Hey there, folks. Coming at ya from deep in the huge hiatus between Chapters 11 and 12 of Book 42. A little while ago, I discovered the "spinoff" stories from Madoka Magica, and decided to implement the characters & settings into Teana's Travels.
Now, before you read this chapter, you need to know that I did a MASSIVE overhaul and expansion of the "Team Madoka vs. Puella Nobodies" scene in Book 21 Chapter 2, and you will need to go back and read that before reading this chapter.
PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
-CHAPTER START-
Flashback – During Book 18, Immediately After Madoka's Wish
As the power of Madoka's Wish raced across the globe, putting all Puellae Magi's souls back in immaterial forms inside their bodies, all but eliminating the danger of going Witch, it also implanted information into every PM's mind, as well as the minds of the relatively few non-mages who knew about the Magical Girls – the true nature of 'Kyubey' and his ilk, the Incubators' machinations, the accursed system the Incubators had set up, and the identity of Kaname Madoka, the pure and selfless Japanese Puella Magi who'd broken that awful system and saved countless girls from certain death or Witch-dom. The result was millions of Magical Girls, horrified and betrayed and furious, turning on the Incubators en masse, slaying the little weasels and chasing them out.
("Keep killing him, girls! The little bastard's gotta run out of bodies eventually!")
In Kirimine Village, after they chased Kyubey out, the people of the Tokime Clan were met with a crippling crisis of faith. The divine entity they'd been worshipping had been a heartless, emotionless, manipulative extraterrestrial being using humanity like livestock, and the holy duty of becoming Kannagi in service to the world was playing into the Incubators' hands (Ears. Ear-hands. Whatever.), sacrificing naïve young girls to turn into twisted, despair-fueled monsters so that he – it – could harvest the released energy for their own ends, leaving humanity to fend for itself once its role was done. …What were they supposed to do now? Even with Kaname having delivered true salvation to them, opening their eyes to the truth and freeing them from that damnation, the purpose they'd built their society around was a giant lie, and now they knew not what to do with themselves…
"Maybe… Kaname-san is a true divine figure…" Tokime Shizuka murmured, eyes widening with inspired realization. "She saved us from the invaders' clutches and lies, delivering hope and freedom to all Kannagi around the world… We've been worshipping a false god all this time, but perhaps…"
Meanwhile, in Futatsugi City, the war-weary gangs were overwhelmed with feelings of relief, liberation, and gratitude. Because of Kaname Madoka's wish, their suffering struggles could finally end. The broken girl known as Kureha Yuna fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face, as it sank in that she – that everyone in this war-torn city – was finally free. The fighting was over, the suffering was over, the death was over…
"K… Kaname… Madoka…" she murmured, gratitude filling her wounded heart full to bursting.
-BREAK-
Present Time – Approx. 2 Months Until Reaper Invasion
After Madoka & her friends took out loads of Puella Magi Nobodies on Ulnar, they'd been worried upon discovering that the girls' Whole-Selves hadn't resurrected yet when they went back to check their Earth after Amon's defeat. However, Master Yen Sid had theorized – and the Supreme Kai had confirmed – that the girls' Nobodies being vanquished on a world so far (astronomically- and dimensionally-wise) from home had merely slowed that process, not stopped it, and the fallen Puella Magi would indeed return to life given time. They had also confirmed that Madoka's Wish would retroactively affect any Puella Magi who returned to life via their Witches & Nobodies being slain after the Wish was made.
Now, as Team Madoka spent some time on their homeworld, Mami found herself wandering into the area where the Witch called Charlotte had appeared – where the Dimensional Defense Force had entered her & her friends' lives in spectacular fashion. Suddenly, she sensed a small flare of magic, and turned to see a soft white light close to the ground a distance away, the light fading to reveal a young girl laying limp on the ground, her long white hair disheveled.
Slowly, the little girl came to, sitting up. As the fog in her head cleared, memories returned to her – her short life, the tragedy that dragged her into Darkness and pained insanity, the brief moment of clarity that half of her 'Self' experienced on a distant, shadowed world… As Mami approached, the little girl looked up at her, tears in her eyes.
"O… Onée-san…" she whimpered.
Mami knelt down in front of the girl, a comforting smile on her face. "What's your name, dear?"
The little Puella Magi sniffled. "N-Nagisa… Momoe Nagisa…"
She placed a hand on Nagisa's shoulder. "I'm Mami – Tomoe Mami."
"Ma… Mami-onéesan…" Her voice came in a teary whisper.
Nagisa threw herself into Mami's arms, burying her face in the older girl's shoulder to muffle a choked sob as Mami hugged her back.
