Homura was doing a routine check that she began each time she traveled back in time. It was necessary in case there was a change in Madoka's behavior and her surroundings. She had to consider the many factors that could help or hinder her.

But how was she supposed to react to the fact that time itself had strangely shifted? Normally, she returns to the hospital on March 16, where her new round begins. But not this time. This time, when she woke up in the hospital, it was the middle of May. At first, Homura thought that she hadn't traveled back in time, but she quickly disproved it, because the city outside her room was intact and there was no sign of the battle.

No ruined city. No hundreds of victims. No dead Madoka or any other magical girls. Everything was the same as in the previous timelines. She'd spent a couple days exploring the city to see what else was strange about this timeline (besides the golden butterfly). There were no major changes, except that the previously unfinished second mall was now operational and called Junes. Even the locations of the Witch Barriers was the same.

When Homura went to school, there were no changes either, expect that Madoka's younger brother had a birthday coming up. This calmed Homura down a bit.

«So the only thing that has changed globally is the month I'm starting over from. Everything else has stayed the same. But why do I have a strong feeling that this is not all?»

After school, she went in search of Witch Barriers, and on the way, her Soul Gem began to glow faintly. She remembered that the path she'd taken was to the abandoned building where the Witch Gertrude had been. Walking down the familiar alleyway, she was already near the building when she noticed movement near the entrance.

«Wait a minute. Mami, Madoka, and Sayaka should have already entered the Barrier. There's someone else here.» she reasoned worriedly as she hid around the corner.

Homura was even more alert when she realized that the person standing in front of the Barrier was studying the entrance as if he had seen it. He carefully stepped inside, disappearing in a small flash.

«And here's another change. Who is this person? I don't remember any other marked people entering the Labyrinth in the past.»

She strained her memory, but she couldn't remember anyone else entering this Barrier in the previous timelines. When she came out of hiding, Homura headed straight for the Labyrinth to find out more about what was going on.

During his stay in Mitakihara, Yu didn't notice any strange things. At least at first, everything was very normal. He studied, asked his classmates about the city, went to the stores and tidied up the house. Everything was normal. And that was strange.

After school, Yu went home and changed his clothes before going out on patrol again, taking his guitar bag, which also held his katana. He had been on several patrols since he had arrived here, and although he hadn't found anything, he was able to get a better look at the city. He probably wouldn't have found anything this time either, if it hadn't been for the strange nagging feeling that came over him as he passed an abandoned building. Deciding not to ignore it, Yu walked into the building's grounds, where he found a woman lying on the ground. Running up to her, he quickly verified that she was alive, and afterwards, he began to examine the building itself, which was the source of the eerie aura.

«If I had Teddy or Rise with me, maybe I would have discovered this place sooner. Alright, no time to relax! We need to find out what's going on in this building and deal with it the best I can.»

Putting his bag next to the woman, Yu pulled out his katana and headed straight for the building.

Once inside, Yu had the same feeling as when he was in the TV World. The corridor he was walking through was much larger than it should have been, and there was a strange dark aura that created distortions. Out of habit, Yu pulled out his glasses, which he always wore when went to the TV World, and putting them on, he was surprised to see that the distortions were gone and the view became better. However, at the same time, he noticed the creatures approaching him. Some of them had butterfly-like wings and strange multicolored bodies with many eyes on them. And others had a cotton head with big mustache and thin body with butterfly wings on them. None of them posed much of a threat to Yu, after all, he had fought more formidable Shadows more than once, so he knocked down all the creatures with a single blow of his katana.

«What is the Shadow Nest doing here? But even more strange that the Shadow Operatives never came to deal with this. What's going on in this city anyway?»

The deeper he went into the maze, the more gardening-related items he encountered: broken shovels, rusty scissors, rotten seedlings and roses. The whole place screamed in despair at its creator, and that confused him more and more. Soon, a red door appeared in front of him, behind which a fierce battle could be heard. Carefully opening it, he saw a huge garden-like arena, where there was a creature with a strange body. On what was probably the head was a large number of rotten roses that appeared to be its eyes. The body had many tendrils that allowed it to move around, and thanks to its wings (which again resembled butterfly wings), it was able to fly into the air and fall on the opponent fighting it.

