CHAPTER 6: I Do Over

"This is nuts! This is totally, completely nuts!" Sayaka thought to herself while she sat opposite the room to her own counterpart in the waiting room of the Mitakihara Middle School's office.

"This is nuts! This is completely nuts!" Her other self kept pleading her case to her father sitting next to her. "For the last time, it wasn't me at that stupid restaurant! You said you believed me!"

"I believe you, Sayaka, I really do," Her Papa reassured as he flipped through the pages of the after-school activities guidebook.

"So why the heck are you making me do this?"

"Because it's about more than that restaurant. Frankly, your mother and I have been a little worried about you lately. Your grades are slipping. And you're not involved in any clubs or activities. It's made us worry about your future. Worried that the two of us haven't been giving you any direction in life. Worried that you won't be prepared for the challenges of being an adult."

"Signing me up for something isn't gonna fix that!" She batted her hand at the pamphlet. This is just gonna stress me out!"

"Stress you out? " Sayaka thought to herself. "You know nothing about real stress!"

"That's the point. It's only an after-school activity, Sayaka. The low-stakes kind of stress." He smiled, leaned in and lightly grabbed her arm. "You know, your mother's idea was to get you a part-time job."

"Ugh, forget that." Sayaka rolled her eyes and cringed at the memory of her recent dishwashing experience. "I think I'd rather be stabbed in the stomach."

"No you wouldn't!" Sayaka glared disgustedly at her other self.

"So go along with my idea, at least until you're mother's off your back. You might even have fun." Her Papa patted her on the head as they got up and shuffled to the office front desk. He fingered through the pages in his hand to the sports activities section. "Let's see… Your mother would like to see you engage in something that teaches you good values… Teamwork, patience, persistence and perseverance, all the good stuff."

"Yeah. 'Good' stuff." Sayaka rolled her eyes and gave a deep, resigned sigh. Sayaka knew what her opposite was thinking. She was aware that she was being perceived amongst the class as being stronger and more physically built than the other girls, and her ultimate fear was being pigeonholed as some kind of tomboy. So she'd always turned down any invitations to join the class's sports clubs, and she never tried out for any teams. She didn't want to appear too unfeminine to the others, especially Kyosuke. But now she was going to be forced right down that hole. Not even getting a say in the matter. That Sayaka must have been absolutely seething underneath her flippant teenage facade.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to overhear," The physical education teacher, Miss Yamazaki was standing nearby at the front desk. "But our softball team could really use an extra person right now! One of our players hurt her arm."

"Really? See that? You hear that!" Her Papa smiled at her. "It's like it's your destiny!"

"Ffffffiiiine." Sayaka snatched at the sign-up sheet.

Sayaka looked over her transfer papers. She thought it was pointless to return to school, she had entirely stopped going in those final days of the last timeline, and felt that right now she'd be much more use on the outside hunting witches and on the lookout for Kyubey, but Miss Jones decided otherwise. "What we need to do right now is try to blend in. Give the bunnycat no reason to see us as any anything but ordinary humans living ordinary human lives doing ordinary human things." Sayaka pointed out that her other self was going to be there as well. "Yes that's the idea: Keep watch over the whole lot of you in one place! Say 'Hi' to the lady who's going to be your new teacher!" Sayaka pointed out the danger of her touching her other self. "Just don't keep your distance then." She added, "Or if you can't, make sure Kyubey isn't watching the sparks," with a wink.

Miss Jones had cooked up a phony backstory for Sayaka in which she was a transfer student from a school on the island of Okinawa. She even tapped into the government's computer systems and forged all the necessary images and documentation. The only thing she didn't think up was Sayaka's name. That space was left blank, Sayaka's to fake. "You did a fine job thinking up my name… Joyce … Jones! Short, sweet and best of all alliterative!"

"I heard we were getting a transfer student soon. That you?" Sayaka looked up to see herself face-to-face with her other self. "I'm Sayaka Miki! What's your name?"

"S- Sa- Saya-" She stammered as she put her transfer sheet between her faces. She was so red-faced she had to look again at the name she wrote down. "Sa- Saya. O-to-na-shi. Otonashi."

"Huh. That's an unusual name." Sayaka raised her finger towards Sayaka's cheek. "I swear I've heard that name somewhere before." Sayaka reflexively leapt to the seat next to her before her double's finger could make contact.

"Sorry." Sayaka stepped back. "That was rude of me."

"Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for being available to fill in on such short notice!" The Superintendent was gratuitously shaking Miss Jones's hand.

"It's not a problem, really!" Miss Jones was trying to make her exit, her cheeks blushing redder with each compliment the School Superintendent was heaping on her.

"Filling in? For whom?" Miss Yamazaki asked.

"Ohhhhhh… Kazuko Saotome won a month-long trip to Paris." The Superintendent replied. "Claimed it was a contest she didn't even remember entering. But she's leaving with her boyfriend on Friday."

"Lucky lady!" Miss Yamazaki sighed. "I always wanted to visit Paris! And she gets to be there a whole month?"

"Lucky for us, I have right here her substitute! And a very-highly qualified one at that! Graduate of some of the finest institutions in the west!"

"Oh? A foreigner? Welcome to Mitakihara Middle School!" Miss Yamazaki promptly bowed and shook the woman's hand.

"Thank you! It will be an honor teaching young minds here." She returned the courtesies.

"You're fillin' in for Saotome-sensei?" Sayaka walked over, smiled and bowed to her new teacher. "Awesome! I've never had a foreign teacher before! It's nice to meet you, Sensei!"

"Sen-..." Miss Jones glanced from one Sayaka to the other and did a double-take. "Why, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sayaka!" Miss Jones gave her a big embracing hug. Sayaka took this as an opportunity to quietly maneuver by and hand her transfer papers over to the office's front desk.

"How do you know my name already?" Sayaka asked her in surprise.

"It's right there on that sign-up sheet in your hand, dear."

"Oh, yeah." Sayaka's smile vanished. "Darn it." She remembered exactly what she had in her hand and disappointedly glanced at her father. "I look forward to seeing you in class on Friday…"

"Jones. Joyce Jones."

"Jones-sensei."

"See you soon!" Miss Jones let go of her embrace and started toward the exit door which Sayaka had also just discreetly retreated to.

"Looking forward to it. Looking forward to seeing you, too Saya." Sayaka courteously bowed to Sayaka. Sayaka awkwardly bowed back to herself on her way out the door.

