After leaving the teddy bear museum, Kazumi, Umika, and Kaoru go one way while Yuuri and Airi go in the opposite direction. However, the latter two only go as far as the next corner. Watching as they split up, I transmit a message to Kazumi.

«Are you heading home, Kazumi-chan?»

«I'm sorry, Ashley-chan,» Kazumi responds. «I don't think I can help you out today after all. But I don't think the magic is based on identity, so you might be able to get in anyway.»

«Well, I guess we'll just figure it out ourselves,» I reply.

Then I contact Yuuri and Airi. «Looks like they're gone,» I say.

«But the others are still inside,» Yuuri counters.

«That's true,» I admit. «I'll check what they're up to with my clairvoyance… maybe I can draw them out.»

I open a vision on Saki, who's just standing there staring down at the soul gems, with Mirai sitting a little off to the side, just watching anxiously. Then I check Nico, who appears to be leaving, and finally Satomi, who seems to be brooding about something. I decide to try and draw them out with a telepathic message. First I transmit a message to my allies.

«Yuuri-chan, Airi-chan, please wait where you are and try not to be seen,» I say. «Miss Remi and Moe-chan, go join them down there.»

«Alright!» Yuuri says.

«I got it,» Remi says.

Then I hop onto the roof of the museum itself and transmit a message specifically to Saki, monitoring her with my clairvoyance.

«Are you having second thoughts, Asami Saki?» I ask her.

«W-what!? Who's this?» Saki responds instantly, looking around.

«We've met before,» I say. «You remember, right?»

A girl's telepathic voice sounds the same as their real voice, so she's able to identify me from that.

«You're… Ashley Taylor? What do you want?»

«Correct,» I reply. «I was thinking I'd share your secret with Miss Kazumi.»

I almost laugh out loud at her panicked face.

«W-what secret!?» Saki gasps.

«Her true identity, and her predecessors,» I say.

«W-what are you talking about!?» Saki asks.

«I just answered that question,» I retort. «Are you trying to play dumb? It's no use. I already know she's the thirteenth.»

«W-wait right where you are! Let's talk about this face-to-face!»

Saki spins and runs out, and Mirai jumps up and runs after her. Their passage startles the brooding Satomi, who also follows them out.

"Saki, what's wrong!?" Mirai calls.

"Huh? Is something up, Saki-chan?" Satomi asks.

"I don't know!" Saki says. "It's that Ashley Taylor girl! She's threatening to tell Kazumi everything!"

"B-but how could she possibly know?" Mirai asks. "It's not like we've been going around broadcasting any of this!"

"I don't know! That's why I've got to talk to her face-to-face!" Saki says.

At this point, they reach the exit and become audible to my real ears.

"Oh, is that all this is about?" Satomi sighs. "Then count me out… I'm going to go relax somewhere for awhile. See you later."

«Where are you?» Saki asks me.

«On the roof,» I reply.

As Satomi heads off on her own, Saki and Mirai leap up onto the roof of the museum and approach me. Once they're far enough from the edge that they won't be able to see the ground, I alert my allies.

«Yuuri, now's your chance!» I transmit. «Get in there and free everyone!»

«On it!» Yuuri says.

I switch my clairvoyance over to the four of them, since I can now see Saki and Mirai in my regular vision. They run inside the museum, which Mirai had left unlocked, and after several seconds of fiddling, they manage to activate the teleportation circle that takes them down to the Freezer. So it's not keyed to a specific identity. I guess the Pleiades Saints didn't consider the possibility of another magical girl barging in. The doors below were also left open, as Saki left in a hurry.

"What do you think you're doing, Ashley Taylor?" Saki asks. "You can't just waltz into our territory and do as you please. We warned you last time we met."

"I'd say you're the ones overreaching your bounds here," I retort. "Kidnapping magical girls en masse? Especially when it's your fault they're in a pinch in the first place."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Saki retorts. "It's not our fault they let their soul gems get so corrupted. But what has that got to do with Kazumi?"

"Right, I figure she has the right to know where she comes from," I say. "Don't tell me you disagree?"

I see Moe pick out Fumiko's soul gem, and Remi finds her body. They wake her up, much as they did in the previous timeline.