A girl with blonde curly hair, who was dressed as a magical girl from those TV shows that Nanako watched, was fighting against the monster. Dodging enemy's attacks, she created muskets in her hands, which she used to shoot the monster from a short distance. She deftly dodged the roses that were flying at her with the ribbons appearing next to her. But she missed a few of the projectiles that hit the girl and threw her into the wall.

– Mami-san! – two voices shouted at the same time from the other side of the arena.

Looking at the other side, Yu saw the girls he had met the other day in Junes. The girls were fearfully watching the battle going on, and could hardly do anything. Deciding not to stand aside any longer, Yu formed a Tarot card in the palm of his hand.

– Izanagi! – Yu shouted, smashing the map.

A huge figure in a long dark cloak moved straight at the monster and hit it with a naginata, knocking the creature to the ground. The two girls cried out slightly at the appearance of the sudden giant, not knowing what he was going to do next. Yu slightly waved his hand, giving Persona a command to use Ziodyne. Pointing the naginata at the rising creature, a bolt of lightning shot out from the tip of the blade and sent it straight into the monster's body, stunning it again.

Suddenly, several ribbons stretched out from the cloud of dust, binding the stunned monster, and preventing it from rising again.

– I think I were a little carried away with this fight and forgot about the main goal.

The voice belonged to the blonde-haired girl, who was back on her feet, holding a huge cannon in front of her.

– Tiro Finale! – the girl shouted, releasing a large energy beam from her weapon.

The shot directly hit the target, blowing off half of its body, causing the monster to start disintegrating. The arena itself also started to disappear, leaving them all in the hallway of an abandoned building. The blonde picked up something from the ground and after receiving praise from the girls, finally turned her attention to Yu.

– We should also thank them both for their help. Could you please tell us your names?

Yu looked around in surprise, noticing that Izanagi were still floating next to him. But that brought him some joy, because it meant that his control over the Persona in the real world had greatly improved since leaving Inaba.

– I'm Yu Narukami. Third year of high school. And he's... I think it's better to discuss this elsewhere. – Yu let Izanagi disappear in a bright blue glow, returning to his mind. – Nice to meet you.

– I'm Mami Tomoe. I'm in third year of middle school. Huh, that makes us your senpai. – Mami said, chuckling at the thought.

– And I'm Sayaka Miki! Thanks again! – she snapped her fingers after looking at him carefully. – I think we've met before. Don't you think so, Madoka?

The pink-haired girl looked at his clothes thoughtfully.

– You're right! We saw you the other day at the mall! When I was arguing with Sayaka about what to give Tatsuya! – the girl was talking excitedly, but stopped when she realized that she had forgotten something. – Oh, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Madoka Kaname! Nice to meet you too, Yu-san!

– Me too. – Yu said as he continued to look around the hallway. – But what happened here? What were those creatures?

– We'll have to explain it to him, Mami. So he knows how dangerous it is. – suddenly spoke an unknown voice.

A strange animal looked out from behind Madoka. It looked like a white cat with a huge fluffy tail, but the strangest things about it were its long, pointed ears and red eyes. Unblinking red eyes that seemed to stare straight into Yu's soul.

– A cat?

– Oh, sorry, Kyubey. We completely forgot to introduce you. – Mami, once again distracted, looked somewhere behind Yu's back. – Maybe you'd like to introduce yourself, too?

Yu looked back and saw another person came out from the darkness of the corridor. It was a black-haired girl, also dressed fancifully, but in darker colors. She came closer, pushing her hair back.

– I'm Homura Akemi. I'm also a magical girl.

For a while, there was an explosion of different emotions of Persona's in his head. Some laughed at how seriously she said this, others were confused, and some of them were thoughtful.

– Maybe we should talk in a more peaceful atmosphere. Talking here is a bit uncomfortable. – Yu asked innocently.

– Yeah, that's a good idea. – Mami agreed happily. – We could go to my place. I have a cake in the fridge that I just baked. We can discuss everything over a nice cup of tea.

