Packing her bag had never taken long for Homura Akemi; The girl possessed very few belongings, besides the glasses she never used and a cheap smartphone. All that she needed room for besides was a change of clothes, being an extra school uniform she had received ahead of time. Usually she cared little for wearing anything other than it, but as she looked in the mirror this time, she found something about herself exceedingly plain. It was fine, really, but not quite what she wanted.

On closer inspection, her eyes seemed a bit different. Warmer, almost. More like the colors of the spirit that now accompanied her. Interesting…

Leaving the hospital was, of course, trivially easy. No one asked too many questions and though she was accompanied to her home, she managed to convince her chaperone not to stay. It left her alone, with all the time in the world to figure herself out. Her home was very much unlike the hospital, being a crossroads rather than a dead end. For her, it was much more of a starting point than where she woke up.

"Now…" She started talking to herself, or rather, to her Stand. Manifesting it and making it fade away was similar to putting her hand in a pocket, while moving it was like moving said hand. She wasn't willing to risk showing it in public just yet, given what she was told about a possible change of Fate, but having something to talk at in private was nice.

"From what I can tell, the world is mostly 'unaltered'. There are always a few things out of place, but nothing too drastic." She stated. "Most buildings, as well as Mitakihara's architectural style, are the same. The people are the same, as far as I can remember. The only confirmed changes are those to myself. A product of the 'Stand Arrow', I imagine."

As she spoke, she walked around with her Stand, letting it do various tasks to test its control. It moved around the furniture for the most part, and did so rather easily. Homura often arranged her furniture in a different way every timeline, for some sort of personal feng shui.

"A slightly different 'eye color' and a different taste in 'clothes', not too major a drawback for something as strong as you seem to be. I don't completely trust it, of course, but I certainly can appreciate having 'offensive abilities' to support myself. It means I can save up my ammunition for 'Walpurgisnacht', rather than using most of it for other Witches."

With the furniture in her living room properly placed, she transformed and gathered her usual supplies out of her shield: Her projector, a USB-stick with the data she gathered over the timelines, and now… the Stand Arrow.

"Most of what we need is right here, at our feet. All tested plans, large amounts of data," She held up the arrow, inspecting it as if she held it for the first time. "And a wild card. A way to change our course… possibly."

She quickly put it back in her shield, looking at her windows to make sure no Incubator had traced her yet. It had said that a Stand is the manifestation of one's soul. There had to be some weakness to that which she hadn't identified yet, exposing it to an enemy that knew more than her was unsafe.

"That's the big unknown, I suppose. It doesn't quite line up. Even if this is a different timeline, I don't think it makes sense for the Incubator to throw an alternate self to the wolves." Homura sighed. "Still, I doubt conjecture will let me solve it. One needs to get close to the fire to feel its heat. Let's make sure we have our supplies ready before we do anything rash."

The Stand nodded and faded away, resting inside Homura's soul. Even though it was just a reflection of herself, Homura appreciated having someone to monologue at. Even Madoka didn't listen quite as well as this one did, especially when she got overdramatic.

The noirette grabbed her faded purple jacket, which she normally left at the hospital, and stepped into the fresh spring breeze. At this hour, most people were at school or work. Besides the occasional truancy officer, no one would be bothering her. It was time to do some work.

Homura's plan was quite simple: Travel to the mall she used as her alibi, find a secluded spot to stop time in, then sneak into the yakuza hideout to steal their weaponry. It would be as easy on paper as it was in practice. She had been a bit distracted by the various apparel shops, her mind somehow pushing her towards them. She steadfastly ignored it however, and found a place between two shops to hide herself. With a quick transformation and the familiar click-click-whirr of her shield, the world turned grey and time stopped. Once she was sure it worked like it was meant to, she summoned her Stand. It was still in motion, all the same. Seemed like it being her soul, or part of it, meant that it was always 'connected' to her.

The two walked towards and into the Yakuza hideout in complete silence, only strengthened by the click of the noirette's heels. At this time of day, the hideout wasn't particularly busy, but there were still plenty of bodies she had to shuffle past lest she caused someone to notice her. It wasn't difficult, given the amount of times she had raided that locker, but she couldn't get lenient with it.

Soon enough, she arrived at the weapons locker. Cleaning it out was little more than a routine, aided especially by her Stand grabbing from nearby lockers. Every individual weapon and clip of ammo went into the shield on her arm, ready to be rearranged later that night. It wasn't anything special until the very last locker.

It seemed like just another bag of weaponry, mostly guns she had trained herself with. When she touched the bag, it once more gained the color it lost in frozen time. The first thing she noticed was that the bag was weirdly light for its size and expected contents, though she unfortunately didn't pay it much mind.

