Another week flies by, and I decide it's finally time to check in with the magical girls of Hohzuki. When Saturday comes around, I hop on a bus headed there. For some reason, Kyuubey decides to join me. I don't really have any reason to stop it, so I don't comment on its presence. However, as we draw near to Hohzuki, it occurs to me that Kyuubey could perhaps provide me with some information. After all, I haven't even explored all of Mitakihara, so there could be others there I haven't yet met.

"Kyuubey, the magical girls I've met in Mitakihara… they can't possibly cover the whole city, can they?"

"Perhaps not," Kyuubey says. "Who have you met?"

"Um… Itsumi Inui, Tomoe Mami, the Sleepwalking Spectre, and of course the quartet. I also met Sakura Kyouko, and I know of Asako Komaki but haven't met her yet."

"Yes, there are others," Kyuubey says.

"Can you tell me a little about them?" I ask.

"There is Kohaku Koharu to the east, Naomi Noriko to the northeast, and Masuyo Mari to the northwest," Kyuubey.

"What about the southeast?" I ask.

"There are no magical girls who currently lay claim to the southeast," Kyuubey says. "But Sakura Kyouko, Kohaku Koharu, and Asaki Komaki all hunt there sometimes."

"Huh, I thought Kyouko only patrolled in Kazamino, but I guess her territory crosses the border… So, you're saying there are only three other magical girls I haven't met yet in Mitakihara?"

"Yes, although there are several potentials as well," Kyuubey says.

"Dare I ask how many…?"

"Within the borders of Mitakihara, I have my eye on seven more potential magical girls."

I consider the people who I can reasonably expect to become magical girls at some point… Kaname Madoka, Akemi Homura, and Miki Sayaka are obvious, and then there's Mikuni Oriko, Kure Kirika, and Chitose Yuma… and lastly Momoe Nagisa. That does come to seven, but I wonder how accurate it is? In particular, it might not have seen potential in Yuma yet, so there could be even more than seven potentials around the city.

I consider asking Kyuubey for more details on the abilities of the three unknown girls, but that's when the bus pulls into the stop in central Hohzuki, and I suddenly sense a witch nearby, so I hop out quickly and go chase the traces of magic.

The trail leads into an alley lodged between a grocery store and a family restaurant, where I see a portal with a design resembling a fountain surrounded by black teardrops, or perhaps it's ink splatter. It's not flickering, so I transform and hop inside, looking around.

"N-nooo! Leave me alone!"

To my surprise, there is someone already in here, just not a magical girl. There's a young girl on the ground here, frantically scrabbling backwards on the ground, surrounded by familiars that look like giant fountain pens with eyes, arms and legs. She has red hair in the same style as Kaname Madoka, a small bunch on each side, and wears red shorts and a pink sweater, with black tights to ward off the late winter chill.

I raise my sword and attack the familiars. They seem to be quite resilient to damage, but at least the presence of an actual threat draws their attention away from the girl on the ground, who gapes up at me in awe.

"E-eh!? W-what's… who're you!?"

I'm too busy to answer, fighting off six fountain pens at once, but to my surprise, Kyuubey takes up the explanation. So, she can see him? That must mean she has potential, right?

"She is a magical girl who fights witches," it says. "This is a witch's labyrinth."

"W-witches…?" the girl says. "A-are there a lot of these scary things?"

"Yes, they are drawn to places where people gather," Kyuubey says. "It is a magical girl's duty to destroy them."

The girl falls silent, watching for a little while. I manage to defeat two of the fountain pens, but it seems like one more has popped up in the meantime, so there's still five left. Damn, these things are hard to cut… even with my super-sharp sword, it takes four or five strikes before I can even make an appreciable dent in one, and at least two or three more to defeat them… and that's assuming I manage to target all those strikes at approximately the same place on the pen's body. Do they have no weak points?

Then the girl speaks up again. "Um… so, magical girls are the only ones who can fight these witches, right?" she asks.

"That's right," Kyuubey says. "A magical girl gets their wish granted, and in return, they fight witches."

"A wish? W-what kind of wish?"

"Almost anything you can imagine," Kyuubey says. "Would you like to make a contract with me and become a magical girl?"

"You shouldn't… rush into… something like this," I manage to say between swings. "It's tough work."

"Anything at all!?" the girl asks incredulously. "T-then… I wish… I wish I could reproduce Mom's cooking! C-can you do that?"

…was she even listening to me? Is she seriously going to jump into this with barely any thought at all? Well… I suppose it's not that uncommon, but still… I manage to finish off another two pens, but one more spawns in the meantime, so now there's four of them. On the bright side, two of them have stopped attacking me and are just standing there. This confuses me for a moment, but then I remember what Pernelle said about the sword – that it could inflict charm on anything I hit with it. I guess that must be what happened here.

