The five of them sat in the abandoned corridor. Sayaka and Mami were trying, to the best of their combined abilities, to get their stories straight.
Mami held up an egg-shaped gem, suffused with a pretty golden colour and a few small clouds of black around the edges. "This is a soul gem. It allows Sayaka and I to transform into those beings."
"I've never seen one that looks like that before," said Madoka. Then she blushed. "I've only ever seen Sayaka-chan's before, though…"
"Do you transform, Madoka-chan?" asked Mami.
"No… I haven't made a wish yet." She sighed and pouted slightly. "It's so hard to decide!"
Mami nodded sympathetically and looked up at Jotaro to make sure he understood. "You see, Jotaro-kun, you can only transform if you make a wish of Kyubey here." (It was weird, somehow, to have her calling him 'Jotaro-kun', even though this was Japan and it was normal here; he felt as though she should drop the honorifics and talk to him straight on, like… He grimaced and rubbed his head. This was dumb. He couldn't remember anything.)
In response to Mami's gesture, Kyubey nodded and swished his thick, white tail. Then I make a contract with the person to become a magical girl.
"I see." He frowned. "And what do you call these demon transformations?"
Mami, once more, looked up at him. "Well, because when you use them, they stand for who you are, we in the magical girl community like to call them… Stands."
Stands… there was that word again. What did it mean? He racked his brain.
With a sigh, Mami looked back at the gem in her palm. It twisted, turned flowed down, into –
"That's another of those rings. Homura-chan had one, and –" he put out his hand – "I have one too."
"What?" Madoka looked up at him in surprise, staring at the ring on his finger. "Jotaro-kun, you didn't tell me you had a Stand!"
"I… didn't know."
"Oh, the amnesia…"
Mami gaped at the ring and turned to Kyubey. "You never said it was possible for boys to have one!"
Didn't I? Just because I call you a magical girl does not negate the existence of magical boys.
A magical boy… Tch. He adjusted his hat. "Give me a break, cat, you piss me off. I don't remember ever making a contract with you."
You don't remember anything, it seems. Not even your Stand. The red eyes blinked at him from that pure, unmoving white face. Although I admit, I do not remember your wish either. From the energy I sense from your Stand, it was a powerful one. The utmost desire of your heart.
"Well…" Madoka frowned. "Perhaps if we team up with Mami, we can look for clues about it? There's got to be someone or something among the magical girls – er, magical people of Mitakihara city that can help."
Sayaka snorted and gestured towards the open ceiling tile. "I doubt that Homura-chan will be willing to share any information."
"I'm sure there are others!" Madoka gave Jotaro a big smile. "We'll do everything we can to help you get your memory back!"
And so, for lack of anywhere else to go, Kujo Jotaro went home with Madoka that evening. Her parents stared at him for a while, but reluctantly allowed him to stay in the spare room "as long as you don't get up to any funny business!" He nodded gratefully, and collapsed into sleep almost immediately.
Somehow, it already felt like it had been a long day.