«Yuuri, here's a tip,» I say. «If you pile the soul gems outside of that barrier and then line up the bodies around the pile, some of them should wake up. Once they're awake, they'll be able to identify their own soul gems.»

«Got it!» Yuuri replies.

Since I transmitted the message to all four of them, they immediately set about to implementing the idea. I have to thank Umika for the suggestion, though. They also seem to have the sense to leave the most corrupted soul gems in the barrier for now, which is good.

"B-but… Michiru… we're doing it for her sake!" Saki protests.

"Is that what you're telling yourself?" I retort. "Is it really for her sake? Are you sure it's not just for your sake?"

"It's not like that!" Mirai shouts. "Saki really cares about Michiru!"

"Is that what you call caring?" I retort. "Treating her like a toy?"

I summon Teddy Mk II behind me and start charging my ultimate. Startled, the two of them transform and take a ready stance.

"What are you planning!?" Saki asks. "You realize we can call the others here in an instant, right? Even if you're strong, I doubt you could stand up to the six… no, the seven of us!"

"You're probably right about that," I admit. "I'm not all that strong, honestly."

Then I unleash the partially-charged attack. It plows through me without any resistance, as if I'm not even there, and strikes the two of them head-on.

"But I do have something you could call a cheat power," I say.

I dart towards them, wrenching their soul gems from the back of Saki's hand and Mirai's hairband. The charm effect renders them unable to resist.

"Thanks for hesitating," I say. "Don't worry, I'm not like you. I'll give them back soon. Wait here until then. And… I'm sorry. You may not believe me, but I really mean that."

Then I hop off the roof. There's not much time; I need to get into the Freezer before the charm effect wears off. After all, there's no way the height of this building is over a hundred metres, which means there's only one other way to prevent them from interfering. While monitoring them with clairvoyance, I dash into the museum and fiddle with the diagram, trying to replicate what I saw Umika and Yuuri do earlier. Fortunately, it works on the first try, and I find myself in the basement. The large gear doors are still open, so I rush in and plunge the two soul gems in my hand into the barrier at the centre of the room. Until that moment, the two girls on the roof were just standing around with glazed eyes, but the moment the gems enter the barrier, they collapse in a heap. It may not be a hundred metres, but this is a barrier specifically designed to separate a soul gem from her body.

"W-what are you doing?" Yuuri asks, startled by my sudden appearance.

"Sorry," I say. "Those two are Saki and Mirai… as soon as everyone's out, I'll release them."

"Doesn't that make you as bad as they are?" Yuuri asks dubiously.

"Maybe, but on the other hand, I don't plan to hold them here indefinitely."

"I suppose…"

I take the opportunity to look around. There are already four or five magical girls up, and as I watch, yet another wakes up and transforms. I see Akane Sumire is among the ones who are already up… probably because she hadn't been in here for very long. Some of them are chattering, and Airi appears to be doing her best to explain things to them. Moe, Remi, and Fumiko are off to one side getting caught up.

"So, I see you've left the most corrupted ones in here," I muse. "I guess it's time for me to start purifying them."

"I already used up all my grief seeds, and so did the Shiina sisters," Yuuri asks. "Do you think the ones from Pernelle will be enough? I didn't even save one for myself… probably should've, but it seemed like these girls needed it more."

Yuuri's soul gem was just purified by Juubey anyway, and Juubey had two grief seeds to soak up that grief, so I think she'll be fine.

"We'll just have to find out," I say. "Want to help me?"

I pull out all ten of the ones she gave me, and Yuuri nods, picking up a grief seed and grabbing one of the soul gems from the stash to purify it. I do the same, purifying them one by one. As I thought, each grief seed can do about three gems… but it's actually a little better than that, because often there's a bit of use left in the grief seed after three gems are purified, and in the best case, two almost-spent grief seeds are enough for another whole soul gem. I also try to not let the grief seed suck out all the corruption, leaving them at around five or ten percent. This allows me to conserve the grief seeds somewhat. It seems Yuuri had the same idea as well.

Once all ten grief seeds are spent, there are still a few soul gems left.

"Oh dear, what'll we do now?" Yuuri laments.

"Before that," I say. "Did you dispose of your spent grief seeds before?"

Yuuri nods. "Kyuubey showed up a few minutes before you… but I'm not sure where he is now."

