5 seconds can be a long time for a Magical Girl with enhanced physical ability. By the time Homura's worldwide time stop collapses she manage to get halfway across 8th Street and atop of the highest building in the district. She takes a deep breath now that her mind is clear and starts to re-access her situation.
So to recap: her Soul Gem has degraded to the point where she can't reliably use her own magical power (assuming that is the correct reason of her Soul Gem turned clear). The only beings who might explain why this is happening are the Incubators consider it's their magic system, but she's definitely not trusting any of those fuzzy abomination to give her a straight answer without trying to manipulate her with half truth one way or another.
In addition to the minor inconvenience of not being able to either stop or reset time correctly. She is stuck 18 years into the past instead of 1 month into the past which means Madoka hasn't even been born yet. Of course, that is assuming Madoka can still born in this timeline consider the pink haired girl's parents probably haven't even meet each other yet. Of course, Homura chooses to properly ignore this detail consider she has enough shenanigan on her plate to feed the whole nation.
On the one hand, now she has 18 years to plan for the Queen of all Witches' eventual arrival (assuming it doesn't show up at end of the year and wreck everything up like she suspected in previous timelines). On the other hand, that also means she need to somehow remain human and sane for 18 years. The good news is she still have a healthy supplies of Grief Seed from previous timelines. The bad news: she's been burning them fast even if she's only been to this timeline for less than 48 hours and haven't engage in any battle. This means she need to eventually start hunting for Witches once again to sustain her Soul Gem. Not a big problem in itself, consider she's done this for over 100 timelines already.
No, the real problem lies in resource management and the inability to replenish them. Consider her time stop power can only last 5 seconds now there's no way she can effectively get her firearm from Yakuza or the military. Even if she starts fighting very carefully and make every shot count, she'll ends up fighting with melee weapon long before Madoka is born. Well... that's a lie. She can still make pipe bomb and Molotov cocktail using household items like she does in her first cycle, but with her time stop ability severely nerf-ed she won't be able to chuck enough of those at the queen of all Witches to deal enough damage.
So Homura is essentially stuck between two very bad situation: lose her sanity and become a Witch herself before meeting Madoka, or face Walpurgisnacht with a golf club and pipe bombs. Neither options are very appealing if she wants to save Madoka.
Homura quickly takes out her Soul Gem again, and to her dismay the raven haired Magical Girl realize her Soul Gem has turned very mucky once again possibly due to her depressed state. She reluctantly takes out a Grief Seed and clean her Soul Gem while digging into her mind for some happy thoughts. Her first repeating cycle, where she went to a theme park with Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami. That was such a long time ago, how naive she was thinking she can make a difference back then...
The theme park is bustling with family or young couple enjoying a Sunday afternoon before they enviably go back to the much more dull everyday life known as Monday. Even within this vortex of fun and laughter Homura Akemi feels very alone. Growing up without parents and inside a hospital ward tend to make a girl develop a very introverted personality after all. Right now, the nerdy looking girl with twin braid is sitting idly on a park bench twitching her thumb even if she's no longer bond by the physical limitation of her heart condition.
Homura Akemi thinks she can hear the scream of sheer joy from Sayaka Miki as she enjoys herself on the rollercoaster ride with Mami and Madoka. Mami is probably trying her best to keep her composure of the elegant role model even if she wants to scream at the top of her lung just like Sayaka. As for Madoka... she may be screaming for an entirely different reason. It's hard to tell with the pink haired Magical Girl Homura initially befriended back in the last timeline. She is absolutely fearless at certain time, but very timid on other.
Like how she manages to pass out last night when they all sit down in front of TV watching Sayaka's collection of old Horror movies even if she saw much worse within Witch's barriers. To be fair, Homura didn't fare much better. She lost her conscious around the same time as her pink haired friend.
"What are you looking at Homura-Chan?" Homura almost jumps up from the park bench when she hears the sound of Madoka. Quickly turning back, she sees the face of her best friend leaning on the back of the park bench.
"Madoka? I... I thought you went on that ride with your friends."
