"Good morning, Ashley-nee!"

That bright and overly chipper voice is none other than Inui, who due to space constraints is now sleeping in my bed. I can feel her clinging to me. I open my eyes and turn my head to see her face literally right in front of me.

"Um… good morning… you've changed the way you call me?"

"Well, we're living together and even sleeping in the same bed, like sisters," Inui says. "I've always wanted a sister, so why not? Or do you dislike it, Ashley-nee?"

"No, it's fine," I say. "It doesn't really matter what you call me as long as you use my given name."

"Then Ashley-nee it is!" Inui says. "So, what are we going to do today, Ashley-nee?"

I blink. "We? You're assuming whatever it is, we'll do it together?"

"Well, why not?" Inui says. "You saved me when I lost my reason to live, so you've gotta take responsibility, Ashley-nee!"

I sigh. "Fine… it's not like I mind having you around, I guess… though I might prefer to be alone now and then, just a heads-up. Um… I should probably explain things to you though… unless the quartet talked about it with you?"

"I haven't spoken to them since dinner last night," Inui says. "After all, I've been with you the entire time."

"It's about the secret I mentioned yesterday."

I explain to her what I explained to the others on the hill a few days ago – about Walpurgisnacht, about time being turned back, about witches, about the soul gem, and about wraiths. She is actually surprised when she hears about the hundred metre limit, although it doesn't seem to bother her.

"Wow," Inui says once I'm finished. "You've been fighting all alone for the sake of magical girls everywhere, Ashley-nee… that's amazing! I'll help you any way you want. Just tell me what you need and I'll do it!"

"Um… sure…" I say. "Okay, let me think… I have a bunch of things to do with no particular schedule… gotta call my friends back in America… introduce myself to Naomi Noriko… figure out what Hijiri Kanna's up to… maybe keep an eye on Chitose Yuma… liberate the Freezer… have a chat with Mitama… keep tabs on the holy quintet… do something about Hinata Kagari…"

"Oh my, you sure are a busy girl, Ashley-nee," Inui says. "So, how can I help you with all of that? I don't know who any of those people are…"

"I don't think you can really help much with any of it," I say. "But you're welcome to come along with me anyway. It can't hurt to have an extra person, especially if we get into a fight."

"Of course!" Inui says. "I'll go wherever you want to go, Ashley-nee!"

"Okay… first up, let me see what time it is in California…"

I sit up, shaking myself free from Inui's grasp, and grab my phone to check the clock app, which shows the time in multiple time zones. It's just after one in the afternoon there, but it's also still Friday.

"Okay… they'll be in school, so I've gotta wait at least three more hours…"

"Ashley-chan, Inui-chan!" Hiyori calls from outside. "Are you awake? Breakfast is ready!"

We get dressed quickly and head downstairs. After breakfast, I do a little investigating on people of interest. Yuma is just at home, scribbling with crayons, so I don't linger on her. Hinata Kagari is surprisingly out and about despite the early hour, wearing a hoody… probably to avoid being recognized, since she's a twin. I watch her for a few minutes as she walks into a convenience store, stocks up on snacks and drinks, and walks back out without even paying. No-one stops her or even seems to notice her, probably thanks to her magic. As she returns, I look for street signs that might be a clue as to where she's been staying, and when she finally enters an apartment through the window, I end the vision and note down what I learned in my document, including the date in case she's not staying in a fixed place.

"What's up?" Inui asks.

She's been lounging at the foot of my bed the whole time and is probably startled that I suddenly moved to my computer.

"Ah, I just figured out where Hinata Kagari lives, I think," I reply.

"Who is that?" Inui asks.

"Probably the magical girl I'd least want to meet," I say.

"Even less than the Sleepwalking Spectre?" Inui asks.

"Yeah, I think so," I say. "Although, unlike Yu, at least Kagari can technically be reasoned with…"

While I'm still on my computer with Kagari in mind, I decide to send Honoka an email about her.

"Hi, Honoka. Sorry to bother you, but about that silver-haired magical girl, I've learned she has an accomplice… short, with dark dyed hair probably in twintails or something. Her magical girl outfit is purple. Please be careful!"

To my surprise, a reply comes almost immediately.

"That's gotta describe about half the girls out there! Can you be more specific? There's no way I could identify her from that…"

I send another reply.

"Um… I'm sorry, that's the best I can do. It's not like there are a lot of magical girls around, right? If she has a magical girl ring and fits that description…"

Her response comes back immediately.

"Oh, the ring! I never thought of that. That helps a lot, thanks!"

Then I spend some time checking out the latest Fumino Sayuki videos.

"That girl is off-key," Inui notes.

"I know," I reply. "But that's part of her charm."

"Uhh… so should I sing off-key when we go to karaoke?" Inui asks.

"You say that like it's already decided… but I guess it's up to you," I shrug.

"Even if we don't get to it in this timeline, I'm sure we'll go to karaoke together, Ashley-nee," Inui says.

"Well, I'm not ruling it out," I say. "Although, I'd like to go with Miss Tomoe…"

Inui blinks. "Eh? But why? She's so snooty, there's no way she'd sing well…"

"I think it can't hurt for you to get to know her better, though," I say. "Maybe you'll realize that what you're calling 'snooty' is just a brave face to hide the pain inside."

Inui blinks. "W-what? We're talking about Miss Tomoe Mami, right? Little miss perfect? With grades always in the top five in her year? Never misses a day?"

I nod. "Yes. She's not as strong as she lets on, Inui-chan. Please cut her some slack if we happen to run into her again."

Inui sighs. "Fine… if it'll make you happy, Ashley-nee, I suppose I can try…"

I return to lounging on my bed.

"I don't mind if you try to make me happy, Inui-chan," I say. "But at least try to make yourself happy first, okay?"

"If you say so, Ashley-nee…"

Eventually, I look at the clock and see it's late enough, so I scry very briefly on Janice, just long enough to check if she's with Chevonne. It seems she is, and they're not in a labyrinth either, which is good. They've already left school and are wandering around town, apparently hunting for witches to judge from the soul gems on their palms. So I call Janice directly, and she answers almost immediately.

"Hey Ashley! What's up?" she asks. "I haven't heard from you for awhile… are you having fun in Japan?"

"Mostly," I say. "You're with Chevonne, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, but how'd you know?"

"I saw you," I reply. "I'd like to talk to the two of you alone, so do you think you could go somewhere you won't be overheard and set your phone to speaker?"

"Sure… but what do you mean you saw me?" she asks. "Ah, Chevonne, let's go in there, she wants to talk to us about something."

I wait a bit while they enter what sounds like a karaoke place or something. About a minute later, I hear Chevonne's voice come through.

"Howdy, Ashley! Wanna switch to video chat?"

"Oh… it's not more expensive is it?"

"Of course not," Janice says. "Everyone does it, especially for long-distance calls. You just gotta find a good place to set your phone. We've done it before when you were abroad, haven't we?"

I don't have any memories of that, but if she says so, I suppose it must be true…

"Okay, sure, just a sec."

I set my phone audio to speaker and enable video mode, then prop it up on my desk. A moment later, Chevonne and Janice show up on the screen.

"How's this?" I ask. "Can you see me okay?"

"Yeah, it's all good over here," Janice says.

"Got a lot on your mind, Ashley?" Chevonne asks.

I blink at her. "Huh? Why would you say that?"

"Oh, it's just, it looks like you were half-asleep when you got dressed," Chevonne says.

"Well… I do have a lot on my mind," I admit. "But if my choice of clothes looks odd, or if I seem messy or something, that's not why… it's not something I'm comfortable talking about over the phone though, sorry."

"Now you've got my interest," Janice says. "Are you sure you can't tell us over the phone?"

I nod. "Yeah, I don't want a digital record of that conversation to exist anywhere if I can help it."

Chevonne blinks. "Paranoid much?"

I shrug. "When dealing with unknown technology, you can never be too cautious."

"What do you mean, unknown technology?" Janice asks. "Did you make an enemy of a space alien or something?"

"Um… I'll get to that in a second," I say. "But you're pretty close."

"That was a joke…" Janice says, startled. "I didn't actually mean it…"

At that moment, Inui grabs my arm and leans against me, peering at the screen.

"So these are your friends," she muses in Japanese.