"I l-let mama die" she sobbed out. "I c-coulda used m-my wish to heal her sickness, b-but instead I wished f-for a cheesecake, of all things! K-Kyubey didn't t-tell me I c-could've wished to save mama until after I'd made that stupid wish!"
"It's not your fault" Mami whispered to the crying girl in her arms. "He used you. He can't anymore."
"I… I don't know what to do now…" Nagisa whimpered.
"Why don't you come back with me to my place? You can meet my friends, and we can help you figure out where to go from here…"
Mami stood up, helping Nagisa to her feet as well, and offered her hand. With only a moment's hesitation, Nagisa took it.
-Break-
Mami brought Nagisa back to her huge apartment, where the rest of the team was waiting. The gang quickly took to the girl, comforting her and helping her start to cope with everything. Nagisa turned out to have no other surviving family, or at least none willing to take her in. Thankfully, Team Madoka was happy to look after her for the time being. Nagisa very quickly grew particularly attached to Mami, who in turn adored the sweet young girl, especially after she had bashfully asked (and quickly been granted) permission to call Mami "onée-chan".
-X-
The next day, late in the morning, Team Madoka received a telepathic 'ping' from another district of the city. With Nagisa in tow (because they weren't about to leave a traumatized, orphan 10-year-old by herself, Puella Magi or not, regardless of how safe and luxurious Mami's suite was), they headed to the location, assisted by sporadic pings from the mystery contactor sent to help them zero in. Finally, they arrived at a worn-down, overgrown manor that appeared to only have one wing still being given upkeep. They could sense four magical signatures waiting within – Puellae Magi. The doorbell was out of commission, but thankfully somebody inside heard Madoka knocking on the door. The front door opened to reveal Asako Komaki, recompleted and Whole. The blue-haired girl gave a little respectful nod.
"Kaname Madoka, the girl who gave the world's biggest middle finger to the fuckin' Incubators, plus her merry band… C'mon in; I'll bring ya to the others."
The seven followed Komaki into the dilapidated manor, as she led them down a dim hallway and into a fairly spacious living room. Three other girls – "recompleted" Puellae Magi – were waiting inside: Mikuni Oriko, Kure Kirika, and Chitose Yuma. Seeing the former two, Homura tensed up and began to reach for her buckler, but Madoka put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her and signaling her to stand down.
"Kaname Madoka, savior of the world's magical girls…" Oriko bowed slightly. "I thank you and your team for coming. …Though, I am slightly embarrassed to admit that Tomoe Mami is the only one of your comrades I recognize…"
Madoka gestured to her friends, one by one. "Akemi Homura, my girlfriend with time-control magic; Miki Sayaka, my childhood friend, has healing magic and Water magic; Sakura Kyōko, one of Asia's highest-ranking melee-specialist magical girls; Tomoe Mami, whom you already know the reputation of; Kamijō Kyōsuke, the 20th ever Puer Magi; and Momoe Nagisa, a young Puella Magi who was recently 'recompleted' after her Nobody was slain on Ulnar, like you girls'."
Kirika was staring at Kyōsuke with wonder. "I'd heard there were a tiny handful of boy Puella Magi out there, but I wasn't sure I believed it…"
"Wasn't there another girl on that alien world fighting alongside you guys against our… 'halves'?" Komaki asked. "Girl with a hammer…?"
Team Madoka looked sullen. "Ishimura Miyako was… killed in battle, a few months ago" Tomoe Mami admitted.
Komaki looked chagrined. "Oh… S-Sorry…"
"In any event," Oriko said, "we are-"
"Mikuni Oriko, Kure Kirika, Asako Komaki, and Chitose Yuma" Madoka grinned a little.
"…How?"
"Homura-chan kept rewinding time, trying to prevent my death, over and over again. Eventually, with the Dimensional Defense Force's help, she finally succeeded. In the process, she managed to awaken the ability to grant previous-timeline memories to people who are involved in time loops or close to anyone who is, including me, Mami, Kyōko, & Sayaka. It's thanks to having several 'me's worth of experience and knowledge that I was able to come up with the Wish that screwed the Incubators over. And although I apparently never met you girls personally in any of the timelines, Homura, Mami & Kyōko did. In that one timeline, your… visions led you to try to 'save the world' from my Witch-self, Krimheld Gretchen… by killing me."
Kirika winced, while Oriko slowly put her face in her hands. "Presumably in that timeline I saw your Witch instead of Walpurgisnacht…" the oracle surmised.
"We can give you the details later," Mami said, "but for now… I am able to understand, with my head and my heart, that this 'you' is a different person from the Oriko that went off the deep end and caused a lot of damage. And Kyōko-chan's fight with you two didn't get very personal. But… Homura understands logically that you're a different person, but her heart…"
Oriko nodded. "We'll have to prove ourselves better, then. And I'm guessing that being granted my previous selves' memories may not be a wise idea…"
"Um…" Yuma spoke up. "When Yuma's… 'Nobody' was fading away, and got that feeling when I saw Kyōko-san… Was that related to a previous timeline?"
