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.

97. Too Many Hopes to Shoulder Alone

When I heard the story of the forty-seventh president of the United States of America, I thought it sounded a lot like the work of a magical girl, so I tracked her down to interview her about it. Miss Gonzalez-Ruiz was very receptive to my questions and supportive of the idea of revealing the existence of magical girls to the public, and the full interview is included in the appendix, but this quote is the main thing that stood out to me.

"I don't want people to think that I wished to become the president. I didn't make such a simple wish," she explained. "There would be no point to becoming the president through magical means. What I wished for was the power to dispel prejudice, so that the people could see me for who I truly was. My plan was to give it a try myself, and if the people didn't like me, then I'd give up on my dream and settle for supporting someone else instead."

~Excerpt from "Magical Girls: Their Hope and Despair"~
~by Professor Satomi Tasuke, Ph.D~

---

When I wake up the next morning, I open a vision on Yachiyo to find out what she's up to. To my surprise, I find her already waiting outside the café that she met Kanagi at in the previous timeline, accompanied by a nervous-looking Kuroe with Mokyu perched on her shoulder.

I get out of bed and get dressed and everything, while waiting for Kanagi to appear. It's not until I'm actually at the table eating breakfast that she finally shows up.

---

"Ah, there you are," Kanagi says. "Nanami! It's been far too long. And…"

She looks at Kuroe, and blinks once.

"You… seem somehow familiar," she says.

Kuroe slides behind Yachiyo to avoid her gaze.

"Her name is Kuroe Asaka," Yachiyo says. "She's a black feather I picked up who happens to be looking for the same rumour."

"Why would a black feather be looking for a rumour?" Kanagi wonders. "Are you working with Taylor-kun too?"

"A-ah, um… y-yes…?" Kuroe says.

"I see," Kanagi says. "Nice to meet you, Kuroe-kun. Shall we go inside?"

The three of them enter the café and order drinks, or at least, Yachiyo and Kanagi order drinks. Yachiyo then summarizes the current state of affairs as succinctly as she can.

"So Yui-kun was taken, and even Togame went missing," Kanagi says. "I'm sure that was tough on you, Nanami."

"It was," Yachiyo says. "I have to admit, I'm a little worried about them, too… Momoko is at least as strong as Tsuruno, so I can't believe she was defeated that easily…"

"U-um… d-did you say… Momoko…?" Kuroe speaks up.

"Yes, have you heard word of her?" Kanagi asks.

"Ah, um… she's also… working with Ashley Taylor," Kuroe says. "So, um… I don't think you need to worry about her…"

"I see, so Togame has made a move on her own," Kanagi says. "She should have waited… but I'm sure she has her reasons."

"And, um… I heard that… Yui Tsuruno… was taken to the Coordinator's place last night," Kuroe says. "She might… still be there…?"

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Yachiyo asks. "Is she okay?"

"I… I only heard this morning!" Kuroe says. "W-when Inui emailed me… she mentioned it… b-but it seems she's… not really okay… Miss Taylor thinks she might need to be treated by Miss Tamaki…"

"Then that makes finding Iroha even more urgent!" Yachiyo says. "So, let's get down to the main topic. Would you mind helping me locate her? And once I find her… I'm going to take on the Wings of the Magius."

"Oh, I'd be honoured," Kanagi says. "I'll freely offer my services every time if it's to take down the Wings of the Magius."

"That's a relief," Yachiyo says.

"W-what've the Wings of the Magius done to you, anyway?" Kuroe wonders.

"They've been quite the thorn in my side," Kanagi says. "They've stolen quite a few of my friends, starting with the ones in Kosho Ward. Until yesterday, I was running out of ideas on how to tackle this issue all by myself. I'm lucky that you called me, Nanami. I'll gladly lend a hand."

"There are really that many magical girls joining up?" Yachiyo says.

"Yes," Kanagi says. "In fact, most of the magical girls in the east are black or white feathers now."

"I see," Yachiyo says.

"Sorry to cut to the chase," Kanagi says. "But how exactly would you like me to assist you? I'll tell you all I know."

"Thank you," Yachiyo says. "Have you been investigating rumours by any chance, Kanagi?"

"Of course," Kanagi says. "Rumours are their greatest weakness. It would be unwise to leave them unexamined."

"Then please, tell us all you've learned," Yachiyo says.

"Of course, but why?" Kanagi asks.

Yachiyo takes out the map that Konomi annotated and shows it to her.

"This shows all the rumours I know about," Yachiyo says.

"Interesting," Kanagi says. "There is a vacant spot in Kosho Ward."

"Yes," Yachiyo says. "We wanted to add your information to the map, to check if it really forms a circle."

"Hmm… there aren't many," Kanagi says. "But I did note some. Let me check. Do the different colours mean anything?"

Yachiyo explains Konomi's logic behind the colours, and Kanagi sets about marking down all the many rumours she's encountered or heard about.

"Ah, incredible," Kanagi says.

"There really is a blank spot in Kosho Ward," Yachiyo says. "That could be where their base is…"

"Excellent deduction, Nanami," Kanagi says. "I believe it should be around there, yes. What do you say, Kuroe-kun?"

"Ah, um… technically… I guess you could say it's there?" she says. "I… I don't think it's that simple, though…"

"Right," Yachiyo says. "Some of the other feathers I questioned told me the entrance moves around… so, maybe it was there initially and has moved on since then… besides that, it's too early to tell if this is a location they're protecting or hiding. Still, we may have caught a lead of some kind. The only problem is… will this lead us to Iroha? Is it possible that the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura is here? What's in the middle of this circle, Kanagi?"

"My guess is it's the old railway yard," Kanagi says. "People warn their children not to go there since it's dangerous. However… there are no trees in the area. It doesn't seem a likely place for the rumour you're seeking."

"If it's a hidden rumour, then it wouldn't be enough just to not spread it," Yachiyo muses. "It would have to be in a place where few people go…"

"Such as the mountains in Hokuyo Ward," Kanagi suggests.

She indicates the region on the map, running her finger from St Lilliana's to Moo-Moo Farm.

"Yes, that would seem like a good guess," Yachiyo says. "But it doesn't narrow it down very much at all…"

"Indeed," Kanagi says. "There is quite a lot of ground to cover, and searching through the mountains would be quite difficult…"

"Well, I have all day," Yachiyo says. "So we should get going as soon as possible. And since the railway yard is on the way, we may as well check it out as well, just in case. You have school, so you won't be joining us, right, Kanagi?"

"I think I can spare enough time to check the railway yard, at least," Kanagi says. "After that, I'll leave you on your own, Nanami."

"Then let's get going right now," Yachiyo says.

They finish their drinks and leave the café, heading for the old railway yard. Unlike the last time, they spend the walk mostly in silence – without Iroha or Momoko to carry a conversation, the remaining members seemingly have nothing to say.

"So, is this where you enter the base?" Yachiyo asks.

"U-um… yes, it used to be," Kuroe says. "B-but…"

She steps over to where the entrance used to be and dons her black feather robes, but the portal of Fendt Hope does not appear.

"As I thought… t-they moved it," she says.

"So they aren't here anymore," Yachiyo says. "Or could it be… you're lying to me, Miss Kuroe?"

"E-ehh!?" Kuroe gasps. "N-no, I… I w-wouldn't dare…!"

"How do I know you're not just putting on a show?" Yachiyo says. "Maybe the entrance is over there and you're just pretending it was here!"

She points in a random direction.

"Don't be like that, Ya-chan."

Yachiyo spins to face the speaker, obviously Mifuyu, as she emerges from further inside the railway yard. There's just an iron gate between the two of them now, held shut by chains.

"If you look so scary, she won't be able to tell you anything," Mifuyu points out.

"M-m-m-miss M-mifuyu!?" Kuroe gasps. "Ah, um… t-t-this isn't what it looks like!"

"I'm not worried about that, Miss Kuroe," Mifuyu says. "I won't tell anyone that you and Ya-chan were here together, rest assured."

"Mifuyu!" Yachiyo shouts.

"It's been awhile, Ya-chan," Mifuyu says. "We were expecting you to show up here soon, but it seems we underestimated your tenacity, so the trap that Alina was planning to spring will have to go to waste."

"How dare you show your face around me again!" Yachiyo shouts.

"Well, I showed myself because I wanted to talk to you," Mifuyu says.

"I'm not interested in excuses," Yachiyo retorts.

As they speak, Kuroe surreptitiously puts a little distance between herself and Yachiyo.

"Maybe the Magius can be a little rough," Mifuyu admits. "Still, we need to stop any more magical girls from being victims."

She easily hops over the fence, landing next to Yachiyo.

"Don't lie to me!" Yachiyo shouts. "Who are you sacrificing, and who are you saving!? Who chose Iroha as a victim!?"

"We didn't choose anybody!" Mifuyu protests. "It was an accident. I never thought…"

"You can't expect me to believe that," Yachiyo mutters menacingly.

"Please, listen to me!" Mifuyu says. "If the Magius's plan works, then weak magical girls like me and Miss Tamaki won't have to die!"

Yachiyo steps up to Mifuyu and slams her hand against the iron gate, bending one of the bars.

"She's not dead!" she shouts. "Iroha's not dead! She promised she wouldn't die!"

"Y-ya-chan, I didn't want…"

"If Iroha died, it was because of my wish," Yachiyo says.

She backs away, looking at the soul gem enshrined upon her ring. Mifuyu's eyes widen, a hint of fear showing as she sees the look on Yachiyo's face.

"I've had enough of all that!" Yachiyo shouts. "I'll make you pay… all of you, the Magius, and you personally, Mifuyu!"

But just as Yachiyo about to transform, Kanagi steps in and lays a hand on her shoulder. She has transformed at some point while I wasn't paying attention to her.

"Nanami, don't you think you're going a little too far?" she says. "Poor Azusa is terrified."

"T-thank you very much, Miss Kanagi," Mifuyu says. "But… if it'll help to get through to Ya-chan, then…"

"Before that, Azusa, could you answer one question?" Kanagi says. "What is the purpose of summoning Walpurgisnacht?"

Mifuyu gasps. "H-how did you hear about that!?" she asks. "Did the Amane twins leak it…? Other than me, them, and the Magius, and possibly Miss Tomoe… I don't think anyone else knew about that plan…"

"So it's true, then," Kanagi says. "What is the purpose?"

"I… to be honest, I'm not too happy about it either," Mifuyu says. "Still… we need a lot more energy to expand the doppel field… and a witch on the scale of Walpurgisnacht represents a prodigious amount of energy… or, so the Magius say."

"I… I have one question, too," Yachiyo says. "Where is the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura?"

Mifuyu blinks. "I don't understand… how do you know about those two things? Even the Amane twins don't know about the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura… but unfortunately, even if I wanted to help you, I don't know the answer to your question. I only know it exists. The Magius use it as a back entrance to Fendt Hope, but I don't know where to find it."

Suddenly Yachiyo transforms, gently pushing Kanagi aside as she points her halberd at Mifuyu, who transforms too in response, letting out a sigh.

"So you won't even try to understand," she says.

"Nanami… do you mind if I leave the rest to you?" Kanagi asks.