"And who's that with you?" Chevonne asks. "You look like you're pretty close. Is she your girlfriend?"

I blink. "No, it's not like that! She's just a friend."

"Riiiiight," Chevonne says. "It's perfectly normal for friends to hug like that."

"Exactly," I retort. "It's perfectly normal, at least when they're both girls."

"Um, hello!" Inui says in English. "My name is Inui Itsumi, nice to meet you!"

Her English is far better than I would've expected of a middle school student – although she does have a heavy accent, she seems to have a good grasp of the grammar and syntax. She certainly seems to have a better grasp of the language than the Hayashi sisters, at least based on our encounter with Mary at the end of the last loop where it seemed like they had trouble understanding her.

"Oh, you can speak English too!" Janice says. "It's nice to meet you!"

"It is not very good, but I can speak a little," Inui says. "Um, we are not dating."

"Aww, come on," Chevonne sighs. "Alright, out with it, Ashley. What'd you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to talk about a certain little white devil," I say.

The two of them exchange glances.

"White devil? What are you talking about?" Janice asks.

"Well… alright, there's no point in beating around the bush," I say. "Since we're on video chat anyway, it's easier to show than tell."

With that pronouncement, I transform, eliciting a gasp from the two of them.

"W-wait, are you…?" Janice asks.

"…a …a magical girl?" Chevonne asks.

"Yup," I say.

Inui blinks. "Your friends are also magical girls?" she asks me in Japanese.

"Apparently," I reply in the same language. "I found out last time in the worst possible way."

I don't elaborate, and Inui seems to sense that followups are not wanted at this time. Instead she switches back to English to address Janice and Chevonne.

"I am magical girl too!" she says, although she doesn't transform to prove it.

"Huh… since when have you been a magical girl, Ashley?" Janice asks.

"Just after I recovered from my illness," I say.

"W-whoa, that's forever ago!?" Chevonne says. "Were you already a magical girl the day you came back to school?"

"Yeah, that's why I was suddenly close to Sarra," I say. "I'd encountered her in a labyrinth the day before, and we worked together to defeat the witch."

There's not much point in staying transformed, so I power down.

"Huh, so that treasurer chick is a magical girl too," Chevonne muses. "I bet she's only treasurer because of her wish…"

"I don't believe that," I say. "She doesn't seem like the sort of person who'd make that kind of wish. I never asked her what her wish was though, so I can't be sure… also, she has a name. Don't call her 'treasurer chick' again, okay?"

Chevonne blinks at me. "Geez, lighten up a little, Ashley! I didn't really mean anything by it!"

"If you didn't mean anything, then don't do it again," I repeat.

"Fine, fine," Chevonne says. "So wait, is that the only reason you called? Just to tell us you're a magical girl? But how'd you know we were?" She blinks. "Oh wait, I get it… you're close to Sarra, so she probably mentioned it or something… but then how'd she know…"

Instead of confirming or denying her theory, I choose to ignore it and focus on the reason I called.

"That wasn't the only reason," I say. "I wanted to warn you that you shouldn't trust Cube too much. That's why I was talking about unknown technology earlier."

Janice blinks. "Wait, so… you didn't want to say whatever it was over the phone in case Cube monitors the phone network or something? I guess he is sorta a space alien now that I come to think of it…"

I nod. "Yeah. There's a lot of things about being a magical girl that it doesn't tell people."

"Like what?" Janice asks.

"Like the fact that magical girls turn into witches when their soul gem becomes tainted."

They stare for a moment, but then Chevonne laughs.

"Very funny, Ashley!"

"It's not funny at all," I retort. "It's true. You can ask Cube yourself if you don't believe me. It might hide things from you, but it won't lie if you come right out and ask."

Janice blinks. "Huh? Ashley… why are you referring to Cube as 'it'? Shouldn't it be 'he'… or I guess 'they', since they don't seem to have a gender?"

"You're not wrong, I suppose," I say. "I guess it's just my little act of spite against that little white devil, refusing to acknowledge it as a person. Of course, I won't force you to follow my lead on that."

"So wait… you're saying we'll seriously turn into witches?" Chevonne says. "You weren't kidding?"

"I'm deadly serious," I say. "Please don't share this with Sarra or Alice, by the way… I'm pretty sure they don't know, and a lot of magical girls react badly to learning the truth. I'd hate it if they died because they had a mental breakdown after learning the truth."

"So we've been fighting other magical girls the whole time?" Chevonne says. "What the fuck!?"

"More like former magical girls," I correct her. "Like magical girl zombies or something. It's not like you can reason with a witch… they're just a monster who used to be human."

"Shit, I'm really starting to regret this now," Chevonne says. "Although I did get my wish granted, so it's not all bad, but…"

"Just make sure you have enough grief seeds and don't let yourself give in to despair," I say. "You should be fine as long as you're careful. Also, I can't go into details, and you absolutely must not breath a word of this to Cube, but… ah, can you promise you won't before I continue?"

Janice nods. "Of course! Not a single word!"

Chevonne nods too. "Why would I tell that little shit anything after he deceived us? Geez, you should know me better, Ashley! Although, weren't you worried he was monitoring the networks?"

"R-right… my memories are still a little fuzzy," I say. "Also, you're right I was worried, but this is like, one security clearance level lower than the other thing, so it's not the end of the world if Cube hears it. It's likely stuff Cube already knows – I'd just prefer if Cube doesn't know that we know it. Anyway, as I was saying, I've discovered two very interesting things that Cube doesn't want us to know. First of all, we don't actually need witches to survive – there's a way to get grief seeds without witches. And secondly, there's a way to interfere with the witchification process so it can be leveraged as a weapon, instead of being a form of death."

"Huh… um… the second one seems to render the first one irrelevant, though?" Janice says.

"It might, but the thing is, I don't know enough about the method. I only know that it exists. I don't know how to do it, and I don't know if it's even safe. If it turns out to be even more dangerous than turning into a witch, then there's no point, right?"

"A-ahh, yeah, you have a point," Janice says.

"So, how do we get grief seeds without witches?" Chevonne asks.

"It's unfortunately not as easy as you're probably imagining," I say. "Before you can use this method, you need to get rid of all the witches."

"Huh? Why's that?" Chevonne asks.

"Um… okay, I'll just explain the principles I've learned in full," I say. "Basically, humans leak excess emotional energy all the time. Witches soak up that energy and slowly grow stronger. However, if there are no witches to soak up the energy, it eventually takes on a life of its own and becomes a different sort of monster called a wraith. If you kill a wraith, it'll drop cubes that can be used like a grief seed, although they can't suck out quite as much grief as a witch's grief seed."

Janice blinks. "Cubes you say… plural? A single wraith drops more than one?"

I nod. "And wraiths come in groups, too."

"Hmm… but eradicating witches seems like it'd be tough to pull off," Janice says. "So I guess we can't rely on this anytime soon."

I nod. "Yeah, I wasn't expecting you to start fighting wraiths," I say. "I just wanted you to know that things don't have to be this way forever… you know, to give you some hope. Okay… there's one more thing. Have the two of you learned to connect?"

"What do you mean, connect?" Chevonne asks. "Is that some kinda magical girl move, like sharing power or something?"

"Pretty much," I say. "You can combine your power and produce an even stronger attack than you could alone. Some magical girls figure it out themselves, but there are also magical girls who can teach you. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where you can find one in California… but perhaps Sarra or Alice Chandler could help you, or maybe there are other magical girls around Santa Cruz who would know where to find them. It's an organization called Puella Care."

"That sounds useful," Janice says. "We've been fighting together the whole time, so we'll give it a try today. Thanks for the tip!"

"Say, what does your friend think about the whole witches thing?" Chevonne asks suddenly.

Inui blinks. "Me? About… about magical girls that become witches?"

"Yes, that's what I'm asking you," Chevonne says.

"I would rather die," Inui says simply.

"W-what do you mean?" Chevonne gasps.

"No-one will love me if I become a witch," Inui states. "I hate to imagine it. Even when I lost everything, I did not want to become a witch. I was ready to kill myself to prevent it."

"W-what do you mean you lost everything!?" Janice gasps. "That sounds really bad…"

Inui smiles. "It is fine, because now I have big sister Ashley!"

"B-big sister!?" Janice says. "Alright then…"

"Guess you'd rather not talk about it, huh," Chevonne says.