"…Why don't you see for yourself?" Madoka replied.
Homura nodded, holding out her 'time buckler' with the central purple crystal exposed. Yuma walked over, laying her hand on the crystal, and a purple light flashed from it as Homura 'plucked' the strings of time. Yuma yelped as her body briefly flashed green, and she groaned and grabbed at her head as the influx of memories made her head hurt for a moment. When it passed, her other-self memories fully assimilated, she looked up, and tears came to her eyes as she gazed at Kyōko.
"O… Onée-chaaan!-!"
Kyōko was promptly tackled by a little green missile, tears coming to her eyes as well as she hugged the crying little girl tight. Yuma clung to her as tightly as she could, trying to sob out how she watched Kyōko die against Walpurgisnacht (and was in turn killed soon after, with Mami then Witching out from despair).
"I'm alright" Kyōko spoke softly to her. "I'm here."
-x-
After things calmed down a bit, the two groups got to talking, hashing things out.
"Ever since our… revival," Oriko said, "my powers have been acting strangely. My visions of potential futures have become rarer and more unpredictable, and… I've started receiving visions of other people and places in the present. I wonder if my powers are mutating – exchanging foresight for 'farsight'…"
"Weird…" Sayaka replied. "Anything from the rest of your group?"
Oriko shook her head. "Well, no changes in their powers, at least. But…" She looked over at where Kirika was entertaining Yuma and Nagisa (the two prepubescent Puellae Magi having very quickly struck up an adorable friendship). "Apparently, before she met me, before she became a Magical Girl, Kirika suffered a personal betrayal that rendered her morose, depressed, asocial, timid, and short-tempered. Her Wish was to change herself to be whatever I 'needed' her to be; the magic forcibly altered her personality, damaged her memory, and destabilized her psychologically. But ever since we were 'recompleted' and revived, she has been more stable, her memories intact again, and it's like she's at a point somewhere between the timid, broken, antisocial girl she was before her Wish and the peppy, childish, hyperactive girl her Wish turned her into. She seems more… genuine, more balanced. I don't know whether it's an effect of Kaname's Wish or from being recompleted, but… I'm glad it did. She seems happier now, more at peace…"
Madoka grinned. "And judging by how she looks at you even now, her love for you didn't come from her Wish – it's all natural. Though, I figured that when your Nobody and hers kissed as they faded away…"
Oriko blushed, but couldn't stop the small, shy smile from forming. That blush and smile increased as Kirika returned, slotting herself in right next to Oriko on the couch.
"Anyway!" Madoka clapped. "I'd be happy to take you up on your offer and form an official alliance between your team and mine. We'll set you four up with DDF training and resources. And I'm hoping we can be friends, not just allies. Looking forward to working with you, Mikuni-san! …Ooh, unless you don't wanna be called that, considering…"
Oriko nodded. "I'm still trying to decide what to change it to, but you're right. I really… don't want to be a 'Mikuni' any longer…"
Madoka's smile became a teasing smirk. "Hmm… 'Kure Oriko' has a nice ring to it, I think~"
Oriko and Kirika both blushed positively incandescent, though Kirika was struggling to stop a great big lovestruck grin from taking over her brilliant-red face.
As Mami giggled at the spectacle, she stiffened as she suddenly felt a telepathic call directed to her from outside Mitakihara.
'Mami-senpai!' Kazumi's voice echoed in her head. 'Me and my team are back to life now! …Um, but I'm wondering if we could use you guys' help to sort out a… confusing situation…'
-Break-
After confirming that Oriko's group would be okay for the day, and with Nagisa deciding to stay with them until Madoka's group got back, Team Madoka headed for Asunaro, with the TSAB Agile-class frigate stationed in orbit as planetary overwatch providing a long-range group teleport to cut travel time from hours to minutes. They roof-hopped through the city, making their way to the park Kazumi had directed them to. There they found the recompleted & revived Pleaides waiting, their leader waving enthusiastically once she saw them coming.
"Seeeenpaaaaiii!-!" Kazumi was jumping up & down, waving both arms, a big smile on her face.
Mami couldn't help but giggle at her excitable kouhai. "Oh, Michiru-chan…"
Team Madoka came in for 'landing', and Kazumi quickly ran up and hugged Mami, giggling happily. Kazumi's teammates – Umika, Kaoru, Saki, Mirai, Satomi, and Niko – approached Team Madoka, the two groups beginning to mingle.
"Say, where's the hammer girl?" Mirai asked. "She stay home?"
And just like that, Team Madoka's good moods dropped a little.
