Sometimes I wonder whether this long life is my punishment from God for giving in to the temptation of the Devil, even for just one vulnerable moment; and other times, I wonder if it is part of His great plan. Is there something that He still needs me to do in this world?

I have been seeking that purpose ever since stepping down as Mother Superior of the convent, but I have yet to find it. Yet He forbids the act of taking one's own life, so I often think that He must have something in mind. Whether it is an ultimate purpose that I must achieve, or a realization I must come to in order to receive His eternal mercy, I still do not know.

But there are occasions when that uncertainty is temporarily dispelled, when my purpose becomes clear like a lake on a summer day, and this proved to be one of those times. The Vatican probably would have disapproved, to be sure. For the bigwigs in the upper echelons of the Chiesa Occulta, vampires were enemies of mankind, to be slaughtered on sight – not a potential ally to cooperate with.

Yet I knew better. Hedwig Dramaturgy may be a vampire and even a witch, but she is a pious and honourable woman, and the only one I could rely on to help me on this day. I had seen a glimpse of the future that could await humanity were the Great Saint not able to safely reach adulthood, and as the assailants were themselves vampires, it was clear that another vampire would be a better match for them.

~Excerpt from "Wanderings of an Immortal", volume 3~
~by Hildegard von Bingen (apocryphal)~

As told by Suzuka Sakuya, about a month and a half ago…

"Ah, Sakuya…"

Sakuya blinked and looked at the very nervous younger student addressing her.

"Oh, it's you, Chiyoko," Sakuya said. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Ah, um, it's Ririka," Chiyoko said. "She's really in a bad state… I think if she tried to walk she would just… you know…"

"Ah, so you need a grief seed," Sakuya said. "I'm not sure how many we have left, but if Ririka's in such a bad state, I'm sure Yuna-sempai would be willing to share one… did you want me to go with you to ask her?"

"Yes… please," Chiyoko said.

So they headed through the halls together, making for the student council room. When Sakuya knocked, the door was answered by the student council secretary.

"How may I help you?" she asked.

"Oh, I wanted to ask Yuna-sempai for a little pick-me-up," Sakuya said.

That was a slang they'd worked out for talking about grief seeds in the presence of normal people. The secretary frowned a little.

"Yuna-sempai is quite busy, so I'm not sure she has the time…"

But then Yuna's voice was heard from within.

"I can spare a few moments," she said. "Let them in."

So the secretary stood aside and let the two girls enter the room. In addition to Yuna, the rest of the student council was present, all doing their work. Yuna looked up, smiling briefly.

"Ah, Miss Sakuya," she said. "I didn't expect you to stop by… you said you wanted a pick-me-up, right? Who is it for?"

"Ah, it's for Ririka," Chiyoko said.

"I see," Yuna said. "Unfortunately, I gave the last one to Miss Shouko the other night, so we're all out for the time being… but I'll keep her name in mind."

"Ah… I see," Chiyoko said. "S-sorry for bothering you, Yuna-sempai…"

"Please, feel free to bother me anytime," Yuna said with a smile.

With that, the secretary ushered them out, and as the door closed, they heard Yuna explaining the meaning of 'pick-me-up' to the others – apparently the cover story was that it was a popular sweet that Yuna baked. Chiyoko sighed.

"Is… is it all over… for Ririka?" she wondered.

"Well… unless you can find a grief seed in the next few hours, yeah, it's probably over," Sakuya said. "Would you like me to help you search? I know you're not a weakling or anything, but two sets of eyes are better than one, after all."

Chiyoko nodded. "If it's not too much trouble… please, and thank you."

So, they left school together and started wandering around town, searching for any traces of a witch. Naturally, they steered clear of the south part of town across the river, which was controlled by the Ryuugasaki gang.

They'd been searching for nearly three hours, without any luck, when they suddenly noticed a woman dressed as a nun stepping into a nearby alleyway. Since it seemed like an odd thing for a nun to do, the girls followed her and saw her gazing up at a portal, bearing the emblem of a keyhole upon an egg with an eye peeking through it. Chiyoko gasped.

"I-is that…!? W-wait… can this woman see it…?"

The woman heard them and turned. A few strands of blonde hair could be seen poking out from under her coif.

"Excuse me… who might you be?" she asked in English.

"Ehh… English?" Chiyoko said. "So she's a foreigner…? Did you understand what she said, Sakuya?"

"She asked for our names," Sakuya said. "Um, let me try…"

She cleared her throat and addressed the woman in English.

"I am Sakuya. This is Chiyoko. Can you see that?"

Sakuya pointed at the portal, and the woman glanced back at it.

"Yes, but it is only a familiar, so I thought to let it go," the woman said.

"You are magical girl…?" Sakuya asked.

"Yes. You can call me Hilda."

"How do you know it is only a familiar?" Sakuya asked.

"I can see inside," Hilda said. "With my magic."

"W-what are you guys talking about…?" Chiyoko asked.

"She's Hilda," Sakuya said. "She's a magical girl… but she said that's only a familiar, so she's not going to fight it. She can tell because of her magic."

"Ah… yeah, if it's only a familiar, we'd just be wasting magic," Chiyoko agreed. "Dammit… I was hoping we'd finally get a grief seed…"

"Grief seed?" Hilda said, picking up on the word that was the same in both languages. "Do you need one?"

"Yes, there are not many witches here," Sakuya said. "It is hard to find grief seeds… but we have a friend who needs one very badly."

"Then my information was correct," Hilda said. "I am staying in town for awhile. You can find me at the hotel with the white tiger on the front."

She reached into her pocket and took out a grief seed.

"I have lots," she said. "Please accept it."

Sakuya and Chiyoko both gasped, staring at the grief seed.

"H-how many do you have?" Sakuya asked.

"More than hundred," Hilda said.

"T-that many!?" Sakuya gasped. "A-and you're just giving them away!?"

"Only for emergency," Hilda said. "I will not be a mere grief seed dispenser to use at your convenience. But your friend desperately needs it, yes? That is emergency."

"W-what is she saying now…?" Chiyoko asked. "Is she offering us that grief seed?"

"She said… she has more than a hundred grief seeds," Sakuya said. "She'll give us this one… she's staying at Byakko Hotel for awhile, and as long as it's for an emergency like this, she'll be willing to give away even more grief seeds. Ah, and it seems someone told her that witches were scarce here, so that's why she came."

"T-that's… that's great!" Chiyoko said. "Um, uhh…" She blurted out the little English she knew. "T-thanks very much!"

Hilda pressed the grief seed into Chiyoko's hands and walked back out into the street without a word.

"Well, you'd better hurry back to school and purify Ririka, right?" Sakuya said. "Or is she at school…?"

"Ah, yes, I left her sleeping in the nurse's office," Chiyoko said. "I'll get going right now!"

"I'll tell everyone about this later, so keep quiet about it for now, okay?" Sakuya said.

"Ah, sure!" Chiyoko said.

With that, she ran off at top speed, and Sakuya sighed.

"Hilda, huh…? I wonder if she'll be helping Ryuugasaki out with grief seeds too… I guess I'd prefer if she does…?"

With that, she stopped by her house to change out of her uniform, then made her way to the Kureha household, which served as the headquarters of the Torayamachi gang. There were several people there already – she could see Misa, Rara, and Sayuri, among others – but Yuna herself had not yet arrived.

"Hey, are everyone's soul gems still doing okay?" Sakuya asked.

"Ah, yes, I'm fine for awhile," Misa said.

"I think the only ones who were in the danger zone were Shouko and maybe Ririka," Sayuri said. "Shouko used a grief seed yesterday, so that just leaves Ririka…"

"Well, that's good," Sakuya said. "If only we could find more witches…"

"You can say that again," Rara muttered.

Sakuya flopped down on an unoccupied couch with a sigh.

"I've actually got good news, but… I think I'd prefer to wait until Yuna-sempai comes back to share it," she said. "So look forward to it, alright?"

"Ah, sure…?" Sayuri said.

She must have fallen asleep, for the next thing Sakuya remembered was being shaken by Sayuri. She sat up, momentarily confused, and looked around. Chiyoko and Ririka gave her a little wave, and then she saw Yuna sitting over in the armchair, all powered up – she always donned her magical girl form for meetings.

"Ah, sorry, I must've dozed off," Sakuya said.

"Sayuri and Chiyoko said you have good news for us," Yuna said. "What is it?"

"Well… I hesitate to say our grief seed situation is solved," Sakuya said. "But it seems we've found what I'd call temporary relief?"

Yuna blinked. "Have witches returned to town, then?"

Sakuya shook her head. "No, nothing like that," she said. "Chiyoko and I ran into a foreign woman earlier. Her name was Hilda. She was dressed as a nun and said she was staying at Byakko Hotel for awhile. Apparently she's a magical girl, and she has a huge stash of grief seeds. It seems she's… somewhat willing to share. We have her to thank for Ririka still being with us."

She was immediately bombarded with questions, everyone talking at the same time, and she raised her hands defensively. After a few seconds of this, Yuna cleared her throat.

"Calm down, everyone," she said. "From what she explained, it doesn't sound like something so convenient as that. Sakuya… please continue."

"Ah, yes," Sakuya said. "Um, so, there's a caveat… no, I guess two caveats. The first is, it seems she doesn't speak Japanese, so if you go see her, you'll need to make sure you have someone who can understand English. The second is that she said she'd only give out grief seeds in an emergency."

"W-what does that mean!?" Sayuri exclaimed.

"I think it means when your soul gem is very close to turning into a grief seed," Sakuya said.

Yuna nodded slowly. "Alright… then we should treat this Hilda woman as a last resort. Don't go running to her unless you have no other option, is that understood?"

"Ah… f-fine," Sayuri said. "I guess… as long as we're allowed to go when there is no other option, that's okay."

"And don't go wasting magic just because you know she's here," Yuna added. "Even if she has a huge stash, it's still a limited quantity. We don't know how long the witch shortage will last, so we can't go burning through her stash any more than we could've burned through our own stash, is that clear?"

"Crystal!" everyone chorused.

"And if you do manage to find a witch, you're to bring the grief seed to me after using it once, like always," Yuna said. "If you need a grief seed, ask me before going to Miss Hilda, as per usual."

It had been a few days since Hilda had arrived in town, and Sakuya hadn't spoken again with Chiyoko since then, but on this day they just happened to leave school at the same time, and they just so happened to sense a witch on the way to the Kureha house.

"Isn't that a witch!?" Chiyoko gasped. "It is, isn't it?"

"Hmm… I think you might be right," Sakuya said. "It seems stronger than a familiar…"

"But that's weird," Chiyoko said. "It's moving… west… it's heading out of town? There's almost no-one out there… just a few farmers…"

"Let's follow it for a bit," Sakuya said.

So they broke into a run, tracking the witch west until they reached the edge of town.

"It's still heading west," Sakuya said. "Where on earth could it be going? Besides farms, there are probably a few villages out that way, but… they shouldn't be enough to attract a witch like that…"

"Hey… maybe there's something attracting witches from much further away," Chiyoko said. "If I follow this witch all the way… maybe I could find it, and deal with it, and all the witches would come back."

"Well… are you sure, though?" Sakuya said. "You might be walking for days…"

"If we can solve the mystery of the disappearing witches, it'll definitely be worth it!" Chiyoko said. "Is it okay?"

Sakuya sighed. "Well… I can't deny you have a point," she said. "Fine. If you want to do it, then go ahead. I'll go back and report this to Yuna-sempai."

"Alright!" Chiyoko said. "Then I'll contact you if I have good news!"

So they parted ways, Chiyoko continuing to follow the witch's tracks to the west while Sakuya headed back into town to the Kureha house. To her surprise, Yuna was already there when she arrived.

"Ah, Sakuya, you're later than usual," Yuna said. "Did something happen?"

"Actually, yes," Sakuya said. "I'm not sure if it's good or bad news, but… I was on my way here with Chiyoko when we spotted a witch?"

"So you got a grief seed?" Yuna asked.

Sakuya shook her head. "We followed its tracks, but we weren't able to catch up to it. The weird thing is, it was headed west, out of the city. Chiyoko decided to keep tracking it to see where it's going. Maybe it'll lead to a solution to our witch problem."

"I see," Yuna said. "Thanks for the report, Sakuya. Keep me updated on the situation."

Sakuya nodded. "I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything. By the way… how's the situation with Ryuugasaki lately?"

"Tense," Yuna said. "I feel it's going to explode at some point in the coming weeks, unless our witch problem is solved before then."

"Well… we'll all keep our eyes peeled for more witches," Sayuri spoke up. "Right?"

"Y-yeah!" Ririka said. "I haven't seen one for ages, but I'll keep an eye out!"

But an entire month passed by with no significant changes. The only positive development was uncovering a cache of twelve grief seeds that some magical girl had hidden in an abandoned house in the north of the city. Who exactly had hidden them there remained a mystery, perhaps a defector from the old Monzen Bridge group, but at least it meant they didn't have to rely on Hilda so much. Despite that, however, they still lost two girls who weren't able to use a seed in time. There still weren't any witches around, and the tension with Ryuugasaki remained on the verge of breaking. Sakuya heard not a single peep back from Chiyoko, either.

But one day, she finally got an email from Chiyoko. However, instead of giving any information, it asked her to come to Kamihama to talk things over, so after notifying Yuna that she would be gone for a couple of days, Sakuya caught a train for the journey all across the island to the huge city of Kamihama.

Chiyoko was waiting for her at the station, looking a little nervous, and Sakuya waved and called her name. Chiyoko ran at her and hugged her, startling the older girl. Then she gasped and pulled back.

"S-sorry, I was just so happy to see a friend from Futatsugi again," Chiyoko said. "Is everyone else alright?"

"We lost Yuki and Shouko," Sakuya said.

"Oh… that's awful," Chiyoko said.

"But if it wasn't for Miss Hilda, I'm sure we would've lost many more."

"Yeah… I suppose so," Chiyoko said.

"So… what was it you wanted to talk about?" Sakuya asked. "And why did I have to come all the way to Kamihama to hear it? You said something about a terrible witch…?"

"Um… let's find a better place to talk," Chiyoko said.

She led Sakuya to a park, where she began to explain everything that had happened to her since leaving Futatsugi. She had tracked the witch across the island for a couple of days, finally arriving in Kamihama which turned out to be absolutely teeming with witches. Then she had met Mifuyu and been invited into the Wings of the Magius, so she had decided to give it a shot. She talked about their goals, and how they failed to match up to the reality, and how she'd slowly been disillusioned and finally decided to team up with Ashley to bring them down.

"And so… that's why I asked you to come all the way here," Chiyoko concluded. "I was hoping you'd join the battle against Walpurgisnacht. Is that… asking too much?"

"I see," Sakuya said. "Well, I don't appreciate you springing the witch's identity on me like this, but… this is something that'll benefit all magical girls, so sure, I guess I can join the fight. In fact, hearing about this Fendt Hope place makes me pretty curious… I wouldn't mind seeing it for myself, even just once…"

"Ah! Um, in that case… I could take you to the group that's going to confront the Magius, instead of the group that's going to hold off Walpurgisnacht."

Sakuya nodded. "Sure, that sounds good. Makes little difference to me, honestly… from what you said I'll still end up at Walpurgisnacht in the end, right?"

Chiyoko nodded and jumped to her feet.

"In that case… let's go!" she said. "I've probably spent too much time talking, anyway… I need to be at Fendt Hope as soon as possible."

So, Chiyoko led her through town and pointed out a place called True-Dragon Dojo.

"Um, so, that's the meeting place," Chiyoko said. "Okay, um… I'll see you later, Sakuya! Ah, make sure you introduce yourself to the black-haired girl with twin dumplings, because she's in charge of making sure everyone is there."

And without further ado, she turned and ran off to the south. Sakuya hesitated for a moment or two before going up to the dojo and stepping inside. There were certainly a lot of magical girls present, so there didn't seem to be any possibility that she'd got the wrong place. She spotted the girl with twin dumplings almost immediately and walked over to greet her.

"Yo!" she said. "This's the place, right? Something about an evil Magius or something…"

The two girls who had previously been talking with her moved away and began to mingle with the crowd.

"Um… I wouldn't call them evil exactly," Kuroe said. "B-but um… if you're Miss Suzuka Sakuya…?"

"That's me!" Sakuya said.

"T-then yes, this is the right place," Kuroe said.

"So Chiyoko told you to expect me, perfect," Sakuya said. "Did you know, I've been looking for that girl for weeks now? She was chasing after a witch to see where they were disappearing to, and she just never got back to me… and then I suddenly get an email from her out of the blue. Gave me a bit of a shock!"

"Ah, well… I think I can understand why, sort of," Kuroe said.

"I mean, there are a boatload of witches here," Sakuya continued. "I can't believe it… everywhere else I went was scrubbed clean of witches. Only Kamihama is overflowing with them… as if all the witches from everywhere else just came here instead…"

"Um… well… I'm really sorry about that," Kuroe said. "Apparently the Magius did something to attract witches… or so I heard…"

"Huh… so it's not just a coincidence," Sakuya said. "Eh… that's honestly pretty bad, y'know? I bet Yuna-sempai's gonna be beside herself when she finds out… ah, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with you, so please don't worry about it."

"Um… o-okay then…?" Kuroe said. "Um… h-how have you managed without witches in your hometown? D-did a lot of girls, um… y-you know…"

Sakuya blinked. "Ah, you know about that too? Does everyone here know?"

Kuroe shook her head. "Um… I think most of the girls here don't know, actually," she said. "There are several who do, though… and everyone in the Wings of the Magius knows."

"Huh… well, yeah, there were a few, but we were really lucky," Sakuya said. "There just happened to be a random foreign woman visiting town who happened to have a huge stash of grief seeds, and she shared a few with us, so there weren't too many casualties… I mean, it could have been a lot worse. If Miss Hilda hadn't shown up, we probably would've ended up preying on each other until no-one was left…"

"Ah… I see," Kuroe said. "Again, um… I'm really sorry… I didn't even know the Magius did that until much later, so…"

"No, I couldn't possibly blame you for something you didn't even know about," Sakuya said. "Besides, isn't the whole point of this attack that you're angry at those Magius and want to get back at them?"

"Ah… well, I suppose you could put it that way," Kuroe said.

At that point, eight more magical girls entered the room together, and Kuroe gasped.

"Ah! They're here!"

"Who?" Sakuya said.

"Ah, um, that group over by the entrance… they're the last people we were waiting for," Kuroe said. "Now we just need to wait for the signal… then I'll lead the way to their base… and the attack can get started."

"Got it," Sakuya said. "Just let me know if you need anything from me!"

"Y-yeah," Kuroe said.

One of the girls who had just arrived started explaining something about some communicators, but Sakuya wasn't really interested in having one, so she only half paid attention. Then Kuroe took roll call, and Sakuya responded when her name was called. They waited mostly in silence until they had received their orders via the communicators, at which point everyone piled outside.

As they headed north through the city, they ran across several girls all wearing identical black robes, or white robes in a few cases, who seemed to attack without thought or reason. Sakuya thought they seemed to be acting a lot like zombies, though they seemed to be alive, not dead. The robed girls stood no chance against such a huge gathering of magical girls, though, so they simply knocked them out and continued onward.

Eventually, they arrived at the Kamihama Observatory, at which point Yachiyo and Kuroe guided them west into the forest. Finally, they found a witch-like portal and stepped inside, finding themselves on a grassy knoll with a single gigantic cherry tree at the top. Everyone powered up, and Sakuya blinked, for she didn't have her normal magical girl outfit – there were some significant alterations to it.

"Huh? What happened to my outfit?" she asked.

Several other girls echoed her sentiments.

"Ah, that's part of my power," one of the girls said. "Anyone near me is powered up… and your outfit changes when you're affected by it."

"Oh, huh," Sakuya said.

Then Iroha looked up at the great big tree before them.

"So, the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura," she said. "Um… so where do we go from here?"

"I'm not actually sure," Kuroe said. "Miss Taylor said there's supposed to be a connection to Fendt Hope somewhere…"

"Should we ask her?" Iroha asked.