Though it wasn't precisely a question, Inui nods in response.

"So anyway… please be careful, and don't let your soul gem get cloudy," I say. "And if you need someone to talk to about magical girl stuff, call me. Or go to Sarra – I promise you can trust her."

"Got it," Janice says. "And even though the topic was pretty weird, it was nice chatting with you again, Ashley!"

"Yeah, I can't say it was fun exactly, but I was happy to see you again," Chevonne says.

"Goodbye then," I say.

"See you later?" Inui says hesitantly.

"Bye!" the two of them chorus.

And then we both hang up.

"Your friends are very interesting, Ashley-nee," Inui says. "I want to meet this Sarra and Alice too…"

"Well, maybe they'll come and help defeat Walpurgisnacht later," I say. "If so, you can meet them then."

After lunch, I head out to hunt witches, and of course Inui follows me. We head north, into Masuyo Mari's territory, then start to cut east across town. We're passing by a large apartment complex when I suddenly sense a witch nearby. Frowning slightly, I turn towards it.

"So we're gonna hunt that witch, Ashley-nee?" Inui asks.

"Well… I'm not sure about hunting it, but I think we should at least check it out," I say.

I head around the apartment complex with Inui in tow, searching for the portal. It proves to be in a playground at the back of the complex, and from the design of the portal, I think it must be Suleika again.

"Hmm… doesn't look like anyone's fighting this witch," I muse.

"Hmm? How can you tell, Ashley-nee?" Inui asks.

"When someone's fighting the witch, the portal flickers," I say.

"Oh huh, I never knew that," Inui says.

"I'm not sure if that means there's no-one inside, though," I muse. "I'm pretty sure it flickers if someone is fighting the witch… but if they're inside fighting the familiars and haven't yet reached the witch, I'm not sure if it flickers."

Suddenly, Inui transforms.

"Well, that's easy to test!" she says. "Wait right here!"

I blink as she leaps inside the labyrinth, but it seems clear what she intends to do. I watch the portal closely, and after a couple of seconds, it starts to flicker, just a little. About ten or twenty seconds later, Inui emerges from the portal once more.

"So did it flicker?" she asks curiously. "I killed about fifty of those uhh… anti-shadow doggy things…"

"It did, but it was weaker than I've seen before," I say. "I'm not sure if it was because you were only fighting familiars, or if it's because you weren't very deep inside the labyrinth, but either way I guess that means there's no-one else inside right now. Oh… you didn't see any humans, did you?"

Inui powers down and shakes her head. "Nope, just familiars."

"I'm not sure whether we're in Masuyo Mari's territory or Naomi Noriko's territory though… so I guess I'll wait a couple of minutes to see if someone shows up."

But that turns out not to be necessary, because someone literally shows up while I'm saying that.

"The heck are you doing here?" Masuyo Mari asks. "Trying to steal my kill?"

I spin to face her and see her stepping out from the apartment complex. Could it be… she lives here? She's dressed in track pants and a loose tank top, with a sports bra visible underneath, like she was going out for some exercise. Her hair is short, but not as short as I expected, gathered into a short stubby ponytail at the back of her head.

"I just wanted to meet the magical girls of north Mitakihara," I say.

Mari narrows her eyes.

"Social call? You serious? That's not a very magical girl thing to do," she says. "Guess you're a rare type like Miss Tomoe, not that that's a bad thing… well, you've met one. I'm Masuyo Mari."

"Nice to meet you," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor, the exchange student you may have heard about from Kyuubey, and this is Itsumi Inui."

"An exchange student?" Mari says. "Interesting… I haven't heard anything about you from Kyuubey, though. In fact, I haven't seen him since… oh, the new year, I think?"

Well, that's strange. In the last timeline, she did hear about me from Kyuubey… also, she hasn't seen it for almost three months? Can she go that long on a single grief seed? Come to think of it… I guess I've met her a lot earlier in this timeline than I did in the last one. Perhaps she just hadn't heard of me yet, since she apparently doesn't see Kyuubey as often as most magical girls. For example… maybe she only heard about me when Kyuubey showed up to warn her about Oriko's vision…

"I don't suppose you'd have any suggestions for where I might find Naomi Noriko?" I ask.

Mari shrugs. "That shut-in only goes hunting about twice a week," she says. "You're not likely to run into her by accident."

"Wait… are the two of you friends?" I ask.

"We're not all that close," Mari says. "But I suppose you could call us friends. I only know her cause she kinda had a crush on m… on onii-san. After he uhh… disappeared… I started checking up on her every so often."

That might explain why she knew Noriko had died in the previous timeline, I guess… although there are plenty of other ways she could've found out. But wait, I swear she was about to say something else before she substituted her older brother? I guess it was probably just his name though.

"By the way, do you happen to know a girl who wears a samurai outfit?" I ask.

Mari blinks. "W-who'd you hear that from!?"

"Um… Miss Tomoe," I say.

"I… I don't know any girl like that," Mari says.

Inui chooses that moment to pipe up.

"Ehhh? Is that so?" she asks accusingly. "You're not trying to lie to Ashley-nee, are you!? Cause it sounds like you are to me!"

"Inui-chan, it's okay," I say. "If she doesn't want to talk about it, then I won't press her."

"But Ashley-nee, you can't just let people lie to you!" Inui protests.

"As long as it's just that, I don't mind," I say.

"But it could be something important!"

"If that's really true, and I doubt it is, I'll just find out some other way," I reply. "But think about it, you wouldn't like it if she asked about your Dad, right?"

"Eh… I guess you have a point," Inui says. "Fine then…"

"Thanks for your understanding," Mari says. "It's just… something I don't like to be reminded of." She glances at the portal, which is still sitting there in the playground. "Tell you what, after I beat this witch I'll take you to her house."

"Oh… sure," I say. "Should we wait here, then?"

"Nah, you can come along if you want," she says. "As long as you understand the grief seed's mine, I'll even accept your help."

She transforms and steps towards the portal, and Inui gasps at her Tuxedo Mask costume.

"W-whoa! Miss Masuyo is unexpectedly cool…" Then she looks quickly at me. "Not quite as cool as Ashley-nee, though!"

"I'm not all that cool!" I protest.

"Don't be so modest!" Inui says. "You're super-cool, Ashley-nee! I've always known it since the first time we fought together!"

With a small sigh, I transform and follow Mari into the portal, and Inui follows me in turn. As I thought, this dark labyrinth with the small bright familiars is the signature of Suleika. They're no match for Mari, who destroys a familiar with every thrust. Perhaps because of that, quite a few of them attack the two of us instead, so both Inui and I get pulled into the fighting. Inui summons her flame whip while I take out my sword, and we destroy all the familiars that come at us.

After several minutes, we arrive at the witch's chamber, where as usual the witch is hiding deep inside a jungle gym. In the face of Mari's power, however, the jungle gym is no protection at all. Mari raises her sabre, and a mass of flowering vines grows up from the ground, penetrating the jungle gym from all directions and literally tearing the witch apart. The barrier collapses, and Mari powers down as she snatches the grief seed.

"That was amazing…" Inui says. "I've never seen a witch defeated so quickly!"

"I've fought that witch before," Mari shrugs. "So I already knew its weakness and everything."

"I've seen that witch more than once too," I muse. "I wonder why…"

"Let's go," Mari says.

We power down too and follow her as she leads the way east through the city. We skirt the edge of the industrial district, then turn north into a housing district. The houses here are fairly large by Japanese standards, similar to my own house back home, and they're all two-storey western-style houses like the Hayashi home. Mari goes up to one of the larger houses and opens the door without even knocking, eliciting a gasp from Inui.

"W-what are you doing?" she hisses. "It's polite to knock!"

"It wouldn't do any good," Mari says. "She lives alone here, and I can't expect her to answer the door if she's in the middle of a game."

I blink, looking up at the house.

"She lives alone… in a house like this?"

Mari shrugs. "I don't know all the details on why, and what I do know probably isn't mine to share."

We follow her inside. Unexpectedly, the place is absolutely spotless, which seems strange for such a large house with a single occupant. Mari leads us upstairs and knocks on the closed door of one of the rooms, eliciting a yell from within.

"W-what is it!? I'm… I'm busy!"

"I'm coming in!" Mari calls back.