"Miyako was killed" Kyōko told them. "Few months ago."
The Pleaides' smiles dropped, looking solemn or chagrined.
"So," Sayaka spoke up to change topics, "what's the 'confusion situation' you mentioned?"
"Well…" Kazumi started. "Mami-senpai, remember what my, uh, 'Nobody' told you? About the two Magical Girls who were attacking us when Xemnas showed up? There's been no sign of the blonde with guns, but Niko-chan's clone or twin or whatever-she-is is still in the area. If we could figure out why she was attacking us, maybe we could talk things out with her…"
Looking at the others, Madoka noticed Niko looking quietly upset. "Niko-san… Is there something you might be able to tell us about this mystery doppelganger?"
Everyone's attention was drawn to Niko, who stiffened and fidgeted. "She's… She's a 'Wishborn'. Created by… by my Wish. I-"
Before Team Madoka or the Pleaides could process this revelation, they all sensed a 'flare' of Darkness that Team Madoka recognized as multiple Heartless spawning in, followed by the magical energy signature of a Puella Magi gearing up to fight them. Immediately, Team Madoka all transformed, Madoka readying her Keyblade, and the confused & alarmed Pleaides followed their lead.
Madoka took the lead, making a beeline for the 'signal'. Leaping over streets and between buildings, she soon reached an out-of-the-way parking lot, hidden from most public view behind a row of buildings. In the lot, a pack of Heartless were attacking a girl who, other than the clothes, looked exactly like Niko. She was acquitting herself decently well, cutting through Shadows and Soldiers without much effort, but then a squad of Invisibles spawned in, and the doppelganger was soon having trouble against the high-level Heartless.
Madoka leapt into the fray, catching one Invisible by surprise and decapitating it before it knew she was there. Niko's doppelganger was very surprised to see Kaname Madoka, the girl who Fixed Everything, showing up out of nowhere and slaying one of her attackers. The remaining Invisibles immediately turned their attention to the Key-bearer now in their midst, leaving the lesser Heartless to halfheartedly harass the other girl. Madoka put her training to good use, battering the Invisibles with both Keyblades. They tried to attack her all at once, but she managed to not only fend them off but to use parries and dodges to make them hit each other and get in each other's way. She made another kill, slicing an Invisible's weapon hand off with Blooming Hope and then splitting its skull with Rumbling Rose.
One of the Invisibles raised its blade high, preparing to charge power into it, only for the raised sword to be struck by a bolt of Lightning magic from Saki, electrocuting the Heartless which then collapsed and dissolved away. The rest of Team Madoka and the Pleaides arrived on-scene, and when Niko's doppelganger saw the latter group, especially Niko, fear and rage welled up together inside her. As everyone was mopping up the last of the Heartless, she quietly snuck out of the thick of things and circled around, unsure whether to attack or flee.
However, she wasn't as stealthy as she thought, and particularly experienced Puella Magi could sense Killing Intent, which she was giving off in fits & starts. The doppelganger gasped and yelped in surprise as golden ribbon-binds sprang up from the ground encircling her and rapidly ensnared her, binding her in place despite her frenzied struggles. Soon the Heartless were all dealt with, and the two Magical Girl teams turned their attention to the hostile girl.
"So…" Kazumi crossed her arms and frowned. "Who are you and why did you stalk and attack us?"
The doppelganger sneered, teeth bared. "She hasn't told you what I am? What she did?! How she created a clone of herself whose memories are fake, whose entire life is a lie, as some twisted experiment?!"
"That's not why I Wished you into being at all!" the ever-stoic Niko shouted, looking pained. "You're not an experiment or a toy or anything like that! You were meant to-"
"Don't lie to me, Kanna!"
"That's not my name anymore! It's yours now; I can't have it anymore!"
The clone tried to say something else, but then Kyōko's conjured chains wrapped around both girls' mouths. The redhead pointed to Niko, snapping her fingers to ungag her. "Enough fuckin' screaming, already. You. Explain."
Niko gulped, almost cowering in on herself as sadness filled her eyes. "When I was four years old, me and two of my friends were playing around, and… W-We found a gun – my friend's dad's pistol. We were stupid toddlers, so we played with it. I was h-holding it, and… It went off." She choked back a sob. "My friends died. I killed them! And it's h-haunted me ever since – knowing that they're dead because of me, that they never got to go to school or see the world move or fall in love because of me! That I became a murderer at four years old! Any time I don't have something else to occupy my thoughts and distract me, it all comes back, crushing me… Someone who killed her friends like that doesn't deserve safety or happiness or a family's love…
"When I made my contract with Kyubey, became a Magical Girl, my wish was to create another Hijiri Kanna, one with no memory of what I did, innocent and clean, to live the normal, happy life that I never could. I gave her my name, because I don't deserve to have it after what I did." She looked to her clone. "You were supposed to replace me – to become the real Hijiri Kanna while I faded away into the darkness. You were supposed to have a normal, happy life, loved by my… by your family. You were supposed to be safe and happy and normal and free. And you threw it all away by contracting with the Incubator!"
