"Mikuni-san!" There was Mami, waving down Oriko on the side of the street with a broad smile. "I'm happy to see that you were available tonight." After seeing how quickly she had been going through Grief Seeds, Oriko understood more and more that she had to do everything in her power to secure more of them. That vision may have been an anomaly in terms of cost, but what was stopping her from getting a similar vision again? Only God knew. And besides, that Witch she saw needed stopping. If it hit Mitakihara, it would be the disaster of the century, worse than anything since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she knew it was coming, but then died before she could do anything to stop it.

She shook her head. That wasn't important for now- right now, she just had to get better at hunting Witches. It was quite lucky that Mami was so eager to teach her, honestly. As soon as Oriko had called her up when she got home, Mami had seemed almost desperate to get her as a student. "Thank you, Tomoe-san. I shall be in your care." She gave a small bow. "I greatly appreciate your willingness to teach me."

Mami's smile grew even wider, if that was even possible. "Really, it's no problem at all!" She said. "It's always a pleasure to help a new magical girl learn how to fight."

Oriko raised an eyebrow. Always? "Say, Tomoe-san, how many girls have you taught before?" She asked. "Is this something you've done before?"

Her smile faded away. "Oh, the number is probably about… three or so, I would say?" She responded after a moment of thought. "Quite a few girls have moved away from Mitakihara as time has passed. I wonder how they're doing now…" A slight look of melancholy came over her face, but she quickly put a smile back on. "It doesn't matter, I suppose. What's happened has already happened. We should start looking for Witches now, yes?"

"Yes, let's." Oriko gave a small nod, deep in thought internally. What could have happened to those five? Did they really all just move away, or did something else happen? She gave a small shake of her head, and took out her Soul Gem. It wasn't really important for now, and she really wanted to get ahead on finding Witches. "How shall we split the Grief Seeds from the Witches that we find today? I do need the Grief Seeds, but I recognize that you have a need for them as well."

A slightly worried look appeared on Mami's face. "How much do you need the Grief Seeds now? It's important to conserve your magic, you know!" She said. "I'm perfectly fine with sharing some Grief Seeds with you if you really need them, but please, you have to take care of yourself!"

"Ah, am I going through my magic especially quickly?" Oriko asked, tilting her head. "I can't fully control my magic, so I suppose it might make sense because of that…"

"That is… Not very good, Mikuni-san." Mami grimaced. "Your Soul Gem filling up with corruption wouldn't be good for anyone. Kyubey has told me before that a fully black Soul Gem will lead to a magical girl losing their magic. Is there any way for you to control your magic? If there's any way at all, I think it would be crucial for you to figure it out."

"Yes, I agree with you…" Oriko murmured. "However, I suspect that this may be an inherent aspect of how my magic works. It's a bit hard to say, but…" She trailed off as she saw Kyubey walk up to the pair of magical girls.

"Oh, hello there, Kyubey!" Mami said as she saw Kyubey, a beat after Oriko stopped. "How are you this evening?"

"I am quite well. My thanks for asking, Mami." It said in its sickly sweet voice, then turned to Oriko. "What is this about you not being able to control your magic? It's not an unknown problem, but you seem to be handling yourself quite well compared to most magical girls who suffer from similar maladies."

It was very obviously fishing for information, but… she needed answers from the thing, didn't she? "I'm not quite sure, Kyubey." She replied. "The magic that I have received is a wonderful answer to the wish that I made, but it's not quite everything I've hoped for. It makes hunting Witches somewhat easier, but the constant drain of magic during everyday life is quite a potent counterpoint to that."

Kyubey stared at her for a moment. "I see. It certainly makes sense that your visions would be a boon in hunting Witches." It said. "As for your other comment, it is an unfortunate fact that we cannot police the wishes that magical girls make. We are simply facilitators for their wishes. If we had the ability to fine-tune those wishes, then believe me that it would be among our highest priorities." Even with the silky smooth neutral tone, Oriko could hear everything that wasn't being said there. She would've snapped at it, but she glanced to her side. Mami seemed a little saddened by those last words, but she seemed perfectly fine otherwise. There was no way that she could get aggressive with Kyubey when Mami was around before she knew the truth.

But there were other things she had to worry about. "Say, Kyubey… Do you know anything about a Witch that is able to manifest without a barrier?"

The creature had already been looking at her, but when she said that, it lasered in on her once more, eyes almost seeming to flare red. "Oh dear. You saw this in one of your visions, I assume? A Witch attacking a city?" At Oriko's nod, he continued. "It is highly likely that that would be the Witch Walpurgisnacht, one of the most powerful Witches ever to exist on this planet. Throughout history, I have tried time and time again to recruit a magical girl strong enough to combat her, but each and every time, I have failed. Walpurgisnacht is akin to a force of nature- she has been subdued before at great cost, but she has never once been defeated."

Oriko heard Mami let out a gasp, but she ignored it, her mind running through the implications at a hundred miles a minute. Homura… if this Witch was truly as powerful as Kyubey claimed her to be, it made sense that she would have as much trouble fighting her as she did. The same questions from before popped up in her head- how in the world would she ever be able to defeat it? That Homura girl had certainly tried before this, and from the way her vision went, she had even tried to gather up a team. But… she still had to try. Any world where she didn't attempt to stop such a tragedy, was a world where she was no longer Oriko Mikuni.

