Author Notes:
I don't know if anyone's following, but, as you see, I'm putting in 2 different time frames in Even and Odd chapters, Chapters 1,3,5, being 3 days advanced from Chapters 2,4... Ehehehe…
Anyway, a big thanks to those who reviewed my story. =S Things will get more complicated from here. Ehehe…
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By the way, it's best that you play Connect (TV version) when you reach the chapter title strip and Magia (TV version) when you reach the To Be Continued strip of the chapter.
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There are three words to describe San Francisco, California right now: puella magi crowded. In fact, you can say that San Francisco has become a capital for puella magi, and, consequently, witches. With the constant appearace of witches in the area, it makes one wonder how such dark secret of puella magi turning witches even stay secret.
Mami Tomoe, who just came down from the roof to supervise the incoming mahou shoujo in the area. It is important that no civilians would end up here, considering the situation of a world War III and strict migration to the Eastern Side of the United States of America.
Really, Mami muttered to herself. I couldn't understand how Homura managed to get all that power from a single wish. Kyubey...where are you now?
A short-haired girl appeared in the midst of it all. Unlike most of the girls in the puella magi crowded streets, t Lohere was something unusual in her, whether it's her orb-like bell earrings or her weird ahoge that acts more like a wind vane than a part of her hair, one cannot describe that unusual feeling: a feeling that this girl is not your usual puella magi.
"Umika-chan! Kaoru-chan!" the girl shouted over the busy crowd but to no avail. With such a short height and cute looks, anyone can mistake her for a child.
"Hello there, little child," It was Mami Tomoe, in her mahou shoujo suit who called over to this girl in Japanese. "Are you lost?"
The girl sighed, "You can say I am, but I presume you mean more than that."
"Umm...? What do you mean...?" Mami asked, hesitated for a while as she looked upon the other mahou shoujos, and asked again. "Were you looking for your friends?"
The girl's eyes shimmered as she held hands in her. Finally, someone who understood her! The girl smiled beautifully as Mami compassionately held her hand — what warmth for a stranger! But just as she thought she understood, she noticed that Mami was going further mainland, to the other side of one of San Francisco's Eastern bridges.
"W-Where are we going?" she could not help but ask.
"We're going to the Military Center little girl. I'm sure you'll find your friends there."
Realizing the situation, the girl quickly let go of her hand.
"Baka," the girl bowed her head in retreat, she must have misunderstood as well. "I'm a mahou shoujo too you know!"
Mami stopped for a while, and her eyes widened, unsure of what was she about to say next. This kid is actually a puella magi? Obviously it's considerably hard to believe, but, considering how weird things have turned out since that day, she would have to make an exception.
Let's just say that she's merely a young, naive mahou shoujo with much to learn, Mami thought to herself.
"All right," Mami turned around 180 degrees, and started walking back to the base of operations, still holding the girl's seemingly frail hands. "So it is. What's your name?"
The black haired girl smile shimmered.
"My name is...Kazumi. Amnesiac Kazumi."
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Episode 2
"I'm no leader"
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It was somewhere, out there, something inside that labyrinth of memories, is the pure soul of any person, good or bad.
Somewhere, something, someone—an indescribable remnant of the soul—was crying bitterly in the midst of an immeasurable void, crying over a body that cannot exist anymore, bringing in immeasurable amounts of grief that cannot be emptied. It was a sorrowed deity, a goddess who wished she was never born: a deity who wanted to take away the people's grief, but ended up becoming the source of the grief instead.
Kriemhild Gretchen stood over Mitakihara City, now the captial of a new power in a dreamland in a world where no grief can ever exist. They do not understand. The world does not understand. Will they ever understand? As Kriemhild Gretchen locks away Madoka's humanity at the very center of her Grief Seed, nothing but grief remained: a grief that cries out to someone. Is there someone out there that could possibly empty these feelings of despair?
And then she remembered a dream, a dream that seemed all too real, a dream of a friend she lost somewhere along the way. For a witch, she can still remember a piece of humanity. And that person was...
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H-Homura-chan..save me.