"Okay, I have to speak up now" Madoka interrupted. "This kind of… mess needs the type of delicate touch that a group of superpowered teenagers like us would be hard-pressed to provide, especially since me & my group are practically strangers here. At this point, I think we need to breach Magical-Girl secrecy and bring the Hijiri family in on this."
Both Kannas let out identical "WHAT?!"s at that.
-Break-
Team Madoka sought out the Hijiri family (mom, dad, two twin little brothers) and carefully, thoroughly explained everything to them – the nature of Puellae Magi, the Incubators' horrible system, how Madoka's super-Wish vastly improved things and helped kick the Incubators off Earth… and then the situation with their traumatized daughter who was now two traumatized daughters. They were shown to the neighboring secure rooms in the Pleaides' "base" where both girls were being kept in secure rooms – actually one big room separated by a semitranslucent magical barrier – under watch to prevent either of them from running away or trying anything… drastic. "Niko", now known to really be named Kanna, looked morose and listless, while "Kanna-2" was fuming but with an undercurrent of fear and sadness. Mr. & Mrs. Hijiri could hardly believe their eyes, seeing two identical Kannas in the divided room, both looking equally upset and hurt.
It didn't take them long to agree on how to approach this. They already had one set of twin children; now they had two.
The separation barrier between the girls came down, to their mutual surprise as they'd been sitting right on either side of it and were now practically right next to each other. Before either of them had time to do or say anything to each other, the door opened, and in walked the Hijiri family. The two girls felt panic welling up, instinctively cowering as the parents drew close… And then, Mr. Hijiri knelt down and hugged Kanna-1, while his wife hugged Kanna-2. The girls' eyes widened in tearful, disbelieving shock.
"B-But… I'm a fake…" Kanna-2 whimpered.
"B-But… I'm a murderer…" Kanna-1 whimpered.
"No" Mr. Hijiri murmured to his daughter. "It wasn't your fault. What happened was never your fault. And I'm sorry your mother & I didn't notice how much you were still hurting, all this time."
"No" Mrs. Hijiri whispered to her new daughter. "Your anger, your tears, your smiles from before that 'Incubator' took them away… Those are all real. No matter how you were born, you are still my daughter. We just have two sets of twins now."
The Kannas' twin little brothers joined in, each boy hugging one of their sisters, begging both of them not to 'go away'. With only a little more pressing from the parents, both girls finally broke down crying, unable or unwilling to resist as the two group hugs merged into one.
From outside the room, Kazumi and Madoka watched as the family held each other. It was going to take time for the Hijiri 'sisters' to heal, but Madoka was certain the DDF – likely the TSAB – would provide therapy to help them.
-Break-
"Welp," Kazumi stretched, "that's one issue on the way to being solved. But if Niko-chan's – er, I mean Kanna-chan's clone was one of the girls attacking us… what was with the other one?"
Just then, the doorbell rang. Kazumi and Mami went to answer it, opening the door to find two Puella Magi. One of them was the spitting image of the pigtailed blonde who'd attacked the Pleaides before Xemnas crashed the party, except there was warmth and cheer in her eyes & smile instead of the bitter hate from back then. She had one hand on the shoulder of a girl half a head shorter than her, with shoulder-length silver hair and dark-purple eyes.
"Hi, there!" the blonde said. "Two freshly 'recompleted' Magical Girls here to talk to you! I'm Yuuri – Asuka Yuuri. And this is Airi-chan – Anri Airi. To be specific, I believe my special friend here has some explaining to do…"
Airi gulped. "Uh… S-So, yeah. I… I saw Yuuri-chan go Witch, and saw you girls kill the Witch she became. And I kinda…snapped. Made a contract with Kyubey to 'become' Yuuri and went on a revenge quest against you & your team, Kazusa-san. After Yuuri-chan and I were recompleted, she pressed the truth out of me and chewed me out for flying off the handle like that. Um… I'm sorry."
Kazumi let out a sigh as she put the pieces together. "Well, I suppose it all worked out in the end. And hey, when Xemnas attacked us, you and Kanna-chan's sister teamed up with us to fight him. …Granted, he still beat all 9 of us at once and made us all into Witches anyway, but we're all back now! So… I think we're good!"
Yuuri chuckled at Kazumi's exuberant kindness. "Glad to hear it. Actually, since Airi-chan & I live here in Asunaro, I was wondering if the two of us could officially be allies of the Pleaides. I'd actually been meaning to talk with you girls before… everything."
