By the time the three of us return home, the rain has picked up, drenching us to the bone. I think the Hayashi sisters have reached the point of being numbed by the loss, which seems to mean that the rate of growing corruption in their soul gems isn't too dramatic… it's a small mercy, I suppose. I think the time is around nine or ten, though I haven't checked my phone since the battles against Itzli and Doki Yatsura.

But Mrs Hayashi is waiting to welcome us back as we trudge into the house.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaims. "There you are! I was so worried about you! Why didn't you answer my calls? My, my, you're soaked! Come in, come in, let me heat up the bath for you! I know it's a bit small, but I think you could all fit in there at the same time."

I blink at her, feeling a little shell-shocked, but the warmth of her smile and the concern on the face seems to be getting through especially to the sisters. They suddenly hug her, bursting into tears all over again.

"Oh my… what's wrong, girls?" she asks. "Did something happen? You can talk to me about it…"

She looks quizzically at me as well, but I just give a noncommittal response.

"It's nothing in particular," I say. "Just happy to be alive, I suppose?"

Mrs Hayashi looks confused by that, but apparently decides that pressing the matter right now is not a good idea. Extracting herself from her crying daughters, she hurries into the bath room to get the aforementioned bath going. Her daughters follow her, still crying a little while trying in vain to wipe their tears away using their soaked clothes, and I decide to follow as well.

"Leave your clothes by the door," Mrs Hayashi says. "I'll put them through the wash for you. Do you want me to pick out some dry clothes?"

"No… I think I can manage that myself," I say.

The sisters nod in sync, indicating their agreement, and then start to strip off their soaked clothes.

"Alright, well, the bath should be ready really soon, so please hop in and get all warmed up," Mrs Hayashi says.

It's a little embarrassing to strip in front of other people, but we are all girls here, so I try not to think about it. Before long, the three of us are all huddled up in the bath, with Hiyori looking especially morose in the middle.

Once Mrs Hayashi has finished gathering up our drenched clothes and left the room, Hiyori speaks up.

"W-what… what should we… do now?" she asks, tearing up anew. "Without Elise… without Claire… what should we do?"

"What can we do but keep fighting?" I say. "We're magical girls who save people from curses, aren't we?"

"Y-yes… y-you're right," Hiyori murmurs. "It would be… it would disrespect their memory to just, just… give up… right?"

"I think so too," Komachi murmurs. "Claire gave her life to protect us… we can't let that sacrifice be in vain."

"C-claire did that!?" Hiyori gasps. "W-what about… what about Elise?"

That makes Komachi clam up, averting her gaze, so I try to come up with a response.

"Well… Elise's death wasn't as, um… g-glamorous? I guess? I mean, Claire was already fallen before I got there though…"

"W-what do you mean?" Hiyori asks.

"Well… if you really want to know… the witch attacked and killed her when she was crying over Claire's body," I say.

It's close enough to the truth that I figure Komachi should be able to back me up effectively, if necessary.

"O-oh… is… is that so," Hiyori sniffles. "That's so sad… all she wanted to do was… was… and the witch just…"

She bursts into tears again, unable to finish her sentences, and Komachi and I just fall silent and let her cry. I surreptitiously check their soul gems with my clairvoyance, but it looks like they're still in the clear. Certainly their state of mind isn't helping things, and the corruption is slowly spreading, but it's not at a rate that currently seems dangerous. I think they've both mostly come to terms with things. Then I check my own too and blink, for it too has gathered quite a bit of corruption. I've been worrying about these sisters so much that I almost forgot to worry about myself… but it doesn't seem to be spreading very fast, so I should be fine at least until I'm out of the bath.

But wow, I wasn't expecting something this dramatic to happen so early in the time loop. Obviously these four had never appeared in the anime for a good reason – they just didn't survive long enough to make a difference. If I hadn't been there to save them from Itzli, I'm pretty sure all four of them would've perished. It's almost a miracle I managed to even save these two…

"Say… may I hunt witches with you from now on?" I ask. "I mean, instead of going to the hospital district. Is that alright with you?"