A voice seems to whisper to Homura Akemi. That voice was too familiar for Homura; she couldn't help but shed a some tears, whether it was tears of hope, tears of sorrow, or tears of regret she was unsure herself, but one thing's for sure, she must move quickly, setting aside these emotions for now for the greater good of the world, whom her other, innocent self has sworn to protect. Homura Akemi, supervising over the mahou shoujos preparing for the not-so-long expedition to Japan, took her time supervising the mode of their transportation to Japan. Around a hundred mahou shoujos have been working almost overnight for this, even before the actual meeting, creating large planes, powered by despair flowing out of Kriemhild Gretchen, and consequently, used Grief Seeds.
A mahou shoujo emerged from one of the planes, jumping off from the roof with an eccentric mood unlike any other. Taking off her glasses for a while, the twin-tailed girl's serious face cannot be neglected now.
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Zhuo Ling
Weapon: Long Pins
Speciality: Mechanical Inginuity
Nationality: Chinese
Description: Zhuo is a 5"6' Chinese with tsundere-like eyes who would usually prefer her twin tailed, long, dark purple-dyed hair to be smooth, yet never comes around to actually do it, more often referring to others or her mahou shoujo magic to do that work, being always busy with her experiments and all. Having quite a fair complexion and near snow white skin, one might wonder why she doesn't have a boyfriend, until he realizes one thing that changes it all: her extremely egotistical nature, expected of a mad scientist.
History serves that she was a born genius with wild ideas about technology, often gotten around to having very wild ideas, such as wireless batteries, or potato-powered HDTVs, but never getting around to actually making them because of her lack of knowledge in mechanics. So when Kyubey recruited her, she wished for unparalleled mechanical knowledge, bringing cheating and hacking technology in China to such a degree unlike any other in the world, in that The Great Firewall of China was formed in an attempt to stop such infamous advancement, but to no avail.
Her mahou shoujo form is a lot different from her usual form, having an extremely frilly white lab coat with hair that seems to act like tentacles, instinctively catching anything in her back, but it's not really her main weapon. Her actual main weapon is inside her lab coat: pins of all kinds of sizes that she can teleport at will to any place she wishes, even inside the person's body. The only downside to this is that these pins are quite relatively slow in regenerating, giving an enemy mahou shoujo enough time to escape or make a single attack.
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"So how's the plan ongoing, Zhuo?" Homura asked the mahou shoujo in Chinese. (May you need to be reminded of her extensive knowledge?)
Zhuo merely snickered, quickly presenting various blueprints and excitingly replied in Chinese, "Are you kidding? These plans ... even I haven't thought of it! Who knew that this dark energy in Grief Seeds, the very energy used by witches, can be used to power up something as granddd as this?"
That'll be those Incubators. - Homura
Homura glanced at the mahou shoujo's masterpiece. 100 planes, all powered by single Grief Seeds, all having weird designs (Just how can you describe something so childish that it makes anyone nearly vomit just for its design) looking like green leeks in some purple-red-peach backdrop. In spite of the nauseous picture, however, Homura held her composure, further examining the necessary blueprints for the planes. Homura then scouted around, and noticed something quite disturbing. Surrounded by several monochromatic grey contraptions of unknown kind, a single slot was alotted as its central figure. It had a perculiar hole, which seems to imply the slot for a Grief Seed.
"Only one used Grief Seed is needed for each plane?" Homura slightly raised her eyebrow, a feat of hers rarely done ever.
"Yes, about that," her right hand pointed to a particular section of the blueprint, while the other hand made an ok signal to an incoming mahou shoujo who was working on the actual construction of the planes. "Each Grief Seed has quite an enormous amount of energy. You could say...100 atomic bombs."
Homura didn't even flinch, unexpectedly surprising the so-called mechanical genius.
"With the blueprints you gave to me," Zhuo smiled. "We'll have enough energy to reach Kriemhild Gretchen with more than enough energy to spare for weaponry systems!"
Homura silently sighed. It's not that she's disappointed or anything like that, but it's this girl that anyone can hardly deal with. If only this girl, this mahou shoujo, wasn't the only technical genius in this city full of mahou shoujo, she wouldn't have bothered in the first place. But for Homura Akemi, who allowed for it anyway, this plan is absolutely important in determining the fate of the world. Kyubey was right on many things, and one of them is the fact that she has been holding the fate of a whole world ever since 3 days ago, being the greatest mahou shoujo in the world. Is this what they call...destiny? Or is there something much more than that? But now, the focus must be on Madoka, and her one-in-a-million chance on saving Madoka from her grief and everyone from the fate of the world they all live in, a world that had been manipulated by Kyubey, that is up till three days ago, when he left Earth.