"Hmm… I'll have to bring it up with the others, but I don't see why they'd say no! Maybe you two can even be auxiliary members of the group! Why don't you two come on in and meet the others?"
As they led their two guests inside, Mami smiled. Kazumi was a lot like Madoka…
-Break-
Once things in Asunaro had settled and were being properly taken care of, Team Madoka returned to Mitakihara, filling Oriko, Kirika, Yuma, & Nagisa in on what had happened. The next day, the group was just finishing up breakfast when Madoka received another telepathic communication from out of town.
'Kaname-san?' a warm and dignified voice spoke. 'I am Mikoto Tsubaki, stationed in Hōzuki City. On that shadowy other world, your blue friend and her boyfriend took out my 'other half' and those of some other Puellae Magi of this city. Anyway, we're all back to life again. …And I cannot believe I just said that… I believe I may need your assistance addressing the issues held by a few of them, however."
'By issues, you mean…' Madoka replied.
'Kagari-chan has gone missing, and we have Haruka-chan on suicide watch.'
Madoka winced. 'Okay. Yeah. We'll be there as soon as we can, Mikoto-san.'
-Break-
Another group teleport brought Team Madoka to the city of Hōzuki, the girls (& Kyōsuke) taking in the sights for a moment. Then, they set out roof-hopping for where Tsubaki had told them to meet her group.
'Is that you I sense, Kaname-san?' Tsubaki asked.
'Yes, we just arrived and are heading for the meeting point.'
'Well, you may wish to hurry a bit. Kagari-chan has shown up, and she's acting rather hostile. I don't want this to come to violence, but in the event it does…'
'Copy that; we're on our way.' "Let's move!"
The team sped up, and soon they neared the public park they'd been told to go to. In a semi-hidden area between dense trees and the backs of several buildings, four Puella Magi were gathered; one of them was standing apart from the other two, staring them down, her stance and the flow of her mana making it clear she was ready for a fight. Tsubaki had stepped forward, apparently trying to reason with Hinata Kagari; Matsuri and Suzune stood behind her. Team Madoka set down just inside the treeline, observing and ready to leap in at a moment's notice.
"-don't have to do this anymore, Kagari-chan" Tsubaki was saying. "I'm here. I'm back. And thanks to Kaname-san's wish, none of us have to worry about inevitably becoming Witches anymore. I don't yet know the extent of what you've done while I was 'dead' or why, but I'm sure we can calm down and solve this peacefully."
"You went on the whole revenge-quest against Suzune because she killed the Witch that Tsubaki-san became, right?" Matsuri spoke up, addressing her sister. "Well, Tsubaki-san is right here – back to life! So, continuing to go after Suzune is pointless! Just stop! Unless you're too deep in darkness and cruelty for your own sister's voice to reach you!"
Kagari looked at Tsubaki. "…After Suzune killed you, I used my memory-manipulation magic to make her break off her friendship with Matsuri, erase Matsuri's memory of me and of Suzune, and to push Suzune into killing Magical Girls all over the place. I intended to finish with having her kill Matsuri, and then undoing the memory rewrite, letting the grief and horror of what she'd done torture her and turn her into a Witch that I would then kill. She had to suffer for taking you away from me."
Tsubaki's eyes were wide with shock, stunned and horrified by how far Kagari had gone and planned to go, how sadistic and cruel she sounded.
"Now… Now I don't know what to do anymore" Kagari admitted.
"…You could stop" Tsubaki finally responded. "Lay down your arms and… atone, or something of the sort."
Tsubaki slowly, cautiously approached, and Kagari slowly let her guard down, fighting back tears trying to build in her eyes as she looked up at her mother-figure. She gently reached down and petted Kagari's head, and Kagari slowly relaxed, her transformation coming undone. Tsubaki carefully pulled the girl into her arms.
"…I'm very tired" Kagari murmured.
"It's okay, sweetheart" Tsubaki whispered to her. "We'll make everything right. I promise."
She then turned to look at the treeline. "Come on out, Kaname-san. Everything's under control."
Kagari stiffened a little as Team Madoka emerged, but Tsubaki's hand rubbing her back made her relax a little again.
"I suppose that's one of the two issues you called me about solved without incident" Madoka remarked. "But, the other one…"
Tsubaki's smile faded. "Arisa-chan and Chisato-chan are watching over Haruka-chan right now. We'll take you to them."
Homura was looking at her with curiosity. "I've… never met a Puella Magi who lived long enough to reach adulthood. You must be skilled, or lucky."
Tsubaki chuckled. "I'd say both, really. Now, come on; let's do proper introductions once everyone is together."