"Maybe the rumour knows," Yachiyo said. "Look, she's watching us."

An otherworldly-looking girl had slid out from behind the tree and was looking at the group.

"Um… excuse me… do you know the way to Fendt Hope?" Kuroe asked.

The girl wordlessly lifted an arm, pointing to her left.

"It's that way…?" Iroha said. "But I don't see anything…"

"Well, we might as well try it!" Tsuruno said.

They followed the direction and soon came upon a strange twist of space, like a portal leading somewhere else. They headed through the portal a few at a time, emerging into the grounds of a huge mansion, with a great garden and hedgerows, and an elaborate fountain before the main entrance. There were quite a few magical girls already waiting there, and several in black or white robes had been tied up with silken webbing, presumably thanks to Chiyoko. There was one free girl wearing the same white robes, her hood pushed back to reveal blonde hair and red eyes.

Ignoring the greetings flying back and forth between the two groups, Sakuya stepped forward and nodded to Chiyoko.

"Everything went well, Chiyoko?" Sakuya asked.

"Yes," Chiyoko said. "Thank you for coming, Sakuya."

And before Sakuya could even stop her, Chiyoko was telling her even more about her experiences – not just the operation today, but other stuff about her time spent in the Wings of the Magius. She seemed determined to cover her entire stay here in great detail despite the limited time. While Chiyoko talked, several of the magical girls, including the leader in gothic lolita, headed inside the building. Just after they disappeared, several very powerful witches suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them, so Chiyoko had to break off her explanation to join the battle.

After defeating three very powerful witches, another even more powerful one appeared. Once they'd finally brought that one down, and some of the girls who went inside had returned, Mifuyu and several other girls bombarded the building with magic until yet another, even more powerful witch popped out. Except, this witch was a bit different… it had a different feeling to it from a normal witch. The other girls said it was a rumour, not a witch. Then after that was defeated without dropping a grief seed, they went straight into a fight with Eve, and finally Walpurgisnacht. Even after Walpurgisnacht was down, they had to return to Eve to finish her off. It was a long, long night.

Exhausted but satisfied, Sakuya and Chiyoko finally made it onto a train heading back to Futatsugi. Somehow though, Sakuya wasn't quite able to fall asleep, her mind filled with the turmoil of everything she'd learned during this little adventure. It was because she was still awake that she noticed it.

As the train slowed down in preparation for entering the Futatsugi precincts, she sensed it – a witch. She leapt to her feet with a yell, rousing Chiyoko with a start. The three other passengers in the car shot her a glare.

"W-w-what is it!?" Chiyoko gasped.

"A pick-me-up!" Sakuya exclaimed.

Chiyoko's eyes widened, and she too jumped to her feet as Sakuya ran to the end of the car, yanking the door open.

"W-wait, you're not going to get off now, are you!?" Chiyoko asked.

"If I don't get off now, I'll lose it!" Sakuya said. "There's only one stop, after all!"

"N-no way, no way!" Chiyoko said. "I can't do that!"

"It's fine, I can go alone," Sakuya said. "I'll meet you at the station, okay? Wait for me there."

"Ah… a-alright…" Chiyoko said.

Sakuya waited a minute or so more as the train continued to slow, then stepped outside and jumped clear of the cars, falling into a tumble and rolling quite some distance into what appeared to be a soybean field. Then she picked herself up, dusted herself off, and transformed, seeking that magical signature… there, just at the limit of her range, to the northeast. Activating her magic, she burst into motion, streaking through the fields so fast that her passage left a distinct mark, tearing up the plants and running them into the mud beneath. The farmers definitely weren't going to be happy when they discovered this, but she didn't care about that – getting that grief seed was far more important.

Just as she was closing in on the first witch, she suddenly realized that she could sense more witches nearby – probably four or five altogether. She burst into the first witch's labyrinth and skidded to a halt. The familiars were those egg-like ones that popped up every now and then, the same type that Hilda had been gazing at when they met her. However, this time it looked like she'd be able to meet the witch behind those familiars. She ignored the familiars, zipping past them and working her way through the labyrinth. Sure enough – there it was, the witch's chamber.

It was quite an unusual witch. The main body was a simple geometric shape in white marble, consisting of alternating square and triangular faces – when she looked it up later she learned it was called a cuboctahedron. It had one muscular leg in the same white marble, which was bent at the knee with the foot pointing out behind it. It also had a single muscular arm in white marble, which gripped an unfolded brass trumpet which divided into seven separate bells in different sizes, each having its own pennant attached in a different colour. Seven planets were smashed into the geometric shape, each one taking out a chunk that served as a socket to hold it – Sakuya recognized Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. Seven identical circular magical patterns were arrayed behind it like a halo, and there were nine diamond-shaped yellow halos stacked into three stacks of three above Neptune, seeming to mark that planet as the witch's head. Finally, seven wings with steel blue feathers sprouted out from the witch's back. The wings all faced the same direction, as if it had seven right wings.

Without slowing, Sakuya leapt into the air and landed a hit directly on the nearest planet, Earth… and to her surprise, the planet popped like a balloon. The witch then emitted a dominant ninth chord from its trumpet, and Sakuya leapt back as the sound exploded out, almost overwhelming her. But that wasn't enough to deter her. As soon as the sound died off, she leapt in to attack Mars and Venus, popping them open as well before jumping back as the witch repeated its sonic attack.

This time, however, as the sound died down, the witch raised her trumpet and brought it down like a club. Sakuya easily dodged, but the impact also produced a shockwave, making her lose her balance for a moment. She went into a roll and leapt back to her feet, darting in once more to pop open Mercury and Jupiter.

Then the witch suddenly flapped its wings and leapt up into the air, and flames poured out from the trumpet, raining down upon the battlefield. Sakuya focused on dodging and managed to avoid every single one, after which she leapt high into the air and stabbed Neptune with both her daggers.

To her surprise, witch crumbled immediately as Neptune popped like a balloon, dropping a grief seed which she snatched out of the air.

"Well… that witch had a lot of firepower but wasn't all that tough," she mused. "Let's hope the others are similarly weak, too."

Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed. The next witch she located was the one with the brainy signpost familiars, and it took her nearly ten minutes to defeat it. By the time she'd claimed that grief seed, one or two of the witches had moved outside her detection range. That still left one in range however, so she raced after that one too. It was again a familiar witch, this time the shrine nestled amidst the fires of hell that popped up every now and then. She looked around near the entrance for about a minute before spotting the main witch down below, so then she leapt down the cliff towards it, going into a roll as she landed and leaping across several molten rivers until she reached the island the witch resided on. Against that sluggish witch, she was able to destroy it before it could unleash its deadly acid attack, and she claimed the grief seed within a minute or two before stopping to lean against a nearby wall, panting heavily.

Once she'd regained her breath, she headed to the train station, where she found Chiyoko waiting outside for her.

"Did… did you get the witch?" Chiyoko asked.

"Even better," Sakuya said. "More than just one witch. Come… I'll report it to Yuna-sempai at the same time."

"O-okay… t-that's awesome news though…"

"Oh, and by the way… about what happened in Kamihama," Sakuya said. "Could you hold onto it for a day or two? This isn't really a good time, what with all the tension in the air… I'll tell Yuna-sempai you need a bit of time to recover before sharing your story."

"Ah, okay, sure," Chiyoko said. "Getting some time to recover sounds great in any case, so thanks for the thought, Sakuya."

It turned out Yuna wasn't home yet when they arrived at the Kureha house, but everyone greeted Chiyoko in relief, expressing how worried they'd been.

"I'm sorry I didn't contact anyone," Chiyoko said. "I'll tell you all about it later, but… right now, I just want to go home and sleep."

"Ah, then go and get some rest, Chiyoko," Ririka said. "We can wait a day or two!"

"Thanks," Chiyoko said.

With that settled, she left the house, and Sakuya flopped down onto a couch.

"So, where is Yuna-sempai?" she asked.

"She had to go back to school to finish something up before Golden Week gets into full swing," Ririka said.

"Must be student council business as usual," Mie said. "Yuna-sempai's always so busy… I wish we could do more for her…"

"At least you go to the same school," Rara piped up. "I'm a Janomiya girl, so I don't even get to see her at school…"

"But you'll be going to Torayamachi next year, right?" Mie pointed out.

"Yeah, but Yuna-sempai is graduating next spring, isn't she?" Rara said. "So I still won't get to see her at school."

"Ah, you're right," Sakuya said. "It never even occurred to me that this is her last year of school… I'll definitely miss her as student council president. Hope we get someone good to take her place."

At that moment, an exhausted Yuna slouched into the room, wearing her uniform, and took her seat in her signature armchair.

"I'm back," she murmured. "Sorry if I made you all wait."

She powered up with a sigh.

"We're already starting the planning for the culture festival, can you believe it?" she said. "So much paperwork… and some things take multiple months to get approval, so we needed to get them submitted before Golden Week."

"You don't have to apologize," Sakuya said. "We know how busy you are, Yuna-sempai."

"Should I get you something to drink?" Mie asked. "Some tea, or coffee?"

"No thanks," Yuna said. "Let's hear your report, Mie. No, actually… Sakuya, you look like you have something important to say, so let's start with you."

"Yeah, so I wanted to tell everyone… witches are back in town," Sakuya said.

Several of the listeners gasped.

"A-are… are you s-sure… it wasn't just a one-off?" Ririka asked.

"T-they're really scarce," Sayuri said. "But… finding one isn't unheard of… I managed to find one last week… remember?"

Sakuya pulled out the three grief seeds she'd gathered earlier.

"Does this answer your question?" she asked.

Ririka gasped. "T-three of them!?"

"E-even though it's almost impossible to find even one!" Sayuri gasped.

"Right?" Sakuya said. "You get it now? And there were at least two more that got away, so it's not like there were just three together by a fluke, either. This proves that witches have finally come back!"

"I wouldn't go that far," Yuna retorted. "Even if there were three or five or whatever, you could've just gotten lucky."

"Yuna-sempai… come on now…"

"But I'm still happy to hear the news," Yuna said. "Why don't a few of you go out and see if you can find the ones that Sakuya missed? Though they might stray into Ryuugasaki territory, it doesn't hurt to check."

Misa, usually a quiet one, and Rara both jumped to their feet.

"W-we'll go!" Rara proclaimed. "I'll let you know if we find anything!"

They ran out the door before Yuna could even respond.

"Well, I thought you'd be happy!" Sakuya said.

"Speaking of which… did you find Chiyoko?" Yuna asked.

"Yes, she's safe and sound," Sakuya said. "She's resting now… she'll tell us everything once she's recovered. Though I could ask her to come back if you'd prefer to hear her story right away."

"That's even more great news," Yuna said. "I'll wait until she's ready to tell me. There's no rush."

"Witches vanishing, and witches returning," Mie mused. "The thing is… Ryuugasaki won't listen to us unless we can prove both… and if we can't convince them, nothing will stop them from declaring war on us… whichever side wins will absorb the other side…"

"Eh… has it really gotten that bad in just one day?" Sakuya asked. "Or I guess it was closer to two days, but still."

"No," Yuna said. "We're still evenly matched. We should still have some time before the balance tips…"

Suddenly the door slammed open to admit the girl named Chinatsu, completely out of breath. Yuna gave her a moment to calm down before questioning her.

"What happened?"

"W-well… it's…" Chinatsu stammered.

"Is this about Ryuugasaki?" Yuna asked.

"W-well, sort of," Chinatsu said.

"Just tell me already," Yuna said.

"Ah, well… it seems Ryuugasaki knows we lost the Horse!" Chinatsu said. "I… I just overheard Masana talking about it at the arcade earlier…"

"What!?" Yuna gasped. "I can't believe this… how'd they find out?"

"What's this?" Sakuya asked. "I haven't heard about this…"

"Ah, right, you weren't here yesterday," Mie said.

Yuna nodded. "I explained the situation at yesterday's meeting," she said. "The Horse, our secret weapon, is no longer with us."

"Huh… doesn't that completely tip the balance in favour of Ryuugasaki?" Sakuya asked. "The Horse was supposed to be pretty powerful, right? On par with Juri, even?"

"That's right," Yuna said. "However, the only people who heard the announcement are those in this room… the plan was to pretend she was still with us."

"You don't think… that one of us told them… do you?" Mie wondered.

"Nobody else knew about the Horse's absence," Yuna said grimly. "But I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to slip a spy into our ranks…"

"Yuna-sempai… don't talk like that!" Sakuya said.

"You know what?" Yuna said. "Even if there is a spy among us, I don't care. But… with this, the scales are beginning to tip…" She sighed. "We can't let them take advantage of this. Let everyone know that witches are back. With luck, maybe that good news will distract them."

So Sakuya spent most of the rest of the day going around to all the magical girls in town to let them know that witches had returned to town. The Torayamachi girls all reacted positively, but once she crossed the river and started to speak with Ryuugasaki girls, most of them refused to believe her. Several brought up the rumour about the missing Horse as well.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Sakuya decided to stop for a break and let Yuna know how things had gone. She whipped out her phone and dialled Yuna's number. Yuna picked up almost immediately.

"Sakuya?" Yuna's voice came through.

"Right, this is Sakuya, your wonderful right-hand girl," Sakuya said flippantly.

"How was the response when you told people about the witches…?" Yuna asked.

"Our members were happy, but Ryuugasaki doesn't seem to believe it, as expected," Sakuya said. "They'd rather believe Juri over us, it seems."

"Sounds like they're fiercely loyal to their leader," Yuna groaned. "But that's not the only reason they wouldn't take you seriously, is it?"

Sakuya sighed. "Yeah… the leak about the Horse is going just as badly as we thought it would," she said. "If I were a Ryuugasaki member, I'd probably be thinking… 'Why agree to cooperate and have to split the witches with them when we could just wipe them out while they're weak?' …or something?"

Yuna sighed. "A logical conclusion that anyone could reach, except for the fact that people's lives are at stake here," she said.

"Hey, Yuna-sempai…" Sakuya said hesitantly.

"What is it?" Yuna asked.

"I've never seen the Horse myself, either," Sakuya said. "But if we really lost her, and our whole group is in danger, let me go try to negotiate a truce with Juri."

"There's no point in doing that," Yuna said. "In fact, you couldn't pick a worse time for it. Going to them to negotiate is as good as admitting we're weaker than ever. And if they decided to take you prisoner, we'd be in an even worse position. You know what would happen next, don't you…?"

Sakuya sighed. "They'd start hunting us down…"

"So right now, the best thing to do is be patient, alright?" Yuna said.

"Okay," Sakuya said. "Alright then, I'll try to pass the news along to more Ryuugasaki members."

"Sorry for making you do all this," Yuna said.

With that, she hung up, leaving Sakuya nothing to do but seek out even more magical girls to share the news. However, she'd only managed to speak to two or three more girls before she saw an email from Yuna.

[Oba Juri, the leader of Ryuugasaki, has just declared war on us! If she's still the same as the Juri I used to know, she could strike at any time! From now on, no-one is to go out alone! Be ready for a fight at any time! There'll be an emergency meeting later today. Everyone meet up at HQ by 4 PM. If you can't make it, I'll catch you up on the details later. Also, keep away from East Oogi Bridge, Monzen Bridge, and West Oogi Bridge. Those bridges connect Torayamachi and Ryuugasaki territory, so they're extremely dangerous.]

Letting out a great big sigh, Sakuya made straight for the nearby West Oogi Bridge bridge at top speed and crossed back into Torayamachi territory. When she got to the Kureha house, she found some people already gathering even though the meeting wasn't due for a few more hours. She passed Yuna on the way in, heading out for something or other, and settled down to wait for her to return. Given the sudden rise in stakes, Sakuya was wondering if she should drag Chiyoko out immediately to give her story… but she'd promised Chiyoko some time to rest… however, she decided to at least send her an email indicating the current state of affairs.

[Looks like we're about to go to war with Ryuugasaki. I hope you can return soon and explain everything.]

Eventually Yuna returned, and Mie opened the meeting with a declaration.

"I'd say we're still strong enough to put up a good fight against Ryuugasaki," she said. "But I don't think fighting is the best option right now. Since Juri's leading them, a lot of them are probably dissatisfied with her leadership. So maybe we could convince them to join our side?"

"That doesn't sound realistic," Yuna said.

"I was on Juri's team before we split," Sakuya spoke up. "She had a strong influence and took care of her girls."

"She may look unlikable, but she actually gets along with more people than you'd think," Yuna said.

"So if we tried to get her girls to defect, they'd probably report it to Juri right away, huh?" Mie said.

"Can't deny that," Yuna said.

"If we could bring Chiyoko out, I think we'd be able to convince them that witches returned," Sakuya said. "But she's not here today, so I guess she's still resting…?"

"That would be ideal, but we can't rush her," Yuna said. "For now, let's operate under the assumption that Chiyoko won't be able to help us."

"How about we lure them into our territory and fight with guerrilla warfare?" Sakuya suggested. "Even if our numbers are even, we know the neighbourhood inside and out."

"If we start with our backs against the wall like that, we'll end up cornered," Yuna said. "We might crumble before they do… well… if I were her, I'd probably…"

Suddenly Yuna's face lit up like she'd had a great idea.

"Maybe we should use the bridges," she said.

At that moment, the door opened to admit Rara.

"Um, sorry to interrupt the meeting, do you mind?" Rara asked.

"What is it?" Yuna asked.

"I brought a girl who wants to join us," Rara said.

"Huh? Where did she come from?" Mie asked. "All the magical girls in town should already be with either Torayamachi or Ryuugasaki…"

"She came… from Ryuugasaki," Rara said.

Yuna gasped. "Okay… bring her in," she said.

Rara ushered in a girl that Sakuya didn't know, which was saying something – she knew most of the members of both gangs. The newcomer met Yuna's eyes with an unyielding gaze.

"What's your name?" Yuna asked.

"I'm Kirari Hikaru!" the newcomer said. "Um, sorry to turn up so suddenly…"

"Yuna… it's way too dangerous to have a girl from Ryuugasaki around," Mie said.

"We were just discussing how to deal with Ryuugasaki," Yuna said. "How do you think Oba Juri will act?"

"Um… are you asking me?" Hikaru asked. "Well… I don't think Juri's good at calculating or enjoys plotting. Basically, she's, uhh… how should I put this? She usually focuses on one target and puts everything into taking them down. She'd come at you head-on, regardless of the location. Residential area, business district, anywhere. So her and her girls will probably go after whoever they can find. Though I'm sure that you're the one that Juri wants to take down most of all, Kureha Yuna."

Yuna chuckled. "Sounds like we're on the same page about Juri," she said. "Alright, Hikaru. Welcome to Torayamachi. Now, let's get down to business. You'll be helping us as well."

"Roger!" Hikaru said.

"The rest of you, go find some stones and start putting your magic power into them," Yuna said. "The plan is to use the three bridges to funnel our enemies to where we want them. Once you've got your stones all charged up, bring them back here to me."

"Roger!" everyone chorused.

The next day, everyone returned with their magic-charged stones, and then Yuna and Sakuya gathered them all into two piles and headed out.

"You plant yours on the West Oogi Bridge," Yuna said. "I'll take the East Oogi Bridge."

"Alright," Sakuya said. "I'll be done in a flash!"

They split up, and Sakuya tucked the stones into places where they wouldn't be easily spotted on the bridge. Once she was done, she raced downriver to the east bridge, where she found Yuna just finishing up.

"I'm done setting the stones on West Oogi Bridge, Yuna-sempai," she said. "Are you done with East Oogi Bridge?"

"Yes, thank you," Yuna said. "Now we're all set. The magical energy in these stones will make Ryuugasaki think we're in two places at once."

"Since we put stones on the east and west bridges, are we expecting them to come in through Monzen Bridge?" Sakuya asked.

"That's about the size of it," Yuna said.

"But won't that mean we'll have to take them head-on there…?" Sakuya asked.

