I'm once more at my desk, and the time on my computer reads fourteen minutes past six in the morning. I spend a few minutes updating the document with all the new information I've gained from the previous timeline, and then I get the same feeling of dread as last time. This time, however, I know that the source is most likely Homura, so in addition to pulling my sword out when I spin around and transform, I whip out my ribbon, producing the same spiral pattern as the last time Homura attacked me. Since I'm transformed, I also hold my sword to my throat like a shield to protect my soul gem, pressing the flat of the blade right up against my chin.

But of course, it's too much to think that I could pull off the same trick twice, right? The ribbon is suddenly torn to shreds by a series of well-placed bullets that appear out of nowhere, several of which go on to strike the blade or my body. However, I block out the pain and stand firm, my eyes darting around for any sign that I might be able to use to predict her next angle of attack.

Then everything goes grey, and I feel something sting on my arm. I spin to seize hold of Homura's hand before she can pull away. There's something in her hand… wait… is that a syringe? Hold on… what did she just do…? Was that… poison? Or drugs?

"What happened to not killing, Miss Akemi?" I ask.

She's startled by my quick reaction times, but simply glares at me.

"I only promised not to kill," she says. "I didn't promise anything else. Even with that sword of yours in the way, I could've easily shot your soul gem, but I chose not to."

"That's your argument?" I ask. "What will it take to get you to stop these extreme tactics?"

"I can't have you getting in the way and throwing off the predictions," Homura says.

"What a short-sighted methodology…"

"So, I'm just going to get you out of the way for awhile. Once Walpurgisnacht is here, I'll leave a note in this house saying where to find you."

"You really are a pain to deal with, Akemi Homura… can't we just sit down and have a nice long chat? You've failed so many times already… don't you think it's time to try a new approach?"

"There's no need," Homura says. "I'm almost there… this'll probably be the last one. I can feel it."

I can feel my thoughts becoming a little fuzzy… maybe that was some sort of tranquilizer or something.

"Sure, you might be right, but that doesn't mean you're gonna be happy with the results," I say. "You already know why Madoka has such a high karmic destiny, don't you?"

"Yes…"

"Have you considered the possibility that the wish she makes might eventually put an end to your little escapades?"

"Th-there's no way…"

"There's plenty of ways," I retort. "The most obvious would be for her to wish you weren't a magical girl anymore… but it's far from the only one."

"That's not possible," Homura says flatly.

"A wish can bring someone back to life… it's hardly much of a stretch to think it could put your soul back in your body."

"Nevertheless, I will make sure it doesn't come to that," Homura says. "Madoka won't make a wish, not this time."

"You're awfully confident there…" I say. "Ugh… now I can't think straight… the hell did you give me?"

"That's none of your business," Homura retorts.

"It's in my body!" I retort. "It couldn't possibly be any more my business than that!"

The groggy feeling is starting to overwhelm me… what can I do? Perhaps I could knock Homura out, but there's no way to be sure I'd wake up before her. I can't call for help, not while time is stopped. Killing Homura is obviously not an option either. My eyes dart around, looking for anything in the room that might help, but there's nothing. Eventually my eyes fall on my phone, resting on the desk next to me. Right… as long as I have it with me, I should be able to contact someone later, once the drug wears off.

I look Homura in the eyes, returning her glare, and then carefully grab the phone with telekinesis. It seems that telekinetic contact is sufficient to draw the phone into the time stop, returning it to full colour. Homura shows no signs of noticing as I lift it a few millimetres off the desk and float it up behind me, tucking it down the back of my dress. Then I locate one of the longer fragments of my ribbon and slide it up my dress to tie the phone in place, slipping the ribbon under my armpit and around the phone. I use my clairvoyance to see what I'm doing… it takes longer than I expected, but finally I have my phone securely attached to my left arm, just behind the shoulder… and just in the nick of time, because that's when the drug finally overtakes me and I collapse into Homura's arms.

When I come to, I'm in a dark place, bound to a chair. There's something vaguely familiar about this situation, but I can't quite seem to place it. I seem to have powered down, likely when I lost consciousness, but I can still feel my phone bound to my arm. I can't move much, though – my legs are tied to the chair legs, and my hands are bound behind the chair's back. The bindings are strong enough to even resist my enhanced magical girl strength, and I make some failed attempts to break the chair I'm sitting on, so I suspect both the chair and bindings are enchanted. I can't see anything, either. It's pitch black in here.

"Hello?" I call out. "Anyone there?"

As I attempt to pull my hands free, I notice something is missing – my soul gem is not in ring form on my finger. I have no idea where it is, however. Obviously it has to be somewhere within a hundred metres, since I can still move, but that doesn't tell me much. It also makes me realize that I was overly naïve to think I could just contact someone later as long as I had my phone. Homura could've kept me unconscious by storing my soul gem far from my body, so I'm lucky she didn't decide to do that.

I decide to try scrying on Homura to see where she is and get some idea of what's going on. I find her in school, in the middle of classes. Scanning the classroom, I search for anything that might indicate today's date… looks like Friday the eighteenth, which means that Nagisa and Inui are still alive. I confirm this by scrying on them and finding them in their classrooms. However, when I try scrying on the quartet, I get nothing. Seems like they don't exist anymore… perhaps they ran into Itzli and were killed.

If I could just get free, I'd still have a chance to save Inui… but at the present rate, it's not looking likely. I could probably cut these bonds if I just had my sword, but I can't even pull it out without my soul gem… and it's also possible it got left behind at the Hayashi house or something, in which case even having my soul gem wouldn't help.

Since there was no response to my vocal cries, I try telepathy instead.

«Hello! Is anyone there?»

Still no response. I try calling for Kyuubey specifically.

«Kyuubey!»

"Ashley Taylor," Kyuubey says, stepping out of the darkness, visible only by its two glowing red eyes. "So this is where you were."

"I take it you don't know how I got here, then," I say.

"That is correct," Kyuubey says. "I do not monitor magical girls at all times. That would be a waste of resources."

"I guess I can't ask you to carry a message to anyone else, either," I say.

"Although I sometimes make exceptions, it is not my habit to act as a messenger," Kyuubey says.

"Figured… while you're here, is there any news you might be able to share with me?"

"Hmm… the only relevant information I can think of is the sudden appearance of a mysterious magical girl," Kyuubey says. "She is an anomaly… I do not recall making a contract with her. Perhaps she is the one who brought you here."

There's one bright side to that – it proves Kyuubey no longer remembers her.

"I see… well, I guess I'll just find some way to get out of this mess on my own."

"I wish you luck, Ashley Taylor."

"Liar," I mutter.

But Kyuubey has already disappeared. No doubt it's hoping that being captured like this will corrupt my soul gem and turn me into a witch, but of course I would never allow that to happen. I still have four grief seeds, after all. At least, I think I do… it's possible Homura took them from me. I check by reaching for where I normally store them and jostling them a bit… yes, I can feel them. They're still there.

Now that I've confirmed I'm not near anyone who can hear me, and that Homura is nowhere nearby, I carefully slip my phone free from my arm, pulling it up through the my collar and bringing it in front of my face. I press the button to wake it, but it asks for a passcode, which startles me a little since it has never done that before… oh right, it has a fingerprint scanner, so the passcode is probably an alternate way of authenticating without the fingerprint. Unfortunately, I don't know the passcode, even though I try to dive into my mind and get the answer from Ashley. It seems like she never memorized it and only wrote it down on a slip of paper somewhere for the rare occasions when she actually needed it. And somewhere in this case is back home in California, so while I could probably find it with my clairvoyance, I need to conserve my magic in this situation.

Therefore, I need to float the phone around the back of the chair so I can press my finger against it. After a bit of fiddling, it finally works, and the phone is unlocked. I bring it back around where I can see it properly, and check my messages. As in the last timeline, there's a message from Hijiri on the sixteenth, basically the exact same message I saw in the previous timeline.

"Ashley, are you okay? Please respond asap."

I pull up the email app and try to compose a response. The touch screen doesn't seem to respond to telepathic touches, so I resort to poking at the screen with my nose, which means it takes two or three times longer than usual to compose the message. In order to speed it up a little, I keep it terse.

"Alive. Kidnapped. Please help. Bring Shiina sisters. Beware of Akemi."

I stare at the message for several minutes, wondering if I've left out any important details, before finally hitting send. Then I set the phone to silent mode and slip it face down between my legs, onto the seat of the chair. I wait and wait and wait, but no response comes. Perhaps Hijiri is also in class… but I'm sure she'll see the message eventually. After awhile, I end up dozing off.

I'm woken not by a message on the phone, but by a smack to the face.

"Wake up!" Homura shouts.

I blink at her, but it's still pitch dark in here and I can't see a thing. I try scrying on Nagisa and Inui, but it seems they no longer exist either. Just for good measure, I check on Yu as well… she's also gone.

"The hell is wrong with you!?" I shout back. "Let me go already!"

"I'll let you go if you promise not to interfere," she says.

"I can't promise that," I retort. "Do you know how many people have already died in this timeline because of your stupid hard-headed approach? I can count at least six… well, seven if you count Yumeno Yusa, but she deserved it…"

"I have no idea who that is," Homura says.

"Why am I not surprised… so why are you even here?"

"I thought you might be interested in eating," Homura says.

"Now that you mention it, I feel like I'm starving… what day is it now?"

"It's Sunday," Homura says.

"So it's Sunday, huh," I say. "The day Oriko makes her wish, right?"

"…how do you know about that?"

"Why should I answer that?" I counter. "You're not exactly making me want to talk, you know."

Suddenly a light goes on, blinding me for a moment. For the first time, I get some idea of where I am. It's room without windows, of course, and there's a door at one side which seems to be the only civilized way in or out. My chair is in a corner opposite the door, and my soul gem rests on a table next to the door. It seems I'm still in my pyjamas, which makes sense; fortunately, the pants are baggy, so they still conceal the phone on the seat just as effectively as a skirt would, as long as I keep my knees pressed together. Besides the chair and table, and a bowl of something or other on the table, there's nothing else in the room.

Homura walks over to the table to grab the bowl and brings it over to me, scooping up a spoonful of what looks like soup. It smells pretty good, too.

"I can feed myself, thanks," I say.

I wrench the spoon from her grasp with my telekinesis and do exactly as I said. It's a little awkward at first, but I quickly get the hang of it. Homura watches, holding onto the bowl until it's empty, then gets up to leave. Just as she's about to turn the light off, she half turns to face me.