She waits about ten seconds, but there's no further response, so she pushes the door open and steps inside. In stark contrast to the rest of the house, this room is incredibly messy. Although it's something of a nostalgic feeling, I'm pretty sure even I was never this bad. The floor is strewn with clothes, books, scraps of paper, and electronic devices – I spot a PSP, a Nintendo Switch, and a few others that I don't recognize, likely the latest generation of portable consoles. For her to have a PSP in this era though… is she really into retro games or something? Heck, even a Switch is probably considered retro in this day and age. Anyway, there's a bed in one corner and a desk in the opposite corner next to the window, with four high-definition monitors arrayed in front of the chair. Two of them display what looks like some kind of first-person shooter game, while a third hosts a browser window and the last something vaguely resembling a Discord chat room. It doesn't bear the Discord logo though, so it's probably some replacement that sprang up after Discord went under. The desk is another stark contrast with the rest of the room, for apart from the monitors, a mouse and keyboard, a few other assorted peripherals, and a stack of plates, there's nothing else there. The surface is spotless, and while it's hard to tell from a distance, the screens don't look especially dusty. I also spot an opening on one of the walls which I suspect could be something like a laundry chute. If she actually has a laundry chute, why does she even leave her dirty clothes laying around though!?

In front of the desk, in a tall-backed chair, sits a girl with messy orange hair who appears to be wearing nothing but a loose T-shirt and possibly underpants. Her eyes are glued to the screen as she fiddles feverishly with her gamepad. Wait, she couldn't possibly be playing two characters at the same time, surely? But after the thought crosses my mind, I realize that one of the screens isn't actually changing much, so she must be playing one account while idling on another.

"Two minutes," the girl says without averting her eyes from her game.

"Guess we gotta wait," Mari says with a shrug.

"There's nowhere to sit though," Inui says.

"Why don't you go wait downstairs?" Mari suggests. "There's plenty of space there, and it's less messy too."

I nod. "Sure."

Inui and I head downstairs and enter a sitting room with expensive-looking furniture. We take a seat in one of the plush couches and settle down to wait.

"It sure is weird, don't you think, Ashley-nee?" Inui says.

"Hm?"

"I mean, her room's a wreck, but the rest of the house – or what we've seen of it at least – is spotless," Inui says. "If she's the type of person who makes a mess like that, why is it only in her room?"

"You do have a point," I admit.

Indeed, when I had my own apartment, the mess certainly extended across the entire space, so it certainly is curious that Noriko's mess is confined to her room. There are quite a few inexplicable factors to her situation, so maybe we'll get an explanation later.

"So why'd you wanna meet her, anyway?" Inui asks.

I check that Mari is still upstairs with my clairvoyance before answering.

"Well, I suspect she turned into a witch last time around," I say. "Which would mean that one of the witches I or the holy quintet fought was probably her… so if I prevent that from happening, there'll be fewer battles and fewer chances for something to go horribly wrong."

"Huh, is that so…" Inui muses. "I was wondering this earlier, but what exactly is the holy quintet?"

I blink. That's not even canon – it's just a fan name for the main cast. I guess I have to take credit for it myself.

"Ahh, um… I just made that up as a quick and easy way of referring to Tomoe Mami and the various magical girls who team up with her," I say. "Because Miss Tomoe sort of has a holy feel to her and is the leader figure of the group. Besides Miss Tomoe, it includes Miki Sayaka, Kaname Madoka, Sakura Kyouko, and Akemi Homura… though usually all five don't actually get together like they did last time."

"Miss Miki is a magical girl?" Inui asks.

"Not yet, but she does have the potential… do you know her?"

"Not really," Inui says. "She just kinda stands out a bit, I guess? Like in the sports festival last fall." She tilts her head a little. "Speaking of Miss Miki, she's friends with Miss Shizuki, right? If you asked me who I thought might have the potential to become a magical girl, she'd probably be my first pick…"

I blink a few times in surprise. "H-huh? Wait… why would you say that?" I ask. "As far as I know, she doesn't have the slightest bit of potential… at least, she's never been able to see Kyuubey as far as I know…"

"Eh, that's probably because Kyuubey chooses who can see him," Inui shrugs. "I don't think it's like, people with potential can see him and people without potential can't, you know?"

"What makes you say that?" I ask.

Inui tilts her head. "It's just sort of… a hunch?" she says. "I can't really explain it… I'm sorry, Ashley-nee, just forget I said anything."

"No, I think it's a theory worth considering, if nothing else," I say. "I hadn't even thought of the possibility that there may be a girl who has potential yet can't see Kyuubey. Can you maybe elaborate on the idea a bit?"

"Ah, well… it's like… why do only some girls have the potential to become a magical girl in the first place?" Inui says.

"I'm not quite sure, now that you mention it," I muse. "Kyuubey did mention something about karmic destiny, but I think that only explains really high potential… and in the Hundred Year's War, Isabeau pretty much forced all her maids to contract, which is kind of strange if you think about it…"

Inui seems to brush off my reference to Jeanne d'Arc's nemesis.

"Yeah, so my feeling is that it's a scale," Inui explains. "Kyuubey rates each girl's potential on a scale, and shows himself only to those that pass a certain threshold… but that doesn't mean the other girls had no potential, only that they didn't have enough potential for him to consider them worthwhile to talk to."

"I think I get it," I say. "But… I think he also shows himself to any girl who gets rescued from a labyrinth…"

"Yeah, that's how I became a magical girl," Inui says. "Actually, he didn't ask me to become a magical girl… I pretty much begged him when I heard I could get any wish granted."

"That's unusual," I say. "Usually he shows up and just asks… so are you saying you think you didn't meet his usual threshold?"

"I'm not sure," Inui says. "He never seemed to have high hopes for me, though…"

I nod slowly before returning to the other interesting point in what she'd said.

"He even told me as much," I say. "So um… why do you think Shizuki Hitomi would have potential?"

"Ah… I don't have any proper evidence for that either," Inui says. "But I do have a sort of logical reasoning… the Shizuki family is one of those old blood former nobility families, very traditional, very strict, you know? I can imagine what it might be like growing up in a family like that… in some ways I think it might be worse than my own family."

"Huh, is that so… former nobility, seriously?"

"Very minor nobility, nothing like the Akatsuki or Tokime clans, let alone the Fujiwara," Inui says. "But yes."

"While we're on the topic of wealthy families, what about the Mikuni family?'

"Ugh, why would you bring them up?" Inui groans. "They're like, the most-hated family in the prefecture, aren't they? Either them or Yaegashi." She sighs. "Well… I think they're just as traditional but as far as I know there's no noble ancestry in their family."

I'm sure she has to be exaggerating about those two families. If they were hated as much as she implies, no-one would ever elect them. Even election fraud won't get you far if you don't get a minimum percentage of the vote.

"Also… how is it you know so much about all these families?" I ask. "Forgive me if this sounds rude, but… you don't seem like the type of person who does well in school…"

"Ashley-nee, that's mean!" Inui protests. "I do perfectly average in school, I'll have you know!"

She huffs and turns her face away, probably pouting.

"Uhh… is that… is that really something to be proud of?" I ask.

"At least I'm not failing," Inui retorts.

"So yeah, um… back to the actual question…"

"Ah, well, um… it's a little embarrassing," Inui admits. "B-but I guess it's fine if it's you, Ashley-nee… I just… I just really, really love h-h-historical dramas, s-so um… I kinda absorb that kinda stuff by osmosis…"

She glances sidelong at me to see my reaction. I just kinda tilt my head.

"Oh… is that something to be embarrassed by?"

"W-well… I've been teased about it before," Inui mutters.

"When you say historical dramas, do you mean like… TV dramas, novels, manga…?"

"M-mostly TV," Inui says. "But some manga too…"

At that moment we hear protests wafting down the stairs. It sounds like Mari is practically dragging Noriko out of her room. A few seconds later, the two of them enter the sitting room, Noriko trying in vain to hide herself behind the smaller Mari.

"See, they're just girls, it doesn't matter if you're properly dressed," Mari says.

"Th-that's not…"

"Anyway, let me handle the introductions," Mari says. "Ashley Taylor, Itsumi Inui, this shrinking violet is Naomi Noriko."

"H-how m-m-mean!" Noriko protests. "I-I'm n-not a— gyack!"