"Of course I can," Kyuubey says. "Is that the wish that will light your soul gem?"

"P-please!"

"Understood. Your wish has surpassed entropy."

I have my back to her, so I can't see it but I hear her pained gasp as it draws her soul out of her body.

"O-ohhh… oh my… I feel like all sorts of new knowledge is flowing into my head… amazing!" the girl gasps. "It really worked! That's so awesome!"

Then I sense the surge of magic as she transforms, and she throws herself at one of the pens, leaving me only three to deal with. Her magical girl outfit consists of a red woollen dress that kinda looks like a turtleneck extended to the knees, a white shawl pinned at the throat with a brown bow, white thigh-high stockings, and a tan jacket or vest or something that doesn't cover the front at all except for a sort of belt buckle at the waist. She wields dual daggers in a reverse grip and seems to be able to cut the familiar even without physically hitting it – even when she misses an attack, it still seems to be hurt.

I'm getting a little tired from all this sword work, so as I cut down yet another fountain pen familiar, I decided to summon Teddy Mk II in an attempt to crush the remaining two. To my surprise, it works far better than I expected. They don't look like they're damaged, but it does drive them into the ground up to about half their length, rendering them incapable of reaching me with their arms.

"Got it!" the new girl crows, finally cutting down the last familiar. "I did it! I won!"

Is it my imagination, or did she manage to defeat one faster than me? Not a lot faster, and I had to deal with multiple at the same time, but still…

"That's just a familiar," I retort. "Although it's a rather tough one, I'll admit. I'm Ashley Taylor, by the way."

"Oh! Um, I'm Kanami Honoka," the girl says with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Miss Taylor!"

"Same to you… I hope you don't regret this decision, though," I say. "I couldn't help overhearing your wish… wouldn't it be easier to just ask your mother for help?"

That wipes the smile from her face, and she casts her eyes downwards.

"W-well um, you see… Mom's not around anymore… so…"

"Ohhh… I see… I'm sorry for asking," I say. "Um… since you're new… do you want to come along as I destroy this witch? Maybe you can even help out a little… what can you do?"

"Well… I can cut anything I can see," Honoka says. "And I think I can block some kinds of attacks too… and I can teleport short distances, about thirty metres max."

I do the mental conversion. Thirty metres is about thirty-three yards, so almost a hundred feet… it's quite a respectable distance, but certainly nothing compared to Pernelle's teleportation, or even that of Hozumi Shizuku.

"Can you teleport to somewhere you can't see?" I ask. "Can you teleport several times in a row or do you have to wait a bit between jumps?"

"U-um… I think I need to see the destination," Honoka says hesitantly. "And um… after I teleport… maybe I need to wait a few seconds before I can do it again?"

"How many seconds?" I ask. "Just say what comes to mind. It's your magic, so you should intuitively know how it works."

"Um… t-twenty seconds… I think? B-but… if I charge up my magic first, I think I can teleport faster, like three jumps in ten seconds…"

I nod slowly. "Okay, thanks for the info. Let's go!"

"A-alright!"

As we head deeper into the labyrinth, fighting off the mobile fountain pens, I realize that her name and outfit are actually vaguely familiar. I rack my brain trying to figure out where from, but I can't place it. Since I'm in Hohzuki, it's probably from Suzune Magica, right? But I just can't remember.

The labyrinth itself seems to be constructed like a sort of downward-spiralling pathway which periodically forks. It feels like I'm descending into the depths of a gigantic conch shell or something; though the shape doesn't really match, the colour and sheen of the walls does. The walls are also covered in scribbles of every description, most of which have a vaguely human outline and seem to evoke a manga style of artwork. Whenever we encounter a fork, I pause and use my clairvoyance to decide which path to take.

As we progress further down, we discover a second type of familiar. Although they're also based on fountain pens, they have their nib pointing up instead of down, and seem to lack arms. These ones attack with jets of acidic black ink, which burns through our clothing when it hits. I manage to dodge most of it, mind you, and while Honoka's movements seem a lot slower, making it tough for her to dodge, it seems she can divert the attack by raising her blades and crossing them. These ones are also far less tough – I can slice off the nib in a single slash.

Once I discover that the nib is the weak point on the ink-shooting familiars, I try aiming for the nib on the other familiars as well, and it turns out they share a weak point. They're still tougher – it takes two or three slashes to slice the nib off, and that's excluding the slashes they deflect with their rubbery arms – but it's still a lot easier than before. Once I've figured that out, I instruct Honoka to focus on the ink-spewing ones while I deal with the tough ones. Her magic is a ranged attack, after all, so it's a good counter for them.

