After trailing the witch for about half an hour, I finally locate the entrance to its labyrinth. The portal appears before me, an elaborate blocky design with a Christian cross in the centre, quite different from any I've seen before in the anime. Glancing at Cube, who seems to have taken up temporary residence on my shoulder, I transform.

"Come to think of it, shouldn't I have a weapon?" I muse out loud.

"Most magical girls have a weapon," Cube states. "But there are exceptions. Try thinking about a weapon and it should appear."

I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, thinking about weapons. When I open my eyes again, there's a floating teddy bear in front of me, with three smaller floating teddy bear heads orbiting it.

"Huh… is this it?" I ask. "It's a pretty weird weapon, but I suppose it does somewhat fit with my powers…"

"It would appear so," Cube confirms.

With a shrug, I step into the barrier and look around. I've entered a world that seems to be made entirely of stained glass designs. The floor I'm walking on is a stained glass depiction of what looks like a garbage-filled river, and the walls are covered in stained glass depictions of obscene acts that in some cases I can't even identify. As I take in the bizarre scenery, some sort of stained glass golem that looks vaguely like a pastor approaches me, surrounded by stained glass sheep. Those sheep are actually kind of cute, if a little creepy. I guess these are the witch's familiars.

Without warning, the glass sheep suddenly open their mouths and spew out a storm of needles. Startled, I move the teddy bear to block the onslaught, while the bear heads zoom towards the attackers and physically assault them. They must have quite some mass between them, for two of the sheep are shattered by the attack. Emboldened by the success, I wait for the needle storm to stop and then charge into the fray, smashing the sheep to smithereens and finishing off with an uppercut to the creepy pastor, reducing it to shards as well.

I take a second to reflect on a job well done, but then realize a new batch has shown up, so I get back to smashing those sheep before they can pull out their needles. The teddy bear proves quite helpful as well, floating around and protecting my back almost as if it has a mind of its own. It's even perfectly capable of smashing things all on its own. Well, I suppose technically I am the one controlling it, so it's not quite all on its own, but close enough. I suppose I should come up with a name for it… uhhh…

"Alright, from now on, you'll be Teddy Mk II! And the floating heads shall be… Teddy Drones!"

I have no idea how long it takes, but eventually I find myself at an elaborate oak door. I pause to check on my soul gem. It seems less bright than before, but only barely. I guess I haven't been using that much magic, even though I'm controlling Teddy Mk II to fight. Or maybe it really does move on its own without my direct control? I honestly have no idea.

"I wonder what kind of person she was," I blurt out.

Cube does not respond to my half-query. Perhaps it doesn't want to encourage sympathy towards the witch or something. I squint at the runes on the door and take a few moments to decipher them.

"Saint Stacy F Stein, is it? Well, not that it means anything useful… but I guess it's her name. Poor Stacy, I'll put you out of your misery, okay?"

I glance around. Another batch of sheep is approaching.

"Well, might as well get this over with."

I kick in the door and enter the witch's chamber. The stained glass design on the floor looks like it depicts a bed, and more obscene scenes decorate the walls. At first glance, the witch appears to be a girl in a nun's habit simply laying on the floor, although I'm sure there's more to her than that. Several of the pastor familiars crowd around her.

And that's when Stacy gets up from the floor. No, of course she doesn't just sit up like a normal person. She stays in the supine position, lifting herself off the ground with her arms and legs, looking for all the world like a human spider, the nun's habit falling away to expose her body. The spider image is reinforced further by the extra pair of legs that extend from her midsection, and in fact I realize her arms are actually legs too. The head droops, an opaque veil where the face would be, and a single giant eye opens on her navel. Her comically huge boobs, nominally held in place by a band of cloth, jiggle in a nauseatingly unnatural way as she moves. Actually, they look more like literal balloons than any part of a human body.

The pastor familiars come at me first. They pull out glass books and tear pages out, flinging them at me. I let the Teddy Drones knock them aside while I leap in close and knock their heads off, reducing them to so many shards on the floor. I've finished most of them off by the time the witch makes her move. It points one of its feet at me, and something shoots out. I dodge, but it repeats the tactic twice more, keeping me on my feet. It's once again a very spider-like action, although the webbing seems to be made of glass.