"That was close. You could have told me that 'You' were going to be here this afternoon." Miss Jones voiced as they walked down the stairs.

"Because I didn't know that 'I' was going to be here, either." Sayaka replied.

"That so?"

"It sounded like my folks found out about our restaurant mishap. I guess they're gonna 'punish' me… er, Her… By making her join the softball team."

"Yeah. I still feel a bit bad about having to do that to her."

"Maybe we accidentally did her a favor." Sayaka pondered.

"How do you mean?"

"Do you remember what I said to you at the restaurant, that I became a magical girl because I felt like I didn't have a purpose?" Sayaka stopped and looked back toward the office. "Who knows? Maybe being part of a team will give her one." She shook her head and shrugged. "It might be good for her. Who's to say?"

"So why didn't you do that? You do look like you've got the ideal physique for youth athletics."

"P- People have said that to me before." She clasped her hands behind her back as they continued walking. "It's why I never did."

"Go on." They continued walking.

"I mean… Pretty much everybody in my class thinks I'm a total tomboy. The boys, anyway. They think I'm quick to hit back and hit back harder when someone messes with my friends." Sayaka modestly chuckled. "So they don't mess with my friends, y'know?"

"A tough cookie, eh?"

"But that's the problem."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never been asked to go to any dances, never been asked to go on any dates with boys. If I wanted to go anywhere do anything with boys, I always had to set it up as a group thing with Madoka and Hitomi," She sighed. "And every time the guys were always more drawn to Hitomi."

"Envious? Don't be. Aren't you more into that boy you wished for, anyway?"

"Well of course I want Kyosuke." She wanly smiled. "But I wanna know how I'm supposed to talk to Kyosuke first." Her head drooped toward the floor as she was walking onward. "And not like, as a pal… But like, how a girl would talk to a boy she likes."

"It's not as hard as you think." Miss Jones pat her back. "Talk. Listen. Talk. Listen. Then sparks."

"Heh. I've tried." Sayaka replied. "But he hardly ever wants to talk about anything besides music." She kicked a stray rock on the walkway. "Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate talking about a bunch of guys who died over a hundred years ago, it's that I'd much rather know everything else about him. Everything I can know."

"So you're doing it by asking his classmates?" Miss Jones scratched her head. "Method seems a bit roundabout.

"It's not that per se." Sayaka corrected. "They're just practice. I'm trying to figure out Kyosuke by figuring out what boys are into. You know, in a more general sense."

"Ah, yes. Practice."

"Yeah." Sayaka head bobbed, then sunk. "But they'd never bite. We go out, and they won't even look at me. We do things, and they don't look at me." Her voice cracked. "I couldn't understand it. We talk and get along and chit-chat just fine in class!" She lamented. "So finally I asked Hitomi what I was doing wrong, and she said the problem wasn't me, it's that all the boys have told her they were afraid of me!"

"Ah. Warranted or not, your 'reputation' was cemented."

"Exactly." Sayaka dejectedly confirmed. "And that got me wondering even more about Kyosuke." Her voice cracked a little more as she sniffled back her tears. "Is he afraid of me too? If a boy like him… Somebody who has just lost his unique talent… Somebody may never even be whole again, would he want to have anything to do with a girl who's, say, the star of the basketball team? Or the soccer team's goalie? Or the softball squad's slugger? Or the math Wiz? Or the poetry expert? Would he want to get together with a girl who outshines him?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. It's on him if he doesn't."

"I didn't think he would. So I thought that if I acted more girly… like... Hitomi and Madoka, and let my grades slip... and then devote myself to helping him… That he'd…"

"He'd eventually like you back."

"Yeah."

"But you'd only be acting. He wouldn't be liking the real 'you'. And besides, devoting yourself to his care or his interests is just restricting yourself, limiting your future, your potential."

"I get that." Sayaka wiped away her sudden rush of tears with her sleeves. "But I don't get what else I'm supposed to do," She sniffed.

"No shame in that. But here's a little secret: That's love. Nobody knows what they're supposed to do. The heart plays games with the head. Or hearts, in my case." Miss Jones handed Sayaka a handkerchief from her coat pocket.

"Thanks." She blew her nose in the handkerchief and tucked it in her pocket. "I feel better saying all this out loud to someone, somehow."

"Was he the reason you had that dead composer's music disc on you? The smashed disc?"

"I bought it for him. I really do like to listen to all that old music. I thought he'd enjoy listening to it with me, and from there we'd bond. But one day, he smashed it. And then he yelled at me… He said I was torturing him by making him listen to songs he couldn't play anymore. That's when I decided for certain to make my wish. It didn't matter to me at that moment if he'd ever come around to liking me or not. I just couldn't stand to watch him suffer anymore."

"Let me guess: That's where the bunnycat swooped in."

"Yeah." Sayaka shook her head and stared at the ring on her finger. "I was ripe for the picking, wasn't I?"

"He'll get his just desserts. I promise." Miss Jones reassuringly put her hand on Sayaka's shoulder.

"So what do we do about it next?"

Miss Jones thought for a moment. "Let's go to the hospital."

"Why?" Sayaka attached the perception filter clip to her hair.

"To go visit your boyfriend, of course." Miss Jones said with a wink, a smile, and a pat on Sayaka's head.


The battle with this particular witch had become extremely routine to Homura. She'd faced it dozens upon dozens of times by this point in her life. Even so, Homura knew all too well the potential risks of not staying focused on the objective at hand.

Stop time. Jump. Ride the spinning roulette platform and get closer to the target. Jump again onto the bird-like familiar to get in range. Fire a volley of M249 ammunition at other bird-like familiars. Toss a couple M26 frag grenades at the witch inside its cage. Make the escape Time resumes. The grenade explodes. The target is destroyed. With clinical precision, Homura's job was done. The Grief Seed awaited procurement. But as she bent over to pick it up, an unexpected complication arose.

"Hmmm… You really are quite powerful, that much I expected." A voice that Homura immediately recognized spoke in the distance behind her. "You defeated that witch in a matter of seconds. I must admit I am quite impressed." It was none other than Mami Tomoe. Damn. An uneasiness hit Homura directly in the pit of her stomach. An encounter with her was unavoidable, no matter what timeline, but this was happening far earlier than Homura anticipated.

"I have no desire to fight you." Homura said succinctly.

"That's not what your attacks on my friend here would imply." Kyubey stepped into view behind Mami. Of course he would be the instigator of this confrontation.

