On the night before the trip to Mitakihara Middle-School, Homura and Sanbey were busy planning out their objectives for the coming week. Sanbey was sitting on a table next to a lamp and a pile of files that Homura was showing him while the magical girl herself was busy taking out files out of her drawers and placing them onto the table in an orderly fashion. She sorted them into different categories and for some, she left in the drawer which she locked once she was done using it. She placed the key under a small board.

"You think we can actually pull this off?" Sanbey asked, "We're gonna have to be really careful with this."

"Of course, " Homura replied with a small tone of assurance and passed some of the files to the striped creature, "I will not to tolerate any failure nor mistakes. This will have to succeed."

"Of course you don't," Sanbey rolled his eyes and silently read the files in front of him, tail brushing on a nearby pen stand.

Homura looked at him with suspicion in her eyes. Leaning on the table, her visions was fixed on his every move he made. She was ready to counter anything he's up to just in case and her mind, Homura had already started up some backup plans in the situation that Sanbey was lying and she would have to do this differently. Sanbey was definitely different from Kyubey in every way, but Homura never could easily trust anything similar to that creature.Emotions, a different target for recruitment, pain receptors; these were the anomalies Homura had noticed within the little creature, and so far, this was the only one she had encountered with these sorts of traits.

She reminded herself to keep and eye open for anything else similar.

"Hey, I got a question," Sanbey craned its head up.

"What?" Homura sat on her bed, deciding it was time to sleep after hours of tiring planning. She set the alarm for tomorrow morning and curled up under her blanket for warmth.

"What if something goes wrong?"

Homura looked over shoulders and onto the her files on the table, the question having no effect on her as she replied with no change to her indifferent, calm tone, "I'll adapt to the situation. I always do. It doesn't matter how many things goes wrong as long as we finish our objective. In the end, it's the result that matters, and not the methods we use to get there."

Sanbey was speechless for a moment from Homura's lack of apathy. He did not expect this girl to be so trained on her mission that seemed at this point, to be sole reason that she wanted to continue living on for. The Incubator's ears lowered as Sanbey curled up on the nightstand to sleep. He was going to close his beady, red eyes when his ears perked up and the stripes on his body flashed. Sanbey had got up and hopped onto the windowsill to look out the window, seeing nothing on the empty streets outside Homura's house.

Homura at this point had already fallen asleep, but Sanbey couldn't. Lying down on the windowsill, Sanbey continued to stare off into the distance, feeling something, somewhere, was watching them.

Minami's sudden announcement received a collective silence as the boys all turned to the Council President at the doorway with a variety of reactions. Mamoru tented his hands with a look of genuine surprise that Homura could not expect from him. Tateyama had flipped down the screen of his laptop to further hear what was this sudden announcement was about and Hideki tore off his headphones with a half-smile, shaking his head as Takuya sat down back on his seat and raised his hand with a question like a preschooler.

"Pres', how come a random transfer student gets to be a Supervisor?" he asked, straddling the chair he was on.

Ignoring his question, Minami placed her hands on the table and continued, "Since you 4 are so eager to cause trouble all the time, I' have placed Akemi here as your Supervisor for the rest of the year. She's enrolling next week, but she'll be keeping an eye on all of you starting now. She told me about her capabilities and I'm sure they can be of use to the school very well," she looked over to Homura with a sly expression on her face. Minami seemed to be really enjoying this, "Right, Akemi?"

Homura silently nodded, her arms placed behind her back and her feet stuck together. There were no signs of any improper posture in her figure and she was like a soldier being recruited for a special task.

"See? Also, since the international competition is on April 3rd, which is 16 to 17 days from now on, I'm just making sure you 4 are disciplined before you are assigned to your jobs on the start of training day, which is-" Minami scratched her head, trying to remember, "Next week, I think? Ah, whatever," she waved her hand dismissively before glancing over to Tateyama and Hideki and crossing her arms, "I'm also making sure you two don't try anything stupid again. You two know the rules"

Shrugging without a care, Tateyama tapped away on his laptop keyboard and Hideki nonchalantly put his feet on the table while innocently whistling to himself. Their actions made Minami groan in annoyance as Mamoru slid back the form towards her and leaned forward on the table. While Minami was talking just now, Homura noticed the club leader's pondering look on his face and him whispering a few things to Takuya beside him. Takuya nodded to whatever he had heard and flashed a thumbs up while Minami had her gaze on the other pair.

Supporting his chin with his hand, Mamoru punctuated his reply with a smirk and his usual smug tone, "Do you as you like. It's not like we can stop you, correct?"

