April third. Kazumi is eating breakfast at Souichirou's café, where she's been staying ever since Misako brought her there for a meal. She's eating slowly, lost in thought and half spaced out, but then her eyes suddenly come into focus, as if an idea has occurred to her. She pulls out her phone to make a call.

"Hey, um… good morning, Miss Shiina. R-right… Remi-chan… W-would you mind meeting me at Café Lepa Macha? I'd like to talk about… about Moe-chan and other things… you will? Thank you so much! I'll be waiting!"

Her spirits seemingly improved, Kazumi finishes off her meal and settles in to wait. When Remi finally arrives, the jingling of the bell summons Souichirou to the front room, where he kind of gapes at her.

"I can't believe it…" he says.

Remi looks at him, head tilted. "Do we know each other, mister?"

"N-no, I'm sorry," Souichirou says. "Someone I know just showed me a photo, that's all. What can I get for you?"

"Hmm… a small latte would be nice," Remi says. "And can you add a little butter?"

"Sure," Souichirou says.

He gets to work at the coffee machine while Remi heads for Kazumi's table.

"You put butter in your coffee, Remi-chan?" Kazumi says.

"I got the idea from an old manga," Remi explains, taking a seat. "To tell the truth, the first time I tried it, I really hated it, but… eventually, it grew on me. It also helps to add lots of sugar. So… Kazumi-chan, was it? What did you want to talk about?"

"How much do you know about Moe-chan and her friend?" Kazumi asks. "I just want to understand her better…"

"Well… that's a tough question," Remi sighs. "She never told me the whole story, but let me see if I can piece together what she did tell me…"

On that day, Shiina Moe had been lost in thought as she plodded home, wishing her friend, Mura Fumiko, could have accompanied her. Fumiko had been oddly distant lately, always having some errand or other to attend to immediately after school, and though she apologized about it every time, Moe couldn't help but feel she was being rejected.

As she walked, the landscape subtly changed around her, becoming a cut-out landscape such as you'd see in a pop-up book, a crude depiction of a tropical swamp, with a pond right beneath her feet and a variety of vegetation all around, like stands of trees or berry bushes. Most of the vegetation was completely flat, just painted on; only the trees and bushes popped out.

As soon as she noticed her new surroundings, the ground gave way beneath her feet, and she fell into the pond with a splash. Spluttering, she picked herself up in the shallow pseudo-water, which scattered off her body in strange triangular particles, and looked around in confusion.

"W-where the heck am I…?" she blurted out.

Then the familiars appeared, taking the form of dinosaur cut-outs on a stick, in at least three varieties. Moe's eyes widened in fear and she turned to run, only to find more of them had appeared behind her.

"Oh no!"

She looked around wildly for an opening and spotted a gap between two triceratops cut-outs, which looked like she could get through. She broke into a run and made a dash for it, and although both triceratops leapt forward to attack her, she somehow managed to avoid both of them and make it through that gap. Unfortunately, there were still more familiars beyond that.

"H-how…!?"

Moe looked around again, but there was no other visible avenue of escape, so she raised her voice and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"S-someone! Help me! Heeeeeeeelp!"

Her call was answered. A girl leapt in and cut down the familiars with her flaming sword, clearing away all the dinosaur cut-outs that posed Moe a direct threat. Her saviour then landed near her and turned to face her.

"Huh? Moe-chan?"

"Wait, you're… Fumiko-chan!?"

"W-well, guess the secret's out, huh," Fumiko said sheepishly. "I'm–"

"Since when were you a magical girl!?" Moe exclaimed. "That's so cool! You should've told me!"

Fumiko blinked. "Huh? Wait… you know about magical girls, Moe-chan?" she asked.

"W-well… yes," Moe said. "I guess I do… oh yeah, I think my older sister was one? She disappeared when I was, uhhh… probably three…"

"W-well, I don't really remember well, because I was only three when she disappeared," Moe said. "But I'm pretty sure my older sister was one."

"Oh… I didn't even know you had an older sister," Fumiko said.

