Hi everyone! Yeah, I'm unforgivable. I managed to beat my last late update record again, but the good news is that you're almost done in bearing with that: this is the second-to-last chapter, and I fully intend to not take another year in writing it.

I want to thank Iximaz for betaing this chapter.


Chapter 11 - Tomato In The Mirror

"Die! Die! DIE!"

A week had passed since Hitomi's ultimatum, and in goes without saying that Sayaka didn't find the courage to confess to Kyosuke.

That day, Hitomi did.

And so, the Ally of Justice was letting off her frustration on the poor Witch named Elsa Maria.

"Hey, Bluehead..." Kyoko started.

"I know I'm wasting too much magic! I know that I'll end up as a Witch myself if I don't calm down! But let me vent off first, okay?"

Kyoko blinked. "That's not it. It's just... really, it's just 'bout time to replace that sword."

Sayaka stopped attacking the Witch and glanced at Kyoko, wondering how the redhead could calmly eat a taiyaki inside a Witch's Barrier.

"Look at it. You hammered it around so much that it became completely blunt. It's so useless now that even the Witch's calling for pity."

Sayaka looked at her cutlass. Indeed, the blade was so badly dented and warped that it didn't even look like a blade anymore.

Then, Sayaka noticed something else.

"Kyoko... Am I losing my mind, or the Witch is waving a white flag with one of her tendrils?"

"Unless your particular way of madness has rubbed onto me, she really is. Told you she wants some pity."


"And that's how Bluehead and I managed to capture a Witch alive," Kyoko explained to the other magical girls. They were at the Midori-ya, now the official ground headquarters for the Irregulars.

The name for the group was chosen by Madoka, actually - Mami's proposal for "Holy Musical Scale" was shot down on sight. The blonde musketeer somehow managed to get the other girls to agree that the final letter was to be capitalized, though.

"See? Never underestimate the Ally of Justice!" Sayaka said, crossing her arms behind her head.

The other girls kept looking warily at the vaguely humanoid Witch that was standing between them, calmly sipping a milkshake.

"Anyways..." Nanoha started, "I guess we should bring her aboard the Asura; a live Witch would help a lot with the research."

"I'll go with her," Mami proposed, getting up from her chair. "I was going on the Asura anyways, today's my turn helping with the studies."


"Tiro Finale!" Mami screamed as she blasted the last dummy target into smithereens. The blonde girl then turned around and curtsied at the scientists who were working on her combat data.

Or, rather, should have been working, but were too busy watching Mami's acrobatics in amazement.

Mami raised an eyebrow. Even the scientists who were supposed to analyze Elsa Maria were clapping their hands, and the Witch herself was holding a sign with something scribbled on it - was that a score written in runes?


"Everything is so confusing lately," Madoka said while walking home. "Especially since the potential Kyubey told me about... is it really that scary?"

Homura nodded slowly. Another thing that the IrregularS had decided was that Madoka was to be escorted at all times, and it was her turn. Well... more like she had claimed that it was her turn.

"Now I understand why you prevented me from contracting with him, and protected me all this time even if you didn't even know me."

Homura shook her head, causing Madoka to give her a quizzical look. "Madoka, that's... not the reason. I... I've already known you for a long time."

"Eh? What do you mean, Homura?"

Homura gritted her teeth. She didn't intend to tell the whole truth to Madoka already, but her tongue slipped. Well, the cat's out of the bag now, so...

"You've seen how my power is time manipulation, right?"

Madoka nodded. "Yes, why?"

"I'm a time traveller, Madoka. I come from a timeline where Nanoha and the rest of my family were dead, Fate didn't exist, and you were a Puella Magi... and my only friend." Homura said, stopping. "When Walpurgisnacht came, you fought it with Mami, and even defeated it... but neither of you came out of it alive. So I—"

Homura couldn't end the sentence, though, as both her and Madoka were suddenly caught by navy blue energy rings.

Where have I seen this magic color before? Homura thought while Madoka screamed. The black-haired girl transformed, and started trying to dispel the binding spell.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a voice behind her. "That would count as resisting a TSAB officer."

The binds rotated to let let the girls look at the source of the voice.

"You!" Homura shouted as she recognized Admiral Yaris, accompanied by some TSAB soldiers.