Then, just as I spot more familiars approaching, one of the witch's breasts detaches itself and floats into the air like a balloon, growing larger as it does. I keep an eye on it as I punch out a few sheep, and it's a good thing I do – it suddenly bursts, raining down shards of glass on the entire room. I desperately raise Teddy Mk II to shield against the worst of it, dodging as best I can. The only silver lining is that the witch's attack also destroys most of the sheep familiars, leaving only a few pastor familiars to resume the attack.

I know I need to stop focusing on the familiars and actually attack the witch, but the familiars just keep coming, and try as I might, I can't fend them off for long enough to get in a solid attack on the witch. To be fair, I do land a few hits, but they don't seem to do much damage. The witch herself also keeps me on my toes, forcing me to dodge glass web attacks or bombings every thirty seconds so. It seems they regrow after she expends one, so there's no limit to how many times she can deploy one of those bombs.

I feel like I've been fighting for an hour or two. I'm not physically tired, no doubt due to my enhanced magical girl body, but I'm starting to feel the fatigue mentally. So you can imagine my relief when the status quo suddenly changes.

"La luz de la verdad!"

A new girl enters the fray with guns blaring, so to speak. A barrage of lasers pummels the witch, causing her to retreat a little and switch the focus of her attacks to the newcomer, who looks like a princess with the white dress and tiara, black cornrows cascading down her back, the dress a stark contrast against her skin and hair. Until I learn her proper name, I guess I'll think of her as Princess. Since most of the familiars are focusing on me, Princess is able to get close to and stab Stacy with her weapon, which appears to be something like a halberd.

I see some of the familiars moving to target Princess instead, so I direct Teddy Mk II to take them down without prejudice. If I can continue to hold off the familiars, perhaps Princess can actually finish off the witch. I keep an eye on her as she darts in to attack again, and then when Stacy releases one of her bombs, I call out a warning.

"Watch out! That's gonna explode into shards of glass!"

Princess doesn't even acknowledge my warning, but I think she heard it, because she raises her halberd and deploys what looks like a shield of light extending from the attachment just below the blade. It doesn't look like it should work, but when the bomb does explode, it seems to scatter the shards so they don't hit her. So, not exactly a shield, more of a repulsion effect.

As I smash another pastor familiar with my fist, Princess darts in once more, and this time she takes off one of the witch's legs. However, the witch immediately jumps back, then uses her glass web ability to literally take to the air, retreating up to the ceiling.

"Dammit!" Princess complains.

She fires off a barrage of lasers, not quite as impressive as her opening attack, but the witch seems mostly unfazed. The number of familiars seems to have increased now, so I decide to move closer to Princess so that we don't end up separately surrounded. She smashes several familiars with her halberd, then shoots down a bomb Stacy had just deployed. Apparently, destroying it prematurely prevents the explosion of glass shards somehow. Then she shoots off a fresh barrage of lasers. I'm pretty sure it's having an effect, but it's just not enough to get Stacy to give up the ghost.

A sudden idea occurs to me. The Magia Record game has a mechanic for one girl to lend power to another, and the anime adaptation incorporated that mechanic into the lore, giving some insight into how it's actually done. Can I pull it off? I ponder the idea for a moment. I can't exactly explain why, but I instinctively feel that it should be possible, so I call out to Princess.

"I have an idea!" I say. "Hold out your hand like this!"

By way of demonstration, I hold my hand out towards her with palm facing her, as if expecting a high-five. Princess blinks at me in surprise, but readily accepts the offer. As our fingertips touch, I focus my power through the connection. For a moment, a flash of light appears between our almost-touching palms, and then she pulls away, looking surprised.

"I… I feel… somehow stronger," Princess marvels.

Immediately, she fires off another barrage of lasers, and this time, it's almost twice as intense as the last one. While she handles that, I focus on eliminating more of the familiars. Once the barrage clears, Stacy falls back to the floor and just… ignores us. Taking advantage of the respite, the Princess swings her halberd at a group of familiars while addressing me.

"Is that your unique power?" she asks. "An ability to boost other magical girls?"

"No… I don't think so," I reply. "I'm pretty sure anyone could do what I just did… but we should attack it while it's vulnerable."

"Right, let's attack at the same time," Princess agrees.