"Yeah, I guess she never came up," Moe said. "Sorry… I don't like to talk about her much… I was heartbroken when she disappeared. But seeing you reminded me of her power… I'd half forgotten about it…"

"Well, if you already know, that makes this easier!" Fumiko said. "I have to go defeat this witch, but… I'll help you find your way out of the labyrinth first."

"Can't… can't I come with you?" Moe asked desperately.

"Sorry, it's too dangerous," Fumiko said. "I can't keep you safe while fighting. I'm pretty new at this, you see… just made my contract last week. If you're there I'm afraid we'd both end up dying. I'm really sorry."

"Aww… okay then," Moe said with a sigh.

So Fumiko escorted Moe out of the barrier, cutting down any familiars that threatened them, and then they parted ways, with Fumiko heading back into the barrier while Moe made her way home.

The next day, Kyuubey appeared as she arrived home from, once more alone.

"Shiina Moe, make a contract with me and become a magical girl."

"Eh? I can be a magical girl too!?" Moe gasped. "That's awesome! But there isn't really anything I'd want to wish for… I'm home!"

She stepped inside and kicked her shoes off, she called out the standard greeting, and her mother's voice called back as she made her way to her bedroom.

"Welcome back!"

Kyuubey waited for the brief exchange to end before continuing.

"Is there really nothing?" it said. "There should be something, otherwise I would not have seen the potential within you."

Moe dropped her bag on the floor and lay down, looking up at the ceiling with her arms splayed out.

"Hmm… well… if there was one thing… it's that I wish I'd had a chance to know my older sister better," Moe mused.

"Is that the wish that will light your soul gem?" Kyuubey asked.

"No, not quite, let me refine it," Moe said. "Um… what kinds of things can I wish for?"

"Anything you can imagine," Kyuubey replied.

"Hmm… for example, could I wish for someone who died to come back to life?" Moe asked.

"It is possible," Kyuubey said.

"Although, I'm not quite sure she is dead," Moe mused. "What would happen if I wished for someone to come back to life but they were actually still alive in another country or something?"

"That is difficult to predict," Kyuubey said. "I can think of multiple possible outcomes. It could result in two versions of the person, for example, or the wish's fulfillment might be deferred until a future time when the person eventually dies."

Moe rolled over on her side to face Kyuubey.

"So there's no chance that nothing will happen because it's already fulfilled?"

"It is possible," Kyuubey replied. "But you have enough potential that such an outcome is unlikely."

"Hmm…" Moe mused, rolling over to face away from it. "Well, I'm pretty sure she's not alive… there's no way onee-chan would've run away so suddenly like that… alright, let me see… yes, this should do it." She sat up and turned to face Kyuubey. "I want you to bring onee-chan back to life so I can fight alongside her and protect her!"

"Understood. Your wish has surpassed entropy."

As Kyuubey drew out her soul gem, an egg-shaped light split off from it and grew, larger and larger, until it was the size of a person. Then it hatched open, revealing Remi in her full magical girl outfit. She opened her eyes and looked around in confusion, and then Moe hugged her.

"Onee-chan! You're really alive!"

"Huh!?" Remi gasped. "Wait, are you Moe-chan!? Y-you've grown so big! What on earth happened to me?"

Moe stepped back to get a look at her revived sister.

"Oh wow, this is amazing," Moe said. "You look exactly the same as I remember, onee-chan! But it's actually been a long time… I'm almost eleven years old now. You disappeared without a trace… did one of those witches finally get you?"

"Um… I… I'm not sure," Remi mused. "Maybe? My memories are a little fuzzy towards the end… but I remember everything else pretty clearly. I can hardly believe that my super-cute baby sister has grown so big in the blink of an eye… come to think of it, how am I even here? I'm pretty sure I… died…? Did you make a wish to bring me back to life? You really shouldn't have done that, Moe-chan… not that I'm not grateful, I am, but still, being a magical girl is a huge responsibility…"

"Who cares about that!" Moe said, tears coming to her eyes. "I'm just glad I have a chance to be with you at all, onee-chan! Back then, I was really sad when you disappeared, you know… it took me months to realize that you'd never be coming back… but now you're right here in front of me…"

She hugged Remi again.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry about that," Remi said. "Obviously, the circumstances were beyond my control."