"If we show Juri we're afraid of her, she'll get more aggressive," Yuna said. "The more time passes, the bolder she'll get. So taking her head-on from the start is our best bet. Plus, Ryuugasaki has been silent since her declaration… if they're giving us time, we should make the most of it."

"Juri being inactive concerns me a little, though," Sakuya said. "We expected her to go on the attack the day she declared war, and we've been waiting for it ever since…"

"Yeah… that concerns me too," Yuna said.

Suddenly, Yuna's phone rang. She answered it and put it on speaker so Sakuya could hear. It was Ririka.

"What is it?" Yuna asked.

"We caught someone trying to steal grief seeds," Ririka said.

"Who caught them?" Yuna asked.

"Hikaru did," Ririka said.

"Got it," Yuna said. "I'll be right over. Just don't let the thief get away."

After hanging up, she and Sakuya hurried back to the Kureha house, where they found Ririka and Hikaru restraining the would-be thief, who turned out to be Chinatsu. Yuna asked for the latest update.

"Hikaru, fill me in on what happened," Yuna said.

"Roger!" Hikaru said. "After you told me to keep an eye on the seeds, I hid and kept a close eye on them. That's when that girl showed up and put the seeds in her bag. So I jumped out and caught her red-handed."

"So, she broke in while everyone was out, huh?" Yuna said. "Why did she do that?"

"Well… she said the tension with our stand-off had darkened her soul gem," Hikaru said. "And apparently Miss Hilda refused to give her one… so she got scared and wanted to cleanse it…"

"I see," Yuna said.

"Yuna… can I ask you to forgive her?" Hikaru asked. "I can understand what she's going through…"

"You're a kind girl, Hikaru," Yuna said. "But it's because of the situation we're in that I can't just let it slide. Would you let me speak with her in private for a bit…?"

"Understood," Ririka said.

"Of course," Hikaru said.

As they released the girl and turned to leave, Yuna spoke up again.

"Oh, and Hikaru," she said.

"Y-yes!?" Hikaru gasped.

"You've earned my trust," Yuna said.

Hikaru, Ririka, and Sakuya stepped outside and dispersed. Sakuya let out a little sigh, leaning on the wall. She hoped Chinatsu would get out of that unscathed… she was one of their youngest members, after all.

After an uneventful morning, with no signs of movement from Ryuugasaki, Yuna gathered everyone once more for an after-lunch meeting.

"There's still no movement from Ryuugasaki, huh?" Sayuri said.

"The tension is killing me," Mie mused. "Yuna, perhaps we should just strike first? If we have to wait too long, we're going to burn out… we can't keep this up indefinitely."

"I couldn't sleep last night," Ririka said. "Even though nothing's happened yet, I can't help but worry about it… that they might attack me the moment I let my guard down…"

"Yuna… please say something!" Mie said.

"Yuna-sempai… what should we do?" Sakuya asked.

"Hikaru, how are you holding up?" Yuna asked.

"I'm fine, more or less," Hikaru said.

Yuna sighed. "Alright… let me tell you girls a little story," she said. "A story about a war that's gone on for… nearly a fully year now. A war that I've been fighting in from the very start. Back then, there was a certain magical girl who I looked up to, who turned into a witch right in front of my eyes. I spread the story of what happened to warn the other magical girls in town, and we all began hunting down the Kyuubeys. At first, they tried to negotiate with us, but when that didn't work, they vanished from the town, probably thinking there was no longer a benefit to them being here. It was around the same time that witches began to become scarce around Futatsugi. Though there was a small fight when Juri left us, somehow, we managed to hold together, until that day you all remember."

"The day that all the witches completely vanished," Sakuya said.

"And then we started to break apart and fight with each other," Mie said.

"Our order crumbled… some of us died," Ririka said. "I'll never forget it… I was there when Ayumi… turned…"

"Yeah," Yuna said. "Things just got worse and worse over time… even Miss Hilda's arrival was but a pebble before a flood. We still don't know why the witches disappeared… Chiyoko might have some idea, but she's still resting up. But there's one thing that's clear in this short history of ours. And it's that the one who started everything… was me, and me alone."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Hikaru asked. "It sounds like you're trying to take all the blame for everything that's happened… are you suggesting we all turn our backs on you and join Ryuugasaki…? Did you forget I left Ryuugasaki to join Torayamachi!?"

"It doesn't matter how it started," Sakuya said sadly. "The disappearance of the witches cocked the hammer… and Juri pulled the trigger. Yuna-sempai, I know you've been doing everything you can for us."

"Yes, that much is for sure!" Mie said. "Hearing that story doesn't change what you've done for us!"

"Yeah… that's right," Ririka said.

"She's right," Sayuri said. "She's absolutely right…!"

"This is why I've put my faith in all of you," Yuna said. "But what I really wanted to tell you all is a hidden part of our history."

"What…?" Sakuya said.

"I have a piece that only I know and only I can control," Yuna said. "And that's Torayamachi's Horse. Even before I became a magical girl, she was always loyal to me, and she's always been by our side, watching from the shadows. Even though none of you have seen her… I can assure you of one thing."

She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before continuing.

"Our Horse is surely alive! To bring us closer to victory, my strongest and most trusted knight is galloping through the shadows! That's why I'm certain! We can win this war! I understand that it's hard, but stay strong! The real battle will start any day now!"

Her speech was met with cheers from everyone.

Chiyoko was still absent at the next day's midday meeting, which Yuna opened with an announcement.

"Juri has announced that she's attacking tonight," she said. "So, we're going with six teams of three. That's the new plan, assuming Ryuugasaki isn't using the central bridge like we expected. I'll take two teams to the east bridge, and Sakuya will take three teams to the west bridge. We'll keep one team hidden on standby by the central bridge. We'll get into position by sundown! Make sure your phones are fully charged so you can receive live orders in the midst of battle. The teams will be… in the west, Sakuya, Rara, Misa; Mie, Ririka, Sayuri… Himiko, Nora, Eren. In the east will be me, Chinatsu, Jan; and Hikaru, Mihana, Saria."

The three remaining were Meri and her two friends Yua and Kiku, who were obviously intended as the standby group. All three of them also wielded powerful and accurate ranged weapons – Meri's sniper rifle was especially impressive, but Yua's massive recurve bow and Kiku's traditional Japanese bow weren't far behind. So Yuna was likely thinking of using them as a sniper team.

After a round of acknowledgements, everyone left to prepare. Sakuya's teams met up at the north side of West Oogi Bridge just as the sun was beginning to disappear beneath the horizon. After a few minutes of waiting, she got a call from Yuna.

"Sakuya, what's your status over there?" Yuna asked.

"We're in position," Sakuya said.

"Juri's a straightforward fighter," Yuna said. "Keep your team hidden like mine so we can surprise them from the flanks."

"Okay, got it!" Sakuya said.

She hung up and turned to the other two team leaders. "Alright… my team will be the bait, standing out in the open to lure them in. Himiko, hide as close to the bridge as you can. Mie, find places to hide by the intersection."

"Understood!" Mie said.

"Alright then!" Himiko said.

Himiko, Nora, and Eren moved right up to the bridge and ducked underneath the supports. At the same time, Mie, Ririka, and Sayuri rounded the corner and found hiding places on the side streets. Sayuki backed off even further, standing out in the open on the other side of the riverside road, several metres beyond the traffic light and in plain sight of the bridge. They waited several minutes with bated breath. Eventually they spotted a group of nine magical girls crossing the bridge at top speed, led by Juri. Ao was also with them, roughly in the middle of the pack.

"Everyone, get ready!" Juri shouted. "It's finally time to rid Futatsugi of the Torayamachi gang!"

The Ryuugasaki members cheered, and then they all charged as one.

"Everyone!" Mie said, keeping her voice down. "We're going to strike from the flanks! After that we'll regroup with Sakuya to surround the enemy and buy as much time as we can! Got it!?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to go!" Sayuri said.

"Juri!" Ao called suddenly. "Some of them are coming from the side! We'd better fall back and wait for them to regroup… we'll take less damage that way!"

"Don't be stupid, Ao," Juri said, slamming her fist into her palm. "If they're trying to flank us, all we've gotta do is keep them from doing it. Everyone, run as fast as you can! There's nowhere near enough of them to hold us back! Juri the Great will take point and plow through their pitiful six-person wall!"

"Huh!?" Ao gasped. "Oh geez… are you serious!?"

"Gooooooo!" Juri screamed.

The Ryuugasaki girls picked up the pace, sweeping off the bridge before Himiko's team even had a chance to show themselves. Just a few seconds later, they charged through the intersection, straight at Sakuya's team, running at an all-out sprint.

"W-what the…!?" Mie gasped. "They're too fast!"

"We can't flank them like this!" Sayuri said.

"I can see that!" Mie said. "We'll let them get to where Sakuya is and then strike them from behind!"

"Got it!" Sayuri said.

The three of them leapt out from their hiding place and chased after the Ryuugasaki team.

"I'll burn you down, you track club reject!" Juri shouted.

"Fine then, let's get fired up!" Sakuya shouted back. "The more you get fired up, the stronger you get! That's the heart and soul of track club!"

She met Juri head-on, exchanging blows for several seconds, but Juri's punches landed like sledgehammers, and Sakuya ended up letting out a cry of pain, stumbling back a few steps. In those few seconds, most of the Ryuugasaki members who had been trailing behind caught up, presenting Sakuya with three-on-one odds for the next several seconds before Mie also caught up.

"Don't you dare think you can beat Juri the Great!" Juri shouted.

However, due to Ryuugasaki slowing to meet Sakuya's threesome, it looked like Mie's trio would soon catch up.

"Juri!" Ao called. "Three of them are coming from behind! We've got to do something before they surround us!"

"They're behind us because they failed to flank us, right?" Juri said. "We're going to keep pushing forward! Don't lose heart! We're breaking through Sakuya's wall!"

Sakuya was still down for the count, nursing an injured arm, so Misa leapt in front of her as Juri aimed a right hook, weathering the blow with impressive fortitude and even managing to hook her leg forward to catch Juri off balance for a moment.

"Ugh…!" Misa groaned. "I… I w-won't… let anyone… t-through…!"

"In that case… let me give it a try!" Ao said.

As Juri recovered her poise, Ao stepped forward and knocked Misa down with a single blow from the back of her giant axe, shouldering it in a victory pose.

"That's one mob down," she said smugly.

"Good job!" Juri said. "Keep up the pace!"

She unleashed a gout of flames right into Sakuya's face, but contrary to everyone's expectations, Misa was still conscious. She lurched to her feet, placing herself between Sakuya and Juri, eliciting gasps from nearly everyone as the flames washed over her body. The flames didn't really stick, but they didn't need to in order to deal a whole lot of damage. Rara took several steps back in fear. But at the same time, the Ryuugasaki rearguard was forced to turn around as Mie's trio finally caught up. Himiko's trio had also joined the chase, but they had slowed a bit as Misa's fate became apparent, perhaps not wanting to put their own lives on the line.

"Ugh… dammit!" Sakuya said.

"Now, what are you going to do, Sakuya…?" Juri asked.

"Give her back," Sakuya said angrily. "Give Misa back!"

"Ohh, my bad," Juri said flippantly. "I got too into it and accidentally killed her…"

As she said that, Misa's scorched body fell to the ground with a thud.

"Well then, Juri the Great has broken through your little wall," Juri continued gleefully. "And the ones that came after us from behind couldn't do a thing to us either. On top of that, this girl is dead, and your team's morale is dead right along with her. You're done for, Sakuya."

Juri giggled. Sakuya wracked her brain for the answer to what she should do. Should she try to hold out for as long as she could? The teams were roughly even, so she might be able to stall a bit longer, but Juri's power was a bit of a wildcard. Or should she command the team to pull back towards Monzen Bridge earlier than planned? She had no time to weigh the pros and cons in any detail. She'd lost a member, Mie's team was already beset, and Himiko's team still hadn't caught up.

"We don't have a choice!" Sakuya called. "We've gotta run for it! Everyone, pull back!"

With that command, all nine of the Torayamachi members under her command broke off from engaging the Ryuugasaki team, with Sakuya and Rara turning to run towards the centre and the others scurrying away into the side streets, aiming to circle around and rejoin Sakuya as soon as possible. Once Sakuya was confident that the retreat was working, she whipped out her phone and called Yuna.

"Situation report!" Sakuya said. "Juri's being even more aggressive than we expected! She killed Misa! We're currently under retreat!"

"Understood," Yuna replied. "I'll let you focus on the retreat. Thank you for letting me know."

With the call over with, Sakuya and Rara focused on keeping their distance while dodging the occasional gout of flame fired by an annoyed Juri – she even used her speed magic on Rara a little to help her keep up.

They'd been running for about a minute or so when Sakuya got another call from Yuna with new instructions. Glancing around, she saw that both Mie's and Himiko's teams were in range, so she broadcast the new instructions to all her allies via telepathy.

«Everyone, we're heading for Monzen Bridge! Run like your life depends upon it! We'll regroup there with Yuna-sempai and the sniper team!»

Before long, the plan came to fruition. Yuna and Hikaru stood right in the middle of the intersection leading to Monzen Bridge, while everyone else was spread out into the side streets and onto the rooftops surrounding the intersection. Sakuya caught up with Yuna, panting heavily, while Rara darted into an alleyway to hide.

Ryuugasaki's two teams, each consisting of nine people. approached from opposite directions, converging on Yuna and Hikaru's position. The second team was led by Ranka, which was no surprise given her absence from the first team. Her claw drone ranged ahead of the pack, marking the point where the two groups would converge.

"We meet at last, Yuna!" Juri said.

"Yes, Juri," Yuna said.

"No matter how many strategies you try to pull off against us, you and I are destined to fight head-on in the end!" Juri declared. "This whole thing is such a waste of time, isn't it? Why not drop all the cheap tricks and fight me fair and square? Now, will you pierce me with your fangs? Or will Juri the Great's flames burn you to ashes? We're going to settle this here and now! Then we're going to crush all of Torayamachi, too! With them gone, it won't matter if witches are really back or not. We'll have all the witches in this town to ourselves!"

All the Ryuugasaki members converged in the middle of the intersection, barely two metres from Yuna, Hikaru, and Sakuya, who faced them down defiantly.

"The more you talk, the more you look like a cornered rat," Yuna retorted.

Juri chuckled. "Says you," she said. "Look at what a mess Sakuya is in."

"It's over for you," Yuna said. "This is where we turn the tables. Sorry to say, I'm not giving up on those 'cheap tricks' you hate so much."

"If you're talking about the team hiding behind us, we're already ready for them," Juri said.

"Why don't you take a moment to figure out why none of my teams are in the open right now?" Yuna asked.

Juri gasped.

"How foolish," Yuna retorted.

"Guys!" Juri shouted.

But it was too late.

"Open fire!" Yuna shouted.

As she, Hikaru, and Sakuya took a dive and somersault backwards, the sniper team followed her orders, gunning down Ryuugasaki with their missile weapons.

"We'll shoot down every last one of them!" Meri, the team leader, shouted.

"Yeah!" Yua and Kiku chorused.

"Taaake thiiiiis!" all three shouted in unison.

"Everyone, get down!" Juri shouted.

However, despite Juri's orders, nearly half the Ryuugasaki members fell to the ground, unable to withstand the bombardment. It wasn't clear if they had died or were merely knocked out cold. Ranka was able to avoid the worst of the fire by crouching down and deploying her drone in front of her, and Ao snuck up behind her to share in her shelter. Only Juri remained on her feet, dodging bullets and snatching arrows from the air, gritting her teeth at the effort.

"Looks like the tables really did turn," Yuna said. "You shouldn't have clustered so many people in one spot. It makes it hard to deal with something like this. I believe this is one of the things I taught you before, Juri."

"I won't forgive you," Juri said menacingly. "I'll admit I did drag those girls into my own personal conflict, but I still see them as friends. I still care about them."

"You're the one who started this bloody war, not me," Yuna retorted. "I told you we shouldn't do this, but you wouldn't listen. I pity them for getting pulled into your personal mess…"

"This isn't just about revenge," Juri said.

"Well, it looks like it's your side that's getting thinned out, not mine," Yuna retorted.

"We're not giving up here…!" Juri shouted. "Guys, hunt down every last one of them!"

"Everyone, scatter!" Yuna shouted. "Avoid the large groups and take them out in smaller skirmishes!"

"Got it!" one of the Torayamachi girls said – it was hard to tell who was speaking through the dust and smoke from the earlier bombardment.

"Be careful out there!" Yuna added.

"Thank you!" another girl said.

"What are you up to…?" Juri asked.

"All you want is to fight me, right?" Yuna said. "So I've made sure we'll be left alone for awhile."

"So you're finally ready," Juri said.

"Follow me," Yuna said.

"I'll burn you to ash," Juri declared.

And that was the last Sakuya heard of them before they moved towards the bridge together. She joined back up with Rara and moved out as well, striking at isolated Ryuugasaki girls wherever possible and either killing them or knocking them out cold – they didn't bother to stop to tell the difference. After a few minutes though, it seemed that the remaining girls had managed to pull off a retreat, so the Torayamachi teams all closed in on the park near the bridge where Juri and Yuna were fighting.

"Dammit! So you lured Juri the Great into a trap, huh?" Juri grumbled. "Fine, if you wanna play that way. Let's see how many Juri the Great can kill before she goes down! And I'll make sure you're the last one I take out, Yuna!"

"Are you really fine with that?" Yuna asked.

Suddenly Hikaru leapt forward.

"Stop!"

"Hikaru!?" Yuna gasped.

"It's true that taking out Juri will put an end to Ryuugasaki," Hikaru said. "But we shouldn't kill her here! We could capture her and decide what to do later, couldn't we?"

"Will you shut up, you little brat!?" Juri shouted.

Then Ao stepped out from the shadows, coming from the same direction that Hikaru had appeared from… almost as though the two of them had been together.

"Juri, this isn't the one-on-one battle you wanted," Ao said.

"Ao…?" Juri said.

"If we retreat to the central bridge, we can regroup with Ranka and the others," Ao said. "That way, you can fight Yuna the way you wanted to. You wouldn't be satisfied if you went down like this, would you…?"

"Can I really trust you on this?" Juri asked.

"Course you can," Ao said smugly. "Ranka even agreed with it."

"Gotcha," Juri said. "Let's go, Ao!"

"Yeah!"

With that, the two of them joined hands and ran off. Juri charged straight at Himiko, knocking her off her feet and breaking through the encirclement, heading straight for the bridge.

"What is she thinking…?" Yuna wondered. "Everyone! We're going to the central bridge!"

"I'm going to make them pay for what they did to us!" Sakuya declared.

"Sakuya, we should let them go for now," Yuna said with a sigh.

"But if we let them regroup with the rest of the gang, there'll be another bloody battle," Sakuya said.

"Don't worry," Yuna said. "I have a plan."

So they chased Juri and Ao towards Monzen Bridge, where Ranka and most of the remaining Ryuugasaki members were no doubt waiting for them. But then they spotted their sniper team off to the side, running at top speed to overtake Juri and Ao.

"Huh?" Yuna said. "What on earth are those girls doing over there? You fools! Come back!"

But the command came too late. The sniper team had already made it past the Ryuugasaki duo. They leapt out onto the road, blocking the way to the bridge, and opened fire on Juri and Ao, who both flinched.

"…huh?" Ao said. "It… didn't hurt…?"

"They must've put all of their magic power into their first shot," Juri said. "Ao, take them down with that silly looking battle axe of yours!"

Ao looked confused instead of complying, so Juri apparently decided to take care of it herself instead, pointing her flamethrower at the trio.

"I'm going to turn you into ashes!" she shouted.

"C-crap!" Meri gasped.

Juri unleashed a massive gout of flame upon the three of them.

"You have no idea how hot the flames burning inside of Juri the Great right now are!" she declared.

When the flames died down, there was no trace remaining of the three members of the sniper team, save for some scorch marks on the pavement.

"Even more lives are being lost," Yuna groaned, a few tears leaking out from her eyes. "Why… this can't be…"

"Don't think for a moment that they wasted their lives," Sakuya said.