Komachi looks at me intensely for a few moments, then relaxes and nods.

"Yes… actually, I was working up the courage to ask you the same thing," she says. "I don't think we'd do very well with just the two of us…"

Hiyori nods. "Please, Ashley-chan… we'll be relying on you from now on, okay?"

"Alright. I'll let Miss Inui know that I can't fight witches with her for awhile," I say.

I have a feeling Inui won't be around much longer either, but that's not something I should bring up here. This feeling of failing to protect someone… it hurts. This must be how Akemi Homura felt every time Kaname Madoka died in front of her… and not just Madoka. Mami was originally her friend too, after all. I can hardly fathom how she managed to endure that pain over and over and over again. And knowing that Inui is doomed to die soon doesn't help matters either. I want to save her too, but I'm seriously scared now about what could go wrong if I interfere too much this early on. If I save Inui, and as a result Homura decides not to become a magical girl to save Madoka, or worse still, if she's killed before she can… then I won't have a chance to save Elise and Claire, either. For their sake, I need to let Inui die in this loop… but I swear, I'll save her eventually. She can be annoying, but after fighting with her a few times, I think I somehow grew fond of her…

After the bath, Mrs Hayashi serves a light supper, and once I've made sure our soul gems are all purified, we crawl into bed. The next morning, both of them have developed a cold, so I end up going to school alone. I don't really want to go, but unlike the sisters, I don't really have an excuse, and it's not like I have anything better to do anyway. Still, even though I'm technically in class, I can't really focus on the lessons. It's a good thing I already know most of this stuff…

I'm not sure why I'm the only one who didn't get sick though…

March eighteenth. For some reason, Madoka is alone when she leaves school. She now sports her signature hairstyle from the anime, with red ribbons tying her hair in two bunches. It's unclear what happened to Sayaka and Hitomi… are they doing something together? She meets Kyuubey outside the school gates, and they start talking as she heads home.

"Have you thought about it, Kaname Madoka?" it asks her.

"W-well, I'm not really sure what to wish for," Madoka says. "To be honest, there really isn't anything I'm good at, so when you told me I have the potential to be a magical girl, it made me really happy. So I think my wish is just to be a magical girl."

"Is that really what you want?" Kyuubey asks. "It seems to me that you do not receive any benefit from such a wish."

"W-well… I wouldn't exactly say that," Madoka says. "But um… what do other magical girls wish for?"

"All sorts of things," Kyuubey replies. "Almost any wish can be granted. Many magical girls wish for love, or money, for example. Some wish for beauty or skill, or to save a loved one."

"I don't think something like that would suit me," Madoka says. "Well… the last one would, I guess, but I don't have any loved ones who need saving."

They arrive at a crosswalk, still talking, and wait for it to turn green. As soon as it does, a black cat with white socks darts out into the road, but then a car speeds through, running it over. Madoka gasps, frozen in place as everyone else exclaims at the reckless driver while crossing the road.

"K-kyuubey, I've decided!" Madoka says. "I want to save that cat!"

"Are you sure?" Kyuubey says. "It does not seem like that will benefit you at all."

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"Understood. We should do it in a less crowded place," Kyuubey suggests.

She follows him to a nearby alleyway, and he turns to face her.

"Your wish is to save the cat that died just then, correct?"

Madoka nods.

"Understood. Your wish has surpassed entropy."

Those ear appendages then proceed to tear her soul out of her body, transforming it into a soul gem.

"Uhh… Miss Inui, was it? Could you please step aside? I've got some urgent business with that guy who just left…"

It's Yu, the Sleepwalking Spectre. She's talking to Itsumi Inui. Neither of them have transformed, and they seem to be in a back alley somewhere. Inui pulls a knife and attacks her, but of course Yu dodges easily.

"Yikes! Watch it! Y-you shouldn't get violent with people you've just met… actually, it's just as bad if it's someone you know!"

"I knew it," Inui says flatly. "You're after Sho-kun, aren't you!?"

Yu looks confused for a moment.

