Anna Sinclair liked to think that she made good life decisions.

She'd gone with her gut when she'd decided on her major of study, and everything had worked out well for her. She'd decided against contracting, even though she had the chance, and despite all of Emma's travails it genuinely did seem like Emma was happier.

So based on that track record, Anna really hoped that she was making the right decision as she stepped out of the air taxi and hurried into the Church of Hope.

She was drawing looks, she knew. Nobody actually booked air taxis these days, not unless the world was literally ending. A few of the magical girls did a double take as they watched her walk by, one of them almost calling out a greeting before their nomenclator kicked in. Not, really, that anyone needed it. Emma never wore suits, not unless their mother had literally rugby tackled her to make it happen.

Anna found her sister in the Rose Garden. Emma looked like she was in some kind of a daze, staring vaguely at a rose blossom with a small smile. She'd been sitting there so long that a sparrow had alighted nearby and was picking curiously at the hem of Emma's hoodie, inspecting the zip to see if it was edible. It flew away at Anna's approach, snapping Emma out of her strange mood.

"Oh, Anna, what are you doing here?" asked Emma, blinking away the cobwebs and standing up. "Did I miss lunch?"

"It's the wrong day for that," said Anna with a frown, "and even if it wasn't, I'd have canceled. We need to talk."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

Anna flicked her hand, projecting a headline onto Emma's implants. It read: |NEW MERGER IN THE WORKS? SINCLAIR SCION SPOTTED AT SHIZUKI PARTY|. Underneath was a picture of Emma with Ryouta, Vira, Motya, and Shizuki Sayaka. The photo had been taken as they were laughing at something that Sayaka had said.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "…okay? I mean, yes, I'm sort of dating a Shizuki…"

Anna scowled. "Yes, sure, but in public like this?"

"Yes? Obviously?"

"With Shizuki Sayaka personally chaperoning you?!"

Emma paused. "…okay, I can see how that might be bad."

"Of course it's bad!" Anna hissed. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed very slowly. "I mean, okay, at least you got the message quickly. I was worried I'd have to explain things to you in detail."

"No, uh, Ryouta mentioned that it was a thing that happened."

"Which I guess didn't sink in."

"Well I mean, it was my first time, Anna. You can't expect that much out of me."

The two of them paused, before laughing a little at the unintentional double entendre.

"Alright, well, we need to deal with this," Anna sighed. She was starting to feel a bit silly now. Maybe she'd overreacted, flying here so quickly. At least Emma understood what had to happen now, even if she'd caused the problem in the first place. "You're not going to break up with Ryouta, that much is obvious, but we can't actually just let this lie. The speculation will go out of control and we'll end up forced to do the merger just to keep our stockholders from having a revolution."

Emma frowned. "Wait, but I thought HSIS was a privately held corporation?"

"We only control sixty percent of the company," said Anna. She made an unhappy face. "Strictly speaking, we ought to only have claim over fifty percent, but Ami gave us another ten percent of the company after she got married."

"How exactly does that work, even?" Emma asked, screwing up her face in confusion. "That never made sense to me. Aren't we already merged with Shizuki Corp at this point?"

"Mmm… sort of? It doesn't really count because our family owns majority shares and won't sell. At best it's a partnership, but since Mum and Dad literally run the company themselves…"

"Practically, I guess, that just means that the Shizukis don't get a real say," said Emma. She scratched her chin. "How is Ami doing anyway?"

"Eh? I mean, she's fine," said Anna. "Haven't you been in contact with her?"

"…No…"

"Emma."

"I've been busy!"

"With your girlfriend and boyfriend?" asked Anna, raising an eyebrow. "Surely not that busy. If you have been, maybe we really should just announce a merger…"

Emma flushed. "No! I didn't mean… I didn't mean that."

"Then you don't have an excuse, do you?" Anna asked rhetorically with a scolding look. "Put it on your calendar. And come on, we need to figure out a plan. That photo of you is already all over the news sites."

"Well okay, fine, but we're getting lunch," said Emma. She gestured for Anna to follow. "You've never eaten here right?"

"Does the Church do something special?" asked Anna. Her heels clicked against the stone walkway as they made their way into the Church. "I'd have thought it was mostly just replicator food?"