"Attacks? I have no idea what you are talking about." Playing dumb and denying everything was probably going to antagonize Mami, but she was typically not the sort who attacked without provocation. Typically. Keeping Kyubey in the dark had to remain the priority here.

"Homura Akemi… Now we have a face to go with your name." Kyubey said. Homura flipped her hair nonchalantly.

"What do you think, Kyubey? Are you certain that the person standing before us is your attacker?" Mami asked.

"While I cannot say for sure that she is the assailant, what I am certain of, is that she is the unexplained new presence we've detected appearing around town in the last few days." Kyubey affirmed.

"I'm not your attacker." Homura turned her body and took a step away from the duo.

"Now you just wait a second." A yellow ribbon slithered from Mami's sleeve and grabbed Homura by the leg. "We're not done talking yet." Mami's eyes gleamed in the twilight as she smiled her matronly, self-confident smile. It was a familiar visage that once buoyed younger Homura's spirits, now it caused her revulsion.

"You are, nonetheless, an anomaly." Kyubey restated. "I do not have any recollection of ever making a contract with you."

"I don't know what to say," She tugged lightly on Mami's magical ribbon. "Perhaps your memory is faulty," She added. "Understandable, as my contract was made quite some time ago." She tried putting a feigned tone of concern in her voice. "And you have other clientele who need supervision far more than I."

"Just how long ago was that?" Mami said. "What did you wish for when you became a magical girl?"

"It doesn't matter." Homura then tried to untie Mami's ribbon. "What only matters now is my mission to protect it. Which I must be getting back to."

"I said..." Mami pulled back on the ribbon, swiping Homura off her feet. "You can leave when we are done talking to you."

"What do you know of the other anomalous presence?" Kyubey asked. Damn. Did Kyubey know about Sayaka too?

"Nothing." Homura transformed out of her magical girl form, an attempt at de-escalation she hoped would get Mami to back down.

"You two were in that familiar's barrier together." Kyubey asserted.

"I was only chasing after the familiar. I was not aware of another individual present." Homura countered.

"You were also both inside that apartment building as well. Presumably your home." Kyubey added.

"Then it would seem I have a secret stalker." Homura added. "Thank you for the warning. I'll have to be more vigilant in the future."

"Do you really expect us to believe those answers? That you can't sense another magical girl hiding right underneath your nose?" Mami's self-confident facade was still holding, but her frustration was clear and mounting.

"Why is it so hard to believe? It is the truth. I did not see this accostment coming, either." Homura pointed at Mami's ribbon. "Perhaps I'm not as powerful as you seem to think I am. Just let me go ." Homura looked Mami directly in the eyes, and simply added. " Please ."

The smile from Mami's face disappeared as she decided to relent. "Very well. You may go." The ribbon disappeared in a flash of flowers and light. Homura began walking the other direction.

"Thank you." Homura cooly expressed.

"Before you go, know this." Homura's head turned toward Mami. "This city already has a magical girl protecting it. Me." Mami added, "I suggest you not plan on staying here for the long-term."

"Is that a threat?"

"More a… Word of caution. From a more powerful magical girl to a less powerful one."

"I'll take that into consideration." Homura kept walking and walking and walking, until finally Mami and Kyubey were together alone.

"You're just going to let her go?" Kyubey asked Mami.

"I'm not the kind of person who would convict somebody without conclusive proof of misdeeds." Mami straightened the ribbon on her collar as she continued. "Nor am I the sort of magical girl who picks needless fights if I can help it."

"Her answers were obvious lies." Kyubey jumped onto Mami's shoulder.

"I'm choosing to give her the benefit of the doubt." She slightly tilted her head. "For now."

"Her words convinced you?" Kyubey turned his head and looked at Mami.

"Honestly..." Mami stopped walking underneath a streetlight. "No. I decided to let her go, because I noticed a certain… Something in her eyes."

"Her eyes?"

"Her eyes looked…" Mami looked towards the sky above. "Sad. As though her... Gruff exterior and her brusque words were all a mask." She longingly peered into the twilight sky. "I guess that brought out some of my sympathy."

"You humans and your emotions… So perplexing." Kyubey wagged his tail and stared at the young lady.

"I didn't expect you to understand." Mami stared reflectively into the Soul Gem conjured in her hand.

"We should seek out that other anomaly." Kyubey suggested.

"In good time." Mami resumed walking down the street. "Tonight, I'm going to keep hunting witches. Duty first."


"Excuse me, young lady?" Sayaka awoke to the voice of the secretary in the hospital lobby. Sayaka checked to see if the perception filter was still in her hair. It was. The woman wasn't speaking to her. "Visiting hours are over now. You'll have to go home."

"Oh. Okay thank you." Sayaka looked over to the girl sitting a few seats away. Wearing a Mitakihara Elementary school uniform, she had long, flowing hair with a small pair of twin-tails jutting from both sides of her head. Sayaka recognized her as the same young girl eating in the elevator from a few days ago. The girl hurriedly stuffed her belongings, a phone, a toy, and a number of cheese snacks, into her backpack, and approached the front desk. "Can you please give this to her? A- And tell her I was here for her today too?" She handed the secretary a shrink-wrapped snack.

"Of course we will, Sweetie." The secretary took the snack. "Now you'd best be getting home now. Before the last train leaves."

"See you tomorrow." The young girl waved back as she exited.

"Byyyyyyyyeeeeeee!" The secretary waved as she watched her go.

Sayaka and Miss Jones had separated after their last talk, trying to minimize the risk of Kyubey seeing the two of them together. They had agreed to meet back up here in the hospital lobby, but while Sayaka had gone straight to their destination, Miss Jones was nowhere to be found. Sayaka checked the clock on the wall. She was nearly four hours late by this point. And Sayaka really had to use the bathroom right now.

"Chiwa!" The secretary punched a nurse in the arm as Sayaka walked by. "I told you to take that to her mother!"

"Ow! Gimme a break!" The nurse had apparently eaten the young girl's gift snack instead of delivering it to the person she wanted. "I've been on my feet all day and I'm starving!" The nurse crumpled the wrapper and threw it in the trash. "Besides, it's not like her Mother is going to be able to take it anyway. Poor woman probably won't even…" Sayaka entered the bathroom without hearing the rest of it.

"Psssssst! Sayaka! Over here!" Sayaka heard a voice calling out upon exiting the bathroom. Miss Jones was waving at her with her multitool from inside a storage room.

"Where were you? You're late!" Sayaka said.

