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The End of the Circus: A Tale of the Yizibajohei
Girls of the Crystal: Record of the Crystal or Another Way to Save Puella Magi
by Regina Magia
C&C by Fred Herriot and Rose Ash
A side story to The End of the Circle: A Tale of the Yizibajohei, by Fred Herriot
Based on characters and situations from The Seventh Carrier, written by Peter Albano; Kantai Collection, created by Kadokawa Games; Harry Potter, created by Joanna K. Rowling; Urusei Yatsura, created by Takahashi Rumiko; Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika, created by Urobuchi Gen, Shaft and Aniplex; and normalman, created by Jim Valentino.
Kamihama in Akita Prefecture (near Nikaho), the Saturday after Labour Thanksgiving Day, early afternoon...
"Ah! Mami-sempai! You made it!"
Smiling broadly, Tomoe Mami allowed the ribbon grappling line she had used to get to the top of the building overlooking the town's railway station to dissipate. "Hai, it's been a long time, Iroha-chan! You look well!"
Tamaki Iroha — gazing upon the beautiful girl with the pink-hued brown hair and soft eyes, the Self-Moulder of the Pure Chaos was instantly struck by how much her kōhai looked like Kaname Madoka — nodded before the two girls shared an embrace. "What brings you around this neck of the woods?" the native of Kurume in northern Kyūshū wondered as both teenagers gazed out upon the rolling East Sea.
"You, of course," the first would-be puella magi who had been effectively saved from the Incubators thanks to the interference of the World of the Forge noted, playfully slapping the other girl's shoulder, that making the other would-be puella magi whom she had Gifted before any of the Incubators could get to her blush. "What in the Forge's name are you doing all the way up here of all places?"
Iroha blushed, clearly moved by her sempai's concern. "I learned that a number of us were congregating here in Kamihama, Sempai," she explained. "Someone's been telling them they can be 'saved' here in town."
A skeptical look answered her. "Saved from becoming eldritch witches?"
Adjusting the white hooded demi-cape that came with her light pink jumpsuit, the Mobile Healer, Dusememom ("Medic"), reached into a large utility pouch tied to her belt to draw out a PADD. That surprised Mami; she hadn't known Iroha made contact with Japan's population of Avalonians. "I think so," the Fukuoka-jin affirmed as she drew up a diagram of the city, revealing dozens of target icons; said device was a gift of the former chief assistant of the Niphentaxians' observation post in Akita City, it tapping into automated sensors planted all over the prefecture. "As you can see, there are lots of puella magi here, both those who made contracts with the umale and those who've yet to be contacted. Not many witches though." Here, the reborn field paramedic shrugged. "Only conclusion I can make is there has to be some force trying to interfere with the Incubators."
"Let's see if we can convince them to be Gifted," Mami automatically proposed. "Whoever is responsible for this may have good intentions, but I've got issues with their methods." As the reborn veteran of the lost armies of Nesetimtuto gazed upon the first of their kind to be Gifted, the native of Mitakihara scowled as she thumbed towards the south-southeast and Tōkyō. "Given what's happened over the last couple of weeks, it wouldn't surprise me that those umale are moving to find a way to turn things back into their favour."
Iroha hummed. "Yeah! I haven't seen any news in these parts about what Tariko-sempai and her friends finally did in Tomobiki! That was headline news in all the morning papers all over the planet!"
The magical shapeshifter — whom some blessed with the power to manipulate the Pure Chaos on Earth that were fans of her actions since she was Gifted had come to see as an odd type of metamorphmagus — smirked. "Let's go make contact with some of these people. Being Gifted's the guaranteed way to be saved!"
"Hai, hai...!"
A street side café near Kamihama JR station, an hour later...
"...all of the veterans of the famous Imperial Navy aircraft carrier Yonaga have adamantly refused to allow civilians aboard Captain Itō Yoiko's namesake starship which served as Admiral Fujita Hiroshi's flagship in the defence of Earth against the Oni seeking to invade, tour boats have been allowed to pull alongside other elements of the Combined Starfleet at anchorage in deep water to the west of the Izu-shotō..."