Mari darts aside, abandoning her post as Noriko's shield to give her a little shove into the sitting room. She lets out a startled cry and stumbles forward a few steps, her eyes flicking back and forth between me, and… the window, probably because that's the furthest she can avert her eyes from us.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Naomi," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor."

"Itsumi Inui, at your service!" Inui says cheerfully.

"U-um… uhh… n-n-nice to… m-m-meet… y-you…" Noriko stammers.

"Come on, straighten up a bit," Mari says. "I know you can do it. Pretend it's a work day."

She lightly slaps Noriko on the back, and the bigger girl abruptly straightens up like a rod. She's nearly a head taller than Mari, and probably even a little taller than me. Her chest is large enough that I could almost mistake her for an adult – it's hard to judge under that loose shirt, but they're probably bigger than any of the other magical girls I've met. Just the thought of it makes me wince a little whenever it bounces from her sudden movement. She's also, um… wider? She's not fat or anything – for someone who presumably spends most of her time gaming, she appears to be in incredibly good shape – but her overall build is just… thicker.

As Mari and Noriko move to take a seat on one of the couches opposite us, Mari's comment suddenly reaches my brain, and I blink.

"A… work day? You're actually employed?"

"Y-yes, u-um," Noriko mutters. "I-I-I d-do… p-p-p-part-t-time… m-m-m-modelling…"

"Whoa, that's a shocker," Inui says. "I mean I guess you'd look great if you got all cleaned up, but you seem so shy… I can't even imagine you walking into a studio…"

"I-I-I… d-don't," Noriko mutters. "Th-they c-c-come… h-here…"

"There's a studio in the other room," Mari adds. "It's pretty awesome, you should see it later."

"Huh… they wanted you so badly they'd come to your house?" I ask.

"Well, she models… can I tell them?" Mari glances at Noriko, who nods. "She models lingerie, mostly. Apparently it's hard to find models with a build like hers, so… yeah… I guess they're willing to jump through a few hoops."

"That's true," Inui admits. "Most models are super-slim, and not quite so tall… but wait, if it's lingerie, isn't that even more embarrassing for you!?"

Noriko shakes her head.

"I-I… d-d-don't r-really g-go out so… it d-d-doesn't r-really affect m-me… p-p-plus they l-let me k-k-keep s-some of them, so it's c-convenient… a-and the ph-photographer is a w-woman…"

"So how is it that you live alone in this big house?" I ask.

"W-well, after c-c-contracting… I-I w-won the l-lottery," Noriko mutters. "S-so I b-b-bought the p-place myself… and h-hired a cleaner once a month…"

"Oh, so that's why it's only the one room that's messy," Inui says. "You spend most of your time in that room, I suppose… and maybe the cleaner doesn't even enter that room… but the rest of the house is cleaned every month."

Noriko nods vigorously.

"The lottery, you say…" I muse.

"Twice," Mari adds. "She was even in the news last year because of that… the first time was nearly three years ago, so it wasn't twice in one year or anything, but still."

"Huh…"

"M-m-my m-magic is about l-l-luck," Noriko mutters. "B-b-but I-I d-didn't m-mean to use it l-like that…"

"Don't feel bad," Inui says cheerfully. "I'd rather see someone like you win the lottery than some shitty old man who pervs on middle-schoolers."

Mari snorts at that descriptor, and Noriko seems to find it amusing as well, but I don't get it at all.

"Is… is that a reference to something?" I wonder.

"Ah, you wouldn't know since you're from abroad," Mari says. "But something like that happened a few years back… it was all over the news for weeks. It was when I was in middle school, too. There was this guy in his fifties, a bit overweight, who won the lottery and quit his job, only to be arrested for, well… if you really wanna know, you can look it up, but it was pretty bad."

"Y-y-yeah, i-it w-was j-just a b-bit after I entered m-m-middle school… i-it was s-s-scary," Noriko mutters. Then she blinks. "H-huh? B-b-but… y-you're y-younger… r-r-right Mari?"

There's another odd discrepancy in Mari's backstory. If the event in question happened just after Noriko entered middle school, then obviously an even younger Mari couldn't've been in middle school yet. It could just be bad memory, and yet… the discrepancies are slowly building up. Also… I don't miss the fact that Noriko refers to her by her name without honorifics and without stammering.

"Ah… maybe it was a bit further back than I thought," Mari shrugs. "So anyway, now that I've dragged you out of your room, why don't we go hunt a witch and have some sushi or something?"

Noriko blinks. "U-um… I-I g-g-guess I c-could use a n-n-new g-g-grief s-seed b-but uhh… w-w-why sushi?"

Mari shrugs. "Why not? You love sushi, don't you?"

"You two sure are close," Inui says.

The two of them blink at her, then exchange glances, and then Noriko waves both her hands in front of her while Mari attempts to rebut Inui's comment.

"No, no, we're not all that close," Mari says. "We just meet up now and then…"

"You know an awful lot about her for someone who claims not to be close," Inui retorts.

"Th-that's just b-b-because… um… b-because we've been at it f-f-or a l-long time!" Noriko stammers.

Inui tilts her head. "Um… is that supposed to be a rebuttal?" she asks. "Because to me it just sounds like more evidence that you're close…"

"I can't say I've ever seen a double tsundere act like this one," I add, nodding. "Definitely close friends."

Noriko turns beet red and tries her best to hide behind Mari, which of course doesn't work very well – at most she can hide her face somewhat. An awkward silence falls for a few seconds.

"So about the sushi?" Mari finally says.

"M-m-m-my t-treat…?" Noriko says tentatively.

"If that's what you want," Mari says.

"Th-then… at l-least… t-t-ten… no, t-twelve m-minutes?"

"Sure, go make yourself presentable," Mari nods.

Noriko lurches to her feet and bolts from the room like a frightened rabbit, and for some reason Inui bursts out laughing a few seconds later. I shoot her a weird look.

"Ah… sorry, sorry, Ashley-nee, Miss Masuyo," Inui says once she's calmed down. "It was just so sudden and rabbit-like that I couldn't help myself. I didn't mean to make fun of her…"

I guess we both had the same thought at her demeanour.

"I-it's fine," Mari says. "Don't worry about it. She probably didn't hear you, either…"

"Say, Miss Masuyo," I say. "I have a question that you'll probably… not want to answer, but I'm just really curious… a yes or no would suffice, I'm not asking you to talk about it in detail."

Mari blinks. "Um… w-well you can ask, but… I reserve the right not to answer."

"Good enough for me," I say. "Um… how do I put this…" I trail off for a few seconds to find the words. "Um… could it be… you're not the real Masuyo Mari?"

Inui gasps, and Mari's eyes widen as well. When neither of them says anything, however, I rush forward with the rest of my conclusion.

"You're actually someone who wished to become Masuyo Mari after the real Masuyo Mari died fighting a witch, aren't you?"

Mari casts her eyes down at the floor, and Inui's eyes dart between Mari and me as I fix my gaze on her forehead. Several times, Inui opens her mouth as if to say something, but then seems to think better of it and shuts it again. The tension stretches so much it feels like you could cut it with a knife, and I lose track of the time passing. It might have been five seconds, or fifteen seconds, or even a minute or two before Mari finally looks up and meets my eyes.

"You were right that this is something I don't want to talk about," Mari says. "I gotta say, your intuition is kinda scary, Miss Taylor. That's all I'm going to say on the matter."

To me, that sounds like an indirect confirmation of my suspicions, though I can't quite tell if she intended it that way. I nod slowly.

"Fair enough. Sorry for putting you on the spot like that."

"No… don't worry about it," Mari says. "In fact, I should thank you for your consideration in not pressing me for the answer."

"S-so um… sushi, right?" Inui says, awkwardly changing the topic. "You know a good place, right, Mari-chan?"

Mari blinks at her, startled at the suddenly familiar form of address, but then nods.

"Of course, there's one not far from here," she says. "To be honest, I wouldn't have chosen it myself, but Nano-chan loves it, so…"

So she even has a nickname for Noriko. If that's not a sign of closeness, I don't know what is!

"Huh? Is it not actually that good?" Inui asks.

"No, quite the opposite," Mari says. "It's really good… but it's also really expensive. I don't have the money to burn on expensive sushi."

"Ohhh, I get it," Inui nods. "Yeah, of course, I almost forgot how expensive sushi can get…"

"You know, I wonder if a magical girl could survive a normally fatal fugu poisoning," I muse.