I raise my voice. "Kyuubey!"

It appears from behind one of the tanks.

"I just cannot understand you, Ashley Taylor," it says.

"Shouldn't you be thanking me for giving you ten grief seeds all at once?" I retort. "You can get energy from them, right?"

"While true, it is a paltry amount compared to the energy released when a soul gem evolves into a grief seed," Kyuubey says. "But you are right. I am grateful that you are able to provide me with so many grief seeds."

I toss the ten spent seeds at it, and it catches them in the opening on its back.

"I'll have a couple more for you in a minute," I add.

"Eh? You had even more than that?" Yuuri asks.

"Those were just the ones Pernelle gave me," I say. "I have four more besides that."

"…do you normally have that many grief seeds on you?" Yuuri asks. "I usually don't have more than two… are you actually really strong, Ashley-chan?"

"I don't think I'm all that strong," I reply. "I managed to get a stash of four thanks to teaming up with a magical girl in my hometown, and I just haven't needed them yet, since I still hunt witches regularly."

"I see," Yuuri says. "Kyuubey tells me most girls fight alone, but I guess you're different, right?"

"I don't trust Kyuubey on that count," I say. "I think the truth is it wants us to fight alone. If we all teamed up, we might manage to eliminate witches from this world, and then it would lose its precious source of energy."

"I wonder where you got that idea from," Kyuubey says. "I do not lie. It is true that a majority of magical girls prefer to fight alone."

"Right, a majority," I scoff. "In other words, as long as fifty-one percent of magical girls fight alone, you're technically telling the truth, but it's still misleading."

"I don't get what you mean by energy," Yuuri says. "What does that have to do with witches, exactly? Why would Kyuubey need a lot of energy?"

"When a soul gem evolves into a grief seed," Kyuubey replies, "an untold amount of energy is released, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. We harvest that energy to delay the inevitable heat death of the universe."

Yuuri blinks. "Uhh… overkill much? That's trillions of years away, right? Assuming it's even real…"

"If we were to wait until the end were near, then it would be too late to gather enough energy," Kyuubey replies.

While Yuuri is chatting with Kyuubey, I pull out three of my four grief seeds and use them to purify the last few soul gems as best I can. Once that's done, I toss them at Kyuubey, who catches them in the compartment on its back. Then I gather up as many soul gems as I can carry and head over to the pile in the centre of all the bodies. By this time, it looks like at least half of the girls have been revived. Yuuri gathers up an armful of soul gems as well and follows me. Now the only soul gems remaining in the barrier are those of Saki and Mirai.

I check the time, but it's still only barely noon. I have two hours before I need to meet up with Pernelle, and at the rate girls are waking up, I think they should all be up well before then. And about half an hour later, my intuition is proven correct as the last one finally awakens.

"Hey everyone!" Airi shouts. "Everyone, quiet down for a moment!"

Most of the girls cease their chatter, but a few just keep on going.

"I said, shut up!" Airi booms.

It seems like she just accidentally figured out how to enhance her voice with magic, for the shout causes the very foundations to shake, and the girls look around nervously as they quiet down. Then Airi looks at me expectantly.

"Huh? You want me to explain everything?" I ask.

"This whole operation was your idea, wasn't it Ashley-chan? So I think you should do it."

"Well… okay then," I say.

I turn to the expectant crowd of magical girls. I think there are around fifty in all, maybe a few more.

"So um… I'm sure many of you are wondering what's going on, right?" I say. "Let me see, where to begin… I guess with introductions. I'm Ashley Taylor, and these are Asuka Yuuri, Anri Airi, and Shiina Remi. We're the ones who set you free from this place, and purified all your soul gems with grief seeds.

"Probably most of you remember being attacked by other girls. That's a group of magical girls calling themselves the Pleiades Saints. You were all captured and brought here by them. Maybe you're all thinking that you can't forgive them for what they've done, but I want to say that they're not bad people, just misguided. They didn't do this out of malice, but out of their convictions, which though admirable ultimately led them down the wrong path. So… maybe you can't forgive them, but even so, I'd like you all to try. Besides… technically, they saved most of your lives, if in an overcomplicated and roundabout way.

