Magia: A New Hope

by Pentalithia

A Madoka / Magia Record fan suddenly wakes up in the world of magical girls, as a side character. Features Ashley Taylor. Note: In case it's not obvious, you should expect massive spoilers here for nearly everything in the franchise.

90. The Last Magical Girl

Though physical evidence supporting my theory is sparse, the concept features in mythology across the world. For example, Judaeo-Christian mythology describes a 'serpent' who tempted a girl, usually named as either Eve or Lilith, to 'attain forbidden knowledge'. Norse mythology describes that Odin 'sacrificed his eye' to Yggdrasil in return for 'great wisdom'. ⁴

At first glance these two accounts might seem completely unrelated, yet upon examining depictions of the world tree across the world, some of them more closely resemble a serpent than a tree; furthermore, both clearly result in the contractee obtaining forbidden knowledge. Therefore, I believe that there is a historical event, or class of events, underlying these surprisingly similar stories.

⁴ See Appendix C for a compiled list of examples across the world.

~Excerpt from "A Study of the So-Called Cognitive Revolution"~
~by Kiriha Kosane, Psy.M~

---

On Friday, I decide to pay a visit to Takarazaki to see if I can track down the magical girl who Scheherazade told me about last time. She was supposed to live in the Cape Ward, the part of the city that extends almost all the way to the tip of the peninsula, which means I can hop on a train and ride right to the end of the line.

As usual, Inui joins me. We meet at the train station after school and ride the train around the bay, finally getting off at a station within sight of the waterfront.

"This is a pretty nice view," Inui observes. "So, there's someone we came to meet, right?"

"There is, but I have no idea who she is," I say. "So I think we'll have to just find a witch and hope we run into her. Ah, but that aside, there's also the chance of running into the Instructor and a few others… I'd prefer to avoid that."

"Was the Instructor from Takarazaki too?" Inui asks.

"Ah, you didn't know?" I say. "She's from Hikarizuka Ward. I'm not quite sure but I think she might be a shrine maiden…?"

"Ah, I never would've guessed," Inui says. "She doesn't seem like the type… have you ever heard of a shrine maiden that's so aggressive?"

"Well, there's always Rei, I guess," I muse.

"Who?" Inui says.

"Huh? Haven't you heard—"

I cut off my statement as a witch suddenly makes its presence known nearby. Inui gasps and grabs me by the arm.

"D-do you think that's… a newborn…?" she asks.

"It's possible," I say. "But it's also possible it hatched from an abandoned grief seed."

"A-anyway, let's go!" Inui says.

We head in the direction of the magical signature. Before long, we uncover the portal, an emblem bearing a pair of feet. I let out a small sigh of relief, for that's Lucy's emblem, meaning it's not the girl we came to meet.

"It's not a newborn," I say. "It must've been an abandoned grief seed… or maybe even a familiar who just matured."

"You're sure?" Inui says.

"Yes, I recognize this witch," I say. "It's a very old witch. It's been around for a few hundred years."

"Ah… I see," Inui says. "Oh right, now that you mention it, we saw this witch in Mitakihara a few days ago… and a couple of times in the previous timeline, too."

We step into the labyrinth and make our way through the tree-lined paths, fighting off brainy signposts and giant dragonflies. After a little while, we make it to the central chamber… at the same time as another girl.

It's not the girl Ashley predicted – she'd suggested we might be meeting the girl known as Kuro from Kuroe's backstory. I'd predicted that girl was Yaeko Mana's little sister, who has turned into a witch, but that was mere conjecture on my part, so I couldn't rule out that Ashley might be right. But this definitely isn't Kuro.

"Huh? Did she enter after us?" Inui says. "It didn't look like anyone was in here before…"

The girl stares at us. She has long green hair with a small navy cap perched atop it, reminding me of a ticket collector on a train, but with nocks that also make it look a bit like a crown. Her white shirt and miniskirt are framed by a white and black checkerboard pattern that makes the whole ensemble resemble a strip of film. Beyond the film lines, the skirt turns frilly at her sides. She wears pale lavender gloves and stockings and a pair of navy boots, and grips a pair of golden scissors. There are navy ribbons tied to her wrists and the standalone white collar on her neck, dangling down as she moves. She gazes at us in surprise with her purple eyes, a shade exactly matching that of the circular soul gem on her left hip.

There's something very familiar about this girl. I think I know her, but… but… who was she again?

We stare at each other for what must be at least a full minute. The one to finally break the silence is her.

"Well, you're not who I expected," she says. "I should've run into Coeurl here…"

I think I've heard that name somewhere too, but the source is eluding me.

"But who might you be?" the girl continues. "This is the first time I've seen you… wait, could it be? Are you the one who keeps on turning back time?"

"H-how'd you know about that!?" Inui gasps.

"I can't really explain it," the girl says. "It's just how my magic works."

Film theme… golden scissors… green hair… ah! I just remembered!

"I'm Ashley Taylor," I say. "This is Itsumi Inui, and… you're Aki Mabayu, aren't you?"

"You sound uncertain," the girl says. "Not what I'd expect from a time-traveller… but yes, that's my name."

"Did you meet this girl in another timeline, Ashley?" Inui asks.

She's not a character from the Magia Record game. She's not even a character from an existing work in the Madoka franchise. No, she comes from an unreleased work that exists only in the form of an announcement that it's coming 'soon'. It might even be cancelled for all I know. Therefore, I know literally nothing about her other than her name and appearance.

"This is the first time," Mabayu says. "Unless it was a timeline where I didn't contract."

"Eh?" Inui says. "How can you be so sure…?"

"I remember them all," Mabayu says. "All ninety-three of them, vividly. In truth, I'm more than a little pissed at you, turning back time as you please… or I was at first, but I lost all my energy for anger by around the sixtieth repeat. I suppose you have your reasons, anyway, and it gave me plenty of time to train."

"You remember every timeline clearly?" I say. "Not just in sporadic visions?"

"Yes, that's correct," Mabayu says.

"What do you remember?"

"I'd love to chat with you a little," Mabayu says. "But don't you think we should clobber Lucy first?"

"Ah, yes, I guess so," I say. "Wait, you know the witch's name?"

"I had plenty of time to decipher the runes, after all," Mabayu says. "Though I haven't worked out the full alphabet yet. Come on. It's not as though I need your help, but I might as well see what your magic's like."

So the three of us barge into the inner chamber and attack the witch… and defeat her in a single hit, somehow. I'm sure Mabayu used her magic to help, but I'm not sure what she did.

"I see," Mabayu says as the labyrinth collapses, grabbing the grief seed. "You're pretty strong, but I guess there's not much that can compare to my splice."

"Splice?" I say.

"So, you wanted to talk," Mabayu says, ignoring the question. "Let me see…"

She looks around for a moment, then heads towards the waterfront. We walk for a minute or two until she locates a bench looking over the bay. I think I can just barely make out Kazamino on the opposite shore… or am I imagining it?

"I expect she'll show up around here in a bit," she says. "What did you want talk about?"

"What do you remember about the other timelines?" I ask.

"Pretty much everything," Mabayu says.

"Then… what was a typical timeline like?" I ask.

"Not very eventful really," Mabayu says. "Make a contract, fight a few witches, meet Coeurl, fight with her or chat with her, and eventually turn into a witch. A few times, I survived long enough to witness Walpurgisnacht crossing the bay."

"Who is Coeurl?" Inui asks.

"Well, that's a really tough question," Mabayu says. "You'd be better off asking her yourself… she has quite a complicated story."

"You could at least give us a basic summary!" Inui protests.

"I guess you could call her a refugee," Mabayu says. "She's known only war all her life. She spoke of at least two different wars."

"Uhh… but is there anywhere that's been constantly at war for around the last fifteen years?" Inui wonders. "I can't think of anywhere…"

"What are you talking about?" Mabayu says. "Of course there's nowhere like that on Earth."

"T-then she's an alien!?" Inui gasps.

"I suppose," Mabayu says. "Maybe she is."

Ah. I finally remembered where I'd heard the name, Coeurl. It's from what is perhaps my least favourite official entry in the Madoka franchise, a short light novel called Null Magical Girl. I don't really remember any of the details – it was so bizarre that it never quite stuck in my memory. But there was certainly a magical girl named Coeurl who lived on a distant planet, and she was certainly involved in a war of some kind. Although, I'm pretty sure she was also from a distant future…

"Huh, so there are magical girls on other planets," Inui says. "Amazing."

"Would you be interested in helping me achieve my goals, Miss Aki?" I ask.

"Obviously that'll depend on what you're after," Mabayu says.

"I want to change the fate of magical girls," I say. "So we don't have to turn into witches one day."

"I see," Mabayu says. "That's a dangerous goal you have there…"

Inui blinks. "D-dangerous!? How is it dangerous?"

"Well, I've heard from Coeurl what can happen when that line of thinking is taken to an extreme," Mabayu says. "But how do you plan to achieve this?"

"A system that automatically purifies soul gems as they become tainted," I say.

"Oh… that sounds interesting," Mabayu says. "Well, I'll definitely stay long enough to at least see what you mean by that. Maybe I can help make sure you don't take a wrong turn, too. But I'm not sure if I'll actually help you."

"I guess that's fair," I say. "Let's exchange numbers, then."

As we pull out our phones and tap them together to exchange contact info, there's a sudden commotion nearby. A girl with short blonde hair is being chased by a middle-aged man in chef's clothes. The girl's clothes are pretty basic, just a T shirt and denim shorts, and they look rather worn and tattered. Her shoes don't seem to be in very good shape either.

"Stop, you little thief!" the man shouts.

"So it's that scenario this time," Mabayu groans. "This'll be a real pain in the butt if we're not careful…"

The girl careens around a corner and disappears from sight. Just as the pursuing man rounds the same corner, the girl reappears out of thin air right in front of us and flops down on the grass with a sigh, taking a bite of the chocolate eclair that she must've just stolen. Inui blinks.

"Ah… like Hono-chi's power…?" she says.

I haven't heard that nickname from her before, but given the context, I guess it must refer to Honoka. The girl on the ground rolls over at her voice and gazes at us for a moment, then gasps and leaps up.

"Magical girls!" she exclaims. "Finally! Maybe you can explain how this place works!"

"This isn't a good place to chat," Mabayu says. "You literally just made a scene for shoplifting."

"Shoplifting? What's that?"

"Let's head over there," Mabayu says. "Come on."

She gets up and leads us away from the water, entering what appears to be an abandoned building and climbing the stairs all the way to the roof.

"You really aren't from around here, are you…?" I say. "How did you normally get food where you come from?"

"Well, on Terminus it was just distributed by Governance," the girl says. "But on Wilussa I had to get it myself… not unlike just now…"

"What is this Governance…?"

"It's the council that runs everything, obviously," she says. "They're mostly AIs but there are a few actual people on it too, at least one representative from every race."

"They didn't have money on… Wilussa?" Inui says.

"Money? I think there was something like that, but most people didn't really have any," the girl replies. "I mean, other than the nobility… so hey, we should introduce ourselves! I'm Coeurl, a magical girl. How old are you guys?"

"Huh? You can't tell?" Inui says.

"I mean, magical girls don't usually age, right?" Coeurl says.

"T-that's the first I've heard of this," Inui says. "Is that true, Ashley?"

"Not really," I say. "But it's exactly not wrong either, I think? I think you could probably not age if you really wanted it."

"Wait, so that means you're all newbies?" Coeurl says. "You just contracted a few years ago or something?"

"Less than a year," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor, by the way, and I'm seventeen years old."

"Less than a year for me, too," Inui says. "I'm Itsumi Inui, thirteen years old. Nice to meet you!"

"For me it's technically only been a few days," Mabayu says. "I'm Aki Mabayu, sixteen years old."

"Could it be, you're actually an old lady, Culu-chan?" Inui says.

"W-well, you could say that," Coeurl says. "I don't know exactly how old I am in the local years though… about thrice the age of adulthood."

"So around sixty," Inui says. "Yet you still look no older than sixteen! Amazing!"

"Where'd you learn the language?" I ask.

"What?" Coeurl says. "I don't know what you're talking about. What does 'learning a language' mean? Don't you just download it into your language implant? I have all the major languages of Old Earth installed… since I was trying to dig up ancient stories to help the war effort."

"Ehhh, we're suddenly becoming sci-fi!?" Inui gasps.

"You can certainly tell she's not from this time period," I say.

"Oh right, I suppose you don't have language implants in this time period," Coeurl says. "Now that I think of it, the people of Wilussa seemed to have trouble understanding each other too sometimes…"

"Wait, back up a sec… how are ancient stories supposed to help with a war effort?" Inui asks.

"Stories are a powerful form of magic regulation," Coeurl explains. "But due to the war, humanity had lost almost all its stories, which I'm sure was a big part of why we were losing."

"Why not just make your own?" Inui asks.

"No-one knew how," Coeurl says. "The art of story-telling was long lost. I wouldn't even know where to start."

"So you came from some distant apocalyptic future," Inui says. "How'd you end up in this time period?"

"I'm not really sure," Coeurl says. "We were attacking a temporal railroad junction, and it exploded… I got caught in the explosion… and then I woke up on Wilussa."

"Where is Wilussa and how did you get from there to here?" I ask.

"Hmm, well, I can't really answer the first part of that," Coeurl says. "Actually, the people started asking me to interpret for them, and after awhile Discordia got mad and banished me here… so I don't even know how I can get back… there were a few fragmentary historical records of Old Earth on Terminus, but I don't remember reading anything about Wilussa. That said, the language spoken there was apparently a derivative of one of the major ones of Old Earth, because my language implant only took a few days to decode it and then I could understand them just fine…"

"Ah, so basically, you were sent here by someone else's magic?" I ask.

"That's it exactly!" Coeurl says. "She's an incredibly powerful magical girl. Called herself Discordia, and acted all high and mighty. The people even thought she was some kinda goddess, whatever that means. I was pretty surprised, but… why is she like that? It was like she was forcing everyone to go to war with each other just for her own amusement. Don't magical girls fight for the good of humanity? I just don't understand her…"

"Magical girls are much more selfish than that," I say. "Some of them fight for humanity, but most just fight for themselves."

"That's terrible," Coeurl says.

"Are there other magical girls on Wilussa?" Inui asks.

"Hmm… I never saw any magical girls in all my twenty-odd years there, or even an Incubator," Coeurl says. "But judging from rumours I heard, I think they do exist – magical girls other than Discordia."

"So… do you have anything you want to do?" I ask. "Any long-term goals?"

"Hmm, well, I was thinking it would be nice if I can take advantage of this to change the past, to avert the Magi Wars altogether," Coeurl says. "But the only problem is, I was thrown too far into the past. It'll be at least ten thousand years before there's a turning point where I could interfere… and I'll probably turn into a witch long before then. After all, the humanity of this era doesn't have grief extractors, right?"

"What's a grief extractor?" Inui asks.

"It's a device that extracts energy from a grief seed," Coeurl says. "It's a technology introduced to us by the Edalon, before they were wiped out. With this technology a single grief seed can be reused hundreds of times before it's eventually worn out."

"Whoa, that's amazing," Inui says. "I bet Kyuubey doesn't know about that, either…"

Coeurl tilts her head. "Hmm? Do you mean the Incubators? Why wouldn't they know?"

"That aside, what would you do if I told you there was a way to not become a witch?" I say. "It might not be the grief extractor you speak of, but it definitely comes close. Then you could easily live for another ten thousand years, don't you think?"

"That depends," Coeurl says. "Is it safe?"

"Well… I don't think it's safe," I admit. "But it's only a little bit dangerous?"

"Does it mean becoming something that's no longer human?" Coeurl asks. "No longer Homo sapiens…?"

"Well… no more so than we already have as magical girls," I say.

"Don't be absurd," Coeurl retorts. "Just extracting the soul from your body isn't enough to make you not human anymore."

"If that's how you feel, then the answer's 'no'," I say.

"Still, you say it's dangerous," Coeurl says. "What kind of dangers are there?"

"Hmm," I say. "You could lose the use of your legs… or fuse with your doppel… or become stuck inside your doppel…"

Mabayu blinks. "I thought you said it was only a little bit dangerous, but all of those seem pretty extreme!"

"I mean, they're worst-case scenarios," I say. "And it's not like there's no going back once that happens. If you get stuck in your doppel, someone would need to go inside the labyrinth to coax you back out. If you fused with your doppel… I'm not quite sure how but I'm pretty sure that's curable too. A Coordinator can probably undo it. As for the last case… well, I'm not sure if there's a treatment for that, but it's also the least bad, and you can cope. And as long as you're careful you won't run into any of those issues. All things considered, I think it's quite an improvement compared to turning into a witch."

"What's a Coordinator?" Coeurl asks.

"A magical girl who specialize in manipulating souls," I say.

"Eh… isn't that really, really dangerous?" Coeurl says. "Carelessly manipulating souls is said to be what kickstarted the Magi Wars in the first place…"

"Yes, I think so too," I say. "I'm pretty sure the powers of a Coordinator could be utterly horrifying in the wrong hands. Fortunately, all the ones I've met are broadly good people, so it's not too dangerous… and it can be useful, too."

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt to try out your doppel thing," Coeurl says. "My magic's already stabilized, so it's not too likely I'd turn into a witch, especially in a peaceful world like this… but the chance is never zero. I knew one magical girl who just suddenly turned into a witch one day without warning… but that said, if such an amazing system existed, why haven't I heard of it? I'm from the future, after all! Though I guess nearly all records older than the Unification Wars were lost when Old Earth was pulverized…"

"It's not like it's a sure thing," I say. "I mean, the system works, but there's no guarantee that it will be allowed to exist. The Incubators would prefer us to turn into witches, after all."

"Really?" Coeurl muses. "They seemed more chill about it in my time… even sharing tips on how to avoid becoming a witch. I almost missed them when their network was finally destroyed… that was probably the final nail in the coffin for the war. After all, the technology for extracting souls had been lost long before that… and even our best scientists were unable to learn anything useful from the Incubator corpses. That's why we had high hopes when another Incubator suddenly emerged from the past via the temporal railroad, but unfortunately they were unable to find anyone with sufficient magical potential…"

That's the second time she's mentioned a 'temporal railroad', and it kind of makes me a bit nervous. That suggests some kind of time-travelling infrastructure. Considering the apocalyptic future she comes from, it seems like that could be an existential threat to humanity. I hope I'm just overthinking it…

"If they were 'chill' about it, then I suppose that means either that they'd already reached their energy quota, or there was something else they considered higher priority," I say. "After all, they are logical to a fault."

"Alright, so tell me," Coeurl says. "What's the secret?"

"Well, there are three girls who will make a contract pretty soon," I say. "They're the ones who can pull it off. I plan to pay them a visit around the beginning of April, and you're both welcome to accompany me if you wish. I can demonstrate it for you then as well."

"Hmm… I'll think about it," Mabayu says.

"Can't hurt to take a peek, I guess," Coeurl says. "Count me in."

"In that case, I'll contact you when the time comes," I say. "Oh, but I guess you don't have a smartphone, huh?"

Coeurl tilts her head. "A what now?"

"You can stay with me," Mabayu says. "Then they can contact you through me. How does that sound?"

"Oh, thank you very much!" Coeurl exclaims.

"That sounds good to me too," I agree.

With that, we say our goodbyes and head back to Mitakihara. It was quite an encounter, though – not only did we meet that mysterious character, Aki Mabayu, but also a strange magical girl from the future who has also been to another planet in this time period. I would have liked to chat with her more – several of the her offhand references were intriguing enough that I could've probably kept going for hours – but I don't want to lose focus on the primary goal of escaping the time loop without casualties and with an automatic purification system.

"That was really interesting!" Inui says. "Culu-chan and Mabba-kun seem like really interesting people."

"You've got that right," I say.

On Saturday, we pay a visit to Tamura, but while she does have a few visions to share, they are all ones that I've heard previously. Then, since I have some spare time, I decide to take a little break from using my power and do some research online. For awhile now, there's been something sort of bugging me about the way that this world differs from the one I come from on the surface. It's probably not important to my goals, but it piques my curiosity, and it's at least less of a distraction than Coeurl's future knowledge.