Gazing at the two stunned women seated across from them as they watched the PADD play out the morning news from NHK Sendai, both Mami and Iroha exchanged knowing looks and nods. Before either could make comment, one of the girls across the table moaned. "So let me see if I get this straight," Togame Momoko breathed out. "There's supposedly a group out there trying to 'save' puella magi like us...yet you say you've got a BETTER way of doing that? What exactly does that mean and how can we be saved?"
The Self-Moulder of the Pure Chaos and the Mobile Healer exchanged looks again, the uncertainty they felt when it came to answering that loaded question quite apparent. Obviously, neither Momoko nor Akino Kaede knew the awful truth about the whole puella magi system; if they blurted out what had befallen people such as Gekasawa Kumiko, Asano Sayuri and Tokoro Yuka not days before in Tomobiki and Nerima, who knew HOW the two women before them would react. Looking again at the two teenagers before her, Mami suspected that if either of them had fallen into the trap laid out by beings such as Kyūbē or Kyūiin, revealing the truth would make them suicidal...or worse, see them become eldritch witches, their own souls lost forever.
Knowing that revealing the existence of the Earth Defence Force was a way to get these two thinking outside the box the Incubators effectively forced them into, the shapeshifter asked, "Ever heard of the Yizibajohei?"
"No," Momoko affirmed, shaking her head. "What's that? Some kind of powerful witch?"
"Far, far from it," Iroha assured. "It's obvious someone's been manipulating the media in town if you just NOW found out about the EDF and our kicking those Oni who've been making hash out of things in Tomobiki from the planet yesterday morning. Did you at least feel the Infinite Wave come over town around that time?"
"What's that?" Kaede asked.
"The something that obviously removed all the despair from your soul gems," Iroha noted, pointing.
Both girls blinked before they gazed down at the pretty necklaces slung around their necks. "Yeah! When I woke up yesterday morning, the whole thing was as clean as a whistle," Kaede noted as she held her pendant up, her words echoed by her friend's nod. "What caused that, anyway?" she wondered.
"Something one adopted Yizibajohei — she's from Wakayama, by the way — can do as a matter of course," Mami noted, making the non-Gifted girls gape. "But doing that tires her out easily, so we have to step in and help out. Since It's pretty damned obvious that you guys have been kept blind about a tonne of things, someone clearly wants you both kept pig ignorant about how much things are changing across the planet."
"He, she or it won't be able to do that forever," Iroha firmly added.
Momoko and Kaede exchanged thoughtful looks. "Do these Yizibajohei have something to do with how you intend to save us?" the former then wondered. "And if that's possible, how would you do that?"
Iroha smirked as she took the PADD in hand, then tapped controls to do a scan around town. "Better if we show you," the Fukuoka-jin affirmed before the grin turned into a wide smile. "Good! We got us a witch and there's one of us trying to fight it down! Let's show you what becoming Yizibajohei means!"
"You'll DEFINITELY like this!" Mami vowed as she waved for the bill...
Somewhere...
A determined grunt escaped Nanami Yachiyo as she whipped around her halberd, trying to force back a creature resembling a doll with hair of sand under a plastic bucket with shovels. Trying to keep her footing on the slippery ground — such pot-marked with all sorts of debris that could catch her long blue split-skirt if she wasn't careful — the native of Bunkyō in Tōkyō didn't see a small tsunami of sand headed for her back...
...until a yellow ribbon wrapped around her waist, yanking her out of the wave's path!
"Gotcha!"
Yachiyo yelped before she found herself some distance from her target, turning around to see four women standing nearby, two familiar classmates dressed in their uniforms as puella magi...and two complete strangers in rather basic form-fitting jumpsuits. "Momoko-chan! Kaede-chan!" she breathed out in relief before gazing a question at the two unknowns standing beside her mates. "Friends?!" she then asked.
"In a way," the first would-be puella magi to embrace the power of the World of the Forge affirmed. "Momoko-san! Kaede-san! Keep the familiars occupied! Iroha-chan, see to our friend!"
