17.
The dream is bright.
Surrounded by stars, Nagisa looks at themselves and sees the body they've always wanted, always believed was real and wanted to work towards. Their own body is good, it responds easily enough, but it's bent in all sorts of ways and none of those ways are theirs to own nor theirs to keep.
There's a sense of something, not a laugh, but a joy made of starlight. Nagisa looks up to see a girl.
And if they're honest, she's the kind of girl their mother had always wanted, beautiful and elegant and sweet. There is no demureness to the way she sits though, no bowed head or crossed, neat legs. Instead she is watching Nagisa with bright, clear eyes, the color of gold, the color of untamed wild magic, seeing beyond anything that could be seen by the human eye.
"Hello," she says and Nagisa's throat explodes with envy at the melody of her voice, soft and sweet and perfectly impossible. "It's nice to meet you at last, Shiota Nagisa-kun. Please, sit down."
Nagisa sits down to see a chair that hadn't been there an instant ago. Tea and cookies appear on a table and Nagisa feels hunger in their toes. They feel hunger like they haven't eaten anything but chalk dust in three years.
They taste heavenly.
"Papa taught me well," she says simply.
And as Nagisa swallows, all the information they could ever need or want or use falls into their head and lap and heart.
"Kaname Madoka."
She smiles sadly. "Present. You know why I am here."
They do.
"No one will begrudge you if you go. Probably. No one has so far."
The goddess of all magical people in the universe (and maybe any universe ever) sounds sheepish, smiling with one hand behind her head, her hair trailing off into another galaxy.
"But if you stay, it will be hard. It'll be painful and slow and maybe not worth it. I'll come get you then, if it's too much. I always promise that. I am here to save all of you."
"Even though I'm not a girl." It's a statement not a question.
Kaname Madoka nods without hesitation. "Because your wish deserves to be carried out until the end. When your dream is no longer a dream and you can't make it one."
Something warms in Nagisa's eyes. "Mother would love you."
"She loves you too, she's merely forgotten how, and refused to live in her dream." She offers a hand to Nagisa once more. "So. What do you choose?"
Nagisa thinks and doesn't think. They raise their hand-
And wake up in their bed to the dull buzz of their alarm, and the steady warmth of a new blanket the color of stars.
It's another day in the rest of their life, their dance with hope.
It'll be a long turn.