"Go ahead," Yachiyo says. "I'll call you later if I need you."

"Then, Azusa, I will be taking my leave," Kanagi says. "However… allow me to say one last thing before I go. Azusa… it appears you are fooling yourself. That is all."

With that, she powers down and turns to leave the scene.

"Fooling myself… how ironic," Mifuyu mutters. "To think you'd choose now of all times to say that…"

She backs off as Yachiyo suddenly presses the attack with her halberd, leaping into the air and perching on top of the railway yard's fence.

"It was Kyuubey who forced us to choose!" she says. "He forced us to make the choice before we knew how important it was, or how we couldn't take it back."

Ignoring her words, Yachiyo flings her halberd at Mifuyu, who summons her melee chakram to smack it aside. Then Yachiyo leaps after it, nearly impaling her, but Mifuyu manages to barely dodge and match blows with her, even while perched precariously atop the railway yard's fence.

"We won't abandon our fellow magical girls!" Mifuyu shouts. "That's how we feel in the Wings of the Magius! Everyone shares those feelings! We've always been like that, so why… why… why is everything always taken from us!?"

Just before she finishes speaking, Yachiyo finally manages to get her to lose her balance, and as she falls to the ground below, her soul gem clouds up and her doppel sprouts up out of her mouth. It's an elaborate construction of various cloths in garish colours, like a helmet built for a giant, with two horns spreading out from the sides. Mifuyu herself is almost lost amidst the garish shades. The witch runes floating in the air spell out the name, Hevelius, and a swarm of small kite-like creatures emerge from the depths of the doppel and throw themselves at Yachiyo.

"A doppel!?" Yachiyo gasps.

As Mifuyu and her doppel take to the air, firing a constant stream of those kites at her, Yachiyo jumps down from the fence and retreats into the depths of the railway yard, dodging around a rail car, then throwing up a barrier with her halberds to divert the never-ending missiles. Kuroe hops over the gate too and follows them, nervously holding back to a safe distance.

Yachiyo leaps up from the safety of her barrier, swinging her halberd and diving straight into the heart of the doppel. Kuroe gasps as Mifuyu and her doppel are thrown back, smashing straight through one of the empty rail cars sitting on the tracks, but something in the impact also propels Yachiyo back a little, separating the two of them. Mifuyu summons up a new round of those kites, surrounding the two of them so thickly that Kuroe is masked from sight completely.

From the rapid play of expressions across Yachiyo's face, and the slowly increasing grief in her soul gem, it's clear that, despite not moving an inch, the two of them are communicating telepathically. Or, perhaps it's only Mifuyu broadcasting at Yachiyo, for after a pause Yachiyo suddenly starts shouting.

"You and Iroha are nothing alike!" she shouts. "You're only talking about yourself! Iroha is different! Iroha only cares about others!"

Her voice begins to shake as she continues in a quieter tone of voice.

"It… it was my wish… I chose Iroha as a victim… but Iroha isn't like you. She's not like you at all!"

With that, Yachiyo unleashes her doppel and pounces upon Mifuyu. For several seconds the two of them circle each other, Campanella pouncing while Hevelius dodges. The old railway cars left in the yard, and the tracks themselves, suffer great damage from all the missed attacks. But then Yachiyo summons up a massive wave of water behind her, and Mifuyu is an iota too slow to get out of the way. They finally make contact, crushing Hevelius so badly that it disintegrates and pinning Mifuyu's body to the ground.

"Farewell, Mifuyu," Yachiyo says.

However, there's a strange, unnatural quality to her voice, almost as if it's the doppel speaking and not Yachiyo. In support of that theory, I notice that a white mask is pasted across Yachiyo's face.

"It hurts to see how weak you are. That's why you became a victim. Everything is taken from you because you're weak. You suffer because you're weak. You're helpless because you're weak. Farewell. Farewell, weak Mifuyu."

As the tail of the scorpion-like doppel swings around and is on the verge of crushing Mifuyu's head, it suddenly stops an inch away from her, and the white mask peels away from Yachiyo's face.

"N-no!" Yachiyo gasps, her voice back to normal. "No, this isn't me! I don't want to sacrifice you either!"

As she rejects her doppel's conclusion, it loses its substance and is absorbed back into her body. Kuroe steps forward as Mifuyu gets to her feet and looks around. The railway yard is a total mess – all the old cars that were left here are at best overturned, at worst smashed into an unrecognizable pile of scrap, and the tracks are no longer usable either.

"I'll face the fate I choose for myself as a magical girl," Yachiyo mutters, breathing heavily. "I won't let anyone else be sacrificed!"

"You really are strong, Ya-chan," Mifuyu mutters. "I can't be like that. Miss Kuroe… will you come back with me?"

"Ah, um, w-well… I…"

"If you don't want to, I won't force you," Mifuyu says. "Though I'm curious as to why the two of you were together…"

"I… I was just… l-looking for Miss Tomoe!" Kuroe says. "A-and I ran into her by chance…"

"Is that so," Mifuyu says. "To tell the truth, I'm worried about Miss Tomoe too… so I'll let you continue in your search. As for the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura… I don't know where it is, but… maybe this little factoid can help you. The Magius use it when visiting the observatory, so it might be somewhere near there."

She turns to walk away.

"Mifuyu!" Yachiyo calls.

But before she can say anything more, Mifuyu activates her magic and vanishes from sight.

"Now I've done it," Yachiyo mutters.

Suddenly, Mokyu makes one of its cute noises, jumps off Kuroe's shoulder, and starts to run off.

"Y-you're running that way!?" Kuroe gasps.

She starts to follow Mokyu, and Yachiyo in turn follows her. They leave old railway yard at the far side and make their way into Hokuyo Ward.

"Both of you, stop!" Yachiyo calls.

But Mokyu doesn't listen, and because of that, nor does Kuroe. They continue running for quite some time, slowly working their way out of the city into the rural areas of Hokuyo Ward. Finally, Mokyu comes to a stop right in a field filled with satellite dishes all pointed at the sky. There's a building visible at the far side. Kuroe stops to catch her breath, and Yachiyo lets out a gasp as she catches up to them.

"It's… the Kamihama Observatory," she says. "I've never been here before, but it does look rather impressive…"

"U-um… is it safe to be here…?" Kuroe wonders. "W-what if we run into the Magius…?"

"That's just a risk we'll have to take," Yachiyo says. "But if we're lucky, they're in school and won't be around right now. Okay… we have a starting point for our search, so… let's start looking!"

---

I keep the vision open in a corner of my mind as I head to school. They're doing a methodical search, spiralling out from the centre to maximize the ground covered, so it'll be awhile before they actually uncover the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura. I'm more surprised that Mokyu didn't lead them straight to it – I thought it would already know the location, but it looks more like the little creature heard Mifuyu's guess and just decided to head there to check it out. But it doesn't really matter one way or another, as long as they ultimately find it.

It's not until some time after lunch break that something interesting finally starts to happen again.

---

"There!" Kuroe exclaims. "Isn't that… a rumour's barrier!?"

"It does look like one," Yachiyo agrees.

Mokyu makes one of its cute noises, hopping off of Kuroe's shoulder and disappearing into the barrier. Kuroe and Yachiyo transform and follow suit. Sure enough, it looks like they've found it. They're standing on a grassy knoll with a huge cherry tree at the top, completely bare of leaves or blossoms. There's a row of four chairs standing at the foot of the tree, and Mokyu is perched on the back of one of them, the second from the right.

"T-this is…!" Kuroe gasps. "C-could it be…?"

"The Eternal Sakura!?" Yachiyo says. "So it really does exist…! But where's Iroha?"

Suddenly Kuroe spots something flickering, high up in the branches of the tree. It's something like a witch's portal, the emblem vaguely resembling Iroha's face with her hood up in magical girl form – though the colours are garish, like her doppel, the inverted T somewhat resembles the hem of her hood and the stripe on it.

"W-what's that?" Kuroe gasps, pointing.

"A witch's barrier…?" Yachiyo says. "No… could it be… a doppel's barrier!? They are called doppel witches, so it makes sense that they could create a barrier too… but how do we get up there?"

As if in answer to her question, the Eternal Sakura herself slides out from behind the tree. Yachiyo gasps and points her halberd at the rumour.

"The rumour appeared…!"

"Please, lower your weapon," the Eternal Sakura says.

"I-it talked!?" Kuroe gasps.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you right now," Yachiyo says menacingly.

"My role as a rumour is to ensure that Touka, Nemu, Ui, and Iroha one day reunite," the Eternal Sakura says. "Until then, I can only protect them."

Yachiyo blinks, lowering her weapon.

"You actually know who Ui is?" Yachiyo asks. "No-one else seems to remember her, except Iroha…"

"Of course," the Eternal Sakura says. "She is part of my rumour, and she played a hand in designing the other rumours, so all the rumours would know of her."

"She… designed the rumours!?" Yachiyo gasps.

"Yes," the Eternal Sakura says. "Nemu wrote the rumours, and Ui illustrated them. Then, they were manifested by Nemu's magic."

"Where is Ui now?" Yachiyo asks.

"I'm not sure," the Eternal Sakura says. "My role is simply to wait for her to return."

"And, what about Iroha?" Yachiyo asks. "Is that her up there?"

"When I sensed her doppel go out of control, I was able to draw her here," the Eternal Sakura says. "If I had not done so, she may have ventured out of the barrier around Kamihama and turned into a witch, so it was part of my duty to protect her to ensure that their fated meeting can occur."

"If your duty is to protect her, shouldn't you find a way to release her from the doppel?" Yachiyo points out.

"I have already tried," the Eternal Sakura says. "She does not respond to me at all."

"Then, could you let us try?" Yachiyo asks.

"Yes," the Eternal Sakura says.

The branches of the tree begin to move, slowly nudging Giovanna's portal forward until it's fully exposed with no branches blocking it off. Yachiyo leaps into the air and enters it, followed closely by Kuroe.

But as it turns out, it's completely different from a witch's labyrinth. The interior is not a bizarre landscape filled with dangerous familiars, but an exact replica of Yachiyo's own Crescent Moon Villa. She finds herself in bed, in her pyjamas, and sits up with a gasp.

"Yachiyo! I'm hungry!"

It's Felicia's voice. She opens the door and peeks into Yachiyo's bedroom. There's something subtly off about her, like she's not quite fully three-dimensional. Tsuruno and Sana appear to be with her, demonstrating the same subtle wrongness. Tsuruno and Sana are in their uniforms, but Felicia is still in her pyjamas.

"Yachiyo-shishou, it's time for breakfast!" Tsuruno says.

As Yachiyo stares at them, the three of them come all the way into the room.

"It's your turn to cook breakfast, right?" Felicia says. "I'm dying of starvation here!"

"Miss Felicia, let's go get changed and wait for her," Sana says.

"I'm too hungry to button up my shirt!" Felicia complains.

"Yachiyo, are you tired?" Tsuruno asks.

"Oh, Iroha and I can cook then," Sana offers.

"Iroha!" Yachiyo gasps.

She leaps out of bed and runs out of her bedroom.

"Say, where is Iroha-chan anyway?" Tsuruno asks.

"Still sleeping, probably," Felicia says.

