We sat around the table and I began to eat my slice of cake. They expected me to speak but I didn't say anything while they were anxiously waiting. I just want to enjoy my cake.

After I finished my plate I put it aside and immediately transformed. This surprised them but I didn't pay it any heed. I am not doing this to tease them.

I reached for my shield's storage compartment and pulled out photos of Oriko and Kirika. After checking whether or not they were correct I put them on the table.

' First of all, I will begin with introducing our enemies. This is Kirika Kure, subordinate of this girl; Oriko Mikuni. ' pointing at the photos.

They both nodded, they have seen both of them already.

' Kirika Kure is a melee type magical girl; wielding huge weapons resembling claws. She also has an unique magic that slows down everyone in an area of her choice except for her. The smaller the area slower you will be in that area. I believe that if we can bait her into making the area smaller we can dodge it altogether. '

Mami: " So that's what her magic was. "

Shuzo: " I haven't noticed such a thing while fighting her. "

I was surprised by Shuzo's words.

' That's strange. Maybe you were too relentless for her to find the time to cast that magic. '

Nevertheless, I can't believe he fought Kirika without her using that magic.

' Let's get to the next one, Oriko Mikuni. This girl has flying metal spheres around her that she can control. Those spheres can also charge for a while and fire off beams of high energy. You must avoid them at all cost. '

Thinking about what happened to Shuzo... I sure as hell wouldn't want those things to hit me.

' Oriko has also her unique magic; foresight or precognition if you want to call it that way. She knows what will happen beforehand and because of this, we can't ambush her. She, however, can easily ambush us since she knows where we will be and what we will do. Since you fought her before do you have anything to add? '

Mami: " Yes, she can control those spheres of hers with incredible precision and she can block all projectiles easily. I couldn't break them with normal bullets but I don't know if anything bigger can do the job. "

' Breaking her spheres? A nice suggestion but I also don't know if it is possible. I have a few anti-material rifles but I doubt they can penetrate something that thick. And she can line them up against the bullet as well. We would need a huge cannon that she can't do anything against or rocket launchers. Luckily I have a lot of rockets. ' I pulled out one of the RPG-7 I have from within my shield's storage.

Mami: " You have such things? " in a surprised voice

' Yeah, that's how I hunt witches. One or two rockets and they are gone. '

Mami: " It would be hard to hit a magical girl. I think I should fight her close range and try to constrict her, or at least her spheres. I am confident in the pulling strength of my magic so she wouldn't be able to make them move as she wants once I capture them. "

Shuzo: " Big sis, how did you put such a big thing inside your shield, is that your magic? "

' Yes, I can store everything inside this shield. That is my magic. What is yours? '

Shuzo: " I am not sure but I think I can momentarily become faster and stronger and I even emitted light while fighting Kirika. "

' Interesting, but every magical girl can increase their physical capabilities. How faster and stronger have you become? Twenty times? Fifty times? '

Shuzo waved his hands, denying it.

Shuzo: " No no, it wasn't that much, I think. Something like the level of a really athletic person or a bit higher than that. "

' That is the case for pretty much everyone else. But once you get used to it you should be able to use your magic to jump between buildings and such. Even so, this doesn't say anything about your magic except for that light part. What about weapons? What do you use as your weapon? '

Shuzo: " Weapon? "

I glanced at Mami

Mami: " You see, every magical girl conjures something as their weapon just like me, Homura, Oriko, and Kirika. "

' I have this shield, Mami has her muskets- '

Mami: " Ribbons. I transform them into other things. "

' Yes, sorry. Mami has her ribbons, Kirika has her claws, Oriko has her spheres and Kyoko has her spear. Everyone has a weapon. '

Shuzo: " I am sorry, I didn't use one. I don't know my weapon. "

' How did you fight Kirika then? '

Shuzo clenched his fist and put it on display.

Shuzo: " With my body. "

Now, this is ridiculous. Has he almost beat that Kirika with mediocre magic and no weapons at all?