Finally, after at least half an hour of constant fighting, we arrive in a small round chamber with a seashell-lined door on the opposite side. Written in runes above the door is the witch's name, Karin van Droom. Oh wow… I immediately think of Phantom Thief Magical Kirin and Misono Karin. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, though.

I check Honoka's status. She's breathing heavily from exertion, but it looks like her soul gem is in good shape.

"Okay, if you thought it was hard so far, then you'd better prepare yourself," I say. "Are you ready or do you need to rest for a minute?"

"Um… I… I think I'm good," Honoka says bravely. "I don't want to hold you back…"

"Alright."

I summon Teddy Mk II and the Teddy Drones, charging my ultimate attack. Once it's charged to a sufficient level, I cut the door down with two swings of my sword and jump into the room, taking a moment to locate the witch.

"Ultimate Teddy Glittering Gunk!"

The witch is taken off guard, the glitter beam striking her dead centre, and then she just looks around, confused. She's a tall, slim figure in black, with fountain pens for arms and an exaggeratedly cartoonish face that might have been humorous if not for the creepy colour scheme.

"Now's your chance to go all out and attack!" I say.

"O-okay, I'll do it!"

Honoka jumps forward and begins slashing at the air with her daggers. Although she's nowhere near the witch, every slash seems to land somewhere on Karin's body, causing her to shudder in pain. Then the charm wears off and she points both her hands at Honoka, releasing a veritable torrent of ink. However, Honoka vanishes before it hits her, reappearing to my right.

I send Teddy Mk II and the Teddy Drones forward to harry the witch. Fortunately, she doesn't immediately use that ink attack again, instead crouching over to scribble on the ground. As I watch, her scribbles spring to life, not as familiars, but as walls blocking Honoka's line of attack. The walls are almost as tall as the witch herself at a good twenty feet; I can just see a bit of Karin's head over the walls, but that's all.

"O-oh no!" Honoka gasps. "I can't hit it very well now…"

"Can't you just jump on top of those walls?" I suggest.

"B-but they're so high…"

"You're a magical girl now," I reply. "That height should be nothing."

I demonstrate by hopping up myself, and a moment later she follows me.

"W-wow… you're right… I somehow feel a lot stronger…"

"Yeah, your whole body is enhanced," I say. "You're stronger, faster, and tougher than a normal human. You'll have to get used to it if you're going to fight witches."

I leap off the wall, using Teddy Mk II as a stepping stone to close in on the witch, and swing my sword at one of her arms while Honoka resumes her ranged assault with that cutting magic of hers. My attack on the arm is more effective than expected – it doesn't exactly severe it in a single blow, but it comes pretty close, and a second slash is enough to fully severe the arm, which then melts into a puddle of ink on the ground.

Glancing back, I note Honoka is now holding her daggers in a regular grip, crossed above her head. She seems like she's gathering power… is it an ultimate attack of some kind? I monitor her with my clairvoyance while I attack the witch's long flowing robes with my sword.

But of course, the witch isn't going to just stand there and take it. She suddenly turns her head down at me and howls, exuding a massive pressure that tries to push me to the ground. I end up forced into a kneeling position, barely able to even swing my sword.

But that's when Honoka finishes charging up whatever she's doing. In an instant she's directly in the witch's face, plunging daggers into her eyes. Then a moment later she's by the witch's shoulder, cutting deep into her remaining arm. And then finally she ends up behind the witch, hidden from my view but still visible to my clairvoyance, and here she digs her daggers into the witch's back and lets gravity pull them down.

Free from the pressure, I follow up her attack on the arm, severing it with a single slash, then stab the witch in the side and extend my sword as I swing it upwards. This seems to be enough to finish it off, for it almost immediately explodes into a cloud of black mist that rapidly dissipates, leaving the grief seed to float down to the ground.

Letting Kyuubey explain the significance of grief seeds and any other crucial details of magical girl life, I power down and pull out one of my own to purify my soul gem. It's not all that urgent yet, but it can never hurt to be careful. Then I lean on the wall while waiting for Kyuubey to finish.

Finally, Honoka grabs the fallen grief seed, uses it to purify her soul gem, and then stows it away and powers down before jumping to her feet.

"Miss Ashley, could I invite you for lunch?" she asks. "I want to try out all my new cooking knowledge."

"Just out of curiosity… have you ever cooked before?" I ask.