The two of them stare at me.

"Th-that's totally out of left field," Mari says. "How did you even get on that thought…?"

"Ah, I'm not sure," I admit. "I guess it somehow spiralled out from the sushi conversation…"

"Well, I was still okay after being stabbed through the heart," Inui muses. "At least, I think I was, it was all a bit fuzzy… but if I can survive that, I bet I could survive a fugu poisoning too…"

Mari blinks. "H-huh!? How'd you even get such wounds? Witches aren't usually known for stabbing people…"

"Have you heard of the Sleepwalking Spectre?" I ask.

"Um… no, I can't say it sounds familiar," Mari says. "Some kind of urban legend or something?"

"She was a magical girl," I say. "She had a magical list of people who supposedly did bad things, and she would hunt them down one by one and kill them. Um… just to be clear, I'm not suggesting her list was wrong – at least most of them did do bad things. Anyway… Inui-chan tried to protect one of her targets, so they ended up in a fight."

"She was so strong," Inui says. "I couldn't even lay a finger on her…"

"Huh… so she's still out there?" Mari says. Then she blinks. "W-wait… is she the one behind that string of mysterious murders that have been on the news recently? The ones where they can never find the body?"

"No, and yes," I say. "I teamed up with Inui-chan and a few others to defeat her, so she won't be bothering anyone ever again. As for the bodiless murders, yeah, I'm pretty sure those were her doing."

"Huh, to think there could be a magical girl like that," Mari says. "A literal psycho, you could say… whatever happened to fighting for justice and everything?"

I shrug. "Magical girls were never about justice in the first place," I say. "Yumeno Yusa… the Sleepwalking Spectre was just one of the most extreme examples… magical girls of that stripe aren't all that uncommon."

Indeed, I could name a few more. Hijiri Kanna, Hinata Kagari, Sarasa Hanna, and Yuuki Sasa are just a few of the ones that come to mind. Well, Hijiri has turned over a new leaf now, but still. To be honest, I find it really hard to imagine the others doing the same…

"Well, you're not wrong on the justice point," Mari admits. "I've been involved in more than my fair share of scuffles with magical girls who want to invade my territory… but still, I've never encountered one as bad as this Sleepwalking Spectre."

"She certainly is on the more unique side, I guess," I say. "At least, I hope she is…"

"I hope so too," Inui says fervently.

An awkward silence falls as I run out of things to talk about. Inui tries several times to fill the silence with fluff, but Mari mostly doesn't hold up her end, so the conversations keep petering out after a few sentences. Finally, I hear footsteps on the stairs as Noriko returns.

When she steps into the sitting room, it's like I'm looking at a totally different person. She has brushed her hair and tied it neatly into twintails, gathered just behind the ears. The hair ties are decorated with a life-size plush orange and apple on each side. Based on the frizziness of her hair, she must've just washed and blowdried it as well. And she's now dressed in a surprisingly stylish blouse with a lavender flower design around the hem, coupled with a matching light purple dart skirt. She has also put on white knee-high socks and has an expensive-looking purse slung over her shoulder.

Inui gasps and jumps to her feet.

"Oh my god you're so freaking cute, Nano-chan!" she exclaims. "That's incredible! You're so pretty! I can totally get why you're a model now!"

Noriko's eyes dart back and forth in panic, and I stand up and grab Inui's hand.

"Don't put her on the spot like that, Inui-chan," I say.

"B-but she's just so cute I couldn't help it," Inui says. "I really mean it!"

Actually, looking at her, I feel like there's something vaguely familiar about her. It's not her face or anything – if that was familiar, I would've realized it sooner. No… it's more like… shape… silhouette? Is that what it is? I'm not even sure…

"Let's get going," Mari says. "We've gotta hunt a witch before the sushi place closes, after all."

"R-right," Noriko mutters.

We all head outside, and I hear a click as the door automatically locks itself behind us. That's surprisingly high-tech… does it automatically unlock, too? As we head out into the street, I decided to question them about it.

"Hey, why was the door unlocked when we arrived, anyway?" I ask.

"What makes you think it was unlocked?" Mari asks.

"Uhh… because you just opened it and walked right in?"

"Oh, that's just because it was me," Mari says. "If you'd tried to open the door it would've been a different story."

"F-f-fingerp-p-prints," Noriko stammers.

"Oh wow," Inui says. "That's so high-tech…"

"And more evidence that you're close," I add.

Apparently they decide to just ignore me this time. We wander around for a bit until we spot a curse placed on the side of the road, after which we begin tracking the witch east towards the river. I hope we're not venturing into Koharu's territory… regardless, after awhile we reach a rundown dockside warehouse. The portal shows itself just in front of the warehouse.

"Now, just let me make this clear," Mari says. "The grief seed is Nano-chan's… is that okay with everyone?"

I nod. "Fine with me."

Inui nods too. "If Ashley-nee is okay with it, then so am I!"

I am slightly worried about how attached to me Inui seems to have become, but it hasn't reached a point of being bothersome yet, so hopefully I'm just being paranoid. I don't get the impression that she's as obsessive as Kirika is with Oriko, either.

In any case, the four of us transform. Noriko's outfit is a neon orange dress with lime green patterns reminiscent of Tron, form-fitting to the upper body but flaring out dramatically at the hips and ending in a frilly hem just above the knee. She also has knee-high orange boots and a futuristic-looking mask that kinda makes me think of a virtual-reality headset, or maybe even Sailor Mercury's visor. That feeling of familiarity just increases now… why does she seem so weirdly familiar? Her soul gem is a round red crystal planted squarely on her right breast, and she wields one of the most bizarre-looking weapons I have ever seen. It seems to defy classification. At first glance it looks like a sword, but then I catch a glimpse of a barrel and realize it might be a gun, and then I realize it has a long handle like a glaive… and the opposite end of the handle is hooked like a shepherd's crook, or a fantasy mage staff…

«I call it… kenjuubou,» Noriko notes, apparently noticing my gaze.

That… that really doesn't help. It's no different than calling it a "gunswordstaff". Admittedly it does roll off the tongue a little better in Japanese, but still.

We step into the labyrinth, dropping us smack dab in the middle of a stormy ocean. There is no sky in here, only a dark void above and violent waters below. Pillars jut up from the water at odd angles, the ends shattered and broken, shaking a little from the force of the waves. Whirlpools dot the vast ocean, threatening to suck down anything that dares to set foot on the waters.

Looking closer to home, I see we're standing on what seems to be a lone island amidst the raging waves, although calling it an island is bit of a stretch – it's a rocky outcropping jutting no more than five feet from the water, with waves crashing at its base. If this were ordinary water, we would've been drenched instantly, but it turns to steam as it contacts our bodies, rising up in a white plume above our heads.

There are boats here, several of them slamming repeatedly against the rocks, tied by something that looks an awful lot like a tentacle. Despite repeatedly slamming into the rocks with enough force to shatter them into a thousand pieces, somehow, they remain intact, producing a low clunk every time. The boats look like old-school gas-powered motor boats, with a large red engine at the non-pointed end. Each boat is large enough for about five people by my estimation.

"Guess we have a choice of boating or swimming," Mari says. "Gotta say, I don't fancy swimming in that… I reckon we can all fit in one boat, so should we go with that?"

I nod.

"Seems good to me."

«I concur,» Noriko's voice resonates in my head.

Seems like she doesn't stammer when communicating telepathically… though her language is weirdly formal. Anyway, we step into the boat, and I turn to untie it, then grab the starter cable and tug on it. The engine roars to life, sending us zooming across the violent waters, and I do my best to plot a course avoiding the whirlpools.

The familiars strike back almost immediately, bizarre creatures consisting of a pair of legs with a mouth full of teeth between them and a mass of tentacles on top. Inui summons her flame whip to fend them off on the left as well as blasting them with pink fireballs, while Noriko takes care of the ones on the right with her sword, letting out an oddly cute squeal whenever she's caught off guard. Mari stabs the ones straight ahead with her sabre, leaving me to occasionally swing my sword whenever one tries to attack from behind.

"They're pretty tough familiars," Mari remarks. "We're in a boat, so they can't get at us easily, but I don't think we've defeated any, just driven them back…"

"No sign of where we'd go to find the witch, either," Inui muses.