"Speaking of Oriko, do you have any idea why her behaviour seems to have changed this time?" she asks.

"Beats me," I say. "Since she can see the future, maybe it's a sign that you're about to finally succeed… of course, it could also be a sign that you're about to fail miserably. Why don't you ask her about it?"

"There's no point," Homura says. "Her behaviour may be different, but it doesn't seem like a threat."

With that, she flicks the light off. I try to track her with my clairvoyance to figure out where I am, but she's already out of the building before I can see her – she must have stopped time. I also try grabbing my soul gem with telekinesis and floating it over to me, but it seems it's been moved from where I saw it on the table earlier, and I'm unable to grasp it. It is interesting that contact with just my soul gem doesn't seem to be enough to draw me into the time stop, though. That probably means that my extra precaution in the fourth timeline to connect my body to her was necessary and that Hijiri connecting to her and holding onto my soul gem wouldn't've been enough.

Now that Homura is gone, I slip my phone out from between my legs and whip it around to unlock it using my fingerprint. It looks like the battery is quite a bit lower than the last time I checked, which makes sense since it seems I was apparently sleeping for more than a day. I guess being in confined darkness messes with my sense of when I need to get up, but it was still just under thirty percent before, so I didn't expect it to already be down to single digits… this could be my last chance to contact anyone.

I check my messages, and sure enough, there's one from Hijiri.

"Ashley! I thought you were a goner again this time around, although I did notice your phone was missing this time. Do you know where you are? If you could send your location from your phone, that would be a great help."

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do that. I try to get the answer from Ashley, but with no luck. I don't have much time, so I just start composing a message instead.

"Not sure how, but I'm being fed, so you could follow her if Remi can sync time stop. Battery almost dead BTW. No charger in sight. Sorry!"

This time, the response is swift.

"That was our plan B. Hang in there, we'll find you as quickly as we can! As for sending your location…"

The rest of the message contains detailed instructions on how to send location data via email on an Android phone. I follow the instructions as best I can, but just as I'm about to hit send, the screen suddenly blanks out. Dammit! It was so close…

Time passes like a whirlwind. Since I have nothing better to do, I keep tabs on everyone with my clairvoyance. From what I can tell, Oriko's behaviour seems to be about the same as the first few timelines, so I think she must've gotten a vision of Walpurgisnacht without Kriemhild Gretchen, like in the early timelines. That was before Homura was aware of her, so I guess from her perspective it would be seen as strange.

With the phone now dead, events are my only means of tracking the passage of time. When I see Homura defeating Izabel, I know the second week has begun. Kirika attacking Oriko heralds the next day. When I see Oriko and Komaki form an alliance, I know that week is near its end. It seems Homura's planning to feed me only once a week, so it's not long after that that she shows up again. When I see Mifuyu and Noriko turn into witches, I know that March is almost over… and still no word from Hijiri. I hope they make it in time.

Mami's fight against Patricia, and Kuroe and Iroha's battle against Nikola, together herald the beginning of April. A few days later, Mami is killed by Charlotte, and Sayaka becomes a magical girl the very next day, defeating the Box Witch and almost immediately running into a conflict with Kyouko. Sayaka's defeat of Elsa Maria indicates that April's almost half over already. I see Sayaka turn into a witch, and the next day, Kyouko sacrifices herself to defeat Oktavia von Seckendorff.

I'm not sure how long it's been since Kyouko's death, but it couldn't've been more than a day or two ago. I've already used up all four of my grief seeds, each during one of Homura's feeding sessions, leaving the spent ones with Homura for her to pass on to Kyuubey. I have no idea what the current state of my soul gem is, but I doubt it's good. However, a sudden surge of hope wells up in me as a familiar voice sounds in my head.

«Ashley! Can you hear me? Are you around here?»

It's Hijiri's voice.

«Kanna-chi! I can hear you! Thank goodness!»

«Finally! You have no idea how relieved I am to finally hear your voice!» Hijiri says. «I'll call the others over immediately. We'll be there as soon as we can… there's still a pretty large area to scan, so it might be a couple hours. Are you okay?»

I open a vision on her. She's standing on a roof somewhere in the city, fiddling with her phone – probably to call the others over, as she just mentioned.

«We're out of grief seeds,» I say. «Miss Akemi didn't take our stash, but being stuck in the dark like this hasn't been good for our soul gem, so we ended up using them all. I think we're still fine for now, though… we can't see our soul gem, mind you, so I could be wrong.»

«Don't worry,» Hijiri says. «Now that we know roughly what area she's keeping you in, we'll be able to find you. We can keep in contact until then.»

A few minutes later, she's joined not only by Remi and Moe but also by Yuuri, Airi, and even Kazumi.

«Whoa, you've brought a lot of people,» I say. «Even Kazumi's here? How'd she get pulled into this?»

«She found out by accident and offered to help,» Hijiri says. «I'm not sure if you've seen, but the Pleiades Saints are all dead, killed by Folklore of Zero. Other than Pernelle and Hilda, we're the only surviving magical girls in Asunaro.»

«We weren't even paying attention to Asunaro events this time around,» I say. «So you're saying Miss Fumiko died too?»

«Yeah…» Moe says. «Just yesterday… she saved my life when Miss Ulala attacked out of nowhere.»

«They first attacked in the middle of the Freezer liberation project,» Hijiri says. «Only a few girls managed to wake up… the rest of the soul gems were shattered in the initial attack.»

«And Hilda's in Asunaro too?» I ask.

«Yeah, she wanted to speak to you, but since we couldn't find you, I guess I was the next best option,» Hijiri says. «I was certainly surprised when she introduced herself… it's not like I knew much about her, but I'd at least heard her name before. I mostly just told her what I know about the time travel situation.»

«What about the Souju twins?»

«They popped in, saw the war going on, and skipped out for Mitakihara,» Hijiri says. «No idea what happened to them after that.»

I try scrying on them, but find nothing.

«Seems like they died… must've met their match here in Mitakihara,» I muse.

«Actually, we aren't in Mitakihara,» Hijiri says. «That's why it took us so long to find you… we scoured the entire city, but there was no sign of you. Almost got in a fight with Masuyo Mari and Kohaku Koharu, too, but they were pretty reasonable once they understood our purpose.»

«Eh? Where are we then?»

«Once we were sure you were nowhere in Mitakihara, we started searching Kazamino,» Hijiri says. «So that's where we are now.»

«Hey, isn't that Miss Akemi?» Remi says suddenly.

«Oh? Maybe she's going to visit Ashley!» Hijiri says. «Could you follow her for us, Remi?»

«Yeah… I'll do my best,» Remi says.

She abruptly disappears, as if she'd teleported.

«She's in civilian clothes at the moment,» Remi notes. «So she can't stop time like that… a disadvantage I don't share.»

«By the way, what's today's date?» I ask.

«It's the twenty-third,» Hijiri says. «So there's still a week to go until Walpurgisnacht shows up.»

«Just in time, huh…»

«You could say that,» Hijiri says.

The channel goes silent as Hijiri vocally directs everyone to spread out and search. They search with soul gems out, the same as if they were tracking a witch.

I can't follow everyone at once, so I shut off the vision and check up on something else I was curious about – the Hayashi house. Currently it seems only Mrs Hayashi is home, and there's no indication of how she may have dealt with the disappearance of her daughters, but what interests me most isn't anything she says, but rather what she may have done. I peek into the upstairs rooms and note that they seem to be largely undisturbed. Even my laptop looks untouched, which is good. Admittedly, I didn't learn anything new in this timeline, but I'll want to at least review everything before going back in time again. There's also the possibility I may learn something new in this final week.

«Miss Akemi has gone into a building,» Remi says suddenly. «It looks like a derelict office building… maybe that's where she's keeping Ashley?»

«I'll be right there,» Hijiri says. «Moe-chan, you come too… everyone else, keep searching for now, in case this is a false lead.»

A few minutes later, Remi contacts us again.

«She just left, but… I think she may have spotted me. Be careful!»

If that really was where I'm locked away, why did she stop by without checking in on me?

«I never saw her, not sure if that means anything though,» I say.

«She's gone,» Remi says. «Should we go in and check the place out?»

«Wait until Moe-chan and I get there,» Hijiri says. «Ashley… you specifically requested Moe-chan, so that's why I've asked her to come, but… could you explain why?»

«It's in case Homura defeats you,» I say. «Moe's healing powers can even restore a shattered soul gem.»

In fact, I've finally remembered why this situation was vaguely familiar – it reminds me of one of Tamura's visions, so having Moe along is primarily to avert what she saw.

«Right, I knew that, since she used that power on me,» Hijiri says. «I had a feeling it might be that, but I wasn't entirely sure.»

«Eh!? I did!?» Moe says.

«In another timeline,» Hijiri says.

«Um, just for the record, there's a time limit on that power,» Moe says. «I don't know the exact limit, but it's definitely less than a minute.»

«Hmm, then you should be with us,» Hijiri says. «I was thinking to have you wait outside, but with such a short time limit… it's probably better for you to accompany us, but keep yourself surrounded by barriers so that even if Miss Akemi attacks, at least you will survive.»

«Got it!» Moe says.

«I can see you now, Remi-chan,» Hijiri says. «Moe-chan, where are you?»

«I can see you, Kanna-chi,» Moe replies.

«Hmm… I can't see Miss Akemi anywhere,» Hijiri says. «Let's go inside.»

I open a vision on the three of them and watch them enter through a broken window on the second floor of the building.

«Is that the same way Miss Akemi got in?» I ask.

«Yeah,» Remi says.

The three of them explore the second floor, then the third, fourth, and fifth. It feels like it takes forever, but there's no sign of anything suspicious. It seems like the impression of it being an old office building is entirely accurate – several of the rooms are filled with cubicles for workers, and each floor also has a coffee room with a sink and sometimes a fridge. Some of the rooms are entirely empty, though. It's like some rooms were cleared out, while others were just abandoned.

Finally they enter a lounge on the sixth floor, and Remi lets out a gasp, pointing at a low table between two couches.

"There! Isn't that… a soul gem!?"

"It sure looks like one," Moe says. "But I have no idea whether it's hers… since we've never met…"

"It's the right shade of red," Hijiri says. "So I think we can assume it's hers."