Minami's eyes narrowed down on him as if she wanted to kill him before she wordlessly turned on her heel towards the door. Having better things to do than argue with him at the moment, she gripped the doorknob and opened the door, declaring, "Oh, and as her first act as Supervisor – and as your punishment – I'm sending you 4 to go clean up the school front-yard with her watching over you," Minami's statement made Hideki and Takuya groan together which brought a contented smile to her face.

Yuri raised her hand, "Isn't it almost lunch-break?"

Takuya nodded enthusiastically in agreement and raised his hand as well, almost falling out of his seat when he did, "That's right! We can't work on an empty stomach!"

Homura took out something from her bag, revealing to be rations that were issued by the military to their soldiers on the frontlines. They looked bad, smelled bad, just as how they tend to usually taste, and Homura tilted her head as she asked the Council President, "Is this sufficient?"

Minami looked closely at the crudely packaged military ration and looked like she was going to laugh but held it back instead. She gave Homura a thumbs-up before flaunting at the boys with her hands on her hips, "Well, looks like you guys will be missing the cake they're serving at the lunchroom today. Sucks to be you."

At that moment, Homura felt a cold aura seemingly emanate from Tateyama. The white-haired boy's hands had stopped their typing as his hands remained inert above the keyboard and he had this distant look on his face. Minami didn't notice it, but Homura could see Hideki and Takuya slowly shifting away from Tateyama as Yuri hid behind Homura. She could feel her shaking in utter terror.

Minami jerked her thumb towards the doorway and ordered, "Now, get to work."

The once clear, blue sky from this morning had now been covered up with dark clouds that prevented the sunlight from shining onto the peaceful city of Mitakihara. Out in the front-yard, Homura and Sanbey were sitting on a wooden bench with an umbrella only to her instead of the boys in case it started raining. They were waiting for the boys to get their tools from the school shed and the outside of the school was almost gloomy due to rain clouds gathering above. Plenty of trash could be seen on the school grounds, left behind by careless students and more.

There were no sounds except the faint rumbling of thunder until they heard the sound of Tomura's creaking wheelchair. The young boy wheeled out of the school doors and towards them as he spoke in his usual formal manner. There was also a small umbrella in his wheelchair's storage compartment, "Hello, Akemi. It's good to see you again. I heard about what Minami did just now," he said with a bit of laughter escaping his lips, "She made you Supervisor, eh? How unexpected."

"Don't you have class?" she inquired, flipping a page of the file she had on her lap.

"Well, my class doesn't start until afternoon, so I get to be here for the entire morning. I like the the library here, so I go there often while my brother just does his own stuff," Tomura moved his wheelchair next to the bench and saw the files sticking out of Homura's holster bag at her feet. For the sake of a conversation, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting for them to come back with their tools," she answered and leaned on her hand. Homura looked almost bored, "It's been nearly 15 minutes already since they left," Homura started to think if they had ran off while she wasn't looking and wondered if they would actually have the gall to try and do something like that. It would at least give her something to do, though.

"That wasn't what I meant," Tomura said, gesturing to the files that were piled in her bag, "What are you reading? Story books? I find myself quite interested in those very much," he tilted his head curiously.

"These are my-" Homura paused and closed the file she was holding. She thought of something to say and came up with something simple. Homura's lie was given with her usual calm and indifferent facade, "... To-do list. I'm quite forgetful, so I read these daily in case I forget something important. I rather prefer if you don't read them. They're private."

"Oh, I see. That must be kinda tiring for you to read so much everyday," Tomura chuckled and pulled a book from the sides of his wheelchair. He opened the book on his lap and changed the topic conversation for a more interesting one, "So, what do you think of them? My brother and his friends, I mean. Quite the group, aren't they?" he chuckled again.

Homura laid back on the bench and thought of answer for a second, "Bizarre," was what she first came up with.

Tomura gave a hearty laugh at her answer, "Well, yes, they can be a bit... weird. But they have their hearts in the right places, I assure you. It just takes some time to start liking them. Especially Ikezawa and Tezuka. They have their reasons for the way they act," turning the page of his book as Homura kept quiet, Tomura felt a drop of rain fall on his head and looked up to see the sky turning further into a dark grey. He reached for his umbrella and kept it on his lap, "Oh dear."

Sudddenly, Sanbey's ears perked up again and this time, the stripes on his body flashed intensely. The white Familiar's body stiffened and arched his back as Homura noticed his behavior. Whatever was following her this morning was close and Homura was ready to freeze time any moment now to take care of it. Glancing to Tomura beside her, the Puella Magi made a note to make sure no collateral damage would come from this.

