Mami ended up falling unconscious pretty soon after Homura left. I assumed she just couldn't take it anymore, and shut down from the stress.

Madoka, Sayaka, and I discussed amongst ourselves what to do with her. I eventually volunteered to take her home with me since she'd probably need some support when she eventually woke up, and neither of the other two could house her without attracting unnecessary attention. We decided that we would talk about today's events after we'd had a bit of time to digest everything that had happened, and resolved to get in touch sometime tomorrow, before I slung Mami's arm around my neck and we split up.

I didn't even get a block away before the weight of what I'd just gone through hit me like a truck, and I suddenly became a walking corpse. I was exhausted, plain and simple. The emotional rollercoaster had been quite the ride on its own, but having its effects magnified exponentially after coming a fraction of a fraction of a second away from complete and total failure was tiring beyond belief. I nearly collapsed when it slammed into me, but held fast for my charge's sake. Letting her fall at this point would just be a dick move.

I thanked my lucky stars for the physical enhancements for the second time today. Without them, I doubt I would have made it past the first intersection. Let me remind you - teenagers may not be fully grown, but most of them still clock in at 100 pounds or more, and I don't think I need to tell you what carrying them entails. Remember, the next time you see an action hero or someone like that pulling a bridal carry for extended periods of time, make sure to call them out on their bullshit, because their arms should be dead after 30 seconds.

It was dark by the time we got back to my apartment. The receptionist was dissuaded with a simple excuse, something like "oh, someone just spiked the punch bowl and she got a little excited." I stumbled my way up to my room, sluggishly lifting the key up to unlock the door, falling inside and barely remembering to take our shoes off before I carelessly dragged Mami across the room and dropped her on the bed. Modesty went out the window as I collapsed after her, pulling her up and facing her away from me before I tried to get comfortable and hit my own power button. Key word being 'tried.'

My blue light screen-induced insomnia decided to make today the day it would troll me, and I found myself unable to slip off into dreamland. Although, that did allow me to take notice of what happened next.

At some point later in the night, I began to hear distressed noises coming from Mami. She was fidgeting in her sleep, and it was pretty clear to me that she wasn't having a very pleasant time in her apparent nightmares. Being me, I slipped an arm over to her, and the second she felt it, her hands snapped up and wrapped around it with a death grip.

The 'hug toy' dampened the effects, but didn't make them dissipate entirely. Little whines emitting from her mouth and the barely-noticeable shivering indicated that she was still having an overall shitty experience. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything more I could do with that, besides more reassurances that I was too tired to make and probably wouldn't have helped anyway. I resolved that this was better left handled in the morning, although that might require an early up since it was a school night.

No, wait, I could just have her call in sick. Lord knows she could really sell it at the moment. Then again, there's a lot of potential classwork she could miss, as I know very well… bah, that's a problem for future me.

A little while after, I at last felt my mind drift off into unconsciousness.

When I opened my eyes next, Mami was not in the position I remembered her being in. She was now facing towards me, and had somehow ended up trying to hold me like some sort of security blanket. Her grip was just as strong as it was last night, and I found myself unable to move for the most part.

Oh, great. And here I was, thinking I'd never have to deal with this stupid trope. Are you happy, universe? You 'avin a lil' giggle there, mate? Good for you. Now quit it.

I quietly groaned, and then attempted to escape. When wiggling didn't work, I attempted to use my arms and legs to shake my captor. This found success, as I heard her begin to make groggy noises as her eyes started to crack open.

After blinking a few times, her vision seemed to focus as she came to awareness. Shortly after that, she realized her situation, and inhaled sharply, eyes widening.

The tired expression on my face didn't budge. "If you scream, I'm shoving you off the bed."

The response was a squeak and a scramble to extricate herself from the position she'd unconsciously pulled herself into. Turns out she didn't even need to hear what I said - she fell off the bed all on her own, the impact knocking out an "oof!"

Mami bolted to her feet after recovering, while I sluggishly lifted myself up to a sitting position and attempted to rub the exhaustion from my eyes. She backed away a few steps before she began turning around and surveying the setting with a look of confusion. "This… isn't my apartment."

"Nope," I confirmed, drawing her attention back to me. "It's mine. After what happened yesterday, we thought you might need a shoulder to lean on… or cry into. But, regrettably, Madoka and Sayaka both live with their families, and I'm sure you know how much of a scandal it would cause if they just showed up on their doorstep dragging you behind them." I paused, then added "besides, they don't lift like we do, and humans are heavy" as an afterthought.

She gave the single room another once-over, likely taking notice of its barebones state. "You live here?"

I made a noncommittal motion with my hand. "Ehh, kinda, but not really. You know how I'm here on vacation? This was where my parents paid for me to stay in. Not much to look at, I know, but it does its job just as well as any other temporary residence. But we're not here to talk about me."

I had lifted myself out of the covers while talking, and now stood up to my full height, still easily dwarfing her relatively small frame. "What we're here for now is you. Since it's glaringly obvious that you've got… issues, I've decided that starting today, you, Mami Tomoe, will be the first patient of my jury-rigged therapy service."