"Because of what the Pleiades Saints have done, this city has been short on magical girls recently, and as a result, the witches have been getting stronger. On top of that, there are quite a few of you here, probably because Kyuubey kept creating more while the Pleiades Saints kept capturing you, so that creates two issues. I imagine many of you are used to fighting alone, but at least for the time being, unless you wish to leave the city, you'll probably need to get used to fighting in teams, both because some of the witches may be too strong to take down alone and because you can gather grief seeds more efficiently if you work together. I won't try to force anyone, of course, but then it's your own fault if you get killed by a witch.

"If you want to thank me, then considering lending me your power when Walpurgisnacht arrives. I'm not sure if all of you have heard of her, but Walpurgisnacht is an insanely powerful witch who will be coming to Shinriku Prefecture in five weeks, and I'd be happy if some of you travelled to help fight her. If you're interested, you can get in touch with me via Yuuri-chan or Airi-chan and I can give more details once I'm certain.

"Now, I'm sure most of you are itching to get home, so let's get out of here! We should leave in groups of ten or less to avoid attracting too much attention. Yuuri-chan, Airi-chan, Miss Remi, you can take turns escorting them to the surface, right?"

The three girls nod.

"Yeah, no problem," Yuuri says.

There are some scattered cheers from the crowd, and then the magical girls start to head out, with Yuuri, Airi, and Remi taking turns escorting small groups to the surface. It takes around ten trips, and then they return. Now it's just six of us left – me, Remi, Moe, Fumiko, Yuuri, and Airi.

"Um, thank you very much, Miss Taylor," Fumiko says, bowing.

"M-me too," Moe says. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you before. I'm just happy I can be together with Fumiko-chan again!"

"I was pretty shocked to discover that you were a magical girl though," Fumiko teases.

"I said stop that!" Moe protests.

"Alright, I have a few things to take care of," I say. "So I'm going to head off. Remi-chan, would you like my contact info?"

"Um…" Remi considers the question for a minute. "Yeah, sure."

We tap our phones together to exchange numbers, and then I grab the two soul gems from the barrier before we head to the surface together.

"I used up all my grief seeds, so I want to see if I can take down a witch before meeting with Pernelle," Yuuri says. "So I'll see you later."

"Of course, I'm coming too!" Airi says.

"We're going to try out working as a team," Remi says. "So in other words, we're going witch hunting too."

"Sure," I say.

After watching them head their own ways, I hop onto the roof of the museum and leave Saki's and Mirai's soul gems next to them. Then, before they get a chance to wake up, I run off. A minute or two later, I see them sit up through my clairvoyance.

"What the hell was that!" Saki gasps. "That Ashley Taylor…"

"At least you're okay," Mirai says. "I couldn't stand it if you were hurt…"

"I don't understand what she's planning," Saki mutters. "Why would she knock us out and steal our soul gems, but then just give them back?"

On my way to the observation tower, I unexpectedly spot Nico and pause in my roof-hopping. Uncertain whether it's truly Nico rather than Hijiri, I approach her cautiously. She looks up as I approach.

"Ashley Taylor?" she says. "What are you doing here?"

"You're Kanna Nico, right?" I ask.

"Of course," she replies.

"I'm sorry, but can you confirm it for me?" I ask.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Nico asks. "It's not like we know each other. We only met once, briefly."

"Your ring," I reply. "Just let me see your ring."

Nico blinks. "Eh? Wait… can you read the runes, Miss Taylor?"

I nod. "Did you figure them out too?"

"Mostly," Nico says. "There are some that I'm not quite sure of, but… between the seven of us, we cover sixteen out of twenty-six romaji, so it's only natural, right?"

"I suppose it is, now that you put it that way," I agree.

Nico holds out her hand, and I read the runes on her ring, which spell out her full name, Kanna Nico. So it's true – she's the real Nico.

"The reason I stopped to chat with you is because of your wish," I say.

She blinks at me. "What are you talking about?" she asks. "I haven't told a single soul about my wish."

"I'd like to ask you to reign in your replica," I say. "She's been causing trouble."

Nico looks startled. "W-wait, what? What are you talking about!? How do you know about her?"

"You didn't realize, huh?" I say. "She's the one who made the evil nuts."