Yu nodded approvingly at the idea.

– Akemi-san, would you like to join us? The cake should be enough for everyone. – Mami asked Homura politely.

– I'm sorry, but... – Homura stopped talking when she saw Madoka's pleading gaze. – All right, I'll join, with your permission.

With that small group, Yu headed towards the exit of the building.

«Why does it all seem so...weird?» Homura thought to herself as she waited for Mami to return from the kitchen.

Once inside Mami's apartment, Sayaka and Madoka sat on one side of the triangular table, while Yu and Homura sat on the other. Each of them already had a cup of tea in front of them, but only Yu bothered to take a sip.

– It's a pretty good tea. It has a nice flavor and aroma. – Yu said in order to defuse the tense atmosphere.

– I'm glad you like it, Narukami-san. – Mami said, putting the cake on the table. – I can give you the address where I usually buy them.

– Sounds good. – deciding not to linger too long, Yu decided to start a conversation. – Tomoe-san, I think we should discuss what happened recently.

– Did you decide to get straight to the point? Okay. What Akemi-san said recently is true. We are both - magical girls. The place where we recently found ourselves was called the Witch's Labyrinth.

«Magical girls are real. I shouldn't be surprised. So much has happened in the past year that even this doesn't sound so strange anymore.» Yu chuckled slightly to himself , deciding to ask the next question.

– Is it created by a witch? Like those "evil" witches?

– In a way, yes. – said the smiling Mami. – Witches are the spawn of negative emotions from which they are born. By collecting negative emotions, they become stronger. Remember that woman outside the building? Maybe you noticed something on her?

Yu silently nodded. There was a strange vine-shaped mark on her neck that made him a little wary.

– Witches mark some people with something called a Witch's Kiss. The person who received it would perform any task assigned to them by the Witch or her familiars. Up to...

– ...Suicides? – the girl nodded. – But that still doesn't fully explain how they appear.

All the girls stared at him in surprise, but Yu continued to think aloud.

– The place where we were... And it's run by Witches, not Shadows. What is it...?

– What are you even talking about? What "TV World"? What are these "Shadows"? – Sayaka was perplexed.

Yu looked away and turned his attention to the girls who were waiting for him to answer.

– Sorry, I guess you have questions for me too. It just reminded me of something and made me think.

– It's all right, Narukami-san. It's okay, Narukami-san. We're just wondering how you got that kind of power. Moreover, what "TV World" are you talking about? – Mami asked, after sipping some tea.

– Where should I start? – After some thoughts, Yu decided to ask a direct question – Have you heard about last year's events in the small town of Inaba?

– Are you talking about the strange deaths of people found on the wires? – The other girls looked back at Sayaka in surprise, causing her to blush in embarrassment. – What? Why are you looking at me like that? My dad's a police officer, and he talked about this case all the time! He was always outraged about the incompetence of the investigators when they accused the copycat. Wait a minute. Does this have something to do with what you said?

– Yes, directly. TV World is literally a whole world that you can enter through the TV. An ordinary person who enters it runs the risk of running into Shadows. Like Witches, they're the spawn of negative emotions. Especially you must not be there during foggy weather because the Shadows become angrier and more aggressive.

Sayaka thought about his words for a moment, but quickly managed to put it all together.

– So, a person enters this TV World, meets the Shadows, and they... kill him? And then...

– ... They fall back into the real world, ending up on the wires. – finished Yu.

There was silence in the group as everyone continued to digest the information. Surprisingly, Kyubey, who had been silent all this time, broke the silence.

– You didn't say how they got to that world. Judging from the fact that you've only recently learned about the Witches, the victims didn't get there the same way. – the white animal claimed.

– If I'm not mistaken, the killer was one of the police officers who was investigating the case. – Sayaka said, wincing slightly at her own words. – He framed the first victim's lover, but the investigation revealed that some evidence had been tampered. So all that nonsense about 'putting people on TV' is true?

Yu silently nodded back at Sayaka.

– But how... – Homura, who had been silent for most of the conversation, spoke up. – How did this place come to be? I don't think... Kyubey... knew about the existence of this place.