"And guess what else, onee-chan?" Moe said excitedly, stepping back again. "After I started going to school, I made a friend! And now she's a magical girl too! I thought it'd be cool to work together, all three of us!"

Remi blinked. "Well, I'm open to the idea," she said. "As long as you and your friend are both okay with it. A lot of magical girls prefer to fight alone, you see… that's why I never had other magical girl friends."

"Oh… is that so?" Moe said. "But that doesn't make sense… you're stronger together, right?"

Remi shrugged. "In a certain way, it does make sense… magical girls need grief seeds to survive, so if you formed too large of a group, there wouldn't be enough grief seeds for everyone, right? I think three shouldn't be too big though…"

"Hmm… we promised to attend a concert the day after tomorrow," Moe said. "So I think I'll wait until then to tell her. It can be a surprise! Um… before that, though, would you mind teaching me the ropes, onee-chan?"

"Well, I suppose I could do that, sure," Remi said. "Apparently I'm considered a veteran, right Kyuubey?"

"As I recall, you fought witches for close to three years," Kyuubey said. "Few magical girls even survive their first year, so you could say that anyone who lives longer than that is a veteran."

At that moment, someone knocked on the bedroom door.

"Moe-chan? Are you talking to yourself? I thought I heard voices…"

"Huh?" Moe gasped, looking at the door in panic. "Eh? Um…"

Remi powered down just in time, revealing her middle school uniform, and the door opened a second later as Mrs Shiina looked in.

"Oh, you had a friend… over… wait… Remi-chan!? Is that you?"

"Uhh… hi, Mom," Remi said. "You look… mostly the same as usual, huh… but maybe a bit older…"

Mrs Shiina stepped forward to gather up her lost daughter in an embrace.

"It… it's really you, Remi-chan!? Where have you been all these years?"

"W-well… you might not believe this," Remi said. "B-but the last thing I remember of you, like it was yesterday, is saying ittekimasu to you as I left for school…"

Mrs Shiina took a step back to examine Remi.

"Y-you do look exactly the same as I remember," she admitted. "Like you're still fourteen years old… it's almost like a miracle… no, this must be a miracle…"

"You're taking this surprisingly well though, Mom," Remi said. "Most people would be freaking out a lot more, I think."

"Well, if you ask me," Mrs Shiina said, "the most important thing is that you're alive and well. The rest is all just incidental details. So what if you've lost eight years? At least you're alive!"

"Y-yeah, I'll admit I'm pretty happy about that myself," Remi admitted.

"Why did you even disappear?" Mrs Shiina asked. "I was so worried… it took me three whole years to finally give up on seeing you again…"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Remi said. "I can't answer that question."

"Ah, I suppose you wouldn't know anyway," Mrs Shiina said. "After all, as far as you know, it's been less than a day since you saw us last, right?"

Remi nodded. "Something like that. A little more than a day, but not much more."

"I kept most of your things," Mrs Shiina said. "I just couldn't bear to throw them out… but they've all been packed into boxes somewhere, so you'll need to do a little digging to find them. Some of it might be in the shed, too."

Remi nodded. "That's fine. I'll unpack it all little by little."

"As for a room," Mrs Shiina mused. "It might be a bit much for you to share with Moe-chan like you used to…"

"I don't mind!" Moe interjected. "I'd like to share a room! At least… at least for a little while!"

"You sure?" Mrs Shiina said. "We could always convert the study into a bedroom…"

"Huh? But what about Dad?" Remi asked.

"Well, you see, some things happened," Mrs Shiina said sadly. "Your father moved out… fortunately, he's still sending money, so we're able to continue living in this house for the time being."

"It's not because I disappeared, is it?" Remi asked.

"No, no, dear, it has nothing to do with that," Mrs Shiina said.

"Well, I think I can manage to share with Moe-chan for awhile," Remi said. "We've got a lot of catching up to do, right?"

Moe nodded, beaming. "Yeah, a lot!"

"Ah, I should let you two get started on that, shouldn't I?" Mrs Shiina said. "Should I set out an extra futon for you, Remi-chan?"