"Of course not," Yuna said.

Juri and Ao took off again, and they resumed the chase. They'd finally made it to the bridge. Across the bridge, the remaining members of Ryuugasaki could just barely be seen, with Ranka's drone marking their location.

"We're at the central bridge now," Hikaru said. "What are we going to do, Yuna? All of our lives depend on your choice now."

Yuna paused to wipe her tears away.

"Well… this is where the final battle is going to be fought," she said. "The most dangerous point of this entire war. The younger girls still have a future ahead of them… they're not to follow us into battle. They'll stay behind at the foot of the bridge. But I need you with me, Hikaru. Sakuya, Mie, Himiko, Sayuri, you should come too. Everyone else, wait right here."

The five girls she named stepped forward onto the bridge behind Yuna. As soon as Juri reached the centre, she turned to face Yuna, while Ao continued on to join up with Ranka and the rest of Ryuugasaki. The two leaders glared at each other for nearly a minute before Juri raised her voice.

"You guys, if anyone dares interfere, I'll burn you alive!" she shouted. "And Yuna, promise me you're done with your cheap tricks!"

"I promise," Yuna said. "I'm out of tricks, anyway. Now that both sides have taken casualties, I suppose there's no choice but to fight you here. If I backed down and walked away, I'd never be able to face the ones who gave their lives."

"I can see it in your eyes," Juri said. "You're finally taking this seriously!"

"If I can settle this with a one-on-one fight, I'm happy to do it," Yuna said.

"Right, that's the best option for us at this point," Juri said. "Because you don't want any more lives lost, either. Get your weapon ready!"

"You too," Yuna said.

Suddenly, Sakuya's phone pinged, indicating an incoming email. She whipped it out and found it to be from Chiyoko, asking where everyone was. Sakuya responded with a terse explanation.

[Ryuugasaki attacked. We've lost four girls. Yuna and Juri are facing off on Monzen Bridge.]

Then she slipped her phone away again.

"I'll make sure I cook you well done!" Juri shouted. "You'll be the main course of my dinner tonight!"

"How about instead I chop your head off and feed it to the dogs?" Yuna retorted.

Then Yuna charged in, swinging her club, and Juri crowed as if she'd already won.

"I'll take you out from point-blank—"

But at that moment, Ao suddenly raised her voice and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Attaaaaack!"

"W-what the…!?" Juri gasped.

Without warning, several of the girls on the Ryuugasaki side suddenly turned on their allies, knocking them out cold before anyone could react. Even Ranka was caught completely off-guard and knocked down before she could do anything. Ao stepped forward, towards Yuna and Juri, brandishing her axe menacingly.

"This is the end for all of you!" one of the attackers shouted.

"W-what the hell's going on!?" Juri gasped. "Ao, you're alright!?"

"We're Janomiya!" Ao declared. "And we're here to put an end to your era of exploitation!"

With that, she swung her axe at Juri with all her might. Though caught off guard, Juri barely managed to dodge the swing. However, in doing so she banged her head on the ground and passed out.

"Hikaru!" Ao called.

But Hikaru didn't move, which seemed to startle Ao.

"Huh…? Hikaru, what is this?"

"I'm sorry, Ao," Hikaru said.

"We've known about Janomiya all along," Yuna said.

"I joined your gang as a spy, to report everything you were doing to Yuna," Hikaru explained.

Ao gasped, but then her face hardened, glaring at Hikaru.

"So you betrayed us," she said.

"I was a loyal member of Torayamachi from the very beginning," Hikaru said. "After being drawn to meet Yuna through a wish, I've been devoted to helping her achieve her goals. Alongside an army of shadows, a noble horse galloping forth. That's the truth behind me, Kirari Hikaru."

Ao gasped. "Hikaru… you're Torayamachi's Horse!?"

That explained a lot, like how Yuna had come to trust her so quickly – it had all been an act. Still, for Hikaru to be the almost-mythical Horse… even Sakuya hadn't seen that coming.

"I was certain this would be the final battle," Yuna said. "So I decided to bring her out from the shadows."

Ao fell silent for a minute or so, then spoke up again.

"The Janomiya girls in Torayamachi… did you kill them…?" she asked.

"I didn't let that happen," Hikaru said. "They're all alive, waiting on the other side of the bridge. It wasn't done out of mercy or anything. I understand your feelings, so I want to make your wishes come true, but my entire being is devoted to Yuna. That's why Torayamachi will take over your wish."

"Would you entrust it to us?" Yuna asked.

Ao sighed. "We ended up cornered at the last moment," she said. "I'm totally down for games like these. Girls… let's take down the last boss!"

The Janomiya girls from the Ryuugasaki side, who by this time had overpowered all the older, loyal girls, charged right for Yuna, and Ao raised her axe in preparation for an attack. Hikaru let out a long sigh.

"I hate to do this," she said. "But if you really want to do it the hard way… we'll make your wish come true, Ao. So… please forgive me for hurting you now. I, Kirari Hikaru, am Yuna's strongest spear and shield!"

With that, Hikaru raised her sabre, pointing it straight up into the sky, and activated the magic that had given her the nickname of the 'Horse'. Thundering across the bridge came an army of blue-armoured knights on white horses, each bearing a massive golden lance.

"With everything that I have, I'll put an end to this battle!" Hikaru declared. "March forth, Shining Knights! Run down Janomiya!"

The knights parted around the five watching Torayamachi members and knocked over or trampled any Janomiya members that got in the way. As the knights passed on towards the far end of the bridge, only Ao was left barely conscious. Coughing, she propped herself up with one arm, staring up at Hikaru and Yuna.

"You… really didn't kill us," Ao said.

"I told you, Ao," Hikaru said. "I want to make your wish come true, too."

"B-but… I got a Game Over here," Ao said.

"This isn't something you should be considering a game," Hikaru said. "Well… if this really were a game, you wouldn't be the player, Ao."

"T-then who…?" Ao asked.

"The player would be Yuna," Hikaru said. "And this would be an event where Ao joins her party."

Ao blinked at her, dumbfounded for a good couple of seconds, then shook her head.

"Don't make it sound so simple, after so many of my side have fallen," she retorted. "Though, I'll admit I lost this battle… so I won't fight anymore. Just do whatever you guys want…"

Hikaru nodded. "Understood," she said.

Suddenly, Juri sat up with a yell, aiming her flamethrower at Yuna, but Hikaru leapt in and disarmed her with her sabre, sending the flamethrower flying into the river below.

"There's no way you can win at this point, Juri," Yuna said. "You need time and magical power to recover. You don't want to waste them both like this."

"You've got to be freaking kidding me!" Juri said. "You promised me, Yuna! You promised to acknowledge Juri the Great's feelings, didn't you…!?"

"I'm not living my life for the sake of your revenge," Yuna retorted. "I honestly wish I could do what you want me to do. But I can't endanger the people I lead for that."

"B-b-but…!" Juri protested. "You were using Janomiya from the start… in order to make this mess happen… weren't you…!?"

"Yes," Yuna admitted.

"Argh!" Juri shouted, swiping blindly at Yuna with her fist.

But Ranka stepped forward to restrain her, deploying her claw drone to capture Juri and lift her off the ground. The movement startled Sakuya, who hadn't realized Ranka was even conscious.

"Juri, you need to calm down," Ranka said. "Here, get on my back. I'll carry you."

"Ugh, I don't wanna!" Juri complained.

But despite that, she stopped resisting as Ranka directed her drone towards her own back, and Juri even grabbed on to Ranka's throat with a sigh. There was a brief tussle as Ranka forced her to lower her hold so as not to choke her.

"Juri," Yuna said. "Torayamachi will always have a door open for you."

"Just close it and keep it closed," Juri grumbled. "Juri the Great will break it down and drag you out…"

"Don't let your grudge overtake you and turn you into a witch, okay?" Yuna said.

"I won't let myself turn before I can defeat you!" Juri declared. "That's Juri the Great's wish!"

With that, Ranka turned to head back to the south end of the bridge. Those of the Ryuugasaki members who were still conscious and had not been part of Janomiya also went with her, carrying the ones where were still out cold.

"Is it really okay to let them go…?" Sakuya wondered.

"Ryuugasaki was held together by Juri's power and fear," Yuna said. "Maybe they'll still want to take us down, but now that Juri's been defeated, nobody will put their trust in her… the gang will fall apart."

"Is that really how fear works…?" Sakuya wondered.

"Yeah… it is," Yuna said.

"Yuna, we should carry these Janomiya girls somewhere else," Hikaru said.

"And there's the girls waiting on the other end of the bridge, too," Yuna said. "I suppose we should take them to our base."

"Sakuya, everyone, could you give me a hand?" Hikaru asked.

"Oh, sure," Sakuya said.

At her request, Sakuya, Mie, Sayuri, and Himiko each gathered up one or two of the fallen Janomiya girls.

"Ah… we'd better hurry," Hikaru said.

"Huh?" Sakuya said.

"I can hear police sirens," Hikaru said. "Before they discover us…!"

She knelt down to help Ao up, and then everyone turned to head towards the north end of the bridge. The other girls were all waiting there anxiously.

"Is it over?" Rara asked. "Did we win? Is Ao okay…?"

"Were you part of Janomiya too?" Sakuya asked.

"Ah, well… y-yeah, I guess," Rara said. "So was Misa… I'm really going to miss her…"

Though no others outright admitted it, it was clear from their faces that Nora, Saria, and Chinatsu had also been part of Janomiya. They had done an astonishingly good job of staying undetected – other than Chinatsu, the would-be grief seed thief, Sakuya hadn't suspected any of them of plotting a rebellion.

"W-what… what happened to Misa…?"Ao asked.

"Juri killed her," Sakuya said.

"Ah…"

"Let's go back to the base for now," Yuna said. "Come on… before the police find us."

When they got back to the Kureha residence, they found Chiyoko waiting for them there.

"Yuna-sempai… Sakuya… everyone!" Chiyoko gasped. "I heard… four people died… is that true…?"

"Misa, Meri, Yua, Kiku," Yuna said grimly, nodding.

"Oh no… if only I'd come forward earlier, I wonder if… they might still… be with us…"

"Don't blame yourself," Yuna said. "If you weren't ready to tell me your story, then that simply can't be helped. Are you ready now?"

Chiyoko nodded.

"However… we're exhausted from the battle," Yuna said. "So perhaps it would be best to wait until morning. Is that okay?"

"Y-yeah," Chiyoko said. "I guess that's fine."

"Anyone who wants to stay the night here is welcome to," Yuna said.

Ao collapsed in a corner of the living room with a groan while Sakuya, Chiyoko, and several others took the couches. Yuna fetched futons for several of the others, and some girls headed home, including Mie and Himiko. Once everyone else was settled down, Yuna went up to her bedroom.

Everyone gathered in Yuna's living room the next morning, including the girls who'd slept in their own homes. Yuna took a seat in her armchair and transformed, turning to look at Chiyoko.

"Now then… Chiyoko, what exactly happened to you in Kamihama?"

"There's something very important that I have to tell you," Chiyoko said.

"You mean… you found out… where the witches went, and why?" Yuna said.

"Yes," Chiyoko said. "First… take a look at this."

She closed her eyes for a moment and transformed, donning not her magical girl uniform but a black robe with a fur-lined collar and a feathery design on the hood. It was the same black robes that the Wings of the Magius girls had been wearing. That caught Yuna's attention, and she sat up straight.

"What's… with that outfit?" she asked.

"As you know… while I was chasing that witch, eventually I ended up in Kamihama," Chiyoko explained.

"Come to think of it, I heard that name on the news a couple of days ago," Yuna said. "They were hit by a huge typhoon or something, right? There was a lot of damage. The timing would've put it right when Sakuya was there…"

"Yeah," Chiyoko said. "Although, that wasn't a typhoon, exactly… but I'll get to that in a minute. There was an organization of magical girls in Kamihama called the Wings of the Magius, and they wore robes like these… the higher-ranked members had white robes."

"An organization…?" Yuna said.

"Yes, formed and run entirely by magical girls," Chiyoko said.

"What were they doing…?" Yuna asked.

"Their stated objective was the liberation of magical girls," Chiyoko said. "In other words, to save us from the fate of becoming witches. In order to achieve that goal, they protected magical creatures called rumours, and captured and raised witches. Thanks to their work, it wasn't… isn't necessary to use grief seeds anymore in Kamihama. Instead of transforming into a witch, a magical girl whose soul gem becomes darkened is able to unleash something called a doppel. Although similar in appearance to a witch, it's a reversible reaction, and with practice some girls could gain control over their doppels. In other words… you could say that Kamihama became like a heaven on earth for magical girls. There, you never turn into a witch, even if you don't fight them. I joined the group as just a low-ranked black feather, so I wasn't told all the details of their plan. To them, I was just a pawn for the sake of the liberation of magical girls. But I couldn't help thinking that some things didn't quite fit together. I began to wonder if I really belonged there. The Magius started to display frightening tendencies, like brainwashing people who opposed them. Eventually, I teamed up with several other dissatisfied members, as well as other local magical girls of Kamihama, and together we were able to bring the organization down, though not without great cost. The witch they were raising, Eve, and the witch they summoned, Walpurgisnacht, ravaged Kamihama despite our efforts. That was the cause of the disaster you mentioned earlier. Without their leaders, the Wings of the Magius crumbled, and, well… at that point Sakuya and I came back here."

Yuna nodded slowly. "It sounds very straightforward so far," she said. "But why do I get the impression you're leaving out the most important part…? You haven't yet mentioned anything about why the witches went away…"

Chiyoko banished her robes, nodding.

"Yes… somewhere along the way, I learned the answer to that question," she said. "For the sake of the liberation of magical girls, in order to gather and raise as many witches as they could, the Magius installed a transmitter in Kamihama that lured in witches from all across the island. From what I heard, it wasn't just Futatsugi that suffered. Asunaro, Mitakihara, Matsumiya, Hohzuki, Yukuni, and many smaller towns… they'd all been stripped of witches as well, lured to Kamihama by the thoughtless Magius. It wasn't just Shinriku, either – witches from even further away were being pulled in too, though not as strongly."

Several of the listening girls gasped, Ao and Yuna included.

"They spared no thought for what might happen to magical girls outside of Kamihama," Chiyoko said. "They were just thoughtlessly gathering witches for themselves."

"Say… were the other magical girls in the organization okay with that?" Ao asked.

"The ones who knew… mostly were, I think," Chiyoko said. "Though Miss Mifuyu, the second-in-command after the Magius, wasn't happy with it. But not many of them even knew the truth. The Magius figured it wasn't important, so they just didn't bother to tell anyone. And many of the black feathers were pretty weak. I'd say I was significantly above average in that respect, though I wasn't one of the strongest feathers. Ultimately I think they were all just focused on saving themselves… like the Magius, they never stopped to think about other cities. Plus, if everything had worked out like they planned, their system would've spread across the entire planet. So, even with witches disappearing, as long as everyone across Shinriku Prefecture managed to hold on for a little while, all magical girls would still have been saved by the time the members returned to their hometowns."

"So… you said they were defeated," Hikaru said. "How have things changed now? Are we never going to transform into witches now, here in Futatsugi?"

Chiyoko shook her head.

"No… they were defeated before they could complete the plan," Chiyoko said. "Because we realized that their way of doing things would require hundreds of thousands of human lives to be sacrificed… that's why we put a stop to their plan. Even though liberation was so close, we couldn't just go through with it, knowing the cost we'd be paying. The Magius… I think all three of them died, although I heard someone mention that their soul gems were saved… I'm not really sure what the significance of that is…? As for the two sub-leaders, Miss Mifuyu died but the other is still alive and well. She even abandoned the city when it came time to defend it from Walpurgisnacht."

"Did a lot of people die there?" Yuna asked.

"No, I don't think so," Chiyoko said. "We stopped it before it came to that… there were a few deaths though, all magical girls, mostly from fighting Walpurgisnacht."

"Was there really no other way…?" Hikaru asked.

"I don't know," Chiyoko said. "There might be. That system is still active in Kamihama, though it took some damage… so far, we've gained nothing for the work we put in, but there might be hope yet? They may have destroyed their city, but the number of lives that were lost… I believe it's fewer than twenty, and as I mentioned a moment ago, all of them were magical girls. To tell the truth… I'm still hoping there's a way to expand their system…"

Suddenly, Yuna began to emanate a strange aura, startling everyone present.

"Um… Y-yuna-sempai!?" Chiyoko gasped.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sakuya asked.

"I see," Yuna said, calmly, quietly, menacingly. "So this… this is what it feels like to want to kill someone…"

"Yuna…!" Hikaru gasped.

"Hikaru…" Yuna said.

"Y-yes…?" Hikaru said.

"Call Juri and Ranka," Yuna said. "Tell them to come back to Monzen Bridge with everyone."

"B-but Yuna… you're…!"

"Do it now!" Yuna shouted.

"Y-yes!" Hikaru gasped.

She raced out of the room.

"Ao!" Yuna shouted.

Ao leapt to her feet with a shout, saluting almost on instinct.

"I need some proof about Kamihama, something more reliable than Chiyoko's word," Yuna said. "Go find Kyuubey and bring it to me. You said before that you didn't know where it was, but you should know now, right?"

"Um… I'm a Janomiya member though," Ao protested.

"Ao!" Yuna shouted.

"O-okay, fine, I'll do it!" Ao said.

With that, she scurried outside.

"Now, Chiyoko, I need some more answers," Yuna said. "You already said the Magius died, probably… what are the other magical girls of Kamihama doing now? What about the other leaders of the Wings of the Magius? Surely there were more than just two sub-leaders."

"I'm not quite sure," Chiyoko said. "But my understanding is that most of the former members of the Wings of the Magius who were originally from Kamihama, including several of the highest-ranking white feathers, are now planning to work together with the girls who brought them down… but I heard the one surviving sub-leader, the third-in-command, has returned to her hometown. There was supposed to be a meeting tomorrow about what they're planning to do."

"So, they're playing nice with them so they can avoid turning into witches?" Yuna asked.

"Ah, um… I don't think… I would describe it… that way," Chiyoko said. "I think… they're still planning to try and complete the Magius's work, but… without sacrificing so many people…"

"How idealistic of them," Yuna retorted.

"Yuna-sempai… are we going to help them do that?" Sakuya asked.

"I'd… like to help," Chiyoko muttered.

"No way," Yuna said. "Come on… everyone, we're meeting up with Ryuugasaki."

"Ah… ah… o-okay…" Chiyoko said. "I'm… c-coming…"

Yuna got to her feet and ran outside, and everyone else leapt up and followed her, heading for the Monzen Bridge. They got there first, but it was only a few more minutes before Hikaru, Juri, Ranka, and the rest of Ryuugasaki arrived, including Masami, a veteran who for one reason or another hadn't participated in the previous night's battle.

"The heck's up with you all of a sudden?" Juri asked. "You just defeated me… are you looking for another fight or what? Well… if it's a fight you want, I'm ready for it. I already used a grief seed, so come at me."

When Yuna didn't respond, Juri tilted her head.

"Come on, say something already!"

But Yuna remained silent, and after a minute or so, that ominous aura from earlier emanated from her again. Juri gasped.

"W-what the…!"

"I came here for one reason and one reason only!" Yuna declared.

"You… since when have you had such a clear intent to kill…?" Juri asked.

"You want to fight?" Yuna said. "Then I'll go first."

"I guess you really are prepared," Juri said.

"But before we start, you have to promise me one thing," Yuna said.

"What is it now?" Juri groaned.

"Juri… you're going to be mine," Yuna declared.

"Whoa…" Juri said. "I just got a little bit of a chill from that. Fine, if you win, again, fair and square… then I'll be all yours."

"You won't break that promise, will you?" Yuna asked.

"I'm not that type," Juri retorted. "You guys! No-one interferes in this fight!"

"The same goes for my side!" Yuna shouted. "No interference will be permitted! Or else you'll be spilling your own blood!"