"Weaponry...systems?"
"I'm glad...you asked," an evil-looking smile described the very essence of what they call the mad scientist puella magi. Revealing her 'mad scientist' remote control, she pressed one of the buttons, instantly revealing several weaponry of various sizes. Noise premeated the entire plane, but to the mad scientist, it was the sound of heaven.
"Let's see...we have quantum-proton cannons that can tear through any kind of obstacle, tearing the object apart, atom by atom, to the point of separating carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen,"
The sound of laser soon followed, effectively splitting the sea up to the not-so-far horizon.
"...laser beams that can pierce through the brains of any familiar, if they had one, EMP wave cannons that will fry any machines in our way, and of course, molecule reconstructors that can recreate any kind of dish."
"And that molecule reconstructor's part of the weaponry system because-"
"Don't. Ever. Question. The mind. Of a mad scientist!"
The mahou shoujo screamed her heart out, catching the attention of several mahou shoujos, who couldn't help but giggle at the scene. Understandable enough, since, it's been a while since she actually took pride of her own work. She even remembered yesterday's work, which had quite the devastating result...
"...I'll imagine I didn't saw that."
You can say that Kyubey recruits the weirdest of girls.
"So..." Homura continued. "How long can a plane consume the despair of a grief seed?"
"Around..." Zhuo thought about it for a while. "a year. Even activating all weapon systems, it'll take a month."
"A year," Homura paused for a while, recreating her thoughts and her plans for the attack."…is not enough."
"EHH?" the girl nearly jumped in shock. "You want..."
"If possible, a system that clears it all in a single blow. We don't have enough Grief Seeds to carry around. All we can do recycle them. That's where the system comes in."
"Do you know what you're thinking?" the girl maniacally started laughing. "We're talking absolute acceleration of the heat in our mother Earth! Heat madness with a corresponding advanced climate change! Greenhouse effect kicking off a notch! But since you said so...Whahahaha!"
Zhuo ran off to one of the planes, there to recalibrate the system. Homura breathed in and out, signifying the end of a hard-to-deal conversation.
If it wasn't for her intellectual mind I wouldn't have to deal with her myself. Homura muttered to herself.
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Mami looked at her watch as they walk upon through Balboa Street—destination, the shore—in her hands probably one of the youngest mahou shoujo she ever seen in her life: Kazumi, a girl who's said to be have amnesia. Just how could amnesia happen to 'people' like puella magi? It's just out of the question.
"4:30 pm," Mami sighed. Tomorrow is the day of reckoning, the day they'll proceed in finally attacking Kriemhild Gretchen. These four days of preparation have been so hard for everyone. That work of migrating thousands of mahou shoujos out of Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and China to help with the necessary preparations, and the settlement of various strongholds and bases for the resistance against Kriemhild Gretchen. It has always been a constant problem, as without Kyubey, it takes great pain to even contact them all. Not even the internet can help, as the witch domain has already distorted much of the internet pipelines connecting much of Asia. Cell phones are no good either, seeing Gretchen has distorted various cell sites through her domain. It's a good thing though that telepathic mahou shoujos (10% of the total population of mahou shoujos) contribute that much for contact.
It is through their help that an invaluable coordinated attack has been established. Over the Eastern side of the world, in Laos, is roughly 860 mahou shoujos, most of which have fled from Vietnam, Central and Southeast China. In various parts of the Philippines, Japan, and Korea, small (around a hundred mahou shoujos) communities have made hidden strongholds throughout the witch's domain, barely making it, especially with such a scarcity of Grief Seeds, food, shelter, and morale.
As for the puella magi in Europe, Southern America, and Africa, there has been no word from them. Surely they should have, at least, responded to their calls of help? But... have they actually gotten ahold of the situation at hand? Don't they know how desperate these times are already?
As Mami walked towards the base somewhere along the shores of San Francisco, where she supposed to meet with various leaders, including Homura, Kyouko, Sayaka, and many others, the helpless Kazumi couldn't help but stare at various buildings throughout San Francisco.