"You're telling me that she somehow became a magical girl!?" Nico gasps. "But why… why would she do such a thing…"

"She's gotten a strange idea about the meaning behind your wish. I don't know if you'll be able to set her straight, but I figure you're one of the best people to try. Just… if you do confront her, keep in mind that her magic is quite powerful. She's probably a match for you if it comes to a fight. Hell, she might even be a little stronger."

Nico sighs. "Alright… I'll take your warning to heart. I'm not sure if I believe you outright, but it certainly can't hurt to check. Thank you."

It's around now that Saki suddenly gasps in my vision.

"Wait… a distraction!?" she says. "Quick Mirai, we've gotta check on the Freezer!"

"Oh, and by the way," I add, addressing Nico. "That woman, Pernelle? Her power is the same as yours."

Nico blinks. "You mean… reconstruction? But what I saw was teleportation…"

I shake my head. "Actually, what you saw was her creating a clone and then destroying it… she can teleport as well, but that's a power she learned later; reconstruction is her original magic. You might want to try having a chat with her."

"I'll think about it," Nico shrugs.

"That's all I can ask," I say. "I'll see you some other time."

And with that, I resume my roof-hopping towards the observation tower. In the end, I arrive early, but I find Pernelle already there, sitting in a chair looking out at the view. I pause to watch Saki's reaction to the missing soul gems.

"What the hell!?" Saki gasps. "They're all gone! All the soul gems, and all the bodies too! Did Ashley Taylor do all this? She couldn't have done it all alone though… did those two help her? All our painstaking work for nothing… I won't forgive her! Or any of them!"

Mirai clings to her arm, trying in vain to calm her down. I sigh a little and close off the vision. There's not much point watching any further.

"Hello," I say in French. "What happened to Souju?"

"I left them in my labyrinth," Pernelle says. "They won't be able to get out on their own… probably. If they do somehow manage to, I'll easily find them again. They can't escape from me when I can teleport, not without stealth magic."

"So you set up a base here in town, huh…"

"Take a seat," Pernelle says. "There's quite a view from up here. Don't the cars look almost like tiny ants? It's as if you could accidentally squish them. Mind you, it's not as spectacular as the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, but still."

"That's not the sort of observation I'd expect, but sure…" I sigh. "There were two things I wanted to chat about… the first is Mary."

"Oh? I already told you pretty much everything I know about her, though," Pernelle says.

"Well, the thing is, I think I met her," I explain. "And she doesn't appear to have a magical girl ring. Although I'm not sure if she was transformed."

"Well, that's true, now that you mention it," Pernelle says. "That was the case when I met her, too. I'm also not sure if she was transformed though… it was years ago so I don't remember."

"So… is Mary really a magical girl? I thought her magic felt different somehow…"

Pernelle shrugs. "Who knows? Who am I to define what makes a magical girl? You may be right about her magic though."

"I also noticed that she seems to remember the past timelines… or at least, when I met her in the second timeline, she remembered something I told her in the first timeline. I can't be certain she actually remembers everything like I do…"

"Interesting," Pernelle says. "I wonder why that is."

"I was hoping you'd have an idea…" I sigh.

Pernelle shrugs. "I'm just a scientist," she says. "I can theorize, but bring me something completely new and I'll usually have no idea."

"So… no theories on this?"

Pernelle shakes her head. "Not yet. Ask again in a week or two, maybe I'll have thought of something by then."

"The other thing I noticed about Mary is that she doesn't seem to be entirely sane," I say. "Did you get that impression too?"

Pernelle shrugs. "I don't think I'd qualify as sane, either. One could argue that no magical girl is truly sane. I can understand why you'd jump to that conclusion with Mary though – she's easily distracted and will change topics suddenly, as if there are multiple personalities vying for control within her. But that's just how she is, I guess. Maybe she's insane, maybe she's not, but I think that's an unrelated matter."

"She also mentioned something about a Holy Trinity of magical girls."

"I've heard about that too," Pernelle says. "It's a legend from before I was born. According to the legend, Scheherazade once teamed up with two other magical girls to defeat a composite witch very much like Walpurgis."

"So in a way, they're my predecessors," I muse. "Magical girls who took on a super-witch."