But they could've dispensed with the order, for the moment they started fighting, everyone else could only watch, awestruck, as they exchanged blows and words in a deadly dance.

While they were fighting, someone unexpected joined the audience. Without a word, Hilda stepped up beside Sakuya, gazing upon the fight.

"M-miss Hilda!?" Sakuya gasped, addressing her in English. "What are you doing here?"

"I saw that something interesting was happening," Hilda said. "It seemed only right to witness it directly, with my own eyes."

"Is our little gang dispute really so interesting?" Sakuya asked.

"Do you not see it?" Hilda asked. "That girl… Miss Kureha, I believe her name was? Her soul gem is clouding, yes?"

"Yeah… but what about it?" Sakuya said.

"Normally, it is grief and sadness that clouds a soul gem, yes?"

"Of course," Sakuya said. "That is common knowledge."

"Then how is it that she, who feels only anger, is so clouded?" Hilda asked

Sakuya tilted her head. "Sorry, um… I do not quite understand?"

"Well… it is interesting," Hilda shrugged. "That is all. When you live as long as I have, new things like this are quite exciting."

"…huh…? How old are you, exactly?" Sakuya asked.

"I believe it is considered rude in this country to ask a lady her age," Hilda said. "But if you really wish to know… my full name is Hildegard von Bingen. You can look it up at your leisure."

Sakuya blinked at her. She didn't recognize the name, but Hilda seemed to be implying that she was actually someone famous? But she couldn't stay focused on that for long, not with the epically crazy duel playing out before her eyes.

Finally, the fight came to a standstill, with Yuna somehow weathering Juri's flames while they spoke. Yuna took a step closer with each sentence.

"Do you know what caused that bloody tragedy in the first place?" Yuna asked.

"The witches vanishing, duh," Juri said.

"Correct," Yuna said. "Then, why did they vanish?"

"That's something even you don't know!" Juri said. "Dammit! How the hell are you still standing…? How are you walking through my flames like it's nothing to you…!?"

"Because I have to take my revenge on Kamihama!" Yuna shouted.

Chiyoko and Sakuya gasped in unison, but no-one else paid them any mind. Hikaru also seemed to be a little startled by the declaration.

"Kamihama…?" Juri said.

"They were the ones… who took away our witches!" Yuna shouted. "They were the ones who caused us to fight… and caused us to die. It's all their fault!"

"Now I get it," Juri said. "They're the ones you want to kill, huh?"

"So, Juri… you will become mine!" Yuna said. "And help me get my revenge!"

"Hmph!" Juri said. "You're going to turn yourself into a witch with all that hate you have towards them! Before that happens… I'll burn you to death with this blazing inferno I promised you a year ago!"

With that, she unleashed her flamethrower at maximum power, enveloping Yuna in flames. For a short time it seemed like Juri must have won.

"Dammit," Juri grumbled. "It wasn't supposed to end this way…"

"Don't think you can kill me off that easily!" Yuna shouted.

Juri gasped as Yuna stepped out of the blazing inferno, sporting a new horn upon her forehead, her soul gem now dangling off it between her eyes.

"W-who the hell… are you!?" Juri gasped.

"You know full well who I am," Yuna declared. "Kureha Yuna, the leader of Torayamachi. No… from now on, I'm the demon that leads Futatsugi in revenge against Kamihama!"

"Did she… evolve…?" Hilda wondered. "No… unlike Mary, she still has a soul gem… too bad. I suppose her anger is yet insufficient… but she must have satisfied most of the prerequisites. I wonder what they are…?"

Sakuya shot Hilda a confused look, but the woman didn't seem interested in explaining, and there wasn't time to ask, for Yuna and Juri were still bantering.

"You've got to calm down," Juri said. "Otherwise that urge to kill… that grudge… will turn you into a witch! And you can't be sure that Kamihama's really the cause of all this!"

"Let me explain everything," Yuna said calmly. "By the time I'm done, all the pieces will be put in their place."

"T-there's no way…!" Juri gasped.

As the flames finally died off, Yuna pointed to Chiyoko.

"The girl we sent to chase after a witch has returned to Futatsugi," she said. "She told me about a system in Kamihama that prevents magical girls from turning into witches."

"That… that can't be," Juri said.

"They stole our witches away from us," Yuna said. "They forced us through this bloody tragedy… that's how they got their system."

"Is that all really true, though?" Juri asked.

"That's why… my grudge… my anger… my urge to kill… it's become my hope!" Yuna said. "We're going to make them bleed just as much as they made us bleed. We're going to make them pay for the blood we've spilled… by stealing their purification system! So you have to help me, Juri! You lost this fight."

Juri sighed.

"Juri the Great… can't work with whatever you are now," she said.

"Can't you hear them inside your head?" Yuna demanded. "Everyone's screams and cries…!"

"Stop acting insane!" Juri shouted. "This time, Juri the Great will put a stop to your urge to kill! Let this dragon consume you already…!"

However, before she could unleash a new gout of fire, Yuna seized her flamethrower and crushed the nozzle in one hand, stepping in to thrust her face right into Juri's, then shifting downwards towards her neck.

"Ugh… Yuna…?" Juri gasped. "A-are you serious…?"

Just as Yuna was about to bite into Juri's neck, Hikaru leapt in with her sabre, forcing the two of them apart.

"Ugh…" Yuna said.

"That was close," Juri said. "Who was that…?"

"Hikaru…" Yuna said.

"Yuna, you can't," Hikaru said.

"Even if it's you, I won't hesitate to kill you," Yuna said coldly.

"I may be your loyal horse, but I have to go against you just this once," Hikaru said.

"You really want to fight me…?" Yuna asked.

"Yes, because it's part of my job to stop you even if I have to risk my own life," Hikaru declared.

"Then I'll teach you a lesson instead," Yuna said.

"I don't need it," Hikaru countered. "Because I can hear the same thing as you."

"The anguished voices of the fallen," Hilda mused. "Though I do not understand their words… they are resonating through this place. Not spirits… mere echoes of their suffering imprinted on the land…"

"Voices…?" Yuna asked.

"Voices," Hikaru confirmed.

With that, she stepped forward and hugged Yuna, who gasped.

"I've been with you all this time, so I know everything about you," Hikaru said. "Their voices are echoing inside my little head, too…"

"Let go of me," Yuna said coldly.

"I won't," Hikaru said stubbornly. "We need Juri… if you really think you have to kill her, I won't stop you anymore, because everything you say is right to me. I will follow you. But you might want to cool down a bit so you can get what you want, alright? I'm sure everyone will follow you if you're your usual self."

"Hikaru…"

"Horses can understand human feelings, so I know how sad you are," Hikaru said. "There, there…"

She gently patted Yuna on the back, and tears began to leak from Yuna's eyes.

"When I went to get Juri, I also bought us some ice cream," Hikaru said. "It's a little melted now, though…"

"I'm sorry," Yuna said.

"What the heck is going on…?" Juri wondered. "I'm still completely lost here…"

At that moment, Ao finally arrived, with Kyuubey riding on her shoulder. At almost the same time, Hilda faded away into the background and disappeared, almost as if she were avoiding Kyuubey.

"You guys…! I brought Kyuubey!" Ao called.

Yuna turned to the creature and summarized what Chiyoko had said about the events in Kamihama. While she talked, Hikaru pulled out the melting ice creams and passed them around.

"Is that all true?" Yuna concluded.

"That's right," Kyuubey said. "I think everything you've just said is true."

"So they really have a purification system in Kamihama…?" Yuna said.

"Due to the nature of its construction, I am currently unable to see it," Kyuubey said. "But it definitely does exist. I have seen the Kamihama magical girls use it to summon a doppel, and avoid becoming a witch."

"So, is there even a way of stealing something like that in the first place?" Juri asked.

"I cannot be sure, but I can envision some possibilities," Kyuubey said. "Are you girls going to Kamihama?"

"We are," Hikaru said.

"We have to make them pay," Yuna said.

"Do you plan to permanently relocate to Kamihama?" Kyuubey asked. "Considering the distance to Kamihama from here, it does not seem very realistic to work in Kamihama while at the same time fighting witches in this town."

"We know that," Ao said.

"I have recently discovered a means to travel to Kamihama more quickly," Kyuubey said. "Though it is a little dangerous, would you like me to show you?"

"You've got a cheat code…!?" Ao gasped.

"In return, I want you to stop attacking me," Kyuubey said. "There's only so many of me. I'm not infinite. If you keep killing me, I'll get into more trouble."

"I guess we have no choice," Yuna sighed. "Fine, we'll call a ceasefire for now. But we can talk about that in detail later. For now, we have something more important to ask you."

"What might that be?" Kyuubey asked.

"Did they have any bad intentions…?" Yuna asked.

"That is a difficult question for me to answer, since I lack emotions," Kyuubey said. "As far as my observations go, they simply did what they believed they had to do to accomplish their objective. I doubt they gave any thought to anyone outside their city in the short term."

"Geez," Ranka said. "Somehow, that's even worse, ain't it?"

"Is it?" Kyuubey asked.

"Yes… because that makes them the same as you," Yuna said.

"Yes… I can see a degree of similarity," Kyuubey agreed. "In comparison to most humans, they acted in a very logical manner, though there were still some details that did not make sense."

"Thanks for answering our questions," Yuna said. "One more thing… what is the significance of saving the soul gem of a girl who has perished?"

"Technically speaking, if the soul gem is intact, it would not be accurate to describe the girl as deceased," Kyuubey said. "Although, if the body is lost, there are few ways to obtain a new one, and a soul gem cannot remain conscious without a body."

"So, if you put that in another way… saving the soul gem means there is a chance, however small, to bring that girl back to life?" Yuna said.

"If by life you mean consciousness, that would be an accurate statement," Kyuubey agreed.

"Alright… you can go for today," Yuna said. "We may have more questions for you later."

"There is a sense that you girls are taking advantage of me," Kyuubey noted. "But that is acceptable as long as I gain something from it."

"Huh, you're saying some scary things," Ao said.

"Yeah," Hikaru said.

"Be careful," Kyuubey said. "There are many magical girls who are interested in Kamihama. Girls from outside the city, like yourselves."

"Thanks for the warning," Yuna said.

With those last words, Kyuubey hopped off Ao's shoulder and disappeared into the darkness. Yuna turned to face her audience.

"Kyuubey doesn't lie, everyone knows that!" she declared. "So let me hear your thoughts! Well, Juri? Will you join me?"

"Yeah… the moment you defeated Juri the Great, she became yours," Juri said. "And you've calmed down since then, so why not? New enemies, new grudges, it all sounds worth burning."

"Ao, how about you?" Yuna asked.

"What? Me?" Ao gasped.

"You were leading many younger girls," Yuna said. "It's a rare talent. I believe that talent will be necessary."

"I'm a big coward though…?" Ao said hesitantly.

"I know," Yuna said.

"Well, we know the truth now," Ao said. "Kamihama in general, and the Magius in particular, are obviously the ones to blame. The Magius aren't definitely out of the picture yet. And the purification system… an invincibility item… alright, I'm in."

"Ranka?" Yuna said.

"I'll go wherever Juri goes," Ranka said.

"Sakuya?" Yuna said.

"I'm a bit hesitant but… I'll keep going with you, Yuna-sempai," Sakuya said.

"Hikaru?" Yuna said.

"I can't believe you actually asked me," Hikaru said.

Yuna chuckled. "You're right. Everyone, you heard us! I'm not going to ask each and every one of you here! If you're willing to fight with us, make some noise with your weapons! Make it loud! Strike the steel with all your might!"

Looking around, there didn't seem to be a single girl who didn't respond to her call. Even Chiyoko, who looked hesitant at first, ultimately ended up striking her strange knives together, though not with all her might.

There were a couple of interesting morsels in there that had nothing to do with the event from the game. The three witches Sakuya defeated on her way back into town were very obviously Lucy, Heilig Brennmägdchen, and… an even more evolved form of the Witch of Symbols than the one that appeared when the Neo-Magius travelled back in time to Pompey. Could that be the solution to the mystery of the Witch of Symbols? Had it been hiding out in Futatsugi while sending all its familiars to Kamihama? But that didn't quite make sense… it was too roundabout, wasn't it? Plus, that one hadn't been all that strong, so it was almost certainly not the main witch.

The other interesting detail was that Hilda seemed to think Yuna had been about to evolve. Certainly her sudden horn was rather strange, and I didn't recall the game giving a proper explanation of that. But could it really be an evolution similar to Mary? In fact, just how much did Hilda know about evolutions? If I saw her again, I'd have to ask about that.

"…so that's what happened," Sakuya concluded. "After that, they did a ritual of sisterhood and then sent the three of us here to hear all the details from the meeting."

Magical Girl Corner

Whenever a new magical girl is introduced, I'll include a brief profile of her here. Some details may be redacted, or contain minor spoilers. You have been warned! The numeric ranking values are on a scale of 1 to 10.

Kureha Yuna
紅晴結菜

Age: 18
Eye Colour: Yellow
Hair Colour: Ash blonde
Origins: Futatsugi, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Red double lozenge
Soul Gem: Red diamond-shaped gemstone at her throat
Element: Light
Weapon: Kanabo (spiked metal club)
Powers: Target redirection, armour pierce, elecricity manipulation
Wish: "Change the minds of those who are against my amendment of the student council election so they will allow it to happen."

Speed: 3
Magical Stamina: 9
Offensive Power: 8
Defensive Power: 6
Initial Power Usability: 5
Learned Powers: 2

Kirari Hikaru
煌里ひかる

Age: 14
Eye Colour: Amber
Hair Colour: Red
Origins: Futatsugi, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Blue kite shield
Soul Gem: Square pink gemstone on her belt
Element: Light
Weapon: Sabre
Powers: Zeal, army of knights
Wish: "Give me something to devote myself to!"

Speed: 6
Magical Stamina: 8
Offensive Power: 9
Defensive Power: 5
Initial Power Usability: 4
Learned Powers: 1

Kasane Ao
笠音アオ

Age: 14
Eye Colour: Purple
Hair Colour: Blue
Origins: Futatsugi, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Purple six-petalled florette
Soul Gem: Blue triangular gemstone dangling from her left ear
Element: Water
Weapon: Axe
Powers: Puppeteering, sound manipulation
Wish: "I want friends I can play games with!"

Speed: 3
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 4
Defensive Power: 6
Initial Power Usability: 3
Learned Powers: 1

Oba Juri
大庭樹里

Age: 16
Eye Colour: Red
Hair Colour: Black
Origins: Futatsugi, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Orange flame
Soul Gem: Red inverted droplet on her right arm
Element: Fire
Weapon: Flamethrower
Powers: Emotional endurance
Wish: "I want to endure more."

Speed: 6
Magical Stamina: 15
Offensive Power: 10
Defensive Power: 4
Initial Power Usability: 8
Learned Powers: 1

I think with the profiles in this chapter there's only one remaining Magia Record main character who hasn't yet appeared. If you're including side characters there are only about six more besides that. (I'm also excluding Puella Historia here, for Reasons.) That said, there are still quite a few profiles that will be featured besides those seven in the coming chapters, so look forward to them.

I may come back to this chapter and rewrite the description of the Witch of Symbols once I've finished watching all of the Puella Historia events. It looks like the form I envisioned here actually appears in one of the events somewhere but is quite a bit different from what I described; however, the one shot I can find of it is a bit difficult to make out, so I'm hoping I can find something like an enemy sprite of it eventually to get a better idea of its structure.

Chapter 103 is started, so it might be done by next weekend, but I'm not confident it definitely will be. As it's the start of a new timeline, there's some planning to do to work out how things should progress.

After posting the previous chapter, I noticed there were several errors in Tsubasa's profile, so I've updated that to be more accurate. The errors arose from copying the version of her profile from Wish Upon a Ghostory and forgetting to update certain things that would have changed in the years since then. Also, this is the first chapter to be posted at approximately the same time on FanFiction and AO3 – the AO3 mirror is finally up-to-date so I'll continue cross-posting all chapters from now on.

Review Responses

Here I'm going to respond to a few specific reviews from over the runtime of Act 2, Timeline 8. I'm not going to respond to each and every comment, and I'll avoid any responses that give heavy spoiliers, so apologies if I don't mention your review (and thanks for commenting regardless). This time, I will quote the text that I'm responding to for each review, in addition to noting the commenter and time. I'll also note that there could be some mild spoilers in these responses.

plowplum (chapter 64, Oct 5, 2022)

› About the other two characters/ Laura's wish sounds like it could be categorized as a Void wish which could classify Laura as a Coordinator type.

I already responded to this comment in chapter 87, but I had one more thing I wanted to mention. Laura may not be a "void" magical girl (or null, as I'm calling it in the fic), but as I said in the previous response, that doesn't mean she lacks potential as a coordinator. Consider her role as a vampire in the original source material. One of the powers of a vampire is to turn people into vampires, and isn't that sort of similar to what a Coordinator does? Both grant another person powers that they couldn't have (at least easily) unlocked on their own.

Matsky (chapter 87, Jan 3, 2023)

› So, Shizuki Hitomi-chan becomes a Puella Magi and we also get another from Iran.
› What's next, a Puella Magi from Ukraine?.

I don't have any plans for a Ukrainian magical girl, but it's not completely out of the question!

Matsky (chapter 87, Jan 3, 2023)

› I just remembered something, until recently, the legal age of adulthood in Japan was 20 years old.
› Is it still 20 in the Puella Magi/Magia Record timeline?.

Probably.

› And I do like the idea of adding a girl who can access the Akashic Records, it's been talked about more recently.

However, note that "the Akashic Records" is just Scheherazade's name for her own power. It does not imply some overarching celestial existence collecting all knowledge in the universe. That's why she sometimes refers to them as "my Akashic Records".

JAGwin (chapter 87, Jan 3, 2023)

› Hang on. Unless I'm badly misremembering, the founder of the Tokime Clan (Tokime Sakuya in this fic) became Lucy, the Wandering Witch, which doesn't mesh with this statement... or the requirement that there be no way for her to come back, considering Elise's ability.

I don't remember ever suggesting that Lucy was Sakuya. Ashley speculated that she might be Tokime Oyura, who created the Mitakihara time capsule together with Akatsuki Youha.

Pernelle also mentioned that the Tokime village didn't exist yet when Sakuya lived, though I'm not sure if that really proves anything.

The sword Shizuka uses to defeat Lucy is Sakuya's sword though, the one Pernelle made for her. At some point since then, magical girls of the Tokime clan started infusing their magic into it, so it's presumably a lot more powerful than it was when Sakuya used it, but it is the same sword.

Oyura's story will most likely be posted as an interlude at the end of Act 2, so you can look forward to that when the time comes.

› *tilts-head* Either you haven't watched the rerun for Voices From Beyond or you intentionally chose to only use the anime's fate for Etteila instead of hybridizing with the game's, because Yachiyo and Mifuyu fought what was explicitly the ORIGINAL Etteila in the rerun.

I haven't seen the rerun, which is probably why I chose to use the anime's fate for Etteila. To be honest though, I quite like that conclusion as well, so I might have still chosen it even if I had seen the rerun.

(I'm pretty sure that's also the third or fourth time I've mentioned Etteila's fate in this fic… it definitely came up at the Memory Museum, at least.)

› Also, I'm pretty sure that Ikumi canonically DOESN'T have healing abilities, because in her MGS she says she'll find someone who does in order to heal Yumi after she gets injured. If Ikumi had healing abilities herself, I would think that would be unnecessary.

Her connect ability mechanically has an HP restore effect, so I consider that evidence of healing abilities. I don't think that needs to be in conflict with her MGS though. She might have only recently acquired them, or perhaps they're not that strong compared to more dedicated healers.

› As a general note since I don't want to have to quote every instance, is Sana supposed to be using the "-chan" honorific for Iroha? Canonically, she doesn't, and she hasn't before this Chapter, but considering what happened to her, I'm not ruling out the possibility that this was a deliberate change.

(shifty eyes) Yes. Yes. That was intentional. Of course it was. Definitely.