"Oh, just out and about. Taking a tour. Seeing the sites." Miss Jones handed Sayaka her multitool and began undressing. "Trying to hunt for Kyubey." She lowered her voice. "Didn't see him. I don't think he's nearly as omniscient as he presents himself to you magical girls. Just a little hunch." She slipped off her shoes, and raised her voice. "It's a very nice town you have, by the way. Though it's a wee bit over designed from an aesthetic perspective." She chuckled. "But then again, I'm no urban planner or architect. Merely a well-travelled tourist."

"You could have told me you were going to be late." Sayaka chided.

"I knew you'd be fine." She removed her pants. "You have your disguise and you have your perception filter."

"No, not about that!" Sayaka corrected. "I was worried about you."

"Me?" Miss Jones stopped her undressing and gave pause. "Huh, now there's an old feeling. Somebody's worried about me."

"Why are you taking off your clothes?"

"I told you. Because we are about to go visit your boy Kyosuke." Miss Jones opened a locker and pulled out a pair of colored uniforms. "As a pair of nurses. Blend right in with the staff."

"I am not wearing a nurse's outfit."

"Why not?" Miss Jones tilted her head and scoped Sayaka's backside. "I think you'd look pretty cute in one."

"That's not- That's…" Sayaka was completely flustered and was hiding her beet-red face in her palms. "Where did you even get those?"

"Do you really want to know or are you just changing the subject?"

"Uggghhhh… Nevermind nevermind nevermind!" Sayaka took a deep breath. "Let's just get our butts up there, already!"

"As you wish." Miss Jones re-folded Sayaka's unworn outfit and carefully shoved it back into the storeroom locker.

"Kyosuke Kamijou." Miss Jones read the room plate upon arriving at Kyosuke Kamijo's hospital suite door. "The name sounds familiar. Oh, well." She took her coat off and laid it on a table in the room. She grabbed her multitool from her nurse outfit's pocket, flipped a switch and waved it over his head. "Perfect. He's sleeping. This'll make sure he stays that way."

"Why are we here?" Sayaka asked, staring out the high-rise window.

"Why, we're here to fix your boyfriend, of course."

"We are?" Sayaka scratched her head. "You brought some of those medial nano-thingies?"

"No." Miss Jones patted Sayaka's shoulder. "You're going to be healing your boyfriend."

"What?" Sayaka was confused. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Give me your hand." Miss Jones commanded.

"O- Okay." Sayaka held out her hand.

Miss Jones pulled a needle from her other pocket and swiftly stabbed Sayaka's outstretched hand.

"Ow!" Sayaka recoiled in pain. "What the heck was that for?"

"It hurt?" Miss Jones asked.

"Yes!"

"You bleeding?"

Sayaka looked over her hand. "N- No."

"Oops. Sorry." Miss Jones apologized. "I'm going to have to prick it again."

"No, you're not!" Sayaka protested.

"I've gotta."

"I'm not letting you!"

"Not even for his sake?" Miss Jones pointed at Kyosuke.

"How does hurting me help him?" Sayaka asked.

"Just trust me on this." Miss Jones smiled and gestured her own hand over to Sayaka. "Just one liiiittle prick. For his sake."

Sayaka looked over Kyosuke Kamijo's peacefully-sleeping body. She had already given up her soul for his happiness, what was one little prick in the hand? "Fine." She conceded. She outstretched her hand a second time, looked away and winced.

"Ow… Owwww…" Sayaka closed her eyes and bit her lip as Miss Jones, more slowly and deliberately, pricked her in the back of the hand.

"Now then." Miss Jones whispered. "Take a look."

Sayaka opened one eye and looked over her hand. The blood gushing from her wound instantly slowed to a small trickle, then amazingly, dissolved altogether as the wound itself sealed closed. In a matter of seconds, the injury on her hand was gone. As if it never even happened.

"M- My magic?" Sayaka rubbed her healed hand.

"In a manner of speaking." Miss Jones said. "Your 'magic', is simply put, an ectomatter energy-powered form of cellular regeneration. And it remains active, even while you're not donning your flashy battle getup. If my theory is correct, then your 'wish', was just the initial manifestation of an unlocked ability to regenerate any living, organic tissue. The ability to heal your own tissue is innate, but with the right amount of applied willpower and focus, I suspect you also have the ability to heal others as well."

"For reals? You really think I can heal him again?"

"I know you can." Miss Jones offered her a confident 'thumbs-up' gesture. "You've only gotta figure out how."

"You make it all sound so easy." Sayaka uttered skeptically. "Couldn't you inject him with those nano-thingies?"

"I suppose I could." Miss Jones elaborated, "But I've only got... One last dose of those things left. Would much rather save it for an emergency. But if you were to learn how to heal others, with that oh, so wondrous ability of yours, then saving those nannies won't be an issue." She smiled. "You heard the ol' 'Give a man a fish' cliché?"

"You want me to be useful." Sayaka stared down at the floor. "To you."

"Don't think of it like that." Miss Jones lifted Sayaka's chin up. "Think of it as… Unlocking your true inner potential."

"I don't even know how I'm supposed to start!"

"Listen closely and I'll show you." Miss Jones pressed a switch on her multitool and conjured Sayaka's Soul Gem from the ring on her hand. She handed it back to her. "Hold out your hand and close your eyes." Sayaka reluctantly complied. "Think back to that day you made your wish." She delicately took Kyosuke's damaged hand and placed it atop the gem in Sayaka's palm. "Think of all the things that were going through your mind as you stood on that rooftop."

"As I stood and let Kyubey pluck my soul out and stick it in a rock." Sayaka bitterly recalled.

"Don't get hung up so much on the specific memories. More your feelings at the time."

"I remember being very nervous. I remember feeling like there was a great big elephant on my chest."

"Dig deeper than that. What were your feelings toward him?"

"Kyosuke?" Sayaka opened one eye toward his face. "I… Remember how much I wanted to hear him play again. How much I wanted him to be able to share his music with the whole world again. I wanted to see him on a tour of all the packed houses and auditoriums, at sold out arenas and humongous stadiums. And that made me feel so…" She gently caressed his hand. "Happy. For him." The blue glow within her gem noticeably intensified, pulsating between their hands.

"Hmmm." Miss Jones scanned the results with her multitool. "Better."

"R- Really? Is his hand getting better?" Sayaka asked optimistically.

"... No. I detect no change in his condition."