"Huh? Sho-kun? Ohhh… is that his nickname?" Then she blinks. "Oh right! I need to catch up to him! Like I said earlier, that guy's a bad guy. I came here to kill him!"

She pulls out her list of names and shows it to Inui, pointing to one name in particular.

"See? His name is right here on my list. I mean, this is his real name right here. It's no mistake, alright?" Seeing the look on Inui's face, Yu hastily continues talking. "It's okay, don't worry! I made sure to check that I had the right person on my list. His name isn't Sho-kun on here, but I'm sure I've got his real name. I always double and triple check everything, so there's no doubt about it."

"Shut up!" Inui shouts, trying to attack Yu again. "What do you even know about Sho-kun!? Why does everyone keep saying that he's bad!? Who cares if he's on your stupid list!? That list is a load of crap!" Once more, she attempts in vain to attack Yu. "Why do you believe it!? It has to be a lie!"

"Oh, come on," Yu says reasonably. "My list isn't wrong." She sighs. "Well, how about this? Let's just say he's a bad guy for now. If by some slim chance I'm wrong, I swear I'll make it up to you, okay?"

Inui blinks.

"W-what the hell are you talking about!? You're here to kill him, aren't you? You're here to kill Sho-kun. My Sho-kun…"

Yu just looks confused. "Huh? Yeah, I am. That's what I've been saying. I'm here to kill him… like I said…"

Inui just glares at her.

"You're insane," she states. "It's even worse than Kyuubey said. There's something wrong with you. There are plenty of people who are worse than Sho-kun! Why don't you go and kill them instead!? Are you stupid or something!? Go and kill the terrible people who are worse! Leave my Sho-kun out of this!"

Once again, she tries to attack Yu with her knife, and once more Yu dodges with barely any effort.

"Th-they're on my list too," Yu says. "My list is updated all the time, so you don't need to worry about that. I guess sometimes I'm a little late… b-but I try to get the job done as quickly as I can… I'm doing my best, okay? So I'm telling you, it's fine! I swear, it'll be alright!"

Yu blinks, as if she'd suddenly had a realization, and then she augments that impression by slapping fist against palm.

"Oh wait, I get it! Does he owe you money? If that's it, I could buy you a pop later to make up for it. Oh, but is it like, a lot of money? Enough that a pop isn't enough to make up for it? But I'm sure we can come to a… reasonable… agreement…"

Inui listens to her whole tirade with incredible patience considering the content, glaring all the while, but at this point she raises her knife again, and attacks.

"Enough!" she shouts. "I'm going to stop you! I will never, ever forgive you!"

And then she transforms into her magical girl form, turning into a pink terror, and summons her pink flames. Yu just looks confused and a little sad, but doesn't transform yet.

"DIE!" Inui shouts.

With that shout, she blasts Yu with the full force of her flames.

"Whoa!" Yu gasps, avoiding the blast by leaping high into the air.

At this point, she finally transforms, gripping her stilettos and using the force of gravity to take her directly to her target. What follows is a brief but intense fight. No matter how hard she tries, Inui can't even land a single blow on Yu, as if the other girl already knows what's going to happen. On the other hand, every time Yu stabs with one of her stilettos, it finds its mark somewhere on Inui's body. In short, Inui is completely and hopelessly outmatched.

But despite that, Inui has the tenacity of a girl in love, and she's pulling out all the stops, fighting without regard to her own safety. Her injuries by this point should have caused her to collapse just from the blood loss… no, some of them should have even been fatal for a regular human. The colour is even starting to fade from her skin due to all the bleeding, but she grits her teeth and hangs onto a slim hope of defeating Yu.

"I refuse to lose here!" Inui screeches. "If I can't even defeat you, I'll never be able to fight on equal grounds with Ashley-chan! You're going down!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Yu says. "Careful there, you could hurt someone with all that fire!"

"That's the fucking point, you moron!" Inui screams. "Why don't you stay still for a moment so I can roast you alive!?"

At that moment, it seems like she activates her charm power, for Yu actually stops moving.

"Have a taste of my ultimate attack!" Inui bellows. "Heart-throbbing Passionate Inferno!"