Anticipating the refusal she was already preparing, I pressed further. "And before you say anything - no, this is non-negotiable. I'm gonna treat the hell outta you, whether you like it or not."

The look she gave me conveyed a severe lack of faith which I would have found disturbing were it not entirely justified. "Are you even qualified for this?"

"Well, uh…" My eyes drifted off to the side. "I… took a psych class in my junior year. That's gotta count for something, right?"

The following seconds of awkward silence and soul-piercing stare made me come clean. "Okay, yeah, I fully admit that I'm waaay out of my depth here." I took a step forward, and placed my hands on her shoulders. "But that still doesn't mean that you don't need help, and I'm gonna try my damndest to give it to you if it's the last thing I do."

The tears began to fill up in her eyes as she tried to move herself away from my grip. "No. No, you won't." I let go, and she turned her back to me, head bowed. "You shouldn't waste your time on a lost cause like me. Please, don't force yourself to do this for someone who can't even keep a single promise. You're better off without me. Everyone is."

I blinked, and scratched my head. "Wow. Is that what my thoughts sound like to everyone else? Weird. It's like looking in a warped funhouse mirror."

"What?" A single eye revealed itself to me, leaking out water.

"You're not the only one with low self-esteem, y'know." I chuckled, then leaned on the wall and looked up to the ceiling for a bit. Figuring out what to say had been an impossible task thus far, so I decided to just go ahead and keep winging it.

"Hey…" I began, still unsure on how to handle this, but committing anyway. "You wanna know something?"

My gaze came back down to focus on Mami, who hesitantly turned towards me a little more. "If I thought that there was anyone out there who could reasonably come here and provide a better therapy treatment than a high school student with no experience whatsoever, I would've gone out and brought them here as soon as I could."

I suddenly found my socks to be a supremely interesting object to focus my vision on. "But… as much as I want there to be, nobody like that exists. All we have are Mado, Saya, and Homu. All of which are… not exactly the best fit for this kind of thing."

A sigh left my lips. "And… me. Probably the single worst person out of all of them for the job. Autistic, introverted, hardly anybody I can really call 'friends' back home… if I were in your shoes, I'd take one look at that and say 'hell no.'" I heard a sniff from the room's other occupant. "But this stupid little thing called the Scout Law that was beaten into me as a kid is stopping me from walking out on this."

Back up my gaze went to the sad girl. "So… here I am, trying to fill a role I'm both unqualified for and not expected to do." The look intensified. "But I'm not gonna deprive you of what you need just because I'm not supposed to be the one giving it to you. If there's nobody else around who can support you, then I have no choice but to step up and do it myself."

My vision rose up higher, to the singular light fixture in the room. "And if Murphy and his stupid law happen to ruin everything, well…" I let out a resigned laugh. "At least we'll have something in common then, huh?" Another set of lyrics popped into my head as I looked back at Mami's tear-streaked face, albeit they had to be modified to get my point across. "We may share a little drink called failure, but hell - it's better than drinking alone. Am I right?"

Alas, if nothing else, she was a stubborn thing. "No. If you lower yourself to help me, you're not going to help anyone. I've already failed more than I needed to. If I dragged someone else down with me again… I wouldn't be able to live with myself." She made a pleading gesture. "Please. For the good of everyone, forget about me. Only terrible things will come if you try and give me hope again."

You know the look you give someone when they do something that you really shouldn't be surprised by, but you're surprised anyway, and you think 'wow, it's idiotic of me to be surprised about this?' That was the look I shot at her. Then I shoved off the wall, turned away, and tilted my head upward. A moment after, I let it fall and shook it, releasing another sigh as I did so, and turned back around. "You're really not making this any easier for me, y'know?"

Her face fell again. "My apo-"

"No." I cut her off. "If anything, I should be the one apologizing." My fingers came up to pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. "Look. I know that forcing this on you isn't really the best way to go about this, but you're not exactly giving me any other options here. Like I said, if I knew about a way that could make this go smoother, I'd take it. But with things as they are now, you're stuck with me."

A single sad laugh came out of my mouth. "To tell the truth, I'm shaking in my boots. I've never really… gotten people and how they feel. Hell, half the time I can't even tell what I'm feeling. I haven't really cried in years because I'm too busy laughing at the world to feel bad for it."

Another memory floated up. "You know that old saying? 'If we couldn't laugh, we'd all go insane?' That's me in a nutshell. If I didn't spend every second of every day, searching for something that made me giggle, be it schadenfreude, irony, or even shitty internet memes… I probably would've given up a long time ago."

However, I quickly recognized that what I just said wasn't entirely true. "Or, at least I would have, if I also didn't know what it would do to my family." I began to feel something well up behind my eyes. "Especially my poor old granny."

I may have caught her interest with that line, but she stayed silent, so I continued. "Funny how that works - you read enough stories that feature depression as part of a character arc, or see enough news stories covering it, and you start to notice a pattern with how people react." I gestured towards her. "If the victim's someone like you - a girl that just happened to be dealt a shitty hand by life, but who manages to smile through it all - nothing ever stops people from wishing they could've helped ease your pain."