"Awwwww, come on!" Sayaka exasperatedly dropped her gem. "That's what I really really felt! Why isn't it working?" It rolled under Kyosuke's bed.

"Strictly speaking scientifically… The ectomatter energy reaction is not concentrated enough to stimulate cellular growth. You're holding something back, it seems."

"I'm not holding anything back!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Did I come at a bad time?" The two ladies were startled by the sudden voice of a third person in the room. It was Homura. Sayaka's gem was suddenly back in her palm.

"No, not at all." Miss Jones snickered. "Been a long while since someone triggered the silly schoolgirl in me. What's up?"

"We need to talk." She took a few steps closer.

"Sure thing."

Homura glanced at Sayaka. "Preferably in private."

"Very well." Miss Jones put her hand on Sayaka's shoulder. "You two going to be alright alone?"

"Pfffffft."

"Oh, don't get so discouraged. It was only your first try. Who succeeds at something hard on their very first try?"

"I killed a witch on my first try." Sayaka rebutted back.

"Perhaps we're focused on the wrong thing here. You know what you wanted him to get out of your wish. But what was really in it for you? A cool costume, nifty superpowers, sure. But was that really all you wanted?" Miss Jones stepped towards Homura in the doorway, turned and added "Dwell on that."

"So what is it that you want to discuss?" Miss Jones closed the suite's door behind them.

"A short while ago, I was accosted by both Mami Tomoe and Kyubey." Homura stated.

"I take it this is distinctly a new turn of events?"

"A confrontation with her is inevitable in every timeline, but this is the earliest it has happened thus far."

"I trust you told them nothing useful?"

Homura nodded. "However, Kyubey indicated that he was already aware of the presence of another abnormal magical girl in Mitakihara." She paused and looked toward the suite door. "It could be problematic if we appear to be in direct collaboration."

"Kyubey's not yet aware of who she is, though, I hope?"

Homura shook her head. "No. Only that she exists."

"Not an entirely unexpected development. Didn't figure a perception filter and some cosmetic trickery would cover her soul's general aura."

"Magical girls have an innate ability to sense one another's presence. It's an ability that can be honed so that we can immediately recognize one another. It can even be tuned to sense specific girls from longer distances."

"My race has a similar kind of extrasensory perceptiveness." She added, "Made those hide-and-seek games I played as a kid rather trivial."

"Kyubey possesses it as well. Probably just as acute."

"A not-unreasonable assumption to make. So you expect Kyubey to pop in at any moment on us now?"

"That Kyubey would instigate such an encounter, and such an early time suggests that he intends to take a more proactive approach in this timeline. If he comes, expect him to bring along a magical girl who is looking for a fight."

"Did you have a scuffle with Tomoe?"

"I narrowly avoided it. By looking... Weak. She's one of the strongest among us, but she's not a bully. But I can't say for certain that she'll remain that way, with Kyubey more actively pulling her strings."

"Thanks for the warning. I'll try to think of a way to keep Sayaka's head down. He must not learn who she is, or that I'm a player. Not until I get a chance at him one-on-one."

"The primary concern is that she not get herself killed." Homura peeked through the crackin the door. "Sayaka Miki has never been a particularly competent magical girl."

"You must have watched her succumb to a lot. Dozens, maybe hundreds of times if my TARDIS's readings were accurate."

Homura watched Sayaka through the opening, as Miss Jones noticed the magical girl's expression change almost imperceptibly from a look of stoicism to one resembling sympathy. "I wish you luck." Homura finally closed the door and turned to walk away.

"One last question, before you go." Miss Jones requested. "You said you girls have certain abilities that can be honed. In those other timelines, did Sayaka ever possess the ability to heal others with her regenerative power?"

"Is that what you two are trying to do in there?"

"It'd be nice and handy to have in a pinch."

"She… Never survived long enough to be able to experiment much with her magic." Homura took a few steps away, stopped and looked back. "But I think I do recall... Her using her powers that way on others a few times."

"That's good to know! And I'm going to tell her that! Thank you, very very much-ity much!" Miss Jones said cheerfully.

"Good luck."

"See you in school." Miss Jones waved.

"In school?" Homura looked back again.

"Oh, yes." Miss Jones winked and smiled. "I should also mention that…"

Sayaka sat there in the dark, in her chair next to the sleeping Kyosuke Kamijo, silently watching the flickering blue glow of her Soul Gem sitting beside his injured hand.

"Hi, Kyosuke… It's me. The girl you're gonna reject. Or am I the girl you already rejected? Or maybe I'm that girl you rejected in an alternate world?"

"Okay, I'm getting off track. Sorry. You see, I've been reading a science book, and I think it's about time travel and alternate realities and stuff. I can't say I understand much of it, but at least it puts me to sleep. And reading it keeps me from thinking about all the things that I'd think about, like the stuff I'm thinking about while I'm looking at you."

"Ugh. Babbling." She noticed her altered reflection in a picture frame on the wall. "Here, let me try again. It's okay. I'll do all the talking. You just have to listen." She cleared her throat. "Hi again, Kyosuke… It's me. The girl who loves you but you didn't love back." She hastily closed the curtains behind her, then in a singular motion ripped off her disguise. "I'm Sayaka Miki."

"Ha! You thought I was some cute girl? Too bad, it was just me, Sayaka. Sorry to fool you." She hastily put her disguise back together. "But I have to wear this silly getup. And to be totally honest though, I'm not feeling too much like Sayaka right now anyway."

Her eyes momentarily glanced at her fluttering Soul Gem on the bed. "You see, this face of mine isn't the real me, either. Not anymore. It's a long story and I'll try my best not to bother you too much over it."

"Back in the world I'm from, I… Saved you. Your hand was hurt, just like it is now, you couldn't play your violin anymore. And I came to see you, every day that I could. Sometimes, you were too busy to see me, but I came anyway, just to show you how much I cared."

"I brought you gifts sometimes. CDs and such. Told you all the news and gossip from school. I did whatever I could that would help you get better and back on your feet, so that once that day came, you'd join the rest of us living our lives out there. I was ready to dedicate my life to helping you do that. Because..." She was breathing heavily, her heart throbbing from her chest. The amount of achiness it was causing surprised her.

"But I could tell," She felt her chest, took a deep breath and soldiered on. "When I looked into your eyes, as time went on and the number of surgeries and rehabilitation efforts mounted, I saw that you knew you were never going to be the same person again. You were never going to be the guy who could charm an entire theater full of people with your music again. That part of you was gone forever. And that was wearing you down day-by-day, zapping the life away from your very soul."