Then, she opened the bag. The first thing that hit her was a blast of air, followed by something flying into her face. She instinctively grasped at the object as she was hit with another blast, but her hands phased through it. Luckily, her Stand was quick to react, grasping the creature and lobbing it away, leaving it suspended in the air as frozen time gained hold on it once more.

Homura inspected the creature with difficulty, suddenly feeling dizzy and nauseous. It appeared to be another Stand if its soft glow was any indication, but it was wildly different from her own: It was about the size of a hand, with a thin quadruped body colored entirely black, save for its hands and feet. Its face was colored in various rainbow lines, while its mouth seemed conical and expanding. It had created quite a lot of force for its size. Had it been waiting for her there, or was it just a trap for anyone trying to get in?

She looked around, trying to look for anyone suspicious. All of them seemed to be talking rather casually, smoking or having a drink. None of them were particularly strange, leading her to notice a greater problem.

Sitting on the doorknob, and on the floor were two more of those creatures, staring directly at her. Waiting. This attack didn't seem co-ordinated, but whoever was after her now was definitely a strategist. There was no safe way out of this room if she couldn't be quick about it.

Homura breathed in again, feeling her nausea fade as she readied her Stand. She had formulated a small strategy, and had to make it work in one go if she didn't want any casualties. Her Stand stood beside her, hands already turned into fists. The noirette gave one last look at the creature suspended in front of her as her mind finally supplied her the name of her Stand, the callsign of her new, perilous journey.

"[Null Past Null], eliminate this 'beast'!"

The humanoid stand sprang through her, rushing the small creature with a barrage of punches while Homura watched its back. More creatures were approaching her, but quickly stopped as [Null Past Null] finished its final strike, disconnecting the enemy Stand from the flow of time. The lizard seemed as good as destroyed, but not fully finished. When the Stand turned around and rolled its wrist, the Lizard lit up once again and shot past Homura with high velocity, ramming into another one of its kind and causing both to dissipate. The ground around them seemed to ripple with unspent energy…

tick-tick-tick-tick-whirrr…

As she felt her time-stop reach its limit, Homura quickly slid into the locker and closed it. Her shield would need a moment to cool down, one of the few major weaknesses to her ability. She could deal with it before, but now was a terrible time.

The world grew colorful again, with the murmurings of the yakuza painting the soundscape. She was short enough to not be visible through the grate of the locker, but it left her without a way to see. Luckily, [Null Past Null] could float up to the grate, quickly sneaking a peek through it.

Nothing seemed too different from before, with every critter of the enemy's Stand staying in their place. Most of the yakuza seemed just fine, with one exception.

A young-looking asian man with black hair styled to look like a hand was grasping his head. He had previously been drinking when he suddenly started coughing up blood. It had ruined his fancy-looking white jacket, causing him to grumble loudly and turn around, heading outside.

If that had not been enough for Homura to call him suspicious, the fact that his head turned to look directly at her Stand before he left the room was enough of a sign that she had her target.

A few seconds later, every Stand but the one on the doorknob started scuttling towards her, ready to break in while she counted the seconds until her timestop returned.

Before anything could break in, [Null Past Null] reared back its fists and started slamming at the door. It did not appear to be damaged, but by the soft creak of its hinges, something changed. The Stand that was soon pulling at it could not get it to open anymore.

Click-click whirrr

Finally, the world around her grew grey once more, and time was stopped. She hated relying on it, but by now she didn't have much choice. The hunt was on, with her and her opponent as both the cat and the mouse.

If she had it in her to sigh, she would. Time to pull a wrench out of the works.

-

Stand Master: Homura Akemi

Stand Name: [Null Past Null]

Reference: 88:88 by Danger

Appearance: A mechanical humanoid, colored violet. Its face, which is a much darker color than the rest of its body and head, has two glowing white eyes shaped like zeroes. It has thin limbs covered in what seems like screens, each displaying a different time in a manner similar to a digital alarm clock. Its torso, meanwhile, is covered in a distorted pattern of wavy lines, giving off the impression of movement where there is none.

Ability: This Stand can conserve exerted energy, whether that be its own or energy within its range, by directing it into objects and people, where it is stored. This can be done even if the object is in motion, and directly increases the weight of said object proportionally to the exerted energy. In the case of the Stand, it can even prevent itself from doing damage by using this ability.

At the user's discretion, this stored energy can be released, turning it into velocity, or dispersed, causing a burst of force.

Power: C

Speed: B

Range: D

Durability: D

Precision: C

Potential: B