instead of a violinist in a few loops for no fucking reason? Say, speaking of him, I gotta figure out how I'm gonna approach that mountain when I get to it, if I get to it, assuming it still happens. I'm a man of culture, and by that I mean I ship yuri pretty hard, but at the same time, I don't wanna risk the chance that perhaps Sayaka and Kyouko aren't actually into other girls. Maybe I could try to hook up Mami with Kyouko, assuming I manage to prevent the former's death.

Okay, I realize now that given that I'm interacting with these characters as real people, perhaps shipping them like that is less fun and more along the lines of fucking creepy. No matter. I can still be the ultimate wingman if I need to be.

On a more serious note, this is when shit gets rough. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I cannot escape, and that unlike Homura, I only get one chance to change this world for the better. Fuck it, I'm gonna take it if it's the last thing I God damn do.