"You could say that," Pernelle says. "However, the evidence for them is pretty sketchy. Mary herself claims she personally met them once and is the chief source of the legend, yet Scheherazade has never mentioned them to my knowledge. There are also some written records to validate their existence, but nothing reliable, and none linking the two of them together."

"You don't think they exist?" I ask.

Pernelle shrugs. "I'm not sure," she says. "There's just not enough evidence to draw a conclusion. Assuming they do exist, they haven't been heard from for centuries or more. My understanding is that they're said to predate Christ… the Roman empire… maybe even Abraham."

"So basically, if they were alive, they'd be even older than you and Mary?" I say. "Mary implied they'd been heard from as recently as five centuries ago…"

"I suppose so," Pernelle says. "But if they appeared five centuries ago, I never heard of it. I suspect Mary's base power to be something sensory though, so she may be aware of things that we aren't."

"Do you know anything about the others in the Trinity?" I ask.

"Not much," she says. "According to Mary, they were known as Chalciuhtlicue and Nanabuluku, though it's anyone's guess whether that's their real names. Based on the names, which are prominent in certain mythologies, I can surmise that Chalciuhtlicue was from Mexico and Nanabuluku was from western Africa."

"I see… alright, on to the second topic," I say. "I've been wondering about this for quite awhile now, but… this whole prefecture, or rather the island it occupies… I don't understand it. Why does it exist? There shouldn't be an island here."

Pernelle blinks at me, her mouth dropping open in shock.

"Just who are you… there should be no-one in this world who knows about this island's true past, apart from Scheherazade and me," Pernelle says. "How did you know it was artificially created?"

"So it's true!?" I gasp. "I can't explain how I knew right now… maybe someday, but I just want to keep it secret for the time being."

Pernelle shrugs. "Well, I guess you're entitled to your secrets," she says. "This island was created by a magical girl's wish back when I was visiting to study Japanese alchemy and medicine. She guided her whole family and several nearby villages to the new island, promising a land where they could be free."

I nod slowly. "So this island was created by a wish… amazing. I didn't even know wishes could do something so grand."

"It's unusual, but it happens," Pernelle says. "I've seen a couple of similar cases in my time, though that probably was the grandest of them."

"And she created a land of freedom in the Edo era, too," I add. "That's also a little surprising."

"It only lasted a few decades before being reintegrated into Japan, mind you," Pernelle says. "Her descendants actually became the feudal lords of the island for awhile… I believe they took the surname Tokime, as a way of commemorating her."

That's a name I recognize well. The Tokime clan is one of the factions that appears in Magia Record, starting in the second arc when things start to get more complicated.

I blink. "So… you're saying the Tokime clan were the feudal lords of this island!?"

Pernelle nods. "Yeah, they used to be, at least for a few generations," she says. "I don't know the details, but Wikipedia should have it if you're interested. Anyway, Shinriku back then was especially interesting to me, because that magical girl… in her entire lifetime, she never fought a single witch. She created the island, and she also became the first witch on the island."

I blink at her. "Wait, what? How long did she live as a magical girl?"

"Twelve years," Pernelle says.

"B-but… you need to use a little bit of magic just to maintain your body, right?" I say. "You shouldn't be able to survive twelve years without a single grief seed…"

Pernelle nods. "That's why it was so interesting. I got to witness a phenomenon that had never been seen in living memory, and has never been seen since."

She reaches into a deep pocket and rummages around a bit.

"Just a moment, I should still have one in here somewhere…"

Finally she pulls out a small black cube about half an inch on each side and shows it to me, eliciting a gasp from me.

"A… a grief cube!?"

"You're a sharp one," Pernelle muses. "I don't know if that's the proper name for it, but it certainly fits that description."

"B-but why… h-how…" I stutter.

Pernelle raises her eyebrows. "It almost seems like you've seen one of these before and know where it comes from," she observes.

"I'm sorry," I say. "It's true, in a way… but I thought it would only be created by a girl wishing to eliminate all witches from the world…"

"That doesn't explain how you know about it, but… it makes sense that eliminating witches would cause those creatures to replace them. After all, witches are what prevent them from spawning in the first place. You see, it turns out that even without eating humans, a witch soaks up the excess emotional energy they produce and slowly grows in strength. However, if that energy is allowed to build up enough in the absence of witches, it'll instead spawn a different sort of creature. They come in at least four different varieties of varying strengths. I imagine the very first magical girls also fought against those instead of witches. And of course, that's why they appeared on Shinriku back then. It was a completely new land with no humans, and no witches to consume the emotional energy before they could spawn."