"Hai, Sempai!" Iroha affirmed as Momoko and Kaede sprang into action.
Yachiyo soon gasped as the Mobile Healer knelt beside her, touching her exposed skin to heal the wounds she had taken. Meanwhile, her peers moved to rip apart this particular witch's familiars while the Self-Moulder of the Pure Chaos moved to challenge their mistress directly. Watching this out of the corners of their eyes, all three non-Gifted girls tried not to stop and gape like total idiots on seeing the body of the native of Mitakihara easily morph clear of sharp funnels of sands sent her way by the witch. Naturally, all three were quick to note how much Mami seemed to smile in assured contentment at challenging this particular creature, not wasting time in useless banter as she closed the range, seeking out an opening to move in and make the kill...
It happened almost without warning. As Iroha smirked, Mami literally inverted her body around to avoid a fusillade of sand arrows before lashing out with two golden whips to snare the witch and move to restrain her. Noting the remaining familiars moving to assist their mistress, Momoko and Kaede shook their heads before moving to wipe them out...just in time for Mami to pull hard on her ribbons.
With enough force, the witch was effectively ripped apart by Mami's ribbons, exploding in a shower of sand...
...thus causing the barrier that had closed off this alley some distance from the train station to collapse, reverting their surroundings back to normal, which made all the girls breathe out in relief.
"Sugoi...!" a wide-eyed Yachiyo breathed out. "Who are you guys?"
Her stunned look was mirrored by her classmates...
Outside Habitation Four on Yiziba, a day later (local time: Breakfast)...
"So this is your planet's version of Cairo, eh?"
Mami giggled as she gazed on the reborn first of the Zephyr-class destroyers that served in the Royal Navy in the last years of World War Two before being turned over to Egypt during the Cold War. The woman now known as Qadesh Lyonne Cazalet had been salvaged and Gifted a month ago from the bottom of the Red Sea near the ancient Greek port of Vereníki where she had been sunk by the Israelis in 1970, only having been able to take her starship-self out of the Main Dockyard a couple hours after the defeat of the Urusian Imperial Round.
Naturally, the three non-Gifted puella magi were overwhelmed when they travelled to another PLANET...
...to say anything of travelling via STARSHIP to said planet!
"Pretty much so, Lyonne-san," Iroha affirmed as she walked over to join the reborn SBM al-Qahir to gaze out at the former capital of Numyuoleim; she addressed the former HMS Myngs by her middle name as trying to pronounce Arabic sounds was hard on the tongue for the native of Mitakihara. This particular apartment block now served as "home away from home" for Gifted would-be puella magi; Mami staked her claim on this place with the help of her own rescuers Nu'utam Sibie and Aara'a Wimgusadum three years before. "It's almost like all the other big cities on the planet these days. Still a lot of traces of old Nimiro even if the constant reconstruction's wiped out a lot of historical sites over the centuries."
"Yes, I can see that," the adopted native of Tyneside and Norfolk in England and Baghdad in Iraq trilled before she looked over her shoulder at the three poor girls rescued by the Self-Moulder and the Travelling Healer from a fate truly worse than death; even if there had been no incidents concerning puella magi in Egypt that she was aware of, the local magical ministry was keeping a sharp eye out, ready to scream for help from those like Mami and Iroha who had been saved from the Incubators to intervene. Naturally, the ancient land's small corps of shipgirls were definitely going to help there. "So, over the shell-shock, ladies?" she then playfully asked.
Embarrassed giggles escaped the three young puella magi as they tried not to gape in awe at the olive-skinned teenager with the hip-length wavy pink-hued blonde hair partially held down by a ḥijāb, a pair of bright blue eyes peeking out of a perfect face behind reading glasses. Both Momoko and Kaede were grateful that their hosts took the time to explain things while Lyonne transported them from Earth to Yiziba; they had been fascinated at the fact Earth now had a STARFLEET and wanted a chance to tour one of the ships that helped chase off the aliens from Tomobiki, having known of the previous fall's "invasion". Such helped them overcome their outrage at being tricked by Kyūbē like they had been; on the other hand, Yachiyo had learned the ugly truth of where eldritch witches came from and had been moving to find a way to reveal same to her peers without killing them.