Yachiyo races upstairs to Iroha's room and slams the door open. She's there, in bed, still asleep as Felicia was speculating. Yachiyo steps forward to examine her.

"Iroha!"

Iroha rolls over and opens her eyes. Unlike the others, she doesn't seem to have that slight wrongness to her. She sits up and looks at Yachiyo, blinking a few times.

"Miss Yachiyo… good morning," she says.

Yachiyo hugs her, startling her.

"Um… is everything alright?" she asks.

"Iroha," Yachiyo says, pulling back to look her in the eyes.

"Miss Yachiyo…?" Iroha says.

Yachiyo stares at her for a bit, then sighs.

"Fine," she says. "Let's have breakfast."

When she goes out into the main room, she finds Kuroe there as well, sitting at the bar in a school uniform and looking around, a little confused. Yachiyo gets to work making breakfast for Iroha and the others.

"A-ah… t-there you are, Miss Nanami," Kuroe says. "W-what's going on…?"

"I think we were absorbed by Iroha's doppel," Yachiyo says.

"I… I see," Kuroe says. "It does seem that way…"

She watches as everyone else streams out into the room – Felicia, Sana, Tsuruno, and Iroha all take their seats on the floor around the table. Yachiyo continues to work on preparing breakfast. Once it's done, she takes it out to the others before joining Kuroe at the bar, ignoring all the chatter.

"So, um… this is… your place…?" Kuroe says. "It looks like it…"

"Yes… Crescent Moon Villa," Yachiyo says. "Where those girls and I live."

"Oy, Kuroe!" Felicia says suddenly, startling them. "If you're not gonna eat your ham, give it to me!"

Kuroe just gapes at her, and Yachiyo looks at Kuroe in surprise.

"Why does Felicia know you?" she asks.

"I… I don't know," Kuroe says, turning towards Yachiyo. "Who is she?"

"Miss Kuroe!" Sana says. "The book you lent me last week was very good."

Kuroe lets out a little gasp.

"You're Iroha's friend, right?" Yachiyo says.

"Well… I do know her," Kuroe says.

"Hmm… so the Eternal Sakura had the power to draw Iroha here," Yachiyo muses.

"So it seems," Kuroe says.

At that moment, Iroha comes up to join them.

"What's wrong, Miss Yachiyo?" she asks. "Your food's getting cold."

The two of them look at her.

"Iroha…" Yachiyo says. "Are you the Iroha I know? The gentle, nosy, Tamaki Iroha who cared so much about her little sister?"

"Little sister…?" Iroha says. Then she gasps. "Little sister!"

Suddenly the representation of Crescent Moon Villa is torn asunder. For a split second, Yachiyo and Kuroe glimpse something that looks more like a typical witch's labyrinth, but then a new landscape is pasted over it, and they find themselves sitting on a train, facing each other. Iroha is sitting next to Kuroe.

"Huh?" Kuroe says. "What are we doing on a train?"

"Are you spacing out?" Iroha asks. "We're going to see my sick little sister."

"I didn't know you had a little sister, Miss Tamaki," Kuroe says.

"I do," Iroha says. "She's been living in the hospital since she was a kid."

The train comes to a stop, announcing the Satomi Medical centre.

"This is the stop!" Iroha says.

The train doors open, and they step out, but instead of the station, they find themselves in a room in the hospital. There are three beds by the windows, and a scale model of Chuo Ward in the centre of the room. Nemu and Touka are there, singing a little ditty about rumours, and Kuroe gasps.

"W-what're the Magius doing here…?"

Iroha steps forward, and Nemu and Touka run over to greet her with a hug.

"I heard that Satomi Touka and Hiiragi Nemu were both in the same hospital room as Iroha's little sister," Yachiyo says. "I didn't know Miss Hiiragi was also one of the Magius, though… is that her? I've never seen her before."

"Um, yes," Kuroe says. "I haven't seen her much, but she was there when I first joined… and at the assembly…"

The two of them seem to be singing another ditty now, naming various rumours.

"They really do know about the rumours, then?" Yachiyo says. "Is what the Eternal Sakura said true?"

"Um… about Miss Nemu making all the rumours?" Kuroe says. "Y-yeah… they said that in the Wings of the Magius too…"

"So there's a connection between the rumours and this hospital room," Yachiyo muses. "Or… are they just all mixed in with this memory…?"

They watch Iroha playing with Nemu and Touka for a little while, Kuroe appearing bemused at their uncharacteristically childish behaviour.

"Wait, where's Miss Ui?" Yachiyo wonders.

"Ui?" Kuroe says.

"Her little sister's name. Tamaki Ui."

"And come to think of it… where's Miss Tomoe?" Kuroe asks. "I thought she was supposed to be here too…"

"I have no idea," Yachiyo says.

Almost as if the mention of Ui triggered it, Iroha walks over to one of the beds and kneels next to it.

"Shall we create another rumour, Ui?" she asks.

But then she picks up a doll, a dark brown teddy bear wearing a pink dress and wig.

"What's that?" Yachiyo asks.

"No idea," Kuroe says.

"Yeah!" Iroha says, turning to Touka and Nemu. "Someday, let's all go to a theme park together, she says!"

"Chelation Land!" Nemu says.

"That sounds wonderful!" Touka says.

"It'll be okay, Ui," Iroha says, petting the doll. "When you're doing better, let's go to a theme park."

Hugging the doll, she continues speaking.

"Your big sister will do anything for you," she says. "Ui, you're everything to me."

"Maybe this is Iroha's fantasy," Yachiyo muses. "No, maybe her dream."

"Her dream?" Kuroe says.

"So everyone she knows, knows each other," Yachiyo says.

She points at a photo resting on the bedside table, which depicts Tsuruno, Sana, Felicia, Iroha, Yachiyo, Nemu, Touka, and Kuroe all together in front of the Crescent Moon Villa, each in their respective school uniforms. Just like right now, Iroha wears the uniform of her school in Kamihama, not the uniform of her old school in Takarazaki,

"For example, in her dream, you and the girls at Crescent Moon Villa are friends," Yachiyo continues. "And the only one who could dream of Tamaki Ui after she disappeared from this world is Iroha."

As she speaks, Iroha tucks the teddy bear into bed, just as if it were a real child.

Kuroe blinks. "Disappeared…? Only Miss Tamaki…? But… then why does Miss Taylor know about her?"

"Huh? Does she?" Yachiyo says.

"Well, she mentioned her the other day," Kuroe says. "The name Ui came up in passing when she was talking about the people she wanted to free from brainwashing, but then she never followed up on it…"

"That's actually very strange," Yachiyo says. "I'm pretty sure Iroha had never met Miss Taylor before Endless Solitude…" Suddenly she gasps. "No, wait, is it possible Miss Taylor found out about Ui from the rumour, just like we did earlier!? If the Eternal Sakura knows about her… then maybe the Anonymous AI does too…"

Suddenly Yachiyo transforms and, brandishing her halberd, destroys a good third of the scale model of Kamihama.

"W-what!?" Kuroe gasps.

Almost immediately, strips of cloth sprout up from the damaged area, repairing it until it's as good as new. Outside the windows, the scenery abruptly shifts to show the sunset.

"Well, we know it's not reality," Yachiyo says.

"But… how…?" Kuroe says.

Yachiyo heads over to the windows to gaze out upon the city, and Kuroe follows her.

"Hiiragi Nemu… what was her ability?" Yachiyo asks. "To control rumours or something?"

"Um… I think it's more like creating them…?" Kuroe says. "Ah, b-but maybe she can control them too…?"

"Could this be caused by the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura?" Yachiyo wonders. "But she seemed like she was… almost worried about it, like it was something unexpected… so then, this dream isn't caused by a rumour. It's caused by Iroha's doppel… she's the one who's imprisoned us here."

"Is… is that even… possible?" Kuroe says. "I… I've never heard of a doppel… doing something like this before… I've used mine… several times already…"

"Turning a soul gem's taint into a witch and separating it from yourself, along with part of your body," Yachiyo muses. "That's what a doppel is. It's a construct very similar to a witch, so it would make sense if it could create the same form of barrier as a witch."

Even as she speaks, the sunset outside the windows suddenly becomes night.

"That… that makes sense, I guess," Kuroe says.

"So, if this dream is caused by the doppel," Yachiyo says, "then we won't be able to get out until we defeat it. And if her doppel has been out this long, it must mean that, in the real world, her soul gem is tainted to a dangerous level. We'd better hurry."

"Um, sure, but… where to?" Kuroe asks.

While they'd been gazing out the windows, it seems Touka and Nemu have climbed into bed and are already fast asleep. Each bed has curtains drawn around it, almost like a four-poster bed though not quite as fancy.

"For now," Yachiyo says, "the most obviously suspicious place is…"

She steps over to the bed designated for Ui, from which an eerie blue light is emanating, and draws the curtains apart. The doll representing Ui is gone, and the blue light appears to come from a tiny door just beyond the head of the bed that leads out into some other place. Bluish grass is visible just beyond the door, glowing slightly. Yachiyo sits on the bed and peers through the door. Outside is a landscape more typical of a witch's labyrinth, with a path of bare dirt studded with round, white stones, winding through hills covered in bluish grass that sways softly in the wind. The night sky above looks like a painting, with a crescent moon lighting up the scene.

"Even for a dream, this is too much," Yachiyo says. "I wonder if it's a trap. Or… did they just flee in a hurry?"

She hops through, and Kuroe gasps.

"Y-you're going inside!?"

She too climbs onto the bed and peers through, only to find herself gazing straight down the point of Yachiyo's halberd.

"Sorry, but I'm not asking for help from the Wings of the Magius," Yachiyo says. "Hide somewhere safe until Iroha wakes up!"

"N-no, h-hold on a second!" Kuroe protests. "I… I n-need to find Miss Tomoe first! B-before Miss Tamaki wakes up!"

Yachiyo sighs, lowering her halberd and turning away from Kuroe.

"Do what you want," she says. "But I don't need your help with the doppel."

"Um, if this is Miss Tamaki's dream," Kuroe says, "then is the Miss Tamaki we saw back there real?"

"That's a good question," Yachiyo says. "She did seem… more real than the others… I've got no hard proof, but I think Iroha was the only real one."

As Yachiyo starts to run down the path, Kuroe transforms and hops through the window as well, following her.

"I don't understand the point of this dream," Yachiyo muses. "Why would Iroha's doppel want to imprison us? How can I get her to wake up?"

Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a huge tree appears beside the path. It's so large that it should have been visible from far away, yet until they round a corner, there's no sign of it at all. There they find Tomoe Mami, strung up into the tree and tied firmly in place with countless strips of cloth. She's still in her Holy Saint form, and even seems to be struggling to free herself.

"T-there she is!" Kuroe gasps. "Miss Tomoe!"

Mami opens her eyes and turns her head to gaze at them.

"Miss Nanami… and… who are you…?"

"U-um, I was looking for you, Miss Tomoe," Kuroe says. "I'm… a black feather…"

"I see," Mami says. "Then does that mean that Miss Nanami has finally accepted the blessing of salvation?"

"Not on your life," Yachiyo retorts.

