HALF A MONTH LATER
"Does any of this feel a bit familiar to you?"
The girl surrounded by swirling energy narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Like…" Rachel put her hand on her face, desperately trying to find a way to prove this. She knew she must have sounded insane.
She got an idea.
"Alright, so this is the first time we've met, right?"
"... correct." the girl replied.
"And so I, logically, especially considering I'm a newer Magical Girl, shouldn't know anything about. Correct?"
"I don't like where this is going…" she said.
"But I do! I know you like to go by Maelstrom. I know your real name is Julie Tsang, I know you became a Magical Girl three months ago, I know you put on a strong facade but really, really fear dying. I know you were in a team of Magical Girls who were all killed by a Witch, which by the way-" Rachel reached into a bag strapped to her side, pulling out a black gem with a needle sticking out of the top and bottom: a Grief Seed, and tossing it to the ground. "-I killed a few days ago. Please, you gotta level with me here and tell me the truth!"
Rachel sighed.
"Do you remember us meeting? Do you remember us fighting? Anything?"
The girl was shocked. She stood there for a few seconds with her mouth agape.
She promptly disappeared in a cloud of multicolored smoke.
Rachel opened her arms and screamed out. "Really?!"
HALF A MONTH LATER
Rachel sat in her bed, transformed into her Magical Girl form, watching a broadcast on her phone.
It had been a full month since she became a Magical Girl, and during that time there had been… several ups and downs. A few panic attacks, some lost friends, even one or two… dead friends…
But she was still alive.
Her power and sense of deja vu always seemed to carry her from encounter to encounter. She used it when she could to save who she could, and only barely managed to save several of her friends from their deaths. Witches were a cakewalk, even if killing them made her feel uneasy, like she was killing another Magical Girl.
She'd, thankfully, avoided that. She always took out her opponents nonlethally
Anything to survive out here, in this new hell that was once a wish come true. Going to school every day was a breeze too. She could ace tests by just… knowing the answers. Like they'd always existed in the back of her mind.
She didn't know anything about the subjects themselves, which might screw her over in high school though.
Would she even go to high school?
What would high school aged Magical Girls be like?
… Were there high school aged Magical Girls out there? Everyone she'd met so far was her age, fourteen. She'd only met one fifteen year old.
Most died before they made it that far.
To take her mind off those thoughts, she focused intently on the broadcast. What was titled as a livestream of an active hurricane destroying some Japanese city was anything but. She learned quickly that humans couldn't really comprehend Magical Girls and Witches. Their minds replaced them with the next most logical thing.
… Like for example, replacing a city-destroying Witch with a hurricane.
There were Magical Girls fighting it. Their weapons made trails while they soared through the air. Trails of yellow… red-
No.
A memory came back, deja vu.
She had watched this broadcast before. There were five colors last time: yellow, red, blue, pink, and black.
This time there was only red, pink, and black.
Red disappeared early into the fight, a building slamming into her. Black was caught by something, moving her away from pink. The two met again, and once more… pink was floored, and black stood over her.
"Wait…"
Rachel shot herself out of the bed. "Kyubey!"
Kyubey walked out of a shadow as the black haired girl reached for something on her arm. "Yes?"
"I think I figured it out! I-"
The girl in the broadcast twisted a circular object attached to her arm.
NEGATIVE ONE MONTH LATER
Rachel shot up from her bed. The memories replayed in her head over and over again. Becoming a Magical Girl, the panicking alleyway girl, all her lost friends and allies…
The broadcast she watched in her bed.
She yawned and stretched her arms. Scratching her back as she sat up, and moving the covers off of herself.
"That was a weird…"
Rachel stopped. She sat there in her bed. Seconds turned to minutes, which extended to tens of minutes.
Memories replayed in her head. Memories. Not dreams, not deja vu, fully fledged memories.
She could recall specific details in new clarity. She could see what was happening.
She could see the truth.
It was all clear now.
"Holy shit I'm stuck in a time loop."
HALF A MONTH LATER: LOOP 4
"Look, I know this is going to sound insane but…"
Rachel sighed. Maelstrom hovered in front of her, dumbfounded.
"Are you… in a time loop?"
"... what." said Maelstrom.
"You know! Have you been in this position before? Have we had a conversation like this? Do you remember anything that you feel came from the future?"
Maelstrom continued to stare at her.
"You know what? Whatever." She pulled out the same Grief Seed and tossed it to the ground. "Take it, I think it's important to you. I've got places to be."
Rachel turned and walked out of the alleyway, transforming back into a human and joining the pedestrians.
So she was in a time loop.
She was the only one stuck in a time loop. No one else: her parents, Maelstrom, they didn't recognize what she was going through. As far as she knew, she was the only one stuck like this.
She stopped in a park, sitting on a bench, and sighing.
"Why?" Rachel said aloud.
"Why what?" asked Kyubey, as if he had been sitting next to her the entire time.
"You know the whole… time loop thing! Do you know how I can get out?"
"Time loop?" said Kyubey. It laid down on the bench, closing its eyes. "Time is passing normally to me. I do not know what you are talking about. Are you sure the trauma of being a Magical Girl isn't manipulating your mind?"
"No! No, I'm… I'm not actually stressing about my life as a Magical Girl. I've been through this three times… four times? Whatever. I know how everything happens-ish. I was able to save a few people I missed the last time around. I just want to know…"
Rachel looked up.
"I feel like I'm going to be trapped here for a long time."