When Inui and I return from Asunaro, we find a guest waiting for us at the Hayashi household. The whole quartet is there, along with a familiar dark-haired girl. No, it's not Akemi Homura.

"Good evening, Tamura-chan," I say.

The girl looks at me.

"G-g-g-g-good evening… u-um… M-miss Ashley T-taylor, right?"

I nod. "So tell me, what brings you here?"

"W-well… it s-seems l-like you… kn-now me so…"

I nod. "Yes, I know you just made a contract with Kyuubey, and I know what your power is."

"I… I w-wish I h-hadn't, though… I… I d-d-don't w-want to t-t-t-turn into a w-witch…"

"Ah… did you see what happened to you last time?" I ask.

Tamura nods. "P-p-probably? B-but I… I'm n-not sure w-what y-you mean b-b-by l-last t-t-time…"

I take a seat, and Inui plops down beside me.

"So are you going to introduce us?" Inui asks. "Actually… I think I've seen this girl at school…? Isn't she…"

I shake my head. "No, she might look almost exactly like Akemi Homura, but she's a different person. Her name is Yoshida Tamura… Tamura-chan, this is Itsumi Inui… or did you already know her?"

Tamura nods. "A-actually… I s-s-saw her in a v-v-vision… although… I d-didn't know her n-n-name…"

Inui blinks. "Eh!? You have visions too, Tamura-chi!? Is it like Ashley-nee?"

"It's different," I say. "I see visions of things as they are right now. Tamura-chan sees visions of events that could have come to pass if things had gone differently."

"Oh… that doesn't sound very useful though," Inui muses. "Except… if combined with Akemi Homura… they'd be unbeatable, wouldn't they?"

I chuckle a little. "Perhaps… but even without that, I don't think her power is useless," I say. "In many cases, something that could have happened is also something that could still happen in the future, given the correct conditions. So in a way, her power allows her a bit of foresight."

Tamura blinks. "O-ohhhh… I… I n-n-never thought of it like that…"

"Alright, Tamura-chan," I say. "You came here to share your visions with me, right?" She nods. "Let's hear them."

"R-r-right…"

Tamura takes a few deep breaths and closes her eyes.

"F-first… I saw a witch that looked like a huge, creepy bauble, like the sorts you see hanging on a Christmas tree. There were two girls fighting her, with outfits in a similar style but opposite colour schemes. They called each other… um… Kuroe and Iroha, I think it was."

"Well, that's interesting," I muse. "I know both Kuroe and Iroha from previous timelines. As for the witch, that sounds like Nikola, who lives in the haunted house to the north – I fought her with Hiyori-chan and Komachi-chan in the first two timelines. I think it was… the first of April?"

"Was Kuroe-chan there when you fought that witch?" Inui asks. "And Iro-tan too?"

"The first time, Kuroe was already fighting it," I say. "The second time, she showed up at the same time as we did and we fought it together. So yeah, she was there. But Iroha wasn't there either time. In the third timeline I never even approached that witch, but I checked a few days later and Kuroe was still alive, so she must've either defeated it or retreated…"

"Huh… so then, how'd you meet Iro-tan?" Inui asks.

"That was a few days later," I say. "In the third timeline, I ran into her fighting a witch near the northern edge of the city… Masuyo Mari showed up as well. I questioned her a bit… she didn't know Kuroe, and she made her contract on the first of April… and I also checked her in the first timeline around the beginning of April, or rather Kuroe looked into her on my behalf. At that point, she wasn't a magical girl."

"Huh, so she only became a magical girl because people started messing with time," Elise says. "I hope she doesn't come to regret it…"

"Well, even if that hadn't happened, I imagine she already had potential," I say. "She still might've made a contract sometime after the end of April even without these time shenanigans."

"Ah… I guess you have a point," Elise admits.

"So what's the point of all this speculation, exactly?" Inui asks.

"Maybe there isn't a point," I say. "But from what I know… in the timeline your vision fits into, Iroha must've either made her contract earlier, or met Kuroe by chance on the same day she contracted…"

I trail off for a bit, thinking it over. Iroha's contract last time around was already too late to save Azusa Mifuyu, now that I think of it… so even if it didn't shift naturally, I'd need to push the date of her contract up. Iroha's contract needs to spur Ui to contract before March twenty-eighth, assuming what I learned from Yachiyo in the previous timeline is accurate, which means she should probably contract at least a week before that. And I'd actually like it if she could contract on the sixteenth or seventeenth… that way, we could advance the loop window by a day or two and her contract would become a fixed event.

"U-um…" Tamura interrupts. "I… have m-more…"

I set aside the speculation for now. I can worry about it once I've heard the rest of Tamura's visions.

"Oh, sorry," I say. "Please continue."

Tamura closes her eyes and takes a few more deep breaths.

"S-second… I saw three magical girls fighting… one of them was Ashley Taylor… one was Itsumi Inui… the third had a green outfit with a miniskirt, bared midriff, and some kind of hat… um, and her hair was purple, and she attacked with… yo-yos, I think they're called?"

I frown a little, searching through the many magical girls I know of, and suddenly one comes to mind – Yume Ulala, a member of what may be the most dangerous faction in the second arc of Magia Record, of which Himuro Lavi is the leader. The distinctive weapon certainly helps to identify her. So far, I've been completely ignoring the second arc under the premise that it won't become relevant until after Walpurgisnacht has been defeated… but am I being too naïve?

"And um… you lost," Tamura adds. "She killed you. Y-your soul gem was shattered… Miss Itsumi managed to barely get away, though…"

"That's strange, why would I abandon Ashley-nee?" Inui blinks.

"I mean… if I'm already dead, you might decide to save yourself," I point out.

"That's… possible, I suppose," Inui reluctantly admits.

"So huh… that's interesting," I say. "If she's who I think she is… I did speculate that her faction might have something against me, so I can't say I'm surprised… is there anything in the vision that hints when it occurs?"

Tamura tilts her head a little.

"N-no, I…" Then she blinks. "W-wait… ch-cherry b-b-b-blossoms…"

I blink at her. "Um… what about them?"