Meanwhile, in the dusty, cramped storage room located on the school's 2nd floor, the boys were having a problem of their own that gave them a minor delay in their work. The storage room that the boys were in barely had any space for all of them to fit comfortably, it was filed with junk and equipment that were being used or not at all by the school over the years and the lack of any air-conditioning or ceiling fans in their made the boys sweat unbearably in their uniforms. Reaching 20 minutes ever since they left for the tools, the time only went on.

"Well..." Hideki asked in a dry tone, "What now, 'Master Planner'?"

Mamoru brought a his hand to his chin and nibbled a bit on his thumb out of habit before stroking his chin, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking," he tried to sound like he was actually thinking, but Hideki wasn't very convinced.

Takuya yawned, sitting down on a rubber tire with Tateyama beside him as they watched the two think of something. In front of the boys, a large cart that stored numerous amounts of heavy tools, was stuck in the doorway as the boys had pushed it there so that they would have an easier time getting the tools they needed from the shelves at the back. Needless to say, they didn't think the fat, bloated cart would get wedged in the doorway like a rock blocking a river stream when they pushed it there. The stuff in the cart was too heavy to take out, so emptying the load wasn't an option.

Tateyama examined the cart from where he sat and bluntly pointed out the obvious for the sake of it, "I don't think we can get it out."

Takuya ruffled his hair in frustration, "Why do you always try to sound smart when you're telling us we're screwed?"

"Why not?" Tateyama replied, a hint that he was enjoying this present in his voice. Standing up from the toolbox he was on, he took out his laptop from his bag in the dusty corner and opened it up for some relaxation, "Tell me when you get that out of the door. I'll be here," Hideki had shot him an un-amused look as Tateyama pulled out a soft drink out of nowhere to go along with his laptop. How useful he was in these situations.

Takuya then heard the voices of some students down the hallway and got up to poke his head out of the small space between the doorway and cart. There were two guys outside chatting to each other on the way to class, "Hey, mind giving us a hand here, please?" Takuya waved at them to get their attention, "We're kind of in a pinch here."

The students looked at him with bewilderment and then held back their laughter when they recognized the long-haired brunette.

"Well look who we have here. It's the same guy that made it rain in the auditorium."

"Nice aim, dumbass!"

They then ignored Takuya's request and walked pass the storage room while laughing with each other. One of them took out the gum from his mouth and stuck it onto the tool cart before leaving the boys on their own. Takuya sat back down on the rubber tire, sighing, "Jerks..." Takuya muttered, a rare hurt look on his face.

Mamoru crouched down beside the brunette and patted the boy on the back, giving him a reassuring smile that somewhat helped Takuya. That enthusiastic smile came back to Takuya's face and they both got back up to try and focus on the situation at hand. Hideki had tried pushing the fat thing out of the doorway, but he collapsed to the dusty floor after 20 seconds of wasting his energy and panted for air.

Hideki gave the thing a kick as if it insulted him and then sat down on a dusty training mat to relax, "Well, since we're stuck here for a while, why don't we just talk about something while waiting for someone to come and help us? Like, what do you guys think of that Akemi girl? I saw her this morning, but I didn't really get to speak to her."

Mamoru sat beside him, folding his legs with a questioning rise of an eyebrow, "And where does this question come from?"

"Well, we're pretty much going to spend a whole month or even the entire year with her eyes locked onto us, so why not talk about her?" Hideki put his feet on a upside-down bucket as if it was a stool and lied down on the mat, "You guys have any thoughts or am I just wasting my time talking?"

Tateyama answered on the basis of meeting with Homura this morning, "Calm. Strict. No-nonsense kind of person."

Hideki's gaze swept to Takuya beside him and expected an answer from him as well, "What he said," Takuya concurred, simply jerking his thumb to Tateyama's beside him.

Hideki nudged Mamoru in the elbow, who seemed to have drifted off for a while, "What about you, 'Master Planner'? Any thoughts?"

A smirk grew on green-haired boy's face and he cleared his throat with a curled hand on his mouth. Standing up, he simply said, "I have nothing to add except this: Perhaps we should discuss about this after we get this infernal cart out of the way? I don't mind waiting for someone, but I am getting tired of sitting in this filth," he dusted off something from his sleeve to prove his point.

"Fine, fine," Hideki got up with his hands in his pocket and gave the cart a slight kick as he tried thinking of something again, "Well, how about we kick this thing out of the door-way? That would work, right? When in doubt, give it a nice kick the ass, as they always say."