"That's too bad," Mami says. "Then once I get free of these bindings, we can continue our match from earlier."

"I don't understand," Yachiyo says. "Miss Kuroe, why were you even searching for her? If she's like this, she's no use to anyone…"

"U-um, well… Miss Taylor asked me to," Kuroe says.

"Oh, is Miss Taylor here too?" Mami asks.

"Um, she's not here," Kuroe says. "Huh… do you know her?"

"A little," Mami says. "She was staying in my hometown, after all."

"Did Miss Taylor have something in mind?" Yachiyo asks. "Because I'm not interested in fighting her. I'd just as soon leave her here and just keep looking for Iroha…"

"She said something about… connecting…?" Kuroe says. "I forgot to ask for more details."

"She wants you to connect with Miss Tomoe?" Yachiyo asks.

"Ah, um… I think she wanted you to do it, actually, Miss Nanami."

"Me?" Yachiyo says. "Why me…? I don't understand…"

"T-then, um… w-why don't we both do it?" Kuroe suggests.

"I'm not sure," Yachiyo says dubiously.

"B-but apparently Miss Taylor thinks you can understand Miss Tomoe better than me, or something," Kuroe says. "So I really think it should be you…"

"I'd thank you to stop talking about me as if I wasn't here," Mami says. "If you're planning to kill me, at least just make it quick. Smash my soul gem in one blow. It's too bad I wasn't able to save more magical girls, but at least I'm confident that the Magius will be able to complete their plan without me."

Yachiyo and Kuroe exchange glances, and Yachiyo sighs.

"Fine, I'll do it," she says. "But in exchange, Miss Kuroe, let me go on alone afterwards."

"O-okay," Kuroe says.

The two of them step forward and reach out for Mami's hands, both of them activating their connect skill as they make contact. Mami lets out a gasp of shock, then slumps forward. Yachiyo's eyes widen as well, and Kuroe looks even more shocked than Mami – they must be seeing Mami's thoughts and memories, peeling away the mask she's always worn in public.

"I… I never thought Miss Tomoe would have feelings like that," Kuroe says.

"I think I get it," Yachiyo says. "Miss Taylor must have known somehow… she knew that I'd resonate with these feelings…"

Suddenly, digital corruption artifacts spread across Mami's form for a moment, and then the Holy Saint costume separates from her entirely, generating a false body of its own that resembles a dummy and leaving Mami wearing just her school uniform. The rumour tries to suck them into a barrier of its own, and for a split second they're surrounded by a standard rumour's barrier with a yellowish background, but for one reason or another the barrier fails to stabilize and collapses almost immediately. Perhaps stacking three nested barriers just isn't such an easy thing to do? After all, they're already inside the barrier of Iroha's doppel, which is inside the barrier of the Eternal Sakura rumour.

Ignoring its failure to form a barrier, the Rumour of the Saint of Kamihama pounces on the two of them, and they both jump back at the same time to avoid it. Kuroe stretches out her hands in front of her, building up a wall of puzzle pieces so it can't come any closer.

"I should've known this would happen," Yachiyo mutters. "We're going against Miss Tomoe's rumour, so of course it would attack us…"

The rumour summons a fan of muskets and points them at Yachiyo and Kuroe, opening fire all at once, a swarm of bullets flying their way. However, compared to the battle in the Memory Museum, it's not such a large swarm. Kuroe seems to be safe behind her wall, so Yachiyo flings her halberd at the rumour, then ducks behind the wall. Kuroe meanwhile summons a pair of gymnastic clubs and flings them over the wall, where they strike the rumour and explode. Then Yachiyo leaps into the air, using Kuroe's wall as a foothold to leap even higher, and goes into a dive, striking at the rumour from directly above while calling up a wave from beneath and a rain of additional halberds alongside her. The combination attack from above and below simultaneously seems to overwhelm the rumour's defences, and it screams in pain, ceasing its attacks. Kuroe takes advantage of the opening to finish it off with her ultimate move, the same one she's used on Nikola in every timeline that I've met her.

"That wasn't such a hard rumour to beat," Yachiyo says. "I guess it wasn't one of the stronger ones…"

She turns back towards the tree and frees Mami with a few swipes of her halberd. The younger girl is still out cold, however, so she catches Mami and hands her off to Kuroe, who gathers Mami up on her back.

"You should probably take her with you," Yachiyo says.

"R-right," Kuroe says. "T-then… I'll be going now…"

She turns and runs back the way she came, following the path until she finds the door hanging in the air again. Slipping through, she finds herself back in the hospital room and powers down with a sigh, turning to shut the strange door leading out into the barrier. She's now in her school uniform again.

"At least I managed to release Miss Tomoe," she mutters. "Still… is this really just Miss Tamaki's dream? It's so much like we're inside a witch's barrier…"

Without warning, Iroha appears right by the window, almost directly behind Kuroe.

"Witch?" she says. "Oh no! A witch!?"

Kuroe spins to face her in shock, and a moment later, the hospital setting is papered over with random scraps of canvas, as if they had just been sucked into a witch's barrier. The scenery abruptly shifts again, to an infinite cityscape filled with skyscrapers, some in dull greys and browns, others in garish pink, purple, or green. Kuroe stands atop one grey building with a waist-high balcony, while the Crescent Moon Villa team, excluding Yachiyo, are on the roof of the adjacent building, which also has a similar balcony. All of them are transformed, including Kuroe, though it doesn't look like she transformed on purpose. Sitting next to Kuroe on the balcony is Kyuubey, or at least something closely resembling it.

"Everyone, be careful!" Kyuubey exclaims.

Its voice is a little different, and there seems to be some actual emotion in its tone, showing that it's just a fake. Kuroe doesn't seem to notice that though.

"Kyuubey!?" she gasps.

Suddenly, the witch shows itself, looking like a giant snowman wearing a witch's hat that straightens up and roars like a kaiju. Witch runes on its body spell out the name, 'Made in 168'. It has a face that resembles a porthole on a ship, and three long legs wrapped in white and gray bandages. Kuroe summons her gymnastic clubs and prepares to construct a wall if needed, but the witch, if it even is a witch, seems to be more focused on the Crescent Moon Villa team. It lifts one of its feet high into the air, aiming to stomp on the quartet.

"Leave it to me!" Sana says.

Her shield glows, expands, and opens up like a pair of double doors. As the foot makes contact, chains emerge from within the shield to bind the thing's foot in place. Then Felicia and Tsuruno leap into the air from behind her, brandishing their hammer and fans respectively. Tsuruno attacks first, unleashing a wave of fire upon the entity, and Felicia lands her blow next, smacking the lower sphere of the creature so hard it goes flying, the head falling down to rest directly upon the legs. Then Iroha hops up to perch on Sana's shield, aiming at the thing's head.

"Strada Futuro!" she calls.

It's not her actual ultimate attack however, just an ordinary volley of arrows aimed directly at the thing's porthole, which smashes the glass to smithereens and then causes the entire sphere to pop open, releasing a shower of cartoonish grief seeds in garish colours – pink, blue, green, yellow, red, purple, and maybe even more.

"Yeah!" Felicia crows.

"We did it!" Sana exlaims.

"Team Crescent Moon Villa is the best!" Tsuruno exclaims.

One of the fake grief seeds falls to the ground next to Kuroe, but Iroha seems to catch most of them in her arms. Kuroe watches as each of the four of them take one and purify their soul gems with it. They seem to disintegrate after a single use, but with such a large quantity, that's hardly an issue. Even Iroha's soul gem is purified. Then Iroha disappears through a door on her roof and emerges out onto Kuroe's roof, smiling at her.

"I can't tell if this is the real Miss Tamaki," Kuroe mutters.

Iroha offers her one of the grief seeds, and Kuroe tries it out on her soul gem, but it doesn't seem to do anything at all – it's just a fake. Even though it doesn't do anything to her soul gem though, it still disintegrates in her hands. Iroha doesn't seem to notice that it didn't work.

The other team members are also fakes, of course, so it's not so strange that a fake grief seed would work on a fake magical girl. As for Iroha… maybe she's a fake too, but… I wonder if the dream simulation could've timed her grief seed use with the activation of the automatic purification system, creating the illusion that it worked?

A moment later, there's motion as though a barrier is collapsing, and the five of them along with Mami are once more back at Crescent Moon Villa, in the yard. Everyone else is powered down, in their respective school uniforms, Iroha wearing the uniform of her new school in Kamihama. Kuroe lays Mami down on a bench and looks around. It's night now, and they seem to be setting off fireworks. Tsuruno and Felicia in particular are arguing about what type of fireworks they should try next. Kuroe sits down on the steps just a little above Iroha, watching her light a sparkler. As the sparkler dies down, Iroha turns to face her.

"Miss Kuroe, is something wrong?" she asks.

"No, I was just thinking," Kuroe says.

Iroha gets up and climbs the steps, sitting down next to her, and passes her a sparkler, lighting them both at the same time.

"If something's bothering you, tell me," Iroha says. "I don't know if I can help, but…"

"Um… thank you," Kuroe says. "This is such a peaceful dream… it's so like you…"

Iroha giggles. "What do you mean, a dream? It's all real…"

At that moment, Yachiyo emerges from inside to complain about Felicia's choice of fireworks. Kuroe turns in surprise, watching as Yachiyo gathers the others and ushers them inside.

"When the real person isn't here, she just creates one…" she mutters.

"Miss Yachiyo is amazing, right?" Iroha says.

She gets to her feet, taking two sparklers of the gushing type in different colours and lighting them up, turning to face Kuroe with her arms extended.

"She's a magical girl, but she's also a university student and a model," Iroha says.

Slowly spinning in place, she continues praising Yachiyo.

"She was on a magazine cover the other day," she says. "So I secretly bought a copy for myself."

She stops spinning and slowly steps towards Kuroe.

"She was a little mean when we first met, right? But that's because she was worried about us. She's actually really nice!"

She stands there gazing down at Kuroe for a few more seconds, until the sparklers both die out. Kuroe manages a small smile.

"Are you happy now, Miss Tamaki?" Kuroe asks.

"Huh?" Iroha says.

"Like, um… let's say… if this was a dream, is there something you'd want to do?"

Iroha takes a seat beside her again, looking thoughtful. She takes yet another sparkler and lights it, gazing at it.

"A dream? Well… I don't think there's anything I'd hope to do."

"There isn't…?" Kuroe says. "I guess… that's similar to me…"

"You don't need hope," Iroha says.

She takes two more sparklers and passes one to Kuroe, lighting them both up.

"You can get others to share many things with you. Miss Yachiyo and the rest of the girls at Crescent Moon Villa, and you too, Miss Kuroe, have all given me so much."

Kuroe gasps. "M-me… too…?"

Iroha presses her sparkler up to Kuroe's, the two displays merging into a single one.

"Yes!" Iroha says.

Once the sparklers die out, Iroha gets to her feet, and Kuroe also jumps up, gathering Mami up from the bench before following Iroha inside. The furniture in the living room has mostly been pushed aside, leaving space for three futons.

"Let's all sleep together tonight," Iroha says.

"R-right…" Kuroe says.