"Don't worry about that tonight, Mom," Remi said. "I think Moe-chan and I would both appreciate the extra closeness tonight. I imagine it'll be a touch cramped though, so a separate futon would be great from tomorrow on."

"Then I'll get one ready for tomorrow," Mrs Shiina said.

With that, she left the room.

"So… are they divorced?" Remi asked.

"Uhh… it's… it's complicated," Moe said. "Whenever one of them brings up divorce, the other never seems to like the idea… it's really weird, cause sometimes Mom brings it up and other times it's Dad… it's like they both sort of want it but are too scared too…"

"Does he come over often?" Remi asked.

"About once or twice a month, I guess," Moe said. "Sometimes I also visit him at his place, or he takes me to La Vie Land or the aquarium."

"I see… what's La Vie Land?"

"Oh, you didn't know? It's an amusement park on the other side of town," Moe said.

"I don't think that was there eight years ago," Remi replied.

"Hmm… you might be right," Moe admitted. "The first time I went there was only about three years ago, I think…"

"I don't remember an aquarium either," Remi said.

"That's in the next town," Moe replied. "Mitakihara, I think it's called?"

"Oh, that makes sense," Remi said. "Oh, and what about Osamu-kun?"

Moe blinked. "Ah, onii-chan… he's living with Dad until he graduates," she said. "So I don't see much of him, either…"

"If it's been eight years… he should be graduating really soon, right?"

Moe nodded. "Yeah, just a month and a half left. I guess you can go to his graduation ceremony, onee-chan."

Remi chuckled. "Maybe I'll start calling him onii-chan too, since I'm younger than him now," she said. "So… you're a magical girl now, right? What are your powers like?"

"Hmm… well, I guess I can heal and make barriers," Moe said. "I think that's about it…"

"That's not a lot," Remi sighed. "You can't attack with barriers or healing…"

"Hmm… that's true," Moe admitted.

"Why don't you show me your barriers?" Remi suggested. "Maybe we can come up with a way for you to attack with it."

"Alright," Moe said.

She transformed and produced a barrier around her. Remi reached out to touch it, and there was an electrical jolt, causing her to pull back in a hurry.

"Ow!" she said. "It's like an electric shock… this isn't what I expected from a barrier. It seems to be electricity? Maybe you could make actual lightning or something?"

"You think so, onee-chan?" Moe asked.

Remi shrugged. "Well, it could be worth a try, but even if you can't, just defending with a barrier like that might count as an attack… or you could shape it into an attack somehow…"

"I see… I'll consider it," Moe said.

After supper, Remi took Moe out to practice the basics of hunting witches, including how to detect and track them. Though Moe didn't do as well as she'd hoped in her first fight, Remi still praised her, saying she showed potential.

Then the next day, she met up with Fumiko at the Asunaro Dome for a rock concert. At intermission, Fumiko left for the toilet, and a few minutes later, Moe suddenly sensed a witch nearby and went looking for it. As she tracked its presence, the concert-goers began streaming back into the hall for the second half. She had only just located the portal when the presence vanished and the labyrinth collapsed, dumping the culprits back into normal space.

"Th-thanks," Fumiko said. "That was a strong one… you saved me…"

There were three girls besides Fumiko. One had long black hair and was dressed like a nun or something, one had blonde twintails and wore a paratrooper outfit, and the last had brown hair and a cat-ear headband and wore a poofy dress. They looked like high school girls. Moe was about to hail them when one of them spoke.

"You have no reason to thank us," the black-haired girl said.

Something in her tone of voice made Moe freeze up, and Fumiko seemed equally startled.

"Eh?"

The three of them hemmed Fumiko in, forcing her up against a wall.

"E-eh!? N-no! Stop this!" Fumiko shrieked. "W-what do you want from me!? W-why are you doing this? H-help! Someone save me!"

"I'm sorry," the girl with cat ears said. "There's no other choice. Tocco del Mare!"

As Moe looked on in horror, Fumiko suddenly went limp, and then the third girl grabbed her body and stuffed her into a jar. After that, the three of them powered down and left the scene. Since it was a hallway, that didn't require them to pass by Moe, and she fell to all fours, shivering in fear at what she'd witnessed.