"Don't worry, Miss Akemi, I have no intention to harm you. However, I'm afraid I have to suppress the threat that resides inside Madoka Kaname," Yaris said before summoning another energy ring around Madoka's throat.

"Stop... Please..." Madoka said weakly, already starting to suffocate.

Homura struggled against her binds. She had to do something. If just she could reach her shield...

Her left arm buckled towards her chest just as she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. Homura suppressed a scream as she took advantage of that to turn the shield by dragging it against her belly.

The black-haired girl turned her attention to the binds as soon as her time stop was in full action, shattering them almost instantly — after all, the time stop had cut their connection to Yaris' mana.

Homura staggered, holding her left shoulder. It was bent at an unnatural angle, likely dislocated. Homura blocked off her pain receptors before twisting it back into place and letting her magic start to heal the damage to the articulation.

I'm not letting you lay a single finger on Madoka, Homura thought as she destroyed Madoka's binds, before pulling out a M4 assault rifle with a M203 grenade launcher under the barrel. She unloaded both weapons against Yaris before turning her attention towards the five soldiers accompanying him.

I can't hurt them... well, not too much, Homura thought before taking some of her old pipe bombs from her shield. Powerful enough to knock them off their feet, but hopefully not enough to injure them through their Barrier Jackets.

And if they did get injured... well, that was their fault for taking part in Yaris' assassination plan.

After placing the explosives, Homura walked back to Madoka's side and put an arm around her friend's waist to support her, Beretta M9 already in the other. Time to let time resume, she thought after aiming the gun at Yaris.

Several explosions ensued.

Yaris found himself on the ground, the force of the sudden attack enough to dispel his Barrier Jacket and break a couple of his ribs. Around him, his escort was knocked out cold, surrounded by small craters and flames.

He couldn't believe that. How could a single girl, who was tied up and didn't even have a Device, take out an entire TSAB squad in less than a second?

In front of him, Homura checked if Madoka was alright before walking towards him.

"You... devil!" he shouted. Well, as close as a shout he could muster considering his broken ribs.

"I don't mind being a devil," Homura said without a trace of emotion in her voice. "If it's needed to keep Madoka safe, I'm going to use all of my hellish abilities."

Homura stopped right in front of Yaris, aiming her pistol at his heart.

"You... you really are going to kill a Dimensional Navy Admiral?"

"Sometimes, what would be considered a murder is the only choice," Homura answered coldly, echoing his words from a few days earlier.

"Homura, please, don't!" Madoka screamed. "If you do that... you... you wouldn't be any better than him! Killing people is always wrong!"

Homura brought her left hand over her right wrist, and started lowering the gun as if each hand was following one of the two different instincts clashing in her. Comply to Madoka's request, or get rid of that bastard?

A gunshot echoed in the night.


Some miles away, Sayaka and Kyoko walked off a train.

"Listen, Bluehead, you need to chill."

Sayaka looked away from her. "But you heard those two idiots, right?"

Kyoko fished some coins out of her pockets and started walking towards a vending machine. "Yes, and? They were assholes, all right, but the world's chock full of them. There's not really anything we can do about that."

Kyoko inserted the coins and selected a can of Pringles. "And skewering them would've caused more trouble than it was worth."

"Tell me, Kyoko," Sayaka said tiredly as she sat on a bench, "do you think this world is really worth protecting?"

Kyoko retrieved the can from the machine. "Can't answer that, sorry. I don't really fight for altruistic goals."

"Don't worry, I think I already know the answer. I tried fighting for Kyosuke, and he ran off with Hitomi. I tried fighting for justice, and turns out there really isn't a justice in this world. And that's not mentioning the fact that I've been tricked by Kyubey and that fat admiral who's opposing him actually also wants my best friend dead."

Sayaka pulled out her Soul Gem. It was so clouded that its original light blue was now reduced to being some specks floating inside a pitch black blob.

"Whoa, just how much magic did you use against that last Witch?" Kyoko said, eyes wide open. She had never seen a Soul Gem so corrupted - and it was bad news.

"Who knows? You were right, I'm also hopeless at Witch hunting. Frankly, I'm starting to not even care if I become a Witch. You can kill me, and have my Grief Seed afterwards. I guess that's the only use left for an idiot like-"

"Quack."