"You are my friend too Homura-Chan. I won't be much of a friend if I leave you sitting alone on this bench while I have fun with the others." Madoka gives Homura a smile as she sits down besides her on the park bench and leans towards Homura's ear. The timid raven haired girl can feel her face burning up as her friend whispers words into her ears. "Besides... to tell you the truth... I'm afraid to ride rollercoaster with Sayaka-Chan."
"You can jump ten feet into the air faster than a speeding bullet, but you are afraid of riding a roller coaster?"
"When you put it that way... I guess it's pretty ironic. Don't tell Sayaka the real reason I don't want to ride roller coaster with Mami and her though." Madoka pokes out her tongue at Homura's surprised face. "Back to my question, what were you looking at Homura-Chan?"
"Well... I was..." Staring into the void doesn't seem like a good answer, so Homura quickly starts to scan her surrounding to find something interesting. She manage to catch a glimpse of something at the fair on the far side of the park due to her enhanced vision from being a Magical Girl. "Doesn't that doll look just like you, Madoka?"
"You are right Homura-Chan, that doll does look like me with the pink twin tail. Come on, let's go take a closer look." Madoka stares at the direction Homura currently points her hand and gives a nod. She takes Homura's hand into her own and pulls Homura off her park bench and starts running towards the shooting gallery. But before the two of them can make much distance they are interrupted by a loud screech from Sayaka.
"HOMURA!"
It takes Homura a few second to realize someone is indeed screaming her name. That voice doesn't belong to Sayaka Miki. Consider she's at the same age as Madoka, the blue haired Magical Girl hasn't been born into this timeline either . She looks down from the roof of the shopping mall she's sitting from. She sees a figure running around Saigaku 3rd Street like a headless chicken, bumping into everyone and everything in sight.
Upon better inspection, Homura realize it is the glasses wearing idiot who gives her a meal from McDonald and then pulls her into the arcade. She wonders why that boy is more persistent with her than a frustrated sexual stalker. Well... to be fair Homura still suspect the boy's fascination with her is alone the line of a stalker. She's not too worried about man handling a stupid middle school boy who just run headfirst into a light pole.
Homura mentally cringes as the boy spins around for 720 degrees like a figure skater before falling down on his back. After a while, he gets up and start running around while yelling her name once again like a clueless actor who steps onto the wrong stage without knowing it.
／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
The sun is slowly setting into the horizon as blue sky gets dyed into a tint of orange. It makes Nobita feel anxious and jumpy. He doesn't like staring into sunset even before his blocked memory got unlocked by Kurokami. It is possibly due to him still remember a fragment of Shizuka being taken away during a sunset. Although a more immediate set back to his physical and mental well being would be missing his 'go home before sun down' curfew imposed on him by his mother.
After Homura disappears when she throw his jacket back on his head, Nobita has to run back into the arcade to make sure she wasn't some figment of his imagination like Doraemon. When he sees her signature right after his on the leader board of VR Cop, he runs outside 3rd Street and sprint into his top speed like he's in an audition for Sonic the hedgehog as he starts to randomly shout Homura's name.
This is completely unlike me... When was the last time I'm so hell bend on doing something like those idiot protagonist from a badly written Shonen manga? I think it was sometime back in third or fourth grade, although to be fair at those time I'm more determined to outrun the wrath of Gian and Suneo and everyone in between or beyond rather than wanting to do something myself. Come to think of it... was I always this aimless with my life, where I just bumble around without knowing what I want with it?
All those people around me are looking at me like an escaped mental patient from some insane asylum. Can't really blame them, I would do the same if I see someone running around street aimlessly shouting someone's name.
A loud bang sound interrupt Nobita's inner thought as his head collide with a light pole. Of course, all the glasses wearing middle school student realize at the time is the world suddenly spin around him until he lies on the pavement with stars in his eyes. His eyes blink once, twice, and three times before he slowly gets up on his legs and starts tumbling down the street again. In the distance, he sees a shade of yellow with long black raven in the distance exit the biggest shopping mall so he runs over the street at top speed again. The boy almost gets hit by a car as the driver angrily shouts some profanity at him. Nobita simply puts on his mental filter as he chases Homura down the street.
As he closing in on the girl, he starts to shout her name again. When she doesn't respond, Nobita runs up to Homura and grabs her shoulder.