"W-what the hell was that…" she muttered. "They were magical girls too… weren't they? And I was s-so scared I c-couldn't even help her… D-did they kill Fumiko-chan!?"

"That's right," a new voice said. "That's just what the Pleiades Saints are like."

Moe looked up and saw the girl who had stuffed Fumiko into a jar, the blonde girl with twintails. She jumped to her feet and transformed, levelling her spear at the newcomer, who nevertheless appeared unfazed.

"Oh, relax, that wasn't me," the girl said. "We're twins, you could say, but I hate her more than anything. You hate her too, right? Why don't we work together?"

"R-really?" Moe said. "Then… then I could get revenge on them for killing Fumiko-chan, right?"

"Oh, certainly," the girl said, grinning. "You can call me… Hyades. Let's work together to get our revenge."

Moe nodded, and they exchanged numbers. Then Moe went home and threw herself at a startled Remi, sobbing.

"I couldn't help her," she sobbed. "They killed her… they just killed her for no reason! The Pleiades Saints… w-why did they do that!?"

"And that's about it," Remi finishes up. "That's all I know… and some of that is just my own speculation as well, so take it with a grain of salt."

Kazumi nods, while Remi finishes off her coffee.

"That mostly lines up with what I saw from her memories," she muses. "But it looks like she misunderstood something. The Pleiades Saints didn't kill Fumiko-chan… they've put her into a life support thing where her soul gem can't accumulate any more grief. It's more like kidnapping than murder."

"That's still pretty awful, though," Remi says. "Why would they do such a thing?"

"They've done that to a lot of magical girls… I don't really like what they're doing, but they did say they were looking for a way to purify their soul gems…"

"Huh? A way to purify soul gems? What's wrong with grief seeds?" Remi asks.

"Eh? What do grief seeds have to do with this?" Kazumi asks.

"Y-you don't even know that?" Remi says. "How have you survived as a magical girl without knowing how to purify your soul gem!?"

"Well… Juubey purifies it for me," Kazumi says.

"Juubey? What's that?"

"Well, he's like a weird black cat or something?" Kazumi suggests.

"Kinda sounds like an evil version of Kyuubey…" Remi muses.

"What's Kyuubey?"

"Surely you made a contract with him to become a magical girl?" Remi says. "You must know Kyuubey!?"

"I don't know," Kazumi says. "To tell the truth, I might not actually be a magical girl, anyway…"

"Really? But you were able to pin Moe-chan in a chokehold," Remi says. "No ordinary human would be able to do that to a magical girl."

"Well, I'm not an ordinary human," Kazumi says. "I don't really know what I am… half witch, half human, half magical girl, half homunculus… or something…"

"You're not making any sense now…" Remi says. "But I do get that you've got a lot going on… was I able to help you in any way?"

"Maybe," Kazumi says cautiously. "So anyway, you're saying you can purify your soul gem with a grief seed?"

Remi nods. "Yeah… just press them together and all the corruption flows from the soul gem into the grief seed. It's really weird that you don't know that…"

"The Pleiades Saints didn't seem to know, either," Kazumi said. "They just said Juubey deals with their grief seeds…"

"That's so weird, how would they not know about grief seeds?" Remi wonders.

"They did say they were rejecting the magical girl system," Kazumi muses. "But I'm not sure what grief seeds would have to do with that…"

The door jingles again and two high-school girls enter, and the sound once more brings Souichirou to the front.

"Huh? It's Mr Tachibana… since when did you move out here? What happened to Bistro Tachibana?"

The speaker is a tall blonde twin-tailed girl.

"Eh? Oh! I remember, you're the ones who got a bucket of parfait a couple months back… but wasn't there another girl with you?"

"Do you mean Ashley-chan?" the girl's short, silver-haired companion asks. "She lives out of town, so…"

"Oh, is that so… about Bistro Tachibana, I was conned out of the lease, so I was forced to shut down."

"Oh… that's kinda sad," the tall girl says.

"Yeah, who would do such a thing!?" the short girl complains.

"It's not so bad," Souichirou shrugs. "I knew the owner of this place, and it turned out his manager recently quit, so I got the job. If anything, I'd have to say I'm pretty lucky. Alright, what can I get you girls?"