The thing is, there appears to be no trace of the Madoka franchise in this world. The anime, the manga, the novels, none of those exist. However, there is one exception – all of the theme songs do exist. They have the same titles, the same composers, the same tunes, and as far as I can tell, even the same lyrics. Perhaps there are some small differences in the lyrics – I didn't have those memorized down to the last detail, especially not in the source Japanese. But the background tracks don't exist. I manage to remember the name of the composer, and while she exists and has done a number of anime soundtracks in this world, I can't find any reference to a single track from Madoka.

Further poking around on the Internet reveals that, while most anime and manga I've familiar with do exist in this world, there are a couple more besides Madoka that are missing. One of those is Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and the associated franchise. Another is Bakemonogatari and its sequels.

But as with the Madoka franchise, it's not as though there are no traces at all of the Nanoha franchise. I watched it because the characters seemed interesting when they appeared in a crossover event in the Magia Record game, so I'm reasonably familiar with the series. I'm able to find one of the insert songs that I particularly liked, titled Snow Rain, so I surmise it's likely the other theme songs also exist. I also discover a reference to a character with the same name, Takamachi Nanoha, in a crappy dating game called Triangle Heart 3. A closer look reveals that it's not just her – her entire family has the same names, and I also spot the name of her best friend's older sister and her maid, who were very minor characters in the series but are apparently major characters in Triangle Heart 3. Did this game exist in my original universe? I'm actually not sure…

I'm less familiar with the Monogatari franchise, as the first episode or two of the anime bored me to tears and I stopped watching. So, I'm unable to verify if any of its theme songs exist in this world. I do somehow manage to recall the name of its author though, and I'm unable to find any trace of him on the Internet. Exactly what that means, I can't say. I suppose it's totally possible that he exists but just chose a different pen name – I don't know any of his other works, so I can't search for them. I do know by now that the crossover characters between Magia Record and Monogatari probably exist in this world, though. I mean, I've even met one of them personally after all.

But while I'm poking around regarding Madoka, Nanoha, and Monogatari, I stumble by chance into something even more bizarre. Based on what I'd discovered so far, it had seemed reasonable to conclude that the rule was for anything associated with Magia Record to be erased from this world. But then I spot a vaguely familiar title in my browsing.

Divine Gate.

In my original world, it was a mobile gacha game similar to Magia Record. I don't actually know much about it. I heard that it did a crossover with the Madoka Franchise though, which even introduced a new magical girl derived from one of its own original characters who was apparently pretty popular. I also remember hearing that there was an anime adaptation that was universally hated. So I'm surprised when I stumble upon several glowing reviews of the Divine Gate anime, eventually leading me to the game's wiki, which hasn't been edited for twenty years, since the game apparently shut down. The wiki has some articles about the anime too, and from there I find that it was directed by a very familiar figure: the very same man who directed the Madoka anime in my world. The name of the Madoka soundtrack's composer also jumps out at me on the credits.

It's like this crappy gacha game has expanded to fill the gap left by Madoka in this world? I wonder what, if anything, might have expanded to fill the gaps left by Monogatari and Nanoha… but I don't know enough about them to speculate, unfortunately. Well, this was no more than a curiosity to begin with, so it doesn't really matter.

On Monday, as I'm leaving the school with Elise and Komachi, I see Claire waiting for us. There's someone else with her, a student with short brown hair and glasses. Her bangs are so long that they almost completely cover her eyes. But the more surprising thing is the ring she wears on her finger.

"I'd like to introduce you," Claire says. "This is Takara Shiori. Apparently she… you know… at lunch on the rooftop. So I figured, we should get to know each other."

"U-u-um, p-p-pleased… to m-meet you…" Shiori stammers.

To think that just asking Claire to keep an eye on her was sufficient… that makes things simpler. Now we should be able to save her without any issues.

"I'm Ashley Taylor, the exchange student," I say.

"Call me Elise."

"I'm Hayashi Komachi."

"There are two others in our group as well," Claire says. "But they go to a different school… so why don't we go meet them too?"

"R-right… s-sure," Shiori says. "A-ah, b-b-but… I do need to… get home and, um… c-cook…"

"Don't worry," Komachi says. "We'll make sure you get home at a reasonable hour."

"Wait, you do the cooking?" Claire says. "Amazing…"

"I-it's not… like that," Shiori mutters. "It's… self-defence…"

"Self-defence?" I say. "Are your parents terrible cooks?"

"N-no, um… Dad's cooking… is delicious," Shiori says. "He… makes my lunches… b-but… he's never home for dinner… and Mom… hates cooking… and is terrible at it too… s-so, I have to cook… for both of us…"

As we're talking, Claire leads us to a nearby park. We've only been waiting there a few minutes when Hiyori and Inui show up.

"So this is the new magical girl around!" Inui gasps. "What's your name? I'm Itsumi Inui, pleased to meet you!"

Shiori just gapes at her, apparently too taken aback to speak. I guess she doesn't mesh well with Inui's energetic personality.

"Don't worry, that's just how she is," Hiyori says with a smile. "She's really nice once you get to know her. I'm Hayashi Hiyori, by the way."

"Ah, um… T-takara Shiori…"

"So, as long as we're all together, why don't we fight a witch?" Elise says. "I spotted an unusually strong one lurking near the waste processing facility."

"Uhh… where exactly is that…?" I ask.

"It's to the west, right on the very edge of the city's formal borders," Elise says. "I think the borders were actually defined specifically so it was included."

"What were you doing all the way out there?" I ask.

"Mom decided to do some spring cleaning, so we had over twenty boxes of old magazines and pamphlets to dispose of," Elise says. "And that's just the start…"

"I'm more surprised she let it build up that much," Claire says.

"Well, it wasn't entirely her fault," Elise says. "Dad keeps leaving things in strange places."

"Well, it sounds good to me," I say. "Is it okay with you, Miss Takara?"

"Um… isn't that… pretty far?" she asks. "And… the trains don't even stop near there…"

"Well, I think it would take about an hour to walk there," Elise muses. "But it's not like we can just let that witch go… I would've killed it myself when I was there with my parents, but it was just too strong for me to fight alone."

"I… I think… an hour… might be too much," Shiori says.

"How long does it take by car?" I ask.

"About ten or fifteen minutes?" Elise says.

"Then I think we should be able to get there in ten to fifteen minutes," I say. "There are how many of us…?"

I start counting. The quartet, me, Inui, and Shiori… so that makes seven.

"Seven," Elise says.

"I guess this is pushing it a little," I say. "I guess I could fit four on Teddy Mk II, but… can you carry three people, Claire-chan?"

"What? No way!" Claire says. "If you're asking me to carry someone, one… maybe two's the limit."

"Well then, I could take two trips," I suggest. "If I ferry over three people, then come back for the other three, I think that should work? Teddy Mk II is probably faster than a car, anyway."

"Alright, it's settled then," Elise says. "Is that okay with you though, Miss Takara?"

"U-um… if it's fast… then… I guess it's fine," Shiori says.

"Okay, who wants to take the first shift?" Elise asks.

"I'll do it!" Inui says.

"I'll go," Claire says.

There's a pause, during which Shiori suddenly pipes up.

"Ah! I… I guess it's… m-me…"

"That works," Elise says. "Let's get going!"

So I transform and summon Teddy Mk II, hopping onto its head alongside Inui. At my urging, Claire and Shiori each perch on one of the arms, the latter clinging to me for dear life.

"I suggest closing your eyes, Miss Takara," I say.

"O-okay…"

I whip out my phone to figure out where I'm going, then take off. As expected, it's even faster than Elise's estimate – it only takes about five minutes to get there. After leaving the three of them in front of the waste processing facility, I return to fetch the other three. Ten minutes later, we're all together again, gazing up at the facility.

"S-so um… w-where is it?" Shiori asks.

"Well, we've gotta track it," Elise says. "Look for traces of its magic, and follow its trail. I can sense it though… I think it's still around here somewhere."

We spend quite some time wandering through the rural streets of the Western Mitakihara outskirts, but eventually we manage to find the witch. To my surprise, it's actually one I've encountered before, with the quartet – Quitterie.

"Oh, I remember this one," Claire says. "Didn't you help us kill it awhile ago, Ashley-chan?"

"I did, but… seeing this one now, I bet that was just a familiar that matured," I say. "While this is likely the original witch… though I'm only guessing. Well… one way or another, we need to defeat her, right?'

"R-right…" Shiori says.

Everyone transforms. Shiori's outfit is an all-black sailor uniform with a long skirt and a red tie. There are of course some extra frills on the base concept of the school uniform – a frilly slip of some sort protruding from under her shirt, a belt of fake black roses, and puffy sleeves. She also wears rollerblades and has a black rose worked into her hair. Her soul gem is a yellow sphere at the centre of her tie. Her weapon appears to be something like a giant ruler, which identifies her as one of the potential magical girls that Oriko foresaw.

"W-whoa, u-um… I look like… a delinquent," Shiori says.

More than that, she bears a striking resemblance to Patricia. It's odd for a magical girl and a witch to be so similar, though I can't really quantify how unusual it is. Anyway, there's no point in commenting on that. We step into the labyrinth and start taking out the incubator-shaped familiars. Shiori is initially startled by their resemblance to Kyuubey, but quickly realizes it's just superficial. Her power appears to be webs, making it similar to Chiyo's magic. She can also manipulate wind, but it doesn't seem to be strong enough to use as an attack. I guess it would be useful to disperse gas attacks, if there are witches who use such things. Once we reach the witch, with almost twice as many people as last time, she doesn't stand a chance even though she's stronger than the previous instance we fought. It does take a few minutes to defeat her, but at no point does it feel like we're in danger of losing.

"T-that was… actually… a little bit fun," Shiori says, gasping for breath.

Elise gives her the grief seed.

"Here… your first grief seed," she says. "Use it to purify your soul gem. It's pretty darkened, isn't it?"

It does look like Shiori's soul gem is in pretty bad shape. I'd say it's about seventy percent darkened, while everyone else's is closer to forty percent… mine might even be a bit less than that. Shiori gratefully accepts the seed and presses it against the gem, drawing out all the grief.

"Alright, what do you say we walk back?" Elise says, looking at the rest of the quartet. "We might even run into another witch along the way."

"B-but that's…!" Shiori protests.

"Not you," Elise says. "I mean the four of us. You're welcome to join us if you want, but you're also welcome to go back with Ashley-chan and Inui-chan."

"Ah…"

"Yeah, I was definitely planning to take Teddy back," I say. "You coming, Inui? Miss Takara?"

"Of course!" Inui says.

"Y-yeah," Shiori says.

So I summon Teddy Mk II again, and the three of us hop on. Once again, I tell Shiori to close her eyes before taking off, and about five minutes later we land in the same park we started from. All of us power down.

"How about we walk you home now, Miss Takara?" I suggest.

"Eh… w-well… I guess… t-that's fine," Shiori says.

So she leads the way to her house. When we arrive, she opens the door, which isn't locked, and steps in, calling out the standard stock greeting as we take our shoes off.

"I'm home!"

"Sorry for intruding!" Inui calls.

There's no response however, which causes Shiori to frown slightly.

"T-that's odd," she says. "Usually Mom would respond right away… m-maybe she's asleep…?"

She steps quietly over to a doorway and peeks into what appears to be the living room. Inui and I peer in too, but it's deserted – there's no-one there. So then Shiori heads to the next room, and we follow her. However, as soon she sees what's in there, she freezes in place, making it difficult to see past her. After staring for nearly thirty seconds, she manages to utter a single word.

"N-no…!"

Then she collapses to the floor and hunches up, screaming.

"Nooooooooooooo!"

The cause of her reaction immediately becomes clear. Dangling in the middle of the room, a woman hangs, apparently suspended from the light fixture, the kitchen table knocked haphazardly aside. Presumably, it's Mrs Takara.

Well… this probably explains why she turned into a witch in the previous timelines.

While Inui pulls out her phone to call emergency services, I crouch down to tend to Shiori. Fortunately her soul gem was recently purified, but it's already passed the fifty percent mark.

"Miss Takara!" I say urgently. "Please calm down! I realize this isn't what you want to hear, but…"

"No!" Shiori screams. "You don't get it! This is… this… it's all… all… all my fault!"

"Don't be silly," I say. "It has to just be a coincidence."

"You don't get it!" Shiori screams again. "This… it's… it's not what I wished for but… it's my wish! It's my fault!"

"You wished for your mother to… no wait, you said you didn't…?"

"I… I didn't want her to die!" Shiori sobs. "I just… wanted her to… to leave… I didn't… want to have to see her ever again… but I never wanted her to die!"

I think I'm starting to get the picture. She must've made a vague wish to be separated from her mother or something, and this is just how it happened to be granted… in the worst possible way. Did Kyuubey do this on purpose or is it pure coincidence?

"I hope you are not having unsavoury thoughts about me," Kyuubey says.

It has just appeared from the shadow of an upturned chair. I shoot it a glare. Come to think of it, isn't this the first time we've spoken in this timeline…?

"Don't tell me you can read minds now," I retort. "So you're saying you didn't intentionally arrange for her wish to be granted in this way?"

"Of course not," Kyuubey says. "The thought was already in her mind when she made the wish. Perhaps this woman already had some thoughts of ending her life, so of all the possible ways the wish could have been granted, this was the path with the least friction."

"Nooooooo!" Shiori screams. "No, no, no! I… I'm… t-this makes me… a murderer…"

"Y-you can hardly call yourself a murderer for this," I protest. "Like you said, it's not what you wanted… and from the sounds of it, this could've happened even if you hadn't made a wish…"

"B-but…"

This is a clear case of a grief spiral. At this point, it looks like her soul gem is past eighty percent and rapidly approaching ninety… if this keeps up, I'll have to separate her fast. Just in case, I grab her hand and wrench the ring off. She makes no attempt to stop me.

"It's still because of my wish!" she screams. "Even if Mom was already… even then… it only happened now because of my wish!"

"Please calm down!" I say desperately.

"It looks like your efforts will be in vain, Ashley Taylor," Kyuubey says.

I know I'm only imagining the gloating tone in his voice, but it doesn't make me any less angry.

"Takara Shiori is done for," Kyuubey continues.

"I don't need your comments from the peanut gallery!" I shout.

Pulling out my sword, I slice it in two. The action seems to startle Shiori, and she stares at the corpse for a moment or two before turning to look at me. Huh? Wait… did that somehow do the trick? Her soul gem is past ninety percent but doesn't seem to be getting any worse now.

"Y-you… you just… k-killed Kyuubey!?" she gasps.

"Yes, you could say that," I say. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"I… um… w-well…"

I decide that I'd better make the best of the situation. She's no longer in immediate danger, so it's probably best to separate her from the direct evidence of what happened. I gather the girl up in a princess carry and haul her into the living room. She makes no attempt to resist.

"I d-don't think… you should do things like that…?" Shiori ventures hesitantly as we move.

"It's fine if it's Kyuubey," I say. "It'll just bounce right back. You still have your grief seed, right?"

"Y-yeah…"

I force her soul gem into conventional gem form and show it to her. She gasps.

"W-what!? B-but it was just purified…!"

"Better purify it again," I say. "Then I'll explain."

She takes out the grief seed she got from Quitterie and uses it to draw out all of the grief. It looks like the grief seed miiight just have one more use in it, too, which is sort of impressive.

"Using magic isn't the only way to build up grief," I explain. "It's called grief for a good reason, after all. Negative emotions, such as yes, grief, will also cause your soul gem to spontaneously darken. So… I get how you must feel about what just happened, but please… try to keep your mind off it as much as possible? If your soul gem is completely darkened, you will basically die."

"I… I think I understand," Shiori mutters. "I… I'll try…"

Inui flops down next to me with a sigh.

"Phew, those guys had a lot of questions," she says. "They'll be coming by real soon to investigate, just in case it's not a suicide, but they said it sounds like it probably is. Sounds like they're gonna call your father too, Shii-chan."

"Eh… I doubt Dad would come though," Shiori says. "He's pretty busy…"

"Hey… are you okay, Shii-chan?" Inui asks. "If you need a shoulder to cry into, you can use mine…"

"I… I think… I'm okay, for now," Shiori mutters. "B-but… I might… take you up on that, later on…"

Now that the drama has calmed down a bit, I take a moment to check up on Noriko's status. It looks like she's still safe, but as soon as I see her lose two games in a row, I whip out my phone and send Mari a message. There are some new unread messages, but I don't really have time to read them right now, so I just compose a new message without even glancing at them.

[Hi… please don't ask me how I know this, but I think Naomi Noriko is going to need a grief seed sometime in the next hour or so.]

It's almost the same as what I wrote in the last timeline. I added a little more urgency just to be on the safe side. Her identical response comes almost immediately.

[Oh fuck, omw!]

I also send a message to Komachi giving a basic summary of what happened and noting that we'd likely stay the night at Shiori's place.

By the time the police arrive, Shiori has dozed off. They question both of us in detail, and do a detailed investigation of the kitchen and the body. Apparently, she died around lunchtime, which strongly supports Shiori's theory that her wish caused it, but I decide it's best not to share that information with her for now.

Just as the police are getting ready to leave, someone else appears. He speaks with the police briefly, and they give their condolences. A minute or so later, he enters the living room, dropping a bag of what appears to be groceries and kneeling down beside us to peer at his daughter.

"Shiori-chan… she's okay…?" he asks.

"So far," I say. "Sorry for intruding… you must be Mr Takara? I can't believe we chose to visit at such a bad time…"

"Well… I can hardly believe this happened," Mr Takara says. "I mean, I know I've been pretty busy at work lately, but I never thought this could happen…"

"So if you're so busy, how's your work with you here?" I ask.

"What are you talking about?" Mr Takara says. "There's no way I can work under these circumstances. I'd probably make tons of mistakes and have to redo everything anyway, so I argued and argued until they let me take three whole days off."

Huh. He seems like a surprisingly decent man for someone said to rarely be home. To think he cared enough to argue with his boss…

"Do you mind if we stay the night?" I ask. "It's not like we're close – we actually just met, and she's more like a friend of a friend, but… I'm sure she's gonna be lonely tonight…"

"That's fine," Mr Takara says. "And I'll get started on dinner."

"Speaking of… she said your lunches are delicious," I say.

"D-did she?" he says. "That makes me really happy… alright! I'm fired up now! I'll make a really delicious dinner!"

With that, he leaps to his feet, grabs the groceries, and disappears, presumably into the kitchen.

It's not long before a heavenly aroma wafts into the living room.

"I guess she was right," Inui says. "Something that smells this good couldn't possibly be bad, right?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's impossible," I say. "But pretty damn unlikely."

"Anyway, I'm glad we managed to save her," Inui says.

"Though it was a pretty close call," I say. "Oddly, it seemed to be me killing Kyuubey that snapped her out of her grief spiral…"

"Huh, that's strange," Inui says.

"I wish you had not done that," Kyuubey adds, hopping up onto the table.

I sigh. "So you're going to show up again even after that, huh?"

"After recycling the damaged terminal, I heard you mention my name," Kyuubey says.

"Well, alright, since you're here anyway, I actually have a question for you," I say. "Maybe multiple questions."

"I will listen to whatever questions you may have."

"I notice you're not promising to answer them," I quip.

"That would depend on whether I know the answer," Kyuubey replies.

"Have you ever heard of a magical girl who calls herself Eris?"

"I have not."

"Or one called Discordia?"

"I have not."

"Can you think of a magical girl whose magic is similar to human myths about the phoenix?"

"Connecting human myths to a single person is all but impossible in practice," Kyuubey says. "Myths and magical girls feed each other in an ongoing feedback loop. Given that, depending on your interpretation of the myths you refer to as 'phoenix', there could be hundreds of potential matches across all of history."

It didn't say yes, but it didn't exactly say no, either. Is this an attempt to deflect a topic that it doesn't want to talk about? Or am I reading too much between its lines? Maybe it actually doesn't know.

"What do you do with grief seeds when you dispose of them?" I ask.