Sayaka turned towards her friend. Kyoko was holding two chips between her lips in the surprisingly accurate reproduction of a cartoon duck's beak.

Sayaka blinked a couple of times before starting to laugh, slowly at first but soon she was bent in half and unable to stop. Kyoko took advantage of that to swipe away her Soul Gem and press a Grief Seed against it.

"Kyoko, I might be an idiot but you take the cake," Sayaka said as soon as she managed to regain some composure.

"Well, I just saved you from going witchy right now, so I'm expecting you to buy me an actual cake."

Sayaka shook her head, then realized something. "Weird... I feel much better now. What the hell was I even thinking?"

Kyoko raised Sayaka's Soul Gem towards a lamp, looking at the light through the gem itself. "Homerun was freaking right, when these things start to get black we can't think straight anymore. And, considering how messed up you were earlier, looks like the slope gets slipperier the more we go down it."

Kyoko gave the Soul Gem back to its owner. "We gotta be more careful, these things are designed to doom us to go Witch the moment we start losing ourselves."

Sayaka closed her fist around her Soul Gem. "Well, I guess I do have a new goal now. Thwart that alien furball's plans as much as possible."

Kyoko nodded. "That's more like it. Hm, wait, isn't that your phone?"

Sayaka rustled through her pockets and, indeed, her phone was ringing. "Hi, Madoka, what is it?... What? Ok, we're coming."

Sayaka looked back at Kyoko. "The fat idiot just tried to kill Madoka... except the transfer student shot him first."


Nanoha and Fate were looking at the live footage coming from the camera inside one of the Asura's smaller meeting rooms; Homura was being questioned over her actions by an officer of the Interdimensional Navy's Criminal Investigation Services, and was doing her best to remain impassible at the onslaught of questions.

"Shooting Admiral of the Navy Yaris like that... I can't believe Homura really became someone capable of doing that," Nanoha said, averting her eyes from the screen.

The door behind them opened, and Lindy entered the room. "I've just gotten a call from the medical staff of the Cassandra. The operation was successful; the surgeon managed to save Yaris' knee. He's not going to be walking for a while, though."

The Admiral then noticed what Nanoha and Fate were watching. "Don't worry, I don't think Homura's going to be facing serious charges. Yaris attacked first and in disregard of our own rules, after all. Even if they were to find her actions to be worth a sentence, we're looking at a couple years of compulsory service with the TSAB at most."

"I know," Fate said, "but Special Agent Challenger..."

Lindy nodded slowly. "His interrogation methods can be quite harsh, I'll admit that. But don't worry, good old Jethro's heart is in the right place. He'll change completely once he understands what she's been through."

Indeed, Challenger looked like he had calmed down, and patted Homura's shoulder before exiting the interrogation room.

"See? He's sympathizing with her already," Lindy said. "He didn't even dope-slap her for the trouble."


A few days later, General Miata called in the IrregularS for another strategy meeting, this time on the Asura's bridge.

"Before starting, I want to bring you some good news. The three Legendary Admirals didn't like Admiral of the Navy Yaris' attempt on miss Kaname's life one bit, and he's going to be court-martialed for it. It goes without saying that he's not getting out of that scot-free."

Nanoha took one step forward. "This means that they're also dropping the charges against Homura, right?"

Miata sighed. "Unfortunately, no. The INCIS board has been rather understanding, but at the same time they believe shooting him in the knee was completely unnecessary - their offer, obviously tied to a successful outcome of our current operation, is thirty months of TSAB service."

Homura remained impassible. "I'm fine with it."

"Don't worry, working for the TSAB is great!" Nanoha reassured her enthusiastically. "I'm not even sure how it can be considered punishment, actually. You get to visit so many different planets!"

Miata laughed. "I wish all of my subordinates had your enthusiasm, First Lieutenant. Anyways, let's talk about our main issue: according to what Miss Akemi told us, tomorrow morning, between seven and eight o'clock AM, the Witch known as Walpurgisnacht will manifest in this city."

"Walpurgis...what?" Sayaka asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Walpurgisnacht," Mami corrected her. "The strongest Witch. She appeared only sporadically through history... and she has never been defeated, as far as I know."