"I-it w-was… o-only for a moment b-but… I, I s-saw one… a ch-cherry tree, in f-full bloom," Tamura says.

Huh. I wasn't really paying much attention to the cherry blossoms in the previous timelines, but they were definitely there at some point, so I think that places the event in April? Wait… but that also places it before the defeat of Walpurgisnacht… how could that be? What else could have alerted that girl to my existence? What could've led her to want me dead? Perhaps I should start to investigate some of the regions that come into play in the second arc… besides Yukuni, I also still haven't been to Futatsugi, nor to Tokime village. Maybe I can get some information about Yukuni from Suzune…?

Tamura takes a few more deep breaths.

"And f-f-finally… I saw a girl in black, sort of like a maid but punk… she killed Koharu-chan, and then… she killed me as well…"

"Okay, I think I know who that is," I nod. "By the way, have you introduced yourself to Miss Kohaku yet?"

Tamura shakes her head. "T-t-t-tomorrow… probably…"

"So who's the mysterious girl in black, then?" Inui asks.

"Someone who changed as a result of their wish," I say. "Sort of like the Sleepwalking Spectre, come to think of it… but perhaps even more dangerous. At least Yumeno Yusa was predictable and, after a fashion, rational… Miss Kure, on the other hand, has the potential to defy all rationality… that is, if she becomes a magical girl… but at this point, she probably already has."

Inui blinks. "Huh? Miss Kure? Didn't you ask me to get friendly with her?" she asks.

"Yeah, I hoped you might be able to convince her not to contract," I reply. "Or at least, to make a different wish. But we were too late, right?"

"Ohh, I see," Inui says, nodding. "If she made a different wish, maybe she could've been a friend, right?"

"Something like that…"

"Um… you're talking about Miss Kure Kirika, right?" Hiyori says. "I think… you shouldn't really say things like that when you haven't met her… she has a bad reputation, but… I've spoken with her a few times, and I always thought she seemed lonely. Above all, I think she's a good person."

"Yeah… you might be right," I agree. "The problem is her wish… not the girl herself. Sometimes a magical girl becomes a completely different person after making their wish… their personality is rewritten by the wish."

"Is that so…" Hiyori says. "But even if you've seen it in another timeline… I think it's too cruel to project those experiences onto this timeline before you've actually met her here, in this time."

"I'm not judging her yet," I say. "I'm just noting that the potential exists… she could become an enemy. I really hope it doesn't happen… I never would've asked Inui-chan to connect with her if I thought she was beyond saving. It's a stroke of luck that they're in the same class."

"Oh… is that so?" Hiyori blinks. "I never realized… but even just noting the potential exists… I don't like it. Ashley-chan, you need to avoid judging people based on what they might do, you know? It's just not right!"

"I mean… I'm not saying you're wrong or anything," I say. "Sorry…"

But when I consider what I know so far about events in this timeline, I have a feeling my request to Inui has indeed come too late and Kirika has already contracted, and given that Oriko has not warned everyone about Walpurgisnacht, I fear the worst.

"Hmm… Tamura-chan, could I ask a favour of you?"

Tamura blinks at me. "U-um… if it's within my abilities…"

"Just let me know if you hear of any new magical girls in southeast Mitakihara," I say. "If possible, I'd like to know their names and approximate time of contract. Can you do that?"

Tamura nods. "Um… I guess so… s-sure."

I tap my phone against hers to exchange contact info.

"Um… why are you asking about that?" Komachi wants to know. "Are you looking for more teammates to fight against Walpurgisnacht, or is there some other reason?"

"If I'm not mistaken, there should be a pair of girls with potential somewhere in the city," I say. "I'm not sure where they're from, exactly… but the south seems the best guess for now. I'll try to monitor the southwest myself. They might already be friends, or maybe they become friends because they contracted… anyway… having allies is nice of course, but mostly I just don't want them to die. Actually, it was Tamura-chan's vision of Miss Kure that made me think of them…"

"Say, Ashley-chan, is this really all knowledge you gained from going back in time over and over?" Elise asks. "Especially since you said it's only been a few times… it just doesn't seem like enough time to know so much… and on top of that you have weird holes in what you know that don't make sense if it was something you experienced in another timeline."

I smile at her. "You're sharp, Elise-chan, but I'm afraid I can't talk about that. I don't want to risk Kyuubey finding out."

"Hmm… I expected you to deny it," Elise says. "I suppose you'll share someday?"

"Probably."

March twenty-eighth. Asako Komaki is fighting against what appears to be a circular dining table with wings, complete with a tablecloth and a teapot in the centre, to which the wings attach. The witch is quite mobile, so it's not going well for her.

"Ugh, I really need to get that math homework done," Komaki mutters.

She bisects a familiar with her axe. Just then, the witch leaps high into the air.

"Hey you!" she shouts. "Get back down here!"

Surprisingly, the witch obeys, giving out a whimpering sort of sound, but when Komaki leaps in with her axe, it slips out of the way. No matter what she tries, it's just too fast for her.

"Ugh! No lowly witch gets to make a fool of me!" she shouts.

She gazes up at the witch, now hovering directly up at her, and sighs.

"Well, it's almost over, anyway," she mutters.

Suddenly, a dome-shaped barrier flashes into existence around them, trapping the witch and Komaki inside it.

"You're not running away anymore!" Komaki shouts.

She leaps into the air and swings her axe at the witch, and this time, with a barrier at its back, it's unable to dodge as effectively. She splits the table in half with a single blow, and the labyrinth begins to crumble. Komaki lets out a sigh of relief.

"It's finally over," she groans. "These witches crop up like roaches, one after another… so annoying!"

As she bends down to pick up the grief seed, she seems to suddenly sense something, her head whipping around. She jumps to her feet and takes on a combat-ready pose.

"Who's there!?" she shouts.

"Huh? The labyrinth just vanished…"

Kure Kirika casually hops down from a nearby roof. Hiding just around the corner of the same building, watching in confusion, is a short blonde girl – one of Komaki's friends, Namekata Akira.