Then Yu is engulfed by a pillar of pink flames, and it would be obvious to any onlooker that no-one could possibly survive that. The flames burn on for a good thirty seconds, while Inui falls to one knee, panting heavily from all that exertion. When the flames clear, nothing remains in that spot to suggest that a magical girl was just burnt to death.

"D-did I… win?" Inui pants.

But then Yu plummets from the sky above, impaling Inui through the throat with one of her stillettos, and Inui collapses to the ground and rolls over in shock.

"H-how!?" she gasps, somehow managing to talk despite her injured throat.

Though Yu's outfit is scorched, she doesn't seem to be injured at all.

"What? Obviously I used it as an updraft to gain some extra height," Yu says. "Isn't that what it was for?"

Inui gapes at her. "Y-y-you're… insane…"

Apparently deeming her unworthy of further response, Yu powers down and grumbles a little as she turns away.

"Geez… what a pain," she grumbles. "At this rate she'll probably turn into a witch and I'll have to fight her again."

Then she runs off, leaving Inui just lying there in a pool of blood. After a minute or so, Inui props herself up, panting heavily and bleeding profusely. Kyuubey appears from the street and walks over to her.

"K-kyuubey…" she gasps.

"Itsumi Inui," Kyuubey says. "You're in rough shape. Did you fight the Sleepwalking Spectre?"

Inui stares at it for several long seconds, but can't seem to muster a response.

"Even with your powers, you couldn't stop her, could you? She doesn't listen to common sense or reason. She even has an incredible ability to survive and persevere. If you weren't being targeted by her personally, you should have given up."

The incubator pauses for a few more seconds, but Inui still seems unable to say anything.

"There is nothing I can do to help you now," Kyuubey says. "Your wounds would be fatal to a normal human, but your emotional state is even worse. Even though we're next to a hospital, it's already too late – human doctors won't be able to save you."

"Well… I don't care," Inui mutters. "There's no point in continuing to live… not without Sho-kun… although… I wish I could've said goodbye to Ashley-chan…" She tries to sit up and lets out a gasp of pain. "Kyuubey… kill me… take my soul gem, and…"

"Why would I kill you?" Kyuubey asks. "I would never do that. That would be such a waste."

"Please… don't worry about me… hurry… or I'll turn into…"

"You'll turn into a witch for us, right?" Kyuubey says. "I appreciate it, Inui. Thank you for finally being useful to us in the end."

Inui gasps, recoiling a little from the incubator, though she's too weak to move much.

"K-kyuubey… why… Ashley-chan… I'm… I'm sorry…"

And then she groans as her soul gem cracks open and the witch Uhrmann comes out, a slim dog-like form with a mass of psychedelic colours for a head. The witch swallows up her former body and then trots off.

"Look at that," Kyuubey observes. "She became a stronger witch than I expected. We were able to obtain more than enough energy. But now we have another problem."

The incubator pauses before turning to look in a direction that would seem completely random to a bystander, but to the watcher produces a chill up her spine.

"Don't you think so too, Ashley Taylor?"

With that ominous statement, the incubator runs off, deeper into the labyrinth. Before long, it locates another person in the labyrinth, a familiar white-haired girl – Momoe Nagisa.

"Nagisa!" it calls. "Are you okay?"

"What's happening?" Nagisa asks, surprisingly calm given the situation. "Why is there a witch's labyrinth at the hospital!?"

"The entire hospital has been swallowed up by a witch's labyrinth," Kyuubey says. "We need to escape, before the witch finds us."

"E-escape?" Nagisa protests. "But what about the hospital? What about the patients?"

"Naturally, many patients will become the witch's prey," Kyuubey replies.

"But don't I have to fight it?" Nagisa says. "I'm a magical girl now, after all."

"This witch is too strong for you as you are now," Kyuubey says. "Fortunately, the Sleepwalking Spectre is in the area. She might be making her way here already. Let's get out of the labyrinth and call her using telepathy."

"N-no!" Nagisa says stubbornly. "I can't let Yu come to this hospital!"