"Although it is a paltry amount compared to that released when a magical girl turns into a witch, there is a method of extracting energy from grief seeds," Kyuubey says.

"A grief extractor…?"

"Yes," Kyuubey says. "I see you have heard of the technology before. However, I am curious… where could you have obtained that information? On this planet, I should be the only one who knows of it."

So Coeurl was right – the Incubators know about the grief extractor technology she mentioned. Huh? Wait a second… if the Incubators know about it… what's the relationship between them and the race that, in her apocalyptic future, had shared the technology with humanity before being wiped out?

"The Edalon… could it be…?"

I was hoping Kyuubey would give some response that serves as a clue, or even just outright answer it as a question, but apparently it decides to just remain silent. I suppose its excuse is that it's technically not a full question, so it has no need to answer, but I wonder what would happen if I pressed further…

"No, forget I said that," I say. "One last question. Have you heard of any kind of force within the universe that works in opposition to magic and magical girls?"

"I surmise that you could be referring to wurdons," Kyuubey says. "That is what we call the elementary particles emitted when magical power is expended. Although it rarely happens, if they become too dense within an area, no more magic can be used until they have dissipated."

That is… not even slightly close to what I'd been probing for. At least… I'm pretty sure it's not. Is there a way for such a particle to explain the theory that Satomi Tasuke proposed? To be honest, I'm hoping his theory is false and intend to do my best to prove that, but… I figure I should also prepare for the possibility that he's right. Still… these 'fate particles' don't seem to have any obvious relation to it… but even then, it's actually quite interesting information.

"…wait a second," I say. "Just how much magic would need to be used in an area before that happens? Um… for example, suppose I wanted to produce the phenomenon on purpose."

"That would be impossible for a single magical girl," Kyuubey says. "You would turn into a witch long before the density reached critical levels. Perhaps you could purposely produce the phenomenon with around a thousand magical girls all using their magic simultaneously."

"But then that also means that if you have a hundred magical girls, they just need to unleash their doppel ten times each to get there…?"

"I am unfamiliar with this term," Kyuubey says. "Can you explain? What is a doppel?"

"Um… I'm not sure if I can explain it well," I say. "It's something that happened in Kamihama recently… looks like a witch, but isn't…"

"I see," Kyuubey says. "I was wondering what was happening in Kamihama. From context, I surmise that this phenomenon occurs in place of the transformation into a witch. Interesting. I will have to investigate further, but if what you say is true, then your conclusion has a high chance of being correct."

For it to get that much information from just a single reference and vague explanation… Kyuubey's deductive powers truly are impressive. I guess I shouldn't've said anything after all. Whoops. I hope this doesn't horribly mess up events this time…

"Well, I think that was everything I wanted to ask," I say. "So please leave now."

"Understood," Kyuubey says.

And with that, it hopped off the table and vanished. It's only a minute or two later that Mr Takara announces dinner is ready. Shiori stirs from his voice, and after a moment she opens her eyes.

"H-huh…?" she says. "Am… am I… dreaming? What is that smell?"

"What do you think it is?" I ask.

"Well…"

Before she can guess, Mr Takara enters the room.

"What's keeping you?" he asks. "Come into the kitchen!"

"D-dad!?" Shiori gasps. "W-what are you doing here!?"

"What do you mean?" Mr Takara said. "How could I possibly leave you alone after what happened?"

"A-ah…" Shiori says. "So that part… wasn't a dream…?"

"Come on, Shii-chan," Inui says. "Try not to think about it, and let's just go eat your father's delicious food."

"Ehh…"

"Come on!" Inui urges her. "Let's go!"

Inui's coaxing manages to get her to her feet with a bit of help, and I follow the two of them into the kitchen. Apparently Mr Takara has also cleaned up a bit since we were last in here, for the table is sparkling clean and the chairs back in their proper positions. He serves each of us a generous portion of stew, and we sit down to eat. However, before she gets started, Shiori just has to say something.

"U-um, Dad… I'm sorry," she says.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Mr Takara says.

"B-but… it's my fault… that she… that she…"

"It's not your fault," Mr Takara says. "Even if something you did led her to that, it's still not your fault. I'm the one to blame, for not noticing that something was wrong. Now, let's drop the topic, and eat up."

"B-but–!"

"I said, let's drop the topic," he said firmly. "Eat up."

"O-okay…"

The food actually seems to cheer her up, and for good reason – it's a really good stew. Mr Takara does his best to keep up some kind of conversation, though Inui telepathically notes that he seems to be forcing himself. I'm sure he's doing his best to not let his daughter dwell on what happened, which is definitely a good thing. His efforts don't stop with the end of the meal, either – he joins us in the living room and insists on playing card games until Shiori complains about being tired, at which point he brings out three futons and lays them out, leaving the three of us together.

Only once he's gone does Shiori finally circle back to the topic of her mother.

"Say… I know Dad keeps saying it's not my fault but… it can't be a coincidence that it happened right after I made a wish, right?"

"Well, I think I have a good way to look at that," I say. "Just suppose for a second that you hadn't made that wish. Do you think there's no chance she would've done that?"

"Well, um… she was angry a lot," Shiori says. "Mostly… at me… sometimes at Dad… I don't think she would've… I don't, but… I guess I can't say she absolutely, definitely wouldn't've…"

"Maybe she wouldn't've done it today in particular," Inui notes. "Maybe she would've done it three months from now, or six months from now. But I think what Ashley is trying to say is… whatever your wish was, it didn't create suicidal thoughts out of nothing. By the way… what did you wish for?"

"It wasn't… anything that dramatic," Shiori mutters. "I was… sick of how… of how Mom treated me… so I wanted her… I just wanted her… out of my life… honestly, I just expected a divorce… or something… not… not this…"

"Well, like Inui says, it's not like your wish completely rewrote everything," I say. "There are girls with exceptional potential who get that degree of effect from their wish, but most are more limited with what they can do. I think your mother has probably been contemplating this for quite some time now, so when you wished for her gone, that was the path of least resistance for your magic. If her thoughts had been of a different kind, for example if she was cheating on your father, or just fed up and thinking about leaving, then I bet your wish would've led to a divorce instead. So, even if your wish really is the direct cause of this event, you mustn't blame yourself for it."

"I… see," Shiori says. "I'm… not sure why but… that strangely makes me feel… just a tiny bit better about it…"

«Say, Ashley… did you use your magic?» Inui asks suddenly.

«Huh? What do you mean?» I respond.

«I guess that means you didn't,» Inui says. «Strange… for the tiniest fraction of a second, I thought I sensed some magic activating… but maybe I imagined it.»

I don't think I like where this is going…

«Let's suppose for a moment that you didn't imagine it,» I say. «What do you think it could mean?»

«Ehhh!? We're going there!?» Inui gasps, following that up with a mental sigh. «Well… if it really was your magic, and you're quite certain that you didn't use telekinesis or clairvoyance, then… I think it would have to be your charm magic.»

«Are you suggesting I forced Miss Takara to calm down by charming her?» I ask.

«I'm not sure if you can take it to that extreme,» Inui says. «It probably would've taken more magic to force her, I think.»

«Then… what?»

«I'm sorry,» Inui says. «I don't think I can speculate much further than that… but if it really happened, and even you don't know you did it, and the other Ashley didn't do it on your behalf, then… that would make it a subconscious magic activation, right? So I think it would actually be quite difficult to prove anything…»

I take a moment to sink down into the depths of my consciousness, where the original Ashley personality dwells, and question her on this. She denies using any magic, however, so that's definitely not it. That would leave two possibilities – either Inui imagined it, or I'm using magic subconsciously. I'm sorely tempted to just write it off as Inui's imagination, but there's just one little detail that suggests there really may be more to it than that. That would be Shizuki Hitomi's words from the previous timeline, as relayed to me by Homura. The uncanny similarity between the two occurrences makes me think it has to be more than just a strange coincidence. Admittedly, just two cases doesn't prove a whole lot, but… I think I should get this investigated further.

---

When I wake up the next morning, I discover several missed emails from Madoka.

[Ashley-chan, please help! Hitomi-chan and Sayaka-chan are about to have that conversation!]

[Ashley-chan, please hurry!]

[I… I can't wait any longer, Ashley-chan… I'll try to… talk to them myself…]

[I'm not sure if I managed to help. Please, could you talk to Sayaka-chan tomorrow?]

[I'm sure Sayaka-chan is still feeling down, so I'm going to go along as she hunts witches tonight… I just hope I can make things work out better than last time.]

[I'm sorry! I tried to follow her… I tried to do things differently, but she's just too fast! I was almost tempted to make a wish just so I could catch up to her, but… I still haven't quite worked out what I want to wish for.]

So if I piece together all of those messages, it seems like I completely missed the event where Hitomi gives Sayaka her ultimatum. My phone had been set to silent mode because I wanted to focus on Shiori, stupidly forgetting that I had something else to deal with too, so I missed Madoka's call, and I guess she decided to try contacting me by email instead, but I missed all of those too. Dammit!

It sounds like things are progressing roughly according to the anime, though Madoka's clearly made some small effort to nudge things in a different direction. Also, the witch Sayaka fought in the anime during this time was Elsa Maria, but I doubt that witch has been born, although I didn't actually confirm… I take the time right now to check up on her. Yup, Ayano Hikari is still alive, so Sayaka couldn't've fought Elsa Maria. Did she find a different witch, then? If she'd fought a familiar, there'd be a possibility of Kyouko jumping in, but Madoka didn't mention anything like that.

Well, there's no use in beating myself up over the mistake. I just have to do my best to set it right. I compose an email to Madoka.

[Sorry about missing your messages. I had some other business to attend to and forgot that this event happened to be on the same day. I even could've managed both if I'd just remembered… I'm really sorry. Would you like to meet up before school to discuss what happened in detail? Then we can meet again after school and track her down.]

After reading over it a couple times and making some minor adjustments, I hit send. To my surprise, Madoka responds almost instantly… about the time it must've taken to read my message and type out a response. In fact, I don't think she could've even read my entire message in that time.

[Can you come to my house? It'll be about two more hours before I have to leave for school, and I was having trouble sleeping anyway.]

Now that she mentions it, it is rather earlier in the morning than I usually rise. I reach over and nudge Inui until she wakes up.

"What…? Ashley?"

"I'm sorry, Inui, but could I get you to take care of Miss Takara at least until Elise and the others come?" I ask. "I have to go see Madoka about something important."

"Ah… okay," Inui says. "Leave it to me."

I compose a quick message to Komachi, Claire, and Elise, asking them to come pick Shiori up. I include her address in the message to make sure they know where to go. I'd already explained Shiori's situation to Komachi the previous night, so they should already get the gist of why Shiori needs support. With that, I quietly get up, gather my things, and head for the door.

"You're up early," Mr Takara's voice says, from the kitchen.

I pause to look into the kitchen, where I find him sitting at the table and reading a magazine. His face looks red, and a little puffy, like he's been crying. I guess the loss of his wife hit him almost as hard as it hit his daughter.

"Yes, I'm sorry to leave so suddenly," I say. "I just remembered something urgent I need to attend to."

"Well, if it's urgent, there's not much to be done," he says. "Good luck, and thanks for keeping my Shiori company last night. I think it made a huge difference."

"It was nothing," I say. "I'm sure we'll meet again sometime."

"Seeya," he says.

And with that, I exit the house and hurry across town to Madoka's place. Before I know it, I'm knocking on her door. It's answered a minute or two later by her father.

"Hm? How may I help you?" he asks.

"I'm a friend of Madoka," I say.

"Is it normal to show up so early in the morning?" he asks. "Madoka's probably still asleep, anyway."

"I exchanged emails with her less than half an hour ago, so I think that's pretty unlikely," I say.

Madoka's voice is heard from within at almost the exact same moment, partially overlapping with mine.

"Dad! Is that Ashley-chan? I'm just getting dressed, please show her in!"

"So there you have it," I conclude.

"I guess you're right after all," Mr Kaname says. "Madoka may be more of an early bird than my wife, but she's usually not up quite this early."

He ushers me into the living room, and about a minute later Madoka steps in. She's in her uniform, but her hair is down and still messy from sleeping.

"I didn't expect you to get here quite so fast, Ashley-chan," Madoka says. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Um, Dad… do you think you could take care of waking Mom today? Ashley-chan and I have a lot of things to talk about."

"I think I can manage that," Mr Kaname says. "I'll make you tea and breakfast. Have you eaten, Miss Ashley?"

"I haven't," I say. "I pretty much just woke up."

"Then I'll make breakfast for you too," he says.

"You don't really have to…"

"No, but you're a friend of Madoka's, so that's all that really matters," he says. "Even if this is the first time we've met… she hasn't even mentioned you before. But I'm not stupid. I can see you two get along nicely just from looking at you here in this room."

"Thanks, I'll look forward to breakfast, Dad!" Madoka says. "By the way, have you seen Amy around?"

"She was nosing around the tomatoes earlier," Mr Kaname says. "I suppose you want to cuddle her, right? I'll see if I can track her down."

"Thanks, Dad!"

With that, he leaves the room, and Madoka turns to me with a sigh.

"W-well… it's really… not good news," she says. "You didn't respond to my messages, so I did my best to take matters into my own hands, but… I don't think it did much good. I really tried… I regretted not following her last time, but as it turns out, an ordinary girl like me just can't keep up with a magical girl anyway, so it wouldn't've made any difference even if I had…"

"Would you mind starting at the beginning?" I suggest.

"R-right… so… it all started when Sayaka and Hitomi went off together…"

---

Although the three of them left school together, Hitomi and Sayaka went off by themselves. Madoka tried halfheartedly to stop them, but it didn't do any good, so instead she followed them, sneaking into the burger place so she could listen in on their conversation. From her description, there were no differences from the conversation that I eavesdropped on last time.

"I'll give you one day," Hitomi finished. "I'd like you to make a choice that you won't regret. You have to decide whether you want to tell him how you feel."

At that point, Madoka couldn't hold herself back any longer. She jumped up and ran over to them.

"Hitomi-chan! What are you saying!?"

The pair of them blinked at her and said her name in unison.

"Madoka!?" "Miss Madoka!?"

"W-w-what are you doing here!?" Sayaka asked.

"This was supposed to be a private conversation between Miss Sayaka and me," Hitomi said sternly.

"B-but when I thought about the two of you fighting… I just… I don't want that!" Madoka said. "I didn't think you were that kind of person, Hitomi-chan…"

"I don't think I've done anything wrong here," Hitomi said.

With that, she got to her feet.

"In any case, I've said my piece. I must make haste to my lessons. I'll see you tomorrow."

And then she left the place, leaving Madoka and Sayaka staring after her for a moment.

"What was that all about, Madoka?" Sayaka asked.

"Sayaka-chan, you can't let that get to you!" Madoka said urgently. "You're a magical girl now! I don't want to lose you!"

"Madoka… you're keeping something from me, aren't you?" Sayaka said. "Well, it's okay… I'm sure you have your reasons. But still… you said it. I'm a magical girl… I have a duty to carry out. I don't even have the time to be with Kyousuke-kun."

"T-that's not…!"

"I'm going home," Sayaka said. "Seeya."

And then she too, got up and whisked outside, leaving just Madoka staring after her.

"Sayaka-chan…"

With a sigh, she headed home for dinner, but later that night, she snuck out of the house to wait for Sayaka outside her apartment building. If things continued following the track from the previous timeline, Sayaka should be heading out to hunt witches… and sure enough, after waiting ten or fifteen minutes, the front door slid open and there she was.

"Madoka!?" Sayaka gasped.

"Can I come with you?" Madoka asked. "Miss Mami said you turned down her invite, but I don't want you to be alone, so please…!"

Sayaka's shoulders shook as she struggled to hold tears at bay.

"Madoka, y-you're really kind," Sayaka said. "I'm really grateful to have you as a friend… but… I don't want you to get hurt from following me… I'm too weak… I'm dragging Miss Mami down. That's why I have to practice alone until I'm stronger."

"Sayaka-chan…! That's not… it's not… true…!"

Madoka stepped forward to hug her, and Sayaka broke down sobbing into her shoulder.

"I can't believe Hitomi plans to steal Kyousuke-kun from me!" Sayaka wails. "But what can I do? One day? That's way too sudden! I can't work up my courage in just one day! Besides, I have witches to fight! It's not fair!"

Madoka had all sorts of words she thought she could use to comfort her friend, but none of them quite made it out. Was that the right thing to say? Or would it make her worse? Maybe that was unfair to Hitomi. Or maybe that was unfair to Sayaka. Eventually, though, she managed to say just one thing.

"It's okay… one way or another, I'll be here for you, Sayaka-chan."

Not long after that, Sayaka calmed down and took a step back.

"Thank you, Madoka," she said. "I'm sorry. I'm okay now. I feel better after crying."

"Sayaka-chan…"

Madoka could tell she was still putting on a brave face.

"Let's go," Sayaka said. "We have witches to hunt."

They wandered through town for an hour or two before finally stumbling upon a familiar. It had a barrier that took the form of a tiny forest clearing, and the familiar itself looked like a signpost with a brain attached, but strangely, it kept dodging Sayaka's attacks and trying to run away. Madoka tried her best to keep up, but they slowly gained distance on her.

Then Kyouko came smashing in out of the blue, almost knocking Sayaka over.

"You idiot!" Kyouko shouted. "Can't ya tell it's just about to mature!? At least wait until it's finished so you can get a grief seed!"

"If I wait, it's gonna kill someone!" Sayaka shouted.

"Ya really are an idiot," Kyouko said. "Why do ya think it's running away? It's got the energy it needs… it's just prepping to evolve!"

"Eh?" Sayaka saids. "W-wait, so you're saying… it's already killed enough people!?"

"Bingo!" Kyouko said.

"Onee-san… are you… okay!?"

Madoka turned to see Yuma running up behind her, equally out-of-breath.

"Ah… Yuma-chan," Madoka said. "Good to see you… and Kyouko-chan too."

"I told ya not to call me -chan!" Kyouko shouted without looking back.

"Anyway, I'm fine, just a bit out of breath," Madoka said.

"Yuma is too," Yuma said. "Kyouko is too fast… Yuma can barely keep up."

While they were talking, the familiar had stopped fleeing, just holding its position out of range of Sayaka's attacks. It wasn't fleeing to get away, but to stall for time. It appeared that Kyouko's information might have been correct.

And then, the familiar began to glow, and Madoka watched in fascination as it splintered and puffed up and sprouted new and strange parts. Once the transformation was complete, the glow faded, and she could get a good look at the witch. It very vaguely resembled a human in shape, but it also still kind of conformed to the sign post theme. Its two faces were like arrows, pointing the way with their empty eye sockets. It had a pair of feet in the centre, where you'd normally expect eyes, and an array of four hands formed a crown. She was certain of one thing – it was a witch she'd never seen before in the previous timeline.

And then she felt a sinking sense of dread as the witch unleashed its magic. Sayaka gasped and collapsed to her knees, her eyes wide and staring. It seemed like she was feeling it even more than Madoka was – perhaps Sayaka and Kyouko were directly targeted and Madoka only felt the leftovers by proxy. That said, Kyouko herself seemed completely unaffected.

"Oh, for… Sayaka, you idiot!" Kyouko said. "I get this witch is a bit of a toughie for one of your first battles, but still!"

"Oh… have you fought this witch before, Kyouko-chan?" Madoka asked.

"Dozens and dozens of times," Kyouko said. "There are three witches that I just keep running into over and over and over again, and this is one of them. Sayaka! Snap out of it!"

But Sayaka was still completely frozen in fear, to the point that it seemed she wasn't even hearing Kyouko's words. At that moment, something began to glow around the witch's eye-feet.

"Dammit, she's about to attack!" Kyouko groaned. "Sayaka, you idiot! Snap out of it!"

When Sayaka still didn't respond, Kyouko aimed a kick at her side with all her might, sending Sayaka flying across the barrier and smacking into a tree. The momentum carried Kyouko forward enough that the witch's beam only scorched the ground behind her as she passed through its path.

Sayaka leapt to her feet with a yell.

"What the hell was that for!?" she shouted. "You trying to steal my kill, Kyouko!?"