The boy gets a slap across his face as he hears the angry screech of a high pitched voice. "Buzz off! Creep!"
Even before Nobita's clear vision returns, he can tell by the voice this girl is not Homura. So he just sits on his ass as the girl walks away. He slams his fist into concrete floor as the girl disappears around a corner, feeling he failed... something. He slowly gets up from the floor once again and turns around, ready to limb home like a wounded dog when he sees a raven haired girl wearing faint yellow uniform and checker skirt in his vision. He has to take his glasses off and rub his eyes very hard to make sure he's not seeing things this time around.
"Are you done crying yourself to sleep now?" Homura's voice carries a stern confidence unlike earlier where she simply sounds lost and even a little helpless. Still, the distantness in every word is unmistakably the mysterious Homura.
The next few seconds happens quickly as Nobita gets ready to tackle Homura into the pavement due to the sheer amount of relief he feels. Lucky for him a quick fist into his gut stops him from completing such action so he won't be detained in a police station for possible sexual harassment. "Are you calm now?"
"Yes... thank you..." Nobita manages to squeeze a few words out between cough as he eats and dry humps the floor. Eventually he manages to pull himself up to his wobbling legs again as he looks at Homura. "So... I guess you needed to go to the washroom really badly or something?"
"Let's go with that story." Homura gives him a blank stare before reluctantly nods alone. "What do you plan to do now that you find me again?"
That's a good question... Nobita is so focused on finding Homura again he has no idea what he'll do next. The glasses wearing boy knows he wants to help Homura, but he's not sure to what extent. He suppose he can bring Homura back to his home and tell his mother he made a new friend in school. But jumping from complete stranger to Best Friend Forever where you bring a girl back home for a sleep over in one day feels like too large a gap to be believable.
Still... now that Nobita manages to finds Homura again he won't just waves her away with a white blanket. Thinking fast, he begins to pounder his options. "I guess I can smuggle some of my old clothes for you so you'll feel a bit warmer... oh, and I think I still has my secret base over on the hill near the thousand years old Cunninghamia tree. It'll probably be better than sleep on a park bench."
"Sounds like a plan." Homura gives another nod as she quietly follows Nobita toward his home.
The two of them spend the next thirty minutes in complete silent, both trying to sort out their conflicted mind. Nobita spends the entire trip tries to understand why he suddenly develops this obsession with Homura. Then again... it's not the first time he acts out of an impulse. Half an hour flashes by as Nobita stops outside of his home's garden wall.
"You stay here while I climb over the wall inside and try to bag some of my old clothes and throw them at you out of my window. I'll also add a map for you to find my old secret base." Nobita turns to Homura as he jumps up and grabs onto the top of the wall. Homura gives him a push on his feet as he struggles to balance himself over the wall. Nobita gives Homura a nod out of gratitude before he's ready to hop down to the other side only for him to drop himself like a rock as his pet Ichi starts to howl up a furious storm.
"Oh for crying out loud Ichi... do you have to yell every time when I tries to go for stealth? Now I know why Solid Snake never has a pet dog." Nobita rubs his aching butt as he steadies himself on the wall. His pet dog lets out a sad whimper, but starts to bear his teeth out again when he sees Homura appearing right besides Nobita. "How did you get inside our garden?"
"I jumped over the wall." Nobita looks up at the wall and then look right back at Homura before shaking his head in defeat. As Homura and Ichi locks themselves into a staring contest, Nobita's other pet dog Peko silently walks beside Homura's feet. The white dog looks up at Homura with curiosity in his eyes before poking out his tongue and starts licking Homura's hand. For a moment Nobita is a little worried Homura may kick Peko away with disgust, but she simply remain still on the spot and examines the dog with blank expression.
"You like dogs?" Nobita looks at Homura as she kneels down and pick Peko up again as she looks at the curious looking dog.
"Dogs huh..." Homura blankly stares at Peko for a solid thirty seconds before she spontaneously breaks into a mad laughter
"I... love dogs! Dogs embodies loyalty! Be a jerk to them and they won't complain! They never bothers for a paycheck! Oh, loyal dog how we salute THEEE~" The raven haired girl starts to dance around in circle while still holding onto a confused Peko like a ballet dancer.