More seriously, I don't quite remember if it was actually intentional. It may or may not have been, but I'm going to stick with it either way.

› Hold on. I don't remember anything even IMPLYING Madokami used the Mirror witch to pull that off, so where are you getting the idea that she did?

Touka's experiment in A New Beginning. Admittedly, this is a bit of extrapolation – it only depicts Touka connecting to Madokami through the Mirror Witch, not the other way around – but that's my basis for suggesting it.

› "'That said, I've never heard of a newly-spawned witch not dropping a grief seed...?"
› *glances at Saki and the Soujus* You sure about that?

…but I literally addressed that right after? Hijiri immediately pointed out that event as a counter-example to Ashley's comment.

› Also, I'm pretty sure Chika's Wish canonically got her family out of trouble with the debt-collectors without having to jump through any extra hoops, although I don't remember if this was actually stated. I'm also pretty sure they were already living in the forest before this happened.

The first half of that flashback section was straight out of her MGS, excluding the two segments where Ashley appeared. In particular, the suggestion of using the house as collateral while moving to the hidden village is stated right there in the MGS.

The hidden village in question may or may not be the same one Shizuka lives in; it's not made clear. Admittedly, the fact that Shizuka didn't already know her in Green Jasper Diviners does seem to suggest it's not, unless that somehow takes place around the same time as Chika's MGS (so she moved in just after GJD), which doesn't seem to fit the timeline. But it's convenient for my plot if they're the same, so I decided they're the same.

Chika's home was definitely near a forest, but I don't think they were out in the middle of nowhere. More likely it's on the outskirts of Kamihama, perhaps eastern Hokuyo Ward in the less developed areas.

› I don't remember either of them ever being shown in Asunaro during Kazumi Magica (whether in flashbacks or the present). Heck, I don't even remember Kyouko showing up AT ALL, just Kaoru and Umika using Rosso Fantasma (somehow). As for Mami, while I've seen some claims that Michiru was one of her students, I didn't see anything to actually corroborate this when I read the manga, just Mami saving Michiru from a Witch while Michiru was in a hurry and Michiru running off without speaking to her (might not even have noticed her), which could've been in Mitakihara if Michiru had to pass through it to get to Asunaro when she returned from overseas (which would actually make Mami's presence make more sense to me, since then she isn't operating in someone else's territory without explanation).

Mami is clearly shown in a flashback saving Michiru from a witch in chapter 11. I'll admit that it's never stated what the location is, but it does say Michiru "headed home" to see her grandmother which to me implies it was in the same city she lives in, that is, Asunaro… but that's admittedly a pretty weak reasoning, as it could've just meant "home to Japan", or Mitakihara could've been a stop along the way like you suggested.

As for Kyouko, she shows up in one panel in Michiru's backstory in chapter 16 (you could easily miss it), with Michiru jumping in to break up a fight between Kyouko and Yuuri. This one has slightly stronger evidence for occurring in Asunaro, as the implication is that Yuuri and Michiru showed up independently of each other.

But while you have a point about magical girls typically not operating outside of their territory, I think you'd actually find a lot of instances where they do so. For one reason or another, usually for non-magical reasons, they take a trip to another city and just so happen to end up fighting a witch there. It's actually really common in Magia Record, at least; I haven't really seen it much (if at all) in the other works.

Still, based on that, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think Mami or Kyouko had a reason to go to Asunaro.

› I don't remember this either. I thought Asunaro was landlocked.

To be clear, Asunaro has a waterfront in this fic – it has been mentioned a number of times in earlier chapters, and I've even established Asunaro as the key ferry port for reaching the mainland.

I don't think there's anything in Kazumi Magica to definitively settle the question of whether or not Asunaro has a waterfront. I don't think there's any proof in the manga that it definitely doesn't have a waterfront, though.

It's quite possible I saw some ambiguous scenery and took it for a waterfront. It's also quite possible that I just plopped it wherever on my map (with the restriction of being near Mitakihara) and it happened to end up on the coast.

Regardless, the fact is heavily worked into my fic at this point, so I don't think I could (or would) change it even if it was suddenly proven that there isn't one in canon.

› Canonically speaking, it was established that she was responsible for Nanaka's, Akira's and Kako's Wishes and that she was also behind the landsharking from Meiyui's MGS (and Kako's, hence Kako's Wish)

While I understand that Hanna is definitely involved in the Nanaka quartet incident, the data I have doesn't support her being involved in Meiyui's landsharking incident. According to my info, Meiyui contracted before Mitama, so Mikoto was still a magical girl at that point in time, or possibly, not even contracted yet.

› As for Breakpoint, I don't recall anything that canonically says she was involved, but it's certainly plausible enough. Although I will note that I didn't actually complain about Breakpoint being attributed to Sarasa, at least not in and of itself.

I don't know if it's canonically stated outright that she's involved in Breakpoint, but she was there when Mikoto turned into a witch, so I don't think it would be strange if she turned Winchester into a puppet for awhile. Breakpoint could be the point where she grew bored of that particular puppet.

› Now, it's been a long time since I watched their MGSs, but I'm pretty sure Sayuki directly appeared at the concert they were at when they met (which I'm pretty sure was in Momoko's MGS, but again, it's been a long time).

I took a look at Momoko's MGS after reading this comment. It was a concert for a group called LinkS, and Rena said her favourite was a girl called Sayano, who's also Momoko's favourite. There also seems to be a member referred to as Yuripon (presumable a nickname). So, it's canonically not a Sayuki concert.

But even if you didn't have that info, Momoko and Rena have both been magical girls for quite some time, and their trio was already established (part-time) back when Anna Mel was still alive, but Sayuki seems to be pretty new as a magical girl – though I don't know of anything to strongly fix the time of her contract, other than that Mayu isn't a magical girl yet in her side story… but Mayu is also tough to pin down. Still, it renders them meeting at a Sayuki concert extremely unlikely.

› Remember that Kako and Meiyui's MGSs ALSO involved landsharking and factor in that Girls in the Hood's timeskip puts this around the time Mikoto became a Witch, and it creates the implication that Sarasa may have actually caused Jun's Wish.

All the evidence I know of points to Kako becoming a magical girl after Breakpoint, and not too long after Nanaka and Akira (whereas Meiyui had already been a magical girl for quite awhile by that point). Thus, given Kanae's presence in Girls in the Hood, I would say it has to be well before Kako's contract.

But perhaps you weren't suggesting otherwise. If both Kako's and Jun's incidents were caused by the enemy that Nanaka refers to as the "Locust", and that enemy is in fact a witch, then it certainly makes sense that both incidents would manifest similar properties (in this case, landsharking).

I can't remember anything that definitively identifies Nanaka's "Locust", however. The closest I can find is Scattered Flowers Melancholy, but I don't recall even that saying that the "Locust" is the Mirror Witch. If anything, I'd suggest it points towards the "Locust" actually being Sarasa Hanna herself… except that Nanaka's MGS mentions her team fighting a witch that she identified as the enemy (neither the witch nor her labyrinth is shown).

The Mirror Witch is somewhat prolific, so it could fit the profile of Nanaka's "Locust"… but so is the Witch of Symbols, and probably some others as well. But as far as I know, Mikoto is defined as having turned into a witch only 2 years ago, which would make it difficult to link her to an event that involved Kanae.

› *sees confirmation Momo is alive* Chelsea, you couldn't have, I don't know, asked when the fire she was a victim of happened? Just to make sure Scheherazade was talking about Kyoko's sister?

Sure, and what would Scheherazade have said if asked that? (Asking Kyouko wouldn't help confirm that the Momo mentioned by Scheherazade is definitely the same person.)

› Chelsea, I wouldn't count on Mikoshiba being dead yet, since last time you jumpstarted things by visiting, whereas this time the Diviner Trio need to deal with it on their own.

She did jumpstart the Tokime events in one timeline, yes, but I definitely recall writing near the end of a timeline since then that she checked in on them by clairvoyance at the end of the time loop and found they'd already gotten there on their own by then.

› I had no idea WHAT Aru is supposed to be until (if I'm remembering correctly) the MagiReco subreddit started talking about Kagome's event. I also don't remember if I even saw the mention of him in Kagome's debut scene.

Aru is present in that prologue scene, but not yet sentient. Later in the prologue they have become sentient thanks to the Wind Evangelist.

› Also, somewhat unrelated to what's going on at the moment, but it occurred to me earlier that Kyubey tagged along when Homura went back in time a couple Timelines ago, so does that mean that he no longer exists in the Timeline immediately prior to Homura's Revenge?

The specific terminal that travelled back with them ceased to exist, yes. After travelling back, it would've reconnected with the system, thus spreading the future knowledge to the rest of the collective.

Kyuubey is a strange case in Homura's time travel. If her magic transports souls, does Kyuubey have a soul? Or something that's close enough? Or was it able to hitch a ride by interfering with Homura's power somehow? It's quite the mystery.

› Not sure if this is an error or not, but I feel like that "about" should be "above".

It's not an error. In this context, "about" is roughly synonymous to "around", so it's not "above" at all. It's a vortex with the blade at the centre.

KadinaruDess (chapter 88, Jan 5, 2023)

› Come on, Ashley, Inui's already joined the timelooping crew. Even when Ashley cant reciprocate her obssessive love, she practically deserves to be opened up with the whole truth now. This is definitely not just me curious as to how Inui would react to learning of Madokami and Homucifer (and this definitely does not stem from the "tame a goddess" tease in this chapter).

Well, Ashley's just paranoid that Kyuubey might be listening in, really. She wants to open up in a Kyuubey-free environment just to be on the safe side. The other thing is, she doesn't want to have to say it twice, so she'd prefer to wait until the current time loop is resolved. After all, though Inui joined her this time, she has no way to know that Inui will join her next time.

JAGwin (chapter 88, Jan 9, 2023)

› I would like to note for the record that I personally feel that that depends on the flavor of "bad".

I don't really want to argue philosophy in detail here, but I think the key point is how the person thinks – do they regret what they did and want to make amends, or are they remorseless and perhaps would even do it again? Ashley/Chelsea is saying everyone should be given that chance. If they don't take the chance, the result is unspecified.

› *sees planned length* Great Madokami above, that's long! I think you might set a record if you pull it off.

Although it looks like I've already set a record at 1.6 million words (using AO3's word count which excludes author's notes).

› I could've sworn Kagari's eyes were red, but checking the wiki, apparently they are purple.

That seems to be something that differs between the manga and Magia Record, at least if the wiki is to be trusted – Kagari's main page does say she has red eyes. (Assuming we're talking about the same wiki; there are at least 3 Madoka-related wikis that I know of.)

› Although speaking of eyes, that reminds me, something I forgot about when I originally brought up the Hinata twins's eyes is that Matsuri was blind before she made her Wish, and as far as I'm aware she was born blind, so there's definitely some difference between her and Kagari's genetics even if they look the same.

Possibly, though I'm not sure that's sufficient evidence to say it's a genetic defect that caused her to be blind. It could've also been a developmental defect, and they still share the same genetics. And I guess that's the approach I'm going for here, since I basically established they have the same genes already.

› *glances at Luminous* Baby Madoka would like to disagree with you (and that's without mentioning Baby Ao).

Nah, that's just an anime convention for ease of identification. It doesn't mean their hair was actually that colour at birth. (I have no idea what "Luminous" refers to here, by the way.)

› Anime Game Otaku95 has a walkthrough of MagiReco that shows gameplay footage, and part 51 (among others) shows battles with the brainwashed feathers, who still use their normal animations (apart from some smoke), so you can check there if you want to.

I could take a look at some point, but a video-based format isn't all that great for quickly looking up things…

› Actually, as it so happens, Yuna and Hikaru's school DID have a rule saying that all students had to have black hair during Hikaru's MGS, and a random generic actually got called out for not having black hair despite the fact that black wasn't his natural hair color (exactly how Yuna and Hikaru didn't get flagged for this, I don't know). Granted, Yuna has probably gotten rid of that rule by the time of MagiReco's Main Story.

Good to know. I don't think that changes anything in the fic itself, since as you said, there's evidence they already dropped the rule.

plowplum (chapter 87, Jan 9, 2023)

› (RIP Kirika, Madoka, Kazumi, Saki, Kushu, Hotori, Suzune. You will be missed at least until the time reset)

Kuroe and Mayoi must be feeling sad that you forgot them.

› Another question is why didn't Homura use her time magic to stop Walpurgisnacht while Iroha aimed at the witch which is what happened in the game? Or why didnt Chelsea suggest it since she played the Last Magia.

Broadly speaking, the reason Homura didn't do it is probably related to her being post-trauma closed-in Homura, unlike in the game. And Chelsea, falsely expecting her to offer on her own, just never thought of suggesting it.

› Speaking of Mirrors, I'm wondering how Chelsea plans to intervene for the upcoming fight against Mikoto Sena. If ~200 magical girls buffed up on steroids could barely survive against Walpurgisnacht then how would the characters deal with a witch souped up from feeding on magical girls over the past year, a magical girl clone army and with access to energy from alternate universes.

I haven't yet seen the Mirror Witch battle in Arc 2 of the game, but the Mirror Witch is far younger than Walpurgisnacht – 2 years, at most. Certainly it has an incredible growth rate, but to me, that doesn't seem like it should be enough for it to surpass a Walpurgisnacht swollen from feeding on the remains of Eve. So, if ~200 magical girls can beat the strengthened Walpurgisnacht, then the same group should be capable of beating Winchester too… but by the time the Mirror Witch battle comes around, there will be even more magical girls who can potentially join the fight.

So, all things considered, I imagine it would be go pretty similarly to the fight against Walpurgisnacht. Of course, the two witches have differing powers, and the Mirror Witch's clones are far stronger than Walpurgisnacht's shadow familiars, but in terms of raw strength, they probably come in at similar levels.

Of course, that pesky "energy from alternate universes" is the only possible exception…

plowplum (chapter 88, Jan 15, 2023)

› Regarding Matsuri's lost relative from the Freezer, if I recall I believe one of the girls there had a tag labeled Kaede Hinata. Would this be the character Matsuri is referring to with the power to counteract Kagari's magic?

Wow, someone actually called this before I officially revealed it. That's kind of impressive, that you remembered that.

› It also fixes an issue I had with Asahi, one of the Folklore members just happening to be descended from the Tokimes when Folklore needed to infiltrate them. As the monument shows, the Tokimes would've once settled in the area around Yukuni making it possible for some of the Yukuni residents to be descended from them and after finding the monument I could see Asahi studying her family history to find out if she was connected which would explain how she came to find out she was a distant relation.

Although, it might not contradict canon to suggest that Asahi actually isn't related to the Tokime Clan – she just lied about it to infiltrate them. However, I'm going with the idea that she really is related.

› Geez, Homura's I Work Alone mentality is getting annoying. You'd think the last few timelines would've instilled the importance of teamwork.

Well, I think she's starting to sort of get the picture, even at the beginning of this timeline. It's just hard for her to change her way of doing things when she's been alone for such a long, long time.

JAGwin (chapter 89, Feb 19, 2023)

› Not technically an error in and of itself since this is Inui speculating and she doesn't have meta knowledge, but I would like to remind you that something from Magia Record (I THINK it was Lil' Kyubey's MGS, but I'm not quite sure) established that potential MGs CAN see the mini-Kyubey whether it wants them to or not, and it had to hide from one such potential to prevent her from finding out about MGs.

I think it's also reasonable to suppose that Mokyu doesn't necessarily share all the abilities of a regular Kyuubey, or at least isn't able to fully utilize them.

Or there could be a middle area where Kyuubey can choose whether they can see it, but those with exceptionally high potential can see him regardless of its will.

› Also, has Kyubey's name always been spelled as "Kyuubey" in this fic?

I did a search for "Kyubey" in the entire fic. The only match is in chapter 1… which I guess counts as an error, but FanFiction has already expired that chapter so I'm not going to fix it unless I have some other reason to edit the chapter.

› Regarding why Kyubey wouldn't refuse to grant the Hospital Trio's Wishes (which I'm not going to quote all of the relevant text for because I can't copy-paste off chapters on this site and that's a lot of text to retype), unless I'm badly mistaken, it is canon that he CANNOT outright refuse to grant a potential MG's Wish, otherwise he would've rejected Madoka's Wish at the end of the Original Series. The most he can do is hesitate to question the Wish like he did with Madoka, Michiru and Kazumi, he still has to go through with granting it if they insist.

My interpretation here is that it depends on timing. If he discusses the girl's wish with her beforehand and decides he doesn't like her choice, then he can choose not to offer her one after all. However, if he chooses to offer a wish and it turns out he doesn't like her choice, at that point it's too late for him to walk it back – the process has already been started and only the girl herself could cancel it.

I don't think the first case happens very often, though.

› Hold on. Kirika's canon magic is to slow down time in a single direction, not mind-alteration of any sort. Are you sure you aren't referring to her Wish?

Incorrect. Her canon magic includes mind-alteration, but she's unaware of that aspect of it. (Though it could be argued that her slowing magic is actually a facet of it, as it works on perception rather than time.) She uses it unconsciously to alter her personality to what she believes would suit Oriko more. This even happens in canon after she kills Komaki. (I think this info is from Sadness Prayer, which is also where Hisaomi being framed comes up.)

› Honestly, that conversation with Kirika feels to me like it went TOO well. I feel like it should at least have been a bit more difficult to talk her out of her Wish.

If it had been post-wish Kirika I'm sure it would've been harder, but pre-wish Kirika is basically a completely different person. Also, if they'd been trying to convince her not to become a magical girl at all, they probably would've failed, which is why Ashley instead focused on suggesting that she consider her wish more carefully.

Still, even considering all of that, maybe it did go a little too well… could there be some other magic involved here…?

› *record scratch* Wait, hold the phone, WHAT!? "Lost her power"!? I haven't read Tart Magica myself yet, but I was under the impression that Minou (along with her sisters) DIED, and even if that's wrong, I'm positive her getting depowered would've come up at some point, so what the hell is this!?

Minou was the only magical girl contracted by Isabeau who outlived her, and at the end of the manga there is a scene where she has lost her power but is vowing revenge on Tart. Pernelle notes that it was because she was "created by an improper creator".

Technically, the only one of the sisters who definitely died was Corbeau, and she was killed by Minou. Lapine was dragged into some kind of alternate space by Liz's magic, so theoretically she could still be alive and suffering forever… although, given that Minou lost her power, Lapine probably would've too, so it would be reasonable to expect that she died at the same time as Isabeau.

› So is that also why she isn't affected by the Pleiades's barrier?

I don't actually recall writing that she was unaffected by the Pleiades' barrier, but if I did, then sure, the same explanation will work.

› I would also advise consulting Temari's Winter Costume Story after going through Rondo of Oblivion, because it contains some additional information on how Temari's magic works (and more specifically demonstrates why I consider it to be more trouble than it's worth even outside of situations like Rondo of Oblivion), although this is significantly less likely to matter because Temari is, as far as I'm aware, largely unimportant to the plot.

I find it strange that you see her irrelevance to the larger plot to be a reason why it doesn't matter. If I could turn Inui, a two-bit one-off faceless character, into a central pillar of the fic, then Temari, a full-fledged playable character, could definitely become important. I'm not saying she will, though. It hasn't been decided yet.

JAGwin (chapter 90, Mar 6, 2023)

› Not sure if this is an error on your part or Kosane's, but the serpent tempted Adam AND Eve, not JUST Eve. Lilith, meanwhile, is purely apocryphal if I'm not mistaken.

The idea of considering some works to be "apocryphal" and thus not "canon" is a religion-internal viewpoint. In fact, the definition of what's "canon" and what's "apocryphal" depends on the religion – some things may be canon in Judaism but apocryphal in Christianity or vice versa, for example. It even varies by sect within the religion – the Ethiopan Orthodox Church has a different set of "canon" than the Roman Catholic Church. But from an external viewpoint, apocrypha is just another interpretation of the mythology, and it would be difficult to argue that it's less valid than the "canon".