"And no matter what I did, no matter how I tried to show you how much you still meant to me, I wasn't getting through to you. There were times I would go home and cry in bed sometimes, thinking of what else I could try." She swallowed her breath. "Because I…" She swallowed again.

"You were fading. Only a miracle, or some otherworldly magic, could help you."

"Then one day, not that long ago… Or is it not that long from now? Anyway, I met this little creature. He was small, and fuzzy, and cute, and he asked me for a big big favor. He wanted me to join in a great battle between humanity and these insidious monsters from far beyond. If I agreed to do it, I'd gain tremendous magical powers, and I'd be able to fight back with them. Yeah, I'd become a real, live magical girl, an ally of justice who protects the world from evil and saves people and stuff. And in exchange, he would grant me a miracle, any miracle I desired. It didn't matter how impossible it sounded." She soberly rubbed her arm. "He said he could grant it."

"Yeah, I know, it sounds far-fetched. It sounds like the plot of a dumb anime. But it all happened to me. For reals."

"I could have made any amazing wish for myself, but you were the only person in my mind. But I admit, I hesitated for a while. Was a miracle really worth risking my life in battles, fights where death can come for you at any moment?"

"And that's what happened. Another girl I'd just met, died in one of those fights, while I stood there, helpless, too scared to do anything. Useless." She sniffed. "Right after you rejected one of my gifts, yelled at me, broke it, then said those CDs were just torture for you to listen to. You had given up. No hope left. So useless." She rubbed her teary eyes. "So right there I made my decision. Give you a better gift, a wish, my wish to heal your hand. Because I… I lo..." She closed her eyes and winced. The heartache was getting more and more intense with every breath.

"And it worked! Your hand was fixed, exactly as promised! And on my very first night out, I was able to save Madoka and Hitomi from a monster. I went along hopping from rooftop to rooftop, jumping for joy afterwards! Useless no more!" She smiled and giggled through the pain.

"After word spread that your hand was healed, your parents, they brought your violin and you gave us all a performance right here on the roof at sunset. It was wonderful! You didn't miss a beat, it was like the accident never happened." Her smile persisted while her chest thumped. "It was the happiest I have ever been in my life. I knew I had done the right thing." She adoringly clutched the boy's bandaged hand. "Because I loooooo… Ve you. Kyosuke."

An endless minute passed in complete silence. "There. I said it. Finally. I confess. I love you." Another minute passed. Her thumping heart made the only noise as its rapid pounding gradually slowed.

"Geez," She suddenly and exasperatedly resumed. "You have no idea how much restraint it took for me not to run up to you and just spill the beans up there on that roof. But I didn't say anything, maybe because I didn't want to overwhelm you. Or maybe because I didn't want you to think you owed me for it. Or maybe I wanted to protect you from knowing that the girl who loved you, was now a girl who might die at any moment in a fight with evil monsters."

Sayaka wiped the accumulating tears from her face with her hand. She took a deep, anguished breath and continued.

"No. It wasn't you. It was me. I'm a coward. Still too scared to admit everything I felt. Too afraid that it would mess up the good things we still had. And too terrified to admit that there was any hint of selfishness to my desires. So I said nothing."

"Then right after I started to learn the horrible truths about the job that I agreed to take. You see, most of the girls who become magical girls don't do it to protect humanity at all. They fight just to reap the rewards. You see. the creatures we kill possess something that a magical girl can use to make their own magic more powerful. Most of them are content to watch humans suffer and die if it'll mean a bigger payday." She angrily clenched her fist. "And then they spend as much time fighting each other over it as they do fighting the monsters."

"Well of course I found that kind of behavior to be absolutely despicable. There's no difference in my mind, between the monsters who kill people and the magical girl who lets people get killed for her own gain. And I vowed not to ever turn into one of those girls." Sayaka gnashed her teeth. "I would fight against them, too. To the death, If I had to."

"But I wasn't good enough to beat them," She lamented. "I had jumped in way over my head. I wasn't a very good magical girl. I didn't have the talent. Or maybe I needed more experience. Got my butt kicked for my stubbornness. But I persisted, which only got my butt kicked harder, and that led me to the most shocking truth of all." Her heart rate wound up again.

"To become a magical girl meant getting my soul ripped from my body and put inside a rock." She angrily wrenched the boy's heavy blanket. "Yes, that's right! Human souls are really real! And mine's been violated in a way that I didn't even know was possible! Done so that I could be a more effective fighter. Or something! God dammit!"

Sayaka picked up her Soul Gem and shook it between her thumb and forefinger. "This stupid shining object is my body now, and my body is separated too far from the thing it becomes as useless as your hand! The rest of me is a remote controlled meat shell. Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Her aching heart was racing, she sorrowfully hurled her glowing gem across the room and under the table. "I'm a zombie!"

"I definitely wasn't going to tell you anything after I found that out… How could I? How could I ask you to hold the hand of a freak? How could you take the hand of a corpse? How could you come to love a zombie? No! We could never be happy together like that. No way!"

Sayaka sat there in silence for a few minutes. Until she could muster the strength to overcome the heavy, agonizing weight within her chest. Slowly she got off the chair, and proceeded to pick her Soul Gem off the floor under the table. But when kneeled down to take it, she noticed its glimmering light was illuminating something else underneath there. It was a purse. Belonging to a previous visitor who had forgotten it there. And Sayaka recognized whose purse it was right away.

"Bwaaha… Hahaa… Hahahaa… Hahahaha…. Haaaaawwwwww…" She burst with a mixture of laughter and sorrow. "I was stuuuuuuupid… Sooooooooo stuuuuuuuupid! Stuuuuuuupid to believe that I was the only girl with her eyes on you!" She ruefully rifled through its contents. "I was such an idiot... To think I ever had a chance with you!"

"Augh! What's this? Oh, you like this raspberry lip gloss? Well guess what… It's mine! I remember you told me you like raspberries, so I bought a two pack and gave her the other one!" She irreverently flicked the lip gloss in the trash can.

"I mean, what do you and I really have in common anyway? Music? You're great at violin. And I can namedrop some dead guys. Big whoop de doooooo!"

She pulled out Hitomi's lesson schedule. "Ah, did you know she's a really talented piano player? I sure bet you did! No idea how she fits it all in, dance practice, tea ceremony and school! A real Renaissance Girl, for sure! Sheesh!" She tossed it right in the can.