...
"You think she lost her consciousness, Ichi?" Nobita sits down besides his brown dog as he scratches Ichi's ear. Meanwhile Homura freezes in place holding Peko like she's stopped in time. Although if Nobita's mind isn't playing trick on him, there's some shinny sparkles glistering in Homura's eyes and they aren't tears.
Moving sideways like he's role playing a crab, Nobita gets ready to sneak into his home and then his room located on the second floor and bundle some of his old sweater and jacket for Homura before he's caught red handed by his mother's voice. "Who did you brought home, Nobita?"
"A... new friend I met in school." Mentally cringing at his bad luck, Nobita decide to try and fake Homura as one of his new classmate. It's not like his mother has an exact grasp of what everyone of his classmate look like.
He quickly runs besides Homura and tucks at her sleeves. "New plan, mom found out about you. So you need to pretend you are a new transfer student at my school to not rise any suspicion."
Homura breaks out of her trance as she looks at Nobita. She has a funny expression on her face that is stuck halfway between relief and 'are you fucking kidding me'. Although after a few seconds of digesting the situation she settles into a nod once again. "I had practice elsewhere."
Nobita opens up the sliding door to the living room and Homura follows him shortly afterward. The track towards the dining room is a much too short for either of them to formulate much thoughts. As Nobita opens the door to the dining room, he is confronted by Tamako's usual angry screech. "Who is this young lady you just invited to our home? Both of you look like a mess! Did you two got into a fight?"
"Well... Homura here just moved into town and I decide to show her around Saigaku a bit. We went to 8th Street before my curfew's up. It's a shame we ends up meeting some delinquent while playing arcade. Although in our defence, they throw the first punch." Nobita manage to crack a fake smile at his mother as he looks at his father for some assistance. Good thing that's a feeling Nobisuke reciprocated on the spot.
"Let's just be glad neither of them look hurt Dear, and it's such a rare occasion for Nobita to invite a girl home. We should give his friend a good first impression don't you agree?"
"Can I have another bowl of rice, Tamako?" A unfamiliar voice makes Nobita turn his head towards dinner table. To his complete surprise, two Kyubeys are sitting on the table while happily munching on some rice and miso soup. Well... one Kyubey, and another Kyubey lookalike with blue fur who is missing the cat ears. The one who is currently asking for a refill is the blue Kyubey as he rises one of his bunny ear which holds the bowl like an extra hand.
Before he can ask why Kyubey and his little friend decide Nobi resident equals a free all you can eat buffet, two loud gunshot makes Nobita jump up from his feet as both Kyubey fall off the table with a bullet hole on their head. Nobita quickly turns around to see Homura wearing a white blouse with black trims and a futuristic looking round buckler on her left arm while holding a handgun in her right hand.
Well... crap... there goes any hope of convincing his parents Homura is just a transfer student in his school...
"Hmm... would you look at that. Nobita's new friend happens to be a Magical Girl. Explains why Kyubey and Dorabey suddenly decide to stop at our household for dinner after all those years." Nobita sharply turns back to look at his parents, who both look unfazed in the slightest Homura suddenly sporting firearms and just shot the two cute abominations known as Incubator.
"Wait... you two knew about Magical Girl?" Nobita feels the need to slap himself right after he blurt out the question. Of course his parents know about Magical Girls if Kyubey decide to stop by for dinner like he owns their home.
"It's kind of hard not to known about Magi when we both used to be one." Tamako and Nobisuke exchanges a knowing smile at each other as they opens up their palms. Their wedding ring quickly untangles themselves and become oval shaped glass jewels resting in the center of their palms.
／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼
Of all the things Homura expects, she certainly doesn't expect to see Kyubey's miserable face so soon. Ok, technically the little white bastard is sitting with its back towards Homura, so Homura can't see its face. But the point is: when the time travelling Magical Girl sees Kyubey and its blue friend, her 'must kill Incubator' mode immediately takes over her motor function as she transforms into her Magical Girl form and give each one of them a bullet to the head.