"W-what!? Of course I have!" Honoka protests. "And Dad and my little brothers really like my cooking, too! I learned all by myself, so I'm no master, but at least it tastes good… it just wasn't the same as Mom's, that's all. I wanted to taste her cooking again…"

"I see… well, you know, you don't have to only mimic your mother's cooking," I say. "You should continue to improve your own cooking too."

"Of course I will… so anyway, does that mean you'll come?"

"Well… I guess I have plenty of time, so why not," I shrug.

She leads me to her house, a small traditional Japanese house about ten minutes from where we met the witch. She chats animatedly about her family the whole way, and we're almost there when it hits me. I suddenly remember why she seemed familiar. She's the magical girl who Amano Suzune kills in the very first chapter! Since Kyuubey has for some reason chosen not to follow us, I take the opportunity to give her a warning.

"So um, Miss Kanami," I begin.

"Oh, you should call me Honoka-chan!" she says. "Everyone else in my class does!"

"Huh? You have lots of friends, then?"

"Eh? No, they're just classmates, they're not my friends," she corrects me.

"Oh… okay… so anyway, Honoka-chan, if you're ever saved from a witch by a silver-haired girl who wields fire… don't stop to thank her. Just get out of there and run for your life, okay?"

She blinks at me in surprise. "H-huh? Why would I–"

"If you don't, you'll die," I insist. "That girl is bad news."

"O-okay… there are really magical girls like that?"

"Yeah… not every magical girl is a good person," I say.

"That's awful… b-but if I do see her, I'll be sure to run away."

"And while I'm on the topic, you should probably avoid hunting witches near Akanegasaki Middle School," I add. "There are already some magical girls there."

"O-okay then… oh, by the way, why don't we exchange contact info?"

"Oh, sure," I nod.

I dig out my phone and tap it against hers, and unlock it to add the sparkle emoji to her name. Then we arrive at her house and she slams the sliding door open.

"I'm home!"

"Welcome back, onee-chan!"

A pair of young boys come out and shout in unison, with an older one a few steps behind. The older one seems to be almost the same age as her, while the younger ones are probably around five or six.

"This is Miss Taylor," Honoka says. "She um… gave me a few cooking tips that I want to try out!"

She introduces me to her family by name. It seems they're two sets of twins, meaning the oldest of the brothers is in fact the same age as her. Then she rushes off into the kitchen, and I have to deal with the three boys bombarding me with questions. I end up revealing that I'm an exchange student from America, among other things, but of course that only redoubles the stream of questions.

Finally, lunch is ready, and everyone gathers around the table to eat. Honoka's father makes an appearance too. They all say 'thanks for the food' in unison and start eating, but as soon as the older ones take a bite, I see tears come to their eyes.

"Th-this… it tastes exactly like Mom's…" the oldest brother – I think his name was Hotaka – says.

The father just closes his eyes and savours it before pulling out a handkerchief to wipe away the tears.

"Honoka-chan… how did you manage to do it? Are you a cooking genius?"

"W-what, no, I'm no genius or anything!" Honoka says. "I just got a few tips… and I thought I'd try them out…"

"It's really nostalgic!" Hotaka says, now wolfing the food down.

"Hotaka-kun, don't talk with your mouth full," the father reprimands him.

"So yummy!" he says.

Then Honoka finally tries it and blinks in surprise, and she too starts wolfing it down, ignoring the tears now streaming down her face. It is quite good, to be fair; perhaps not quite to my tastes, but I definitely enjoy the meal. But seeing the reaction of those three is a little…

"S-sorry for the unsightly display, Miss Taylor," Honoka finally says, her plate clean. "It's just the first time I've tasted this since… you know…"

"I understand," I say. "Don't worry about me. In fact, I've already finished my meal, so would you like me to leave you to have some family time?"

"Um… well, if you don't mind…" Honoka says. "Thanks for… for everything!"

I rise from the table and take my leave.

"Well… that sure was… interesting."

I still need to locate the four-girl team of Akanegasaki Middle School, so I decide to head in the direction of the school itself, figuring my chances of encountering them would be higher there.

"Yo, whatcha doing in our territory?"

I spin and see a girl with long pink hair in twintails, accompanied by a slightly shorter girl with blue hair in a short ponytail.

"You're a magical girl, right? Don't try to hide it. I can see your ring, plain as day," the pink-haired girl continues.

"Yes, you've got me," I reply. "I'm certainly a magical girl."

"So! Whatcha doing around here?" she repeated. "You'd better think real carefully on your answer!"

"What Arisa is trying to say is, you're trespassing," the blue-haired girl says. "So I hope you have a good reason."

"Well… I don't know whether you'll consider it a good reason, but… I was looking for magical girls."