As Hijiri picks up the soul gem, I feel the phantom touch of her hand.

«I can feel your touch,» I say. «You've definitely found us.»

«Now we've just gotta find your body,» Remi says.

They explore the sixth floor for another minute or so, opening every door, but there's no sign of me, so they head up another floor, to the seventh floor. Hijiri walks up to the first door next to the stairwell, and for the first time since I've been here, excluding when Homura showed up to feed me, I can see something. A sliver of light appears on the far side of the room as the door opens and the three of them step inside. Remi feels around on the wall and finds the light switch, and light floods the room, blinding me.

"Ashley!" Hijiri says. "Finally!"

"It took you long enough," I say, smiling.

"Let's get you out of there," Remi says. "Moe, you have a sword, so that's probably the best for cutting her bonds… remember to keep your barriers up too."

"R-right!"

Moe transforms and comes over to cut my bonds with her sword. Just as she cuts the last rope holding me in place, however, Remi's and Hijiri's rings are suddenly shattered by bullets that appear out of nowhere. Moe's barrier deflects a bullet, and I manage to save my own soul gem by dragging it upwards with my telekinesis at the last possible second.

«Moe-chan, quick, heal them! I'll find a way to deal with Miss Akemi!»

I sense rather than see Homura's sudden presence behind me, and as she presses a pistol to my head, I catch my soul gem in my hand and transform, spinning to pin her against the wall and pulling out my sword to hold it against her throat. Meanwhile, Moe runs forward to gather together the shards of Hijiri's and Remi's soul gems, carefully keeping the two colours separate – silver for Remi and green for Hijiri. She then grasps Remi's shards in one hand and Hijiri's in the other, using minuscule barriers to expand the holding capacity of each hand a little, and closes her eyes to focus.

"What did I say about killing, Miss Akemi?" I say coldly. "Didn't we agree you shouldn't do it?"

"I agreed not to kill you, and also Oriko," Homura says. "But it looks like that was a mistake. I never would have thought that you had allies from out of town. Not that it matters now."

"Did you think I'd forgive you for killing my friends?" I ask.

"Well, you were supposed to die too, so it wasn't a relevant consideration," Homura replies.

"I can't imagine the amount of pain you must have gone through to come to such a conclusion, Miss Akemi," I say. "I experienced the same month and a half only about six times, and every time was unique – it felt like progress. Well, except for this last one, for obvious reasons. But you… you experienced it hundreds of times, and it seems like you never made much progress, did you?"

Homura blinks. "Six times? But when I first met you… that was only the fourth time, and other than the last run, you couldn't possibly remember any others, so that would mean… that would mean… you were there when I made my contract to become a magical girl!?"

"I was," I say. "I too had people I wanted to save. I piggybacked on your wish and took advantage of your power."

"But how did you know?" Homura asks angrily. "If you knew I would make a contract… then why didn't you save Madoka before I could!?"

Behind me, there's a flash of light as Hijiri and Remi's soul gems are restored.

"I'm sorry, but it's not like I'm omnipotent or omniscient," I say. "I can't be everywhere at once. I don't know everything. I can only do what I can do, and in that first timeline…" I trail off. "No, in that first timeline, I suppose I did let Madoka die, so that I could save the people who were precious to me. It's terrible of me, isn't it? But even so, that choice may allow both of us to save who we want to save, don't you understand?"

Homura glares at me.

"So you're admitting you let Madoka die!?" she shouts. "I'll never forgive you for that!"

I sigh.

"Yeah… in the first timeline I let her die," I say. "In the next two timelines, I failed to reach you in time to help in the battle. In the fourth timeline, I lent her my Teddy Drone so she could protect herself from Oriko. And in the last timeline… I warned her about Kyuubey's machinations, stepped in twice to defuse hairy situations, and urged Oriko to make friends with her. I think I've more than made up for my misstep in the first timeline. But those four… the Hayashi sisters, Elise, and Claire… they all died in the first timeline, and in this one. Even if I could've saved Madoka in the first timeline, that wouldn't bring them back. They were the ones I wanted to save, and this time around, they died because of you. Will Madoka forgive you if she ever finds out?"

"Madoka… Madoka would… probably…" Homura says hesitantly.

I step back, releasing her, and Remi steps forward to take my hand. Homura blinks, only now realizing what has happened.

"Huh? You… how are you alive?" she asks. "I saw it, your soul gem was shattered… it shouldn't be possible to survive that…"

"Normally it wouldn't be," Remi says grimly. "But I happen to have a little sister who can repair a shattered soul gem, as long as she acts fast. We already predicted you would do that, Miss Akemi."

Homura blinks. Then she spins her shield, the world turns grey, and she draws and fires her gun… but Remi dodges, startling her.

"Huh? There's no ribbon connecting us this time… how can you move?" Homura asks.

"It's pretty simple," Remi says. "As long as I activate time stop at the same moment that you do, we'll share the same frozen moment. That's how I was able to follow you here in the first place."

"You… you can stop time too?"

"Surprised?" Remi says. "You didn't even consider the possibility that someone else would have the same power as you?"

"No…"

Homura's eyes dart back and forth as she considers her options.

"If I unfreeze right now…"

Remi smiles. "Then you leave yourself at my mercy, right? Because my moment will still be frozen, will it not?"

"I'm… not sure," Homura admits. "But it's not like you can time your time stop perfectly every time, right?"

"Actually, I think I probably can," Remi says. "At least, as long as I can see you."

I let out a sigh.

"Stop right there, Miss Akemi," I say. "I think Madoka would hate this side of you. Stop thinking of other people as obstacles to be eliminated, and let's sit down and have a long chat about why things may have consistently gone wrong in your attempts and what can be done differently to try and fix it."

"That's not necessary," Homura says. "It's gone well this time… I think this may be the one."

"How many times have you thought that before, only for Madoka to die or make a contract at the last second?" I ask. "You've been repeating over and over in the belief that you have an unlimited number of tries to figure out the one true path, but what if that's not the case?"

Homura frowns.

"You said the same thing before… but it's my wish. A magical girl's wish is inviolable, isn't it?"

"That's only if they have the karmic destiny to sustain it, or some such rubbish," I reply. "Like Liz Hawkwood, whose wish allowed her to retain some level of consciousness even after her body was destroyed, just so her wish could finally be fulfilled."

Homura blinks. "Who on earth is she?"

"Well, there's no way you'd recognize the name… after all, she's not in the history books," I say. "Do you have the karmic destiny to save Madoka no matter what? But even if you do, Madoka's karmic destiny far outweighs yours. I'm sure it could easily overrule your wish."

"What's the point of this conversation?" Homura asks. "One way or another, if I get through Walpurgisnacht without Madoka dying or contracting, I've won. I think I can do it this time."

"Alright, then how about this?" I say. "I promise not to do anything that would affect Madoka for the next week. In fact, perhaps I'll even leave town for a week. Let's see if things go the way you think they will. If not… if she dies, or decides to make a contract… then let's have a little chat, shall we? And no more killing."

"Fine," Homura says, flicking her hair. "There will be no need for that, so I may as well agree to your suggestion. Having you stay out of the way is in my best interest, anyway."

I step forward and hold out my hand. She stares at it for a moment, confused, then seems to realize my intention and grips it.

"Now, while we're still connected like this, let's both release our time stop," I say.

Homura's shield spins back into the rest position, and the colours return to the world, but the motion only returns a second later, as Remi releases her time stop.

"Go on, Miss Akemi," I say. "We'll see you at Walpurgisnacht, most likely."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Homura says.

With that, she stalks out of the room, leaving Moe and Hijiri to stare after her.

"Did you guys have a chat in time stop or something?" Hijiri asks.

"Yeah… you want to summarize, Remi?"

Remi nods, giving an overview of what we talked about. While she does that, I grab my phone from the chair. Hijiri and the Shiina sisters power down, and then Hijiri contacts the others as we head out of the building. We hop out through the second-floor window, and I spot Yuuri, Airi, and Kazumi on the street below. Yuuri immediately pulls me into a hug.

"Ashley!" Yuuri says. "I'm so glad you're safe! When Kanna-chi told me you were in trouble, I was so worried…"

As soon as Yuuri lets me go, Airi pulls me in as well. Then I turn to see Kazumi, who judging by the ring on her finger seems to have become a magical girl in this timeline too.

"Kazumi-chan… it's nice to meet you," I say.

Kazumi nods. "Nice to meet you as well, um… Ashley-chan."

"So, I hear things are pretty bad in Asunaro," I say.

"Yeah… these four magical girls suddenly showed up and just started killing everyone," Kazumi says. "They seem to think it's their duty to kill all magical girls, or something…"

"Yeah… they're that kind of nihilistic group," I sigh. "I suppose they were attracted to Asunaro because of Juubey…"

"Have you encountered them before?" Kazumi asks.

"No… what I know is little better than rumour," I say. "And it actually sounds like they're much worse in reality than they are in rumour. So… they're still there, right now?"

Certainly they didn't just go around killing people in the game, not like this. Their attitude was something along the lines of 'if things don't work out in Kamihama, we'll have to kill everyone', so for the most part they were just watching.

"Yeah… that's part of the reason we brought everyone for the search," Hijiri says. "Of course, having more people to search was one part, but not leaving anyone alone to be picked off by those guys was also a consideration."

"Their information gathering ability is incredible," Remi adds. "Within the first few days, they seemed to have a complete understanding of the relationships between those of us who survived."

"I seem to recall that Miss Asahi can communicate with the dead," I say. "Perhaps that's why?"

Remi blinks. "Yes… that could explain it… but how would you know that?"

"I'm not sure how Ashley knows, but Miss Asahi bragged about it to me in another timeline when she thought I was the only one left standing," Hijiri says. "So it's probably true."

"How did you manage to make it through that timeline?" I ask.

"I don't really understand why, but Pernelle saved me," Hijiri says. "The Folklore girls have attacked her in nearly every timeline they showed up in, but they could never lay a finger on her. One time she just stood there while they attacked her, not even bothering to deploy a barrier. Then she was like, 'Ah, this is boring!' and just teleported out of there."

"But you weren't actually the last one standing, right? You said Yuuri, Airi, and Remi never died."

"Yeah… that was a timeline where Kazumi-chan was killed, but Yuuri-chan, Airi-chan, and Miss Remi were safe in Pernelle's barrier. Anyway, I can never quite understand why she does what she does… this time she's letting us use her place as a shelter, but that didn't happen the last few times we encountered them, and I have no idea what made the difference."