"Amazing," I say. "I had also been wondering how the magical girl cycle could've gotten started when you need magical girls to create witches, but there's no incentive for magical girls without witches. The wraiths explain that quite neatly…"

Pernelle nods. "That's why I stayed awhile to study them. I used to have more of these, but they ended up being destroyed in various experiments… this is the last one. Tell you what… I'll let you have it."

"Uhh… sure," I nod.

She hands me the grief cube, and I stow it away with my grief seeds.

"Thanks for this conversation," I say. "It has been very… interesting."

"Really? I just hope your plan to destroy Walpurgis will be equally interesting," Pernelle says. "I suppose we won't have this conversation again either… a pity."

I nod. "Yeah… now that I already know, I don't really have a reason to question you in the next timeline, right?"

Or is that true? There might be a few things in this conversation that Pernelle should know. For example, Mary's apparent ability to remember things from other timelines. I'll have to think about it on the way home…

"That's too bad," Pernelle says. "I rather enjoyed this conversation. Ah well, I suppose I can't have everything."

"I should let you get on with your witch hunt," I say. "I imagine Yuuri and Airi will be here soon."

"Perhaps," Pernelle shrugs. "It's possible they could arrive early, as you did. It would be preferable, honestly. I'd like to get back to studying Souju."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me of something else," I say. "Do you think you'd be able to create a new body for a magical girl who's lost hers? I'm mainly thinking of Souju's gem collection…"

"Naturally, I've experimented with homunculi in the past," Pernelle says. "However, creating one compatible with a given magical girl would require some of her genetic material, which might be difficult to obtain if the bodies are lost."

"There's no way to make a body that would be compatible with anyone?" I ask.

"Well, I can't say there's no way," Pernelle says. "But if there is, I don't know of it."

"I see… well, if you do think of an idea, I'd appreciate it," I say. "Although, I'd also be satisfied with locating their original bodies… if you could get information on that from Souju, or even somehow from the girls themselves…"

Pernelle shrugs. "I'll keep it in mind, but it's not a priority for me. I'd just as soon leave them in the care of Souju. It's their own weakness that allowed them to be captured afterall."

I sigh. "Well… I guess that's the most I can ask of you," I say. "Thank you for at least considering my request. Okay… then I'll be heading back to Mitakihara."

"I wish you luck in your preparation," Pernelle says.

I power down and leave the observation tower to catch a train back to Mitakihara.

Back in Mitakihara, I have one more thing I want to investigate – the hill behind Mitakihara Middle School. I head to the school and climb the hill, following the path until I spot the tombstone, where I kneel beside it and peer at the inscription. Her name is inscribed as kanji, with furigana to indicate their pronunciation. Just as Elise said, the person's name is Kazura Youha, where the first name is written with the kanji for 'kudzu' and the second name is written with the kanji for 'leaf' repeated twice. But there's also a tiny hiragana between the two names, the no character that indicates possession. In older names, it's not uncommon to see it between the surname and given name, where it would have been interpreted as "Youha of the Kazura family".

However, there's something else strange about this name. In the Edo period, only the nobility would've had a surname, so the fact that she has one at all is a little suspicious. Admittedly, I don't know for certain that this tomb is from the Edo period, but the presence of the no suggests that it is, as my understanding is that it was dropped when surnames became more common after the end of the Edo period. The obvious conclusion would be that Youha was a noble, but a quick search on Wikipedia shows no matches for the name Kazura. The other possibility I can think of is that Kazura is not a surname at all. Perhaps it could be a place name, or maybe an organization?

I frown a little. There's something oddly familiar about that name, as if I've seen it before somewhere. However, it's not the reading that's familiar, but the kanji. Then it hits me. If the duplicate 'leaf' kanji is ignored, the name can also be read as "Kuzu-no-ha", which is a famous kitsune of Japanese folklore. But surely it's just coincidence, right? Kuzu-no-ha is associated with myths of Abe no Seimei, who according to Wikipedia predates the birth of this island by more than six centuries. Maybe it's just someone with a fondness for the myth who decided to name their child based on it.