After her action has already taken place, she realizes two things: One, she just wasted two perfect good bullet on those infinite re-spawn abominations. And number two, she shoots two Incubators in the head in front of two adult.
Well... there goes any chance she may have about receiving aid from the glasses wearing buffoon and his family. Better get ready to pull another time stop and then run like hell.
Imagine her surprise when those adult simply shrug the situation off like it's some kind of everyday occurrences, or when they pull out their respective Soul Gems. She wonders if she steps into a trap where an adult Magical Girl and an adult Magical Boy are in cohort with the Incubators. It seems this new timeline keeps on giving.
The situation won't be too dire if she still has her time stop power fully in check. Unfortunately for Homura, her time stop does seem to have a mandatory five second limit, as well as very long cool down time before she can use it again. So she decide to keep her trump card hidden for now till the moment when she absolutely needs it.
Turns out this ends up being the right choice, since the mother's next response completely baffles Homura. "You know young lady... not that we don't understand your hatred against those damn honey badgers, but do you mind not pull out a fire arm next time? We don't appreciate the neighbour calling police to our home because they think we have a severe case of domestic violence and in breach of possessing illegal fire arms."
To drive Homura's confusion further, Nobita's mother pulls out a sledgehammer out of the cupboard and hand it to Homura. "I suggest you use the sledgehammer next time. Fast, blunt, and very satisfying when you crush those cretin's skull in. And to top it all off... you don't even need to worry about making a mess in my house. Those little ferret will offer to clean themselves up during their next re-spawn."
"Thanks... but I think I'll stick with my golf club next time." Homura raises one of her eyebrow at Nobita's mom before handing the sledgehammer back to her. Fast and blunt approach feels more Sayaka than her style. She's not too keen on being reminded of the Magical Girl who usually turns into a Witch by the middle of a timeline.
"Good choice." Tamako gives Homura a nod as she takes her sledgehammer back and turns toward the dining table again. "You can stop playing dead now, Dorabey."
It takes Homura a few moment to process who this 'Dorabey' is. It is a good thing the blue Incubator extends out his ear, grabs onto the edge of the dinner table and pulls himself up the table once again. Homura is pretty sure she can still see a small indent on the cute looking abomination's forehead where her bullet connects. "Getting shot in the head is never pleasant, although I can't say me or my kind don't deserve it."
Homura is pretty sure she manages to discover something else that's new to this timeline: An Incubator who is actually self-conscious. Although the iron clad time traveller does wonder if self-consciousness make this particular Incubator better or worse than Kyubey.
"Well... self-conscious or not, I think it's suffice to say all we Incubators are sons of bitches in the end." As if reading her mind, the blue furred Incubator cocks his head and says in a tone which akin to self-mockery. The very thought is absurd to Homura. How can an emotionless race possess the humor to mock its own existence.
It's more likely she simply mistaken patronization with self-mockery. Regardless, she's not going to argue with the statement itself.
"Touché..." Homura turns her head away with disgust only to witness Kyubey devouring his own corpse the ten millionth time.
"Hey, Kyubey. How does yourself taste?" Nobita's voice sounds like an unwanted house guest... except he belongs to this household.
"Like wax, but very filling. There's no sense wasting perfectly good material when the universe is facing its death wouldn't you agree?" The white fuzz ball raises his head and glance pass both Nobita and Homura. Its soulless beady red orb focuses on Homura. "Interesting... I don't remember contracting you, yet you carry the magic signature of one contracted by me. If I don't know better, I would suspect you come from a parallel universe."
Kyubey wouldn't be Kyubey if its action doesn't intentionally or unintentionally cause Homura unlimited amount of grief. The two adults, as well as Dorabey focuses their gaze on Homura. As for Nobita the glasses wearing idiot... he simply walks to the dinner table, pulls out a chair and sits down like the idiot has already give up making sense out of the situation and decide to go straight for dinner.
"You aren't really Nobita's classmate are you, young lady?" Tamako starts to inspect Homura closely from head to toe. "No offense, but there's something off about you the moment you steps into the room. Now I think about it... the style of your cloth looks like it belong to a different decade."
