"Let's go to school together, Jotaro-kun!"

"Good grief. I'm not even enrolled."

Madoka waved her hand airily, and for an awful, aching moment he was reminded of his mother. (But why was that painful? And why, despite the similarities, did he not feel like being rude to her as he was with his mother?) "No need to worry! Mama and Papa and I arranged for your temporary enrolment while you were asleep! It might be useful if you're going to stay for a while – you can ask around about what's going on at school."

"School would just get in the way."

"Not necessarily!" She beamed at him, and he felt her eyes on him. He concentrated on her left elbow, where Kyubey was winding up her arm lazily. "A lot of magical girls – sorry, people – are school age, apparently!"

That's true. They may be hiding in plain sight in the school and will probably know something about your sudden appearance.

"Fine. But I keep my normal clothes." He pointed to his black hat and jacket, lying in the corner of the room where he had left them. "Those are from my old school and I'm not changing them, okay?"

"Okay! Whatever you like."


Madoka's mother waved at them as they walked out of the door, clothed and breakfasted, with a smile on her face that had clearly been passed down to her daughter. "You two be careful, okay? I don't know what's going on with you, Jotaro-kun, but there are a lot of dangerous people out there."

"Aba!" The kid in the high chair seemed to agree.

"We will, Mama! We're off now!"

Her dad's voice sounded from the garden. "Have a good day!"

"Yeah." Jotaro adjusted his hat and followed his new friend (Were they friends now? Probably.) out of the house.

She seemed pretty happy to walk without talking too much, which was fine – in fact, he preferred it that way, but… something was bothering him. "So… you're really fourteen?"

Madoka scratched her head thoughtfully. "To be honest, Jotaro-kun, I'm not really sure how old I am myself."

"What? Why?"

She frowned, for the first time since he'd met her. "For some reason I feel like I should be older than I am. Much older, perhaps even in my seventies."

"Your seventies? You'd be an old lady."

She laughed and waved her hand again, and once more Jotaro was reminded of his mother. They could have been related, almost… "Ah, yeah, I guess so! It's just…" Her expression fell again. "The night before you… came here, I had a really weird dream. About… about Homura, and Kyubey, and, well… you." She looked at him intently. "It wasn't good, but… I don't remember the details. I was… I don't know. Different. Different clothes, different voice, and…a different age, I think. I feel like if I could be that person again…I could help you."

"Why?" He stared ahead at the path, feeling her eyes on him, trying to understand what she was thinking. "Why would that person help? Why can't you help me instead?"

"That person…" She shouldered her bag defensively. "He had a stand, I think."

"…I see." So that was how it was. "And you don't have one because you can't decide on a wish, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…" She shook her head. "I can't help thinking I've forgotten something important about that person. Something about their stand, that could solve this whole mystery in an instant. He is… I am…" Then she rubbed the back of her neck and smiled again. "Perhaps I'm thinking too much into it. It's only a dream, after all."

"Yeah," said Jotaro, not convinced. "Just a dream." (And hadn't he heard of something that could influence your dreams? Hadn't someone said something about that, a long time ago?)

Kyubey wound around the pink girl's neck and said nothing.


"All right," said Mami, hands on her hips, "I think I've found someone who can help you, Jotaro-kun."

Jotaro looked up from his lunch, at the bouncing ends of Mami's twin-tails. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." She smiled at the three of them – Madoka, Sayaka, and himself – and waved a finger. "But – you all have to come on a hunt with me first! I'm talking to you girls, too!"

"Hunt? What? I don't want to get mixed up in – in whatever it is you magical girls do!"

"Oh, right." Mami's face fell. "You don't know. Or, rather, you don't remember." She sat down on the fence opposite them. "Magical girls – that is, magical people – hunt witches. It's how we keep out souls clean." She tapped her soul gem ring. "These gems can become over-saturated by our magic, and witches provide something to cleanse them." With a flourish, she produced a small black sphere that seemed to have been impaled on a large needle. "This is a grief seed. It ensures that our stands can work to their full capacity uninhibited."

"This is a lot more complicated than I remember."

Well, you don't remember a lot. Kyubey crawled over Mami's lap, and she wagged a finger at him accusingly.