"So it's not a witch, it's a magical girl?" Kirika says. "Well, whatever."

With that, Kirika leaps forward and slashes at Komaki with her claws. Komaki summons a gigantic shield to block the attack, then hops back. Kirika leaps at her again, brandishing those claws of hers.

"Not this time, you black praying mantis!" Komaki shouts.

Once again, she conjures up a gigantic shield between them to block the attack.

"Dammit!" Kirika groans. "Cut it out with the stupid nicknames!

"Hmph," Komaki says. "It suits you perfectly though!"

They exchange several more blows in a similar vein, with Kirika never managing to pierce through Komaki's shield, although several times Komaki gets it up only just in the nick of time. But then, a domed barrier suddenly forms around Kirika, trapping her inside.

"Dammit!" Kirika groans. "She's trapped me in here!"

"You may be fast, but your thinking's slow," Komaki retorts. "And those claws of yours can't break through my shield. I'll tear you to shreds!"

Komaki leaps into the air, bearing down on Kirika from above, her axe ready to strike. But just before the attack lands, one of Kirika's claws pierces her through her right shoulder, knocking her from the air. Komaki lands on the ground and twitches, letting out a pained groan. Kirika runs towards her, raising her claws for a finishing strike.

"You're a pain," she says. "I'm gonna have to end you!"

That's when Akira runs out from her hiding place and calls her friend's name as she jumps between them.

"Komaki!" she shouts.

Komaki props herself up with her good arm.

"…Akira!?"

Then Kirika's claws pierce right through Akira's chest, stabbing into Komaki's chest as well and cracking her soul gem, though it doesn't shatter completely. Kirika blinks, seemingly shocked at what she just did.

"Eh? Eh? Ehhhh!? R-really!? She's dead? Shit…"

She looks around wildly for a few seconds, then flees.

It turns out that Komaki, Mifuyu, and Noriko all die on the same day.

I've been briefly checking up on Noriko once a day ever since the Asunaro trip, and when I look in on her after witnessing Komaki's murder, I find something unsettling. She appears to be doing badly at her game and cursing, and her soul gem, despite having been gleaming and pure the day before, is already halfway tainted. I grab my phone and compose a message to Mari.

"Hi… please don't ask me how I know this, but I think Naomi Noriko is in trouble and needs your help… and a grief seed."

I continue watching Noriko anxiously, hoping Mari will see my message and get there in time. She loses the match, curses loudly, then starts a new match, which also goes badly. So… it seems the issue isn't so much that she's losing but rather that she's on a losing streak? As she loses the second match, I receive a rather colourful message from Mari.

"Oh fuck, omw!"

The shortness of the message makes me wonder how well she understands Noriko's situation, but I figure it would only be a waste of time to question her on the matter. I keep watching anxiously. Even if I were to leave now, there's literally no chance I could get to her in time, so all I can do is hope that Mari can. Unfortunately, it seems like she's already entering a grief spiral. The increased grief in her soul gem is likely affecting her performance in the game, deteriorating it even more, which then frustrates her and aggravates the grief spreading through her soul gem. I watch with bated breath as she queues for match after match after match, yet loses every single time. Eventually, I hear sounds from downstairs in the vision, and soon after, Mari barges into her room.

"Noriko! Are you okay?!" Mari shouts.

Unfortunately, she's a few seconds too late – Noriko's soul gem is already cracking, and as she turns to Mari with tear-filled eyes, it hatches into a grief seed. As I had suspected, the witch that comes out is Kirsten, alias Elly, spelled out in witch runes as H.N. Elly (Kirsten). From what I understand, that H.N. stands for 'handle name' and thus indicates that Kirsten is the witch's true name while Elly is an alias.

"Fuck!" Mari shouts.

The way she transforms and immediately captures the floating monitor with her magic suggest to me that she already knew the hard truth. If that's the case, she certainly hid it well. However, contrary to my expectations, she doesn't finish the witch off immediately. Instead, she stares at the restrained Noriko for almost a full minute, tears streaming down her cheeks, before suddenly turning away and pulling out her phone. Moments later, my own phone rings. Startled, I answer it.

"I'm sorry, Ashley," she says, eschewing all honorifics and even not bothering with any semblance of polite speech. Her voice wavers, but she manages not to stammer.

"Huh? What?" I ask, confused by her apology.

"I dunno how you knew Noriko was in trouble, and I'm glad you called me for help, but it looks like I got there too late. Do you know what happened?"

"She turned into a witch," I reply.

"Exactly," Mari says. "I thought I'd finish her off quickly, but now that it's come down to it… I just can't."

"W-what do you mean you can't!?" I gasp.

"Even after she's turned into a monster… I can't bring myself to hurt the girl… woman I fell in love with," Mari says.

I blink. This is unexpected information… Mari was in love with Noriko? I wonder if she returned the feelings…?

"B-but it's not like she's still in there!" I protest. "It's like she's a zombie… she's gonna hurt people! Isn't it a mercy to end her before she does that?"

"I… I get that, on an intellectual level," Mari says. "But… I've never forgiven myself for finishing off Mari-chan after failing to notice what was up with her… I can't bear to repeat that experience."

"So you really are a replacement for the real Masuyo Mari," I say.

Mari chuckles bitterly. "Y-yeah, that's right," she says. "I'm sure I'm gonna die here, so what the heck… I'll share my story with you, Ashley."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I ask.

"To be honest, I really don't want to," Mari says. "But at the same time, I think I'd feel better knowing that at least one person remembers me, my little sister Mari, and my crush, Noriko. And you already had the intuition to suss out an inkling of the truth, so I'd rather fill you in on the details than have you speculate and come up with something truly crazy. Just… let me tell it in one go. Don't interrupt me."

Mari's soul gem is also slowly becoming tainted. She doesn't seem to be in danger of a grief spiral yet, though.

"Alright… I'm listening," I say. "I promise not to interrupt until you're done."

"I was Noriko's classmate," Mari says. "My true… no, that's not really right, is it? I'm not who I used to be, not anymore. My former identity is Masuyo Saburo, Mari-chan's elder brother."