"Hmm… by any chance, do you still have the bucket of parfait?" Yuuri asks.

"You're in luck!" Souichirou says. "I just put it back on the menu recently."

"Then let's have that, Yuuri-chan!" Airi says eagerly. "It was so delicious last time!"

"So, two buckets of parfait?" Souichirou confirms.

"Yes, please," Yuuri says.

He takes their money and disappears into the back, and the two girls head over to choose a seat.

"Um, excuse me!" Kazumi says. "Um… your friend called you 'Yuuri-chan'… could you be Asuka Yuuri?"

Yuuri looks at her. "Yes, I… Huh? Wait, is that you, Miss Kazusa?"

Kazumi quickly shakes her head.

"N-no, no, we've never met," Kazumi says. "But you're magical girls, right? Miss Pernelle said you fought with her…"

"You're not Miss Kazusa?" Yuuri confirms.

Kazumi shakes her head. "I'm not."

Yuuri sighs, taking a seat at the next table over from Kazumi and Remi, and Airi sits across from her.

"So… you've met that woman too, huh?" Yuuri says. "She's a strange one… popped out of nowhere, addressed us by name, and requested assistance. I'd never even heard of her before, so I'm not sure where she got my name from. And the way she talks is strange too."

Airi nods. "Yeah, she seemed okay but it was a little creepy at first."

"Y-yeah… she did that to me too," Kazumi says. "Startled me out of my wits, too… and she already knew my name, somehow… it was almost like she'd been watching me for quite awhile…"

"So… the two of you really are magical girls?" Remi asks.

"That's right," Anri says. "I guess both of you are too, right?"

Remi nods.

"Well… close enough," Kazumi mutters. "Um… I was just curious, but… what did you think of Miss Pernelle?"

"Eccentric, I suppose," Yuuri says.

"Her Japanese is so formal and archaic, sometimes it's a little hard to understand her," Airi says. "She swears in a different language, too… I don't think she's from Japan."

"She did tell me she was returning to Paris," Kazumi said. "So I guess you're right about that…"

"She's strong, that's for sure," Yuuri muses. "That witch we fought with her… it would've given Airi-chan and I a hard time if she wasn't there. She seems to have a lot of different abilities… she can conjure up barriers at the blink of an eye, teleport across the battlefield, transform random objects littering the labyrinth into lethal weapons, and even cause explosions. Oh, she also healed me once or twice, too."

"And she seemed to have a whole pile of grief seeds," Airi chimes in. "We must've gone through four or five over the course of that battle… but I never saw her use any herself, though I might've just missed it."

"Yeah, I've never used so many grief seeds in such a short time," Yuuri says. "I think we were a little reckless because she said up-front that she had lots, but still, beating that witch without her would've been really tricky."

"Wow… are you saying she doesn't need grief seeds!?" Remi gasps. "Was her soul gem corrupted at all?"

Yuuri shrugs. "No idea. I couldn't even find her soul gem. I can't believe she'd be able to fight without grief seeds, though… she must've just used one after we split up or something. Maybe she's very efficient with her magic, so she doesn't need to use them as often?"

"Oh, that makes sense," Remi nods. "My little sister was really efficient… she managed to last more than a month without using a single grief seed… if only I'd noticed sooner, she might still be with us."

"Oh wow, that is impressive," Yuuri says.

"Y-yeah, we usually need one after just a couple of battles," Airi says.

"She wasn't fighting witches every single day," Remi admits. "But we fought together several times a week. She kept saying she didn't need one, and when I checked I saw it was true, and then after awhile I just forgot to keep checking…"

"I'm sorry for your loss," Yuuri says.

Airi nods as well. "Y-yeah, that's really sad…"

"How long have… wait, what was your name again?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Remi says. "We totally skipped the introductions, didn't we? I'm Shiina Remi."

"Asuka Yuuri."

"Anri Airi."

All three of them look at Kazumi, who blinks at them.

"O-oh! I'm Kazumi… just Kazumi…"

It's around then that Souichirou returns with two buckets of parfait and sets them before the high school girls.