"You trying to die, you dumbass!?" Kyouko shouted back. "Are ya gonna kill this thing or not? Cos if ya ain't, then I'm gonna take it out!"

Sayaka drew a pair of swords, glaring at her.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on it!" she shouted. "I need to beat a witch by myself to prove that I'm not dependent on Miss Mami!"

"Well, if that's yer angle, I'll let ya have a shot at it," Kyouko said.

Sayaka flung her swords at the witch, not just two but at least ten or twelve, dashing in behind them as the witch slowly rotated to face her. Once she got close, she leapt into the air and slashed at the witch's body, but it didn't seem to leave a mark at all. As she leapt back, the witch fired off another beam, and Sayaka was a moment too slow to dodge, losing an arm to the beam, but then she ducked under the path of the beam and slashed upwards at those two eye-feet, severing them both in a single blow.

By that time, her missing arm had already regrown, so she grabbed a second sword and stabbed it deep into the large main body of the witch before leaping back. She kept up similar tactics, only doing the bare minimum to dodge the beam while keeping her core body safe, repeatedly losing an arm or a leg in the middle of her charge yet still carrying it through perfectly.

"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka called.

A mere moment later, Sayaka finally missed one of her attacks, and the witch suddenly spun around, smacking her with one of its two eyeless faces and sending her flying.

"What an idiot!" Kyouko said.

She whipped out her spear, separating it into segments to snake out and catch her, dragging her over to the three watchers and depositing her on the ground where she lay, unmoving.

"I can't bear to watch any more of this," Kyouko continued. "That's enough. Why dontcha rest for a bit? This is a particularly tricky witch, so ya shouldn't feel bad being unable to beat it on your first try. Lemme show ya how it's done."

But as she's twirling her spear overhead and about to step forward, Sayaka stirs again, reaching out to grab Kyouko's leg. Kyouko glances back in surprise, and then Sayaka gets to her feet again. She's already completely healed from that last attack.

"Hey!" Kyouko said.

"Don't interfere!" Sayaka said. "I have to handle this on my own!"

With that, she put on an even greater burst of speed than before, the air popping from her passage, and before Madoka had fully processed the situation, Sayaka was already upon the witch, both swords stabbed deep into where the heart would be on a human and serving as a foot hold while she swung two fresh swords to cut off one of the faces and the eye-feet – the latter of which had regenerated since she first destroyed them. Then, before the witch could react, she chopped off the second face, all of the hands, and pretty much reduced the witch's head to shreds. With the head gone, the witch's body disintegrated into a cloud of black particles, and Sayaka bent down to pick up the grief seed as the labyrinth began to collapse.

Though it wasn't quite as bad as her fight against Elsa Maria, it was the same fighting style she'd pioneered in that battle. The only reason it worked out better was because this particular witch's main means of attack was its beam, as opposed to Elsa Maria's tentacles.

"Incredible," Sayaka said. "It's really true… I can suppress the pain. That makes fighting so much easier…"

"Sayaka-chan… you shouldn't!" Madoka protested.

"But now there's no way I can lose," Sayaka said.

Turning to face the three watchers, she flung the grief seed to Kyouko, who caught it easily.

"There you go, Kyouko," she said. "You can have that. You wanted it, right? You were probably eyeing that familiar because you noticed it was about to mature."

"Hey," Kyouko said. "There's a limit to how stupid you can be…"

Despite saying that, she made no move to return the seed.

"I don't want to owe you anything," Sayaka retorted. "This makes us even, got it? Let's go, Madoka."

"Are you an idiot?" Kyouko muttered. "Now I'm the one who should owe you… but if you say we're even, then we're even."

"Sayaka-chan…" Madoka said. "Um, see you later, Kyouko-chan."

"Don't count on it," Kyouko said.

With that, Madoka turned to follow Sayaka as she walked off, but she'd only taken about ten steps before she staggered and almost fell, her transformation cancelling out just as Madoka leapt forward to catch her.

"Sorry," Sayaka said. "I guess I'm a little tired…"

"Don't force yourself, Sayaka-chan," Madoka said. "Let me help you."

They walked off with Sayaka leaning on Madoka.

"Idiot!" Kyouko shouted one last time.

As Madoka glanced back, Kyouko and Yuma headed off in the opposite direction. A fine rain began to fall, drenching Madoka and Sayaka as they headed towards the train station. They took shelter at a nearby bus stop, flopping down on the bench and shivering. Sayaka leaned on Madoka, about to doze off. They sat there for awhile, not even moving when a bus actually came by, and the cold began to fade a bit. Eventually, Madoka broke the silence.

"Sayaka-chan, you shouldn't fight like that," she said. "You said you're okay, but you're actually just lying, aren't you? It was so painful to watch you like that… even if you say you're okay, that doesn't mean you should go all-out."

She was remembering her words from the previous timeline, and repeating them as close as she could, though she wasn't even sure if that was the right thing to do. But she was sure it was better than saying nothing at all. She'd noticed that Sayaka's words had some big differences, probably because she hadn't discovered the truth of the soul gem. She wasn't thinking of herself as a zombie, so that was at least one slightly bright point in this crisis.

Sayaka sat up with a sigh, turning her head away from Madoka.

"But I probably wouldn't've won if I didn't do that," she said. "I've already realized… I don't have enough talent. Compared to Miss Mami… compared to Homura… I'm just a burden."

"But even if you win, I'm sure fighting like that can't be good for you!" Madoka said.

In a way, it was actually worse if she didn't know the truth of the soul gem. If she was going to fight like that without knowing, would she have the sense to protect her soul gem?"

"What do you mean?" Sayaka asked. "It's not like I feel anything, and I can heal in seconds. What's the issue?"

"B-but it uses too much magic," Madoka said. "If you ran out in the middle of a battle, then…!"

Sayaka turned towards Madoka, converting her soul gem to standard gem form and gazing at it. It was around thirty to forty percent corrupted.

"I guess that would be it for me," she admitted. "But at least I would've saved a lot of people. What else can I possibly do?"

"Sayaka-chan…!"

"I'm a magical girl," Sayaka said. "Only I can kill witches, and I can't do much else. Even my friends are abandoning me… you're the only one left, besides Miss Mami and the others, right?"

"N-no, I'm sure Hitomi-chan didn't mean—" Madoka protested.

"You heard everything she said!" Sayaka shouted. "How else am I supposed to take that!?"

Madoka sighed. "Sayaka-chan… what can I do to cheer you up?"

Sayaka fell silent for awhile longer, and another bus went by. Then Sayaka got to her feet and turned to gaze down at Madoka.

"Say, Madoka, why haven't you made a contract too?" Sayaka asked.

"W-what!?" Madoka gasped. "Didn't I tell you before…? I want to make sure I really get the wish right… so I've been thinking really hard about it!"

"I'm a burden on Miss Mami and Homura," Sayaka said. "I'm just dragging them down. But if it was you I was working with… Kyuubey said you're the most talented out of all of us. If you became a magical girl, you'd be more powerful than either of them. Maybe I wouldn't drag you down. I bet we could make a better pair then teaming up with Miss Mami. You wouldn't have to work as hard to beat witches. I'd still feel bad about being a deadweight, but I think it wouldn't be quite so bad if it was you, Madoka."

"You're wrong," Madoka said. "I might become more powerful, but that power would also be a terrible burden. It might even turn out that I'm the one who's deadweight…"

Sayaka blinked. "Don't be absurd," she retorted. "How could you be deadweight if you can kill a witch in a single blow!?"

"But what's the use of that if I run out of magic by doing it!?" Madoka shouted, jumping to her feet.

"Cheap words," Sayaka retorted. "You haven't even made the plunge yet, so how would you even know!?"

"B-because—"

"No excuses!" Sayaka shouted.

"B-but—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Sayaka shouted. "Get back to me after you've made a wish! Otherwise, this conversation is over! Otherwise, those are just empty words!"

As Madoka felt the tears starting to run down her cheeks, Sayaka turned and stalked out into the rain. Madoka followed her, and Sayaka turned and glanced back at her, glaring.

"Don't follow me," she said.

With that, Sayaka broke out into a run. Last time, Madoka had hesitated to follow her, and that had led to Sayaka's death by witchification. This time, Madoka didn't hesitate. She broke out into a run too, calling out to her dearest friend.

"It's not like that!" Madoka shouted. "There's something I haven't told you! Sayaka-chan! Please wait! Let's talk this over calmly! Please, Sayaka-chan!"

However, Sayaka ignored her, picking up the pace to the point that Madoka couldn't even hope to match her. Eventually Madoka came to a stop as Sayaka disappeared into the distance.

---

"So all things considered, it's actually quite different from last time, yet simultaneously exactly the same," I say.

I scoop up the final forkful of rice omelet that Mr Kaname had prepared.

"That's a pretty good summary," Madoka said. "I actually thought it was a little strange how similar yet different it was. Is there some invisible force at work trying to bend things to a particular path, I wonder…?"

"If there is, it's a pretty weak force, but… I've sorta been wondering about that too," I say. "I've seen that phenomenon over and over again… but I digress. Do you know if she went home last night?"

"I called her family around ten o'clock," Madoka said. "She wasn't home yet. I was going to call again before you arrived this morning, but you came faster than I expected."

"I guess I can just scry on her, can't I?"

I do just that, but I can't tell where she is. It's in a dark place, maybe an abandoned building or something.

"It doesn't seem like she's at home," I say.

"Then what should we do…?" Madoka said. "Should we skip school, or do you think after school would still be good enough?"

"Normally I'd say you absolutely need all the time you can get," I say. "But… using my clairvoyance I think we could find her fairly quickly. The time limit is what… around midnight? Maybe eleven o'clock, or one in the morning?"

"I'm not quite sure either," Madoka said. "But I think that's a good guess. It's definitely after dark, so at minimum we have until sunset."

"Then how about we go to school like normal?" I say. "That also conveniently dodges the possibility that we're overthinking this and she shows up like nothing happened. After all, she doesn't know that the soul gem is her life yet. She shouldn't be thinking of herself as a zombie who's already dead."

"I don't think it's likely she'd just show up… but I see your point," Madoka says. "Okay, so you'll meet right after school outside my school's gates, right?"

"Yes," I say. "And if possible I'd like to intercept Miss Shizuki too."

"I… don't really want to… interfere with that," Madoka mutter.

"I'm not forcing you to," I say. "But I still have some things to say to her that I didn't get a chance to say yesterday."

"Okay," Madoka says. "By the way… that witch she fought, do you recognize it, or is it a completely new one?"

"Ah, the witch?" I say. "From your description, it sounded like Lucy."

"So you do recognize it," Madoka says. "Okay. Then I'll see you after school… and I hope we find her in time."

---

I race over to her school at top speed after school ends, arriving by chance just as Mami exits.

"Oh, good afternoon, Miss Taylor," Mami says. "Are you waiting for someone?"

"Miss Itsumi and Madoka," I say.

"Huh?" Mami says. "I thought Miss Kaname was planning to come over to my place today…"

"I guess it was a sudden change of plans," I say. "Miss Miki went missing, so we're going to look for her."

"Oh!" Mami says. "In that case, perhaps I should—"

"No!" I say quickly.

Mami gasps. "W-what!?"

"S-sorry," I say. "What I meant was, I don't want to trouble you with this. My power's well-suited for finding people, so I'm pretty sure we can do this without any additional help. That said, if you do happen to see her, you could send Madoka a message."

Mami nods. "I understand," she says. "Besides, someone still needs to go on patrol, so you can count on me and Homura-chan for that."

"Thank you very much," I say.

Madoka and Homura exit a moment later, and Mami leaves together with Homura while Madoka waits with me. Homura looks a little reluctant to be separated from Madoka, but she doesn't say anything. I assume they already discussed the situation in class.

"Has Miss Shizuki left yet?" I ask.

"I think she's still talking with Kamijou-kun," Madoka says. "But it shouldn't be long now."

Inui exits first, blinking at me in surprise.

"Ah, I wasn't expecting you to be here, Ashley," she says. "Is something up?"

"We're going to search for Miss Miki," I say. "And one other thing, so we'll wait here a bit longer…"

"Okay," Inui says. "I guess I won't be much help, but it's fine if I come along anyway, right?"

"Of course," I say.

We wait a couple of minutes more before Kyousuke and Hitomi exit the school together, at which point I step forward and address her.

"Excuse me, Miss Shizuki, but I'm going to have to interrupt your little date," I say.

"Huh!?" Kyousuke gasps. "D-d-date!? It's not like that…!"

Hitomi glances over at the company I'm keeping.

"Who on earth are you?" Hitomi asks. "Did Miss Kaname say something about me to you?"

"I'm Ashley Taylor, a friend of Madoka's. Listen, Miss Shizuki, you've done something very cruel to someone you call a friend," I say. "I think you owe Miss Miki an apology."

"Ah, that's right," Kyousuke says. "Sayaka wasn't in class today, right?"

Hitomi winces slightly at his use of Sayaka's name but says nothing.

"I bet she's hunched up under her covers, sulking at whatever it is," he continues.

"I guess you know her better than me," I say. "But unfortunately you're wrong. She's missing."

"What!?" Kyousuke gasps.

"Huh!?" Hitomi gasps. "W-what do you mean!?"

"Thanks to your little… ultimatum, she ran away somewhere," I say.

"B-but Sayaka wouldn't… do something like that," Kyousuke protests. "She's not the sort of person to turn tail and run… I remember clearly how she used to defend Miss Madoka from bullies back in elementary school, you know?"

"Well, I think you might be right under normal circumstances," I say. "But these are far from normal circumstances."

"W-what did you say to her to cause this, Miss Shizuki?" Kyousuke asks.

"W-what!? I… I didn't…!" Hitomi says. "I don't even… know…"

"You know what you said," I say.

"W-well yes but… for it to lead to this… I just can't… surely there must be something else," Hitomi says.

"Well, I'm not laying the blame on you completely," I say. "It wasn't just your words, but also the timing of them. To be hit with something like that when she's already feeling depressed… can you imagine?"

"Huh?" Hitomi says. "Since when was she…?"

"Ah, she did seem a little down on the day I returned," Kyousuke says. "Just a little less energetic than usual…"

Hitomi gasps. "W-what… this is so unfair…" She turns towards Madoka. "M-miss Kaname… you overheard what I said too, right?"

Madoka steps forward, nodding. "Y-yes, and you remember what I said to you yesterday, right?"

"Ah…"

"Um… to tell the truth, what I felt most was when I heard that was… disappointment," Madoka forges on. "I only heard about it second-hand last time, but I couldn't believe my ears this time. Hitomi-chan… I really like you, and you're generally a really kind person, but… what you did yesterday was already mean if she'd been in a good mood, and downright cruel when considering how she was feeling!"

Hitomi blinks at Madoka in surprise.

"A-are you really Kaname Madoka…?" she says. "Ah! W-what am I saying, of course you are… it's just… I never thought you had it in you to…"

Kyousuke suddenly bursts out laughing, and everyone turns to stare at him.

"T-this isn't funny, Kamijou-kun!" Hitomi protests.

Once he calms down, he shakes his head.

"I'm sorry, really, it's just… I thought that the shy little Miss Madoka who used to be like a frightened rabbit… had suddenly matured into a fierce tiger. You don't need Sayaka to protect you any more, do you?"

"Ah, yeah," Madoka says. "It's true that… I've figured some things out recently, and… gained some self-confidence…"

"Anyway… Miss Shizuki, I'm asking you to accompany us in our search for Miss Miki," I say.

"Even if you say that, I don't think it would make that much of a difference," Hitomi says. "If what you say is true, I'm sure she doesn't want to see me right now… and I can just go over to her place later, right? I'm sure she'll come back on her own eventually…"

Madoka shakes her head.

"Hitomi-chan, you really don't understand," she says. "It's not just that she's missing. Sayaka-chan's life is in danger here! If we don't find her by the end of the day, you'll never have another chance to speak to her again!"

"N-no way!" Hitomi gasps. "How could that be!?"

"She could get into an accident," I say. "Or commit suicide. Who knows? I don't think she's in a stable state of mind right now. And I think seeing you, Miss Shizuki, and hearing your apology, might just be able to make the difference between life and death."

"I still don't believe she would kill herself," Hitomi says. "But if I'm wrong, I suppose that could make the difference…" She sighs. "Alright… fine… I'll cancel all my plans. Let me send Mother a message and then I'll be with you."

She steps off to the side to compose a message on her phone.

"If you're searching for Sayaka, take me along too," Kyousuke says. "I've known her all my life, so I have some idea of the kinds of places she'd go to if she's feeling down."

"Well… I guess that could be a little helpful," I say. "Since we're on a time limit, I'll take everything I can get. Thank you very much, Sir Kamijou."

"Ah… it feels weird being called Sir Kamijou by someone older than me," Kyousuke says.

"Shall I call you Kamijou-kun then?"

"That'll do," he says.

So after Hitomi finishes her message, and we quickly introduce Inui to the others, we set off on our search. I notice several times that someone seems to be attempting to contact Hitomi – the sound of a phone set to silent vibrating from within her purse. Whether or not she also hears it, she makes no move to answer it, but I'm sure it must be her mother.

Kyousuke is actually more helpful than I'd expected. Although I can scry on Sayaka quite easily, actually determining the location she's in can be quite a bit more difficult, as many of the streets look the same; but thanks to Kyousuke's suggestions, it feels like we're actually closing in on her pretty quickly. Between his pointers and my clairvoyance, I finally pick up a trace of her magic around six o'clock.

"We're getting close," I muse.

"Hmm? How would you know?" Hitomi says.

But I don't answer that question, instead heading towards Sayaka's signature. I have a feeling she must have detected me too, for after a minute or two she starts moving away.

«Inui, could you see if you can find some way to cut her off?» I ask.

«On it!» she replies.

Without Hitomi or Kyousuke noticing, Inui slips into an alleyway and disappears. I continue moving towards Sayaka's signature, tracking Inui's progress at the same time with my clairvoyance. Freed from the constraint of moving at the speed of a normal person, she's able to easily get in front of Sayaka, allowing us the chance to catch up.

Inui hops off a roof and lands in a street in front of a startled Sayaka.

"Good evening!" Inui says cheerfully.

"W-who are you and what the hell do you want!?" Sayaka gasps. "I guess you're a magical girl too… are you looking for a fight?"

"Hmm… do you want a fight?" Inui asks. "I don't really feel like fighting, but I could if you want to."

Sayaka blinks, seemingly confused. Her soul gem is much muddier than Madoka described the previous night, probably around seventy to eighty percent corrupted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asks.

"Huh? You asked if I'm looking for a fight, so I just explained the answer," Inui says.

"You could've just said yes or no," Sayaka points out.

"Oh! Now that you mention it, I suppose I could've!"

She's being awfully verbose… wait, could that actually be a stalling tactic? If so, it seems like it's super-effective.

"Come to think of it, we go to the same school?" Sayaka says. "I've never seen you before though…"

"Well, we are in different classes, so it's not that surprising," Inui says.

"I… guess so," Sayaka says.

"And I'm pretty weak, so I keep a low profile as a magical girl," Inui adds.

That's the moment when the rest of us turn the corner and spot them.

"Inui!" I call.

The others call out to Sayaka instead.

"Sayaka-chan!" "Miss Sayaka!" "Sayaka!"

It seems that Madoka has subtly inserted herself between Hitomi and Kyousuke. That was good thinking on her part – I hadn't even thought of it when I allowed them both to come, but seeing those two together could've actually made Sayaka's mood worse. I'm glad Madoka thought of it.

Sayaka turns and spots us, gasps, then turns back to Inui, who beams at her.

"You're not going to try to run away, are you?" Inui asks.

"W-what's going on here!?" Sayaka says. "H-how did you find me!?"

"Ashley's magic is clairvoyance," Inui explains. "Combined with Kamijou-kun's insight into your thought processes, it was surprisingly easy."

"Dammit," Sayaka mutters. "I wasn't ready to face her yet… seriously, why the hell are you interfering…"

"Miss Sayaka… I'm really sorry!" Hitomi calls. "If what I said hurt you… then I'm really sorry!"