"Are you worried about your mother?" Kyuubey asks. "She was on Yu's list, but didn't you give up on curing her? She doesn't have much longer. It won't make any difference how she dies."

Nagisa just kinda looks at him blankly.

"No… that's not it," Nagisa says. "I… I decided I won't hold myself back anymore! I won't listen to anyone, and I won't do what they ask me to! I'm only going to act for myself!"

At that moment, Uhrmann herself appears, and she turns to face the witch.

"Oh no!" Kyuubey says. "Nagisa, run!"

But true to her words, she ignores it and transforms. For once, that normally calm face is contorted with anger.

"It's because Mom ignores me, and hates me, and pushes all her problems on me! Because of that, I'll force her to be in my debt! I'll do anything to make her regret how she treated me! Mom can only die because I didn't save her with my wish!"

Nagisa raises her horn to her mouth and blows into it, expelling a cloud of bubbles that spread out and obscure vision. The massive dog-like witch throws back the chaos that passes for a head and howls, then tries to pounce on Nagisa, but she dodges and darts through the cloud of bubbles. As she dodges through the cloud of bubbles, she keeps tooting the horn, which seems to be a form of attack to judge by Uhrmann's reaction, and a very effective one too. The dog witch goes into a frenzy, stampeding around the whole area as she tries to locate her attacker.

But for all her big talk, and despite the individual effectiveness of her attacks, Nagisa doesn't last very long in battle. After about a minute of dodging all over the place, she stumbles and misses a jump, and Uhrmann finally catches her, knocking her out in a single blow. The witch doesn't seem to realize this though, continuing her stampede as before. Not long after, the Sleepwalking Spectre shows up and takes Uhrmann down in a single blow to the head. Once the barrier has collapsed, Kyuubey speaks up.

"Sleepwalking Spectre," it states. "I believe you will find one of your targets in this hospital, a Momoe Saki."

"Oh! Is that so? Thank you so much, Kyuubey! Can you watch over Nagisa for me until she wakes up?"

"I can do that," Kyuubey replies.

The Sleepwalking Spectre then runs off without bothering to power down. A little later, Nagisa wakes up again.

"Huh? Where am I? Wh-where's the witch!?" she gasps.

"You're awake," Kyuubey states. "The Sleepwalking Spectre came and defeated it while you were unconscious."

"Yu!?"

Upon hearing that, Nagisa gasps and runs off, taking a flight of stairs upwards and traversing what is clearly a well-travelled path through the hospital, finally barging into a specific hospital room. The Sleepwalking Spectre is there, still in magical girl form, and she jumps as the door slams open.

"Huh? Nagisa?" she says. "Should you be up and about already? Sorry I left you with Kyuubey. I had to take care of some business."

"M-mom…" Nagisa gasps.

Yu tilts her head.

"Oh, I see! This lady's your mom! Sorry about the delay. Your mom's gonna die soon, don't you worry! If we just leave her to it, she'll die anyway, but… what should we do?"

Nagisa's mother is breathing heavily in the bed, and it looks like Yu has stabbed her multiple times with her stilettos.

"I… I don't care anymore," Nagisa says. "Please just go."

"Oh, okay," Yu says. "Normally, I like to sell the organs, so I usually take the corpse with me. But you seem like you want it, Nagisa… she's your mom, after all. Of course you should take her."

Nagisa just stares blankly at her.

"Well, see you around," Yu says. "Let me know if I can help you out again, anytime. I'll always be on your side."

And with that eerie-sounding promise, she opens the window and just leaps out. Nagisa turns off the lights, walks over to close the curtains, and finally moves closer to her mother, sitting next to the bed where she can be seen.

"Nagisa? Nagisa?" her mother says. "Are you there? It's so dark, I can't see. Call the doctor… I was stabbed by a scary monster… it looked human, but it was all yellow, and its mouth was split open… and it had a horn… argh!"

She suddenly gasps in pain. All this time, Nagisa does nothing but sit there, watching her impassively.