Iroha sits down on the middle futon. Somehow, she's already in her pyjamas. Kuroe sets Mami down to her right and tucks her in, then lays down in the futon on Iroha's left, pulling it over her. She's still in her school uniform and even wearing shoes when she sits down, but that's replaced with pyjamas as she crawls into bed.

"Hey, Miss Tamaki," Kuroe says. "Why a stuffed animal?"

"Stuffed animal?" Iroha says.

"Your little sister," Kuroe says. "Why not the real her?"

Suddenly the smile fades from Iroha's face.

"Why are you saying something like that?" she asks.

"Um, w-well… you seemed to really care about Miss Ui," Kuroe says. "You were always looking for her. Miss Nanami said so, too. But it was a stuffed animal."

Iroha sits up, glaring at her.

"Why are you being so mean?" she asks.

Kuroe sits up too.

"S-should I not have asked?"

"Miss Kuroe, do you not like Ui?" Iroha asks menacingly.

"Of course that's not true!" Kuroe says. "I just don't know her."

Suddenly the room is torn in half, like someone ripping up a photo, and bright light spills in the gap. Beyond the tear is the same field that Kuroe saw earlier, only now illuminated by the noonday sun and filled with flowers in all imaginable colours. Some chairs are also randomly scattered across the fields, most of them upturned, some even broken. Sitting a short distance away from the tear is a four-poster bed surrounded with white curtains, and Yachiyo stands there gazing into it, pointing her halberd at whatever is inside.

Iroha gets up, suddenly in uniform again, and turns to approach Yachiyo.

"I just don't understand," Yachiyo mutters. "Why is Tamaki Ui the only one…?"

"Miss Yachiyo, what are you doing here at this hour?" Iroha asks, tilting her head with her hands clasped behind her back.

Yachiyo spins to face her, then looks back at the bed for a moment. Then she steps towards Iroha.

"Iroha, you don't belong here," she says.

"But everyone will be sad if you don't go to the hospital with us," Iroha says.

"Where's your little sister?" Yachiyo asks. "Where's Miss Ui?"

"Huh?" Iroha says.

"Miss Ui's the only one who isn't here," Yachiyo says.

"She's right here, look!" Iroha says.

She shows the stuffed animal to Yachiyo with a smile, holding it up in front of her face. It's not clear where she pulled it from.

"Ui is my dear little sister," she continues. "I can do anything, if it's for her."

As she lowers the stuffed animal to reveal her face once more Yachiyo suddenly realizes that the cloth binding of her doppel has now covered her eyes.

"No!" Yachiyo gasps.

She jumps forward, shoving Iroha back. The stuffed animal goes flying up into the air, and Yachiyo impales it. Iroha herself falls back through the tear in the dream world to land upon the futon, once more in her pyjamas. Meanwhile, the world outside turns red – both the sky and the field look like they're suddenly dyed in blood. Apparently not noticing the tear in the dream, which is now starting to close up again, Yachiyo looks around wildly.

Kuroe watches, transfixed, as the Iroha right in front of her gets to her feet, breathing heavily. Black swirls are floating about her, like impurities searching for a place to rest. At the same time, a massive version of the stuffed animal erupts from beneath the earth to attack Yachiyo. Kuroe gets to her feet, glancing nervously towards the red field beyond the slowly healing tear, then fixes her eyes on Iroha herself.

"Miss Tamaki, what's wrong?" she asks.

Iroha suddenly looks up, her face already covered in the cloth bindings, and Giovanna practically leaps right out of her. Strips of cloth lash out at Kuroe and pin her to the wall by all four limbs, causing her to gasp. Then Iroha's voice can be heard, distorted by her doppel. The fake pyjamas pasted over Kuroe vanish, replaced by the casual clothes she'd actually been wearing before entering the Eternal Sakura's barrier.

"Why are you getting in my way?" she asks. "Tamaki Iroha fell into a deep sleep, so then… thanks to her fears for her sister, and knowing the truth about magical girls, she started to have nightmares within her slumber. Even now, her soul gem continues to taint. So why are you trying to stop me? I created new dreams over her nightmares. I made her a new Crescent Moon Villa. A new little sister. I worked so hard!"

"Miss Tamaki!" Kuroe says.

"I even made a new Ui," the doppel continues. "A new Tamaki Ui, for a new Tamaki Iroha. For me."

"W-weren't you looking for your little sister!?" Kuroe gasps.

"But I can't find her… so I made a new one!" the doppel says.

For a moment, the doppel mask slips from Iroha's face, and her true voice rings out.

"Because I'm scared!" she shouts. "I'm scared I'll never see Ui again! I'm scared someday my friends at Crescent Moon Villa will disappear too! I'm scared! I'm scared! So I'm going to start it all over!"

Then the mask slips back onto her face.

"Make a new story for Tamaki Iroha!" the doppel says.

"No, you can't!" Kuroe gasps. "Miss Tamaki, let's run away!"

"This is Tamaki Iroha's new story," the doppel declares.

But then Yachiyo shows up, following the stuffed animal that represents Ui and stabbing the doppel right in the head. The cloths holding Kuroe in place disintegrate, and Kuroe slips free, landing in Yachiyo's arms. The doppel however isn't finished off, and it rises up into the air to gaze down at them. The fake dreamscape they'd been in up until now disintegrates entirely, dumping them out into the blood-red field that had appeared earlier.

"Miss Kuroe!" Yachiyo says. "Are you alright?"

They land upon a floor tiled with right-angled triangles in two different colours, so that no two tiles of the same colour ever touch along an edge. Mami is still there as well, lying on the ground next to them. They're standing upon some sort of blocky structure overlooking the field.

"I'm sorry," Yachiyo says. "It looks like the doppel was hiding inside Iroha herself."

"T-that thing had made a new little sister," Kuroe says.

"With a new Ui and a new Crescent Moon Villa, Tamaki Iroha will be happy," the doppel declares. "So stop trying to destroy it!"

The doppel attacks with strips of cloth, and Yachiyo slices them apart with her halberd. Then the doppel turns to flee.

"It's too dangerous for you," she says. "Stay back."

Yachiyo leaps down from the perch they're standing upon. At almost the same moment, Mami sits up with a groan, and Kuroe lets out a little gasp.

"M-miss Tomoe!?" she says.

"What happened to me?" Mami asks. "You are…?"

"Ah, um… I'm Kuroe Asaka," she replies.

"I see," Mami says. "It's starting to come back to me… the things I've done recently… but more importantly… is this a witch's barrier? What's going on?"

"Um, well… apparently, it's Miss Tamaki's doppel," Kuroe says. "Miss Nanami is fighting it right now…"

Mami blinks. "Doppels… were supposed to be the salvation of magical girls, weren't they?" she says. "So why does it look just like a witch's barrier…?"

"I don't know," Kuroe says. "I don't know, but… I also… want to save Miss Tamaki!"

She transforms, gripping her gymnastic clubs, and Mami nods in agreement, transforming as well.

"I too must thank Miss Nanami for releasing me from the rumour," she says. "Shall we go together?"

"Y-yes…!" Kuroe says.

The two of them hop down and chase after Yachiyo, catching up after a little bit. The kaiju version of the Ui stand-in teddy bear erupts from the earth to Yachiyo's right, and then another one ahead of them, and a third off to Kuroe's left.

"An Ui for Iroha," the doppel's voice drones. "Everyone being friends. Always happy."

As the first giant teddy swings down its fist, Yachiyo dodges and slices it in half with a single blow. Mami summons ribbons to squeeze another to death, and, seeing how easily they're taken down, Kuroe decides to throw her clubs at the third. The ensuing explosion lights it on fire, and it's reduced to ashes within seconds.

But even as they take down the first three, more of them are popping up from all over.

"Iroha, listen!" Yachiyo shouts.

"An Ui that's even better than the real one," the doppel's voice continues.

Yachiyo leaps into the air, landing on the head of one giant teddy bear while slashing another one to shreds.

"Was your little sister someone who was just fun and cute to you?" Yachiyo asks.

Ignoring Yachiyo's words, the doppel just keeps droning on and on.

"No-one gets hurt. No-one is lost."

"It wasn't always good things, right?" Yachiyo shouts.

She runs through the horde of giant teddies, cutting them down one at a time. Kuroe holds back a little with Mami, who's alternating between squeezing them to death and shooting them full of holes, and whenever one gets close, she throws exploding clubs at it to destroy it.

"There was more fear and sadness than you could handle, wasn't there!?" Yachiyo shouts. "It was no different at Crescent Moon Villa. Felicia was a brat who always gave you a hard time. Miss Futaba was so worried about how we felt."

For perhaps the first time, the doppel's voice actually reacts to her words. It's not just the voice reacting, either – as Yachiyo brings up recent events, elements of the associated rumours start to leak into the surrounding landscape. Kuroe and Mami look around in surprise at the bridges and shrine gates of the Séance Shrine, intermingled with tables and chairs from the Misery Rhyton and even dummies from the Fashion Monster. As Giovanna rises ever higher into the air, Yachiyo forms a stairway of her halberds to climb up towards her, and Mami and Kuroe follow her as well, using the same weapons as footholds.

"Stop it," the doppel's voice says.

"The truth about magical girls made you suffer too!" Yachiyo shouts. "It was during that painful, awful time that we met!"

"Stop it!" the doppel repeats.

"Who cares about your ideal world!?" Yachiyo shouts. "Our anger, our sorrow… it can't be traded for some convenient lie!"

Four or five giant teddies suddenly pop out before her, but she brings them down in a mere two slashes of her halberd.

"A-amazing…" Kuroe gasps.

"Stop it!" the doppel's voice shouts.

"Your real little sister!" Yachiyo shouts. "Our Crescent Moon Villa! Let's take them back together!"

She flings her halberd directly at Iroha's face, and the weapon shatters into a million splinters… but it also tears apart the doppel's mask covering Iroha's face.

"Come back, Iroha!" Yachiyo shouts. "You promised we'd always be together, right?"

Suddenly, the doppel breaks free of Iroha's body, which starts to fall down from the sky. Her eyes flutter open with a gasp, and she calls out.

"M-miss Yachiyo!?"

As Mami flings out ribbons to catch her, Giovanna charges straight at them, and Kuroe impulsively grabs Yachiyo's hand, the telltale flash of a connect skill appearing. Kuroe's magic flows into Yachiyo, reinforcing her halberd with a sort of dark fire, and she leaps up, slashing at Giovanna with enough force to check her charge and even send her reeling backwards, then flinging the halberd straight at the doppel's head.

"Tiro Finale!"

Mami times her ultimate attack for the perfect moment, firing just as the reinforced halberd hits its mark. The combined damage from the reinforced halberd and the volley of cannonballs is enough to finally overwhelm the massive doppel, and it begins to disintegrate, cracks appearing in the landscape as the barrier also starts to collapse. The four of them land on the grassy knoll of the Eternal Sakura rumour, Iroha and Yachiyo embracing even before they hit the ground.

"Iroha!" "Miss Yachiyo!"

"Welcome back," Yachiyo says. "Welcome back, Iroha!"

"Miss Yachiyo, I'm back!" Iroha says.

"I'm so glad!" Yachiyo says, starting to cry a little. "Really!"