' Heh. On paper, we are not that strong, except for Mami of course. '

Mami: " And yet you returned from that ambush with a grief seed, which is an event I am waiting for you to tell. "

' Well, since I don't have much left to tell about Oriko and Kirika I can finally get on to that. Since you don't know what she is talking about; I have been ambushed by Oriko and Kirika while hunting a witch today. ' facing Shuzo

Shuzo: " It might be a little bit irrelevant but I still haven't seen a witch. What are they? "

' I will explain them later, just let me start. I had such expectations of this story but now it just feels like a burden... '

' After we were separated, I have brought the witch with me and searched for a room with only one entrance inside the new barrier. That way, if Oriko or Kirika came after me, I wouldn't have to watch my back and focus on only one place. Considering their magic, Oriko had a good chance of finding me and I couldn't allow her to regroup with Kirika before going after me. So I made up my mind about the plan to lure her in alone. '

Mami: " Your plan? "

' If she didn't come after me, I would kill the witch and replenish my magic in five minutes. Then her whole plan would become useless as she can never dream of defeating me with my magic. '

Homura's magic was still a mystery that Mami wanted to know. It definitely had something to do with that phone trick but that alone was not enough to determine Homura's magic. Now that they are close, maybe she could simply ask Homura.

Mami: " Homura, is it okay for me to ask what your magic is? It definitely isn't just storing stuff. "

Well, that is to be expected. I made her incredulously curious with my actions. Playing around with my magic was quite fun but if I just hide it from Mami just for that, we might not be able to defeat Oriko.

' Of course, I wouldn't hide anything from you, would I? '

Except for my plans of course.

Mami: " Then, what is it? "

' Space ' I grabbed the rocket launcher I pulled out and put it back inside the shield.

I so wanna stop time and hug her from behind but I should stop using magic frivolously

' And time manipulation. '

Mami's eyes wide opened

Mami: " Then you stopped time to record your voice! "

' Yes, I stopped time back then. '

Mami: " Space and time manipulation... I never would have expected such amazing magic to exist. It sounds too good to be true but I know it is. "

' What? You also create whatever you want. Aren't you some sort of a god right now? '

Mami: " You exaggerate. But yes, my magic is also pretty impressive if you think of it like that. "

Shuzo: " Big sis, aren't you super strong if you can stop time? "

' I guess. Saying I am not that strong on paper was a joke. But compared to us, you are an enigma. Maybe you haven't even found your magic yet or I am too stupid to understand what it is but you fought a winning fight against that Kirika. By the way, thanks for getting me sidetracked Mami, will I ever finish this story? Well, I guess not being able to tell it is my fate so I will just summarize it; I hid, I fought, I won. '

Mami: " Oh, come on now. I was getting curious. Have you frozen time to defeat them? "

' Okay, okay. I will tell the story properly so don't think I have used such cheat magic to force her to retreat. Actually, I didn't have enough magic power left to stop time; I have used what little I had to separate all of us. Back then I froze time and overcharged that grief seed. After that, I didn't have enough magic left to stop time again. '

Shuzo missed the first half of the story but he was silently waiting for me to tell. It is nice to know that he has manners and respect for his elders.

Mami is also not saying anything and expectantly waiting for me to go on.

' Back then, I was in a pinch. I didn't know what to do but I just wanted to do whatever I could at the moment. I found a way to lure Oriko in without Kirika and I would find a way to defeat her while fighting. I was waiting for Oriko while thinking about how to kill the witch if Oriko didn't show up. Then Oriko came and I didn't have to fight the witch. '

Mami: " I am still amazed how you kept a witch so close to you without her killing you. "

' I know, right? Maybe her nature was not that violent and she was just hatched so she was not accustomed to living like a witch. I don't know since I am no expert on witch psychology, I just tried my best to not escalate the situation with her. '

Mami: " (Your knowledge of a newly hatched witch is suspicious unless that witch was familiar of the same type of witch you fought before. Either that or space-time manipulation isn't about just stopping time but rewinding it, which would explain lots of things. Homura, how many times have you rewound time? How many times have we met? And how many times were we, lovers...) "

Mami let out a small laugh

' Hm? What is it? '

Mami: " Nothing in particular. Just something came to my mind, please go on. "

' Well, okay then. I was finally facing Oriko but I was not going to surrender. Even without magical power, I would fight her with the intent to win. Oriko had started to surround me with her spheres then. I told you how she can make them fire off beams with high energy. She wanted to make sure they actually hit me. She didn't want to let me live due to dumb luck. With her precognition, she saw through my dodging patterns and covered all of them. Well, because of that she had only two spheres left to defend herself and I saw that as my chance. I started shooting at her. '

Mami: " Have you? "

I shook my head

' No, even with only two she could block them. But all of these happened in the span of a few seconds and my plan was not shooting her in the first place. '

Remembering that moment, I grinned. That was the greatest gamble I have ever made.