Sayaka spins and glares at her.

"You think an apology is going to take back the words you said!?" she shouts. "Do you really think just a stupid little apology will cut it, Hitomi!?"

Hitomi gasps, covering her mouth with both hands.

"I… I wasn't sure… if it was really true, but… hearing it from your own mouth, I realize now that I've done something terrible to you, Miss Sayaka," she says. "I… if an apology isn't enough, I'll… I'll… um…"

Suddenly she bursts into tears. She rubs at her face angrily, trying in vain to stem the flow.

"W-w-wha— n-no, no, I d-don't mean it like… M-miss Sayaka! P-please, I n-never meant… I never wanted to… to…"

At that point, she completely breaks down and collapses to her knees, unable to speak anymore. Sayaka stares at her for almost a minute.

"If that's an attempt to get sympathy from me, it's not working," she says coldly.

"S-sayaka!" Kyousuke gasps. "Your friend is crying on the ground! How can you be so cold?"

Sayaka gasps, her eyes going wide as she stared at Kyousuke.

"A-ah… t-that's not what I… K-kyousuke, it's not like…"

"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka says. "Calm down! And Hitomi-chan too…"

She kneels to put an arm around Hitomi, but keeps her gaze fixed on Sayaka.

"You're at your limit, Sayaka-chan!" Madoka continues. "You can't go on like this!"

It looks like her soul gem is nearing ninety percent, so that tracks. A grief spiral is probably imminent… so I step forward, taking out a grief seed and holding it out to her. Sayaka shoots me a glare.

"The hell do you think you're doing?" she asks. "I don't need or want your pity."

"Alright," I say. "You won't have it. Miss Shizuki… Kamijou-kun… I'm going to do something that might be very disturbing, so I strongly recommend you turn around for a minute."

"W-what do you mean by disturbing…?" Kyousuke asks.

"No time to explain," I say.

Without even checking whether the two of them did as I said, I approach Sayaka. She takes a step back, then another… and runs into Inui.

«Inui, you can block out pain, right?»

«Yes… why?»

«Just in case my aim is off… I don't want to hurt you. But also… you should subtly move away from her soul gem arm.»

«Alright…»

Inui takes one step to the side while I take a final two steps forward. There's now a bit more than an arm's length between us.

"W-what are you doing!?" Sayaka asks.

I pull out my sword from my soul gem, but I don't swing or stab or anything. No… it's much more devious than that. I pull it out in just the right location to slice through her elbow. The materialization of the sword, far faster than any stab or swing I could have pulled off even with my enhanced strength, is too much even for the enhanced reflexes of a magical girl. Before she even realizes what hit her – I suppose she must've anticipated some violence and also blocked pain – I've yoinked the severed arm away from her as I take a giant hop back. I also store my sword away again.

Sayaka gasps as she realizes what I've done.

"T-that… give it back, right now!" she shouts.

I slip the soul gem ring off her finger and toss the arm back. She catches it and holds it up to the stump almost automatically while she shouts at me again.

"You know that's not what I mean!"

"Yeah, I know what you meant," I say. "I'm just doing what I came here to do. You didn't want to cooperate, so I had to force the issue."

And with that, I press the grief seed up against her soul gem. It looks like I'm just in the nick of time. That's also the exact moment when Kyousuke finally recovers from his shock. I guess he didn't turn around after all.

"W-what on earth did you just do!?" he shouts, running up and grabbing me by the arm. "Y-you just… just…"

"I warned you it would be disturbing," I say. "You could've turned around and been none the wiser."

"B-but Sayaka… Sayaka's hand is…!"

"You don't have to worry about her anymore," I say. "The danger's past… for now, at least."

"T-there's no way…!" he says.

Madoka steps up and lays a hand on Kyousuke's arm, startling him.

"Kamijou-kun, look more closely," she says. "Her arm is completely fine, see?"

Kyousuke turns to look at Sayaka.

"H-huh? Y-you're right… b-but I swear I just saw…!"

"Kyousuke, could you please step aside for a moment?" Sayaka says. "You there… give it back!"

"Why should I?" I ask. "If you're not even gonna bother performing basic care and maintenance, maybe I should hold onto it for awhile."

Madoka and Sayaka both gasp in unison, though I'm sure for different reasons.

"W-what are we even talking about…?" Hitomi wonders.

Ah, has she already recovered from her breakdown? That was fast.

"W-without that… I can't…!" Sayaka begins. "Argh! I can't say it, not now! You're really playing dirty, bringing them along!"

"Well, there'd be no point in me holding onto it anyway," I say. "So I'll give it back once you've worked things out with Miss Shizuki, alright?"

"Ugh…"

"Sayaka-chan, look," Madoka says suddenly. "I've been keeping something from you. The things I said last night… those weren't just wild guesses or speculation. I was speaking from experience."

"W-what?" Sayaka says. "That's not possible…"

"It is possible," Madoka says. "I realize this might be quite hard for you to believe, but it was even harder for me, experiencing that all over again. You see… Sayaka-chan… that was the second time I'd had that conversation with you… because I've come back from the future. And last time, I didn't know what to do, and I lost you, so I knew I had to do things differently this time! So please! Take proper care of yourself, Sayaka-chan!"

"H-has Miss Kaname finally lost her marbles…?" Hitomi murmurs.

"I'm not so sure," Kyousuke says. "Look at Sayaka's face. That's the face of someone who believes every word… and if Sayaka believes it, even if it sounds completely far-fetched, then I'm inclined to believe it too. Besides, she was the one who told me to believe in magic and miracles, right before my arm was healed. And also, the way Miss Madoka was talking earlier did sound like someone who knew the future, plus her sudden boost in self-confidence also supports that…"

"I-impossible," Sayaka mutters. "T-that should be… impossible, but… as I am now, who am I to say what's possible anyway? Damn… even time travel? Madoka… is that really true?"

"It's really, really true," Madoka says. "And I wasn't the only one, but… I won't name the others. I don't think it'd be right for me to do that. It's up to them if they want to reveal themselves."

I decide not to admit that I too travelled back in time. If Hitomi and Kyousuke hadn't been there, maybe I would've, but…

"S-so you're saying… all this… it all happened once before?" Hitomi says.

"That's right," Madoka says. "What you said to Sayaka-chan, how she reacted, her running away and never returning… and eventually being found, dead."

Hitomi starts to cry again, but quickly wipes the tears away.

"Miss Sayaka… will you… ever forgive me…?" she asks nervously.

"Fine, I'll forgive you just this once," Sayaka says. "But I'll never forget."

"Aww, Miss Sayaka…! Come on!"

"Ah, right," I say suddenly. "Miss Tomoe was worried about you, too. Someone should let her know you're okay…"

"I'll do it," Madoka says. "Just a minute…"

She whips out her phone to compose a message to Mami.

"Oy."

The unexpected voice causes Sayaka to spin around. Kyouko is standing a short distance away, next to a tree.

"Ya learned your lesson yet, idiot?" Kyouko asks.

"Kyouko…!"

Kyouko flings a grief seed at her, and Sayaka catches it.

"Didn't sit right calling it even like that," she says. "It's just the same one, but I used it once. Don't try to give it back. I ain't accepting returns."

And with that, she turns and walks off without a word.

"W-wait, Kyouko!" Sayaka calls.

But Kyouko ignores her and disappears around a corner.

"…who was that?" Kyousuke asks. "She looked like a delinquent…"

"If 'delinquent' is defined as 'someone who doesn't attend school', then you've totally hit the nail on the head, Kamijou-kun," I say.

"Right, that's exactly what it means," Kyousuke says. "I'm sure there must be an interesting story about how they met…"

"Would you believe… they got into a street fight?"

"That… that's actually pretty believable, if the other girl started it," Kyousuke admits.

Sayaka spins on me with a glare.

"Stop spreading stories about me!" she snaps.

"Sorry, I wouldn't think worse of you for something like that, Sayaka," Kyousuke says. "It's just interesting!"

"A-ah… is that so…?" Sayaka says.

"Yes, it is!" Kyousuke says.

At that moment, his phone rings, and it takes it out and gasps.

"Ah! It's Mother! I forgot to tell her…"

He answers it and winces.

"Sorry, Mother, I forgot to tell you! I'm with Sayaka and the others right now… yes, I was about to… huh? Oh um…"

He looks around at the street.

"Huh? Where are we, anyway?"

"You don't know?" Inui says. "This is the edge of the old industrial district. Perhaps you're actually a little bit lucky, Miss Miki. Any further east and you'd be infringing on Miss Kohaku's territory…"

"Ah, Mother, we're at the edge of the industrial district…"

"And if I remember right, Sakuragasaki Middle School should be about fifteen minutes' walk in that direction," Inui adds. "Though I haven't been in this part of town for awhile, so I could be wrong…"

"…possibly about a fifteen minute walk from Sakuragasaki Middle School…"

He winces again, and then a few seconds later he turns to us to question us.

"Um, she's going to pick me up in front of that school, and she wondered if you'd all like a ride too," he says.

I respond quickly, before anyone else gets a chance.

"Much as I'd like to accept, I think we have need to have a little girl's talk," I say. "So if you wouldn't mind…"

"Ah… so if your talk is fast, you'll come?"

I blink at him, then nod.

"Well sure, why not," I say. "We'll have our talk, and then see if you're still waiting for your mother, but don't wait for us once she arrives. I think this talk could actually take quite awhile."

"Okay," Kyousuke says. "Mother… they said they have some other things to take care of, so it'll just be me, unless they manage to take care of them before you get here. Yes… yes, it's not very likely. Alright. See you soon."

Then he turns to Sayaka.

"Sayaka… are you feeling better now?"

"I'm having extremely mixed feelings right now," Sayaka mutters. "Ask me again tomorrow…"

"Alright, I will," Kyousuke says. "See you tomorrow!"

He brings up the maps app on his phone, presumably to look up Sakuragasaki.

"Looks like you were right," he says. "Thank you very much, Miss Itsumi."

"Ah… no problem."

He turns and runs off.

"I suppose… this girl's talk you mentioned… is about him," Hitomi says.

"Who else would it be about?" I ask.

"Right…"

"To be honest, I don't understand why this had to become an issue in the first place," I say. "Assuming Miss Shizuki's feelings are real, why couldn't you both date him? Even if it's just temporary to see if that's really how you feel."

Hitomi blinks. "H-huh!? Isn't that cheating!? I couldn't do that to Miss Sayaka!"

"Isn't cheating when you do it without the other party knowing?" I ask. "How's it cheating if Miss Miki knows all about it?"

"Huh? Um… what?" Hitomi says.

"I don't know if I'd be okay with that," Sayaka mutters. "I really don't know…"

"Come to think of it, you said 'assuming my feelings are real'," Hitomi says. "Implying you think they aren't… I think that's pretty rude of you."

"Well, I can think of other motivations for wanting to get a boyfriend," I say. "For example, to shut up an ultra-conservative parent who insists you absolutely have to get married no matter what."

Hitomi looks shocked for a fraction of a second but barely manages to suppress it.

"That's an awfully-specific theory," she says. "But how could it possibly explain the choice of partner?"

"It doesn't," I say. "In that scenario, anyone from a wealthy family would do. Someone you were already familiar with would be a bonus. Guess who satisfies both criteria?"

Hitomi gasps. "I'm not after Kamijou-kun for the money!" she shouts. "How dare you suggest that!?"

"That's not what I meant," I say. "I was imagining the kind of ultra-conservative family who'd frown upon marrying someone poor. I suppose it's technically going after money, but not for the sake of the money itself."

"It's not true!" Hitomi says.

"Now, now," Inui speaks up. "I think what Ashley is ultimately trying to say is that even thinking long and hard on something doesn't mean you'd come up with the right answer."

"Yeah, that's really true," Madoka says. "Even after thinking long and hard over something recently, I almost made a terrible mistake that I never would've been able to take back… if Ashley-chan hadn't stopped me, I would't've been able to talk to any of you ever again. So what I think is that you shouldn't keep your thoughts all to yourself. When it's a big decision, you shouldn't just ruminate all alone. Talk to us, Hitomi-chan. If we're no good, talk to your father, or to Ms Saotome, or even your piano teacher or your housekeeper. You'll get another perspective on the issue, and you might even find you've been missing something very obvious."

"You're not seriously suggesting consulting Ms Saotome on matters of love!" Hitomi protests. "You know how she is with that sort of thing!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Madoka says. "But she's not stupid, even if she has bad luck with men. If you'd talked to her about your plan, I bet she could've pointed out some of the problems with it."

"Besides, this isn't really a matter of love," I add. "Though it's certainly related to love, it's more of a matter of friendship, isn't it?"

Madoka nods. "Mom and Ms Saotome are really good friends, so she might've actually had some great advice for you, don't you think?"

"I… I don't know," Hitomi says.

"By the way… are you taking your own advice there, Madoka?" I ask. "Have you talked to others about your… issue?"

"I have!" Madoka says. "I talked to Miss Mami, and Kyouko-chan, and Miss Oriko, and Mom and Dad, and even Ms Saotome. Obviously I was a little vague with the adults, but…"

"Huh… so you're actually putting in a lot more thought than I expected," I say. "Good for you, Madoka."

"So listen here," Sayaka says. "Are you still going after Kyousuke?"

"I… do intend to," Hitomi says. "I realize you have a huge head start… it was so obvious today that he thinks highly of you, Miss Sayaka, yet he barely spared a thought for me, and if anything today has probably lowered his opinion of me… but I still intend to pursue him."

"Then I guess you've got your work cut out for you," Sayaka says. "You're playing on hard mode, and I'm playing on easy mode, something like that?"

Hitomi giggles. "That's just the kind of strange analogy I'd expect from you, Miss Sayaka," she says.

"Well then… don't think this means you've won," Sayaka says. "Even if I still haven't quite worked out… how I feel…"

"You're right," Hitomi says. "I somehow had the idea that it was first come first served, but I realized how wrong that is today."

"Now then…" Sayaka turns to glare at me. "Give. It. Back!"

I sigh. "Fine. Just be more careful in the future."

I pass over her soul gem ring, and she slips it back on her finger. Then she hands over the grief seed Kyouko returned to her.

"You can have this too," she says. "I don't want to owe you anything. We're even with this, right?"

"Well… close enough, I guess," I say.

Hitomi looks at us in confusion as I stow it away.

"What was that all about…?" she asks. "What is that? I've never seen anything like it before…"

"W-well, it's not that important, Hitomi-chan!" Madoka says. "Don't worry about it."

"If you say so, Miss Madoka…"

"Then I'll be going now," I say. "See you later, Madoka."

"Yeah, I think I've almost got it, so it won't be long now, Ashley-chan," Madoka says.

"I'll look forward to your decision," I say.

"See you later everyone!" Inui says.

I turn and walk away, Inui following me, but I'm curious enough to open a vision on them as we head off.

"Miss Madoka, what's that all about!?" Hitomi asks. "What kind of decision are you making…? You're both keeping secrets from me all of a sudden…"

"Um… I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone," Madoka says.

"But didn't you say you were talking to your mother and Ms Saotome about it?" Hitomi asks.

"Yeah, but I didn't go into all the details with them…"

"Then can't you at least tell me that much!?"

"Ah… you're right," Madoka gasps. "Why didn't I think of that…? Um… let me think… it's like I've been given an incredible opportunity, a chance to make a difference and really change the world, but if I make the wrong choice, the change could be for the worse, so I want to be really sure I don't mess this one up."

"Does this have something to do with that time travel stuff?" Hitomi asks.

"Um… actually, yes it does," Madoka says. "How did you guess…?"

"Because it makes just as much sense as that," Hitomi says. "But also, because you said you almost made a terrible mistake… you said Miss Taylor stopped you. Based on that, it's almost like it all falls into place… you're not the only one who came back in time, right? Miss Taylor also came back in time, but she's actually done it twice… and the first time, she wasn't able to stop you from making that mistake."

Madoka blinks at her.

"W-wow, Hitomi-chan, that's some amazing deductions," she says. "You're not exactly right, but you're completely on the right track."

"So… are you telling me that she took my arm off to protect me?" Sayaka asks, angrily.

Madoka nods. "Yes… she did that to save your life, Sayaka-chan," she says. "I don't agree with her method, but… thanks to that, you're still with us. If Ashley-chan hadn't done that… not only you, but Hitomi-chan, Kamijou-kun, even I might not have survived."

"You can't be serious…" Sayaka says. "The way you put it, it's like you think I'm a bomb waiting to go off…!"

Madoka giggles. "Well, I suppose you could say that," she says. "It's not like it's just you, though."

Sayaka sighs. "You've come back in time, right? What on earth did you see? It sounds like you had a really hard time…"

Madoka nods. "Yeah… a lot of people died," she says. "First Miss Mami, then you, then Kyouko-chan…"

"What about Nagisa?" Sayaka asks. "Or Yuma?"

"I never met Nagisa-chan or Yuma-chan," Madoka says.

"And Homura?"

"She was fine, but… she didn't get along with anyone," Madoka says.

"Miss Homura is a bit standoffish," Hitomi admits. "I don't think she would've joined our circle if not for you, Miss Madoka."

"And that other girl… Miss Itsumi?" Sayaka asks.

"I never met her either," Madoka says.

"Or… what was her name… Ashley?"

"I didn't meet Ashley-chan until right at the end, when she stopped me."

"And why are you treating me like a bomb?" Sayaka asks. "You must've seen something…"

Madoka glances at Hitomi.

"Are you sure you're okay talking about this in front of Hitomi-chan?" she asks. "I don't mind, but are you okay with it, Sayaka-chan?"

"She already saw my magic, didn't she?" Sayaka says.

"She was crying, so I'm not sure," Madoka says.

"Magic…?" Hitomi says.

"That's right," Sayaka says. "I'm actually a magical girl of justice."

She transforms and takes a couple of steps back, swinging her swords around a bit, then powers down again. Hitomi gasps.

"See?"

"A-amazing!" Hitomi says. "To think magic actually exists!"

"So, what's this secret you're keeping from me?" Sayaka asks. "Why aren't you telling me? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"There are a couple of reasons," Madoka says. "First of all, I promised Ashley-chan. Secondly, when you found out last time, it led to… well… what happened last night and today, and then you… died."

"But as you can see, right now I'm alive and well," Sayaka says. "I think I can handle almost anything right now."

"Okay, but promise me one thing, first," Madoka says.

"Sure…" Sayaka says.

"You too, Hitomi-chan," Madoka says. "Promise me you won't breathe a word of this to Miss Mami."

"You mean Tomoe-sempai?" Hitomi says. "I've never really talked to her, but… I'll promise."

"Why won't you tell her?" Sayaka asks.

"Promise me first!" Madoka insists.

"Alright, fine, I promise!" Sayaka says. "So why won't you tell her?"

"That's because… I only heard this from Ashley-chan, but when she found out she apparently went berserk and tried to kill everyone," Madoka says.

Sayaka gasps. "Y-you're kidding," she says. "Miss Mami would never…!"

"That's the kind of secret this is!" Madoka says urgently. "It's something that could make even someone as kind as Miss Mami go crazy! Do you understand now why I was reluctant to tell you about it!?"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Sayaka says. "I promise I won't kill anyone if you tell me, okay? Not even myself. Pinky swear?"

Madoka nods, and they link their little fingers for a moment.

"While we're on the topic of promises, promise me one more thing," Madoka says. "Promise me you won't mention the time travel to Kyuubey, no matter what."

"Sure, I guess that's fine," Sayaka says. "It has nothing to do with him, anyway. So what's this big secret that even Miss Mami can't handle?"

"Hitomi-chan, you too," Madoka says. "I know you don't know who Kyuubey is, but if you ever meet him, promise me you won't tell him that Ashley-chan and I came back in time."

Hitomi nods. "Yeah… I promise."

Madoka nods. "Alright… let's go sit down first," she says.

They find a bench nearby and take a seat. Madoka closes her eyes and steels herself for a moment.

"In a nutshell, Kyuubey didn't come clean with you," she says. "He didn't technically lie, but… he left out a lot of things. If you'd known what I know, you might not have chosen to become a magical girl at all."