"It took a little while," Iroha says. "But I did promise I wouldn't die, didn't I? I think it was thanks to that promise that I was able to come back."

Mokyu, gazing down at them from one of the tree branches, makes one of its cute noises, and Kuroe, standing next to Mami now, glances up at it. Yachiyo finishes her crying, and the two of them back off and beam at each other.

"Good, you're really the Iroha we know, right?" Yachiyo says.

"Of course!" Iroha says. "Thank you very much, Miss Yachiyo!"

Then she turns to look over to where Kuroe and Mami are waiting, and Yachiyo follows her gaze.

"Miss Kuroe, thank you too!" she says. "You're not hurt? And Miss Tomoe as well?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kuroe says.

"I'm… fine too," Mami says. "If perhaps a little tired. And I should be the one thanking you, Miss Nanami."

"No problem," Yachiyo says. Then she turns back to Iroha. "What about you? Are you feeling okay? Let me see your soul gem!"

Iroha sighs and gets to her feet, stretching a little.

"You worry too much, Miss Yachiyo," she says. "See? I'm feeling great, thanks to you! But wait…"

She looks around, finally realizing her surroundings.

"Where are we?" she asks. "Hang on… c-could this be… the Rumour of the Eternal Sakura!?"

Yachiyo blinks. "You know of it, Iroha?"

"Of course I do!" Iroha says. "This is the rumour that I wrote all by myself, and Ui drew it for me!"

"You wrote it!?" Kuroe gasps. "B-but I thought all the rumours were written by Lady Nemu…"

"All except this one," Iroha says.

"The Rumour Files didn't have anything about it," Yachiyo says. "But… Miss Taylor pointed me towards it… and I found it with the help of Miss Kuroe and Mokyu… even Mifuyu gave me a little clue."

"Miss Taylor… and Miss Mifuyu too?" Iroha says.

"So, I suppose this dead tree is its core," Yachiyo says. "There's also a humanoid form around somewhere…"

Iroha nods. "Yes, do you see those four chairs over there? There's one for each of us – Touka-chan, Nemu-chan, me, and Ui. When we all come back together, the tree is supposed to burst into full bloom."

The Eternal Sakura herself suddenly appears, stepping out from behind the tree in a way that makes no sense if it's a three-dimensional object but fits perfectly if it's actually just a cardboard cutout… except it clearly is a three-dimensional object, so she's violating the laws of perspective or something.

"I'll be waiting, Iroha," she says. "For the day the four of you visit me. Even if all the stories end, I'll always be waiting for you. But for now…"

The labyrinth suddenly pulses just as Mokyu leaps down to land on Iroha's shoulder, and the four of them plus the little Kyuubey are ejected back out into the forest. The portal leading into the labyrinth flickers for a moment, then vanishes. It's not clear what just happened – did it move away? Lock them out? Destroy itself? Either way, they seem to have no way to get back inside the rumour's barrier.

"This… is probably where we came in… right?" Kuroe says.

"No… the trees are sparser," Yachiyo says. "In fact…"

She turns a hundred and eighty degrees and points to the road just visible through the trees.

"Look – we're almost at the road."

"Then… the rumour helped us get back more quickly?" Iroha says. "That's amazing…"

"It's so different from all the other rumours," Mami says. "It doesn't spread itself like other rumours, it doesn't abduct people or hurt people, and it even helped us out…"

They emerge onto the road and look around.

"I don't recognize this road though," Iroha says. "Do you know it, Miss Yachiyo?"

"Hmm," Yachiyo says. "I'm not quite sure, since I don't often have reason to go to Hokuyo Ward, but… this could be the road leading to St Lilliana's Academy… if I'm correct, we should head to the right."

"Then let's hurry back to Crescent Moon Villa!" Iroha says. "We still have to free Tsuruno-chan and the others!"

"Ah, about Tsuruno," Yachiyo says. "Apparently, she was taken to the Coordinator's place…"

"W-what!?" Iroha gasps. "W-what happened to her?"

"Um… I'm not sure," Kuroe says. "B-but it seems she's hurt… and she won't wake up…"

"O-oh no!" Iroha gasps. "W-what about Sana-chan and Felicia-chan?"

"I don't know," Kuroe says. "I'm sorry…"

"Well… then we should head for the Coordinator's place first," Iroha says. "Maybe I can help Tsuruno-chan!"

The four of them power down and follow the road as it leads back into town. Once they near a train station, Mami speaks up.

"If you don't mind, I should take my leave here," she says. "The others in Mitakihara must be so worried about me, so I'd like to return to them as soon as possible."

"Yes, please go right ahead!" Iroha says. "Ah, should I email Madoka-chan to say you're coming?"

"No, that's alright," Mami says. "I'll contact her myself."

"Then I'll see you some other time!" Iroha says.

"Yes, I'm sure we'll meet again, Miss Tamaki," Mami says.

So Mami goes her own way, and the other three hurry on to the Coordinator's place. When they arrive, they find Mitama there as usual, sipping at a cup of tea. Tsuruno is laid out on one of the couches. Just like yesterday, she's still in her casual clothes, and her soul gem is somehow stuck in the transformed form, a roughly diamond-shaped gemstone which would normally be placed on her belt but is currently resting upon her chest.

"Miss Mitama! Is Tsuruno-chan okay!?"

Mitama blinks at them.

"Whoa, Iroha-chan, you really scared me!" Mitama says. "Well, the most I can say is that she's alive. See for yourself."

Iroha takes a closer look at Tsuruno and gasps at the nasty crack running through her soul gem.

"O-oh no! Her soul gem's badly damaged! C-can't you do anything, Miss Mitama?"

"I'm afraid I can't work on her soul gem while it's in that state," Mitama says. "She's not dead, yet not quite alive, either… I already tried, but my magic won't reach her."

Iroha transforms and kneels beside her, pouring her own magic into Tsuruno's soul gem.

"Maybe I can help," she says. "I've got to at least try…!"

Mitama turns to Yachiyo and then blinks at Kuroe.

"Well, this is a pairing I never thought I'd see," she says. "Yachiyo, who's fighting against the Wings of the Magius, and Kuroe-chan, who joined up with them…"

Startled, Iroha turns to face Kuroe, the flow of magic slowing as she now has only one hand resting on Tsuruno's soul gem.

"Miss Kuroe, you're part of the Wings of the Magius!?" she gasps.

"Y-yes, but…" Kuroe says.

"The reason she was looking for you and Miss Tomoe was because Miss Taylor, a white feather, ordered her to," Yachiyo says.

"Um, I wouldn't quite call it an order," Kuroe says.

"Um… have you seen Nemu-chan?" Iroha asks. "I heard she was a member… and then I found out Touka-chan is one of the Magius…"

"Lady Nemu is also one of the Magius," Kuroe says.

"N-no way…!" Iroha gasps.

"Hiiragi Nemu created the rumours, and Satomi Touka created the doppels," Yachiyo muses. "But I don't understand what they're scheming…"

"I don't really know anything either," Kuroe says. "All I know is what Miss Taylor told me… no-one else shared anything with me…"

"Miss Kuroe, can you take me to meet them?" Iroha asks. "We were good friends, you know? Touka-chan and Nemu-chan and Ui and me… we were always together. The more I remember, the more I realize how they were my special little sisters. And yet… and yet… when I met Touka-chan, she said she didn't even remember me… b-but maybe Nemu-chan will remember me! Then we might be able to figure out what happened and why they're doing all this!"

"U-um… w-well…" Kuroe says hesitantly.

"Please!" Iroha says. "I'd forgotten them both for so long, and now I'm so close to meeting them again, and yet…! I was asleep for how long, while lots of things were happening out here…! I haven't even been able to do anything! And now Tsuruno-chan is this badly hurt…! There's so many things I have to know!"

Yachiyo sighs. "Fine," she says. "But for now, let's take Tsuruno home. We can get back to searching for them in the morning. Let's go look for the rest of the Crescent Moon Villa and your little sister. We'll locate Hotel Fendt Hope, the Magius headquarters. Even if the entrance moves around, we have Miss Kuroe with us, who can reveal its presence with her Magius emblem. Or we could find another feather and follow them. But right now, we should rest. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I barely slept last night."

"I… I guess," Iroha says reluctantly. "You're right… another half a day surely won't make that much of a difference… so let's go home. I'll carry Tsuruno-chan… Miss Yachiyo, could you hold onto her soul gem?"

"Okay," Yachiyo says.

Yachiyo steps over to pick up Tsuruno's soul gem, and then Iroha gathers her up in a princess carry.

"Well, good luck," Mitama says. "I hope Tsuruno-chan gets better soon."

"Yes, thank you very much, Miss Mitama!" Iroha says.

They leave the Coordinator's shop and make their way home, but to their surprise, the lights are already on when they arrive. Yachiyo gasps.

"D-did I leave the lights on this morning?" she asks.

"Um… I don't think so," Kuroe says.

"Then… who could it be?" Yachiyo says. "The only other people who have a key are…"

They step up to the front door and push it open. Iroha steps in and slips her shoes off, and Yachiyo and Kuroe follow her example. The lights in the kitchen and living room are both on.

"I'm home!" Iroha calls.

Felicia pops up, poking her head over the top of the couch.

"Oh! It's Iroha! She's back! And Yachiyo and Tsuruno too!"

Sana pokes her head out of the kitchen.

"W-welcome back, Miss Iroha!" she says. "Huh? W-what's wrong with Miss Tsuruno…?"

"Huh? Is Tsuruno hurt?" Felicia asks. "What happened to her?"

Iroha carries Tsuruno over to the other couch and sets her down, and Yachiyo places the soul gem back on her chest, glancing suspiciously at Felicia. Kuroe looks around nervously, seemingly sensing the tension in the air.

"Before that," Yachiyo says. "How is it that you're here? Last I saw, you were brainwashed by the Wings of the Magius and taken away."

"Oh, that!" Felicia says. "The lady in white let us go!"

Yachiyo gasps. "Mifuyu did!?"

"Yeah!" Sana says. "She used her magic to undo the brainwashing… and then, she sent us to a post by the hospital, saying that you'd probably show up there sooner or later."

"But I got bored of waiting for you guys, so I beat up the white feather who was supposed to be watching us," Felicia says. "And then we came here."

"Oh, and we have good news for you, Miss Iroha!" Sana says.

"Huh?" Iroha says. "What good news?"

"We've found Ui-chan!" Sana says.

"W-whaaaaaaat!?" Iroha gasps. "W-w-what do you mean you've found her!? Where is she!? Is she here!?"

"N-no, no, um… c-calm down!" Sana says. "Um… look here…"

She emerges fully from the kitchen, grabbing her phone and showing Iroha the photo she took.

"Um… that is Ui-chan… right?" Sana says uncertainly.

"Oh my, it really is her!" Iroha gasps. "Where did you take this photo, Sana-chan!? Where is she!? Why on earth is she trapped inside this… this… whatever it is…?"

"Um… she's right at the heart of Hotel Fendt Hope," Sana says.

"The Magius's base!?" Iroha gasps. "T-then… they're holding her prisoner…?"