"Well, sort of," said Emma. "I mean, it is just a replicator, but Kyouko put in a bunch of custom recipes that you can't get anywhere else, so it's at least a little unique."

"Ah."

They walked in silence. Anna took the opportunity to take a few retinal stills of the inside of the Church. It was very unique architecture, and the atmosphere was totally unique. You couldn't get this sort of experience outside of a VR sim, and Anna didn't have the allocs to do that.

She also took the opportunity to observe her sister. Emma was… different. There was something about her that was lighter, as if a weight had been lifted. Maybe she was just being influenced by the weird religion she'd joined, but even so, it made Anna take note. Emma had been much more conflicted when she'd landed back on Earth, and she'd never really managed to pull her way out of the funk she'd been in. Not until today.

"So, really, you've been taken things slow with Ayane and Ryouta?" Anna asked casually, flicking open a document to read as they walked.

"Yeah," said Emma. "I mean, it's only been the one date each, and I don't want to just jump in without everyone being on the same page, you know?"

"That's very thoughtful of you," said Anna, glancing at Emma with a raised eyebrow. "Have you had secret girlfriends in the past without me knowing?"

"First of all, I still like boys," said Emma, waving a finger at Anna. "Second of all, no, because I didn't date when I was playing football, and you know all about my life right after we moved."

Anna grimaced and flipped the page. "That's fair. It's just that people our age usually have more drama in their relationships."

"Well, that's true," said Emma, folding her arms thoughtfully. "I dunno. It just seemed like a dick move, you know?"

"Yeah, I understand."

"Nothing on your end?"

"What, romantically?" asked Anna, laughing a little. "Nooooo. That's a terrible idea right now."

"Internship blues?"

"Not even. I mean, yeah, it's hard, but it's finishing up. It's more that I have way too much coming my way when I join Mum and Dad at the office."

Emma shuddered. "And that's why I got the hell out."

"It's not that bad," said Anna. "Especially if we were both there. We could split the work, you know? It'd be a little easier."

"Yeah, except you'd have to babysit me," said Emma, rolling her eyes. "To keep me from wandering off."

"Maybe before you became a magical girl," said Anna, looking at the ground a little sadly. "But you've changed a lot since then."

Emma came to a stop, looking at Anna strangely. "I guess I have."

"Mum and Dad have noticed too," said Anna, smiling wryly. "Don't think that they haven't. Mum has all sorts of ideas."

"I'll bet."

"Come on, you should be more optimistic," said Anna, nudging Emma with a grin. "It could be fun!"

Emma gave Anna the flattest look she could muster.

"Let's just go eat lunch."

"You know, what you really need is to be more visible doing things not related to the company," Anna said with a contemplative expression.

Emma paused in her spooning of sauce onto a piece of meat. "What do you mean?"

"I'm just thinking out loud, really," said Anna. She rested her cheek against a hand and stared at the table in distant silence while Emma slowly raised an eyebrow at her. Eventually, Anna spoke again: "Like, ultimately, everything would be easier if people just didn't really think you were part of the company anymore."

"I mean, that's true," said Emma. "You'd think that people would think that already though. It's not like I do much right now."

"Yeah, but since you always were supposed to be part of the company, people are just assuming that when you do things, it's reflective of how the rest of the company is thinking."

Emma made an annoyed expression and stabbed a piece of potato. "That's stupid."

"It's what it is."

The pair sat unhappily for a moment.

Emma sighed. She flicked open her interface to check her social media accounts, and for any alerts she might have accrued. There were a few pieces of junk that she deleted and added to her spam filter. Two messages were from Alanis and Agapita, both looking to catch up sometime. And one was from Dr. Hang, reminding her that they were meeting to make brownies tomorrow.

"Oh, you know, I'm meeting a scientist tomorrow," said Emma. She forwarded the message to Anna. "She wants to have me work on her experiments, or something. Does that help with the whole gossip situation?"

Anna considered the message. "That's pretty interesting. Do you know what sort of experiments?"

Emma shook her head. "I was sort of strong-armed into the deal."