"Wait, but you were saying last night that you're going to become one!?" Sayaka gasps. "Even though you know these things? Also, if you know that much, why didn't you stop me?"

Madoka nods. "Yes… for me, my desire to change the world, no… to change myself… it outweighs Kyuubey's petty little misdirections. And I meant to stop you, I really did, but I missed the chance… I'm sorry!"

"So… what's the damage?" Sayaka says. "From your reactions, I'd guess it's something like… soul gems explode when they get completely dark?"

Madoka giggles. "No, not quite," she says. "You can make them explode. Kyouko-chan did that… and died. But that has nothing to do with filling them up with grief."

"Huh… so that's like a last-ditch attack that could be used if every other option was exhausted," Sayaka says. "But I certainly hope that time never comes… so what actually happens when it gets dark?"

"You turn into a witch."

Sayaka stares at her for almost a full minute. For a moment it almost looks like she's about to laugh, but Madoka's serious face must have deterred her. Finally she speaks.

"Y-you… you're not kidding… are you?"

"I'm not kidding," Madoka says.

"What the hell!?" Sayaka says. "Turning into witches!? That's a pretty big thing to leave out, Kyuubey!"

"You never asked," Kyuubey says.

It apparently just hopped out from under the bench to land on the seat beside Madoka.

"W-what!?" Hitomi gasps. "T-the squirrel talked!? No… is it a fox!?"

"W-wait, you can see him now, Hitomi-chan!?" Madoka gasps.

"Y-yeah…?" Hitomi says.

"I am neither a fox, nor a squirrel," Kyuubey says. "I am Kyuubey."

"Ah," Hitomi says.

"How long were you there?" Madoka asks. "Were you spying on us?"

"I had just arrived around when Miki Sayaka started yelling," Kyuubey says. "Were you talking about something you did not want me to hear?"

"Ah, no, not really," Madoka says quickly.

"More importantly, is it really true, Kyuubey?" Sayaka asks.

"It is," Kyuubey says.

"And your excuse for not telling us is just that we never asked!?" Sayaka says. "You bastard…"

"Um… I think I must be missing something here," Hitomi says. "What does Sir Kyuubey have to do with all of this…?"

"Kyuubey's the one who can turn me into a magical girl," Madoka says. "In exchange, I get to wish for any one thing I want."

"Have you decided on a wish yet, Kaname Madoka?" Kyuubey asks.

"Almost," Madoka says. "I think I've almost got it… but I still need a bit more time."

"I will be waiting," Kyuubey says.

"U-um… Sir Kyuubey… can I become a magical girl too?" Hitomi asks.

"W-what!?" Sayaka gasps. "You just heard about all this and you'd still want to do that!?"

"But I get to wish for anything, right?" Hitomi says. "It just so happens that there's one thing I really want…"

"It better not be Kyousuke!" Sayaka says angrily. "If you wish to make him fall for you… I'll kill you myself!"

"No, it's not that!" Hitomi says. "It's something more… personal. So, is it possible, Sir Kyuubey?"

"Of course," Kyuubey says. "I can turn you into a magical girl right now. What will you wish for, Shizuki Hitomi?"

"What I wish for is… for Mother to get off my back already," Hitomi says. "I wish she'd stop forcing her outdated ideals on me and just let me be who I am."

Kyuubey hops across Madoka's and Sayaka's laps to land on Hitomi's, reaching in with its ear appendages and pulling out her soul gem, a gleaming greenish-blue shade. Hitomi stares at it in awe.

"W-wow… I feel like something just opened up inside my head," she says. "It's like I've always been a magical girl…"

She hops up and transforms, doing a twirl.

"How do I look?"

Her costume is based on the style of a yukata, but the fold is looser and lower than usual, exposing a little cleavage, and it opens up in the front around mid-thigh, exposing her legs as well, covered in mismatched thigh-high stockings, black on her left leg, white on her right leg. In the back it falls to ankle length. The yukata is green on the outside but pink on the inside, with frilly white edging. Her soul gem is a blue inverted heart shape attached to the obi, which is also pink, tied into a massive bow on her back. There are detached sleeves, starting out green just below her bare shoulders and fading into white at the extra-wide hem that reaches her knuckles. The wide hems of her sleeves are decorated with black lines and bars that match the pattern of keys on a piano. She has a white lily worked into her hair, a pair of four-leaf clover earrings, and silvery high-heeled sandals. Her weapon appears to be an iron fan that also evokes a piano, with the cloth part white, the ribs black, and the tips gleaming metal with a slightly greenish hue. She has one in each hand.

"Ooooh, it's pretty!" Madoka says.

"Huh, figures you'd also have a musical theme," Sayaka says. "But are you really sure you're not going to regret this, Hitomi?"

"Well, if I know about the witch thing, I'm sure I can be careful enough to avoid it," Hitomi says. "Although… come to think of it, I don't even know what a witch is…"

Sayaka and Madoka look at each other, perhaps wondering how to explain it, but then Kyuubey takes over, giving Hitomi an introduction to the basic things that every magical girl needs to know, like how to track witches, how to fight them, what witches are, and all that.

"Since you already have a fellow magical girl here, I will leave it to her to give you some practical experience," Kyuubey finishes.

Then, without even waiting for any further response, it hops off the bench and disappears.

"I don't think I'm cut out for that though," Sayaka groans.

"I'll message Miss Mami," Madoka suggests. "I'm sure she'd be happy to help you, Hitomi-chan."

"Ah, so Tomoe-sempai is a magical girl?" Hitomi says. "I see… that explains why you suddenly got close to her… I assumed it was just because she knew Miss Homura."

"Homura-chan is a magical girl too," Madoka says.

"Y-you're kidding!?" Hitomi gasps. "I was the only one left out of this!?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Madoka says.

She takes out her phone and composes an email to Mami. Hitomi powers down and takes a seat beside her, peering over her shoulder eagerly. It doesn't take long for the response to come back.

"She says she'll meet us at the bridge over the highway," Madoka says. "Let's go! Though I wish she'd chosen a different location…"

As they get up and hurry off, Sayaka questions her.

"Why's that?" she asks. "Did something bad happen there last time?"

"Yeah," Madoka says. "That's where you and Kyouko-chan almost got into a huge fight… I tried to stop you, and… if Homura-chan hadn't been there to smooth things out, you probably would've died because of my blunder."

"Oh," Sayaka says. "I can't believe it… you're saying you almost accidentally killed me?"

"I didn't know that would happen!" Madoka says. "I had no idea that what I did then could've killed you… I just wanted you and Kyouko-chan to stop fighting, and it was the only thing I could think of. I really regret doing it now. If I'd been able to think of some other way, maybe you wouldn't've died later on…"

"Well, I'm here right now," Sayaka says. "So there's no point in worrying about what might have been, right?"

"Yeah… yeah, you're right, Sayaka-chan!"

Eventually they arrive at the bridge where the fateful confrontation between Sayaka and Kyouko occurred in the original anime. Mami is already there, waiting. Homura and Nagisa are with her too.

"Good evening, Miss Kaname!" Mami says. "I see Miss Miki is well… that's such a relief. I was really worried when I heard you went missing."

"Ah… I'm… sorry about that," Sayaka says.

"But why on earth is Miss Shizuki with you?" Homura asks. "She has nothing to do with this…"

"Ah, well… Hitomi-chan, how about you just show them?" Madoka says.

So Hitomi transforms again, and Homura gasps.

"N-no way…! Again!? But why only now!?"

Mami looks at her in confusion. "What on earth are you talking about, Homura-chan?"

"Ah… no, it's nothing important," Homura says.

"Hmm," Nagisa says. "Alright, you'll be the piano sister."

"W-what?" Hitomi says.

"I said, you'll be the piano sister."

"It's her nickname for you," Madoka explains. "I'm the rose sister, and Sayaka-chan is the sword sister."

"Why are you a rose?" Hitomi wonders.

"Because the rose sister is pink, like a rose," Nagisa says.

"Ah, so it's my hair," Madoka says. "I was actually wondering that too…"

"So, Miss Shizuki, was it?" Mami says.

"Ah… yes," Hitomi says.

"What kind of magic do you have?" she asks.

"Well… it's magic that can confuse the enemy," Hitomi explains. "If I use just a little magic, they'll get confused about exactly where you are, throwing their aim off. If I put extra magic in, they won't even be able to distinguish friend and foe."

"I see," Mami says. "That kind of power would be especially useful when fighting hordes of familiars… it's not quite as useful against a witch, but being able to throw her aim off should be quite helpful. Shall we go put your magic to the test? Let's see if we can find a witch."

Hitomi nods. "Yes! Please take care of me, Tomoe-sempai!"

I turn off the vision there. The main reason I even kept watching so long was because I just wanted to see Homura's reaction to Hitomi becoming a magical girl for the second timeline in a row. But I'm in agreement with her on one thing… what even opened up that possibility? Well… maybe it's not that important, but even so… I can't help but be curious about it.

---

Over the next three days, I watch as Iroha and Kuroe discover the new situation in Kamihama, with Kuroe joining the Wings of the Magius and Iroha regaining her memories of Ui. It all seems to go more or less the same as it did in the previous timeline.

First, she visits Kamihama with Kuroe and catches a glimpse of the small Kyuubey again. The next day, Kuroe visits again, this time with San and Miyuri, and the three of them join the newly-founded Wings of the Magius. And then the day after that, Iroha visits Kamihama alone.

However, I don't take the time to watch all her adventures this time, because that's the same day I need to save Chihiro Karen. So, while Iroha is visiting Kamihama and presumably meeting Yachiyo, Mitama, and Momoko, I take Inui and head for Oriko's place. However, instead of knocking on the door, I head around to the side of her place and wait. It's only a few minutes before a girl steps around the corner. Before she gets a chance to notice us, she's distracted by a ping from her phone. Pulling it out excitedly, she checks to see what it's about…

"Oh nooooo!" she gasps.

Suddenly she starts crying.

"I… should be happy, but…" she mutters. "It's not… what I was hoping for…"

I step up to her.

"Excuse me… are you alright, miss?" I ask.

She blinks at me and Inui in surprise.

"Eh?" she says. "Ah, um… well…"

"We were just on our way to visit someone," I say. "Would you like to come with us and have a cup of tea? Maybe it'll help you calm down."

"Oh, um… s-sure…" she says.

I lead her around the corner and knock on Oriko's door. The girl looks around, startled.

"Huh!? T-the friend you mentioned was… Miss Mikuni!?"

"Ah, do you know her?" I ask.

"N-no, not personally," she says. "But she's pretty well-known at school, thanks to last year's scandal…"

At that moment Oriko opens the door, blinking in surprise at the extra company.

"Ah, Miss Chihiro… I was expecting Miss Ashley, but not you," Oriko says.

"S-sorry to intrude," Karen says. "I just happened to be passing by… I can leave if you don't want me…"

"No, now that you're here, you might as well come in for a cup of tea," Oriko says.

The three of us head inside and take our shoes off.

"How are you feeling, Miss Chihiro?" Oriko asks.

"Um… well, not the best," Karen admits. "I just got my admissions results for St Lilliana's…"

"Did you not make it?" Oriko asks.

"It's… almost worse," Karen says. "I just barely made it."

"Wait, why is that worse?" Inui asks.

"What if I'm mocked for being the one who almost didn't make it!?" Karen exclaims. "P-plus, it means I don't qualify for honours…"

"Do you need a grief seed, Miss Chihiro?" Oriko asks. "I can probably spare one…"

Karen blinks. "I don't have a grief seed on me at the moment… huh? Wait… are you a magical girl, Miss Mikuni!?"

"I am," Oriko says.

"We are too," I add. "I'm Ashley Taylor. It's nice to meet you, Miss Chihiro."

"I'm Itsumi Inui! Nice to meet you!"

"Ah… I'm Chihiro Karen… it's a pleasure…"

At that moment, Kirika pokes her head out of the living room.

"Kure Kirika, at your service!" she exclaims. "Also a magical girl!"

"Could you fetch her a grief seed, Kirika?" Oriko asks.

"Roger!" Kirika says.

As she disappears down the hall somewhere, Oriko ushers the three of us into the living room.

"Please take a seat," she says. "I'll prepare you some tea."

"T-thank you very much," Karen says.

I check on her soul gem quickly, but it looks like there's nothing to worry about. It's around seventy to eighty percent corrupted, but not getting any worse.

"You know, I actually know someone who attends St Lilliana's," I say. "And she's even a magical girl."

"Oh! Really?" Karen says. "Maybe we can be friends then…"

"Well, I'm not sure if she's interested in making friends or not," I say. "But her name is Aoba Chika."

Karen nods. "Aoba Chika… I'll remember that name," she says. "Even if I didn't make the honour roll, there's no way I can pass up the chance to attend St Lilliana's. I'll definitely be turning in my acceptance letter as soon as possible."

At that moment, Kirika hops into the room and presents her with a grief seed. Karen blinks at her.

"Ah… are you sure this is okay?" she asks. "I mean, you need them too, right?"

"Don't worry!" Kirika says. "We've got a couple more! You can keep this one!"

"A couple!?" Karen gasps. "Amazing… t-then I'll accept it."

She takes the grief seed and uses it to purify her soul gem, then stows it away somewhere.

"So, um… this might sound rude, but… since when has Miss Mikuni had so many friends?" Karen asks. "I don't mean anything bad by it, it's just… I thought she was pretty isolated since the scandal… I thought she must be feeling lonely, so I'm glad I was wrong…"

"I don't like you badmouthing Oriko," Kirika says sternly.

"I d-didn't mean it that way," Karen says quickly.

"Well, I only met her recently," I say. "The same is true of you, right? Miss Kirika?"

"Ah, yeah," Kirika says. "So now we're a team of three, with Komaki."

"Ah… could you mean Asako Komaki?" Karen says. "I never would have thought she'd be a magical girl…"

"There's also one more at your school," I say. "Hiraku Yumiko."

"I don't know her…" Karen says. "Though it's also not my school anymore, you know. I just graduated."

"Ah, you're right," I admit.

Oriko enters at that moment with five cups of tea, which she sets down on the table and distributes amongst the people present before taking a seat herself.

"Allow my to give my congratulations, Miss Chihiro," Oriko says. "It is not easy to get into a prestigious school like St Lilliana's."

"Even though it was only just barely?" Karen says.

"Yes, even then," Oriko says. "It is quite the accomplishment."

"By the way, I saw your father on the news a few days ago," Karen says. "Is it true that he didn't do it?"

Oriko nods. "It would appear so. I snuck a look at his diary while he was… sick. Then I had a little chat with the true culprit."

"Uhh, you mean Mr Yaegashi?" I ask. "Um, is he okay?"

Oriko blinks at me. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything to him… we just had a chat."

"Oh, good," I say. "What about your grandfather?"

"Why are you bringing him up now?" Oriko asks. "Of course I didn't speak with him. I'm sure he's not long for this world, anyway."

"Are you suggesting the scandal was actually orchestrated by Mr Yaegashi?" Karen says.

"It would seem that way," Oriko says. "With collaboration from my grandfather. However, I do not have any proof."

"That's awful," Karen says. "Why would he do that to his own son…?"

"My father and grandfather never got along," Oriko says. "He thought of Father as a failure, and he's the type of person who believes a failure once is forever a failure… so I suppose he could not stomach that Father was actually starting to become successful. That, and they have fundamentally different worldviews."

"I guess you have some complicated family circumstances," Karen says. "By the way, is your father not home?"

"He's with Uncle Kimihide today," Oriko says. "Who knows what they're up to…"

"So he gets along with his brother just fine," Karen muses.

"Yeah… it's only Grandfather who hates him," Oriko says. "Uncle Kimihide and Aunt Sumi both get along fine with him."

"Your grandfather doesn't seem to be very well-liked," Inui notes. "Even Dad hates him, apparently."

"Well, he's not a very likeable person," Oriko says. "Or so it seems. I have never met him myself."

"I bet he'd actually take a liking to you," I say.

"Mr Yaegashi did say I was more like Grandfather than Father, but even if that's true, I don't particularly want to meet him," Oriko says. "Now, I believe we've discussed my family circumstances quite enough. Are you looking forward to your new school, Miss Chihiro?"

"Ah, yes," Karen says. "Miss Taylor said she even knows a magical girl who goes there."

"You should be careful interacting with other magical girls, however," Oriko says. "They may be hostile. Many magical girls are fiercely territorial, or so I've heard… most of the girls of this city appear to be different."

"That might be partly because of my influence," I note. "I do feel that it's better if magical girls can work together."

"I agree," Karen says. "But of course, I would not push the issue if someone did not want to. Well… in any case, thank you for the tea, but I have many things to take care of now that I will be moving to Kamihama."

She bows and then gets to her feet.

"It was a pleasure talking with you," Oriko says. "Even if the topic was a little…"

"My apologies for bringing up such a sensitive topic," Karen says. "Until the next time we meet."

And with that, she leaves the room. At a signal from Oriko, or perhaps a telepathic missive, Kirika hops up to usher her out, then reappears a few moments later.

"Now, I am sure you had reasons of your own for visiting," Oriko says. "How may I help you?"

"I'm sorry, but I have one more question relating to your father," I say.

Given what Mary said before, about karmic destiny being directly tied to one's knowledge of the future and ability to shape events, it stands to reason that Oriko might have sufficient karma to resist the rewrite.

"Do you remember the true history?"

Oriko's eyes widen. "You can remember too? Even Kirika forgot what she wished for, so I thought… I thought I must be the only one who…"

"Then you remember that your father… died?" I say.

Oriko nods. "I could never forget that."

"Hmm?" Kirika speaks up. "Wait, do you know what I wished for, Miss Taylor? For the life of me I just can't remember…"

"No, I don't know what you wished for," I say. "I know a certain thing that must have happened as a result of your wish, but I don't know what your wish actually was. And by the way, please call me Ashley."

"Oh, sure, Ashley," Kirika says.

"Anyway, moving on to the main topic," I say. "The events I predicted have come to pass. I have confirmed the formation of a magical girl group calling themselves the 'Wings of the Magius', who plan to save magical girls from the fate of becoming a witch. I'd like to discuss our next course of action with you."

Oriko nods. "If I recall correctly, you said there are some major flaws in their approach, right?"

"Yeah, well… the Magius are terrible leaders," I say. "I don't think it would be a stretch to call them 'tyrants in the making'. If their plans go as they hope, Kamihama will likely be levelled."

Oriko blinks. "Wow… that's an impressive claim," she says. "Do you intend to stop them, then?"

"I don't plan to interfere until the very end," I say. "In particular, I'm letting them destroy Kamihama a little. The destruction will help heal the divide between east and west created by the Witch of Symbols… though the witch herself will probably have to somehow be found and defeated to finally put it to rest."

"East and west…?" Inui says. "What are you talking about? It sounds interesting…"

"Well… have you heard the story of the battle priestesses of Kamihama?" I ask. "Though I think the region had a different name back then."

"Oh yeah, that sounds familiar," Inui says. "Could you be referring to the famous Souma Betrayal that led to the downfall of the Mizuna clan?"

"Yes, I think that's the one," I say. "The Witch of Symbols was already pretty old back then. Do you know when that happened?"

"Hmm… I think that would be the period when Shinriku was reintegrated back into Japan," Inui says. "Around the beginning of the Edo period. How much do you know of this island's history?"

"Just bits and pieces," I say. "I know Tokime Sakuya brought the first settlers here after wishing it into existence. Pernelle was with her, and apparently Kuzunoha and Yasuke, and… I don't know who else."

"Well… the earliest settlement was in Mitakahara Province," Inui explains. "It covered not just modern-day Mitakihara but also Kazamino, the west cape, and a bit more territory to the north. The two pillars of these early settlers were Tokime Sakuya and Akatsuki Aiko. By the way, they were apparently so close that they each married the other's brother! Anyway, they had quite a few descendants, so many of them took on new names to become branch clans. The Mizuna clan was probably the most prestigious branch of Akatsuki, and they were the ones who settled Souma Province… the area now covered by Takarazaki, Kamihama, Kanitomi, and some of the smaller towns north of Hokuyo."