I decide to use my clairvoyance to scout the place out. Perhaps there's some kind of hidden passage somewhere. After nearly a minute, I find something.

"I've got it!" I exclaim.

The others glance at me in surprise, for while I was searching they'd been busy fending off the familiars.

"What have you got?" Mari asks.

"We've gotta go right into one of the whirlpools," I say. "So everyone… hold on tight!"

"Y-you can't be serious!?" Inui gasps.

"I've seen the path to take with my power," I say. "The witch is down there. It's either into the whirlpool or out of the labyrinth."

"Well, it can't hurt to give it a shot," Mari shrugs.

I steer the boat straight towards one of the whirlpools, and after a couple of seconds the familiars stop attacking. Then everyone crouches down and grabs onto the side of the boat, and moments later we lurch forward towards the centre of the whirlpool, spinning around like one of those centrifuge rides at the amusement park. Then I see the witch herself far below. However, the boat stopped descending several seconds ago.

"I think we've gotta jump out!" I shout over the roar of the water.

"N-no way!" Inui shouts back.

«Impossible,» Noriko says.

"I can see the witch down there! How else are we gonna get to her?"

"Looks like the boat doesn't go any further!" Mari adds. "I hate to say it, but Miss Taylor might be right!"

Inexplicably, Noriko simply seizes both of Mari's hands, which Mari apparently takes as a sign. She grabs drags the bigger girl off the boat, leaping into the eye of the whirlpool and vanishing from sight.

"A-ashley-nee… will you… hold my hands too?"

I can barely hear her over the roar, but it's obvious what she's saying just based on the puppy-dog eyes she's giving me. I nod, and she immediately grabs both my hands and closes her eyes. We jump down after the others, falling through a cloud of white mist which feels like a tangle of barbed wire but without the resistance, finally emerging into what looks to be a cave of sorts, literally carved out of the water. All around us, the walls heave and churn, lashing out with whip-like tendrils.

We land on something solid, a coarse white beach which upon closer inspection seems to be composed of innumerable bone fragments. Noriko and Mari are a few feet ahead and to the right, on their hands and knees. Even I fall to one knee, Inui leaning on me for support. In front of us is the witch, a blubbery mass of flesh that seems to resemble every sea monster rolled together into one. I can see numerous tentacles, at least three mouths filled with giant teeth, and multiple lamp-like antennae reminiscent of deep-sea fish… and if that's not creepy enough, it seems like the main body is essentially human, minus limbs. Witch runes floating above her head spell out her name, Fliegende Krake.

"W-well, seems like it's time to do your thing, Nano-chan," Mari suddenly announces.

I look over at them just in time to see Noriko nod twice, and then everything changes. It's like a secondary labyrinth is forming within the first one, but this one takes on a much less creepy form – a sandy beach below a high bluff, the sea behind us unnaturally calm without even a single wave. I don't even realize there is an ocean behind us until I glance back and see it. The sky now resembles the inside of a glass greenhouse. The only creepy thing left in here is the witch herself. Inui gasps.

"W-wait, did… did you just create a new barrier inside the barrier, Nano-chan?" she asks.

Noriko glances back and nods mutely.

"Ashley-nee, isn't that amazing?" Inui asks.

"Well, I've seen it before though," I say. "Although… that wasn't inside another labyrinth, so I guess that part's kinda incredible."

Mari looks at me in surprise. "You know another magical girl who can create labyrinths?"

I nod. "Her name is Pernelle, and she's centuries old. She actually lives in a labyrinth."

Noriko spins to face me and stammers her name. "P-p-p-p-p-pern-n-n-nelle F-f-f-flam-mel!?"

I blink. "Oh, looks like you've heard of her?"

Noriko nods vigorously.

«Introduce me!» she demands.

"Um… I'll uhh… think about it?" I say. "She's staying in Asunaro right now so she's not far away…"

"So um, what's so special about this woman?" Inui asks.

Noriko instantly blasts us with a telepathic rant.

«She's just one of the most famous mystical people in the whole world who studied the secrets of alchemy and produced the philosopher's stone and attained eternal life and…» She continues in this vein for a few seconds, practically reciting the woman's Wikipedia page from memory in her own words. «…and I had no idea she really existed and how could you not have heard of her did you live under a rock or–»

She only shuts up when Mari smacks her in the back of the head, at which point she gasps, hunches over a little, and covers her mouth… even though she hadn't used her mouth at all. Inui blinks at her, thoroughly taken aback by the barrage.

"U-um, w-well… I don't think she's that well known," Inui says. "At least among the general public… since you're a gamer I guess it's different…"

"Nah, I don't think that's it," I say. "Even among gamers I think it'd be hit and miss. She's somewhat well-known, but she's probably not as famous as, oh… Cleopatra for example?"

"That's a kinda random example," Mari says. "Why Cleopatra of all people?"

"I was just casting around for someone famous who might have been a magical girl," I shrug. "Oh, perhaps Himiko would be a better example?"

"W-well, more familiar, at least…" Mari says.

"Yeah, I know almost nothing about Cleopatra, but I could tell you quite a bit about Queen Himiko," Inui nods. "Are you sure they were magical girls though?"

"Not entirely sure," I say. "But pretty sure."

Noriko glances at Inui again.

«Sorry… lost control…»

"Oh, it's perfectly fine," Inui says. "Don't worry about it, Nano-chan… you just startled me, that's all!"

"So um… is anyone going to explain why the witch is just standing there watching us jabber on like this?" I ask.

"Ah yes, that's probably Nano-chan's doing," Mari says. "She can grab the one-in-a-million possibility and make it reality. In this case, I guess it's the one-in-a-million possibility that the witch is too spaced out to notice us shouting right in front of her."

Noriko nods fervently in confirmation, so I guess she really did do that.

"If it's not even gonna attack, then this should be really easy!" Inui exclaims.

She summons her flame whip and lashes out at the witch. In doing so, she seems to finally attract the witch's attention, and the witch lashes back with a tentacle. It's not just Inui, either – Mari and Noriko also come under assault by tentacle. However, Inui dodges easily, giggling.

"That's right!" she shouts. "Look only at me! I'll comfort you!"

Mari dodges her own tentacle, slicing off its tip in passing.

"The heck's that?" she asks, glancing at Inui.

That's when the witch stops attacking again. Moments before its tentacle would have slapped against Noriko's weapon, it draws back and visibly relaxes.

"Charm magic," I explain. "It's Inui-chan's specialty… I can do it too but I'm not as good at it as she is. It just makes the witch regard us as friendlies, basically."

"Then we should take advantage of it while it lasts!" Mari says.

She lunges in, stabbing the witch several times in the eyes, a different one each time. Inui lashes out again with her flame whip, while Noriko stands back and fires what look to be miniature rockets from her strange weapon. Each one produces a comically small explosion on impact. That said, although it's comically small, it does leave behind a burn mark every time.

While the three of them are all railing on the witch, I summon Teddy Mk II and begin charging my glitter beam. With a bit of luck, we should be able to keep the witch charm-locked until she's defeated. I wait until the witch raises a tentacle to strike back at Mari, then unleash the glitter beam.

"Ultimate Teddy Glittering Gunk!"

It's not fully-charged, but it's enough to put the witch back off her guard, lowering the tentacle once more. However, it has become clear that direct physical assault isn't very effective against the witch. Although the tentacles are easily severed, and her skin isn't even very tough, it turns out she has a rapid regeneration power. The eye wounds are already healed up by the time my charm takes effect, so Mari decides to switch up her tactics. She hops back and calls up a mass of vines that grow up around the witch, tying her down and constricting her. It does little to constrain the tentacles, however, and by the time all those vines are in place, the witch has recovered from my charm and is once more lashing out with her tentacles, one of them even catching Noriko off guard and flinging her into the sea. But then Inui's shout rings across the battlefield again.

"I'm over here!" she shouts. "I'll comfort you, just look at me!"

And once again the witch relaxes, idly trying to work her way free of the trap but not really struggling much. Noriko picks herself up and wades back out of the shallow water.