"And speeeeeaking of school!" She found Hitomi's signed report card. "Good golly, didja she's ranked number one again! And you were always right up there with her! Meanwhile I feel over the moon when I skate by with 'A minus' in science class!" She crumpled it and tossed it too.

"Was I just taken in by your handsome looks?" She took out a booth photo of him and Hitomi. "Hell, you're not even that attractive!" She tore it in half and cast Hitomi's visage in the trash. "Your left ear sticks out and your teeth need work. Not to mention your nose is just huuuuuuge!"

"Ugh, that nose of yours must give you a really keen sense of smell… Hey you like this perfume? I gave it to her for her birthday! It's pretty rare! Took me the whole day to find it! Not much of a perfume girl myself… That stuff makes my eyes burn. Bah!" She flinged the perfume down the can.

"You're both so tall… You're both rich… You're both annoyingly courteous in every. Single. Social situation… Two peas in a pod, really! It's almost like you were made for each other. Pssh!"

"What's this?" She found an item buried deep down in the purse. "A used movie ticket?" She paused. "Oh, yeah, I remember that movie! It was last fall. I wanted to get you out on a date, so I arranged this whole group thing with all of us... But nooooooo... You just had to be you, and you backed out at the last minute just so you could go rushing off to play for some dumb old folks at a community home! Ha!"

"If only you'd stuck to my plans and come along with us, Kyosuke! Haaaa! Then you wouldn't have gotten into that acci- deeen…"

Sayaka stopped herself. She couldn't believe all the vitriol she had just spat out loud. She couldn't imagine herself being so cruel, so vindictive towards her friend. That couldn't have been her. It just didn't make sense.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Sayaka panted out in apology. She glanced into the trash can. That act couldn't have been her, either. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry…" Her voice eventually trailed off. No amount of 'sorrys' could ever be enough to wash her mouth clean.

She rushed over to the trash basket. She carefully picked the trashed items out from the can, placed them back into the purse, and returned it to its place under the table. Except for the torn picture, a memento of her shameful little trespass.

"I'm horrible. Just horrible." Sayaka stuffed it in her pocket and curled up under the table. "In the end, I hadn't changed at all. Still useless. So I ran away. From everyone. From everything. I... Regretted saving my friends. I... Even… Regretted healing you. I desperately wanted my miracle back. I don't remember much about that night, but I do know it was my dying thought."

"And then… I wasn't dead. I got my miracle. I was brought back into this world and given a second chance to do all of it over again."

"But why me? Why did I get this chance? And I'm blowing it again. That transfer student... Homura, and the old lady who brought me here, they're the ones doing the heavy lifting. And I'm just sitting here, useless as ever. The one thing I've been asked to do, and I just can't do it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't deserve this second chance. Mami does. Or Kyoko does. Even Madoka-"

"Madoka." Sayaka pulled the picture of them from her wallet. "Oh, Madoka." She paused. "That group date I was really setting up for her sake. She's… Even worse around boys than I am, so I invited Nakazawa, Nakajima, Ohtani. I had set it all up so none of us would have to go it alone. You being there was just a plus."

"But most of them said 'no'. Other plans. Then the ones who agreed all cancelled too. That night it was just us three. Maybe I should've picked a better movie. Who knows. We girls had lots of fun anyway. Heh."

She slowly crawled out from under the table. "But I was given a second chance." Sayaka took a deep breath and stood up. "I might not have deserved to get it, but that's not an excuse to mope around and waste it." Sayaka strode towards the exit door. "I'm going to make sure Mami doesn't die. Then I'm going to help get that stinkin' Kyubey. Then I'm going to help the transfer… Homu- Homura beat that big Witch. And above all, I'm going to protect Madoka. Yeah!"

"And I'm going to heal you, somehow. Some way." She looked back over her shoulder. "Because I still love you." She waved an affectionate, farewell kiss goodbye to the sleeping young boy. "And it's okay that you don't love me back. Thanks for listening."


"Woah, goooolly!" Miss Jones exclaimed in the TARDIS Control Room hours later. "That was a bigger recoil than I anticipated." She clumsily leaned against her grandfather clock as the darkened substance from Sayaka's Soul Gem coursed its way from her pocket watch, and into her body. "Still, I've dealt with darker emotions." She shook her head rapidly as she took a few deep breaths, and sat down.

"Perhaps I asked too much of her. Or maybe I should've used someone other than that boy as the test subject. Maybe I should just give him the damn nanogenes." She checked the security screen on her console a second time. Sayaka was laying face down in her bed, staying asleep even after the transfer.

Miss Jones silently entered Sayaka's bedroom, where she placed Sayaka's Soul Gem down on the table beside her bed. For a few quiet minutes she affectionately watched her ward sleep, then crept up and gently patted her on the head. "I wish I could tell you that you'll eventually get over that boy, that a girl's first crush is little more than a flight of fancy. But I'd be lying. 'Cause I've never been over my first crush. Thousand of years old and not a day goes by that I don't think about what we might've been. If only it could've turned out different. Alas . " She whispered. She fixed Sayaka's covers, pulling them from her thighs over her back.

"Hm?" She noticed an overturned book in Sayaka's hand under her pillow. She lightly wrested it out of Sayaka's hand and read a few paragraphs. "Heh. Oh that 'ol teacher of mine?" She muffled another laugh. She took a pen from her back pocket, removed its clip, used the clip as an impromptu bookmark, closed the book, then set it next to Sayaka's Soul Gem. "I'd like to think my crush and I might've had a girl like you." She whispered to herself as she discreetly exited the room.

"Alight, back to work then. First, make me some tea." A cup of tea appeared on a platter on the console.

She had planned to use much of the night to study the Grief Seed and begin proper work on the Ectomatter purification device, but Homura's warning necessitated a slight change in priorities. Miss Jones Jones pulled a Map of Mitakihara City out of her coat pocket, hung her coat on the coat rack and strode over to the control console. She scanned the map with her wand, and transferred its image onto the console screen.

"Within the displayed locale, scan for all non-native lifeforms." She commanded as she typed the instructions on the keyboard. She added, "Exclude migrant bees."

SYSTEM IN LOW POWER MODE. LIFEFORM SENSORS OFFLINE.

"Oh. Of course." Miss Jones muttered while she slapped her forehead. "That really should've been a higher priority." She opened a compartment underneath the console, pulled two wires out and switched them around. "Now do what I tell you." She took a sip from her tea cup.