"Um… I'm not quite sure of the details," Sana says. "She's encased in a huge red crystal on a gigantic witch-like thing… or it might be a doppel… Miss Taylor said she should've been the fourth Magius, but her existence was removed due to a mistake… so I think they might not even know she's there…"

"Huh… so wait… are you saying that Ui… helped to start the Wings of the Magius?" Iroha asks. "No way… that can't be true…"

"Um… l-like I said, I'm not sure of the details," Sana says. "Um… you could probably ask Miss Taylor… she seems to know a lot about it, somehow…"

"There's something very strange about this Miss Taylor," Yachiyo says. "How can she remember the girl that no-one else remembers? How does she know about a rumour that no-one else knew about? Where did she get all this information from that no-one else seems to have?"

"I don't know," Sana says. "B-but, she saved Ai-chan, so I'd really like to trust her…"

"Are you sure she saved her?" Yachiyo says. "Maybe it was just an act, and she destroyed her right afterwards."

"Come to think of it," Iroha muses. "Doesn't Ai-chan have an email? We could always try contacting her…"

"O-oh, right!" Sana gasps.

At that moment, a sizzling sound is heard from the kitchen.

"O-oh no!" Sana gasps. "The pot must've boiled over…! Um… j-just a second…"

"Let me take over," Yachiyo says. "I'm sure you all have a lot of things you'd like to talk about… like Tsuruno's condition, and Miss Ai."

"Y-yes!" Sana says. "Thank you very much, Miss Yachiyo! Um, it's just a simple curry… I was just about to add the curry powder when you came in…"

"Is that so?" Yachiyo says. "Then it should be easy for me to keep an eye on it."

She heads into the kitchen, and Sana sits on the floor by the table. Iroha sits on the couch behind her, placing Tsuruno's head on her lap, and at her beckoning, Kuroe takes a seat beside Sana.

"Come to think of it… who are you, anyway?" Felicia asks.

"Ah, this is Miss Kuroe," Iroha says. "She's a friend from Takarazaki… actually, I don't think I know her given name…"

"Um… Kuroe Asaka," Kuroe says. "N-nice to meet you all…"

"So you're Asaka!" Felicia says. "Alright!"

"N-nice to meet you, Miss Kuroe," Sana says.

"So what's up with Tsuruno?" Felicia asks.

"Um… I'm not quite sure," Iroha says. "All I know is that she was badly hurt, and her soul gem is cracked…"

"O-oh no!" Sana gasps. "T-that's her very life…!"

"Y-yeah," Iroha says. "She won't wake up at all because of that. But I'm hoping I can heal her with my magic…"

"Iroha's magic is awesome, so I'm sure it'll work out!" Felicia says.

"So, um… c-can I have my phone back, Miss Iroha?" Sana ask. "I want to try contacting her…"

"Oh, right," Iroha says.

"And, um… what's her email?" Sana asks.

Iroha checks her phone for the messages she exchanged with Ai during the Endless Solitude event, and shows it to Sana for her to copy down. Then Sana composes a quick message.

[Um, hello, this is Sana. Are you there, Ai-chan?]

The response comes almost instantly.

[Good evening, Sana. It is good to hear from you again. How are you?]

Sana gasps. "S-she responded!?"

[I'm fine! How are you?]

[Currently engaged in battle with a witch in Minaminagi Ward.]

"Huh," Sana says. "She's fighting a witch… for some reason…?"

[Um, I meant more generally… but why are you fighting a witch? And come to think of it, how can you email me in the middle of battle!?]

[To a being such as me, email is no different from that power you call telepathy. You have no issue with communicating telepathically in the middle of battle, correct? The same is true of me and email. As to why I am fighting a witch, I believe there are only two possible reasons why someone would do so – to protect humans, and to obtain grief seed. In this case, both reasons apply.]

"Um, so… I'm happy to get confirmation that she's alive," Sana says. "But this is so confusing… why does she want grief seeds…? She's a rumour, not a magical girl…"

"Maybe she met Kyuubey and turned into a magical girl," Felicia suggests.

"Do you really think that's possible!?" Iroha gasps.

"A rumour… turning into a magical girl…?" Kuroe says.

"Miss Yachiyo, what do you think?" Iroha asks.

Yachiyo pokes her head out of the kitchen.

"It sounds pretty far-fetched to me, but… why don't you just ask her?" she says.

"R-right," Sana says.

[Ai-chan… this might sound like a crazy question, but… are you a magical girl?]

[Yes.]

"S-she said yes…!?" Sana gasps. "So it is possible? Even though she wasn't human to begin with…"

"Maybe she was close enough to human?" Yachiyo muses. "She was all ready to sacrifice herself for your sake, right, Miss Futaba? That's a pretty human thing to do…"

"Well, maybe…" Sana says.

"U-um, so, c-can we talk about Ashley Taylor?" Kuroe asks.

"Ah, right," Iroha says. "It seems like Miss Taylor has helped me out a lot without my knowledge… what's going on with her?"

"Well… she has a plan to destroy Fendt Hope from the inside," Kuroe says. "Apparently, the Magius plan to send almost all the feathers out into the city in a day or two… which will be your chance to strike while the base is undefended."

"Where is this base, anyway?" Iroha asks.

"Um… I don't know," Kuroe says. "The entrance moves around… it used to be in the old railway yard, but I'm not sure where it is right now… b-but Miss Taylor will tell me when the time comes!"

"Is there some reason she can't tell you now?" Iroha asks.

"W-well… I suppose I could ask, now that you mention it," Kuroe says. "B-but, um, if she's right about the Magius's plan, I really think it'd be better to wait… she's trying to gather all the magical girls of Kamihama to strike them down in one blow while they're defenseless."

"Huh… that's amazing," Iroha says. "Wait a second… why did she join the Wings of the Magius in the first place? No… was this her goal the whole time? She was never loyal to them in the first place? She did mention more than once that she was going against the will of the Magius…"

"I still think it's hard to trust her," Yachiyo says. "Even if we share an enemy with her, she still seems to have an agenda of her own that she's not sharing. What if she suddenly turns on us as soon as Fendt Hope is destroyed?"

"Um, I don't think she would do that!" Sana protests. "I think she's really a good person… even if she's keeping a few secrets… I think she can be trusted."

"Kanagi seems to trust her too," Yachiyo says. "So I guess I can go along with it if everyone else wants to… but even so, I'm going to keep a close eye on her."

"Um… who's Miss Kanagi?" Iroha asks.

"An old friend, or perhaps an old enemy," Yachiyo says. "She's been a magical girl almost as long as I have, and is known as the Boss of the East."

"The Boss of the East? Ah, is she the reason why you warned me against going east of Chuo Ward?" Iroha asks.

"Yes, we had an agreement between the East and West," Yachiyo says. "Mifuyu negotiated it nearly a year ago."

"A year… wait, is that before Mel-chan…?"

"Yes, actually," Yachiyo says. "Just a bit before she turned into a witch…"

Kuroe blinks. "T-that really happened…? I only heard about it… I've never seen it for myself…"

"You should count yourself lucky," Iroha says. "It's not a sight I ever want to see… even though it was only in a dream, it was almost too much to bear…"

---

Almost all of that happens during school hours, though by the time they make it to Mitama's place, school has ended – I don't think Mitama would've been there otherwise, though I'm not entirely certain about that.

At this point, there are basically three things I could tune in on. I could check how the effort to recruit all the magical girls of Kamihama is going, or I could listen in on the reunion between Tomoe Mami and the rest of the Holy Brigade, or I could spy on the Magius to see if I can pick up any details of their plan. I've mostly been assuming they'd go through with the same plan as in the previous timeline, but a number of things are different, such as the early destruction of the Chelation Land rumour. That also means events probably can't swerve right into anime territory, either. And I have the email from Mifuyu calling me in for the loyalty interview with the Magius, so I think that's a good sign that we're still heading towards the Rumour of the Flower Speaker.

So I decide to see what Kanagi and co are up to. Instead of scrying on a person, I scry on a place – the Coordinator's shop.

---

Mitama is in the shop, of course, but it seems the others haven't arrived yet. It's about ten minutes before Konomi steps in.

"Good afternoon, Konomi-chan!" Mitama says. "Here for another tune-up, or some good old-fashioned conspiring?"

"Don't say it like that," Konomi complains. "It makes it sound like we're the bad guys…"

"Well, even though I'm neutral, I'd prefer if you didn't do it right under my nose," Mitama says.

"Well, we chose this as a place to meet up," Konomi says. "But I don't think anyone will mind changing locations once we're all here. By the way, I don't suppose you have any more news on Kaede-chan? She didn't come to school again today… although Miss Momoko was there, but she left immediately after class so I didn't get a chance to talk with her."

"I haven't seen her since the day she joined the Wings of the Magius," Mitama says. "I'm sorry I can't be of any more help."

"No, that's okay," Konomi says.

Konomi takes a seat on a couch to wait, and Hinano and Maria arrive together a few minutes later.

"Good afternoon, Maria-chan, Hinano," Mitama says. "It's unusual to see you two together…"

"Well, we do go to the same school, though," Maria points out.

This is made obvious by their matching school uniforms, of course.

"True enough, but even so, I don't think I've ever seen the two of you together," Mitama says.

"I guess we've never come here together," Maria admits.

"Miss Mitama, I have a quick question for you," Hinano says.

"Ask away," Mitama says.

"Those doppel things… what are they really?" Hinano asks.

Mitama repeats the explanation she gave to Yachiyo the day before.

"So they really are just a step away from witches," Hinano muses. "A convenient, yet dangerous power…"

"Yes, I think that's an appropriate conclusion," Mitama says.

"Have you ever unleashed one yourself, Miss Mitama?" Hinano asks.

"Heavens, no!" Mitama says. "Who would tune me to stabilize my doppel? Sensei often cautioned me against using my powers on myself. It's apparently very dangerous to try to tune your own soul gem."

Hinano blinks. "Did you say… sensei…? There was someone who taught you how to Coordinate?"

"Yes, she stayed here in Kamihama for nearly a year, teaching me the skills I needed to survive as a Coordinator," Mitama says. "Then she disappeared on a journey, just a bit before the Mirror Witch started making trouble… though of course we didn't realize at first that it was the Mirror Witch."

"Which is also around the time you opened up shop," Hinano muses.

"That's correct," Mitama says.

At that moment, Nanaka steps in, looking around at those present.

"Good afternoon, Miss Tokiwa," Mitama says.

"It seems we are still one short," Nanaka says. "Is Miss Izumi coming?"

"I'm sure she's just taking her time," Mitama says. "Kanagi lives on the opposite side of town, after all."

"I see," Nanaka says. "Then I suppose we will simply have to wait."

"Ah, actually, I'm expecting one more person too," Maria says.

And wait they do. It's nearly ten minutes more when Kanagi finally shows up, and furthermore, she's not alone. Mikage is with her, hiding behind her and looking a touch nervous. Hotori also steps in just behind them, moving over to sort of hide herself behind Maria.

"Mii!?" Mitama gasps. "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Mii was worried about onee-chan when you didn't come to school again!" Mikage says. "So when Mii spotted Nagi-tan leaving school, Mii asked her to bring Mii to your shop."

"Since I was coming here anyway, it was hard to turn Mikage down," Kanagi says. "My apologies, Yakumo."