"Something like that needs four people," Tateyama pointed out before leaning his back against the shelves and letting out a lazy sigh.

"Help us and I'll give you the cake I brought earlier."

"Deal."

The four boys then gathered behind the fat cart, each of the prepping up the strength in their legs as they stood side-by-side with each other. Since the storage room was located at the end of a corner, if the cart broke free, it would just wheel down the long hallway in front of them instead of crashing into a wall and causing more damage that would get them in trouble. Although, they couldn't say anything about whatever would that would suddenly get in the cart's path, but it was all or nothing as they knew it would take a while for help to arrive.

Mamoru counted their timing, "On the mark of 3, everyone. 1... 2... 3...! Now!"

Immediately, the boys braced one foot on the floor and pulled back one leg as they then drove their feet into the cart and kicked it out of the doorway as hard as they could. There was a long thundering bang, the sudden jolt of force dislodged and drove the cart out of the doorway... and also down the hall at a high, frightening speed that the boys did not expect.

"Oh crap!" Takuya cursed and began chasing the cart with his friends joining him. Hideki and Mamoru were a few meters behind while Tateyama was at the far end, barely catching his breath. At this rate, the cart would crash into the tall windows at the far end of the hallway and fall on anything outside. The cart was fast, but Takuya and Hideki were persistent in their chase. The moment the cart the crashed into the window and sent glass everywhere, the two boys jumped and caught it by the handle, preventing it from flying out of the building.

"Got it!" they said in unison.

The two were relieved despite the shattered window and the cuts on their faces from the falling glass. But due to the sudden stop and the weight of the cart, the handle suddenly snapped into two and the cart fell out of the window. Their relieved smiles turned grim as Mamoru and Tateyama finally caught up and saw the horrible work inertia had done for them. A scream that sounded like it came from Tomura made Takuya's face drain.

"Bloody hell..." Mamoru cursed as the boys sprinted for the stairs to see what had happened outside.

Homura heard the shattering of windows and looked up with wide eyes to see a heavy cart crashing down on where they were. Out of trust in her durability and regards to the safety of the boy beside her, she pushed Tomura out of the way and barely had enough time to move. But, even though she was a Magical Girl, she was given a harsh reminder that there were things that could still hurt her as the cart crushed her under its weight while Tomura fell to the floor, only able to helplessly watch it all happen right in front of him.

Pushing his wheelchair back up, Tomura gasped for air and pulled himself back into his seat. He looked back to the the sight of the accident and felt his his blood go cold as he could only see Homura's still, un-moving hand from behind the cart. The pieces of the crushed bench had flew everywhere as splinters and soon, rain began to pour from the sky. Tomura quickly then went back into the school for help as he desperately shouted out for his brother with a racing heart.

Sanbey ran towards Homura's still body. She was bleeding heavily in a few areas, but he could not tell how many - if any - bones were broken. Sanbey tried shaking her awake, pleading her to wake up in a cracked voice, "Come on! It's just a scratch, right?! Wake up, dammit! Homura!" at that moment, Sanbey heard slow footsteps from behind and a low cackle that made his body freeze and his three striped tails stand still.

As he slowly turned around, Sanbey stood protectively over Homura's body and his voice became grim at the sight of a dark figure approaching him. Heavy rainfall fell all around, the figure was hard to see in the rain, Sanbey's stripes flashed aggressively and the Incubator had a tone of utter terror in his voice, "N-No... It can't be!"

Minutes later, Tomura and the boys bolted through the school's main doors and immediately to the sight of the accident. Homura lied on the floor in a pool of blood, bleeding everywhere as she lacked any signs of breathing. The cart's contents were strewn all around her and Mamoru was quick to give out orders in a almost panicking, "Takuya, Tomura, ask Miss Narita to get ready for a patient! Tateyama, Hideki, help me stop the bleeding and get her to the Nurse's office, immediately!"

Homura continued to show no signs of breathing as Hideki held her in his arms. On the side of her head, a heavy scar down to her cheek, looking like it was caused by an animal attack.

It had been half an hour after the accident and Homura had still not woken up. Heavy rain fell outside the window of the nurse's office as Homura lied down on a bed with half her face, arms, and torso covered in medical wraps. Not even one finger could be seen moving. Her eyes remained shut. Sitting beside her, Hideki looked down on her with utter remorse as Tateyama stood behind him, a comforting hand on his shoulder. The amount of guilt in him was insurmountable, as was the same with the other boys. Hideki could not register the horrible mistake he had just made.