It takes all my effort not to interrupt her. Mari's older brother!? If there's one thing I've always known about the Madokaverse, it's that only girls can make a contract, so this revelation seems to turn everything I thought I knew on its head. I'd never even once entertained the possibility that it might not be true.

"I found out that Mari-chan had become a magical girl when I wandered into a labyrinth and was saved by her," Mari continues. "However, at that point, I couldn't see Kyuubey. I had only Mari-chan's word that he existed. That happened a little more than two years ago, and according to Mari-chan, she'd been on the job for around three months by that time. At first, it seemed like a good thing. After all, my cute little sister was a magical girl of justice, right? I never even questioned it. But over time I noticed she was starting to get frustrated. When I questioned her, she said she was having trouble getting enough grief seeds because another magical girl was getting in her way. Eventually, it got to the point where she started to clam up and refused to talk about it, but I could see her soul gem slowly getting more and more clouded. So one day, I decided to sneak after her when she left the house to hunt witches."

Saburo kept a good distance behind his little sister as she wandered through the streets, soul gem out on her palm. Occasionally she spoke out loud, seemingly addressing Kyuubey to judge from her words, although he still couldn't see the incubator. He could however see her soul gem, which was at least sixty percent corrupted by this time.

She stopped frequently to examine what seemed like ordinary walls, and after awhile, she finally stopped to glare at one of them.

"Dammit!" Mari groaned. "Not again! I finally found a portal and she's beaten me to it yet again!"

Saburo could not see the thing she referred to as a 'portal', but just as she said that, another girl appeared as if stepping right out of the wall, holding a grief seed in her hand. The other girl had pink hair tied into a massive ponytail and wore a very punk outfit – an open leather biker jacket over what essentially amounted to a sports bra, jeans that were torn off around the knee with one leg longer than the other, a literal metal chain as a belt, and a black cape covered in a variety of silver designs, mostly with a skull theme. There was also a skull ornament pinned to her hair, as if to keep her bangs out of her eyes, and she wielded a massive mechanical-looking hammer. Saburo quickly hid himself behind a dumpster.

"Oh?" the other girl sneered. "If it ain't poor little Mari-chan! Gonna slink back with your tail between your legs once again?"

Mari glared fiercely at the other girl, who chuckled.

"Oho! That's a fierce look! But looks ain't gonna kill no-one, sweetie."

Suddenly, Mari transformed, donning her samurai outfit and taking a combat-ready stance.

"I've had enough of you!" Mari shouts. "Every single day it's the same! You steal my kills one after another! Surely you have plenty of spare grief seeds? Couldn't you at least share one with me every now and then!?"

The other girl chuckled. "Oh sweetie, you don't understand this world at all, do ya? It ain't the pretty place you imagine it to be. You wanna survive, you gotta pull your weight. If you wanna nab my seed, you gotta defeat me, ya dig? Survival of the fittest and all that."

"Then so be it!" Mari said fiercely. "Prepare yourself, Manami Momoko!"

Momoko giggled. "What's this? The poor little sheep is showing its teeth. My god, I'm shivering in fear over here! Well… if ya wanna feed yerself to the wolf, who'm I to judge ya? Come at me, weakling!"

"I'll make you take those words back," Mari said. "This time, I'll be going all out from the beginning. Behold my ultimate skill…"

Mari hopped two steps back and pointed her katana at the sky.

"Laplace's Demon!"

Momoko hefted her hammer and stepped forward to swing at Mari, who leaned low to charge her opponent. The hammer swing passed just a few hairs above Mari's head, Momoko's eyes widening in shock as the katana sliced right through her body. However, the wound healed as fast as it was inflicted, so Momoko did not end up in two pieces. She hopped back, raising her hammer and electrifying it before bringing it down on the ground, the electricity travelling through the ground. Even Saburo, some thirty metres away, felt a hint of the jolt from her magic… but Mari leapt into the air at the last possible second, as if she'd already known it was coming, and spun in midair, slashing at the other girl's face. By the time she landed, the electrical burst had already dissipated.

"The hell!?" Momoko gasped. "I thought ya were a weakling!"

"That was just your assumption," Mari retorted. "I've always been this strong. You just happen to be better at tracking witches than I am… and perhaps I was a little too nice. But you've finally pushed me too far. Ironic, isn't it? Now who's the weakling, huh?"

The battle rapidly became too fast for Saburo to process, their movements pretty much an indecipherable blur, but what was clear from the few moments he could make out the action was that Mari far outstripped the other girl at every move. Not only did she seem able to predict the other girl's moves with ease, she also seemed to have a dramatic edge in raw speed. Momoko struggled to even react to her attacks. If it wasn't for her incredible regeneration ability, the battle would've been finished on the very first strike. However, that regeneration was the one thing that frustrated Mari's attacks. No matter how grievous a wound she inflicted on Momoko, it fully healed up in mere seconds. The battle must have gone on for nearly ten minutes, but finally, Mari landed a decisive blow – she struck Momoko's soul gem, causing it to shatter and fall to pieces. Momoko fell to the ground, her transformation cancelled, and Mari quickly followed suit, collapsing onto her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

"W-wow… she… she was… something else," Mari gasped. "I thought… I thought with Laplace's Demon… I could easily defeat her."

She looked at what seemed like empty space, and tilted her head.

"Weren't you the one who suggested it was the only way to beat her?" she asked.

Another pause stretched out, and then she sighed.

"Y-yeah… that regeneration ability really was something else…"

Suddenly she gave that invisible other she was speaking to a sharp look.

"W-what do you mean it's too late?" she asked. Then she gasped. "Oh no! I need a grief seed, stat!"

Mari looked around wildly, but there was no sign of the grief seed that Momoko had been holding earlier. Saburo also looked around though, spotting it not far from him. He emerged from his hiding place and grabbed it.

"Mari-chan, it's here!"

Mari looked at him, blinking. "W-what!? Onii-san… d-don't tell me you… s-saw all that?"