When Mami popped THAT question, of course...
An hour later...
"How did you become Gifted, Iroha-san?" Yachiyo asked.
"Mami-sempai recruited a number of girls targeted by the Incubators," Iroha answered as everyone save Mami sat around the kitchen coffee table enjoying early morning tea. "A lot of them went on to start their own recruiting drives across the country, including me." She frowned thoughtfully before she reached into one her belt pouches to pull out a PAA. "I wonder if any of them are here..."
Footfalls echoed from nearby. "Good-size number," Mami declared as she came into the kitchen, the Swift Morpher accompanied by an Arabic-looking girl possessing dark curly hair, she in a tan-and-dusty pink sleeveless jumpsuit. "They've been laying low so as not to attract attention. I'll be contacting them later...!"
Her voice trailed off as the native of Bunkyō croaked, her whole body starting to glow. As Mami's companion pulled out her own PAA to record what was happening, Iroha's eyes widened. "That's right!" the Mobile Healer declared, making the others gaze questioningly at her. "Manaka-chan went and made something for her!" the native of Kurume explained. "She must have put something there to..."
Tene lomher'buo, Nanami Yachiyo...!
"...have her pre-Gifted," the reborn field paramedic finished.
As Lyonne chortled and both Momoko and Kaede watched in awe as their schoolmate's silver "pre-Gifting" jumpsuit also began to glitter in anticipation of the final insertion of a Gift crystal within her body. In effective reflection of this, the soul gem ring she wore slipped off her finger as she seemed to lean back, said crystal shattering on hitting the ground. Those like Mami were quick to see what had been drawn out of Yachiyo's body when she was made a puella magi be absorbed back into her body...save for a small blue jewel shaped like a crescent moon, that now floating up to hover before the transforming woman's face...
"Taeim letam...!" the Tōkyō-jin screamed as she felt herself fall backwards into a sea of pure light...
Nesu...BYUOI BAIR'BA!
As the Conservator's announcement echoed over the scene — that followed by shouts from neighbouring apartments — the blinding flash of the Gifting faded to reveal Yachiyo now in a dark blue modern jumpsuit trimmed in steel grey boots and belt. At that moment, the very air over her head opened up, allowing a large halberd-like weapon to drop in from the pocket dimension maintained by Yiziba's master armourer, that being effortlessly caught by the new incarnation of She Who Demolishes Castles, Byuoi Bair'ba ("Siege Breaker").
As the native of Bunkyō blinked while the titanic surge of knowledge and memories flooded her soul — that making the reborn lead of the Zephyr-class destroyers to move to support her — the first would-be puella magi to be saved from the Incubators nodded in approval. "High-level FISS! That's perfect!"
Hearing that comment from the Swift Morpher, Yachiyo shook her head before she nodded her thanks to Lyonne. "I wanted to be a survivor," she admitted...
...before she blinked on seeing the crystal that had formed from her wrecked soul gem ring still floating in the air at eye level. "What in the Forge's name...?" she asked, reaching out to grasp it.
The others looked. "Oh, I know!" Iroha declared, making everyone gaze her way. "One of the girls I helped was an empowered puella magi! When she was Gifted, part of her soul was split off; I'm sure that was the sentience of the witch that would have taken her place if she succumbed to despair!"
That made Yachiyo blush. "My eldritch self...?" she whispered before gazing at the woman who had come into the apartment with her host. "Like you...?"
"That's right," the newcomer affirmed, nodding her head. "I was originally known as Zenobia. After my Gifting, I took the name Zahrā' bint-Jinn al-Ḥusayn." Here, she waved to herself as Yachiyo nodded, recognizing her as the newest incarnation of the Twister of the Dunes, Ranato Hasa ("Desert Rose").