ONE NON TERRESTRIAL LIFEFORM DETECTED. It was herself. "Increase sensitivity settings. And don't you dare tell me there isn't enough power."

ONE NON TERRESTRIAL LIFEFORM DETECTED. Same result. "Dammit! How the hell is that bunnycat evading my sensors?" She took a deep, annoyed breath. she rubbed her eyes as she ruminated aloud. "Maybe the thing's not biological. Initiate scan for technological lifeforms. Non-terrestrial. Maybe he's a robot or something. Increase sensitivity settings again!"

ONE NON TERRESTRIAL TECHNOLOGICAL MACHINE PRESENT. SENSITIVITY SETTINGS APPROACHING TOLERANCE THRESHOLD. Just the TARDIS pinging itself.

"Oh, you're kidding me! Auuuughhhh!" She growled as she ran her fingers through her hair. "Maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. Perhaps I should…" She opened a panel on the console underside and parked herself underneath it. "Yeeessss." She shuffled around a set of crystalline microchips, pointed her multitool at them and hit a button on it. "This Kyubey fellow may have the ability to conceal himself from a lifeform or tech scan, but if do this right, I might be able to track him using the very prizes he collects."

"Now, then." She confidently stood back up and typed on the keyboard. "Scan for Ectomatter energy signatures. Active and depleted forms in concentrated quantity." She took another sip of tea.

ENERGY SOURCE DESIGNATED: - IS CLASSIFIED STATE SECRET BY DECREE OF LORD HIGH PRESIDENT. PLEASE PRESENT SECURITY CLEARANCE FOR SEARCH RESULTS TO DISPLAY. The console before her splayed open as a circular indentation in a panel raised outwards.

"Oh great, an extra hurdle." She hustled over to her coat and took from it her fob watch. "No problem." But as she was about to place the watch in the indentation, she stopped herself. "Then again, those Pantheon Wiseasses probably revoked my clearance. I know I'm not the most welcome soul on Gallifrey these days." She put the fob watch in her trouser pocket, then went for the watch she'd previously presented to Sayaka as part of her little white lie.

SECURITY CLEARANCE ACCEPTED. DISPLAYING SEARCH RESULTS. "Once again, thanks for helping me out, old friend." She gently kissed the second watch, and put it back.

THIRTY FOUR ENERGY SOURCE MATCHES DETECTED. Dots of various sizes popped on the map screen. "Yessss! Now we're cookin'!" Miss Jones victoriously pumped her fist.

"So who's who, and what's what… That we need to distinguish next." One of the dots was a clear standout from the others. "Ah, Young Miss Kaname. Not even a magical girl and somehow you shine as brightly as a newborn star. Overflowing with Ectomatter. Amazing." She pressed on the dot and typed in a 'KM' designation.

Two other dots were positioned not far to the east of her. One of the dots was moving erratically, seemingly jumping from one position to the next. "Miss Akemi. Watching over your friend." The second dot next to her suddenly vanished. She singled it out and typed in 'AH'.

A similar battle to that one appeared to be going on far to the west. One dot was charging intensely toward another dot, quickly overwhelming it as its size suddenly rapidly diminished. "Oh, my my, look out for that one." Miss Jones quipped. "Expand the search area," She ordered. The map zoomed out to include the cities adjacent to Mitakihara. She watched more dots appear, some shining more intensely than others, most not moving, some charging at other dots, and some, ominously, fading until they could be detected no longer.

"This doesn't add up." Another dot's light faded out. "Why would Kyubey choose kids for this? I mean, child soldiers are practically worthless, mere cannon fodder, the last resort of the despots and the desperate. And the bunnycats don't strike me as being either of those. I can't imagine any of these girls holding out for more than a year or so… Miss Time Jumper notwithstanding."

She next searched for Ectomatter pairs that were not engaged in apparent combat. "It's logical to presume these would belong to a magical girl, and her Kyubey, if he's got a Grief Seed on him." One dot was unmoving on the city's southwest side. "It's a start."

"Now, if I were the mercurial sort…" Miss Jones looked into the reflection on the screen, and closed her eyes. "The type who had no moral compunction against utilizing the local lifeforms in a war against a perceived threat, no… I still wouldn't resort to young girls." She kept typing away instructions on her keyboard. "Or if I absolutely had to, I'd at least put them in powered suits and arm them to the teeth. With far better than just pointy blades and projectile weapons. Ick."

"Display just subjects with only active Ectomatter." The screen flashed to show Madoka. "Thus proving that the darkened muck-ity muck in a Soul Gem is a buildup of depleted stuff. Display subjects with only depleted Ectomatter." The results on the screen showed no change at all. She sipped her tea impatiently. Another dot faded away.

"The witches are made of depleted Ectomatter and they feed on the active Ectomatter. The magical girls, that is, their Soul Gems, must purify by exchanging their depleted stuff for the witches' active stuff. Kyubey created soldiers whose lifespans are entirely dependent on recharging their energy like a battery. Ensure there's no wish-and-quitters. Fishy fishy." Another dot was subsumed by a stronger appearing dot.

"Scan for any dynamic dimensional distortions." She looked away and typed on the keyboard. "Logically, those would belong to live Witches and Familiars." Suddenly, electrical sparks shot out of the underside of the console. She'd blown a sensory circuit. The screen fizzled out. "Augggh! Dammit!" She hastily threw most of the liquid in her cup at the small fire her rewiring caused. "I just can't keep nice things, can I?" She angrily hit the top of the console, pointed her multitool at it and pressed a button on it. The screen was restored to a static shot of the map display.

She sat in her chair, staring at the screen, her mood soured. "It's no use." She said with a resigned sigh. "I can't single out Kyubey from this lot." She slouched back in her chair as she finished off what little of the tea remained. Hell, I can't even tell the difference between a Witch and a magi-" She spat tea onto her console as a horrifying, precipitous revelation dawned upon her. She truly was an idiot. She had completely misunderstood this situation from the get-go.

"Five Girls." She picked up the keyboard and typed in a command to playback the survey results. "A shared destiny." She whispered to herself. She watched the dots more intently. "Oh, you bastards." A dot she previously concluded was dying had suddenly burst in intensity the exact moment her sensor overloaded.

Now she was certain. Witches were not strange invaders from another dimension. They came from this one.

And Kyubey, certainly seeking Ectomatter for his own ends, though not as the spoils of war, but rather the methods of cultivation. He was a farmer.

And these girls, they were not selected soldiers, but rather, his crop.

"You unbelievable bastards!"