"Y-yeah… I'm sorry, Mari-chan," Saburo said. "I was just… worried about you, so I followed you…"

Mari averted her eyes from him.

"I wish you hadn't had to see that," she muttered. "You must think terribly of me now… I just murdered another human being… another magical girl…"

"W-well… I can't say I agree with what you did," Saburo said. "But that girl was clearly in the wrong… so I think I can understand, a little. But anyway, um… you need this, right?"

He held out the grief seed, and Mari reached out her hand… but that was when it happened. Her soul gem had finally reached its limit, and as Saburo watched in horror, it began to crack open. Mari gasped.

"N-no… not this!" she said. "Oh no… Kyuubey was right… it's… too late for me…"

Suddenly she looked sharply at Saburo.

"Onii-san… please, run away! S-save yourself, at least! I… I…"

Before she could finish her sentence, her body collapsed as the grief seed finished hatching from her soul gem. Saburo watched in horror as a witch emerged from what used to be his sister's soul gem.

"N-no… what the hell!?" he gasped. "This… this can't be… it's not fair!"

The witch loomed over him, resembling some sort of spider monster. The upper body resembled a stern teacher with ridiculous glasses, while the bottom part possessed eight arms, each with grasping hands and sharp claws. The upper body also possessed arms, for a total of eight. Saburo gazed up at the witch, and it gazed back at him, impassively.

"This… this can't be the end," he said fiercely. "This can't be… Kyuubey! I know you're there! Kyuubey! Why won't you show yourself!?"

But no-one appeared.

"Come on! Kyuubey, why is it like this? Why the hell did my sister turn into a witch? I wish… I wish I could save her!"

And that was when it happened. A small white creature trotted out from between the witch's legs.

"It is not often that someone begs me for a wish," Kyuubey observed. "Especially after witnessing what you have just seen."

Saburo glared at the creature.

"So you're the one who did this to her, is that it?"

Kyuubey tilted his head. "I did no such thing," he said. "All I did was grant her wish. What you saw just now was the result of her own actions. Had she acted sooner to defeat Manami Momoko, this outcome could have been avoided."

"Tell me, Kyuubey… can you grant my wish?"

"It is not our practice to solicit wishes from young boys," Kyuubey replied.

"That's not the question I asked," Saburo said. "Can you do it or not?"

Kyuubey cocked his head again. "The energy obtained from a boy's wish is unlikely to outweigh the energy I would require to grant the wish," he said.

"Then… you can do it," Saburo said. "I beg of you… please, let me make a wish."

"This is incredibly irregular," Kyuubey said. "However… it does appear that, for a teenage boy, your magical potential is unusually high… very well, I will listen to your wish."

"I don't have anything worth living for, except for Mari-chan and Noriko-chan," Saburo said. "I don't have any friends at school… even Noriko-chan barely gives me a glance. My grades are poor, and the prospects for my future almost nonexistent. On the other hand, Mari-chan had lots of friends and did well in school. She had a dream and was pursuing it with all her might. Therefore… I want to become Mari-chan and carry on her life."

Kyuubey nodded, extending his ear appendages to extract the soul gem from Saburo's body. As he did so, the boy's body morphed into an identical copy of his little sister.

"Interesting," Kyuubey said. "I was skeptical, but it seems like your wish has surpassed entropy after all. When you become a witch, I should be able to gather quite a decent amount of energy."

"Mari-chan… it seems I have all of her memories, too," Mari said. "To think she wished to improve her grades… I never would've guessed. Now, Kyuubey… I already know everything there is to know about being a magical girl, thanks to my wish. So… I don't want to see you ever again. Is that clear?"

Kyuubey tilted his head at her. "How do you propose to dispose of spent grief seeds without my help?"

"I'll think of something," Mari said.

"Very well. For the time being, I will refrain from showing myself in your presence," Kyuubey said. "However, if you ever need me, just call, and I will come."

With that, the creature turned and trotted off, seemingly heading out of the labyrinth. Mari looked up at the witch that had once been the original Mari, and transformed, donning the Tuxedo Mask outfit.

"Mari-chan… I'm sorry!" Mari shouted. "I have to do this… otherwise, you'll hurt the people you love! I hope… I hope you'll forgive me!"

Raising her sabre, Mari called up vines, coiling around the witch's arms and holding her in place so she couldn't move. Strangely, the witch didn't even try to defend herself. She just stared at Mari, unmoving. So when Mari leapt in to behead her, it took only a single stroke. The labyrinth collapsed moments later, and Mari caught the grief seed, hugging it to her chest as she burst into tears.

"And that's how I became a magical girl," Mari finishes. "I think I can answer a couple of questions, if you want."

"I can think of two questions, Mari-chan… or should I call you Saburo-kun?"

"Mari-chan is fine," Mari replies. "That other name is dead. I probably shouldn't've even told you my old name… my bad"

"First question… what did you do with Mari-chan's grief seed?"

"I keep it in my desk drawer at home," Mari says. "I've never used it… I hoped that, maybe… just maybe, one day, I could find a way to bring her back to life. Although, even if I could, I'm not sure what good that would do now that I've substituted myself into her life, but… I'm not exactly the same person she is, and her friends seem like they're a little suspicious of me lately, so…"

I give her a couple more seconds to finish her sentence, but when no completion seems forthcoming, I ask my second question.

"Did Kyuubey really never show itself to you again?" I ask. "Were you able to find an alternate way to dispose of grief seeds?"

"Sadly, that bastard broke his promise," Mari said. "Although it was only every so often, it did pop into my life to ask if I had any grief seeds for it or, occasionally, to share magical girl news. I think I saw him around once a month. But I never gave him any of my grief seeds… after using them once or twice, I always passed them on to Noriko to finish off. I just didn't want to see him smugly rubbing it in my face."

"I see… so you didn't actually find another way to dispose of them," I say.

"So, Ashley… is that all the questions you have for me?" Mari asks. "This is your last chance to learn my sordid past."

That's likely untrue, although… no, it probably is true, huh? What are the chances I can get Mari to open up like this in another timeline? Assuming I end up saving Noriko from now on… yeah, I think it's almost certain that Mari would never open up to me about her past. I still have my vision open, and I can see Mari is around seventy percent tainted already.