"Enjoy!" he says.

Then he heads into the back once more, while Yuuri and Airi immediately begin to dig in.

"It's nice to meet other magical girls," Remi says once he's gone. "I never really interacted much with other magical girls before now, though I did meet one or two… they weren't as friendly as you though."

"Now that I think of it, I really haven't met many other magical girls myself, either," Yuuri muses. "Other than Pernelle just the other day, the only ones recently are Ashley-chan and Kanna Nico, who's one of the Pleiades Saints… other than that, there was this angry girl named Sakura Kyouko, and of course Michiru Kazusa."

That draws Kazumi's attention. "Y-you met Michiru Kazusa!?" she gasps. "What was she like?"

Yuuri looks at her. "Yeah, I noticed this earlier, but… you're the spitting image of her…"

"Y-yeah… I know… that's why I was asking about her," Kazumi says.

"Hmm, well… I think I would say she was very kind, but a bit of a prankster," Yuuri muses. "I actually met her before I even became a magical girl… she saved me from a witch, but it wasn't like your typical saviour situation. She forced me to work for it… it was… oddly satisfying, to be honest…"

"Huh… so that's what she was like," Kazumi muses.

"So, how long have you been a magical girl, Miss Remi?" Airi asks. "Are you new?"

"Um… well, that's complicated," Remi says. "I've been a magical girl for about… oh, two and a half years, I think? But I made my contract with Kyuubey around ten years ago."

Yuuri and Airi blink at her.

"Huh? How does that work?" Yuuri asks.

"Well, that's why I said it's complicated," Remi says. "It seems I died and came back to life…"

"Is that even possible!?" Airi gasps.

"I guess if it's a wish, anything is possible," Remi says. "It's probably thanks to my little sister's wish that I was able to come back."

"That really is a miracle…" Kazumi whispers. "You know, the three of you seem a lot more like proper magical girls, compared to the Pleiades Saints…"

Yuuri blinks at her. "Not you too!? Ashley-chan said the same thing, but I just can't believe that a group led by Miss Kazusa could be bad…"

Kazumi blinks at her. "Huh? What do you mean? They're not led by Michiru-chan… Michiru-chan has been dead for a long time. The leader is Saki-chan now…"

Yuuri stares at her. "R-really? Are you quite sure!?"

"Well, yes… because that's the whole reason I exist…" Kazumi says.

"You're certain she's dead?" Yuuri presses her.

"I just said I'm certain!" Kazumi protests.

Yuuri hangs her head, clasping it between both hands.

"Oh god, I had no idea… I knew I hadn't seen her for awhile, but I figured she was just busy…" Suddenly she sits up with a gasp. "Oh my god! Ashley-chan's warning… I think she knew! She knew but didn't tell me! But… how could she have known…? Am I just reading too much into this?"

"Let me ask her," Airi says eagerly, pulling out her phone. "I'll send her an email right now."

"It's too bad that she couldn't taste the bucket of parfait," Kazumi muses. "It's so amazingly delicious…"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with you on that one," Yuuri says fervently, taking another spoonful.

Airi's phone jingles, indicating an incoming message.

"Whoa, that was fast!" she says, checking it. "She says… 'I'm sorry. I thought you'd be weirded out hearing it from me.' Well… she does have a point there…"

"That's true," Yuuri admits. "If someone I'd never met came up and told me that a girl I really admire died quite awhile ago, I would be pretty weirded out… but she could've mentioned it later, after we became friends. Miss Kazusa was the one who inspired me to become a magical girl, after all…"

"Probably just forgot," Airi says. "It's not like the subject came up just after I made my wish, right?"

"True," Yuuri nods.

"So anyway, Remi-chan, you're basically a veteran, right?"

"Well, I suppose you could say that," Remi says. "It feels especially weird being told that by a couple of high school girls though… I'll be restarting my final year of middle school tomorrow."

"Well, I've only been a magical girl for a year," Yuuri says.

"And I only just made my wish around Valentine's Day," Airi says.

"So you really are a veteran compared to us," Yuuri concludes.