Well... Better get ready to pull the disappearing act...Still not sure what their magic abilities are, but as long as it's not time stop like me, I should be able to get away.
Homura gets ready to reach for her shield. Before she can complete her act Nobisuke stands up from his seat.
"Please, everyone just calm down now. Miss Homura, I know my wife can be forceful, even overbearing sometimes but she's only got good intention. She's not trying to interrogate you, just trying to see if there's anything we can do to help. We do understand some of your plight since we were more or less in your shoes not that long time ago. So why don't all of us just relax, sit around the table and have some idle conversation over a nice dinner?"
The voice of Nobisuke is calm and inviting unlike his wife who is energetic and confrontational. Homura can't help but feel those two complement each other's personality well, as well as feeling draw in by Nobisuke's suggestion. Still, she's not ready to completely trust someone who invite Incubators to their home dinner yet. Shooting a glare at Kyubey and Dorabey, she remains standing upright at the door instead of coming into the dining room. "I'll stand in the door for now."
"Very well, but do feel welcomed to join us for dinner anytime you want to. It won't be polite if we make our guest stand at the door while we enjoy our food." Nobisuke gives Homura an understanding smile and nod as he returns to his seat.
"So, Nobita." The boy visibly tenses at his mother's voice. "Did you went on a Witch hunt with Homura here today, or yesterday?"
"No." Nobita mindlessly shakes his head before he realizes there's something wrong with his answer.
"Ah, so you do know what is a 'Witch'. Is that how you meet Homura here?" In Homura's eyes, Nobita seems to visibly shrinks two sizes under his mother's intense gaze.
"No! I'm more surprised at Homura being a Magical Girl than you two remember? I just thought she's some rich girl who run away from home and needs a place to stay." Nobita blunts about as he wipes cold sweat from his forehead. "Although yes... I do know what's a 'Witch'. I faced one with Jaiko two days ago..."
"That Goda girl right? So she decides to follow her mother's footsteps..."
"Gian and Jaiko's mother used to be a Magical Girl too?"
"Of course. We used to be rivals back when we were your age..." Tamako seems to suddenly realize something as she sharply turns to regard Kyubey and Dorabey. "Kyubey! Dorabey!"
Both Incubators faces Tamako with their expressionless face. "Yes, Tamako?"
"I know what you two are planning, so let me make this clear to you two: None of you are going to contract my boy as one of your Magical Boy, or Warden, or whatever you are going to call it. Unless either of you fancy having me shove my claymore down your throat and then slow roast you over a pit of fire. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear!"
"Duly noted." Both Incubators gives the same response, although Homura observes Dorabey flinch a little at Tamako's threat almost like he is scared. She shakes her head, convincing herself it's merely her imagination playing trick on her mind.
Speaking of Nobita's mother... this woman certainly gives Homura lots of mixed signals regarding her disposition with the Incubators. On one hand, she threatens both Kyubey and Dorabey bodily harm for contracting her son which suggest she is perfectly aware of Incubator's little scam. On the other hand... she seems to be very content feed those abominations food. Homura isn't sure if such a woman can be trusted.
Trust... the term has become very foreign to Homura, at least for the past hundred loops or so. She used to be naive, with more hope than there are stars in the sky. At one point she truly believes as long as she works hard with her friends they will find a way to save Madoka. But her hope is dashed every cycle when her 'friends' lets her down one way or another. She becomes cold, and distant towards anything other than the goal of saving Madoka's life. In fact, she tend to treats even Madoka with a cold and distant attitude, fearing friendship with Madoka in a new cycle would only lead to more pain when she fails to save the pink haired girl. She would trust no one but herself, and when she finally find a way to save her friend it would be through her resolve and self-sufficiency.
That is when she still has full access to her own power, and knowledge of all the variables within the confined cycle. Now she's lost in a wrong time, in a wrong place she wonders if she can even hold out long enough to see Madoka once again as she think over her options: Tell the Nobi family of her plight, and hopefully gain some aid from them or shut herself away from them like everyone else from the loop. And if she wants to tell the truth, how much bean she needs to spill out to both get her point across but not sounding overly suspicious.
She wonders what will happen if she does starts to rely on others for help after all those loops.