"I've thought of a few more," I say. "Did you ever feel like Mari-chan was with you, inside you? Did you ever… have a conversation with her?"

"It did feel like that," Mari said. "Sometimes I spoke with her in my dreams, but I'm not sure if that was a real conversation."

"Have you ever tried using Mari-chan's magic?" I ask.

"I did try once to see if I could use her grief seed to somehow reproduce her magic," Mari said. "However… I wasn't able to do anything at all."

"Huh… I thought you might be able to since your body was the same," I muse. "Okay… how'd you become close with Noriko-chan? Was she already a magical girl when you contracted?"

"She was already a magical girl when I found out that Mari-chan was," Mari says. "You know how you can identify a magical girl by their ring, right? Well… the day after learning about Mari-chan, I noticed that Noriko had a similar ring. So… after Mari-chan died, I approached her as someone who'd known onii-san. I said that onii-san had talked about her a lot, and I wanted to hear what she thought of him now that he was missing. It turns out… she had feelings for me. It shocked me a whole lot, y'know? She'd never spoken to me, not even once… she seemed utterly terrified whenever I said hi to her. I thought… I thought she hated me, but… turns out it was all just her extreme social anxiety. When she heard I'd gone missing… she was devastated. That's when I first shared a grief seed with her. After that, well… we just grew close naturally. I never told her the truth, though."

"Do you remember how Miss Tomoe and Mari-chan met?"

"Surprisingly, they were actually sort of close," Mari said. "They met by chance once in a labyrinth… back then, Miss Tomoe was a newbie herself and fought only using her ribbons. Miss Tomoe was impressed by Mari-chan's magic, and they talked an awful lot about novel ways for her to use it. I guess I never mentioned it in my story earlier, but Laplace's Demon was basically her ultimate magic… she never used it against weaker opponents. Instead, she just took them down with her katana or her ice magic. The fact that she used it against Miss Manami… it showed she was really serious about beating her. Miss Manami had been the one goading her in the first place, but it seems she didn't realize what she was getting herself into…"

I cast around, trying to think of any other question to ask. However, my mind comes up blank.

"Well… I'm afraid I can't think of any more questions," I say.

"I understand. Farewell Ashley… may we meet in the next life."

With that ominous statement, she hangs up the phone, then rips the soul gem from her throat and flings it at Elly, causing it to explode into shards. She falls to the ground, her transformation cancelled, and the vines restraining Elly vanish, releasing the slightly-injured witch upon an unsuspecting world. I stop the vision there… nothing good can come of watching a newborn witch.

There's one more thing I want to confirm, so I call out telepathically to Kyuubey. Almost immediately, it shows itself, appearing from around the corner of my desk.

"Good evening, Ashley Taylor," it says. "How can I help you?"

"I have a question for you," I say. "Didn't you say that only young girls can make a contract to become a magical girl?"

The incubator tilts its head at me. "I do not recall saying such a thing."

I frown at it. "I distinctly remember you mentioning it before I became a magical girl," I say.

"Since your memory appears to be faulty, allow me to repeat my words from back then," Kyuubey says. "The translation of emotional energy into usable energy is highest in females in their second stage of development, the period colloquially known as puberty."

I blink at it. "Wait a second… are you saying that the reason you only contract teenage girls is nothing but… statistics?"

"That is one way of looking at the matter," Kyuubey replies.

"So… what's the oldest you've ever contracted a girl at?"

"After the age of twenty-five, even a girl with exceptionally high karmic destiny can no longer produce sufficient energy to be worth the trouble," Kyuubey says. "It is uncommon, but every now and then we do make contracts with girls in their early twenties."

"What about boys?" I ask. "Are boys also capable of having the potential?"

"Naturally," Kyuubey says. "The potential exists to some degree in every human being, from the moment they emerge from the womb. However, only rarely do young boys have the potential to produce useful quantities of energy when their hope turns into despair."

"So… theoretically… a magical boy could exist?" I ask.

"Theoretically, yes," Kyuubey says. "That is even rarer than a boy who makes a contract, however. We do occasionally grant a boy's wish, but around nine out of every ten boys who make a wish choose one that results in their transformation into a girl. This rate is sufficiently high that we have speculated that a girl's soul is sometimes accidentally born into a boy's body. However, it is not an active subject of research, as young girls are still vastly superior sources of energy."

"Huh… but that still means that one in ten remains a boy after contracting," I muse.

"That is correct," Kyuubey says. "There are no present cases of that, however."

"Alright… thanks for your time," I say. "Now please leave… I need to think."

I ponder the new information I've learned for quite awhile, but… in the end, it doesn't seem like it's actually useful for my goals. So what if boys can have potential? It doesn't actually change anything. Still… what I learned about Mari's past could be useful. After all, there might actually be a way to resurrect the original Mari, if the Pleaides Saints' technique could be perfected. As far as I know, they only need the grief seed and a DNA sample for their technique, and Mari has both on hand, since her body is an exact duplicate of the original. So I take a moment to add a note to that effect in my document.

After that, I choose to check what Mifuyu is up to, as I've done every few days since I visited Kamihama. I'm able to scry on Mifuyu at all because of my last-minute telepathic conversation with Togame Momoko – thanks to that, I managed to catch the two of them together when scrying on Momoko, thus allowing me to scry on Mifuyu directly from then on.

Today, I see Mifuyu gazing down at the city from a high point, lamenting the weakness that encroaches on her magic with age. It's a dangerous thought for a magical girl to entertain when on her own, and before long she's entering the familiar grief spiral. Without anyone else to witness her, she turns into a witch unnoticed. I don't wait to see what her witch looks like – I stop watching as soon as I see the formation of the grief seed.

That threefold tragedy is slightly mollified by the fact that two new magical girls also make a contract on the same day. I hear about it from Tamura two days later – Masumi Chihana and Ayano Hikari are their names. On the other hand, as if to put a damper on that news, Mami stumbles upon the body of an unknown magical girl the next day. Based on the layout of the streets when she exits the labyrinth, it's somewhere near the hospital. It seems like it's that discovery that prompts Kyuubey to show up.