"It's funny you mention Valentine's Day though," Remi says. "It's around then that I came back to life. The week after, to be precise. Strange coincidence, right?"

"I dunno," Yuuri says. "Pernelle said something about a spell on the city that she dispelled around then… apparently it made Kyuubey invisible or something?"

"Really? That's… it sounds so weird, I don't know what to say…" Remi says. "But if that's true, it could certainly explain the coincidence."

"I'm glad we had this little chat," Kazumi says. "It's helped me to figure out some things… thanks, everyone!"

The others look at her.

"You're welcome," Remi says. "I should probably get going, though… I told Mom I'd be no more than an hour, and I think I've already exceeded that…"

"I'll see you later, then," Kazumi says.

Kazumi then leans back to ponder what she's learned.

"Don't hesitate to look for us if you find a super-strong witch that you can't handle alone," Yuuri adds.

"Yeah, we'll come in and smash that witch with you!" Airi says.

"Thanks," Remi says. "In that case, should we exchange phone numbers?"

"Oh yeah, I guess that would be a good idea," Yuuri says.

They all pull out their phones and tap them together, with each of them beeping to indicate the successful transference of the data.

"Alright… see you!" Remi says.

She leaves the café, and Yuuri turns to Kazumi.

"What about you?" Yuuri asks.

Kazumi blinks at her. "Hmm? Sorry, I was spacing out…"

"Exchanging contact info," Yuuri says.

"Oh! Sure! I guess that makes us friends, right?" Kazumi asks, grabbing her phone.

"Well, I don't see why not," Yuuri says.

Airi nods. "Yeah, you seem like a good person, Kazumi-chan."

They tap their phones together and wait for the beep.

"I guess you're my first real friends," Kazumi muses.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Airi asks.

"No… it was nothing," Kazumi says.

Yuuri and Airi eat in silence for a few more minutes, but then Yuuri ventures a question.

"Say, Kazumi-chan," she says. "You mentioned that the Pleiades Saints don't seem like proper magical girls, but you never said why…"

Kazumi blinks at her.

"O-oh, well… they're hunting magical girls," she explains. "They take their soul gems away and put them in … they call it the 'Freezer'. They keep the bodies there too, so it's kinda like kidnapping…"

The two of them gape at her.

"A-are you serious!?" Airi gasps. "D-doesn't that make them, like… actual villains!?"

"Well, they're not bad people," Kazumi says. "I think their heart is in the right place. But…"

"Even good people can go down the wrong path and do bad things, right?" Yuuri says. "I can hardly believe the group founded by Miss Kazusa would do something like that… but I assume you've seen it with your own eyes?"

Kazumi nods. "Yeah… I saw them do it to a magical girl with a split personality," she says.

"That's really sad," Yuuri says. "For them to fall so far… what would Miss Kazusa say if she could see them?"

"Maybe she can," Kazumi muses. "I should've asked Remi-chan about that…"

"Did you say something?" Yuuri asks.

"Nothing important," Kazumi replies.

The most unexpected thing there was that I not only came up in the conversation but even ended up indirectly joining it slightly. I didn't receive that text message in the previous timeline, after all… what could possibly be different this time? April was pretty uneventful for me the last time around, so I don't think I could've just missed it. The only thing I can think of that might have changed is Pernelle's comment that time may have been turned back, but there's no way that could've influenced Yuuri and Airi… although Pernelle also spent some time with those two, so she could've said something to influence them then.

Anyway, these are entirely new events that never would've been possible in the manga – at this point in time, all three of the girls Kazumi was chatting with would've been dead, although Moe on the other hand most likely would've been alive as an ordinary human. It's cool that I got to hear Remi's account of Moe's backstory though. It seems that, unlike Airi and Hijiri in the manga, she didn't make her wish specifically for revenge, but instead swore revenge after her wish had already been made. It also seems that Remi wasn't really on board with Moe's plans. This should be useful to know later on, when I want to save Moe. And it sounded like Hijiri was deliberately misleading Moe about the Pleiades Saint's actions, which should also help me to get through to her.

Note: In an earlier chapter, I posited that Itsumi Inui was a year younger than Madoka; however, because that creates some continuity issues, I've revised it to make her the same age.