There's also something else inscribed on the stone, below the kanji of the deceased's name, and this is actually far more interesting to me. Elise didn't mention it, maybe because she assumed it was gibberish, as probably anyone else would've… but it's actually witch runes. I think it must be based on a Japanese romanization that predates the modern Hepburn style, but it's similar enough that I'm able to muddle out the meaning with a bit of work.

"Here lies Youha of Kazura, who lived as a magical girl, yet died as a human."

Uhh… what does that mean, exactly? The implication is that magical girls are not human, and that's a sentiment that at least Homura also shares… so if she lived as a magical girl, how could she die as a human? Unless… supposedly anything is possible with a wish, so does that include turning a magical girl back into a human?

But the real reason I'm here is not to read a tombstone. It's to see if I can recreate the legend Elise described. According to her, the men who died had attempted to move the tombstone, so I lean against it and try my best to push it. To my surprise, it actually shifts a little… and almost immediately, a black miasma rises up from the ground. I leap back and look around, startled.

It's just like the corruption within a soul gem, a sort of black void that sucks in all light, only now it's manifesting directly in the physical world. Within seconds, I'm enclosed in a thick fog of the stuff, and moments later, familiar white giants appear through the miasma. They appear as gaunt human forms clad in flowing white robes, with half of their head decomposing into blocky particles. These are the regular weak wraiths, the small fry that appear everywhere in the rewritten timeline in large numbers. I transform and pull out my sword, readying for an attack. It comes almost immediately, a laser beam that I only barely manage to dodge, followed by a massive fist smashing down upon me. I roll away to avoid the fist, but it sends entire trees flying which I also have to avoid.

Once it's finished raining trees, rocks, and soil, I summon Teddy Mk II and hop on his head, shooting up so that I'm at the level of the wraiths' heads. I extend the blade and swing it, taking down three wraiths in a single blow. Another attacks me from behind, and I take a direct hit from the beam. Wincing, I spin and slash through the aggressor, taking out another one at the same time. Then three more of them swing their ghostly arms at me, but I slice the arms off, followed by their heads. That leaves only five remaining. I turn and make short work of them.

Now that all the wraiths are defeated, the dark miasma fades away, and as it does so, the damage they dealt to the landscape is undone, the fallen trees restored to full health, the missing chunks of the hill returned to where they belong. Within moments, all signs that they were ever here are gone.

I can sense the locations of the fallen grief cubes, and I track them all down and gather them up. It's surprisingly quite a haul – it looks like each wraith drops several cubes, for the thirteen wraiths have dropped around twenty-five cubes. I have no idea whether they're as effective as grief seeds, mind you, but if they are… then this is an amazing discovery. It means that Madoka's final wish was ultimately pointless – the tools to bring about that outcome, or at least a very similar one, already exist in the current universe. Touka Satomi's doppel system is an important part of magical girl salvation without Madoka, of course, but doppels are still dangerous, so having a source of grief seeds still would've been important… but if wraiths can spawn in the absence of witches, then grief seeds aren't needed at all anymore, and there's no need to farm witches or anything like that.

The only thing I don't understand is why the wraiths spawned here and now. Pernelle said that witches prevent wraiths from spawning, by gathering up the excess emotional energy before it can form into a wraith. So, how is it that they were able to spawn just now? Is there a barrier that prevents witches from climbing this hill? Or did they spawn so fast that there just wasn't time for a witch to interfere? If they were spawned from spent grief cubes, perhaps that could make sense… although I would've expected a witch to eat the grief cubes, too. This place is just a mystery within a mystery…

I return to the tombstone and push it further, revealing a small cavity below it. There's something inside, too. I reach in and pull out a set of clay tablets inscribed with witch runes. This is a little exciting now… but it's not a good place to try to decipher the antiquated Japanese. Besides the tablets, there are also a couple more grief cubes down here, which I gather up. Unlike the ones I just retrieved from the wraiths, these ones are almost completely full of grief already.

I push the tombstone back to its proper place before leaving. It's not like I believe in ghosts, but there's no reason to tempt fate, right? I'm already taking something from the grave, so I shouldn't make things any worse than they already are.