"But there's no need to worry!" Kyubey said, interrupting the stream of Oriko's thoughts. "Just this past week, in fact, I discovered one of the most powerful potential magical girls I've ever come across in my whole time doing this job! If she contracts, she should easily be able to help you take down Walpurgisnacht!"

Oriko pursed her lips. That seemed like a pretty good solution, but… did she really want to condemn another girl to becoming a Witch for the sake of defeating Walpurgisnacht? And even besides that, Oriko was almost certain that Kyubey was hiding something about the situation here. There was no reason to take him at his word.

"Hmmm…" Oriko said, pretending to consider Kyubey's words. "Well, that should certainly be helpful, but I think we should spend time scoping out the already existing magical girls in the area." She turned to Mami. "Say, Mami, do you happen to know one Homura Akemi? I came across her while hunting Witches a couple of hours ago."

Mami started a bit, but then settled. "Homura Akemi?" She put a finger to her lips. "I can't say I've ever come across somebody by that name. Perhaps she's another new magical girl?"

"Akemi, you said?" Kyubey interjected, jumping up into Mami's arms and settling down there. "I only discovered her existence a few days ago. Before, she was a potential of moderate power, but through some strange method, she has become a magical girl without me having knowledge of it. Do you have any way of clarifying this, Oriko?"

Oriko carefully attempted to conceal her surprise. She still wasn't entirely certain whether or not Homura was in a time loop, but a sudden leap in power at the beginning of what could be a 'loop' was certainly telling. "I didn't find anything notable about her." She replied to Kyubey. "She was quite helpful, however, and quite strong. We fought a Witch together, but I was barely able to help before she defeated the Witch." Oriko scratched her chin. "She seems to be a very kind girl, though. When I was trying to evacuate civilians from a Witch's barrier, she was quite helpful in getting them out of there."

"Oh, is that so?" Mami hummed. "It's always nice to meet more magical girls who are like that. You'll have to introduce me at some point." She looked down at her Soul Gem. "But in the meantime, we should probably try to find some Witches to hunt like we said we would, yes?"

"Of course." Oriko nodded. "I greatly appreciate your willingness to-"

—

"Ha! Finally, I found you guys!" The jester magical girl strode about the inside of a Witch's was able to see her and Mami desperately fighting against one- two- was that three Witches? Thankfully, Mami seemed to be in a league of her own. Her ribbons lashed all around her, holding off the Witches as they tried to attack the pair, and Oriko's crystals flashed through the ribbons, shooting beams of light through the gaps.

"Who are you, and why are you doing this?" Mami cried out, teeth gritted as she continued fighting off the Witches, putting most of her concentration on that as one of them almost got by her, a flash of lightning almost hitting her head-on.

The jester girl let out a snort. "Well, it makes sense you wouldn't know me. You Mitakihara girls like to live in your own little world." She said with a smirk. "I'm Sasa Yuuki, but it doesn't really matter. You're going to be done for after this either way."

With a wave of her hand, the attacks of the Witches got even more intense. The flashes of lightning got so strong that Oriko could barely see Mami through it, and she couldn't hear herself think with how loudly the Witches were stomping. But somehow, Mami was still standing after all that, looking just a little worse for wear.

Sasa raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You're still standing after all that? The last idiots I came across were useless, but maybe you'll be better…" All of a sudden, she lunged towards Mami, throwing her whole body into the motion. Mami's ribbons caught her, of course, but for a second, she made contact with her arm, and it seemed like that was enough. Mami completely stopped attacking, and she turned towards Oriko with a grim look on her face, ribbons at the ready.

—

…Well, that one wasn't really too bad. And she got some of the information that she told Komaki she would try to find, Oriko mused to herself. Looking up to see Kyubey's blank stare and a worried look on Mami's face, she raised her hand. "Please, don't worry too much, Tomoe-san. I was simply having another vision." She said. "It wasn't especially pleasant, but it shouldn't be an especially hard situation to resolve."

"Oh? What did you see, Mikuni-san?" Mami seemed to relax a bit, but her face was still lined with worry."

"I was actually intending to tell you before I got this vision- a powerful magical girl named Sasa Yuuki is planning on attacking the magical girls of Mitakihara in a bid to take over the city for herself." She explained, and watched as Mami's expression turned into a grimace. "Her powers appear to involve taking control of both Witches and magical girls- I saw her fight you and me pairing up to a standstill, right up until she was able to take control by touching you."

"That sounds like quite the powerful ability." Mami said back. She scrunched her eyebrows up for a moment, but then let them back down. "In any case, we can't allow a magical girl like this to do as she pleases around Mitakihara. Would you be willing to work with me to take her down?" She raised an eyebrow at Oriko.

Oriko nodded. "Of course. We have a responsibility to the world at large to deal with threats that normal mortals are unable to face. I knew about her earlier, in fact, I was just waiting to gather more information on the nature of her powers before facing her. Now that I have it, there's no more reason to wait." She paused. "In fact, there was another magical girl I was working with to deal with Sasa, if you would just give me a moment to call her in…?" At Mami's nod, she briefly smiled. Defeating Sasa would be a big weight off her back.