"Alright, enough about how I died in another life," Kazumi says. "Now that we've rescued your friend, Kanna-chi, what are we going to do next?"

"Well, first I want to have a chat with Oriko," I say. "But after that… I have a whole week to get through before Walpurgisnacht comes, and there's no point in me going to school now after being missing for over a month, so I figure I may as well meet these Folklore of Zero."

"I can't really recommend it," Hijiri says. "But if that's what you want to do… then we'll come with you. The more of us there are, the less likely you are to die."

"By the way… I didn't check in on Hohzuki while we were locked away," I say. "Did you repeat what we did in the last loop, or did you just let things play out there without interference?"

"I thought about it, and at first I decided not to," Hijiri says. "But then I found out you were actually alive this time, and I started to ponder why you had even done that in the first place. You never properly explained your reasons to me… so I started to wonder if perhaps one of the girls involved had some knowledge or power that would be useful to us. Once I was on that train of thought, I couldn't justify ignoring the situation there, so I popped over and did what we'd discussed last time, though I'm sure it went a lot differently from when you did it. That girl's body is still stored in the Freezer – it's the only body left in there, since we disposed of all the ones whose soul gems were shattered."

"So you did it, but a day or two later than in the previous timeline," I say. "Well… I wouldn't expect that to make much of a difference… oh, did you actually talk to Matsuri and her friends?"

Hijiri shakes her head.

"Not much… I mean, I had no idea what you actually said last time," she says. "All I knew was that the girls were twins, so I searched the whole city until I found a lookalike… took me all day, but I finally found her. She was alone at the time, so I asked her if she knew a magical girl with an antimagic power since you'd mentioned that would be useful, and she took me right to Miss Shion's house, at which point I just handed her the soul gem. After explaining the bare minimum and suggesting that she and Miss Shion find a place where they wouldn't be heard, I walked off."

I scry on Matsuri and find her at home with Suzune. She does have two rings, so it seems the procedure was indeed successful. The two of them seem to be in an argument, but I can't really tell whether it's Kagari or Matsuri in control. Out of curiosity, I also try scrying on Haruka, Chisato, and Arisa. Chisato and Arisa are fine, in the middle of a witch hunt, but it seems Haruka did not survive… perhaps she turned into a witch or something. It's actually interesting that this would be the case, since in the first timeline I paid attention, Haruka didn't turn into a witch until the day after tomorrow.

"Okay… I'm honestly not sure if it was necessary to what I'm about to suggest, but… one of the magical girls in Hohzuki has met Himuro Lavi before, so I thought she might be able to give us some useful information. If you hadn't done that, I think she would've been less cooperative, so it probably helps… though we might've still managed to convince her even if you hadn't… I suppose we'll never know now. Anyway… who wants to meet the oracle?"

We gaze up at the mansion for a few minutes. After some discussion, we had agreed that no more than three people should speak with Oriko. Obviously I had to be one of the three, and after a few rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Remi and Kazumi won the remaining slots. The rest will wait in a café not far from her house.

"Well… let's go," I say.

I walk up and knock on the door, and after a moment, Kirika answers it.

"Huh? Who're you?" she asks.

"I'd like to speak with Miss Mikuni Oriko," I say.

"Hey, Oriko! We have guests!"

"Then what are you waiting for?" Oriko says from somewhere inside. "Invite them in, and prepare some tea!"

"Come in, come in!" Kirika says. "The living room is through there… I'll bring your tea along soon!"

Kirika shows us into the living room, where Oriko is already seated on the floor, sipping at her own cup of tea. She looks up at us as we enter.

"To what do I owe this visit?" Oriko asks. "I do not believe I have met any of you before…"

Though she says that, she doesn't seem all that surprised to see us.

"No… my name is Shiina Remi."

"And I'm Subaru Kazumi."

"I'm Ashley Taylor… you may not have met me, but I have met you before," I say.

Oriko raises eyebrows, but gestures to the cushions on the floor.

"Please, take a seat. It is a pleasure to meet you… I am Mikuni Oriko, and my friend preparing tea for you is Kure Kirika."

We take a seat, and I ask the question that's been on my mind for the past month.

"I'd like to know what you foresaw when you first became a magical girl," I say.

Oriko blinks. "How is it that you know of my power?" she asks. "I have not told anyone except Kirika… even my other teammates do not know."

"It may be hard to believe, but I've travelled back in time," I say. "I've met you several times before."

"I see," Oriko says. "Well, you are asking about my first vision, correct?"

I nod. "Yes… it could be important. Did you see a terrible witch?"

Oriko nods.

"I did indeed see a terrible witch, travelling in a typhoon that threatened to level the city," she says. "However, before it could get very far, a goddess in pink appeared and destroyed it with a thought."

"Oh no… that's even worse than I expected," I say.

Oriko blinks. "I do not understand… what about that is a problem?" she asks. "The city will be saved, after all…"

I shake my head. "It's true that the city will be saved, but it ruins my own goals," I say. "Furthermore, the birth of that goddess is the opening of a grand tragedy of cosmic proportions. This is just a guess, but I would suspect you're unable to predict anything that happens after the witch is destroyed by that goddess, right?"

Oriko blinks. "H-how did you know?" she asks. "I have tried a few times to probe further, but… all I can get is… something like static. To tell the truth, it did worry me a little…"

At that moment, Kirika pops in with tea for all of us, as well as a plate of cookies. Then she plops down on a cushion next to Oriko and starts munching on the cookies.

"Not being able to see the future seems like a pretty big red flag to me," Remi says.

"Yeah… does that mean the future doesn't exist beyond that point?" Kazumi asks.

"Right… as I said, that did worry me a little," Oriko says. "But given that a goddess appeared and the witch was destroyed… it seemed like there could be no bad ending to that, right?"

I nod. "I mean, yeah, objectively it's not a bad ending," I say. "It's just… I would call it a bittersweet ending, I suppose? It's not an ending that makes me happy, and nor would the girl in black who fights that witch be satisfied by it. Anyway, I also have an idea why your powers can't predict beyond that point. After destroying the witch, that goddess will rewrite all of history so that witches never even existed. There is a future beyond there, but it's not… how should I put this… it's not causally linked to the present time we live in, other than by the birth of that goddess. I think it's quite likely that it's just too much for your power to handle."

"Wait… if witches are erased, isn't that a good thing?" Kazumi says. "We wouldn't have to fight witches anymore…"

"Eradicating witches is a good thing, yes," I say. "But rewriting history to destroy all witches from the past, present, and future is quite a different story. If that happened, you would cease to exist, Kazumi-chan. Without witches, the Pleiades Saints' plans would never even be able to get started."

Kazumi blinks. "Ah! Y-you're right!"

"I question your statement that eradicating witches is a good thing though," Oriko says. "How would we purify our soul gems without grief seeds?"

"I won't go into details, but there's other ways to get grief seeds," I say. "But the main reason I'm against that goddess is because it's a waste… we can work together to eradicate witches with our own power, and ultimately bring about the same world that goddess would create. Wouldn't it be more satisfying to do it with our own power, rather than relying on a benevolent goddess?"

Oriko nods slowly. "I understand your point," she says. "But the only barrier to that is the witch. Even if the birth of the goddess does not satisfy you, I cannot say I am against it, but if there is an alternative that still saves the city, I am open to suggestions. If we do not allow the goddess to be born, then how will the witch be defeated?"

"Maybe I can help with that," Kazumi says. "My unique power as a magical girl is boosting… just by being near me, other magical girls get much stronger. Perhaps that will be enough to beat this witch."

"Hmm… even then, I'm sure it would require a large team to destroy her," Oriko says. "But… could you excuse me for a moment?"

"Sure." I say.

Oriko closes her eyes for a few moments, and I can sense the magical power welling up in her. She must be intentionally probing, trying to trigger a vision of the future. Then she opens her eyes.

"If it is just my team and Miss Subaru, then we cannot win," Oriko says. "Would you be able to join the fight, Miss Taylor? And Miss Shiina?"

I shake my head. "I can't," I say. "My battlefield is elsewhere. However… there are a few other magical girls I know who you could call upon."

Remi nods. "You can count on me and my little sister to join the battle," she says. "Moe-chan's a healer, and an extremely powerful one too. Then there's Miss Yuuri and Miss Airi."

I nod. "I'm sure Yuuri-chan and Airi-chan would be willing to help," I say. "They fought against that witch with me in another timeline, after all. Yuuri-chan is also a healer, so she should be a great help. By the way, as a random aside… what happened to Yuma-chan?"

Oriko blinks. "How did you know about her? She has gone to live with her grandparents…"

"Ah… okay then," I say. "It's just that I've seen her become a magical girl before, and she too was a healer… but if she's left the city with her grandparents, then she's probably lost most of her magical potential by now."

"I also didn't wish for her to become a magical girl," Oriko says. "She is so young… for such a young girl to be fighting witches did not seem like a good thing."

"You're not wrong there," I admit. "Even if she hadn't lost her magical potential now that she's living happily with her grandparents, I wouldn't want to ask her to contract if she hadn't done so already. That said… could you tell me anything about these grandparents? Regardless of whether or not she ends up becoming a magical girl in whatever ends up being the final timeline, I'd like to reunite her with her grandparents."

Oriko nods. "I do not know their exact address, but they live in Namida village, on the peninsula about an hour's drive west of the city."

"Thanks, that could be useful information," I say, nodding. "Anyway, besides these guys who come from out of town, there are at least two more local magical girls as well. To the north is Masuyo Mari, and Kohaku Koharu lives to the east. Perhaps you can convince them to join the battle too."

Oriko nods. "Allow me to consider the outcome with that team," she says.

She closes her eyes once more, summoning another vision. This one seems to be longer than the last, dragging on for seconds, almost a full minute. Finally, she opens her eyes.

"Well… that vision did not turn out well," she says. "However… we dealt an enormous amount of damage, and it seemed like it was a close battle. If we acted a little differently from in the vision, I think it is likely that we could win."

I nod. "In that case, I think it might be a good idea to have an additional trump card," I say.

"Do you have another magical girl in mind?" Oriko asks.

"Well… there are a couple more magical girls who I could call and ask to come by at short notice," I say. "Although… Riko-chan is pretty young too, so maybe I shouldn't ask for her help… but there's also something that could improve your chances even without increasing the number of participants."