"That's why the castle is named after them, obviously," I say.

"Right," Inui says. "Though they only held that castle for a few generations. Anyway, there was a second wave of settlers who arrived around the time that Mizuna was building the castle, and several minor noble families arose from those settlers as well. I don't know if they were originally nobles or just rose to prominence from their actions, but the Kumai, Sakae, Sango, and Nagitsu clans were all from the second wave, and they divided Souma Province amongst themselves."

"So far we have three clans who live on in Kamihama's wards," I note.

"That's true," Inui says. "There's also the Kosho clan. They were a very minor branch of Tokime, but rose to some prominence in their own right."

"Huh? Kosho is descended from Tokime?" I say.

"I had not heard that, either," Oriko notes.

"It's not a well-known connection," Inui says. "I think they were sort of outcasts from the Tokime, so they didn't really advertise the connection. In fact, it was only about thirty years ago that convincing evidence of the link was uncovered…"

"What about Daito?" I ask.

"There was the Taito Group, a sort of early yakuza like organization," Inui says. "They were said to steal from the rich and give to the poor… and they were treated as simple bandits by the nobility. Only the Kosho clan was on friendly terms with them, and even then they kept that relationship secret."

"Oh… so they're just like Robin Hood," I say.

"…who?"

"Ah, just a similar guy from the history of Britain," I say.

"Anyway, while the general layout was pretty well entrenched by the time the Edo period got going, it wasn't all that long before the shogunate sent out a governor to take over," Inui continues. "That was the Sumiya clan. I'll skip over the details, but due to some contrived circumstances related to the ongoing famine at the time, the Mizuna clan was exiled to the fringes, in Hokuyo, and the Sumiya clan took over the castle. However, the Kumai clan and the warrior monks of Suitoku—"

"Huh? You didn't mention warrior monks before!?" I say.

"Ah… they were also part of the second wave of settlers," Inui says. "Anyway, they didn't like the shogunate sending in an outsider to take over, so they plotted to eliminate him and the Taito at the same time. If not for the intervention of three so-called priestesses, they probably would've succeeded. I think those were probably magical girls, right?"

"Yeah. Huh?" I say. "There should be two, not three, right?"

"I have heard that story too," Oriko says. "And I too only remember two."

"Ah… yes, there's not a lot known of the third one," Inui says. "There are only a few circumspect references to her here and there, but it seems like she was an outsider who appeared, helped out with the situation, and then vanished."

"What is this third priestess like?" Oriko asks. "This truly is the first time I've heard that there were three…"

"Hmm… if I recall, there were some references to her battle outfit, which was a brilliant orange and barely covered anything," Inui says. "And she used war fans and fiiire… huh? Wait a second…"

She and I speak the same name in unison.

"Tsuruno!?"

"But… that can't be… right?" Inui says.

"Well, I can't say that for sure," I say. "After all, remember that painting of Yachiyo and Iroha from the Hundred Years' War?"

"Ah," Inui says. "You're saying if Iroha somehow interfered there, it's not a stretch for Tsuruno to interfere in the situation in Souma back then…"

"Yeah… but exactly what led her there, I can't be certain," I say.

After all, I was planning to alter the future that would've forced Tsuruno to travel back in time. Am I doomed to fail? Or will she find some other reason to go back in time?

"Speaking of which, is there any evidence of a fourth battle priestess during that time period?" I ask.

"I don't think so," Inui says. "At most there are a few minor discrepancies in the narrative… I suppose they could explained by a fourth one with some kind of stealth power…"

"Like Sana," I say.

"Yeah," Inui says. "I suppose you're right. But the discrepancies could also be explained by imprecise writing or poor memory."

"Anyway… how did we get on this topic, again?" I say.

"You were talking about how the east and west have bad blood between them," Inui says.

"Ahh, right," I say. "Yeah, it was because of what happened in Souma Province back then. Not the part you already described, but what came after."

Inui nods. "I mentioned the Souma Betrayal earlier, right? That refers to the death of the Mizuna clan head, which was blamed on the Taito Group, though there's some evidence that suggests it too was orchestrated by Suitoku," she says. "You're seriously saying they're still holding a grudge over that!?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I say. "But I'm sure it's also partly because of the Witch of Symbols that the grudge has survived so long. I don't know where the Witch of Symbols originally came from… I do know it devoured Mizuna Tsuyu's witch though."

"So basically you're saying that this witch has been nurturing the divisiveness for centuries," Inui says.

"Exactly," I say. "Anyway… sorry for the little impromptu history lesson, Miss Oriko."

"I found it interesting also, so I do not mind," Oriko says.

"By the way, is the Kosho clan still around?" I ask.

Inui shrugs. "I don't know. They kind of faded from history around the time of Russo-Japanese war. That doesn't mean they no longer exist, only that even if they do, none of them are all that famous…"

"Remind me when that war was?"

"Beginning of the twentieth century – 1904, to be precise."

"Anyway, back on topic," I say. "We were talking about how Kamihama could be levelled in the worst case, right? But I focus on saving people, not buildings. Buildings as collateral damage don't bother me that much."

"Okay," Oriko says. "So… if you ask me, the plan should be to infiltrate this 'Wings of the Magius', right?"

"Correct," I say. "I'll infiltrate with Inui. Kirika is welcome to join us too."

"Ehh… I don't want to," Kirika says. "I want to stay with Oriko…"

"It would be helpful to me if you did," Oriko muses. "Although, perhaps one extra person does not make a difference…?"

I shrug. "I think we can manage without Kirika, if she doesn't want to. By the way, have either of you had a dream about a girl who says magical girls can be saved in Kamihama?"

Oriko and Kirika both shake their heads.

"I do not recall any dream matching that description," Oriko says.

"Oh well," I say. "I wasn't expecting it anyway, since you gave the same response last time. Okay, if Kirika's not joining us, then I guess our business here is done…? Inui and I will meet a member of the Wings of the Magius tomorrow here in Mitakihara and get her to introduce us."

"Is there anything else we should know?" Oriko asks. "Like how to deal with this organization?"

"I can't think of anything in particular," I say. "But I can answer specific questions if you have any."

Oriko nods. "Then I will be sure to ask you if anything comes up," she says. "Do you have any questions, Kirika?"

"Hmm… no, not really," Kirika says.

"I hope that your infiltration of this… 'Wings of the Magius'… goes well," Oriko says.

"Then, I suppose we'll see you later," I say.

With that, Inui and I get up and leave Oriko's place, heading back to the Hayashi house. I do a quick check on Iroha's progress to make sure she's not going way off the script, but she appears to be at the Coordinator's with Momoko, so it looks like things are going just the same as before.

I meet up with Inui after school the next day, and we head for the haunted house. However, there's no witch there this time. Of course there isn't – Nikola was defeated, and Noriko was saved. I suppose a third witch could've still holed up here, but I guess that didn't happen.

"This… could be a problem," I muse. "If we can't meet Kuroe, then we don't have as good a hook to be introduced to the Magius…"

"There might be other witches around here," Inui suggests. "Should I take a look around?"

"Sure," I say. "Stay within telepathy range. I'll see what Kuroe's actually up to."

So Inui heads off on her own while I scry on Kuroe. Apparently she's still on the train. She gets off just a minute or two later though, and I note the station she disembarked at. As expected, it's in this area of town. It's just a few more minutes before she gasps, looking around for a moment before dashing into an adjacent alleyway. I guess she must've sensed a witch? I follow her progress as she meanders across town, but she doesn't seem to be heading towards the haunted house at all. If anything, I'd say she's heading towards the swimming pool? Surely she didn't sense Itzli…? But she veers off course about halfway there, so it seems my fears are unwarranted.

«I can sense a witch!» Inui says suddenly. «It's to the south, towards your school!»

«Alright, let's follow that one,» I reply. «It looks like Kuroe's in the same area, so she might've even sensed the same witch.»

I head towards Inui's signature. Once I've caught up with her, we track the witch she sensed. Then by some amazing coincidence, we and Kuroe both enter the same alleyway from opposite ends. The witch is here as well, lurking in the middle.

"Ah!" Kuroe gasps, spotting us. "Um… I-I'm sorry… I just thought… I couldn't leave it alone…"

"That's fine," I say. "If we hadn't happened to come along, this witch might have killed more people, right? So I can't really fault you for thinking of fighting her."

"R-right…" Kuroe says. "Um, actually… I can leave it to you…"

"You don't want to fight this witch?" I ask.

"No, well… I'm just… scared," Kuroe says. "What if… what if… my soul gem…"

"You're not new to this, are you?" Inui asks.

"Eh? N-no, I've been a magical girl for… several months now… but back then, I didn't know what I know now…"

"Ah…" Inui says. "I get it. Did you see someone witch out?"

Kuroe blinks at her. "Eh!? Y-you've actually seen it!? I was just… told about it… s-so then, it really is true…"

"Yeah… I have to admit, it's… terrifying," Inui says. "But what can we do? If we give into the fear, we're just going to die faster."

"Ah…" Kuroe says.

"Why don't we go in and fight this witch together?" I suggest. "My name is Ashley Taylor, and this is Itsumi Inui."

"Ah… I'm… Kuroe Asaka," she says. "Um… if you don't mind… then I will be happy to help…"

The witch is an instance of Suleika. We don't even need to search for her – she's right in front of us as soon as we step into the barrier. Perhaps she's newly-matured from a familiar and hasn't yet grown out her labyrinth. She doesn't seem to be very strong, either, so the three of us take her out pretty quickly. Nikola was quite a bit tougher than this. I grab the grief seed and turn to offer it to Kuroe.

"Would you like to use it first?" I ask.

Kuroe checks her soul gem, which is no more than thirty percent polluted.

"Ah… I think I should be fine until I get back to Kamihama," she says. "You go ahead and keep it."

I tilt my head. "Are you sure? I already have some spare grief seeds…"

Kuroe blinks. "R-really!? I've never once had a spare grief seed… you must be really strong!"

I'm about to deny it as I usually do, but then I remember Mary's words and close my mouth. I really don't feel like I'm all that strong though…

"B-by the way, in that battle, was that a connect skill you used?" Kuroe asks. "Where did you learn that? Have you met Miss Mitama too?"

"I learned it from watching Ashley," Inui says.

"I just figured it out on my own," I say.

"O-oh, wow," Kuroe says. "You really are strong… um… say… Miss Taylor… Miss Itsumi… what do you think of the idea of saving magical girls?" Kuroe asks.

"From what?" Inui asks.

"W-well… you seem to know about what happens when the soul gem goes dark," Kuroe says.

"Yes, that's true," I say.

"But, it's not like you want to…?"

"Of course, I don't want to turn into a witch," I agree.

"Then… what if there was a way to ensure you never would?" Kuroe asks.

"I'd be very interested," I say.

"Um… there is a way," Kuroe says. "If you come to Kamihama with me… I can introduce you to the people who have made it possible."

"That sounds very interesting," I say. "Are you suggesting we go right now?"

"Oh, um… I'm sorry," Kuroe says. "I have to do something for my mother, so I'll be going home to Takarazaki tonight… but I could meet you in Kamihama tomorrow!"

"Sure… after school? Where should we meet?" I ask.

"Um… after school is fine," Kuroe says. "How about um… how about we exchange contact info, and I'll send you the location tomorrow?"

I nod. "Sure, sounds good to me."

We whip out our phones and tap them together, and the beep of a successful transfer sounds.

"Um… so… I'll be going now," Kuroe says. "B-but… I'll see you… tomorrow."

"Yes, see you, Miss Kuroe."

With that, she turns, powers down, and runs off. As we too power down, Inui looks at me.

"Somehow it worked out," she says. "I was worried it might be thrown off because I defeated Nikola earlier… but that's a relief."

"Yeah, it is," I agree. "Alright then… looks like we're on track to join the Wings of the Magius again. We don't have Kirika, but in retrospect she wasn't all that helpful last time."

"Yeah, you're right," Inui says. "All she cared about was Oriko…"

I use the grief seed to purify my soul gem, then pass it to Inui who does the same. Then we return to the Hayashi house.

---

After breakfast the following morning, I compose several emails. First is one for Kimiko Anzu to ask if she had managed to locate anything of her sister. Then there's a message for Masuyo Mari, explaining the situation and asking to borrow her sister's grief seed. And finally there's a message to Aki Mabayu, inviting her and Coeurl to the meeting with the Wings of the Magius. I specify one of the train stations on the border of Takarazaki as the meeting place, and a time about twenty minutes later than I expect to get off there.

I don't get any response from Anzu or Mabayu, but Mari almost immediately replies in the affirmative, so just in case I take Fliegende Krake's grief seed along with me in addition to Stacy's, and after fetching Mari's grief seed and eating lunch myself, I show up at Elise's house again. As before, her mother answers the door and shows me into the living room, where Elise is playing a videogame on her super-Switch. Her mother leaves us alone, returning to whatever she was doing when I arrived.

"What is it, Ashley-chan?" Elise asks. "I was going to go witch hunting with the others…"

"Well, I had a special mission for you," I say.

"I'm not sure if I want to hear it," Elise says.

"I'd like you to use your unique magic a few times."

"Did you not understand how it works…?" Elise asks.

"Of course I understand," I reply. "In fact, I wanted to do a test as to whether you can use it without turning into a witch… but we'll be doing it in Kamihama, so even if the test fails you'll only unleash your doppel."

"You're really sure that's safe?" Elise says.

"It's not safe, exactly," I say. "But it's only a little bit dangerous."

"What on earth is that supposed to mean?" Elise asks.

"There should be no danger from unleashing your doppel once or twice," I say.

"Hmm… alright, fine. I'll do it," Elise says. "I guess you want me right now, right?"

"Yeah, preferably."

"I'll message the others first, just a sec…"

"Will they be alright with just the three of them?" I ask.

"What are you talking about?" Elise asks. "They have Shiori-chan too, right?"

I facepalm. "Oh right, I totally forgot about her," I say. "Right, how is she doing? Has she somewhat gotten over her mother's suicide?"

"She's managing," Elise says. "I don't think she's over it, but she's stable. In any case, I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Then let's go."

Elise sets aside her game and heads to the station with me, where I find Inui already waiting. We catch the train to the border of Kamihama. While on the train I finally get an affirmative response from Anzu, indicating she'd obtained a lock of her sister's hair, so I respond asking her to join me after school on Tuesday – the day I expect Madoka to contract. We get off the train at the same place as last time. This time, however, we go witch hunting first, defeating an instance of Zenobia and an instance of Teresa.

"Wait a sec, did we come here to fight witches?" Elise asks.

"I need grief seeds for that test I mentioned," I say. "I'm a bit low on seeds right now, so that's why I decided to get new ones first."

"Ah… okay then," Elise says.

Now that I have two spare grief seeds for the test, I lead the way to the old abandoned construction site. Fortunately there isn't another witch there at the moment, nor any other magical girls. I take out Stacy's grief seed first, along with the two we just got.

"Alright, Elise-chan," I say. "Could you pass me your soul gem?"

"Eh? Um… well, okay," Elise says.

She converts it to gem form and hands it over, and I give her Stacy's grief seed. I bring the other two grief seeds into contact with her soul gem, drawing out what impurities there are within it.

"Alright," I say. "I'm ready. Please begin."

Elise cups the grief seed in her hands and brings them up to press her thumbnails against her forehead, her eyes closed. I can see grief building up in her soul gem despite the two grief seeds still in contact with it – it's building up faster than they can draw it out. However, they are drawing the grief out. Her soul gem is almost completely blackened before it finally stops building up. At that point, the grief seeds take over and draw the grief right back out, leaving her soul gem completely pure again.

Elise opens her eyes and looks at the soul gem now in her hands.

"Huh? Wait… didn't you say something about a doppel?" she says. "Nothing happened…"

"These two grief seeds absorbed all that grief," I say. "I think two is probably not enough, though – it looked like a close call. If you wanted to do this again without unleashing your doppel, or outside the doppel field, I'd recommend having three grief seeds to absorb the grief."

"Ah… I see," Elise says. "But you said there's two more to deal with, so I guess I'll unleash my doppel for those ones, right?"

"Since I don't have enough grief seeds to absorb it all, yeah," I say. "Sorry about that."

"No, it's okay," Elise says. "I'm just happy to learn there's a way to use my power even without relying on this doppel thing. Even if it's not exactly easy to get three whole grief seeds."

After returning her soul gem to her, I hand over Fliegende Krake's grief seed next, and Elise repeats the process. As expected, this time she unleashes her doppel. Inui and I transform to keep the huge dragon in check until it sinks back into her body. Then I hand over Mari's grief seed, and we repeat the process. That leaves me with three soul gems. After inspecting them to make sure I can identify which is which, I stow them away in my bag.

"Would you like to come with us to meet the Wings of the Magius, Elise-chan?"

Elise shakes her head. "No, I'm not particularly interested," she say.

"Would you mind disposing of these two grief seeds for me, then?" I ask.

"You mean with Kyuubey?" Elise says. "Sure."

I hand over the two grief seeds that had absorbed all that grief when she used her skill. They actually seem like they'd be ready to hatch if left alone for a few hours or a day.

"Alright… then we'll see you later," I say. "Since that's where we're going next."

"Alright," Elise says. "Seeya."

With that, she turns to leave. Inui turns to face me.

"Are you going to unleash your doppel again like last time?" she asks.

"No," I say. "I did that only because I wanted to scry on someone at an unknown distance. I don't think there's much point in scrying on them again."

"Huh… right, someone outside of the universe, I think you said…"

"By the way, now that we're alone in a place Kyuubey can't find us, I suppose I owe you an explanation," I say.

"Huh?" Inui says.

"You know, about my past?" I say. "I'll just give you the basics, because there's still a chance I'd have to say it again."

"No, even if you go back again, I'm coming with you!" Inui protests.

"I certainly hope so," I say. "Anyway, setting that aside… I was born as Chelsea Flanders in another world. It was a world very similar to this world around a quarter century ago, but without magical girls… or at least, I'm pretty sure they didn't exist, though I guess I can't be certain. The Holy Quintet – Miss Tomoe, Miss Sakura, Madoka, Miss Miki, and Miss Homura – were the main characters of a popular anime. Many of the magical girls I've met on this island are characters from spin-off works of the original anime. That even includes Ashley Taylor – when I somehow ended up in this world, I was fused with her."

"Huh," Inui says. "Well… that's not too far off the theory I'd already pieced together, mostly from things Mary said, but… the main thing that never even occurred to me is that your predictions of the future come from an otherworldly work of fiction. Still… it explains those posters quite nicely…"

"Well, that's how it is," I say.

"Say, was I a character somewhere in there too?"

"You were a minor named NPC who appeared and quickly died off in a side story featuring Nagisa," I say.

"Ehhh… sorry I asked," Inui says.

"Anyway… let's go meet up with Kuroe," I say.

We return to the station and find a surprise waiting for us. Coeurl is there, hanging out in front of the station, and she waves as soon as she spots us. She seems to be alone – I don't see Mabayu anywhere.

"There you are!" she says. "I thought you'd be getting off the train, what are you doing over there? Did I come late and miss the whole thing?"

"No, you're fine," I say. "The reason I cited this as a meeting place is because we planned to stop here for some other business first, which we've finished now."

"Oh, gotcha," Coeurl says.

So we get back on the train, disembarking at a station in Kosho Ward. Recalling what happened last time, we stop off at Chiaki's for some croquettes. As before, Riko isn't there. Then we head for the arranged meeting place. When we arrive at the park, Kuroe's already waiting, sitting on a park bench… and she's not alone. Mifuyu is with her as well, sitting next to her on the bench.

"Good afternoon, Miss Kuroe!" I call.

She shoots to her feet and turns to face us, waiting for us to reach her.

"G-good afternoon," she says. "Um… let me introduce… Azusa Mifuyu."

Mifuyu stands up and bows.

"Nice to meet you," she says. "I am Azusa Mifuyu."

"Nice to meet you too," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor, an exchange student in Mitakihara."

"I'm Itsumi Inui," Inui says.