"I have unpleasant news for you," it says. "It seems there is a magical girl killer on the loose. She has already killed two magical girls and one ordinary girl. One of them identified her as a 'black magical girl'… you should take extra care if you venture south."

"Thanks for the warning," I say. "By the way… who were the two magical girls who were killed?"

"One is Asako Komaki," Kyuubey says. "The other I am not sure, as I did not see the body."

"But you know all the magical girls in the area, right?" I say. "Even if you didn't see the body, you must have some idea who it might have been."

"That is correct," Kyuubey says. "However, there are only four magical girls in the south region of Mitakihara, and they are all alive and well. Thus, the victim was likely a magical girl visiting from out of town. Since that greatly expands the possibilities, I lack sufficient data to form a hypothesis."

"Could she have been Youko Futaba?" I suggest. "No… on second thoughts, that doesn't fit… she was wearing tights, but Futaba has bare legs… wait… this is kind of a crazy long shot, but maybe Erika?"

"There is no magical girl named Erika on this island," Kyuubey says.

"Hmm… guess it'll forever be a mystery," I sigh. "Oh well…"

Finally April comes, and I meet up with Inui after school for a witch hunt. The quartet decide to go south, so I caution them to be on the lookout for the black magical girl who Kyuubey warned us about the day before. Inui and I on the other hand head north.

I don't bother trying to track the witch though. Instead, I head straight for the haunted mansion. Or at least, that was my plan, but a familiar distracts me on the way there, so the two of us take a brief detour to destroy it. It turns out to be one of Nikola's familiars. Once the familiar's labyrinth collapses, Inui gives me a strange look.

"Ashley-nee, you seem like you already know where you're going," she says.

"That's because I do," I reply.

"So, the witch we're going to fight now… you already faced it in another timeline?" Inui asks.

"Yeah, I think I mentioned it awhile ago," I say.

When we arrive at the haunted house and unmask the portal, I note that it's flickering a little. That means Kuroe must already be inside. The two of us transform and step in.

"I guess you also know who's already fighting the witch?" Inui asks.

"Yeah, of course," I say.

The grotesque elf familiars prove to be little trouble for the two of us – Inui charms them, then blasts them with her pink flames, and as the flames die down, I jump in to cut down any survivors. I actually get a vague impression that the fire isn't as effective as you'd expect, suggesting that the witch's element may be water, but even so, it's effective enough.

"There are so many familiars!" Inui groans. "Look at me!"

As she charms a second batch, I summon Teddy Mk II to smash them into the ground. The Teddy Drones appear as well, zapping the familiars with narrow laser beams. That's strange… since when have the drones been able to fire lasers? I haven't used Teddy Mk II that much in combat ever since I got my sword, but even so, I don't think I've seen the drones fire lasers before. Also, they seem to have grown in number – I can count five drones, instead of three. Actually, wait a second… they can't possibly be lasers, because that would be light magic, and my element is darkness. Some other kind of beam, then? A particle beam of some kind, maybe?

But I have no time to ponder the inexplicable power-up. I cut down a wave of familiars and make for the tree that opens into the witch's chamber. Inui follows me as I smash through the door at the tree's base, and we step inside.

However, to my surprise, there's not one but two magical girls fighting here. Kuroe is here as expected, but as in Tamura's vision, she's joined by Iroha as well. As we watch, Iroha fires off a volley of light arrows from her crossbow, while Kuroe flings exploding gymnastics clubs at the witch. Unfortunately, the attack has little effect, and Nikola retaliates by flinging explosive presents at the two of them. They hop back to watch the witch warily, the boxes bursting into flames where they'd been standing moments before. That's when Inui decides to make her move.

"Look at me!" she shouts. "You're mine!"

Kuroe and Iroha look at her in surprise, startled, and I dart past them while giving an explanation.

"She wasn't talking to you," I say. "That's her magic. I'll distract the witch while you build up a stronger attack!"

"R-right!" Iroha says.

I hop on Teddy Mk II's head and zoom up to land on top of the witch, stabbing her with my sword. Turning as I stab, I see that Iroha is building up light energy into her crossbow, while Kuroe has pulled out a ring of about seven or eight clubs.

«Ashley-nee, which one should I connect with?» Inui asks.

«Um…» I ponder the question for a second or two. «Try the one in pink. Or if you think you have it in you, you could always connect to both…»

«Got it!»

Inui inserts herself between the two of them.

"High-five for luck!" she says cheerily.

Startled, both girls look at her, but after a moment it seems they agree. As the three of them slap hands, I recognize the telltale flash of a connect skill activating. Kuroe's eyes go wide as her clubs catch fire, carrying a pink flame. Iroha is similarly astonished at the pink flames now wreathing her entire arm, crossbow and bolt included, though clearly it doesn't hurt her.

«As soon as the witch starts moving again, everyone attack together!» I call.

Barely three or four seconds after I finish saying that, the witch turns to face the trio and expels a single box from its top. I swat the box aside with my sword, however. Then they call out their ultimate attacks, or at least, two of them do.

"Strada Futuro!"

"Heart-throbbing Passionate Inferno!"

Kuroe doesn't seem to be the sort of girl to call her attacks, but she still flings those clubs at the witch. I leap backwards off the witch's head just in time as Inui's pillar of fire shoots up where I'd been standing moments before. Kuroe's clubs land a moment later, exploding on impact, and then Iroha's massive bolt of light slams down on the witch from above, the flames imbued in her magic merging with the flames of Inui's pillar and expanding it to about a thirty-percent-greater radius.

As the flames and light die down, I see a wall beyond the witch, which almost immediately breaks down into its component jigsaw pieces and vanishes – Kuroe's barrier magic. Like Komaki, her barriers take on a physical form, rather than being composed of energy. As Inui pulls the other two girls into a celebratory huddle despite their protests, I lean down to snatch up the grief seed. The labyrinth collapses around us, leaving us back in the mansion's courtyard.