"What, like a way for us to grow stronger?" Remi asks.

"Does something like that even exist?" Kazumi asks. "I mean… obviously there are ways to grow stronger, but we only have about a week, right?"

"There is one thing," I say. "Pernelle has a huge stash of grief seeds, right?"

"Yeah, she does," Kazumi says. "We asked her for some to liberate the Freezer… unfortunately they ended up wasted…"

"If you get one grief seed for every magical girl who plans to face Walpurgisnacht, and go to Kamihama to see the Coordinator, she can help you learn to connect," I say. "It's a way for two or more magical girls to share their power for a stronger attack. Some magical girls work it out on their own, but the Coordinator, Yakumo Mitama, can teach you the ability. I think it only takes about an hour per girl. Oh, but perhaps it would be good to space out your visits just a little across a few days, to avoid overwhelming her."

"That sounds pretty useful," Remi says. "If I'd known that was possible, I would've already tried it with Moe-chan…"

"That sounds like it could greatly improve our odds," Oriko says. "But how can we find this… Coordinator?"

"I don't know her address, unfortunately," I say. "But I can ask Karin-chan to meet you at the train station and guide you there."

"I infer that she is one of the additional magical girls you mentioned a minute ago," Oriko says.

I nod. "Yes… Misono Karin is her full name. There are quite a few magical girls in Kamihama, so you could even ask for additional reinforcements when you visit the Coordinator. I have no idea if anyone would actually come to help, since they don't know you or I, but… it can't hurt to try, right? And besides that, I know a girl in Hohzuki, Kanami Honoka, who also might be able to bring some friends. The rest of the magical girls I know are overseas, so I don't think they'd be able to come at such short notice. Oh, and there's also Miss Asako's little sister… I think she has magical potential, but I'm not sure if Kyuubey has noticed."

"You are referring to Asako Koito, correct?" Oriko says. "She already became a magical girl about two weeks ago and is now a member of my team, so my all my visions thus far today have assumed her presence."

"Ohh… I totally didn't expect that," I say. "Anyway… that's everyone I know of. I can give you Pernelle's contact info if you want to ask her for the grief seeds, or I could ask her myself since I'm heading there anyway."

"Alright," Oriko says. "Kirika, get your things. We shall pay this Miss Yakumo a visit immediately. You have several spare grief seeds still, do you not?"

Kirika nods. "Yeah, I think I have three of them," she says.

Oriko gets to her feet, and everyone else follows suit.

"I would like to thank you for bringing to my attention some of the downsides of the birth of that goddess," Oriko says. "I confess that I had not considered any of the things you mentioned. Thank you."

She bows.

"It's fine," I say. "Don't worry about it."

The five of us end up leaving the house together, and as we pass by the café, the others come out to meet us. After a brief round of introductions, a quick explanation of the Coordinator, and a round-robin of contact info exchanges, Oriko and Kirika split off to go their own way. Of course, my own phone is dead, so I'm left out of the exchange.

"So… now what?" I ask. "Do we leave town for now or…?"

"I already rented a place, so we may as well stay the night," Hijiri says. "Then we can head to Asunaro tomorrow morning."

"In that case… I'll return to the Hayashi house to retrieve my things," I say. "Do all of you already know where we'll be staying tonight?"

There's a round of nods, so I continue.

"In that case, could I ask Miss Remi to accompany me? Having time stop will be convenient for retrieving my things without being noticed."

"Why don't you want to be noticed?" Remi asks.

"Well… I think it would cause those two – the parents – even more pain," I say. "I mysteriously disappeared, and then their daughters also disappeared a few days later… they must be going through a lot right now. It would be another story if I could give them good news, but I can't."

"I see… alright, then I'll come with you," Remi says.

I lead the way to the Hayashi house, pondering my next move. I'll need to charge my phone before anything else, so I can send messages to Honoka and Karin… it'll probably take a few minutes to grab all my things, so I can charge it at least a little while I do that. While I'm figuring out what I need to grab, we arrive at the Hayashi house.

"Alright, we're there, Miss Remi," I say. "Could you stop time now?"

Remi nods, taking my hand. I'm a little bemused by the difference between her time stop and Homura's. Why isn't the world greyed out when Remi stops time? I can see time is stopped, because all sorts of little things that are normally in constant motion have just frozen in place, all the little background noises cut off producing an eerily dead silence, and I can even see people frozen in strange poses, in the middle of walking. But there doesn't seem to be any other indication that time is stopped.

Anyway, I lead Remi around to the back and slide open the window to my room. We hop inside, and I let go of Remi's hand. Time resumes as usual, and I plug my phone into the charger, then quickly start packing up the most important things – mostly my laptop and a few changes of clothes. I let Ashley choose the clothes for me. Once I'm ready, I grab my phone and charger and take Remi's hand again, and with time stopped, we leave via the window, and I slide it shut once more.

I check my phone. It seems to be at four percent battery already, which is actually a little impressive, so I unlock it and put it on low power mode before composing a message to Karin.

"Hi Karin-chan, it's been awhile… I was wondering if you could do a favour for me? I've told a couple friends about the Coordinator, and they decided to pay her a visit right away, but I don't know exactly how to direct them to her place. They're on the train to Kamihama right now, so I was wondering if you could meet them at the station and show them the way? Sorry if it's too much to ask… if you're busy, I can just tell them to ask the first magical girl they meet."

I leave the message as a draft while I check on Oriko and Kirika. They're just getting on the train, so I wait for it to start pulling out and then hit the send button. It's not much longer before we're all together in a hotel room, and after plugging in my phone again, I finally power down – since I didn't want to walk around in my pyjamas, I've been in magical girl form this whole time. The first thing I do is lay claim to the bath room, where I spend almost twenty minutes getting all cleaned up. Once I'm finally clean and dressed, I go back out into the main area to check my phone, where it seems Karin has responded to my message.

"That's pretty short notice, Ashley-chan! However, I was feeling a little bored anyway, so I'll do it! Not sure if I'll make it in time, but I'm on my way! However… which station exactly? There are several that you could get off at when coming from Mitakihara. If you don't respond, I'll just assume the biggest one…"

She also names the station in question, so I quickly get Oriko's contact info from Hijiri and send her a quick message letting her know that Karin will be waiting at that station, so she doesn't get off at the wrong one. Then I compose another email to Karin.

"In addition, I have another favour to ask of you. Could you come to Mitakihara on April 29th for an overnight stay? I'm looking for people to help defeat the witch Walpurgisnacht the following day. If you know anyone else who might be willing, feel free to bring them as well. That said, if you don't want to come, I wouldn't blame you – the chance of dying is pretty high, after all."

Then I compose a message to Honoka.

"Hello, Honoka-chan… would you be able to get me the contact information for Amano Suzune? I have a few questions I'd like to ask her about a magical girl she met before…"

Only once I've finished these messages do I look around and realize that not everyone is here. The Shiina sisters are laying on one bed and Hijiri is on another, but Yuuri, Airi, and Kazumi are nowhere to be seen.

"Where's everyone else?" I ask.

"Huh? In the other room, probably," Hijiri says. "There were a lot of us, so I got two hotel rooms."

I facepalm.

"Duh, I should've thought of that…"

"Although I think they said they were going to hunt some witches," Moe speaks up. "So they might not be in their room anymore."

"I assume they at least know to keep away from the city centre?" I ask.

"I did mention that, so probably," Hijiri says.

At that moment, my phone pings, and I check it to find a reply from Honoka.

"Here you are, Ashley-chan! Although, if it's a magical girl she knew, she'd be dead, right?"

Suzune's contact info is also included as an attachment, so I press it to save it to my contacts before composing a quick response to Honoka.

"I understand why you'd think that, but there are a few magical girls who Suzune tried and failed to kill, so no, in this case she's not dead. Thanks for the info! Make sure you tell her to check her messages as well… I don't want to be sent to spam or anything! Also, I have an additional favour to ask of you… could you come to Mitakihara on April 29th? The witch Walpurgisnacht will be coming the day after, and I'm looking for people to help fight it. It doesn't have to be just you, of course – you can ask the others at your school too. If you're prefer not to though, I'll understand – there's a pretty high chance of dying, after all."

Then I compose a message to Suzune.

"Hello, Amano Suzune. We've never met, but I know you used to live in Yukuni, where you faced a magical girl named Himuro Lavi. That girl is now attacking my friends in Asunaro, so I was wondering if you could tell me anything about her abilities."

By the time I've sent that message, a reply has come in from Karin.

"Of course I'll help you fight that witch! I'll ask Alina-sempai too, although she might refuse… and perhaps I'll also ask Momoko-sempai. What about Riko-chan, by the way? Are you asking her too?"

Oh? So Alina has become a magical girl in this timeline? Is this the first timeline where that happened, or is it actually a fixed event? I send a quick reply.

"I didn't want to drag Riko-chan into it… she's so much younger, after all. By the way… since when is Alina Grey a magical girl?"

Her response this time is swift.

"I'm not sure exactly… she was in the hospital for a few days starting from … I think it was Wednesday the 23rd? She actually jumped off a roof somewhere… I was so shocked that she'd do such a thing. When I visited her in the hospital on Friday, I noticed she had a ring. She healed up pretty quickly and was already back in school on Monday."

I check the calendar. April twenty-third is today, and it's a Saturday… but March twenty-third is a Wednesday, so that pins down the exact date of Alina's contract, since I know she made her contract at the same time as she jumped off the roof. It also restricts the period of time when Ui and her friends can make their contract – it must be in the window between that Wednesday and the following Monday. This also places a restriction on how early Iroha can be allowed to make a contract… since her wish is to cure Ui, it would destroy the timing if she makes it too early. I'm not quite sure how long they'd keep Ui in the hospital after her miraculous recovery, but if I assume no more than a week, then Iroha probably can't make her contract any earlier than… let's say March seventeenth. At least that does mean that pushing her contract back almost to the beginning of the time loop is plausible.

While I'm pondering that, a new message arrives. This time, it's from Suzune.

"Himuro Lavi is the most tricky magical girl I have ever faced. I was unable to ascertain the exact nature of her power, but usually whenever I thought I had landed a clean hit, it turned out she was no longer there. I believe it was not illusion; I suspect she is just that fast."

Well… I'm not sure how much that will help, but any amount of information is better than none. Then my phone pings again, from Honoka this time.