"You can call me Coeurl," Coeurl says.

"Kuroe-chan told me you were interested in what we're doing here in Kamihama," Mifuyu says. "Would you like to join the Wings of the Magius?"

"That depends," I say. "I'd be a fool to join without knowing anything about you."

"That's understandable," Mifuyu says. "According to Kuroe-chan, you already know the secret of the soul gem, correct? The cruel fate of magical girls?"

"Yes, that we'll turn into witches," I say.

"We are working on a way to avert that fate," Mifuyu explains. "There is a prototype of an automatic purification system already set up here in Kamihama, and the goal of the Magius is to expand that to the entire planet. That's why we are gathering magical girls here. Strong ones are especially welcome."

"Ashley's pretty strong!" Inui says.

I'm about to deny it as I usually do, but then Mary's words come back to me and I close my mouth without saying anything.

"So, are you interested?" Mifuyu asks.

"Well… I don't intend to ever turn into a witch anyway, but having some insurance can't be a bad thing," I say. "Alright… count me in."

"I'm in too," Inui says.

"It sounds kinda suspicious," Coeurl says. "But if it's really true, that would be amazing, so I guess I'd say I'm interested, yeah."

Mifuyu nods. "In that case, I'll show you to the base we've just set up. By the way… those croquettes you're eating, they wouldn't happen to be from Chiaki's, would they?"

"They are," I say.

"Did you speak with their daughter?"

"Not today, no," I say. "We've met once before, though."

"I see… this is a request from a friend of mine, but we don't wish to bring her into the Wings of the Magius," Mifuyu says. "Because, to do so we would have to tell her the cruel truth…"

"Yeah… I understand," I say. "Let her dream a little or something… right?"

"Yes… thank you for your understanding," Mifuyu says. "We prefer to only recruit magical girls who have already discovered that truth."

She leads us to the current entrance in the old railway yard, using her pendant to open the way for us to step through. She and Kuroe follow us inside, and we spend a few moments staring up at the huge building before us.

"Welcome to Hotel Fendt Hope," Mifuyu says. "If you wish, you may stay here, or if you prefer to remain with your family out of town, you are welcome to continue living with them as well. Right now there are only a few of us, but we are recruiting new members every day."

"Huh, this is a pretty elaborate barrier," Coeurl says. "This was all made by one magical girl?"

"Pretty much," Mifuyu says.

She and Kuroe flash into Magius robes – a black robe for Kuroe and a white robe for Mifuyu. Kuroe puts her hood up and pulls it forward, hiding her face, but Mifuyu leaves her hood down.

"These are our feather robes," Mifuyu explains. "We usually wear them when we are here at Fendt Hope, as well as when we are performing duties for the Magius. They are enchanted to store themselves into our soul gems, so we can pull them out at any time."

She pauses, perhaps to give us a chance to ask questions, but we've both been here before, so we have nothing to ask. For her part, Coeurl doesn't seem at all weirded out by the robes.

"Let's go inside," Mifuyu says. "I should at least introduce you to the Magius. They can give you a better idea of the 'duties' I mentioned earlier."

Without further ado, she walks up to the front door and pushes it open, holding it for us to step through. I look around the lobby, trying to identify the six magical girls currently present. The white feather is clearly Sue, the same as last time. The green-haired black feather looks like Hifumi Chiyoko. The redheaded black feather seems to be Megumi Moka, and the brown-haired black feather seems to be the one who went by Hana in the previous timeline. I also recognize Yaeko Mana, the one had a little sister who had turned into a witch, who she called Kuro. The last black feather isn't anyone I recognize.

"Oh, Mifuyu!" Sue says.

She jumps up and runs over to greet us with a bow.

"Are these more new recruits?" she asks.

"Yes indeed," Mifuyu says.

"Nice to meet you!" Sue says. "You can call me Sue… it's a nickname, but it helps to have something to address me by, right?"

"Sure… nice to meet you, Sue," I say.

"I'd like to take them to meet the Magius," Mifuyu says. "Do you know if they're in right now?"

"I think Lady Nemu is with the flute sisters," Sue says. "And I haven't seen Lady Alina yet today… but Lady Touka should be in her office."

"Alright, then that's where we'll be going," Mifuyu says. "Please follow me. Kuroe-chan, you don't need to come if you don't want to."

"Th-then I'll stay here," Kuroe says.

She makes for an unoccupied couch and plops herself down on it with a sigh. Mifuyu makes for the stairs and leads the three of us up to the top floor, where she knocks on one of the doors.

"Come in!" an irate voice says from within.

Mifuyu pushes the door open and steps inside. Satomi Touka sits behind a desk at the far wall, clad in the black and brown dress of her magical girl outfit.

"Good afternoon, Touka," Mifuyu says. "I've brought some new recruits."

"Again?" Touka says. "Excellent! How many does that make now?"

"Um, let me think," Mifuyu says. "I think they'd bring our numbers to twenty-four? Or was it twenty-five? I feel like I'm missing one…"

«Hey, did you notice?» Inui says. «That's one more than the numbers she said last time… so there might already be someone who's new?»

«Though she doesn't seem confident on the numbers, either,» I point out.

«That's true,» Inui says.

"That's an average of six per day," Touka says. "At this rate, we could easily reach two hundred members in just a month… so, what do you want from me?"

"I'm still not quite clear on the situation," Mifuyu says. "So I'd like you to handle explaining it again."

The explanation is pretty much identical to last time. Inui even interjects with mostly the same comments and questions, and I still point out the interplanetary hole in her plan. Since Kirika's not here, her questions from the previous timeline go unasked and unanswered – Coeurl doesn't appear to share Kirika's concerns.

"Are there any more questions?" Touka asks when she's done explaining.

"I don't have any," I say.

"None from me either," Inui says.

"I do have one question," Coeurl says. "Have you been considering ways of reducing the energy requirements? This system is amazing but it seems a tad inefficient…"

"That's an excellent question," Touka says. "I would have to say it will take a lot more study of the system before we can start improving the efficiency. Right now, it is all very new and poorly-understood. Of course, we'll certainly work on it at some point in the future."

"I see… I guess that makes sense," Coeurl says.

"Then the only remaining issue would be whether you should be white or black feathers," Mifuyu says.

"The blonde ones seem pretty strong," Touka says. "Make them white feathers. The other one… yeah, let's just go with black."

"Understood," Mifuyu says. "Come with me, and I'll assign each of you a robe and a room."

She rises and heads out of Touka's office, and leads us to another room where a whole bunch of feather robes are stored. She takes down two white ones and a black one and hands them out.

"For now, put them on," Mifuyu says. "Then you can practice summoning them whenever you want."

We put the robes on. I don't experiment with flashing them off and on like last time, as I'm already quite practiced with that. Coeurl does give it a try though, and seems to get the hang of it pretty quickly.

"Impressive!" Mifuyu says. "You're probably the first to actually master that…"

"Huh?" Coeurl says. "Is it really that impressive…? Is storing things in your soul gem that uncommon?"

"Well, I at least had never heard of the practice before Nemu and Touka suggested it," Mifuyu says.

"Do we have to put our hoods up?" Inui asks.

"It's not required," Mifuyu says. "In fact there isn't even a rule that you must wear the robe. However, the reason we decided to create these robes is that some of the magical girls are… how should I put it… a little shy? They don't want people seeing their faces. It was Nemu's idea actually… she also proposed the basics of the design."

"Well, I guess I'll leave it up for now," Inui says.

With that, she puts her hood up, though without pulling it way forward to conceal her face, and does a twirl.

"How does it look, Ashley?"

"I'm really not sure why you're asking, but it's fine," I say. "By the way, Miss Mifuyu, could I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Although Sue referred to the three Magius as 'lady', you just used Touka's given name. Is there a reason for that?"

"Ah… yes," Mifuyu says. "I was the first one to join, after all… and besides, Touka and Nemu are close to eight years younger than me, so it just doesn't feel right to address them as 'lady'. Alina's only two or three years younger, but using it on only one of them also wouldn't feel right. That said… there's no requirement to address them as 'lady', either. The recruits started doing that on their own, out of respect."

"I see… that makes sense," I say. "Thank you for the detailed explanation. And… there's definitely only three Magius?"

Mifuyu nods. "Yes, there are just the three of them."

"Also, are you really sure about their plan?" I ask. "What'll you do if it turns out things don't work as they hoped? Or if they start doing unconscionable things to reach their goal?"

"Well, I'll cross that bridge if we come to it," Mifuyu says. "For now, the miracle of the doppel has been enough to convince me that their plan is sound. Okay… next, let me show you to the underground chapel."

Coeurl tilts her head. "The what now?"

Mifuyu nods. "It's where Eve is kept," she says. "You'll need to visit the chapel regularly to get used to the environment down there."

"What do you mean?" Coeurl asks.

"You'll see once we get there," Mifuyu says.

She leads us back down to the lobby, and then we take the flight of stairs leading even further down.

"Ugh, I hate this feeling," Inui says. "Like some really heavy weight pressing down on me…"

"This is… unusually intense impurities?" Coeurl muses.

Coeurl doesn't seem to be affected much by the thick impurities.

"That's what I mean about the environment," Mifuyu says. "This is the centre of the automatic purification system. What that means is that the impurities taken from magical girls across the city are all gathered here in this one place… which leads to that heavy sensation. The reason we'd like you to visit here regularly is to get acclimated to it. The experience should make you stronger."

After descending in silence for a little while, we finally emerge into the chapel, and I gaze up at the imposing figure of Eve. Just to be quite sure, I confirm the presence of Ui's body with my clairvoyance, trapped within the largest red gemstone on the creature's chest. Then I bring my eyes down to gaze at Alina, sitting at the tea table in her magical girl form, sipping at a cup of tea and gazing up at Eve.

"Ah, so this is where you were, Alina," Mifuyu says.

Alina turns to face us.

"What's this?" she asks. "More new recruits?"

"That's correct," Mifuyu says.

"Two more white feathers, huh…"

Inui doesn't repeat her questions from the previous timeline, but apparently Alina feels like boasting anyway.

"So how do you like our half-witch?" she asks. "Our masterpiece, Eve, which makes the automatic purification system possible. We discovered it entirely by chance… and when she hatches, a truly stupendous amount of energy will be released, enough to expand the system to the entire planet."

"That's so…" Inui says.

"By the way, will our grief seeds be okay in this place?" I ask.

Mifuyu gasps. "Ah! My apologies!" she says. "Most of the girls who joined didn't have any grief seeds, so I completely forgot to ask… yes, if you have others, we should get out of here before they hatch. They should be okay for a few minutes as long as they're not directly exposed to the impure air, and proximity to your body will shield them somewhat, but… they've probably already absorbed some of the impurities here."

"Here's a little word of advice," Alina says. "If you have any grief seeds, leave them in your room before coming down here."

"Guess it's a good thing I don't have any on me," Coeurl says.

So we turn and head back up, and as before, Alina decides to join us. She ends up leading the way, stomping up the stairs.

"Are you planning to gather more witches today, Alina?" Mifuyu asks.

"No, this time I'm checking that Mirror Witch out," Alina says. "It sounds like an incredible witch, so I've just got to see it with my own eyes."

"Be careful about that one, Alina," Mifuyu says. "It's a very strong witch, and we've had people get lost forever in there. There are even reports of people who venture inside acting strange."

"I'm sure that will all be a piece of cake for the great Alina," Alina retorts. "But I will exercise a little caution. After all, I cannot allow your perfect body to be marred by worry."

"R-right…"

Once we return to the ground floor, I make sure all my grief seeds and cubes are okay. I don't see much of a difference in them, though. I think they've absorbed a little grief, but not enough to make an appreciable difference.

"Um, I have another question," Coeurl says.

"Go ahead," Mifuyu says.

"Is there a way I could try it?"

Mifuyu tilts her head. "Sorry… try what?"

"That doppel thing," Coeurl says.

Mifuyu blinks.

"Ah… well… you certainly can, but you'll need to cloud up your soul gem first…"

"Yeah, I got that," Coeurl says. "So, is there somewhere I could try it right now?"

"There's the training grounds out back," Mifuyu says. "I'll show you the way… there shouldn't be many people there right now."

She leads the way into one of the wings, then takes us out a back door onto an open courtyard of bare, hard dirt. The only person there is the Instructor, who looks up and nods in greeting.

"Good afternoon," she says.

"This is the Instructor," Mifuyu says. "She's planning to teach some techniques later, so you can look forward to that. She's also third-in-command, after me and the Magius."

"Ah, nice to meet you," Coeurl says.

"What brings you here, Mifuyu?" San asks.

"This new recruit wanted to try unleashing her doppel," Mifuyu says. "Though I'm not sure if she'll be able to do it so suddenly…"

"It's okay," Coeurl says. "All I have to do is imagine something really, really awful, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Mifuyu says.

She walks out into the middle of the courtyard, while San comes over to stand by the wall with us. Turning to face us, Coeurl closes her eyes. We wait about thirty seconds before it happens. Her doppel bursts out of her like a black cloud and encases her body, building up something that resembles a giant mecha. But for the horribly clashing colour scheme and several rather eldritch-looking protrusions, it could have easily walked right out of a popular mecha show like Gridman. As usual, floating curls of smoke spell out the name in witch runes. This one looks like a model number: 'VXKKL 9929'. Digits in a witch or doppel name are pretty uncommon – the only others I can think of off the top of my head are San's doppel and the Witch of Symbols.

"That's odd," Mifuyu muses. "According to Touka, the doppel is usually separate from the magical girl… since I am the only exception she's seen, she theorized it might be because of my age, but… Coeurl is clearly younger than I am…"

I don't feel like being the one to explain Coeurl's true age, so I remain silent. We watch for a little while as the mecha flails about as if at imaginary enemies, and then it finally breaks up and dissipates. Coeurl lands on the ground with a grunt.

"That was… very weird," she gasps. "Very, very weird…"

"You seem to be fortunate," Mifuyu says. "A lot of magical girls pass out the first time they unleash their doppel…"

"I think I actually did for a moment there," Coeurl says. "That was quite a strange experience…"

"Alright, if you're satisfied with your experiment, let me assign you a room," Mifuyu says. "Even if you don't stay in it every night, it will be useful to have."

She leads us back inside, heading up to the second floor.

"We assign two to each room," Mifuyu continues. "That means two of you can share a room, if you'd like. I could assign you all to different rooms, but that would only mean you get a roommate later on."

"No, I'll share with Ashley!" Inui says.

"Alright," Mifuyu says. "I'll give the three of you your first assignment by the end of the week. Normally it would be sooner, but we're still in the early stages of working out what we need you to do, so…"

"Yeah, I get that," Inui says.

"Will you be staying tonight?" Mifuyu asks.

"I think I should stay in Mitakihara most nights," I say. "I don't want to make the people I'm staying with worry too much…"

"I think I'll move in here," Inui says. "Not tonight, but… maybe starting next weekend?"

Mifuyu nods, ushering the two of us into the room she's chosen for us, while Coeurl waits in the hall.

"If you'd like, I'll leave you to settle in here," she says. "Feel free to leave whenever you want. When you return, you can use the pendant on your robes to gain access. Think of it as a key. I'll give Coeurl the room next to yours."

Huh? Interesting… last time, Kirika was with Tomomi in the room across the hall, not the adjacent room. Does that mean Tomomi has a different roommate already? Although there's also a chance she's not here at all, and two entirely different girls are using that room.

"Alright, thanks," I say.

Inui and I enter the room and shut the door behind us.

"Knowing what happened last time totally changes my viewpoint," Inui says. "They're super-shady. Though I'm a bit surprised Mifuyumin is already open to rebellion…"

"Well, her priority is the girls," I say. "So I don't think she's ever been blindly loyal to the Magius, nor even to the cause of liberation…"

"Yeah, Mifuyumin is still really nice," Inui says. "Alina isn't as mean as she was later on… I don't know if that's because of the Mirror Witch like you suggested, though…"

"I hate to say this, but her being affected by the Mirror Witch will also make her the key to eventually defeating it," I say. "So I don't want to interfere with her explorations…"

"Hmm… you're saying that being affected by it and recovering would give her a unique insight, or something?" Inui says. "I can't say I'm happy about that idea, but I don't think I could stop her from exploring even if I wanted to, so… I guess…"

"So, are you going to transfer to Kosho Academy again?" I ask.

"Yeah, same as last time," she says. "I'll get Mifuyumin to talk to Dad and everything. Then I'll try to get to know as many members as I can, without arousing suspicions of course. Maybe we can recruit even more than last time."

"Yeah," I say. "At the very least, we can probably rope in Tomomi-chan and Maimai earlier. Maybe the Mitakihara trio too, though I'm not really sure about them…"

"Alright, we might as well go home for now," Inui says.

We leave the place, heading across the lawn and exiting back into the city. I quickly store the robe in my soul gem, and Inui follows my example. We make a detour to Kosho Academy to grab the transfer papers, and then we catch a train back to Mitakihara. On the way, I text Mari to let her know we're coming, and once we've reached Mitakihara, we get off at a stop closer to her place and head over there. I hand over the original Mari's soul gem, and the conversation is pretty much the same as last time. Then we head back to the Hayashi house, where I put the two other newly-restored soul gems in a safe place. I could take them to Asunaro tomorrow, but I'd prefer to get more things done at the same time, so I'm going to wait until Madoka contracts. That means I have Sunday off to laze around and rest, or perhaps get a few extra grief seeds.

---

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.

Aki Mabayu
愛生まばゆ

Age: 16
Eye Colour: Purple
Hair Colour: Green
Origins: Takarazaki, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Black film reel
Soul Gem: Purple circular gemstone on left hip
Element: Null
Weapon: Golden scissors
Powers: Temporal splice, viewing alternate timelines
Wish: Unknown

Speed: 7
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 2
Defensive Power: 3
Initial Power Usability: 4
Learned Powers: 5

Coeurl

Age: 62 (appears 16)
Eye Colour: Red
Hair Colour: Blonde
Origins: Planet Terminus, 800,000 years in the future
Symbol: Twisted ourobouros (infinity sign)
Soul Gem: Diamond-shaped navy gemstone on the back of her right hand
Element: Light
Weapon: Twin katanas
Powers: Magic reflect, teleport
Wish: "I want the power to defeat the enemy!"
Affiliation: Wings of the Magius (rank: White Feather)

Speed: 10
Magical Stamina: 10
Offensive Power: 10
Defensive Power: 0
Initial Power Usability: 10
Learned Powers: 2

Takara Shiori
宝栞

Age: 16
Eye Colour: Green
Hair Colour: Brown
Origins: Mitakihara, Shinriku Prefecture, Japan
Symbol: Yellow spiderweb
Soul Gem: Square yellow gem on her navel
Element: Light
Weapon: Ruled staff
Powers: Threads, wind
Wish: "I want Mother removed from my life."

Speed: 6
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 4
Defensive Power: 6
Initial Power Usability: 6
Learned Powers: 0 (unknown)

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Doppel Corner

Whenever a new magical girl unleashes her doppel, I'll include a doppel description here. Note that most of these are direct quotes from the Magia Record game rather than being written by me; they are simply reproduced here for interest. I'll mark any original doppels with a dagger symbol (†).

VXKKL 9929† (Coeurl)

The Doppel of finality. Its form is a mecha. The master of this Doppel is concerned about the impending end of existence, and as a result, the Doppel devotes itself to ending everything it can see. Only its bad eyesight prevents it from single-handedly destroying the world.

---

After watching Arc 2 Chapter 6, I learned that Yukuni is a port town, so I had to relocate it on my private map, which necessitated a few minor updates where the city was referenced in previous chapters. I roughly swapped it with Matsumiya, so some references to that town have also been changed.

I also noticed a couple of contradictions in previous chapters. In chapter 67, Mifuyu said Tomomi had just joined that day, but then noted she'd had a "couple of days" to calm down, which doesn't really make sense; so I changed it to "couple of hours" instead. I also noticed they were going "down" from the ground floor to the second floor at one point, which obviously makes no sense. There was also a note in chapter 89 that Ashley had Stacy's grief seed before she'd even fought her, which I just removed.