The strange pause in the girl's words made Yu think about Kyubey again. This creature might look cute, but for some strange reason, he didn't trust it. Moreover, the most disturbing thing about him was that his face still didn't express a single emotion. Maybe he shouldn't tell everything that had happened in Inaba.

– As strange as it may sound, but TV World appeared because of the people themselves. Their negative emotions formed this world. A rural town with nothing much to do except talk about all sorts of rumors. That was one of the reasons for this place. My friends and I agreed to get together at times and go to make sure that what happened in the past doesn't happen again.

– No wonder there are places like TV World. – Kyubey suddenly began. – I've been around people for years, but even I still don't know much. It's possible that there may be Labyrinths that weren't created by the Witches, but we've never stumbled upon them.

– That's right. Thankfully, there are those who can take care of it. – Mami said after finishing her piece of cake. – Does your power have something to do with what happened in that world?

Yu nodded to girl.

– When we arrived in that world, we were completely defenseless against the Shadows. We had some weapons with us, but I don't think wrenches and a golf club were very effective. – Yu chuckled, remembering the incident at the food court. – But our Personas saved us. They came to us at a time when our lives were under threat. They are a special protection that saved us from the threats that were in that world. Since then, we've been in many battles and have become much stronger.

– I see. It's good to know that you can fend for yourself if you happen to be in the Labyrinth. – Mami sighed in relief.

– Thanks for your concern. – Yu grinned to himself.

After sitting down for a while and talking about school, Yu glanced at his watch, seeing that it was already late.

– I'm sorry, but I have to go. There are still a lot of things to clean up and organize at home. – Yu got up from his seat and put his bag on his back.

He walked down the hall and addressed to Mami before leaving.

– Mami-san. If you need help clearing a Maze, don't hesitate to ask for help. I'll come and help you if anything happens.

– Thank you, Yu-san. If anything really happens, I'll let you know. – said the girl politely.

Closing the door, Mami headed back to the living room, where Sayaka and Madoka were also about to leave. She glanced at the spot where the other magical girl was sitting, but there was no longer any sign of her presence. Her departure was also indicated by an open window.

«Maybe what he said was true, or maybe he was deceiving us. You need to be more careful with him. We cannot rule out that he has his own ulterior motives.» Kyubey informed her over the telepathic link.

Mami silently agreed with him, even though she had doubts about Kyubey's thoughts. Something in the back of her mind kept her from thinking badly of Yu. Perhaps she should have thought alone about everything he'd told her, as she always did.

As Homura followed the gray-haired guy's direction, she continued to digest the information she received. What Yu Narukami told them could be either a half-truth (which she was obviously tired of) or a complete lie. But when she thought of the second option, she was immediately reminded of the creature that was the Persona of this person: a huge figure dressed in a long dark coat, a white mask with a pair of burning golden eyes and a huge naginata. The magic that came from it was the same as Yu's. He probably wasn't lying, but he obviously hadn't told everything he knew, and there were still secrets he wasn't going to reveal. Which gave her even more reasons to keep an eye on him.

Finally, he stopped at one of the houses and opened the door, went inside.

«So that's where he lives now. I'll watch him for a while. Maybe I can finally find out what else has changed this time.»

Homura looked at the Soul Gem on the back of her hand. She noticed that over the last ten timelines, the rate of contamination of her Soul Gem had become faster, and it wasn't helped by the despair she had experienced in her previous attempts.

The last attempt was the same as all the previous ones: Sayaka became a Witch and almost killed Madoka and Kyoko, and during the battle with her, in the heat of battle, Mami couldn't stand it and committed suicide. During the battle with Walpurgisnacht, Kyoko was killed by Witch's familiars, and Madoka, who had become a magical girl again, protected Homura from one of the Witch's attacks, which destroyed the girl without leaving a trace of her. Even though she had seen it thousands of times before, it still pained her to see them all die. Every time she went back in time, she tried new ways of communicating with everyone, and every time they didn't work. Failure followed failure

But now something had changed. And the appearance of this man could finally change the tragic end that had been haunting her all this time. But she had to hurry, because there were a little more than five weeks left before the Walpurgisnacht.