-Is she even aware of the state of the world?
"So what do you remember?" Mami asked. "Or should I say how did you manage to get here?"
"It was through the help of Kaoru-chan and Umika-chan and the others that we made it of out of Japan alive. She said a powerful witch domain was spreading and was soon to come here, and we have to retreat." Kazumi's tears flushed through her eyes. "W-Why...why did we have to leave them all behind?"
It was that time when Mami finally realized her feelings, feelings that any magical girl needs evade as soon as possible - despair. Here we have a girl, a young girl who has to be involved with the fate of the world, who had to leave her parents and the ones she would want to protect behind. Mami herself, if she had any more relatives, could easily have fallen to such in having to leave them behind, to let them be conquered by Kriemhild Gretchen, and to retreat rather than taking the fight there now. But...
"If you didn't retreat, you would have died in vain in the hands of Gretchen," Mami said, wiping away Kazumi's tears. "Let's go find your friends; I'm sure they're worried about you. And also..."
Mami placed her fingers in Kazumi's lips, pushing them upwards.
Wait...? Mami suddenly remembered something. Kaoru-chan? Umika-chan? Did I heard it from somewhere?
"Don't lose hope, or else you'll be a further burden, okay?" Mami smiled, ignoring her thoughts.
"T-Thanks," Kazumi naturally smiled. "I'm glad I got to know such a nice mahou shoujo. Thank you, onee-chan."
"Eheheh..." Mami's cheeks blushed in reflex. "W-We'll go to our base of operations first. We're already ready for the plan to go to Kriemhild Gretchen's territory."
"Sure," Kazumi's tears were completely gone, now replaced by a permeating excitement. "Let's go!"
Mami held Kazumi's hand all the way as Kazumi and Mami face the visible shore with the bright, yellow sun ahead of them. It really didn't matter what people thought at the time or what people said, but what matters is that Mami knew there and there that whatever happens, she knew now the hidden feelings inside of them, why none of them ever gave up to Kriemhild Gretchen, and why in spite of all that's happen or impossible odds, they'll fight for the world, even the most selfish of mahou shoujos, because they believe something so promising, yet abstract feeling called hope. Wasn't that the reason there's such thing as a mahou shoujo in the first place?
As Mami and Kazumi finally reached the shores of San Francisco, California, they were met with hundreds of planes, all in line in a steady matter. It was a good thing the shores of San Francisco, California were quite suitable for plane building, the ground being quite plain and all. Hundreds of mahou shoujos are seen at the scene, some using firepower (with real fire) to put the plane parts together, some carrying large metallic bars (as long as 40 feet and as thick as 2 meters) to the site, with another mahou shoujo warping its shape to the required dimensions. Some mahou shoujos were on the work, some using telekinetic abilities to quickly arrange hundreds, if not thousands of circuits, being careful as to avoid any error, as any single one can claim the lives of possibly a hundred mahou shoujos. Other mahou houjos were busy with testing the system, checking for bugs and possible errors in the circuitry, all while Zhuo manages the blueprints, making weird expressions and orders that only a few understand. It was obviously no time going to any beach to be lazy. It was a time of war.
There in the wide beach, was Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Kyouko, Zhuo Ling, and many others; all waiting for Mami, in their eyes a mix of curiosity and stress. Homura was no good in being the morale booster, while Sayaka and Kyouko are obviously busy with their own work, with Kyouko being the supervisor of the Witch Hunting Teams and Sayaka responsible for the Assault Teams.
"I'm sorry I was late," Mami smiled in an attempt to accept her alibi. "I had to take care of some things."
Homura caught the attention of the girl beside her. Surprised, as if she found something extraordinary, Homura caught her attention, unexpectedly focusing her cold eyes upon the startled Kazumi. With no time to spare for the specific, however, Homura continued with the supposed meeting.
"How are the preparations: Zhuo," Homura directly stared at her, as if to intimidate. "Have you developed the system yet?"
"Eheheh..." Zhuo bowed her head for a second, her left hand in her glasses. "Whahahaha! You can say it was a huuuuge success! As you know we're using the power of the darkness in Grief Seeds to power-up our planes, well...I have developed a system to clear any used Grief Seed."