"I'll be there on the 29th! And Suzune-chan and the Hinata twins will come too! I'm not sure about the others… I'm going to ask them later."

The next morning, I wake up early to take out the wraiths on the hill behind Mitakihara Middle School, and then we all head to Asunaro together. As the train pulls into the station, I close my eyes for a second to see if there are any magical girls nearby, but it seems there aren't any. We pile off and make for Pernelle's place.

"Wait, why are we seeing Pernelle?" I ask.

"She's letting us hide out in her barrier," Hijiri explains. "Didn't I mention that earlier?"

"Did you?" I ask. "Maybe. I never thought she'd be the type to do charity like that, though."

"Yeah, honestly I'm not sure why she's doing it," Hijiri says. "But I'm grateful for it, because it's probably the only place those Folklore of Zero girls can't find us."

Hijiri doesn't knock on the door, but instead just pushes it open and steps into the living room, where the portal should be. However, it doesn't appear. Then she clasps her hands and recites a vaguely familiar incantation.

"en nomen igniferae magna quae lapidem philosophorum tenet, januam celatum pateface!"

"Wait, that… where did you learn that!?" I ask.

As I speak, Pernelle's portal flashes into existence in front of us.

"What? That's the key Pernelle taught me to get in," Hijiri says.

"Ah… I see. I learned it back in Paris… so it surprised me to hear it from you of all people."

"Huh? Really?"

We step into the portal, and I'm in for another surprise, because the interior is no longer a nondescript empty room. Instead, there's an actual living area with couches, a snack and drink bar, and even a television. Hilda is there, sitting in an armchair and reading a book. She glances up as we enter.

"Ah, you have returned," she says in English. "Welcome back… is that Ashley Taylor?"

"Huh? You spoke English?" I ask in the same language. "Last time we met, we communicated in German."

Her English does have a thick accent, though.

"Of course I know English," Hilda says. "But I do not like to speak it. Still, it was the only common language I had with Miss Hijiri, so there was no choice in this case."

"And yes, this is Ashley Taylor," Hijiri adds, in fluent English. "In other words, our rescue mission finally succeeded."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know English, Kanna-chi," I say. "It just somehow never crossed my mind that you would."

"Well, I did spend a lot of time in America when I was younger, after all," Hijiri says. "Or, well… the original me did."

"If you do not mind, may we switch to German?" Hilda asks. "I would wish to discuss with Ashley Taylor."

"Go ahead," Hijiri says. "I'm sure you'll only be talking about stuff we already know, anyway."

"Understood," Hilda says.

She inserts a leather bookmark into her book and sets it aside, then turns to face me. I take a seat on a couch facing her, and the others all find places to sit as well.

"It sounds like you already met me, but allow me to introduce myself nonetheless," Hilda says in German. "I am Hildegard von Bingen. If you've already met me, I surmise you know what brought me here."

"Yes… an intense sense of deja vu."

"Correct," Hilda says. "Fraulein Hijiri told me what she knew about the situation, but there were some things she wasn't quite sure of. Could I ask you to clarify?"

"There's a magical girl who's turning back time repeatedly with the goal of saving a close friend of hers from the cursed fate of magical girls," I explain. "I've been piggybacking on her time travel with the intent of saving all magical girls from that fate, as well as defeating Walpurgisnacht."

"So you want to defeat Walpurgis," Hilda says. "I do not believe even I could defeat that witch alone… most likely only Scheherazade could pull that off. However, if you have a team, then perhaps it can be done."

I nod. "My plan is to gather as many magical girls as I can. Better safe than sorry, after all."

She asks a few more small questions about the time travel situation, and I answer each one as best I can. Finally, she nods.

"Understood. Very well, I won't interfere with your plans."

So she's not going to offer her assistance? And that seems to go for Pernelle, too. These two ancient magical girls are ready to chat with me and help out in indirect ways, but I wonder why they won't volunteer to actually join the battle? I mean, I guess they might just dislike fighting… but it doesn't really matter. As long as she doesn't get in my way, that's enough for me.

"Thanks," I say.

At that moment, Pernelle appears in a corner in an array of magical diagrams.

"Oh, you're all back," she says in English. "Good morning, Ashley Taylor."

"You know English too!?" I ask.

"It would be hard to find a city-dweller in Europe who doesn't," Pernelle says.

Her English is certainly much better than her Japanese, and it's better than Hilda's English, though she does have an accent.

"And it only makes sense to choose the language that the majority understands," Pernelle adds. "Thus I'll speak English when I wish to include Hilda, or Japanese if it is something she can do without knowing, or already knows."

I look at the others. "So everyone here knows English?"

Yuuri blinks at me. "I… can understand… a little?"

Airi nods. "If she… speaks slowly… yes."

Remi nods too. "It is like they said."

Based on Kazumi's lack of reaction, I suspect she doesn't understand a word. That is a little surprising, because I know that Kazusa Michiru was studying abroad, although that doesn't necessarily mean English… but it also raises the possibility that Umika never returned her memories in this timeline.

It doesn't look like Moe understands either. It is a little strange that Remi seemed more fluent than Yuuri and Airi, since she's a few years younger if you ignore the eight-year gap in her life. Since they learn more about the language as they advance in grades, you'd normally expect the older girls to speak English better than the younger ones.

"So Pernelle, how are things going over here?" I ask, still in English.

"I just returned from a chat with the Folklore of Zero," Pernelle says. "They believe the universe itself is against them. It's not a very scientific viewpoint, but they don't seem to be swayed by rational arguments."

"When you say chat… do you mean like sitting down and having tea, or is it more like chatting while fighting?"

"Well, if you can call that fighting," Pernelle shrugs. "It did start with them attacking me, but by the end we were only talking."

"So, they've killed all the magical girls in town except those in this room, correct?"

"It would seem that way," Pernelle says. "They've made the south their base of operations, so you're less likely to encounter them in the northern reaches of the city. In this situation I normally would have expected Cube to contract more girls, but for some reason he's holding off on that. Perhaps he thinks it's a waste to contract someone who'd just be picked off by those four."

"Okay… so, I'd like to meet them myself," I say. "If possible, I'd like to hear their story."

"They weren't very forthcoming when I asked them about their past," Pernelle says. "But you're welcome to try. Just be careful of their magic. Especially Ulala. I still don't know what kind of power she has."

"Do you know the others' powers?"

Pernelle nods. "Somewhat. Lexy has a limited mental control type of power, not unlike your charm, and Asahi can summon facsimiles of deceased human spirits who can either fight for her or give her information. As for Lavi, I'm not quite sure, but it seems to be an enhancement type of magic, perhaps similar to Kazumi's boosting."

I should know what Ulala's power is, but somehow I just can't recall it. It was definitely revealed in a certain in-game event… but the details are escaping me for some reason. Hopefully it just won't matter…

"So, um… who'd like to accompany me to contact Folklore of Zero?" I ask, switching to Japanese so all the local girls can understand.

"Um, I think you should take me," Moe says. "With my barriers, there's not a lot they can do, as long as they don't ambush us… and I can bring you back if they do manage to kill you."

"Well, I don't want it to come to that, but sure… anyone else?"

"I'll go," Yuuri says. "But can we at least wait until tomorrow?"

"Isn't tomorrow a school day, though? Or is everyone skipping because it's too dangerous with those four running around?"

"Well yes, of course it's a school day," Yuuri says. "And no, I haven't been skipping. Airi-chan and I always go to school together, so it's not that dangerous."

"I've been going to school normally as well," Remi says. "And Moe-chan too. I walk her to and from her school just to be on the safe side."

"I've been skipping most days," Hijiri says. "I already have a bad reputation for that, so missing a few more days doesn't really make a difference. Wakana-chan brings me all the handouts and lets me know when there's a test, so I've even managed to get most of the work done despite being at home… and as for the material, I remember it all from other timelines where I did attend."

"If anyone, Kazumi's probably in the most danger going to school, right?" I say.

"I would be if I'd enrolled," Kazumi says. "I was going to enroll in Umika-chan's school, which is in the south of the city, but then Folklore of Zero showed up and it just never happened."

"Ah, so you're not going to school in this timeline, then…"

"Not yet," Kazumi says. "I'll probably choose Yuuri-chan's school instead once things calm down. That is, assuming I pass the entrance exams. Or there's also the possibility of attending Kanna-chi's school."

"Anyway, I meant we should contact them after school tomorrow," Yuuri says. "I don't have a shift tomorrow, so I'm free all evening."

"By the way… they probably know which school everyone goes to, right?" I ask. "And where you live and work?"

"Yeah, but there's not much we can do about that," Yuuri says. "Staying here instead of at home helps, at least, and they won't try anything in a public place, so it's not too dangerous at work or school."

"Okay… next order of business is these," I say.

I dump all the grief cubes I obtained this morning, about thirty of them, onto the low table in front of me. Pernelle blinks.

"Huh? Where did you get those?" she asks.

"There's a hill in Mitakihara with a barrier that keeps witches out," I say. "I fought the wraiths there and got these. There should be enough for about four each, I think."

"If you're going to split them amongst yourselves, you may as well add the one I possess into the pile as well," Pernelle says. "I no longer have any need for it."

She extracts it from a pocket somewhere and drops it in with the rest.

"So um… what are these?" Yuuri asks.

"I call them grief cubes," I say. "According to Kyuubey, they're a prototypical form of a grief seed. They do have the same purification effect as a grief seed, though it seems to be a little less potent than a regular grief seed."

Yuuri leans down to pick one up, examining it for a moment before pressing it against the soul gem on her ring. As expected, it draws out the impurities like a grief seed would.

"Huh… well, it certainly works," she says. "But isn't it strange that you could get your hands on some… prototypical grief seeds? What exactly are those… wraiths you mentioned?"

"Allow me to explain," Pernelle speaks up. "Humans leak excess emotional energy most of the time, which in densely-populated areas builds up faster than it can dissipate. Once it reaches a certain critical mass, it coalesces into the form of a monster very unlike a witch. By killing such monsters, you can obtain these… grief cubes."

"But that can't be the whole story," Kazumi says. "Otherwise all magical girls would be fighting those wraiths at least once in a while, right?"

"Of course," Pernelle says. "Witches feed on the same emotional energy that spawns what Ashley calls 'wraiths', and normally prevent it from reaching that critical mass."