-Break-
Tsubaki escorted the group to her home, where the other three local Puella Magi were waiting. Chisato and Arisa greeted Madoka's team warmly, but the last girl, Haruka, barely reacted. Sitting in a chair in the corner of the living room, the blonde stared into the distance, dried tear tracks on her cheeks.
'What happened to her?' Mami asked telepathically (excluding the seemingly broken girl from the link).
'Apparently,' Tsubaki replied, 'back before she became a Magical Girl, she had an older sister who was kind, smart, and good at just about everything. Haruka-chan was always being compared to her sister, grew jealous of her, despite her sister trying to reach out to her and help her. In the end, Kyubey found Haruka-chan in a moment of weakness, and she… she wished to erase her older sister from existence.'
The members of Team Madoka barely suppressed gasps or winces.
'She came to regret it, of course, guilt haunting her. But she was able to mostly keep herself together and focus on her duties. …But then, she went up against a Witch that subjected her to a psychic attack – brought her buried guilt and grief up to the surface and then magnified it, forced her to face the magnitude of what she did… The despair made her turn into a Witch right then & there. Now, even though she's been "recompleted", she's still like this, in the same mental & emotional state the Witch left her in…'
Throughout the telepathic conversation, Haruka still just sat there, not moving, even her blinks slow and sluggish. The members of Team Madoka looked to each other, and Madoka sighed.
"I think…" she spoke softly "we're going to have to play the 'Bring the parents in' card again…"
-Break-
Mr. & Mrs. Kanade were brought in and carefully informed of everything – first about Magical Girls and the fact their daughter was one, then the Incubators and the horrible system they'd set up, then Madoka's super-Wish that undid most of that damage and helped kick the white weasels off Earth… and finally, the nature of Haruka's Wish, the older daughter made never-was, and the horrible, broken, suicidal state Haruka was now in after being subjected to a Witch's psychic assault.
They were horrified – at knowing they'd once had another daughter whom Haruka had, in a moment of weakness, erased; at knowing that Haruka had been pushed to that point by constantly being shown up by and being compared to her never-was sister, with the two of them being complicit in making her feel 'lesser' compared to Kanata; and, once they were brought into Tsubaki's living room and saw their daughter, at the broken state she was in.
Mrs. Kanade carefully sat down beside her unresponsive daughter. "…It's…" She wanted to say 'It's not your fault', but knew it likely wouldn't go well (partly because, from a certain point of view, it was). "It's gonna be okay, sweetheart…"
Haruka shuddered slightly, giving a minute shake of her head. Her father sat down on her other side, the two parents carefully hugging her between them, and she shook with restrained sobs.
As the family commiserated, Madoka's magic-enhanced Omnitool suddenly chimed, announcing an incoming transdimensional connection. Curious, she opened the connection, and a holoscreen appeared showing one of the most powerful and knowledgeable mages in the entire DDF, semi-unofficial leader of the DDF's Keyblade wielders.
"Master Yen-Sid?"
"Miss Kaname" the old mage nodded respectfully. "I have been looking over the reports on the ongoing situation on your homeworld. And looking at the, ah, 'stats' of your newly recompleted allies, I have noticed something peculiar. One of the girls is in anguish over erasing her sibling from existence, yes? To truly erase someone from having ever been would require far more magical power and reality-altering 'Potential' than Miss Kanade has."
That announcement got everyone's attention, sowing confusion.
"Then… What do you think happened?" Mami asked. "Did the Incubator use some of its own magic to fill in the gap?"
Yen Sid shook his head. "It still would not have been enough. I believe that the Incubators instead erased or suppressed all memory of the girl's existence from those who knew her, altered records and changed building layouts, and so forth, and their improper attempt to erase her from reality instead banished her to where those who are subjected to failed or improper attempts at erasure typically end up."
"…The Realm of Darkness?" Sayaka guessed.
"The Realm of Darkness. I am dispatching Aqua and Riku to your location. From there, they will enter the Dark Realm and attempt to find the elder Kanade sister… if the Heartless haven't taken her by now… Returning her to the Realm of Light may even return memory of her existence to others, similar to how Sora's comrades regained their memories of him when he awoke from his months-long sleep in the Realm Between. Time will tell…"
-Break-
Within a couple of hours, Riku and Aqua arrived. The two young Keyblade Masters wasted no time, combining their powers to open a portal into the Realm of Darkness and passing through. The gathered group waited anxiously around the portal, minutes feeling like hours…
Finally, after nearly an hour, Aqua & Riku returned… escorting a girl who looked much like Haruka but a few years older, pale and exhausted, her cold shivers easing as she squinted in the warm sunlight. Haruka fell to her knees with a sob. Then, true to Master Yen Sid's prediction, others' memories of Kanata's existence started coming back in a wave. The Kanade parents rushed forward and enveloped her in a desperate embrace.