I walked over to the single desk in the room. "That's just a fact. No matter how many times pessimistic nihilists say that people don't care anymore, there's always gonna be at least one person whose heart'll go out to you." I pulled out the chair and sat down, hunching over and propping my elbows up on my upper legs. "I may be an impulsive dumbass who thinks she's not worth shit, but I'm not so wrapped up in my own misery that I can't see what's real and what's a product of my own imagination."

The floor became the object of my interest. "If I decided to just go and end it someday… my granny'd be crushed." I could feel my voice becoming more choked up with each word. "And the idea of breaking her heart just… I don't even wanna think about it."

I was silent for a bit, before Mami decided to speak up again. "...I don't have a family, though. You know that. So why are you telling me this?"

My gaze lifted back up to hers.

What… fuck, am I crying?

I absently lifted a finger to brush just beneath my right eye, and discovered that yes, tears were in fact beginning to leak out. "...you still don't get it. Figures. Guess I'll have to spell it out for you, then."

I futilely wiped at my eyes, trying to stop the flow. The streams didn't stop. "If you went and locked yourself away, you'd do to Madoka and Sayaka - not to mention me - what I'd do to my gran if I did the same."

She shook her head, breathing out a denial. "You don't know that…"

"False," I rebuffed. "And you know it. You knew it since Madoka convinced you that you weren't alone anymore." I shot her a poor excuse for a smile, my expression marred by wet clear streaks. "Y'know, for someone who doesn't want people to care about her, you're doing a pretty shit job of making us."

She turned her head away again in a token effort to shut me out, but I wasn't stopping. "I mean, you don't seriously expect people not to care when you save their fuckin' life, right? And you did that to all three of us. It'd practically be the biggest dick move we could ever pull if we decided not to give a shit about that sorta thing."

"And what if I can't do it again?" She twisted back around with the expression of someone desperately trying to convince themselves that what they were doing was best. "What if I go back, only to fail again? What if I get them killed next time? What if I get you killed next time?!"

I could only shrug helplessly. "That's just how life is, Mami. It's sad, it's brutal, and it can cut you off prematurely, but it doesn't take no for an answer, so you just have to learn to accept it and move on." I stood up and straightened myself a bit. "Like what Rocky famously said - it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

I took a few steps forward. "What you're trying to do, though? That's not moving forward. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that if you can't convince yourself not to do it, you might as well just put one of your muskets to your head, pull the trigger and save yourself the trouble of starting from square one. Because as it stands, you're in way too deep to ever make it back to this point."

I stopped in front of her, emphasizing the height difference as I looked down upon her. "The way I see it, you've got two options. Either you give up, run off, and isolate yourself till the day you die…" I placed my hands on her shoulders, leaning in for extra effect. "Or you get back up, grab your gun, and shoot life in the god damn face for daring to think that it could keep you down."

If I had to pick one word to describe her expression in that moment, I would choose 'conflicted' in a heartbeat. She was standing on the precipice of a major decision, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn't influence her choice any more than I already had. If she wasn't willing to take the first step, no amount of help would be able to save her. I hated leaving things as fate-shaping as these to coin flips, but I didn't have much more of a say in the matter. The only thing I could do was step back, and let her decide the future.

I stepped past Mami, patting her on the back as I did so. "For your sake, I hope you don't choose poorly." I kept going, right up to the door. "Now, I'm off to grab breakfast. The next time we see each other, I expect you to have made your decision." Wiping my eyes again, I put my shoes back on and pulled the door open, briefly looking back. "That doesn't mean you can't take your time, though. Feel free to go home, go to school, or do whatever you want. I won't stop you. Laters!"

And with that, I left the room.

That's it. I've done all I can for now. Fate of the city's in your hands, Mami - I hope to god that you don't screw it up.

When I returned to my room about a half hour later, the window was open, and the blonde was gone.

...I so wish I could board that stupid thing up. Staff would give me hell if I did, though. Oh, well.

A/N: Remember when I said that the next chapter was likely going to focus on Sayaka?

Yeah, I might've lied about that a little.

I'm gonna say this now - that was probably the single hardest scene I've ever written up to this point in my career. Not just because of the heaviness, but also how delicate the subject matter was. This was magnified by how pivotal to the plot this conversation is, meaning I had to check and double-check everything I wrote to make sure it was at least passable. Speaking of which, this chapter probably contains the highest number of scrapped words out of all of them.

Shoutouts to DestructionDragon360, LowerBlack, and Narwhal Lord for their feedback on this chapter's content, by the way. It wouldn't be what it is without them. Go check 'em out if you have the time.

Anyway, next time, I'll be writing a flashback sequence because I forgot to include a specific scene in the last chapter that's gonna become important real soon. It won't take up the entire chapter, but it will provide a starting point and some clues for y'all to figure out a noteworthy change to the canon timeline.

Until then!