"But if it works out in our favor…"

"I'll uh, make sure to take notes?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Anna. She attacked her food with renewed interest, gears clearly turning in her head. "I'll talk to mum about it a little and see what she thinks."

Emma sighed. That was not a conversation she was looking forward to.

"Cheer up!" said Anna. "With some luck, you and your romantic flings will just be interesting background noise that nobody pays attention to."

Emma made a displeased noise and bit into a piece of beef. "What about my holdings at the company? I've never actually done anything with my shares. It seems a waste to just leave them."

"I could probably take them over, yeah," said Anna with a frown. "But I mean, do you really want to do that? It's a pretty drastic step."

"I guess," said Emma. She poked a potato section moodily. "I guess there's no reason to jump the shark unless it becomes a serious problem. It just feels like I should do something with them, especially since once I go back to the front it'll be hard to find time to talk to you."

"Come to the office then," said Anna earnestly. "Everyone's wondering where you are, anyway."

"Why do they care?"

"Really?" Anna asked. "You can't figure that out for yourself? You're the boss's kid and a magical girl. You've just come back from one the most important military campaigns in human history. No matter how you spin it, that's pretty cool."

Emma snorted. "You realize that none of that is actually good?"

"Of course," said Anna. "I remember what you told me in our calls. But the people at the office don't and even if they're wrong, it's still worth showing up. It'd be a huge boost to office morale, even if it doesn't make any sense, to know that they have their very own magical girl cheering them on."

"Oh Goddess, Anna, really?" Emma groaned. She set her fork down with a small clack and buried her face in her hands. "You want me to be the team mascot?"

"Nothing so plebeian," Anna sniffed as she sat back, sipping at her tea. "Making you 'team mascot' would be demeaning. You're more than that. It's like, mmm, having a kingdom's princess come down and spend some time with the people. It's nice."

Emma gave Anna a very unamused look. "I'm not a princess."

"Neither am I."

"Then why can't you do it?"

"Because I'm not a magical girl."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with everything, Emma!" Anna said in exasperation. "Come on! You can't seriously be blind to how important being a magical girl is? It's a one-in-ten-thousand chance of a lifetime for someone our age, and everyone knows how important magical girls are for the war. This matters."

"I do a job," Emma said flatly, stabbing a potato with a loud clink. "It's just a job. It's not something anyone should glorify. I got Mikoto contracted, yes, but she wanted to help. It's different."

"It's not about glory," said Anna. She sighed and rubbed at her brow. "I— look, just think about it? Talk to Ayane or someone about it. Please. I know it'd mean a lot to the office if you'd even take a few minutes just to visit and say hi."

Emma sighed again. "Alright, fine. I'll think about it."

The weekly evening sermon with Kyouko was generally small, but well attended, held in one of the cozier chapels. Emma found herself seated somewhere near the middle, holding a small cup of something lightly alcoholic, bubbly, and sweet. Kyouko was already at the head of the room, fussing with something on the lectern while the last stragglers began to make their way in. Finally, exactly on time, Kyouko tapped the top of the lectern. The room fell silent.

"Good evening!" Kyouko began. "How's everybody doing?"

Emma glanced around somewhat awkwardly as the members of the congregation made various positive sounding noises.

"Alright, good, good, sounds like we're all doing okay," Kyouko continued. She spread her arms wide. "Thank you, everybody, for coming. Looks like there's a few new faces here! We're glad to have you! If this is your first time at the Church, our mentors today are Malundama and Devika, and are seated in the back rows, over there. If you want more information after the sermon, feel free to speak with them. As always, for everyone, if you have any questions about today's sermon, please hold onto them, and we'll have a Q&A session once we're all finished. Now if everyone's situated, let's begin.

I'd like to talk today about the role of the Church.

Yes, yes, it's not the most interesting of topics. Trust me, I fell asleep more than once writing this sermon. But I think it's an important topic. It's easy to pretend that it's an easy question to answer. That we magical girls stand far enough apart that we don't really need to worry about what the Church's role is. I mean, after all, the Cult of Hope is a religion for magical girls, is it not? It's there for magical girls, and that's all there is to it, right?

Okay, sure. But there for… what?