"I was stabbed by a monster… call for help! Nagisa, Nagisa… don't leave me alone. It hurts… it hurts… I'm scared… why do I have to suffer like this? Nagisa, are you there? Don't leave me. I'm scared. Why is it always me? I'm scared, Nagisa. Nagisa! Answer me, Nagisa! Nagisa? Nagisa? You are there, aren't you? Nagisa, please! Answer me! Nagisa, Nagisa, please, answer me… Answer me, Nagisa. Answer me, Nagisa. Answer me… Na-gi-sa…"

And just when it seems like her mother has breathed her last breath… that's when Nagisa's soul gem cracks open, and the witch Charlotte comes out. Once more, the Sleepwalking Spectre shows up to fight, but like Tomoe Mami in the anime, she's caught off guard by Charlotte's second form and swallowed whole. A little while after that, Charlotte reverts to her first form.

Some time later, Tomoe Mami herself shows up to fight her, but she too is caught off guard by Charlotte's second form. However, unlike in the anime, she does not die. At the last second, a pink arrow pierces the witch's second form, and Madoka joins the fight. Between the two of them, they finish off Charlotte almost as quickly as Akemi Homura would in a later timeline.

Damn, this was an unexpectedly eventful day. I mean… I kind of knew what was coming, that we'd lose at least two magical girls all in one day. I had no idea which day it would be, though. Still, actually seeing it hits me far worse than I thought it would, and coming so soon on the heels of Elise's and Claire's demise… it's just… a lot to deal with.

Indeed, when I saw Inui all battered and beaten on the ground, I almost jumped to my feet and ran over there to help her… but the hospital district is pretty far away. Even if I'd run at top speed, she would've already turned into a witch. Was my indecision coloured by the fact that I knew I would be too late? But what if I could've made it in time? If I'd started running the moment she started talking to Yu… could I have made it in time?

But even then, considering the distance to the hospital, I don't think I could have. Maybe I could've been barely in time to save Nagisa… or maybe not. But Kyuubey, that little snake… to think it actually told Yu about Nagisa's mother to encourage her to turn into a witch… I knew it couldn't be trusted, but I didn't realize it would go to such lengths.

I was also quite surprised to see Yu defeat Uhrmann in a single blow… is she just that strong? Or did Nagisa's attempt to fight the witch just soften her enough that she was almost done for? Kyuubey said Uhrmann is too strong for her, but is she actually stronger than it thought?

I quickly check my soul gem. It's still safe, but the level of corruption has increased quite a bit more than I can explain just from the use of my clairvoyance. I pull out a grief seed to purify it.

"Finally, you're awake!" Komachi's voice says. "You okay? You're crying a little…"

I look at her, blinking in surprise. She's right, there are tears in my eyes. I hadn't noticed until she mentioned it.

"Huh? What are you doing here, Komachi-chan?"

Although it's a school day, she's dressed in casual clothes. It makes sense, since she wasn't at school today.

"Well, we found you sleeping on this bench, so we decided to keep watch," Komachi says. "Or, Hiyori was keeping watch, but as you can see, she fell asleep."

Indeed, I can feel a weight on my shoulder, and upon checking, it turns out to be a snoozing Hiyori, also in casual clothes.

"Also… didn't you have a cold?" I ask.

"Oh, that," Komachi says with a sigh. "To tell the truth, we were faking it cause we just didn't want to go to school the day after losing our two best friends. Mom caught on to our charade about halfway through the day, but by that time the news had already hit, so she didn't push us to go. I'll admit, it is a little amusing that both of us came up with the idea independently."

"Ah… so their bodies were found, huh…"

Komachi nods. "Yeah… we cried a whole lot more when Mom told us. I think she's figured out that it's why we were so upset last night, too… but she hasn't asked any questions, which I'm really grateful for. So anyway… what were you doing sleeping out here, and what had you so upset?"

"Well, I wasn't actually sleeping," I say. "Um… I was kinda… scanning the city with my clairvoyance, I suppose you could say? I just wanted to get a better idea of how things are going, but… then I happened to witness the death of Itsumi Inui in the process…"

Komachi blinks. "Oh my, that's rough… you got pretty close to her over the last few weeks, right? I'm sorry to hear that… what happened?"