"…I would like an explanation, perhaps" she said weakly. "And some tea."
-Break-
When Mami and Tsubaki finishing filling Kanata in on everything, the older girl sighed and turned to her parents.
"I kept telling you that you weren't giving Haruka-chan enough credit and recognition for her accomplishments."
Both parents looked chagrined. "We messed up" Mr. Kanade said. "Badly. We're going to have to work very hard to make sure things don't go down that path again."
Mrs. Kanade nodded. "We'll make sure Haruka knows she is loved, and help her heal."
-Break-
"You're leaving?"
Faced with Chisato's stunned disbelief, Haruka nodded. "Yes. Between the lingering pain and regret I feel, and knowing that onée-san being back means I will likely be overshadowed and ignored again just like before… There's too much baggage here for me. That's why I'm going to sign up with the TSAB – move to their world, train in their magic, start over far away from the place and the people that pushed me to the breaking point. And I cannot face my family right now – not with this. I will leave a message for them and slip out. I enjoyed working with you and the others, Shion-san, but… I just can't stay here. I'm sorry."
-Break-
That evening, back home in Mitakihara, Team Madoka reviewed recent events and made plans.
"I think… we should find a way to the 'part' of the Realm Between connected to our world" Madoka said. "We can go there, and probably find lots and lots of Nobodies of Puellae Magi who became Witches. Then, we can… deal with them, so their Whole-Selves can be recompleted and come back to life."
"And if we find any who've grown Hearts somehow?" Mami asked.
"Well… For the most part, when Nobodies who regrow their Hearts are destroyed, their recompleted Whole-Selves retain all of their Nobodies' memories; Lea-san and Ienzo-san are proof of that. And if we find any who've become truly separate people, like Roxas and Naminé and Laicixa did… we'll think of something else, though I don't know what."
There was a knock on the door.
"Another one?" Kyōko murmured.
Madoka went to the door, opening it to be faced with a short girl with long, spiky grey hair, fading eyebags under her yellow eyes. Looking slightly up at Madoka, the girl's eyes widened as tears came to them.
"It's really you…" the girl whispered. "Kaname Madoka…"
She then moved forward, and a surprised Madoka caught the girl as she hugged her tightly and started crying. Madoka soon realized the girl was sobbing out thanks and proclamations of undying gratitude.
The girl turned out to be Kureha Yuna, one of the leaders of the "gangs" of Magical Girls in the city of Futatsugi. A Witch drought and chasing Kyubey out of the city had led to a bloody war between Magical Girl factions, culminating in an uneasy truce where the traumatized survivors worked to carefully ration what few Grief Seeds they had. But Madoka's wish had freed them all from that curse, allowed everyone to finally stand down and relax, the fear and despair and bloodshed finally over. As a result, practically the entire Magical Girl population of Futatsugi now looked at Madoka with borderline worship, unanimously pledging loyalty and fealty to her, to the stunned and bashful pinkette's flattered surprise.
'Hey, uh, Madoka-san?'
Kirika's telepathic call was heard by everyone else in the room as well.
'What is it, Kirika-san?'
'Well, there's this girl here, says her name is Shizuka – Tokime Shizuka. She came to Mitakihara looking for you. Apparently, the Tokime Clan spent a long while worshipping Kyubey as a divine being, treated becoming a Magical Girl as a sacred duty, that kinda stuff. But when your super-wish made it so everyone knows the truth about the Incubators, the clan kinda had a crisis of faith, to say the least. But, uh… now…'
Sayaka smirked. 'Are they worshipping Madoka now?'
'Yyyyyep!'
Madoka groaned and rested her face in her hands, mildly mortified. Confused on what to do, Yuna patted her on the shoulder comfortingly.
Mami giggled. 'We'll talk to them, once Madoka recovers from this. It'll be nice to have another group of Magical Girls on our side!'
-Break-
Madoka's Wish had made life better for Puellae Magi everywhere, but it didn't fix everything that was wrong in the world for them. Wherever there were magic users, wild Heartless were making themselves known, harassing them. Most Heartless couldn't hold a candle to Witches in terms of power and threat level, so the Magical Girls were being kept busy but generally having a much easier time of things defending their homes than they used to.
In the city of Yukuni, prejudice and hatred still reigned.
In Kamihama, a potential terrorist group had disbanded peacefully, restructuring as a support network for the city's abundant Magical Girls. But the deep-set, hateful classist feuds still infested much of the city's populace. And one Puella Magi, tortured and tormented because of what part of the city she came from, seethed and plotted…
-CHAPTER END-
And that's that; not only are there now some more Magical Girls stationed on Madoka's Earth, but I've also given you a little teaser for Book 43...
This is DKN, signing off again until RWBY finally updates.