"You're such a naughty cat! Don't tease him!"

Anyway, when the grief seed is full, I dispose of it.

"Oh. Can you… show me the cleansing?"

Mami looked around, checking that the school rooftop was deserted apart from the four of them, then transformed her ring into its soul gem form. Carefully, she put the black object next to the gem; a small amount of black something floated from the gem into the seed, leaving the egg-like yellow jewel slightly brighter and more golden than before.

"See? That was from my battle with the witch yesterday." She put the two objects away again. "Your soul gem will start becoming darker on its own if you don't do anything, so it's important that you keep hunting to cleanse it. That's why I want you all with me – if we work together, we can get enough grief seeds for all of us while Jotaro-kun figures out his stuff. And…" She paused and gave a sad little half-shrug. "I've always wanted someone to fight alongside me, anyway."

Jotaro blinked and stared at her – or at least, at her shoulder. There was something about the way she had said that. Who was it that she reminded him of? Those curly twin-tails, like spiral pasta or something – there was something unnervingly familiar about her…

(and he had liked them, somehow, for their honesty and warmth, and the way he moved and thought so similarly -)

But Sayaka interrupted his thoughts. "We should have code names! Like a secret spy mystery team!"

"That's too many things at once…"

She ignored Madoka and pointed at Mami first. "We need names that disguise who we are, so… Mami-san, yours should be… [Kakyoin]!"

Mami laughed. "Kakyoin? That seems like an odd name."

But Jotaro found himself nodding along. "That name belongs with your Stand. It feels right, I think."

"Very well." She smiled a small half-smile and turned her head. "If you insist. Then, Sayaka-chan, you should be… ah… [Polnareff]."

"What kind of a name is that?"

"This was your idea, wasn't it? Your codename is Polnareff." Mami saw her face and giggled slightly. "Come on, it's actually kind of fun!"

Madoka smiled. "Then, what should we call Jotaro-kun?"

"Hmm…" Sayaka considered this carefully, then raised a finger in the air. "How about Star-man?"

"No, that doesn't work…" Madoka shook her head, her pink hair bouncing in the wind. "How about just [Jojo]?"

"Fine by me." He adjusted his hat and glanced sidelong at her. "Then I think Madoka-chan should be… let's see.."

"I think she should be [Joseph Joestar]!" declared Sayaka. "That sounds right."

"What? I – that's a longer name than any of yours!"

Jotaro frowned. "Joseph Joestar, huh? I… I think I knew someone by that name, once. It sounds like an obnoxious old man."

"Ah, no…"

"Well," said Mami, interrupting Madoka's protests, "now that we all have our codenames, let's talk about the person I'll take you to, after our hunt. I can't tell you her name yet, but she's a magical girl from a territory near here. I have to warn you know, she has what I'd call… a 'fiery' personality."

"What does she look like?" asked Sayaka thoughtfully. "And what codename should we give her?"

"You and your codenames, Sayaka-chan…" Mami sighed. "She has long red hair which she ties in a ponytail, but… the most distinctive feature about her is a pair of tattoos on her face."

"Tattoos?" Suddenly Madoka went pale. "Isn't she a little young?"

"She has a lot more experience than you lot, that's for certain." Mami hesitated. "Well, apart from Jotaro-kun, but none of us are really sure how much experience he has. Anyway," she put her index fingers up to her tear ducts, "her tattoos are red lines down her face, like so." The gesture, a wiggling motion from the corner of her eyes to the edges of her jawbone, reminded Jotaro of… dammit, he really was starting to get pissed off with the whole amnesia thing.

Madoka tipped her head and smiled. "Well, if that's the case, I think we should give her the codename [Avdol]. That seems appropriate."

"Mmm." To his own surprise, Jotaro nodded. It did seem right, somehow, just as all of their names had done.

"All right!" With a graceful motion, Mami stood up and gave them all a curtsey, earning a small giggle from Madoka. "I'll see you all after school. And… Madoka-chan?"

"Yes?"

"Try to think about your wish, if you can."

"Yes, Mami-san, I will."

"Good." With that, the golden girl was gone.