"Well, the details don't really matter, do they?" Remi says. "If they can cleanse our soul gems, I'll gladly take some."

Everyone gathers up four grief cubes, and once everyone has taken their share, there are four more still on the table.

"Enough for one more person…" Moe notes.

"Yeah… I suppose I could give them to Oriko or Karin-chan," I say. "Or maybe Mitama would accept them as payment for her services…"

"I would prefer not to share the existence of these grief cubes with someone associated with Puella Care," Pernelle says.

"So we'll need grief seeds to pay her instead, right?" Hijiri says.

"That's right," I say. "She does accept other things as payment, but grief seeds are probably the easiest for us, assuming Pernelle and Hilda are willing to share."

"I have more than I can use, and there is no point in hoarding them," Pernelle says.

"What else does she accept?" Kazumi asks. "I mean… is there really anything more valuable than grief seeds to a magical girl?"

"I think there's something in Kamihama that she calls 'mirror coins'," I say. "They're actually physical artifacts taken from a certain unusual witch's labyrinth. I'm not sure what she would need them for, though."

"I've never heard of physical artifacts that can be removed from a labyrinth," Pernelle says. "Normally if you try to remove an object from a labyrinth, it will simply crumble to dust."

"Oh, really?" I say. "I didn't even know that… guess I just never thought of trying it… but anyway, at the moment I'm not even sure if they exist. Think of it as a rumour I heard, rather than anything definite."

I look around, but it seems like no-one is objecting that I take the extras, so I gather them up and stow away the eight grief cubes.

Moe and I head out the following afternoon to meet with Yuuri and Airi, and we head south towards the area that Folklore of Zero is occupying. All of us remain alert for signs of their presence, and Moe subtly wraps us in a barrier as we walk.

At first, it seems like they're not planning to show themselves. We stop for a snack at a random café, then continue wandering around.

"Ah! I felt something!" Moe says suddenly.

"That's… not them, though," Yuuri says. "It's a witch."

"Should we track it anyway?" I suggest. "We may just run into them there."

"Good point," Yuuri says. "Let's try it."

So we pull out our soul gems and start tracking the witch east. Eventually we reach the Asunaro Dome, but before we can go any further, the magical signature vanishes.

"Was it beaten?" I wonder. "That could mean they're close by… but I don't sense them…"

Suddenly, something pings off Moe's barrier – a bullet? I try to trace its path upward and spot someone on top of Asunaro Dome. She seems to immediately realize she's been seen though and hops down the other side, disappearing from sight.

"That was Asahi, right?" I say.

"Yeah… I think so," Moe says. "That's how she killed Fumiko-chan… the bullet hit her soul gem right after we came out of a labyrinth, and I didn't have a chance to gather up the shards because the others showed up right after… I was probably only able to survive because of my barriers."

We head around the Asunaro Dome, hoping to find them, but there's no-one there – Asahi has already disappeared. There aren't any passers-by back here, either. I pause to seek out a magical response again. This time I find one, and it's surprisingly close by, so I try transmitting telepathy.

«I know you're there… why are you hiding?»

That doesn't elicit a response, however. I use my clairvoyance to zoom towards where I'm sensing the presence from, and after a few seconds I spot her about a hundred yards away, a girl with orange hair dressed like a hunter in blue, aiming her rifle at us. It's Miura Asahi, just like I thought. But she already failed to penetrate our barrier… is she planning to try again? Why would she think it would be any more successful than the first try?

The answer comes as a cacophonous screech from behind us – not a sound produced by any human, but more like someone slammed all the keys of a piano down simultaneously. Well… it's a harp in this case, not a piano, but it's conceptually similar. Moe lets out a small gasp as the sonic blast strikes us.

"O-oh no! Th-that was… so powerful! The barrier's gone!"

"Everyone dodge!" I shout. "Restore the barrier asap! Add multiple layers!"

I take my own advice, throwing myself to the ground and rolling to the side, and I hear rather than see the others take my advice. At the same time, a gunshot is heard, and another, and finally a third swiftly followed by a shattering sound.

I pick myself up and take stock of the damage. Yuuri is down, her soul gem shattered, but Moe is already kneeling beside her to use her magic. I can see she also took my advice on the multiple layers of the barrier, although I can't tell how many layers she created. There must be at least five layers, and Airi has added her own fiery barriers around that.

As Moe works to revive Yuuri, that cacophonic screech comes again, but this time it fails to penetrate even the outermost of Moe's barriers. I suspect the different nature of Airi's barrier provides a dampening effect to the sonic attack, reducing it in power before it hits Moe's force barrier. But then it comes a third time, and the outermost barrier does shatter. They must have channeled even more power into it to overcome the dampening effect.

Yuuri suddenly wakes up, her soul gem restored, and lets out a gasp.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" she says. "I was just a smidgeon too slow…"

"I'm so glad you're safe, Yuuri-chan!" Airi says, hugging her.

"Alright, I'm going to try a desperate gambit," I say.

I transform, but then tear my soul gem from my choker and hand it to Yuuri.

"Please keep me safe inside the barriers. Moe-chan, Airi-chan, I'm counting on you to make sure those barriers don't fall!"

"G-got it!" Moe says.

I summon Teddy Mk II and hop on, zooming out from the barrier at an incredible speed, as if I'd floored the gas pedal in a car. No doubt the sudden burst of speed will startle Asahi. But I'm heading straight for her, so I'm basically a sitting duck. She manages to get three shots off before I reach her hiding place, and all of them strike true. However, my soul gem is safe in Yuuri's grasp, and I've shut off my pain receptors, so the wounds have no effect on me. Once she realizes my charge is unstoppable, she hops up and tries to flee, but it's too late. I swipe her feet from under her with my telekinesis, then seize her and pull her close, summoning my sword to press it against her throat as I veer Teddy around to venture back towards the others. Asahi tries to stab me with her bayonet, but of course that's no more effective than shooting me.

"If you thought we'd just sit there and die for you, you have another thing coming," I retort. "Honestly, I'd prefer just to have a chat though, so if you tell your friends to come out, I won't hurt you."

The silence stretches out as I hop off of Teddy and desummon him. Asahi struggles to get free, but I tighten my grip on her. After nearly a minute of this tense waiting, a blonde girl in a pink dress with a harp emerges from the bushes nearby. I frown slightly, because I'm pretty sure there's another presence in that direction… but maybe it'll be fine if she remains hidden? The newcomer is all smiles despite the tense situation.

"Good afternoon!" she says cheerfully. "I haven't seen you around here before…"

"Well, I'm just visiting for a little while," I say. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"My, my, aren't you impatient!" she says. "Hmm… well, I don't suppose it hurts for you to know my name!" She giggles a bit and bows. "Alexandra Cruise. But you can just call me Lexy."

"I'm Ashley Taylor. And what about you, sniper?"

"…I'm Asahi," the girl mutters.

"So… you going to explain why you tried to kill us?" I ask. "Heck, you did kill Yuuri-chan for a minute there."

"Well, I don't think you'd really understand," Alexandra says. "But I suppose I could try. You know, don't you ever feel sad that the world doesn't know about magical girls? Have you ever wondered how they've managed to stay secret for so long?"

"I'd say there's no point wondering when the answer's literally in front of your nose, but… I do wish the world knew about us," I say.

"I don't really care if they know," Yuuri says. "I don't need to be acknowledged."

"Well, it would be nice to get a little acknowledgement though," Airi says. "I mean, if everyone knew how much we suffer for their sakes, maybe we'd get a little respect?"

"Well, we tried it, you see," Alexandra says. "And I'm afraid it didn't work out. Everyone who supported us… died, in a huge accident, with no survivors. That was when we realized there had to be another force at work keeping magical girls secret. There's an absolute will that can't be reached. There's no salvation for magical girls – we're just food for the universe. So we decided it would be better if they just didn't exist."

"That's quite a leap in logic," Yuuri retorts. "Just because of one tragedy, you're going to give up and spread your despair to others? That's a pretty immature way of thinking."

"It wasn't just the one tragedy," Alexandra says. "That was just the last straw in a series of tragic events in our hometown. And we didn't come up with that absolute will ourselves. It was the theory that Professor Satomi proposed."

"Even so, that's only a hypothesis," I say. "You don't have any proof that it exists, and while I don't know Professor Satomi personally, I've heard of him and even read his published work regarding magical girls. I don't think he'd support what you're doing here, even if he does believe that theory."

"It's convenient that you bring up Professor Satomi's previous work," Alexandra says cheerfully. "After all, its sales were so bad that it could not be explained by market forces alone. Isn't that proof enough that there's something else at work there?"

"You're right that it suggests something is fishy," I agree. "But frankly it would be simpler if the incubators themselves, or the aliens controlling them, are what's keeping magical girls secret. Also, the work in question was about the hidden Tokime village, so someone from that village could've been responsible for the poor sales."

"…incubators?" Asahi blurts out. "What's that?"

"Ah? Were you not aware of Kyuubey's true name?" I ask. "Or I guess it's more of a title… it doesn't really have a name per se."

"Well, it doesn't matter," Alexandra says cheerfully. "The point is, that's why we have to kill you, so it would make things easier for all of us if you'd just give up and let it happen."

"You know that'll never happen," I retort. "I'm too attached to life to let someone like you steal it from me. I am interested in the details of those tragic events you mentioned though."

"There's no point in talking about our past," Asahi says bitterly. "There's no changing what happened. It was surely fate."

"I don't believe in fate," I say. "If anyone tells me something is my fate, then I'll smash that fate to pieces. And if you're going to threaten my friends…"

I reach up to poke Asahi's soul gem clipped to her hat, causing her to shudder.

"…I won't hesitate to crush you, too."

I shove Asahi aside and step back into the barrier, where both Yuuri and Moe immediately apply healing magic, closing up the wounds Asahi had inflicted. Yuuri also slots my soul gem back into my choker for me. Then I summon Teddy again, indicating that they should hop on, and we zoom up into the sky and make for Pernelle's place.

I'd hoped to learn the exact date of that tragic accident in their past, but for now I guess I'll have to make do with approximating it from the information I already have. Oh well.

The next day, Pernelle gathers us all together and teleports us directly to the Coordinator's shop in Kamihama. I'm surprised she even knows where it is… she heads in first, gesturing for everyone to follow, and Mitama looks up in surprise at the sudden crowd.

"Oh? What's going on?" she asks. "Is this some… special event or something?"