"Thanks for the help!" Iroha says. "We were having a bit of trouble there… um, I'm Tamaki Iroha! Nice to meet you! And this is Kuroe-chan!"

Kuroe nods. "Kuroe Asaka," she says in that soft voice of hers.

"Nice to finally meet you, Saka-chi, Iro-iro!" Inui says enthusiastically. "I'm Itsumi Inui!"

I stave off Iroha's startled response by interjecting my own name.

"My name is Ashley Taylor," I say. "It's nice to meet you as well."

"W-what do you mean, finally?" Iroha asks. "Have you heard of us somehow? It's been less than a week since I made a contract though, and this is my first time ever coming to Mitakihara… ah, we're both from Takarazaki."

"There are magical girls who can see the future, you see," I say. "Or possible futures… one of them described the two of you, as well as that witch we just fought."

"Oh, wow," Iroha says. "That's amazing…"

"So what brings the two of you to town?" Inui asks.

"Well, Kuroe-chan had some errands to run," Iroha says. "And somehow I ended up being roped in… how did that happen, again?"

"Um… Miss Iroha… you just followed me without being asked," Kuroe says.

"Right, right, I was just chatting with Kuroe-chan and before I knew it we were on the train!" Iroha nods. "Something like that!"

"H-how do you not notice something like that?" Inui asks.

"That's exactly what I asked her," Kuroe says.

Inui nods. "I mean, you've gotta tap your card, walk through the barriers, go onto the platform, and step into the train car…"

"Oh, um… when I'm excited, sometimes I just don't pay attention to where I'm going," Iroha says. "I get lost easily too, for the same reason…"

"That's some pretty impressive spacing out then," Inui says.

"So, how's your little sister doing?" I ask.

Iroha blinks at me. "E-eh? W-was that in the vision too…?"

"Something like that," I say.

"Well… Ui-chan was released from the hospital just this morning," Iroha says. "That's why I was so excited… I wanted to introduce her to Kuroe-chan…"

"Right, you did mention that," Kuroe says.

"So she's not a magical girl?" I ask.

Iroha shakes her head. "I don't think she is…?"

"And you never had to save her from a witch?"

"No, never," Iroha says. "D-do you think she's in danger?"

"No more than anyone else," I say. "I'm sure she's fine."

If Ui is already out of the hospital, then the chance for her to contract is already gone. I wasn't expecting her to contract, mind you, but it can't hurt to check, right?

"So, um… Miss Taylor…" Iroha begins.

"Please call me Ashley," I say.

"Then, Miss Ashley," she corrects herself. "Have you been a magical girl long?"

"A few months," I say. "I think that's pretty long for a magical girl though."

"Well, it's certainly longer than me," Iroha says. "Actually, besides Kuroe-chan, you're the first magical girls I've met…"

"How did you meet Miss Kuroe?" I ask.

"Oh, it wasn't anything special," Iroha says. "I was just struggling with a witch, and she came up and finished it off without a word. And then she said she didn't want to make friends, but I suggested we should at least work together from time to time."

"I'm not very strong, so it's hard to turn down," Kuroe says. "I could only finish off that witch so easily because Miss Iroha had already whittled it down so much."

"I'm sure there must be more magical girls in Takarazaki," I say.

I can think of at least three off the top of my head, but I won't name them… besides, I don't know if they even are magical girls in this timeline on this day.

"Well, if there are, I haven't met them yet," Iroha says. "But there's still plenty of time, right? I only just became a magical girl, so I can't give up yet!"

"So, do the two of you have any spare grief seeds?" I ask. "I have some, so if you'd like this one, you can have it."

"Hmm… we all helped to take it down though," Iroha says. "Why don't we all share it?"

"Sure," I shrug. "Although I can't be sure if it's enough to clear four souls."

"That's fine," Iroha says. "If we all press our soul gems to it at the same time, then it'll draw up as much as it can from everyone, right?"

"Okay, let's try it."

I set the grief seed down on the ground and turn my soul into gem form, the others following my example. Then Inui starts a countdown.

"On three! One… two… three!"

We all reach out and press our soul gems against the grief seed, and it purifies them all at once. It turns out that it was enough for the four of us and probably still has another use remaining.

"I still have a grief seed," Iroha says. "What about you, Kuroe-chan?"

"I have one," Kuroe says. "But it's almost used up."

"I have more than one," I say.

"I… don't have one," Inui admits. "Last time, Ashley-nee shared hers with me."

"Well then, why don't you take it, Miss Itsumi?" Iroha says. "Just in case you need it when she's not around."

"Y-yeah, that's a good idea," Inui says.

She picks up the grief seed and stows it away. After that, we exchange contact info, say our goodbyes, and split up, the Takarazaki duo heading towards the train station while the two of us start searching for another witch.

When I get home, I notice an email notification on my computer… it's from Honoka.

"She doesn't seem like a bad person, but there's a magical girl matching your description in my new class. I'm going to be cautious, just in case!"

But I'm not sure what she's talking about, and I'm more interested in recording the new timing information I've heard from Iroha. By the time I'm finished inputting that data into the document, Honoka's message has slipped from my mind.

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.

Masuyo Mari (original)
益世真理

Age: 14 (at death)
Eye Colour: Purple
Hair Colour: Purple
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Yellow sunburst
Soul Gem: Yellow circular soul gem on her helmet
Element: Water
Weapon: Katana
Powers: Calculation, ice manipulation
Wish: "I want to improve my grades in school."

Speed: 10
Magical Stamina: 5
Offensive Power: 8
Defensive Power: 3
Initial Power Usability: 7
Learned Powers: 8

Manami Momoko
愛海百子

Age: 16 (at death)
Eye Colour: Red
Hair Colour: Pink
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Pink skull
Soul Gem: Silver oval gem on her belt buckle
Element: Fire
Weapon: Clockwork hammer
Powers: Regeneration, electricity
Wish: Unknown

Speed: 4
Magical Stamina: 10
Offensive Power: 10
Defensive Power: 3
Initial Power Usability: 8
Learned Powers: 1