' My shooting was only a distraction, to stop her from reading my future. If she wasted even a second she would have been actually shot. She charged her spheres and I used the most dangerous thing I have been carrying with me the whole time, that witch Charlotte. '

Mami was surprised. Well, of course, such a thing is surprising; if someone told me such a thing I wouldn't believe them.

' I didn't just use Charlotte as a shield but I also made us of Oriko's spheres to kill a witch that has multiple lives. I threw Charlotte to the ground and shot her, making her unleash her second form; a huge serpentine creature. She swallowed me as she was forming and spiking upwards. Oriko's beams, as the spheres all had different distances no matter how small they are, killed Charlotte multiple times immediately. In short, Charlotte saved me from Oriko and Oriko saved me from Charlotte. Oriko probably wouldn't be able to fire again so she just ran away before I could come out of the holes. '

Mami: " Amazing, to use the power of both enemies you need to defeat, against one another like that... Have you thought of that right then? "

' Yes, I guess your perception of time changes when you are so close to death. With adrenaline and such " time " to act, I have thought and executed everything right then. '

Shuzo: " I haven't understood everything but it really sounds awesome. "

' Since I haven't told you about that witch or witches in general that is normal. And thanks. '

Mami: " Homura, you are the craziest girl I have ever met. " smiling

Mami: " With you, we will never lose against them. "

' That's what I am thinking as well. Time stop itself is enough, anyone that can stop time can simply kill any other person. But there are limits to time stop and I will need help to guarantee victory. '

Mami: " What are those limits? "

' Well, since we all are good friends here, I don't see any problem with telling them. The biggest problem with time stop is that I can not stop time for too long. The cost increases exponentially the longer it takes and even then there is a limit. '

I pointed at two capsules on top of my shield

' Do you see these? Inside them are grains of sand. Sands of time you may call it, to be dramatic. Stopping time is like using an hourglass, I rotate my shield, time is frozen, and once all the sands make it to the other side time continues and my shield is rotated back. I can use my time stop ability again immediately after that but as you might imagine it wouldn't last long because only a tiny amount of sand would have been on the original side. So, the time it takes for time stop to be completely ready is the same amount of time I can stop time for. This is the first limit of time stop. '

Mami: " How long can you stop time? "

' Only up to thirty seconds. Since it is very short during combat I do my best to be fast. '

Mami: " Even thirty seconds sounds super strong if you ask me but it could be great if it was longer. '

' The second limit to time stop is that time doesn't stop immediately. Time itself is a concept related to speed and what I do is decrease the velocity of everything until they are frozen in time. A bullet may go a few meters until it stops, frozen in the air. As time stop ends, it will keep going with its original velocity. It actually is a good thing for me, that way I can actually fire instead of having to pull myself back from bullets in order to shoot. '

' And the third limit, which can make it hard for me is that everything I am touching, directly or indirectly, is unfrozen. This is a good thing because I can use objects, cook grenades, etc. But if some person is touching me, or holding something that is touching me; then that person would not be affected by time stop along with me. '

Mami: " If your enemy could do it, that would be horrible. But if you have your ally with you then you could share your time stop power with them. "

' Exactly. As if you were not overpowered enough, you would also have access to time stop as well. Might as well create a cult to worship you, I certainly would join it, Mami the beautiful Goddess. '

Mami: " Oh, stop it. There are many strong magical girls out there, don't pick on me. "

Shuzo: " I am completely sure that we can easily defeat them in thirty seconds while they are frozen. "

I yawned, covering my mouth

' I am tired of speaking. Now, if you will allow me; I will help myself to a hot bath. You can't blame me, after all that action, right? I will be borrowing your bath then Mami. '

Mami: " Okay, I will give you your towel. And I will also prepare something for you to wear. "

' I am no goddess of fertility, considering your sizes they would be too loose on me. '

Mami: " Don't mind that part and just get to your bath. Geez, even with another guest here you still want to bathe and tease me. "

' That is who I am. Sorry, Shuzo, I will be borrowing Mami for a while; you stay here. '

Mami escorted me to the bath and gave me my towel. A nice classic Japanese style bath, I will properly rest here.