Zhuo lifted her hand, sending a signal to some of the mahou shoujos in the area: a large device, with several slots for Grief Seeds, and a large chute at the top.
"Behold!" Zhuo declared. "My Grief Transporter 9000+!"
"Skip your masturbatingly complicated stuff and proceed with the simple system." Homura quickly said. Not to being forced or anything, but everyone's on quite a tight schedule.
"Geeez, Homura..." Zhuo groaned. "Anyway, it's basically a system to send the Grief of Grief Seeds to space. At least that way we can avoid any more additional energy to be added to our ecosystem. We have only a few units of it, but it can accommodate up to 40 Grief Seeds."
Homura continued on the discussion.
"I'm pretty sure Zhuo's team's done with the planes," Homura then stared at Sayaka. "How's the Assault Teams?"
"Most are done," Sayaka sighed. "It was hard work organizing them you know."
"We don't have the time to contemplate about it any further," Homura admitted. "Kyouko! Status Report on the Witch Hunting Teams."
"It's just as you said," Kyouko seemed irritated. "We've collected as much as 900 Grief Seeds already, but I'm pretty sure it ain't enough, huh?"
"It isn't," Homura coldly declared, almost pissing Kyouko off. "T-T-Thanks...anyway."
Kyouko unexpectedly calmed down, seeing Homura doing something she barely does - thanking people, "T-Thanks."
"And Mami," Homura asked. "Where did you found Kazumi?"
"Ehhh...?" Mami gasped, startled by Homura's statement. " Y..you know...-"
Homura didn't have more time to think, asking Mami again, this time in a more aggressive manner, "Where did you find her?"
"Over…at Balboa Street, why?" Mami, confused at Homura's question, looked at the now frozen Kazumi.
"Kazumi," Homura said. "You were trying to find your friends, right?"
"Y-Yes..." Kazumi responded, "Why?"
"It's the Pleiades Saints, correct?"
"H-Hai..." Kazumi settled down for a bit, just before Homura brought out a stunning conclusion.
"4 days ago, as you all remembered," Homura noted. "The Pleiades Saints were almost killed by an unknown witch, about the same time you got missing. This witch killed fifty mahou shoujos before disappearing, just when you appeared."
"What 'r you saying?" Kyouko angrily strangled Homura. "That this girl's that witch you've...been finding in San Francisco?"
The others were too shocked to know where the conversation's going, barely responding in Homura's series of actions.
Homura got a hold of Kyuoko's hand, merely twisting them in such a matter that Kyouko screamed because of the pain, something that would have been unbearable is she was actually human. For an idealist like Mami, fights like this never lead to anything good.
"Kazumi..." Homura looked upon Kazumi's innocent eyes again. "Do you remember anything these last 2 days?"
Mami couldn't help but stare at Kazumi again. Just what happened with this girl?
"When was the last date you remember?" Mami asked, but to no avail.
Mami breathed deep, neglecting the fact that Kazumi didn't answer her previous question, "Hey, Kazumi, do you remember what happened?"
Kazumi's head seem to wave back and forth, as if trying to remember something. What's happening to Kazumi? For someone like Kazumi who has amnesia, it must be hard. Mami couldn't imagine herself being in Kazumi's shoes at all. What does it mean to have amnesia, to forget your old personality, develop a new one and suddenly remember what you used to be? And then something hit her.
"I-I..." Kazumi felt down on her knees, crying. "I...remember now. What...what...have...I done?"
Realizing the weight of her burden, Kazumi got up her feet and ran away from everyone, running towards the main land.
"Why'd you do that?" Kyouko screamed directly at her, punching her directly at her cheeks. "She was just a child! She didn't have to know it! Of all people, you were supposed to be the leader!"
"But," Homura reasoned out. "I am no leader."
"You...!" Kyouko punched her again, this time with enough force to keep her on the ground for a few seconds.
"Kazumi!" Homura, recovering from her injuries, reached out to her, but without any luck, Kazumi was steadily getting further and further away to the deserted streets. But, determined to solve the mystery involving Kazumi, and to finally reveal to herself how she can bring Madoka back, Homura ran out to her, following her through Balboa Street, catching the attention of merely every mahou shoujo around, just before Homura noticed something: they were entering a witch's barrier.