Both of them blink at me in confusion.

"Huh? Why the hell wouldja do that!?" Arisa exclaims.

"It's a long story…"

"Then you'd better sit down and spill it!" she snaps.

There's nowhere to sit around here besides the ground, but I decide not to comment on that.

"Well, alright," I say. "Have either of you heard of a witch known as Walpurgisnacht?"

"Walp… whatsit?" Arisa says. "You heard of it, Chisato?"

Chisato nods. "Kyuubey mentioned it to me once… but I don't know much," she says. "It's supposed to be a really terrible and powerful witch…"

"Well… about a month from now, Walpurgisnacht is coming to Shinriku Prefecture," I state. "I want to defeat her once and for all, so to that end, I'm contacting magical girls all over the prefecture."

It's a slight exaggeration – I haven't gone to any of the smaller towns or villages – but close enough. I have touched on all the sizable cities, at least, and that's where most magical girls would be found. Mind you, I haven't yet mentioned this part of my goals in Asunaro or Kamihama, but I'll get there eventually.

The two of them exchange startled glances, and then Arisa gives me a look.

"And how the hell d'you even know this, huh? How do we know it's not a ploy to lure us into a trap?"

"…a trap?" I blink. "Uhh… well, I mean, we are talking about Walpurgisnacht here, so I suppose you could think of it as a trap… but that's the whole reason I want to gather everyone I can. The more people we have, the greater the chance of defeating her!"

"I can respect your passion, if nothing else."

Another girl has shown up, this one even taller than the other two with long blonde hair.

"Haruka-chan… you didn't need to show yourself," Chisato protests.

Haruka responds by just smiling at her, then turns to me.

"Will you give us your name, for starters?" she asks.

"Oh, sorry… I'm Ashley Taylor, an exchange student from America."

"I'm Kanade Haruka, the team leader. How do you know when and where Walpurgisnacht will appear?" Haruka asks.

"I can't answer that very well," I say. "I just know, that's all."

"Do you really expect that to convince us?" Haruka asks.

"Well… I suppose not," I say.

"Even supposing you're right and it does show up, how do you plan to defeat it?" Haruka asks. "Do you have a strategy?"

"Of course," I reply. "I've thought it through in great detail, if you must know."

Well, that's not quite true. I didn't come up with the strategy myself – it's literally what the magical girls of Kamihama pulled off in the final chapter of Magia Record's first arc.

"Also, I know her weak point," I add.

A fourth girl pops out from somewhere, the shortest of the bunch, with dark green hair in pigtails.

"I think we should trust her!" she says. "I don't know why, but I feel like she can be trusted!"

"Matsuri-chan… that's a naïve point of view," Haruka says. "Miss Taylor doesn't have any evidence for her claims, after all."

"But you said it yourself, Haruka-chan!" Matsuri says. "She has passion! And she sounds so confident! I think we should help her! I really don't think she's lying about this…"

Haruka sighs.

"Well… we have a whole month to think it over, if what she says is true," she says. "Miss Taylor… if you don't mind, let's all swap contact info. If we decide it's worth the risk, then…" She shrugs. "Well, we don't have to make a decision now, is what I'm getting at."

So everyone pulls out their phones and taps them against mine, producing that beep that indicates a new contact was transferred.

"Thank you for listening," I say. "I should know more in a few weeks, so how about I send you the details then?"

"Sure… but I make no promises," Haruka says.

"Then, I'll take my leave and return to Mitakihara," I say.

"And don't come back!" Arisa snaps.

"I'm sure I will at some point," I reply.

Well, that certainly went better than I expected. Those four seemed skeptical, but I did manage to get their contact info… and on top of that, I snagged an unexpected bonus with Kanami Honoka. With a bit of luck, she'll avoid falling to Suzune and survive to join the battle against Walpurgisnacht. Her power doesn't seem all that strong at first glance, but that ultimate teleport-based attack is pretty devastating, so I think she could make a good addition to the attack force.

Satisfied with my work so far, I return to the bus stop to catch the bus back to Mitakihara. This time, Kyuubey does not join me.

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.

Kanami Honoka
佳奈美穂香

Age: 13
Eye Colour: Teal
Hair Colour: Red
Origins: Hohzuki, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Orange octopus
Soul Gem: Red circular gem on the ribbon over her collar
Element: Fire
Weapon: Knives
Powers: Wind blades, wind guard, short-range teleport
Wish: "I wish I could reproduce Mom's cooking!"

Speed: 2
Magical Stamina: 6
Offensive Power: 4
Defensive Power: 1
Initial Power Usability: 5
Learned Powers: 0 (unknown)