We exchange glances for a moment to synchronize our attacks, then charge for the witch. I direct Teddy Mk II to crush those balloons growing from her chest, followed by the appendage that had originally appeared to be a head, while Princess stabs her directly in the eye on her navel.

Moments after she is impaled by that halberd, Stacy seems to notice us again, attacking with her glassy webs, but both of us dodge, smacking away a pesky familiar or two that tries to get in the way. The balloons have not yet regenerated, so Princess immediately jumps back into close range, taking off two more legs in quick succession. Now the witch doesn't have enough legs to walk properly, and her mobility seems to be severely limited. I figure this is a good time to bring out my ultimate attack, so I summon Teddy Mk II in front of me and grab him with both hands. The Teddy Drones swoop in and begin spinning in a circle in front of me, building up some kind of energy. Once I feel it's ready to fire, I call out to Princess, who has been alternating between smashing familiars and stabbing the weakened witch while I charge up.

"Look out!"

She darts away from the line of fire without a second thought, and I let loose the teddy bear cannon, calling out the first thing that came to mind.

"Ultimate Teddy Glittering Gunk!"

It's not quite what Ashley's attack was called in the game, but who cares? Actually, no… it's pretty close to what it was called on the short-lived North American server, isn't it? Maybe that's why I thought of it. Still, I'm not Ashley, so I can call it whatever I want.

A beam composed of a multitude of glittering bits is emitted from the spinning teddy heads and lands squarely on the weakened witch, coating her in the the glittering substance and causing her to stop resisting and struggling. She's still not quite dead, unfortunately, but Princess follows up my attack with a final barrage of lasers, and Stacy finally explodes into a cloud of glass shards and dies.

"Not bad for your first time," Princess says, smiling at me.

"Uhh, how'd you know I was new?" I ask.

"An educated guess," she replies. "Cube said there might be a new girl joining us soon. I'm Sarra Basset, nice to meet you."

She leans down to pick up the grief seed, offering it to me.

"Huh? No, I couldn't…" I protest. "You did most of the work, after all… I couldn't even get past the familiars."

"Look, you did more than you know," Sarra retorts. "I've been chasing this witch for over a week now, but she keeps running away whenever I get close. It's thanks to you getting to the central chamber that I was even able to face her at all. I guess she thought you were weaker and less of a threat."

"Which is kinda true though." I say. "Since the familiars were about all I could handle."

"So it's not at all a stretch to say that I owe this victory to you. Plus, I'm not sure I could've beaten it without your help," Sarra adds. "Whatever you did with that high-five thing was amazing. I've never seen a magical girl do something like that, and I've fought alongside several in my time."

"Ah, you mean the connect, right?" I nod. "Like I said, I don't think there's anything special about it… I just lent you a bit of my power."

"Sure, but I think it was your power that caused it to stop targeting us afterwards, letting us get in a clean hit," Sarra says.

Right, Ashley's power in the game includes the infliction of a charm status ailment. Her connect skill, her ultimate magia skill, and even her doppel form included charm as a component. So, I guess stopping the witch in its tracks like that must've been the effect of charm.

"Anyway, I already got a grief seed tonight, and besides, you look like you need it more."

I blink, powering down and looking at my soul gem. Sure enough, it has darkened quite a bit, almost halfway.

"Alright, if you insist," I say.

I accept the grief seed from her and press it against my soul gem, drawing out the corruption and restoring its brilliant shine. Meanwhile, Sarra powers down as well and extracts a grief seed of her own to perform the same ritual. Now that I have a chance to get a good look at her, I realize she towers almost a whole head above me. I haven't checked my height yet since waking up as Ashley, but given that I don't feel appreciably smaller or larger than my previous body, I guess I must be around five feet, give or take a few inches. That means Sarra is approaching six feet! In her casual clothes she still has her hair in cornrows, but now they're coiled up in a bun instead of tumbling down her back. The clothes themselves are simple but practical, just jeans and a t-shirt. She also wears glasses, which triggers a sudden flash of recognition from the real Ashley's memories.

"Hey, haven't I seen you somewhere?" I ask. "Are you on the student council, perhaps?"

"Oh?" Sarra says. "Do we go to the same school? That's pretty convenient! Yes, I'm the treasurer on the student council. May I ask your name?"