"Well… it seems she attacked the Sleepwalking Spectre," I say. "Even though she pulled out all the stops and even an ultimate attack I'd never seen before, she was overpowered so easily. And then… well… her soul gem was dark…"

"Ohh… I see… so um… after that, what happened?" Komachi asks.

"The Sleepwalking Spectre showed up again," I reply. "Then there was also another magical girl I didn't know who got into an argument with the Sleepwalking Spectre and ended up giving in to despair too, but when the Sleepwalking Spectre came back again, she was defeated this time. So then Tomoe Mami had to come in and finish her off… and it very nearly defeated her, too."

"Oh my god, that's awful," Komachi says. "Even Miss Tomoe was nearly defeated? Um… how'd she survive, then?"

"Another magical girl I don't know," I reply. "She showed up just in the nick of time."

"Huh… well, the one thing I'm not really sad about is the death of the Sleepwalking Spectre," Komachi admits. "She was insane. I'm kinda glad she's gone."

"Yeah… I hate to say it, but I agree with you on that one."

"But if there were two magical girls you didn't know in the hospital district… probably they're both new, right?" Komachi muses. "It's so sad for someone to die so soon after making a contract…"

"Yeah… I wish I could've saved her," I nod morosely. "Both of them, even. I was going to run over and help Inui, but while I was dithering over how to get there the fastest, she was already gone… almost before I had a chance to move. There's no way I would've been able to make it there in time to save Inui, at least. If I'd been less indecisive though, maybe I could've at least saved the other girl…"

And I'm not lying about that. When I see someone in trouble right in front of my eyes, how could I not try to save them? The fact that at least one and probably both were out of reach doesn't make me feel any better about that. I suppose that's the cursed side of these powers…

It's true there's a logical reason to let the two of them die – if the plot swings too far off the rails, there's a chance Homura may never contract, which would ruin everything. But that's just logic. Who cares about logic!? I can talk about logic all I want, but when it comes right down to it, I just watched two people die, both of whom I was at least acquainted with and one of which I was somewhat close to.

Maybe I don't really have the mindset for these time-travel shenanigans either, huh? But I still think I can do a better job than the laser-focused Homura, who so easily misses the big picture. I already have big plans for how I want to interfere once I've pinned down the dates of key events.

As I'm thinking and rethinking whether I could've found a way to save even one of them, Komachi suddenly gives me a hug, and I blink.

"Try not to dwell on it though, okay?" she says. "Don't worry. Hiyori and I are still here for you. I for one don't plan on dying anytime soon!"

I manage a small smile. She did just lose two close friends, so she must have some idea of how I feel seeing Inui die. I doubt she can fully understand my feelings, but just the sincerity of her words seems to help.

"Y-yeah… me neither," I say, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Thanks for that little pep talk… it really cheered me up."

Inui, Nagisa… I'm sorry. I swear, I'll save you both. And Elise and Claire as well.

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.

Kaname Madoka
鹿目まどか

Age: 14
Eye Colour: Pink
Hair Colour: Pink
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Pink teardrop
Soul Gem: Pink teardrop gem at the base of her neck
Element: Light
Weapon: Bow
Powers: Healing, morale boost (mild)
Wish: "I want to save that cat!"

Speed: 5
Magical Stamina: 5
Offensive Power: 7
Defensive Power: 6
Initial Power Usability: 2
Learned Powers: 2

Momoe Nagisa
百江なぎさ

Age: 10
Eye Colour: Orange and yellow (central heterochromia)
Hair Colour: White
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Purple candy symbol (a circle with two inward-pointing chevrons on opposite sides)
Soul Gem: Circular white gem embedded in the candy motif on her belt
Element: Darkness
Weapon: Trumpet
Powers: Bubble cloud, sonic blasts
Wish: "I want the best cheesecake in the world for my mom!"

Speed: 9
Magical Stamina: 7
Offensive Power: 4
Defensive Power: 2
Initial Power Usability: 4
Learned Powers: 0 (unknown)