"You are the Puella Care clinician in this city, correct?" Pernelle asks.

Mitama blinks. "Puella Care…? Oh! It's been such a long time since I heard that name. Are you a friend of Livia-sensei!?"

Pernelle shakes her head. "Hardly. We are acquainted, but I despise that woman. Still, I cannot deny that her treatments are effective."

"Ah… so you're not on good terms with her, huh?" Mitama says. "That's too bad. Well, that aside, what can I do for you?"

"I'd like to ask you to perform your 'tune-up' procedure on a number of magical girls," Pernelle says. "There are seventeen in all, and I have seven of them here with me today. I'll bring the rest over the next two days."

Mitama nods. "That's going to be quite expensive, though," she says. "The normal cost is a grief seed per girl… do you even have seventeen grief seeds?"

Pernelle nods. "Of course," she says. "I would not come without the required payment."

Mitama blinks. "Huh? You really have seventeen grief seeds!?"

"That is correct," Pernelle says. "I will pay all seventeen up front, if you wish."

"And… if I'm not mistaken, you're also a magical girl," Mitama says. "Will you be getting a tune-up yourself?"

Pernelle shakes her head. "I do not need one."

Mitama surveys everyone who has crowded in and is standing by the entrance.

"Alright," Mitama says. "Let me see how many of you I can get through. Feel free to take a seat on the couches… and who'd like to go first?"

When no-one else volunteers, Kazumi steps forward.

"I'll try it!" she says. "I'm Subaru Kazumi, nice to meet you!"

"I'm Yakumo Mitama," Mitama says. "Please, come into the other room."

She leads Kazumi into the back room, and everyone else finds a place to sit, except for Pernelle who prefers to lean against the wall near the door. Each one takes over half an hour, so it will be quite a wait. After Kazumi is finished, Yuuri steps up, followed by Airi. Then Remi takes her turn, followed by Moe, Hijiri, and finally me.

Once I'm in the back room with Mitama, I bring up something else that's been on my mind lately. I've figured out ways to deal with all but one of the deranged magical girls I know of, but the last one… I don't even know if she's still a threat or if she was already dealt with long ago.

"Say, Miss Yakumo," I say. "In addition to the tune-up, do you think you could answer a few questions?"

"Well… this is a big windfall for me, so I suppose it can't hurt," Mitama says. "What was your question?"

"Have you ever heard of a magical girl who uses suggestion magic?"

Mitama blinks. "Actually… I know of two," she says. "From what Kanagi told me, it seems they were friends – Sena Mikoto and Sarasa Hanna."

"You say they were friends," I say. "What happened to them?"

"Well… before I go there… how much do you know about how the soul gem works?" she asks.

"Everything," I say. "Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but I at least know the two biggest secrets."

Mitama nods. "Then that makes this easier. Sena Mikoto turned into a witch about two years ago, and that witch has been holed up in the Mirror Mansion for the past year. As for Sarasa Hanna… she killed herself about one month ago, after two years of hiding in the shadows and using that power for her own entertainment, causing a lot of trouble."

"Huh… do you have an exact date for Miss Sarasa's death?" I ask.

Mitama shakes her head. "No, I'm sorry," she says. "I think it was about four… maybe five weeks ago? But I couldn't give you an exact date."

I nod. "That's fine… it's good enough," I say. "Thanks. Let's get this tune-up over with."

I hand over my soul gem and lay down on the bed.

"I can't believe you, Chelsea."

It's that space that looks like the interior of my soul gem, and the speaker seems to be Ashley herself. A brief examination of myself shows that I have my appearance from my original world.

"Some of the things you do are just so out there that even I, who have access to all the same memories, am totally shocked."

"Sometimes I surprise myself," I admit. "Like the case with Yuuki Mina."

"Well, we've already argued that one into the dust, so let's set that aside," Ashley says. "If I were to sum things up, I think sometimes you're… too careful? You could've gathered all these people the first time around, but you didn't. Well… I guess you wanted to be able to rely on Homura-chan's power, but… the second time around, then."

"Well… it's true I could've gathered them," I admit. "Maybe that would've been better… but I guess my priorities were a little different. I wanted to prevent all the other tragic deaths before Walpurgisnacht even arrived. Also, I didn't have Kanna-chi on my side yet in the second timeline."

"And yet… you're that careful about those things, but you're still getting a tune-up and exposing your memories to someone who's likely to betray you in the future," Ashley says.

"Actually, that's exactly why I decided to get a tune-up now," I say. "That future betrayal only matters if the timeline hasn't been reset. In case the next attempt turns out to be the last, I want to make sure I get this tune-up now, before time resets, so the Mitama of the next loop has no access to my memories. And if an abandoned timeline continues on without me, perhaps Mitama could make good use of my memories."

"Huh… so what looks like carelessness on the surface is actually just you being excessively cautious again," Ashley says. "I guess that makes sense. Still… surely you'll want to get a tune-up again in the successful timeline?"

"Yeah, that's a slight dilemma," I admit. "I don't trust Livia Medeiros either, although that's mostly because Pernelle seems to hate her, so I'm not sure if my distrust is truly warranted. I think both Sawa Sudachi and Sasame Yozuru can probably be trusted, but… both of them have mental issues, so I'm still a bit nervous about it."

I'm definitely a bit more comfortable with Sudachi than with Yozuru though. Yozuru has no empathy, which makes her uncomfortably similar to the Sleepwalking Spectre, though it does help that she's not a serial killer. Sudachi on the other hand has PTSD and a speech disorder, so she wouldn't be able to share anything she learned from me anyway… but that condition will probably be cured someday.

"The only other option would be Nisha Patel, huh?" Ashley says.

I shake my head.

"No, you're forgetting something else," I say. "There's a Coordinator in Tokyo, and another in Sapporo. Nisha told us about them, remember?"

"Oh right! I totally forgot about that!" Ashley gasps. "Still… it's not like you know their names or anything, right? And they might've moved to another city. Plus, Tokyo is a bit far, isn't it?"

"Yeah… you're right," I say. "But it's still an option. And it may be a bit far, but a day trip to Tokyo by train should still be barely possible. For Sapporo, maybe an overnight trip."

"Okay, but… we've kind of gotten off topic here," Ashley says.

"What was the topic, anyway?" I ask.

"Um… right," Ashley says. "Wait… what was it, again? I had something in mind but I can't remember…"

"Maybe it wasn't actually that important," I suggest.

"No… it was important," Ashley says. "I know it was…"

She trails off for a bit, pondering.

"Was it about something I did that shocked you?" I ask.

"Right, something that shocked me," Ashley says. "Ah! Your gambit in Asunaro earlier. No, that's not quite right… it was what you said at the end. For a moment I thought you were actually going to kill her."

"The thought certainly crossed my mind," I say. "But I definitely prefer not to kill if possible…"

"Yeah, that's what shocked me," she says. "I know all your thoughts, so I'm quite aware you contemplated it. That's not good, Chelsea… you can't give in to the temptation!"

"I did say I'd prefer not to," I repeat.

"Yeah… I understand," Ashley says. "But I'll be watching you, okay?"

Silence falls for what feels like a minute or two, and then Ashley speaks up again.

"You know, if this timeline keeps going after we turn back time, I wonder what Yuuri-chan and Airi-chan will do about those guys…"

"Yeah… I kinda wonder too," I say. "But it has nothing to do with us, really. And don't forget there's also a chance they die in the fight against Walpurgisnacht."

"They survived the last time they fought her, so I think that's unlikely."

I shrug. "Maybe. So anyway… why are we having a chat here at all? Normally during a tune-up I see some memories and perhaps a glimpse of those mysterious aliens."

"That's a good question," Ashley says. "But I'm as confused by it as you are."

"Is that so…"

Perhaps triggered by my observation, it's around that point that the soul gem interior setting starts to fade, replaced by flashes of memories. The flashes are less coherent than last time, jumbling fragments of my past and Ashley's together into a nonsensical mess. As a result, I don't really learn anything new about her past. I don't catch a glimpse of the strange aliens this time, either.

I wake up to Mitama's smiles.

"All done," she says. "You feeling better?"

I do feel… sort of lighter, somehow.

"Yeah… I think so," I agree.

I experimentally try opening two visions simultaneously – one on Homura and one on Matsuri. Neither are doing anything particularly interesting, but I think it's less blurry than the last time I tried that, though I could be imagining it. I shut off the visions almost immediately since there's no reason to watch them.

Mitama heads back into the main room, and I follow her. Pernelle produces a bag of grief seeds, and Mitama's eyes go wide as she counts them.

"This looks like the correct amount," she says. "Thank you for your business, miss…?"

"You may call me Pernelle."

"Thank you, Miss Pernelle," Mitama says. "May I ask the reason for all this, though? For so many to do it at once, it's like there's an urgency…"

"We intend to fight Walpurgisnacht in a few days," I say. "So there's no time."

"Ahhh… I heard about that from Karin-chan and Oriko-chan," Mitama says. "I believe the flute sisters said they'd be joining you, if you hadn't heard."

"No… I hadn't," I say. "Anyone else?"

Mitama shakes her head. "Not that I know of, at least not yet."

"Well, thanks for letting me know," I say.

"It was my pleasure."

With that, we head back outside, and Pernelle teleports us back to Asunaro. Just a few more days… then I'll confront Homura after she fails to defeat the witch.

The time of reckoning has come.

…or something. I've always wanted to say that.

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.

Alexandra Cruise (Lexy/Sasha)

Age: 17
Eye Colour: Pink
Hair Colour: Light Brown
Origins: Yukuni, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Orange V
Soul Gem: V-shaped gold gem on a pendant
Element: Forest
Weapon: Harp
Powers: Charm, sonic blasts
Wish: "I wish I could discard these feelings for sensei!"

Speed: 3
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 4
Defensive Power: 4
Initial Power Usability: 5
Learned Powers: 1

Miura Asahi
三浦旭

Age: 16
Eye Colour: Purple
Hair Colour: Orange
Origins: Yukuni, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Green rabbit head
Soul Gem: Orange cylindrical gem on her hat
Element: Darkness
Weapon: Rifle with bayonet
Powers: Summoning spirits of the dead, endurance
Wish: "I want my grandfather to stop interfering with my life."

Speed: 4
Magical Stamina: 6
Offensive Power: 6
Defensive Power: 7
Initial Power Usability: 5
Learned Powers: 1