It's a surprising question isn't it? For what? Because we're not like any other religion. The Goddess saves you from despair regardless of whether or not you believe. You can swear up and down for five hundred years that the Goddess is a joke, and She will still save you when your time comes. This is the kind of Goddess we worship, and that's precisely the reason why we worship her, but then what role do we serve outside of that? Why do I even spend time here talking to you when, really, there's no objective reason to do so? The Goddess protects, and the Goddess will always protect, whether I waste my time up here or not.

Well there's a hint to the answer to this question in one of our other doctrines. We say that the Goddess does not like being worshipped with holy scripture and ceremony, based on what Homura has taught us about Her. A Goddess like this surely cannot really like being worshipped, period, at least in the traditional sense. Instead we say that we worship Her through our lives and our actions, and that by guarding and saving humanity, we exemplify Her belief that humanity is worth saving.

So perhaps the Church is supposed to be the vanguard of this guardianship. The chosen warriors of the Goddess, striving forward to lead the way and save humanity from anything that threatens it! Oorah! For the Goddess!

Yeah, no. That's clearly false. How many of us are on the front lines, every day, fighting for humanity? I'm certainly not. I'm 'too valuable'. And so are many of you. Some of our number have taken their own vows on this subject, and it is with great humility that I acknowledge the Knights of the Goddess and their efforts to be the example of what guarding humanity ought to look like, but that is not the path that most of us have taken. The magical girls on the front lines who do not believe far outnumber the ones who do, and even then we are not somehow imbued with holy power that allows us to drive the enemy before us.

We are ordinary. Ordinary magical girls, who live ordinary lives, or at least as ordinary as we can in this day and age. So ultimately, we don't actually have any kind of real power, at least not alone. We fight alongside our sisters in arms, and it is only together, with our sisters, that most of us can even begin to honor the Goddess with our actions.

So what now? If we are not some holy vanguard, then what are we?

Well perhaps, instead, we are some kind of magical girl support group. That's not a joke either. We are a community who live and work together, helping each other in times of need and supporting each other in times of struggle. The MHD is important, of course, but technically the MHD refers girls to us as much as we refer girls to the MHD, so maybe that's what sets us apart. Maybe we're the only group out there that can solve the problems that the MHD can't.

But that's also not quite right, because, well, let's be honest with ourselves. The MHD can solve a lot of problems, and the number of cases that the MHD sends to the Church is a tiny fraction of the cases that they handle every day. Even if the MHD didn't exist, our sisters in arms are not exactly helpless. Magical girls all over human space help each other live their lives every day without a drop of any assistance that we might provide. We, the Church, simply are not that important.

So then what are we? Do we have any purpose?

Well I guess I don't really have a definite explanation. No ten-word answer that can lead an army or win hearts and minds or do anything major or important. But let me tell you what I think.

I think the Church is here to be a light for others in dark places, when even magical girls have lost their way, and all other lights have gone out.

Back in the day, and I do mean way back in the day, when Homura and Mami and Yuma and I were starting the MSY, life was really dark. You struggled day by day to try and keep your friends and yourself alive. And you didn't—"

Kyouko coughed, and took a sip of water.

"Sorry. You didn't always succeed. It's a lot like that with the war now, and it's easy to get stuck in the weeds, out there in the mud and the rain, and not see a way out.

But we know differently, don't we? We members of this Church know that in this universe, for us magical girls, it's never that dark. It's never that bleak. Because out there, in the vast beyond, the Goddess is pulling for us. She's cheering us on and encouraging us to do our best. She wants us to succeed, and do more than just survive, day by day. She wants us to thrive.

And so, even when our sisters around us can't see the light anymore, we know better. We know that there's always hope. And this means that, in times where it seems like there's no way out, that our role is to be the light our sisters need. To shine brightly in the darkness.

That's what I think this Church is here for. That's why I get up every day to do this, even if the paperwork is really hellish sometimes. I believe that, even though I'm here in Mitakihara, that every magical girl I can reach is another magical girl who can keep her light shining just a little bit longer. That everyone who joins the Church is another magical girl who can help keep that light shining on every battlefield across human space. I believe that each and every one of you has the ability to be that light, and that together, a little bit at a time, you can bring humanity hope."