It's true that Lilith is not mentioned the Book of Genesis, despite being directly associated with the mythical events in the Garden of Eden. (In fact there's a theory that she is derived from an interpretation of the contradictions between two versions of the account of creation.) However, there are many, many, many writings about her in Jewish, Christian, and even Muslim traditions. So from an external standpoint, that is, from the standpoint of someone who doesn't follow one of those religions, I don't think there can be any doubt that Lilith is a genuine part of the mythology.

What Kosane is doing here is noticing that Eve and Lilith are two very similar figures in the mythology, and positing that they both derive from accounts of the same historical person. It's a stretch, but so is anything that attempts to link primordial mythology to real events.

As for the point about Adam and Eve, if I recall correctly the account is of Eve being tempted first, then getting Adam to join her. Although, that might be one of the things that differs between the two contradicting versions.

› Actually, while Scene 0 is a intended to be a tie-in to the fourth movie (whenever they finally finish either of those), it IS part of Magia Record, not a standalone project.

Well, as of right now, she is not a character in the Magia Record game. She might become a character in the game in the future. It might even be planned. But it has not happened yet.

As to what she's doing there, well… she's a cool-looking character, so I wanted to work her in? There isn't really more to it than that. Since we know literally nothing about her as of now, I just made up whatever.

› Question; What honorific is "Sir" being used as a translation of?

› I'd still like to know what honorific "Sir" is supposed to be substituting for, because as is, this just feels really awkward. Who in the modern world would call their teenage classmate "Sir", nevermind "Sir [name]"?

I'm using "Sir" as a rendering of -san applied to a boy (or Kyuubey), as while it sounds a bit strange, it's less bizarre to me than calling a boy (or Kyuubey) "Mr". The issue here is that English lacks a standard honorific that can apply to boys – "Mr" is only for grown men, after all. The only options then are "Sir" or "Master", both of which sound archaic and have some small unfortunate implications… and I decided the implications of "Sir" are slightly less bad than the implications of "Master".

Obviously there's no exact science to mapping Japanese honorifics to English ones. In fact, many of them don't map at all (eg -chan and -kun) and would be better rendered as nicknames, but making up nicknames is a pain (so why did I make Inui a nicknamer again!?) so I decided to just write them out literally.

Most of the time, -san becomes one of the most basic English honorifics – Miss, Ms, Mr, Mrs. It depends entirely on context. But… I'm also using Ms/Mr for -sensei (though I don't think I've featured any male teachers yet, but still).

And then there's -sama, which I've rendered as "Lady" or "Lord" (if I recall correctly, this occurred in Shizuka's reference to Kyuubey), but one might have expected that to instead be the rendering of the somewhat dated -dono, especially considering that at least one of the people using it is Pernelle, whose Japanese is dated.

(But notice that in chapter 62 Pernelle's speech is rendered in more modern English, rather than sprinkling all the archaisms I can think of… because her now-dated Japanese was the norm back then. Also, just for that chapter, I had been thinking that "Miss" might actually be a rendering of -sama, though I didn't end up actually using that.)

› Seems like Tsuruno at least is still going to wind up going back in time, probably with Sana, but will it be THIS TIMELINE'S versions of them? I for one am not ruling out them needing to go back in time on the PREVIOUS Timeline, with their actions then carrying over into this one due to being prior to the point of divergence.

There is some logic to that viewpoint, especially since the previous timeline was actually really close to the game's ending, other than Sana's condition and a few more deaths. So it's plausible to think that Infinite Iroha could be born in that timeline.

As of now I haven't yet decided whether I'll depict them going back in time. As Ashley noted, she does have plans that should in theory negate their need to do so, but having plans doesn't mean that they'll succeed. In any case that possibility doesn't come until Act 5, so there's plenty of time for me to work it out.

Obobo Bobobo (chapter 1, Mar 11, 2023)

› One question though: Why did you choose Madoka Magica is set in a near future theory instead of MM takes place in 2011 one?
› Even if you choose ''Near'' future?
› Why 2046-ish?

I chose "near future" because some aspects of the Madoka anime seem to imply that it's "not quite in the present". I chose 2050 because it's about a quarter century away and because May of that year matches Homura's hospital calendar as depicted in the anime.

› Most probably, even Covid won't be a big deal in 23 years. Or possibly eliminated if we are lucky.

The scenario for Covid in this hypothetical future is that it's become endemic, like the flu, which also means it's probably less virulent than the strains during the pandemic. So Ashley died from it and was replaced by Chelsea.

Ame No Minakanushl (chapter 71, Mar 13, 2023)

› ? Greek salad is usually eaten warm in canada

I guess it depends what you mean by "warm". In my experience it's neither heated nor chilled.

Obobo 2 (chapter 1, Mar 11, 2023)

› My first time writing a comment … I hope it has reached you.

No worries – guest comments have a delay before they show up, unless I see it before then and manually approve it.

Ame No Minakanushl (chapter 72, Mar 14, 2023)

› iroha is pulling a Naruto

How so?

JAGwin (chapter 91, Mar 15, 2023)

› Actually, unless I'm badly mistaken, Japan's age of majority is twenty, not eighteen, so Noriko is still underage by their standards.

I believe you're right with respect to the point where a person has all the rights of an adult. I also wouldn't say that whether you're an adult is judged solely by the age of majority. And lastly, a lot can change in 25 years.

› In this context, I'm pretty sure "wants" should be "want".

I'm treating Magius as a mass noun, since it's a unit of 3 people. This is probably debatable, but it's what I've chosen. (Though I'm not sure I've been consistent on this.)

› Am I misremembering? I thought Wraiths were white.

Hmm. It's funny because I was literally looking at the wraith reference on the wiki while writing that section (since there was also mention of the more advanced types of wraith) and missed the difference in colour. I'm not sure where I got the idea they were black… especially since I got it right on their first appearance. In fact, I think this is the only time I got it wrong.

› Kanagi's hair is white, not silver.

With respect to hair colours, I take "silver" to refer to anything that more or less appears white (or perhaps a very, very light grey) but is not the white hair of the aged. That makes it a synonym for "platinum blonde". Therefore, Kanagi and Sogetsu have silver hair, Mitama and Mikage have silver hair, San and Sunao have silver hair, Mifuyu has silver hair, etc. I reserve "white-haired" and "grey-haired" to refer to the elderly. (Grey hair on anyone else is "ash blonde".)

› And then there's Tsubaki and Ichika, who survived at least that long by (presumably) being just that good.

I mean yeah, there are quite a few (also Pernelle, Sakuya, Laura, Tsubasa, Mayoi, Livia, literally every "ancient", etc), but they're still in the minority compared to magical girls as a whole.

Matsky (chapter 91, Mar 16, 2023)

› This Iranian Puella Magi named Shirin Charmchi. Is she and her parents followers of Zoroastrianism?.

Maybe! They could also be of the Baha'i faith. I haven't really decided.

And if you were wondering the same about Scheherazade: she's likely even older than Zoroaster, so I don't think she'd follow his teachings. It's not impossible, to be sure, but I just don't think it's very likely.

› Will Anne Frank be appearing in the future?. In PMMM Episode 13, there was a Jewish girl closely resembling her appearance holding her Soul Gem in her hands.

As I mentioned earlier in the author's notes for chapter 94, I don't expect Anne Frank to make an appearance in the storyline. Even if she did, it would only be part of Scheherazade's Akashic Records summoning. However, I don't think Anne Frank lends herself very well to the summoning.

› Will there also be a Ukrainian Puella Magi making an appearance in future stories as well?.

I have concrete no plans for one, but I had entertained the possibility, so there's a slim chance it could happen.

› Ever heard about Queen Min (Myeongseong) and Yu Gwansun?. They are 2 famous Koreans who tried to save their people and nation from Japan and paid with their lives for it. I'm sure adding them to the story will make things interesting.

Same answer as Anne Frank.

› I also noticed a reference to another Puella Magi fan-story Puella Magi American Sensei. You'll be writing more about it?.

I literally have no idea what you're talking about. I've never heard of that fan-story. What did you see that looks like a reference to it?

JAGwin (chapter 92, Mar 22, 2023)

› Something went wrong with this sentence, but I'm not sure what.

That was a missing space between sentences, combined with FanFiction's overzealous link removal. Basically it deleted the first word of a sentence and the last word of the previous sentence because it thought it was a link.

› Did I miss something? Chelsea only just got the ribbon, so shouldn't Inui have not dealt with it yet? Or did Chelsea tell Inui about how that event went in the game and I've just forgotten?

Nice catch. I first wrote Ashley mentioning that because the Tangled Shrine event hadn't yet happened and she wanted to point out how it was solved in the game. Then later I tacked on the mention of the changed order of events, forgetting that it broke the timeline.

I moved just those two lines to later, after the dream event and just before Mayoi's appearance.

› Typo. Should be "also", not "else". Although that would feel repetitive with the next part of the sentence, so I would recommend just removing it instead of correcting it.

Yup, I think it used to say "someone else" and then when I changed it to her name I missed the "else".

› First, that first "Yuma" feels repetitive. I recommend removing it. Second, why did Shizuku use the "-chan" honorific for Yuma the second time she said her name but not the first?

I literally have no idea. Since I have no idea, I'll just make something up. She was correcting herself – first calling Yuma without honorific, then thought it'd be better to add -chan so she said it again.

› Why did Inui call Yuma's outfit a suit?

Well, I'll agree it's a touch unusual, but "suit" can be a synonym for "outfit".

› Didn't Chelsea establish that she didn't live in California in her previous life?

Yes, I'm getting the two places mixed up a bit, it seems.

› The narration said that Ashley was speaking Japanese when she was talking to herself, so why would Inui need to translate for Riko to understand her?

Geh, destroying my plot point. Fine. You win this one. I've added it to a list of plotholes to fix later.

JAGwin (chapter 93, Mar 25, year)

› Leaving aside the fact that the meme is "meguca", not "mejuka", I cannot imagine anyone in the Madokaverse using that meme... well, not unless Chelsea starts it, but that's beside the point.

You're not wrong that, as a meme, it has no reason to exist in the Madokaverse (and Chelsea would never start it; she's probably barely aware that it exists but nothing more). But given Tasuke's research, I can totally imagine him coming to the same conclusion. The bizarre spelling might be explainable by Tasuke using a foreign term for "magical girl".

As for the J/G question, I did that because the wiki claims it's supposed to be a "soft G" (because it's derived as a warping of "magica"), but that's impossible under English spelling rules – a soft G cannot exist followed by a U. (Can you think of any word that does that? I can think of some with a soft G followed by a consonant, such as "judgmental", but never followed by a U.) So I changed it to J.

In any case, even if it's referencing the meme, it is not, strictly speaking, the meme, given that Tasuke came up with it in-universe.

Though you could also say that, if it truly were the meme, it was communicated verbally to him and he spelled it "correctly" instead of the "correct incorrect" spelling. Much like how I keep writing "Strada Futura" instead of "Strada Futuro".

Oh, and it also fits the common thread in this fic of things that should be associated with the Madoka anime managing to continue existing without the association, like the show's vocal theme songs.

› Didn't the Amanes see Karin tackle Alina off the helipad?

True, but perhaps it didn't fully sink in that Karin was actually flying (as opposed to jumping - magical girls can leap several storeys from a standstill after all). They also might not have gotten a good look at her when it happened if they were in the middle of fighting.

Guest (chapter 93, Mar 30, 2023)

› That is why hasn't Ashley Taylor bothered to ask more about the different kinds of magical girl evolutions, such as the kind that Mary Magdalene went through, or the kind that the ghost girl (sorry, forgot her name) went through when she became a magical girl? Was it some sort of psychic effect on her mind that caused her not to think about it?

Yes, indeed, she hasn't asked Akatsuki Youha about it yet. But, then again, she hasn't even carried through the steps to revive Akatsuki Youha in any timeline since the first one. She really is just focused on the primary goal ahead of her: surviving Homura's time loop without any deaths while defeating Walpurgisnacht. As shown by her mention of it in chapter 93, she hasn't forgotten about those evolutions.

But you also have to keep in mind the simple fact that, other than Mary, no-one seems to have ever achieved any such alternate evolution until Youha. (Unless Tsukihi is also one – that's intentionally left ambiguous.)

And then there's the fact that Youha herself cautioned against relying on the alternate evolutions to avoid turning into a witch. And she also mentioned she would only make a wish in the presence of someone of the Tokime bloodline.

So, due to leaving the Tokime village on the sidelines, the opportunity to revive Youha again basically wasn't there… although you could say that ceased to be true once she started to form connections with other Tokime members (Chika, Asahi, Kotone, Ryoko), and she did at least mention it to them in the last two timelines. But even then, there's the main goal still ahead of her drawing all her attention. She wants to close off Homura's time loop before getting anything unrelated going, to avoid having to do it twice.

I definitely haven't forgotten about it. There's just so much going on that it's been pushed aside. So don't worry. The topic of the evolutions will be revived, probably early in Act 3 once the fallout of the Magius is cleaned up.

plowplum (chapter 93, Apr 1, 2023)

› Should've at least made sure to procure a shelter or safe house for Ai since Im sure Ai now has human needs she requires to look after such as hunger.

It wasn't clearly explained in the text, but even after becoming a magical girl, Ai is not human. Kazumi only became human because that was her wish – Ai's basic nature did not change when she made a wish except for gaining solidity, so she's probably something more like a Commander Data. Thus, while she surely has needs, they're not the same as a human's needs.

Also note that technically magical girls can get away without eating, sleeping, drinking, etc. At the very least, they won't die from starvation, dehydration, or lack of sleep. A normal magical girl might still die in such circumstances simply out of the expectation that they should, but Ai is about as far from a normal magical girl as you can get.

JAGwin (chapter 94, Apr 2, 2023)

› I don't follow. How did her hair being wavy make you decide on it being brown?

Completely non-scientific, but wavy makes me think it shouldn't be black, and brown is the next most common choice. Or something like that? I'm sure wavy black hair is possible too, but whatever.

› "'Nothing doing!'"
› I am positive something went wrong with this sentence, but I have no idea what it's supposed to be.

It's an idiomatic way of saying "absolutely not", though according to Wiktionary, it's dated and no longer in common use in most of the world. I'm not sure if I want to bother with changing it to something else.

› And as a general note that I feel like I should've brought up before now but don't think I have, the Suzune cast never keep their Soul Gems in ring form, be it in Suzune Magica or in MagiReco.

Athough I did use this as a minor plot point for Suzune in chapter 43 (I think that's the one), I'm mostly taking that as an artistic license on GAN's part and assuming that they wear their rings the same as anyone else. It's true that Magia Record rolls with it and depicts them without rings, though.

› Putting this in the thoughts section because I'm pretty sure this is a difference in interpretation rather than an actual error, but regarding Kagari's motive, the impression I got from reading Suzune Magica was that her grudge against Suzune wasn't for killing Tsubaki('s Witch), it was for (in Kagari's eyes) taking Tsubaki away from her. I also remember her saying that her revenge was partially aimed at Tsubaki for "abandoning" her.

I think I'd say it's probably the combination of the two things. If Suzune had been a random magical girl with no connection to Tsubaki who had shown up and killed Tsubaki's witch, or if Tsubaki hadn't turned into a witch but had still adopted Suzune, I don't think Kagari would have gone down that path.

› I'm not sure whether to call Haruka's search group (aside from Hinata Kaede) idiots for not recognizing Suzune, or complain about how that feels like a railroaded script.

Could be both! It's definitely at least somewhat railroaded, but I don't think there's no justification at all for it – as mentioned, they hadn't seen Suzune transformed before, plus they were in an underpass which might not be as well-lit. (I assume there's electrical lighting, but maybe it's switched off during the day to conserve energy.)

Guest (chapter 95, Apr 7, 2023)

› I knew the Inquisition had something to do with it seems like their style alright. Freaking zealots. Now that begs to question where did their powers come on in the first place?

An excellent question, but… don't forget that Pernelle has a theory that humans should be able to use magic even without a contract with Kyuubey. That doesn't fully explain these guys, though – after all, it's rare enough that Pernelle has basically no data on how you'd go about it, yet here we have two mysterious mages. (Three if you count the priest in Wish Upon a Ghostory who was mentioned by Episode in the previous chapter.)

Farsight21 (chapter 95, Apr 7, 2023)

› Welp who's up for a classic Holy War, cause if you got zealots it is going to happen. Hope it won't cause must trouble in Kamihama.

Yes, and Tamura's most recent vision is also ominous in that respect.

JAGwin (chapter 95, Apr 7, 2023)

› "'Complaining about it's not going to change anything,'"
› That "it's" feels completely wrong to me reading it, but at the same time, I think that's what that sentence would actually sound like phonetically if someone said it, so I don't know whether it should be changed to something like "it isn't" or not.

It does look pretty bizarre, doesn't it? But it's clearly grammatically correct, as expanding the contraction gives "Complaining about it is not going to change anything". It would probably be more idiomatic to say "it isn't" instead of "it's not", but both are technically correct.

› Considering that Iroha is back in Kamihama and Chelsea was just talking to Inui, I'm quite certain that this is an error.

…for some reason I was getting the two of them mixed up a lot around this time. I don't know why.

› Wait, wasn't Chelsea trying to keep the Grief Cubes away from Kyubey!?

She was, but I guess she decided there wasn't much she could do about it this time, not knowing if they might do something if she held onto them for too long.

› Secondly, either Chelsea's memory issues are acting up again or I'M misremembering, because I'm pretty sure that was last Timeline.

I glossed over it quite a bit, but that happened in both timelines. That said, even if she hadn't mentioned the time travel, she certainly mentioned some things during the Tangled Shrine event.

› Huh. And here I suspected that it was Kosane.

Well, that's an interesting guess. I wonder why you'd think that?

› I'm pretty sure that "Nothing doing" was supposed to be either "Not doing it" or "Not doing that".

Not a bad guess, yet totally off the mark (as explained in the earlier response above).

JAGwin (chapter 96, Apr 9, 2023)

› Hang on. As far as I know, it hasn't been confirmed WHERE Sae lives. Was there something in her event or MGS that implied she's from Kosho?

I had no explicit confirmation of where she lives. However, at least to me, her wish and family situation strongly implies she's from the East, which is why I decided to place her in Kosho Ward.

Apparently, there's a reference somewhere that she's from Minaminagi Ward, which also makes sense, but I don't know if I'll go back and correct that. If I say she's near the border (ie, close to the Mirror Mansion), then it's basically close enough. Plus the aforementioned reference is sufficiently vague to not necessarily imply that she actually lives in Minaminagi Ward.

› Second, Ikumi is actually from Kosho, she just attended a school in Sakae (which I believe she only went to after Yumi made her Wish, but I might be misremembering), and considering Yumi is her childhood friend, I would assume she's also from Kosho.

Fair. I think we can put that one down to "Ashley didn't quite remember where they're from and mentioned them just to be on the safe side". I did put the correct ward in her profile in chapter 77.

› "'T-then we should save Shizuku-chan too!' Sana gasps."
› Second, no mention of Kaede?

I think Sana doesn't know Kaede so she wouldn't have the same kind of reaction to her name, but… adding a pluralizer ("and the others") seems like it makes sense. She now says "Miss Shizuku and the others". (If you think of it in Japanese it would be "Shizuku-san-tachi", I think.)

This also has the bonus of implicitly including Tsuruno.

› *Giovanna has assumed direct control* *blinks* That's not what happened in the anime. Yachiyo was supposed to stop Iroha from getting possessed right then, then the floor would give out and Mami would fall and drag Iroha down with her, so how the hell did this happen?

The implication in the anime is that Giovanna assumes control at some point after Iroha falls down, as she's shown as being in control when she next appears. So in effect it just happened earlier than it did in the anime.

I would say Yachiyo took a few moments longer to reach Iroha in that chapter compared to in the anime, giving Govanna time to seize control.

› Um, Chelsea, wasn't that a bit excessive? I'm pretty sure you only needed the Memory Museum itself, not the other two.

The other two do add a little extra information though. But you're right, she didn't really need to go that far. I guess she wanted to show off a little bit.