"Hmm, it would really help to know this witch's element," I muse. "Fire is weak against water, after all… but if her element is darkness or something, then fire would be effective…"

Now that I think about it, the injuries inflicted by Inui on the witch's right side seem to be healing more slowly than those inflicted by Mari. Some of the burn marks from Noriko's rockets also aren't healed yet… it does seem to suggest that the witch is weak to fire. I thought water was the most likely element, due to the ocean labyrinth, but water is strong against fire… could it be she's actually of the forest element? I wish I had a way to tell for sure though…

"What are you talking about, Ashley-nee?" Inui asks.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt to try," I shrug. "I was just thinking that Noriko's orange outfit might mean she's fire element, and you have actual fire powers so you're probably fire element…"

"Um… okay, and your point is…?" Inui asks.

"If I'm right, then you should be able to connect with Noriko for a synergistic boost," I say.

"Oh, got it!" Inui says cheerfully. "So listen up, Nano-chan! I'm gonna come give you a real good high-five, and then I want you to shoot the witch right in the middle!"

Noriko glances over and nods once.

«Elements?» she says. «Fire, fire, darkness, wood, wood.»

She points at each of us as she names elements, starting with herself and ending with the witch. I guess wood is the same as forest, so that means Inui is fire as I suspected, and Mari is forest, like I'd guessed. She correctly identifies me as darkness, so I assume this is legit.

"Oh? You can tell what elements we are?" I ask.

Noriko nods.

«My HUD shows everyone's stats,» she says.

While we're exchanging that interesting conversation, Inui runs over to her. Noriko holds her hand up and Inui slaps it, producing the signature flash of a connect skill activating. I see Noriko's eyes widen for a second before she turns back to the witch and hefts her gun… rocket launcher… whatever the hell that thing is. She fires once, twice, thrice… I count eight missiles in total, each aimed at a different part of the witch. More incredibly, it's almost like the ones shot first actually travel more slowly, so that all eight of them impact at the same time. That's when Inui hollers at the top of her voice, startling everyone.

"Heart-throbbing Passionate Inferno!"

The explosions when the rockets impact are not only about three times the size as before, but are also filled with Inui's signature pink flames. This feeds back into the flame pillar that shoots up to the ceiling barely a second later, setting the witch's entire body aflame in an instant. Through the flames I can see her body seem to turn black and then melt, slowly decomposing into a pile of goop which seems to catch fire even more fiercely. It's a spectacular fiery feedback loop that burns the witch to a crisp in less than a minute. The effectiveness of the flames against the witch does seem to confirm Noriko's identification of her element, as fire is strong against forest. Perhaps the witch's watery labyrinth was actually a means of covering up for her weakness, then…?

"W-whoa, incredible," Mari says. "I've rarely seen that level of magic power in a fight… Miss Tomoe's Tiro Finale is probably the only thing that comes to mind…"

With the witch's body destroyed, the flames rapidly die down, leaving just the grief seed lying on the sand. As Mari scoops it up, the labyrinth cracks like glass and shatters, giving way for a moment to that stormy sea before it too collapses and deposits us back on the dilapidated dock. Mari passes the grief seed to Noriko, who accepts it and immediately uses it before stowing it away somewhere. Then we all power down.

"So Miss Naomi, I'm curious," I say. "What are my stats?"

Noriko looks at me, tilting her head slightly to recite the litany of whatever she sees in her HUD.

«Speed, one star. Stamina, two stars. Offense, four stars. Defense, two and a half stars. Learned powers, two and a half stars. Health, eight out of nine hearts. Magia, one out of four clovers. Element, darkness. Accelerant, two stars. Blast power, five stars. Charge potential, one star.»

"Just for the record, magia seems to represent the level of grief in your soul gem," Mari says. "So lower is better. It's not like mana points in games."

"Yeah, I figured," I say. "Does everyone have nine hearts max? What about magia?"

Noriko shakes her head. «Inui has five hearts max. I have six hearts max. Mari has ten hearts max. Max magia seems to always be equal to twice stamina.»

That kinda makes sense, I guess. Stamina must be some measure of how resistant our soul gems are to grief, or something, rather than physical stamina.

"What are those last three stats?" Inui asks. "Accelerant, blast, charge?"

«Not sure,» Noriko replies. «Not enough data.»

I have some idea, for they seem to correspond with Magia Record game mechanics, specifically the attack disks. I don't quite understand how the game mechanics would map to reality, however. Still… the numbers seem to fit. Ashley had one accele disk, four blast disks, and zero charge disks. The stats Noriko cited are exactly one more than those numbers, which can't possibly be a coincidence.

"Is that all the stats you can see?" I ask.

Noriko nods. «Witches don't have magia, accelerant, blast, or charge,» she adds.

As we head back into the street, we run into someone unexpected. Another girl with orange hair to match Noriko's, though her height is closer to Mari's, her soul gem out in tracking mode. She blinks in surprise as we emerge.

"Ah… so you guys beat me to it," she says. "Guess this isn't precisely my territory, so I can't complain… but I am surprised you're working with the exchange student."

"It's a one-time thing, Miss Kohaku," Mari says. "Actually, we were about to get some sushi… you're welcome to join us if you want."

Koharu raises her eyebrows. "I already snagged one grief seed tonight, so… if it's your treat, sure. Never say no to free food, right?"

Noriko nods twice, so Koharu joins us as we make our way to the sushi place.

"I'm just curious, but do you three get together often?" I ask.

"Well, that depends on what you mean by often," Koharu says. "This is only like, the third time since we met last September."

"Ah… not very often, then," I say.

It's only after we've all split up to go our separate ways that it finally hits me. In fact, I'm almost back at the Hayashi house… like ten minutes away at a normal walking speed.

"Oh my god… she's Elly!" I gasp. "No wonder she was so familiar!"

Inui blinks at me. "Is something wrong, Ashley-nee? You're not making any sense all of a sudden…"

"I'm saying Naomi Noriko is Elly," I say.

"And who is Elly?" Inui asks innocently.

"Elly, or Kirsten… the Box Witch who lured Shizuki Hitomi in but then was defeated by Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka."

"Ohhh, I get it, you realized which witch from the previous timeline was Nano-chan," Inui nods. "Well, that's good, right? Now you can make sure it doesn't happen?"

"Well, it's not that simple," I say. "I'm only like… ninety percent certain, and even then, knowing which witch she became was doesn't really help to stop her… I'd also need to know exactly when it happened."

"Right… duh," Inui nods.

"But, yeah… in Elly's labyrinth I saw a silhouette of a magical girl that looked almost exactly like Naomi Noriko," I say. "And I also noticed her fingernail mark during the meal… it's a single red wing. I'm not sure if this correlation means anything, but Elly's familiar's were one-winged angels, and her grief seed also has a wing symbol on it…" I pause, tilting my head a little. "There's one possible flaw in the argument… that silhouette I saw looked like more of a small girl like you or Miss Kaname, rather than someone uhh… large like Miss Naomi, but I have no idea if that's even relevant…"

Inui suddenly hugs me.

"Don't worry, Ashley-nee," she says cheerfully. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually!"

"Right… let's get back home," I say.

"Yes! I get to sleep with Ashley-nee again!"

A second later, she cocks her head at me.

"By the way, I was wondering, Ashley-nee," she says. "How did you figure out Mari-chan was someone else?"

"Oh, that?" I say. "I think the main thing was what Miss Tomoe said. When she mentioned Miss Mari to me once, she described her as a samurai girl, which made me think she wasn't actually talking about the same person."

"So do you have any idea who Mari-chan really is?" Inui asks.

"Not a clue," I say. "And I don't really plan on trying to find out. It just doesn't seem all that important."

"I suppose you're right," Inui says. "Mari-chan is a nice girl even if she's not the real Mari-chan… she's probably trying to make up for Mari-chan's death with all her might… it's no wonder she doesn't like to talk about it…"

"Yeah," I say. "That was my thought as well… we shouldn't pry unless it seems like it could be important."

That's when we step into the Hayashi house.

"We're home!" Inui calls out cheerfully.

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.

Naomi Noriko
直己紀子

Age: 18
Eye Colour: Red
Hair Colour: Orange
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Red wing
Soul Gem: Circular red gem on her right breast
Element: Fire
Weapon: Gun-sword-staff
Powers: Chance manipulation, labyrinth manifestation, heads-up display
Wish: "I want to always have enough money to live the way I want."

Speed: 2
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 3
Defensive Power: 9
Initial Power Usability: 4
Learned Powers: 2