"That's what we know as well." Miata said. "However, by what we gathered so far, we believe that it can be defeated - we have fragmentary evidence of as little as two Puella Magi managing to forcing it into retreating, if not outright defeating it. But, as you can guess, so far no one has managed to put it down for good."

Madoka looked down. The "fragmentary evidence" was likely Homura witnessing Walpurgisnacht in the previous timelines.

"So, with our current forces..." Mami said.

"We have good chances for success. First Lieutenant Takamachi and Miss Akemi came up with a plan so, if you don't mind..."

"Sure," Nanoha said, activating the holographic projector at the center of the table. A 3D map of Uminari and its bay appeared, with small portraits of Nanoha, Fate and the four Puella Magi arranged neatly over the middle.

"Walpurgisnacht will likely come from this direction," Homura said, prompting the Witch's portrait to appear. Next to it, two images of her Familiars appeared. "As far as we know, she has two types of Familiars. The first type, which looks like a circus caravan, is actually almost harmless and appears only shortly before Walpurgisnacht does. We can ignore them while fighting the Witch."

Homura erased the relevant image, and made several copies of the other type of Familiar.

"The other type is more dangerous. They're shaped like us Magical Girls, and while a single one is not a threat they will likely outnumber us, as Walpurgisnacht can make new ones at will."

Sayaka leaned in to have a better look at the image. "Are they ghosts of the Magical Girls that Witch killed or something?"

"We have no idea," Homura admitted. "Speaking about Walpurgisnacht herself, her main method of attack is ripping away and throwing buildings. She has also some weaker, purely magical attacks with the appearance of beams and flames, but they're somewhat easy to dodge. All in all, if it wasn't for her extreme toughness Walpurgisnacht wouldn't be so dangerous for us - the true danger comes from her familiars."

"I took the liberty to split us in three teams," Nanoha continued. "Me and Homura in Team A, Fate and Mami in Team B and Kyoko and Sayaka in Team C."

Kyoko bit a piece off a Pocky. "Is there a particular reason for this?"

Nanoha nodded. "Of course. I split us according to our combat abilities, in order to give a specific task to every team."

Nanoha moved the portraits of Team A and B closer to Walpurgisnacht, and Team C towards the Familiars. "In the first phase, Team C will keep the Familiars busy while the other two make the initial attack against the Witch. The goal is to push her towards the sea, to minimize damage to the city. Sayaka, Kyoko, you will be vastly outnumbered in this phase, so don't take risks while attacking. You just need to keep their attention away from us. Can you do that?"

"Of course we can!" Sayaka boasted, crossing her arms behind her head. "This is a trivial challenge for the Ally of Justice!"

"... I'll keep an eye on her," Kyoko said in a very matter-of-fact tone.

"Good. Once Walpurgisnacht is in open waters, the Asura crew will set up a training barrier around the area, and generate some simulated building in it. We will be able to use them as footholds and cover, but they will be erased if the Witch tries to use them against us."

"Will this training barrier be enough to keep her confined?" Mami asked while the portraits rearranged in the new positions.

"Unfortunately, we have no idea," Miata said. "We can only count on the fact that Walpurgisnacht will likely concentrate on dealing with you first."

"Anyways, at this point Phase Two begins, in which Team A will keep focusing the Witch and Team C will start aiming at reducing the number of Familiars as much as possible. Team B will act as a support to both, attacking the Witch only when the number of Familiars is low enough to allow Team C to keep them at bay on their own. That is why we chose Mami and Fate for it, Team B needs both mobility and experience to fulfill its role best."

Mami nodded. "You can count on me."

"And on me, too," Fate echoed her.

"Let's see if I got it," Kyoko said. "Gundam Girl and Homerun are Team Alpha Damage, Goldilocks and Barbie Reaper are Team Blond Support while Bluehead and I are Team Crowd Control?"

Nanoha nodded. "Exactly, why?"

Kyoko rubbed her chin. "I can see the point behind us not dealing with the Witch directly, as we both lack long range attacks. And Blond Support definitely works. But what about you and Homerun? I mean, those pink beams of friendship and destruction of yours definitely work, but I've never seen Homerun use anything bigger than rifles."

Homura opened her mouth for a retort, but Nanoha raised a hand to stop her. "We can't ruin the surprise, can we?"