Takuya and Tomura were talking with the nurse outside the curtains that surrounded Homura's bed and outside the office, Mamoru was discussing with Minami about what they were going to do. They could hear Minami shouting from the outside in a tone they had never seen before and it only drove the significance of the accident deeper and deeper into them. The shouting went on for minutes until it dimmed down.

Hideki leaned forward in his chair, hands on his lap and head hung in remorse. The fact that it was his idea to kick the cart out of the doorway made him directly responsible for the accident, yet, Mamoru had chosen to take the blame for this and was why he was the one standing outside with Minami instead of Hideki. Behind him, Tateyama was silent and sat back down to try to distract himself with his laptop. The sounds of his games echoed through the quiet atmosphere of the Nurse's office, but Tateyama put away his laptop after a few minutes and just kept quiet. Not even he could ignore the guilt in him,

The Fujimaki brothers and the nurse went through curtain surrounding them and Takuya held the railings of Homura's bed, his hands shaking and his lips quivering. Tomura didn't say anything as he felt like it was somewhat his fault, too, that his happened. But he tried erasing that thought, knowing that he was at least mature enough to not blame himself without any good reason to.

The nurse, a rather young woman with her brown hair trimmed neatly, solemnly watched from the sidelines as she held a clipboard in her hand. She wore a white lab coat over some formal wear and bore a faint resemblance to Takuya and Tomura. She had done her best in treating Homura's wounds and keeping her alive, but the nurse did not know what was going to happen to her once she woke up. After she had treated Homura's injuries, she tried to at least calm the boys down by saying that her wounds were not fatal nor had she been crippled in any way. It was almost like a miracle.

After a while, they heard the door open and Mamoru and Minami walked in as well. Minami slammed the foot of the bed with a shaking fist and grimaced as she looked at the unconscious Homura who was laid before her. She gritted her teeth, her emotions a mixture of anger and sadness as her voice shook, "I leave her with you guys and you all just... just..."

Mamoru didn't know what to say but place a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Minami looked like she was about to break into tears.

"No..." Hideki muttered, his voice almost inaudible. He stood up and faced the Council President, "It was my fault... I-"

"Sit down, Hideki. You don't have to say anything," Mamoru assured him with a wave of a hand and watched as Minami quietly walked out of the nurse's office, "Hideki, I want you to stay with Akemi. I'll be discussing with Minami on this matter," Mamoru ordered with his usual smug grin missing. Lips pursed, signs of guilt could be seen through the cracks of his calm and collected facade, "Takuya, Tateyama, Tomura, go get something to eat. Don't stay here."

Tateyama quietly packed up his laptop and went with Takuya as he wheeled Tomura out of the office. Mamoru closed the curtains behind them and left Homura with Hideki and the nurse. Hearing the door close, Hideki turned his questions to the nurse, his hands curled into shaking fists as his voice trembled, "How is she, Miss Narita? Is she... Is she going to be alright?"

"I do not know for sure," Narita shook her head with regret, sitting down beside the boy and leaving her clipboard on a drawer nearby, "She'll live, and she didn't break any bones... But, I'm not sure what's going to happen when she wakes up. If she wakes up. She took a bad concussion to the head and I'm not sure how bad is the damage unless we bring her to a hospital," she patted the boy on the back to comfort him, "Don't beat yourself up for this, Hideki. It was an accident and let's leave it as that," she advised with a hint of wisdom in her voice.

"Yeah, sure," Hideki hung his head, letting out a sigh as he heard the office doors opening. Rushing into the office was Yuri, as she passed through the curtains, out of breath and her hands on her knees. Her eyes widened at the sight of Homura and she grabbed the bed railing. Her voice cracked as she spoke, "A-Akemi, are you alright? Akemi...?"

Hideki sat back in his chair and tried closing his eyes as he could hear Narita trying to comfort the little girl. He couldn't even rest. Visions of that accident would just flash before his eye and jolt him awake like a nightmare. This went on for 10 minutes, when suddenly, he heard a small gasp of pain escaping Homura's lips. He rose from his seat and Narita immediately stood up to attend to Homura, "Miss. Miss, can you hear me?"

Hideki peered over Yuri's shoulder and slowly looked at Homura, seeing the large bloody bandage wrapped around half her face as Homura's left eye slowly opened. She weakly turned her head and saw Yuri and Hideki staring at her with worried expressions on their faces. The nurse was about to say something, when Homura's eyes suddenly shot open with fear. Homura's voice was shaky and her words felt like a bullet to Hideki's chest, "W-Who are you?"