"Oh right, I forgot," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor. Nice to meet you."

"You too."

We shake hands. By this time, the labyrinth has finished collapsing around us, so we exit the alley together.

"So, about that… connect, you called it?" Sarra says. "You said anyone can do it? Is that true, Cube?"

I blink in surprise, for I somehow forgot how Cube had been watching the entire fight. He hops up onto Sarra's shoulder and responds.

"I have seen many girls who consistently fight in a team use a similar type of ability," Cube says. "I cannot with confidence say that anyone could do it, however."

"How'd you learn it, Ashley?" Sarra asks.

I can't tell her I played the game… so I guess I have to cop out a bit here.

"Uhh, I just had an idea, and it felt like it would work so I tried it," I explain. "I wouldn't say I learned it. That was literally the first time I ever tried it. I mean, that was also my first battle, so…"

"I see…" Sarra muses. "It's true that I instinctively understood my power immediately, so that sounds similar…"

"Well, it's not something I instinctively understood the moment I made my contract though," I say quickly. "It's more like… when I considered the idea, I instinctively knew it would work."

"I see," Sarra nods. "Well, I usually fight alone, but it can't hurt to have it in my arsenal… I'll have to try it myself sometime." She pauses. "By the way, you should know… there's another magical girl in this neighbourhood, and she's… well… let's just say she's not the most pleasant character."

"I know, Alice Chandler, right?" I nod. "I met her earlier this evening. Honestly, she seemed okay to me, but… I think I get what you mean. A bit abrasive. Feels like a tsundere though."

"Well, pretty much, though you'll have to explain what tsundere means sometime," Sarra says. "Well, I'll see you later… either tomorrow while witch hunting, or at school the following day."

"Oh right, school," I say. "I was sick for awhile so it'll be my first day back…"

"Oh my, I hope it goes well," Sarra says. "Good night!"

I respond in kind, and we go our separate ways. After climbing back in through the window, I sit down at my computer to explore a little. I find Ashley's application for the exchange program sitting as a draft in the browser history, and note that she'd put Kamihama as her first choice of cities for the exchange. I move it down to second choice and substitute Mitakihara for the first choice, then save it. The deadline is the end of the month, so I need to convince Dad within two days.

After a bit more puttering in the browser history, I start to do a little research on the various cities that show up in the franchise. Of course, my focus is on Matakihara and Kamihama, but I also briefly investigate a few other cities. Takarazaki is the hometown of Tamaki Iroha, one of the key people in the plan to save magical girls. Then there's Hohzuki and Asunaro, the towns featured in the two spin-off manga. Although it's a little unclear how those spin-offs fit into the timeline, the crossover events in the Magia Record game seemed to imply that they were at least fairly close in time to the game's main story, so if I can, I'd like to interfere there too. And last but not least is Kazamino, which apparently borders Mitakihara to the south.

As it turns out, the six cities are all fairly close together in the Kansai region, with Mitakihara at the centre. The map of Japan seems a little weird though… but I can't quite put my finger on it, so I just take note of how you'd travel between those cities by train or bus, and add those notes to my document on everything I remember. While I'm at it, I work on expanding that document a bit.

Eventually I realize I'm super hungry, so I head downstairs. Mom is still up, reading in the armchair, and she spots me immediately.

"Feeling hungry, Ashley?" she asks. "There's leftovers in the fridge if you want to warm them up. Actually, I just put them in there not too long ago, so they might even be warm still."

"Alright," I say.

I dig the leftovers out of the fridge and, after confirming they're barely lukewarm, I put some on a plate and throw it in the microwave for a bit. Then I pull it out and wolf it down before heading upstairs to resume dredging up memories.

Eventually, I change into Ashley's pyjamas and climb into bed.

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.

Sarra Basset

Age: 17
Eye Colour: Grey
Hair Colour: Black
Origins: Santa Cruz, California, USA
Symbol: Six-pointed star
Soul Gem: Oval cyan gem on her tiara
Element: Light
Weapon: Mirror halberd
Powers: Illusions, lasers, energy reflect, repulsion field
Wish: redacted

Speed: 5
Magical Stamina: 8
Offensive Power: 7
Defensive Power: 4
Initial Power Usability: 4
Learned Powers: 5