"As-salāmu 'alaykum wa-raḥmatu llāhi wa-barakātuhū, Zahrā' bint-Jinn," Lyonne then politely greeted, bowing her head in salute to the reborn dark jinn.
Zahrā' returned that bow to the reborn warship spirit who was one of thousands of such beings having risen to defend both Earth and Yiziba from the ravages of beings that made even the Incubators seem paltry. "Wa 'alaykumu s-salāmu wa-raḥmatu llāhi wa-barakātuhū, Qadesh bint-Abū al-Manṣūr."
Hearing that, Mami nodded as she offered her hand. "I need to take care of something real quick, Yachiyo-san. Once I'm done that, I can go over to the Cave of the Future outside town to get her a new body."
The reborn central equatorial continent military engineer — her first-self had been one of many who fought under the High Warlord of Damgatuto during the Dawn of Power and for years following — nodded as she handed that crystal over. "While you do that, I'll take these two into the Battlezone to let them burn off post-Gifting shock," Iroha vowed as she gazed on the non-Gifted girls present. "You guys can come watch this."
Momoko and Kaede exchanged anticipatory looks...
The End
EDITOR'S NOTES
This story occurs a day after the end of Book One of the main story. It introduces characters from the anime side story Magia Record, first released at the start of 2020.
As with other cities that appear in the various Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika storylines, Kamihama is not a real Japanese city. However, there is a railway station by that name which can be found in the city of Nikaho at the border between Akita and Yamagata Prefectures on the East Sea/Sea of Japan coastline.
Translation list and source language: PADD — Personal Archival Display Device (English abbreviation); Izu-shotō — Izu Islands, an archipelago that extends south from the Sagami Sea near Tōkyō (Japanese); As-salāmu 'alaykum wa-raḥmatu llāhi wa-barakātuhū — Peace be upon you, as well as the mercy of God and His Blessings (Arabic); Wa 'alaykumu s-salāmu wa-raḥmatu llāhi wa-barakātuhū — And upon you be peace, as well as the mercy of God and His Blessings (Arabic).
The incidents surrounding Gekasawa Kumiko (a minor character from Urusei Yatsura) and both Tokoro Yuka and Asano Sayuri (Tendō Akane's friends from Ranma 1/2) can be read in Parts Seven and Ten of Book One. Kyūiin is the name I give to an Incubator who recruited Kumiko, Yuka and Sayuri to become puella magi.
And introducing the one British-turned-Egyptian shipgirl appearing here:
Commander Qadesh Lyonne Cazalet RN (Her Majesty's Ship Myngs [pennant R06]), later Muqadim Qadesh bint-Abū al-Manṣūr QBM (Safinat al-Bahriat al-Miṣriyya al-Qahir [pennant M1])
Qadesh al-Manṣūr (SBM al-Qahir) takes after Myndi, a character created by the artist Star741; her portrait can be seen at Danbooru, ID #3852813. Note that Qadesh/Lyonne has tanned olive skin marking her being an Egyptian shipgirl and she would also wear a ḥijāb out of respect for local sensibilities. Her rank in the Quwwāt el-Bahriat el-Miṣriyya ("Egyptian Naval Forces", short-form QBM) is Muqadim (literally "presenter"), which is the equal of a Royal Navy commander. Ship prefixes for Egyptian vessels is Safinat al-Bahriat al-Miṣriyya ("Egyptian Naval Ship"), short-form SBM. The pennant superior letter M translated as Mudamira ("Destroyer"); such is written in Arabic on her pant legs as م1. To explain her patronymic and family name, her namesake is Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Mu'taḍid AKA al-Qahir Bi'llah, the nineteenth caliph (ruler) of the Abbasid Caliphate that existed in the Middle East from 750-1517.
Zahrā' bint-Jinn al-Ḥusayn (Desert Rose) AKA Zenobia comes from Magia Record. Her own patronymic states effectively that she is the daughter of a genie (in Arabic, jinn) given her origins as an eldritch witch. The name of her other-self is unknown as she was encountered as an eldritch witch, far after the death of her other-self.