› Who are the Edalon?

I think this question was literally answered in the very same chapter, but I'm establishing them as the race that built the incubators. It doesn't come from anywhere, I just made it up. Etymologically, it's a respelling of "eidolon".

› Is it really that odd of name? There's over a million people in Kamihama, so how is Kanagi so sure that there's only one named Tsukuyo who is currently a magical girl?

It's not easy to determine how common a name is, but Tsukuyo is at least sufficiently uncommon to not have an entry on Behind The Name. (It's not at all clear how uncommon a name needs to be to be missing from there though.) The very similar name Tsukiyo is there (same spelling but slightly different pronunciation), but its verification level is 1 out of 3, which to me suggests that at the very least it's not one of the most common names.

Still, I think it seems uncommon enough that it would be impressive to find two people in Kamihama with the same name. If it's that rare, and there are two people with the same name, the chance of both being magical girls is almost zero.

For what it's worth, Tsukasa seems to be more common (it's verified 3 out of 3 on Behind the Name). I still have no easy way to figure out exactly how common, though. It's also a unisex name, so figuring out how common it is specifically for girls might be even harder.

› Chelsea, you were playing with fire there, you know that, right? *exhales* That could've gone SO badly wrong.

Yup, I'm sure she's not gonna try that next time.

› Honestly, it's kind of funny watching Coeurl drop these things on the locals.

She just doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut, does she? She did mention she wasn't one for subterfuge though, so at least she's somewhat self-aware about it.

› How did Chelsea, Sana and Felicia manage to climb onto Teddy Mk II without everyone besides Sana becoming visible again?

Very carefully, I suppose… but I would also say they were hidden from sight behind some plants, so if they'd been unstealthed for a moment, no-one would've noticed. (I guess that should've been mentioned in the text though, so I added a couple extra clauses to that effect.)

› General note, but I feel like Momoko calls Kanagi "Kanagi-san". I might be misremembering, though.

Yeah, you're right. It seems that when I was checking past chapters to look up how Momoko refers to Kanagi, I found the one place in chapter 80 where she did it wrong (which I've since corrected if I recall correctly) and just carried that through.

› "'Could it be... you are talking about... witches?'"
› With the way this sentence is structured, I feel like "you are talking about" should be "are you talking about".

I added the previously-implicit "that", which I think makes it flow a bit better without any other reordering of words.

› "'A way to verify some piece of the information she sent us,'"
› Either "some" should be "a" or "piece" should be "pieces".

It's perhaps a little weird and niche, but I'm thinking of this as being like the "some" in "I saw some guy playing a fiddle on the roof". In other words, a shorthand for "an unspecified piece".

Kanagi is a little odd herself, so I decided not to change it.

› "'Welcome to the Wings of the Magius!'"
› I can't use italics for reviews, but that aside, I feel like that "to" wasn't supposed to be in italics. Might just be me, though.

If I recall correctly, her exact words in the Japanese voice track are "welcome to magius no tsubasa". So, in my opinion this is a reasonable rendering. The italics may be a bit weird, but the line is a bit weird anyway in the way that it's literally half English and half Japanese.

JAGwin (chapter 97 Apr 16, 2023)

› I am not aware of Mifuyu having different types of chakrams. Then again, I haven't seen her in-game animations and it's been a while since I watched the anime, so I'm not sure that this is an error.

She doesn't. She only has melee chakrams. I included the qualifier because normal chakrams are throwing weapons (like Scheherazade's), but Mifuyu's are a melee weapon. (Admittedly, she can and does throw them as well.)

› "Sensei often cautioned me against using my powers on myself. It's apparently very dangerous to try to tune your own soul gem.'"
› *glances at Call of the Open Sea* I'm not sure whether to call this an error or not.

I haven't watched it yet, but it's also still in the future relative to the fic.

Also slightly related, we already have Tsubasa now, who did exactly that (perhaps multiple times) and still seems to be fine. So it might indeed be dangerous, but it's not impossible to do it safely.

› Not necessarily an error because Madoka could be lying a bit about the details to keep things simple, but Madoka wasn't there when Sayaka became Oktavia in the original series. That was Kyoko.

She was at least nearby… a minor variation on events could've easily had it happen in front of her. Although Ashley should've commented on that in chapter 60 if it happened that way, so maybe Madoka's just stretching the truth a little like you suggested… though that's not really in-character for her.

› You cannot run for President of the United States of America unless you are at least thirty-five years old. This is a Constitutional requirement.

I've changed that to say thirties. I don't think it changes the substance of the story significantly, and thirty-five is still pretty young. It still makes her the youngest as well.

› You do remember that Kanagi can just read her mind to check for you, don't you, Yachiyo?

I'm sure she's just getting a little over-emotional and it slipped her mind. Doesn't look like Kanagi forgot, however.

› On the one hand, Mitama regularly skips school, but on the other hand, most of her clients don't, so there wouldn't be much point in hanging around the shop during school hours anyway.

There wouldn't be much point in hanging out there all day, sure, but showing up a bit earlier is certainly a possibility.

› That aside, I would think Chelsea would know whether or not school is still in session considering she would still be at Mitakihara High if it was.

Yes, of course she knows that school is ended. She's not using Mitama's presence as a gauge for that, only noting that she wouldn't've expected Mitama to be there if school hadn't ended.

› I'm a bit surprised it was Konomi who recruited Kako for the conspiracy and not Nanaka, seeing as Kako is on Nanaka's team.

She's close with Konomi too though, so I don't think it's a stretch at all.

› "'Did you tell it about doppels?' I ask.
› 'Just a little,' Mami says. 'Is that a problem?'
› 'Probably not,' I say. 'If you hadn't, I'm sure someone else would've.'"
› Like you, several chapters ago.

She did mention they exist, true, but she didn't really explain much if anything about them.

› "That rumour is very strong, and without your power and Kazumi-chan's, I think Miss Mifuyu wouldn't survive the battle."
› She did in canon.

Barely, thanks to Iroha's reversal magic, but yes, that's true.

› "'By the way, it sounds really weird hearing you put a Japanese honorific in an English sentence..."
› *glances at most of this fic* You sure about that?

At least to me, it sounds far weirder when spoken aloud than when seen in writing. I'm totally okay with seeing in manga but it really bugs me to hear it in anime. That could be just me, however.

› Personally, I would've just said they're ex-Yakuza.

That requires the listener to know what Yakuza means. Ex-Mafia would've gotten the point across, probably.

› And that's it for this chapter. We're heading into the endgame for this Timeline, and Chelsea has SEEMINGLY managed to get things back on the game's rails - or, well, as close to the game's rails as we can get given all of her other interferences - except for one point; Kaede. Why do I feel like that one point is going to be what causes everything to go wrong with the Ui and the Magius Trio? *sigh* Well, I guess I'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out.

Seems like you called it, huh?

› Also, before I go, something that only occurred to me after the last chapter; You stated in Alexandra's, Asahi's and Ulala's profiles that Yukuni is in Shinriku Prefecture, but in Arc 2 Chapter 5, Nayuta said that Yukuni is in a different Prefecture than Kamihama when she was explaining to Mikage why she couldn't come with her and Lavi.

I hadn't seen that chapter yet when I worked out the map. It's sufficiently worked into the story now that I'd rather alter that line than rework the map again. (Especially since, as I recall, it was the very same chapter that caused me to rework the map the first time.)

Troopie Doopie (chapter 97, May 13, 2023)

› I've loved it so far. Although the recent stuff with the Vatican and US politics has made my stomach churn, I am definitely on the other side of the isle. The Vatican depiction also really, really makes me think of Fate.

(assuming you meant "aisle" there)

If that makes your stomach churn, you might want to stop reading, because it's probably just going to get worse for you. I can't say I'm all that happy to have a reader "on the other side of the aisle"… although, if reading this has the possibility of convincing you to "cross the aisle" then I suppose it could be worth it. (Not that there's any intention of that in my writing though.)

WannaBeAShapeShifter (chapter 15, May 23, 2023)

› "Oriko will help me"? Huh? What are you, stupid?
› That girl is a cancerous existence. It is best to kill her before she contracts, if possible.

You're forgetting the actual underlying reason why Oriko did the things she did. She wasn't a psychopathic murderer going on a rampage for no reason. She wanted to kill Madoka in order to save the world. In her eyes, the ends justified the means, but she was still conflicted over it… so why would it be a surprise if she'd accept when someone shows up to give her an alternative, less morally-grey means?

› Besides, the only timeline in which magical girls truly are saved is the Ultimate Madoka timeline.
› I don't know about the game, but the Magia Record anime did not have a good ending.
› Too many died for it to even remotely be "good".
› Besides, it was more or less teased that it was just one of Homura's timelines anyway.

The Magia Record anime had a downer ending, yes. However, the Magia Record game had a happy ending to the same arc. Everyone survived, and the automatic purification system continued to function.

WannaBeAShapeshifter (chapter 21, May 23, 2023)

› Ashley is quite arrogant.
› She does not have the mental stamina to do what Homura did.
› In fact, it is quite possible that someone like Homura is a 1 in a billion entity.
› 100 cycles. Each one a failure. The worst are obviously those that are near-victories, sparking hope, only for them to fail once more.

I think it would be a stretch to say that even Homura has the mental stamina to do what she did. She almost broke down and failed right at the end of the anime. If it wasn't for Madoka making her wish, she wouldn't've even had the opportunity for a future Rebellion. It would've all been over.

Ashley probably wouldn't be able to bear with it for as long as Homura did, though. You are correct about that much.

(I get the impression that you stopped reading after this, so I suppose you might never see this response.)

JAGwin (chapter 98, Jul 16, 2023)

› "It wasn't on the level of the mass migration that smashed open the masquerade in a certain Madoka fanfic, ..."
› Out of curiosity, what fic was this?

As UrWishy also noted in their review, that's another reference to To The Stars.

› I personally think the chapel conversation came out fine aside from the one/two (depending on how you count) error(s) I pointed out.

It could definitely be worse, but there are a few rough, abrupt transitions in there.

Farsight21 (chapter 99, Jul 17, 2023)

› Just how many timelines are you going for?
› I though the third arc was going to start so.

I had the number of timelines planned out early on. This is a slight spoiler, but 9 timelines was the plan pretty much from the start, or almost from the start.

JAGwin (chapter 99, Jul 17, 2023)

› Isn't Walnut's in Hokuyo?

Possibly, but Hokuyo and Sankyo share a border, so I don't think this counts as an error. Walnut's is more or less northeast of the temple, so definitely further east.

› Unless I'm badly mistaken, Kamihama Future Academy is in Sakae, not Sankyo.

I don't know of anything that says where Kamihama Future Academy is, but I know there's one unidentified school marked on the city map in Sankyo, so I've assumed that's KFA. (Note: in case you were confused, KFA is Himena's school.)

› Unless I'm badly misremembering, the Mirror Mansion is in Daito, not Minaminagi.

I'm not sure of its exact location, but somewhere near the border of Daito and Minaminagi. Not sure on which side of said border. This one is an error if it truly is in Daito Ward though. However, I haven't changed it.

(Update that if I've changed it by the time I actually post these comments)

› How can Chelsea tell what color Nene's eyes are if their covered by non-transparent goggles?

Ah, that's a missed detail in my description. The goggles were pushed up, not covering her eyes.

› I think I've seen Martina and Eckert on the MagiReco subreddit, but I have no idea where they first appeared.

They were originally random extra doppels in the anime, either in the Doppel Syndrome Ward or at the end when the Magius forced everyone to unleash.

plowplum (chapter 98, Jul 21, 2023)

› I have not read or watched the Monogatari anime or light novel so Ill admit Im in the dark as to who the fire sisters are though they must be important and/or powerful if Chelsea's comment about them making a difference was anything to go by

They are not especially powerful in Monogatari, I don't think, although Karen is depicted as being stupidly strong, and Tsukihi's regeneration ability is straight from the source material.

The line you're referring to though is Ashley thinking back to events after meeting the fire sisters, and realizing she would've never guessed that having Tsukihi on Team Eve would've made such a big difference to the outcome.

› And we have Chelsea acting as a meta player by employing elemental typing to determine who should face which Mirror clone just like a game.

Although she's actually overdoing it a bit – telling Iroha to connect with Kanagi instead of Yachiyo is probably actually counterproductive. Sure, Iroha and Kanagi are both light element, but Iroha and Yachiyo have a pre-existing closeness that would render their connect more effective (and that could potentially even be the case if they were of opposing elements).

Basically, she's forgetting that element isn't the only factor. If they were complete strangers, matching elements would be the most effective choice, but that can be overridden by the feelings the girls have towards each other.

› While Folklore wouldn't have an interest in reviving the NM due to them having no reason to enact their social experiment regarding the Will of the Universe after Chelsea's intervention in Yukuni, that doesn't mean that someone else couldn't found or reform the org. Since Sorashi has appeared, Ive been suspicious of her. As a White Feather, she'd be someone with some level of authority. Assuming she was the one who brainwashed Kaede behind Mifuyu's back, then she would be someone with her own agenda who acts to her own whims. Her being one of the Feathers who didn't get brainwashed would mean she believes in liberation rather than having due loyalty to the Magius. All this could add to the possibility of Sorashi reforming the NM after the WoM disbands.

You've made a pretty good guess as to how Kaede ended up brainwashed! As you suspected, it was most likely Sorashi who, upon seeing Kaede complaining or something, decided to take her to the Memory Museum. Sorashi would've thought of it as a way of helping her to accept the truth.

And Sorashi would definitely be the type of person who joins the Neo-Magius in the future, though whether she plays the role you suggest yet remains to be seen.

UrWishy (chapter 100, Jul 22, 2023)

› I noticed Chelsea stopped using "we" for her actions (although I'm not sure).

Technically that's a slip-up on my part – I forgot. I have fixing that on todo list, but I don't know if I'll ever get to it. I did have her slip back into it in chapter 101 when she was talking to her mother, though.

› Finally read the origins of the Shinriku Island in ch.62 (woo) and theorizing Sakuya having a large karma may have been affected by meeting 3 ancients along being near a pivotal moment of Japans history? (never went deep into Japan's history idk)

Maybe! And the betrayal and death of Oda Nobunaga took place during Pernelle's stay in her village, so certainly it's a pivotal point in Japan's history.

› However since Arc 2 (due to magia record) everyone started to talk a little too much and only worsened by having even more characters.

That's… probably true. As I said in my previous response to your comment, I'm not doing the best job transferring the Magia Record plot from visual novel format to prose, am I? Visual novels typically don't use narration, so a lot of stuff that would normally be in narration instead ends up in the characters' dialogue, so I probably should have cut out some of that dialogue in favour of just narrating the events.

JAGwin (chapter 100, Jul 22, 2023)

› "Now, I realize this is sudden, but I decided to change Kuroe's given name. ... her name shall now be Kuroe Asaka."
› *tilts head* That name is pricking something in the back of my head, but I just can't put my finger on what it is.

I did happen to be looking at a list of To The Stars characters when I chose the name, but there's no meaning to that. It's just a coincidence – I happened to see that name on the list, kinda liked it, looked it up on Behind the Name, and thought the kanji reading suited Kuroe, so I used it.

UrWishy (chapter 100, Jul 22, 2023)

› Although it's sad, Homura's rebellion plot didn't change much.

Ashley deciding to play along is probably part of the reason though.

› Well it was the "To The Stars" by Hieronym, it is also where the name "Clarisse" (the likely origin of Walpurgis) from and "Governance" in Coeurl's future (yes, it's not from Null Magical Girl, i think).

Yes, you are correct about the source of "Governance", and not just the name. Null Magical Girl didn't expand very much on the governing structure of Terminus, so I threw in a concept from To The Stars to cover it.

› Since Pentalithia is soon revealing the ciphered text, I'll post this.

Although "soon" is only the end of the next timeline at the earliest (more likely early in Act 3), but sure. Do keep in mind that there are potentially some spoilers in the enciphered text – nothing huge, but still.

plowplum (chapter 99, Jul 22, 2023)

› I also wonder what factors in this timeline could've caused Doppel syndrome to pop up when it wasn't a factor in the last timeline unless the Magius somehow managed to cover it up last time

I would say the Magius probably covered it up in the last timeline. Perhaps even Mitama didn't find out. But there were probably fewer victims as well, maybe only one or two instead of six.

› Making Inui's death sadder is that she got to be a POV character during this timeline with her showing some development and proactive ness. Breaking things off with her abusive boyfriend. Trying to get Homura to relax more.

At least that hasn't been reset though, due to them waiting an extra week before they go back in time.

Observadorcha (chapter 100, Jul 22, 2023)

› Supongo que la información ahora traída en el arco 2.5 trae más cosas al pastel eh...

(roughly translated: "I suppose the new info from arc 2.5 brings things to the picture")

I don't think Puella Historia has a huge impact on the events here. It will become relevant eventually, but probably not until Act 5.

Observadorcha (chapter 1, Jul 23, 2023)

› También tengo la sensación de que muchas personas no serían muy felices al saber que Ashley creo al magius en cierto sentido, incluso si fue por una buena causa.

(roughly translated: "I also have a feeling that many people wouldn't be very happy to know that Ashley created the Magius in a certain sense, even if it was for a good cause")

You're right, as seen in the conversation with Iroha in the previous chapter, but I want to note that it's a slight stretch to say that Ashley "created the Magius".

KadinaruDess (chapter 100, Jul 23, 2023)

› (Taylor's subtle charm powers be overworking to make people still trust her even with those)

That's pretty close to what's actually happening, at least when it comes to information received from Ashley directly. I'm planning to expose those details in the next chapter or two.

plowplum (chapter 100, Jul 29, 2023)

› It's a good thing that the APS barrier was still up and that Homura happened to still be in Kamihama

The APS barrier was not still up. However, it was revealed that the barrier is not absolutely crucial to the functioning of the system. The core of the system was still functioning and drawing in grief, so Homura was safe.

Although, even if she hadn't been safe, there's still Elise's power.

› After hearing the Mitakihara girls mention Hayasaka and how poor she is, Im wondering if we might be looking at another magical girl in the future

Maybe. She is one of the girls I have pegged as having potential, but whether she'll contract is still up in the air.

JAGwin (chapter 101, Jul 29, 2023)

› Unless I am badly misremembering, Homura DID NOT have feathered wings prior to becoming Akumura. The wings she DID have were the Black Wings of Corrosion seen at the end of the anime (and named in Portable), which did not appear in Wraith Arc unless I'm forgetting something (very possible, it's been a long time since I read that manga).

Ashley was thinking of what you're calling the "Black Wings of Corrosion". Her thought process was that there are wings at all, not that they're specifically feathered wings. I don't know for certain whether they actually appear in Wraith Arc, but I can check next week; if not just chalk it up to Ashley being imprecise. That final scene in the anime could be construed as the prologue of Wraith Arc, after all.

However, they are feathered instead of "corrosion" because they share more in common with Devil Homura in terms of their ultimate origin. Ashley may have missed that connection though.

› On a related note, question; Why did you alternate between "labyrinth" and "barrier" in this chapter? And have you always done that, or is it just this chapter?

It's probably not just this chapter. I frequently switch between the two while proof-reading.

› Not entirely sure this is an error, but the "i" in "Karin" and the "e" in "Karen" are pronounced very differently.

They're definitely distinct, but I think they're similar enough that they could be confused, especially if she (due to speaking English) falls back to shortening that "i" as if it were an English word. In any case, it doesn't hurt to be explicit when you have a bunch of people with similar names.

› Actually, this chapter felt relatively short to me. Only took me around two and half hours to read it (and that's including the breaks I took and the time I spent writing this review), as opposed to the six I was expecting.

It actually is roughly half as long as chapter 100, but chapter 100 was really long. Not quite as long as chapter 98, but it does come close.

› Did you mean Chiharu Karen?

This time you're the one getting mixed up. Chiharu is the Tokime girl's given name; Chihiro is the surname of the girl who turns into the witch Virginia.

Although I definitely got that mixed up at least once too, so it's understandable you might be confused.