"This is..." Homura muttered to herself.
Kazumi, realizing that she got inside the barrier, finally stopped, catching the attention of her surroundings. She's now officially lost.
"Where...?" Kazumi hesitated for a while, just before realizing she was now on a witch's barrier.
The surroundings were full if mirrors – mirrors all around the area, in an endless labyrinth of mirrors. No flight is possible, as even the roof of the labyrinth is covered in mirrors. Kazumi flinched, seeing hundreds of her selves, all seeming to stare directly at her.
"We all know you did it..." her mirror counterpart whispered in her ear. "You did it. "
Endless whispers started to reverberate around Kazumi, further driving her insane.
"Stop it...! STOP IT! SHUT UP!" Kazumi shouted out, changing her suit into a mahou shoujo one, summoning her weapon, a large cross, and hitting one of the mirrors. This, however, did nothing. As the force she used to hit the mirror only ended up bouncing back to her, throwing her off into the other side, the endless whispering torment continued much like an endless chant. Kazumi instinctively covered her ears with her hands, only to find out that the voice wasn't coming from her ears.
It was from her mind.
"We all know what you've done," the whisper in one of the mirrors kept on creeping on her. "Say it! You deserve to die. 'I deserve to die.' "
"H...he...lp...me..."
Kazumi's concisiousness started fading away. Her vision wildly wavered, as her nearly dilluted mind succumbs into nothingness. Gunshots reverberated throughout the labyrinth, further making Kazumi scream. It wasn't just any gunshots though; it was Homura, now in front of the psychologically mutilated Kazumi.
"Look," Homura said, forcibly making herself smile in front of Kazumi. "Please come back."
Kazumi turned her head back, seemingly refusing the request, but unbeknownst to herself, she was already crying.
"I...don't understand this...why have I done it. Why have I hurt my friends? Why... am I still...?"
"I can explain it to you," Homura said, again in an emotionless tone. "There's no time. Please come back. I can take you back to them."
Kazumi would have refused, but...
"A-Alright...errmm..."
"Call me Homura-chan..."
Kazumi frowned over the fact that there's thus memory of her that she just couldn't accept, but now's not the time. They either come back together now or die anyway.
Homura looked at her surroundings, disgusted over the witch that has been following them all this time.
"Kazumi, watch out!" Homura instinctively pushed Kazumi to the side, almost getting hit by a bullet from one of the mirrors.
"W-What...?" Kazumi looked around, only to see nothing but their images, mirrored, all seeming to be mere imitations of the real thing.
"This...witch..." Homura whispered.
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Kagami
Nature: Imitation
Description: True to its origin name, Kagami is no ordinary witch. She doesn't have any real form, and neither does she have anything original, but rather relies on her large mirror domain to copy others' attacks and strike them in such a matter that no one can expect. Kagami is a master of imitation, who constantly lures mahou shoujo and humans alike in her barrier just so that she could have something to copy. Be careful when encountering this witch, as to defeat it you have to strike at the mirror where she's at. One wrong move and your own attack will be mirrored back to you, most often killing the person or mahou shoujo. Unusually also, she takes great joy in psychologically torturing people.
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Nothing was safe in this domain. While only mirrors surround this domain, those are the very mirrors that this witch had been hiding in, merely waiting for the right time to strike her guests. For Homura, she is no ordinary witch.
"Let's get out of here," Homura said to Kazumi.
"Eeeeeeheeeeheeeehhh," a wide, high-pitched witch-like sound echoed throughout the barrier. "You cannnn never get out. NEVER!"
A second bullet came from one of the mirrors, attempting to kill Kazumi with a hefty laugh. Homura herself didn't expect this, turning around to see the bullet only milliseconds away from Kazumi's heart. There was no time to dodge.
"H-Homura-chan...!"
It was too late when Kazumi noticed it, Homura, falling to the ground with a hit of a bullet directly in her heart.
"Homura-chan...! Homura-chan!"
『To Be Continued...』
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Preview:
"Time is the most precious thing in the world, but what can you do when you can't always have the time in the world? It doesn't matter if time is short, as long as it is possible."
Next episode: "There's no time."