"Ah, no, it's not really your fault," Mitama says. "Mii, this is my workplace, so you can't just come barging in here whenever you want, okay?"

"But Mii just wanted to see onee-chan…" Mikage says.

"Well, it's okay if it's every once in awhile…" Mitama says.

"So, this is your little sister, Miss Mitama?" Konomi says. "She's so cute, oh my gosh! Your name is Mikage, right? I'm Haruna Konomi."

"Yes, Mii is Yakumo Mikage!" Mikage says excitedly. "Mii is happy to meet Konomi-sempai too! Mii hasn't really met many other magical girls until now…"

"How long have you been a magical girl?" Konomi asks.

"Um… Mii has been a magical girl since around… Valentine's Day?" Mikage says.

"That long!?" Mitama gasps. "You managed to keep it from me, and the other magical girls in the area, for two whole months!?"

"Um, well… there was one other magical girl who helped Mii out a bit," Mikage says. "Sae-chan was really helpful in explaining everything Mii needed to know about magical girls!"

Huh… I suppose that might explain why Sae and Mikage showed up together at the battle last time. It wasn't just a coincidence – they actually already knew each other. I don't remember them having that connection in the game, however, so I wonder why they would've met?

"Ah, could that be Kirino Sae?" Maria asks.

"Yeah, do you know Sae-chan too?"

"A little," Maria says.

Nanaka clears her throat. "Excuse me, but I believe we have important business to attend to," she says. "Miss Yakumo, do you mind if we leave your little sister with you and discuss things elsewhere?"

"Yes, that's fine with me," Mitama says. "In fact, I was hoping you'd discuss things elsewhere."

"Do you have a place in mind, Miss Tokiwa?" Konomi asks.

"While I was making the rounds, Miss Tatsuki offered her dojo as a meeting place," Nanaka says. "I thought it would be a good place to gather, so I accepted the offer. We can go there right now."

"Perfect," Hinano says. "Then let's get going."

"Um, and this is the extra person I was expecting," Maria says, indicating Hotori.

"Ah! Um, n-nice to m-m-meet you!" Hotori gasps. "I'm Y-yuzuki H-hotori…"

"Yuyuzuki Hohotori…?" Hinano says.

"N-no, um, t-that's not quite…" Hotori protests.

"We will not bite, Miss Yuzuki," Nanaka says. "Please, calm down."

"Y-yes, um… o-okay…"

They head out from the Coordinator's shop, leaving the siblings together, and make their way to the True-Dragon Dojo, where Asuka greets them warmly and ushers them in.

"Would you like me to make some tea?" she asks.

"While I would appreciate a cup of tea, I believe today's meeting will be somewhat short," Nanaka says.

"Ah, so no tea today?" Asuka says.

"I think not," Nanaka confirms. "But is that fine with everyone else?"

"Yeah, I'm not that thirsty," Konomi says.

"Same," Maria says.

Hotori simply nods wordlessly.

"I would like to get to the main point," Kanagi says.

"Right, so you guys were talking to all the magical girls all over town, right?" Asuka says. "We're going to get together and take down the evil organization in one fell swoop!"

"I'm not sure I'd exactly call them evil," Konomi says. "But, well… that's basically correct. Um, so… I have a list of the people I talked to, and their reactions. There are only five of them. First of all, Minagi Sasara. When she heard what the Wings of the Magius are doing, she said she'd join us, no questions asked."

"Of course my partner would agree!" Asuka exclaims.

"Next is Natsume Kako," Konomi says. "She sounded a bit unsure until I told her Miss Tokiwa was with us. Then she said she was in. Emily said yes before I'd even finished explaining myself."

"It's just like her, making snap decisions," Hinano says.

"And finally… Isuzu Ren and Ayano Rika," Konomi concludes. "They were together when I found them. Um… both of them seemed a bit unsure at first, but when I explained what Walpurgisnacht is, that really turned the tables. So in other words… they're with us too. I was going to talk to Miss Nanami as well, but I couldn't find her today."

"Um, I guess I'll go next," Maria says. "First of all, I spoke with Chiaki Riko. She jumped on the bandwagon as soon as I let Miss Taylor's name slip… which was an accident, but a happy one, I suppose. Then she introduced me to Mizuki Rui, who was apparently aware of the truth behind witches already. She agreed to join us as well. Riko-chan also introduced me to Yayoi Kanoko, who seemed a bit uncertain, but ultimately decided to help us out… but when I spoke to Kirino Sae today, she refused outright. She did say she wouldn't interfere with either side, at least. Basically, she wants nothing to do with this conflict."

"I spoke to Mao-kun and the three girls from the apartment complex," Kanagi says. "They've all agreed to join our attack. I didn't talk to Mikage about the plan, however."

"Well, she is a bit young for it," Konomi admits.

"Although, Riko-chan is about the same age, isn't she?" Maria says.

"In fact, Mikage is a year older than Riko-kun," Kanagi says.

"So it's weird to leave out Mikage-chan but not Riko-chan, isn't it?" Maria says.

"I may speak with her about it tomorrow," Kanagi says. "However, Yakumo is neutral, so I am not sure if it's a good idea to drag Mikage into the conflict."

"Ah, so you had a reason other than just her age," Konomi says. "That actually makes a lot of sense. So, um… who's up next?"

"I'll go," Hinano says. "I spoke with Hibiki Meguru today, and she's in. I may have messed up when I spoke to Misono Karin yesterday – since they go to the same school, I admonished her not to tell Alina about our plan, but it turns out the two of them are actually quite close. Despite that, however, it didn't seem like Miss Misono had any inkling of what the Wings of the Magius were doing. She didn't even recognize the name… so they might not be as close as she thinks. Still, she refused to believe that Alina would do such a thing. I think she probably won't be joining the attack."

"That could be quite the blunder," Nanaka muses. "Miss Misono is… a bit of a wildcard, you could say."

"Oh, were you acquainted with her?" Hinano says.

"We both became magical girls in October of last year," Nanaka says. "Around that time, I heard rumours that she was stealing grief seeds from other magical girls… but the rumours died down after awhile, so I believe she has learned the error of her ways. But that is beside the point. Let us hope that she does not let the plan slip to Miss Alina."

"Yes, I hope so," Hinano says. "Next… I talked to Yura Hotaru and Mai Akari. Their reaction was that it sounds like a pain, so I guess they're not going to join us. I also spoke with Mariko Ayaka, who thought it sounds like a lark – she's with us by the way – as well as Awane Kokoro, Kagami Masara, and Eri Aimi. All three of them said they would join the attack. I even tracked down the shut-in, Miwa Mitsune, and she surprised me by saying she'd consider it."

"There was a magical girl like that in Chuo Ward…?" Nanaka says. "The other names are all familiar to me, but I have never heard of Miss Miwa."

"I ran across her by chance a couple of weeks ago," Hinano says. "It's possible I'm the only magical girl she's ever spoken to. From what I understand, she spends most of her time cooped up inside and only ventures out when she really needs a grief seed. I'd actually be surprised if she hasn't unleashed a doppel already, given her temperament… but in any case, that's everyone on my list."

Maria prods Hotori, who blinks.

"Ah! Um, y-yes! Um… Aoba Chika… Chiharu Karen… and Irina Kusch… t-they all agreed… to j-join us," she says.

"It seems that I inadvertently drew the short straw," Nanaka says. "However, that is neither here nor there. In addition to my teammates, Shinobu Akira and Chun Meiyui, I secured support from Utsuho Natsuki and the Azalea sisters, as well as Kurumi Manaka, Wakana Tsumugi, Ami Ria, Kozue Mayu, and Fumino Sayuki."

"And me!" Asuka speaks up.

"Yes, of course," Nanaka says.

"So, let me see," Maria muses, examining the notes app on her phone. "Tori and I won't be joining the attack, as we'll be on the inside causing chaos instead. That means we have…"

She starts counting the names that have a 'yes' next to them in her notes.

"…thirty-two magical girls who've definitely chosen to join us, three who refused, and two maybes," she says.

"Who are you counting as a maybe besides Miss Miwa?" Hinano asks.

"Ah, since Miss Misono didn't outright say no, I'm counting her as a maybe too," Maria says.

"Ah, okay, that makes sense," Hinano says.

"Then the only ones we didn't talk to are Mikage-chan and the Crescent Moon Villa team," Maria says. "Miss Taylor said we can expect their support though – so we probably have at least Miss Nanami, Mitsuki Felicia, Miss Tamaki, and Miss Futaba as well. So adding them and the four of you to the count, that makes about forty of us, or as many as forty-three if we're lucky."

Nanaka raises her eyebrows. "I would be a bit wary of accepting Miss Mitsuki's help," she says. "But I have not heard as many rumours about her recently, so perhaps her temperament has improved…"

"Huh? What about the mightiest?" Hinano says. "If Miss Yachiyo is joining us, surely Miss Tsuruno will come too?"

"Normally that would be the case," Maria says. "But Miss Yui is severely injured, so it's unclear whether she'll be able to recover before the time comes. So I counted her as a maybe – the count of forty-three is assuming Miss Yui, Miss Misono, and Miss Miwa join."

"Ah… I'm sorry to hear that," Hinano says. "Do you know what happened?"

"Um… from what I heard, she was fused with a rumour to reinforce her brainwashing, and Miss Taylor tried to separate her," Maria says. "But it went really badly, and she ended up like that… her soul gem is cracked, and she won't wake up."

"I see, so even Miss Taylor makes mistakes," Nanaka says. "Paradoxically, that actually makes me feel a little bit better about trusting her with this plan. And speaking of the plan… have you heard further details on it from Miss Taylor?"

"Yes, we had a meeting early this morning about it," Maria says. "She says she expects the Magius to make their move on Thursday right after school. They're going to send most of the feathers out into town to mess with the cellular towers as part of their bid to summon Walpurgisnacht. While the feathers are out in town, all of us will gather in one place, probably here, and then march straight to Fendt Hope and destroy it. The renegade feathers on the inside will deal with most of the other feathers remaining on the base, which means all we really have to do is defeat the rumour itself. That said, she says it's an incredibly strong rumour. That's why she's asking a few magical girls from out of town to join as well – apparently two of them have magic that boosts other girls' magic."

"So, you are saying it will be up to our group to defeat this rumour?" Nanaka asks.

"Miss Taylor said we might get additional support from people already on the base," Maria says. "She named Miss Togame, Miss Mifuyu, and Miss Rena in particular, but I'm not sure if that was actually part of her plan or more like speculation. So, in other words, you should probably be prepared to fight the rumour by yourselves. Oh, right, there was one other thing – she said you might have to defeat a few witches before you can fight the rumour, so you should make sure you have plenty of grief seeds."

"Did she say anything about contingency plans?" Nanaka asks. "For example, what if the feathers realize that we're attacking and decide to return?"

Maria blinks. "Ah, no, not really," she says. "Actually, I asked her the same question, and she said it just wouldn't happen. When I asked her why she was so certain about that, she said the feathers wouldn't be capable of making such an advanced decision…"

"Surely that is not true," Nanaka says. "Even if the Magius order them out into town, if they were to see that their base is in danger, I am sure at least some of them would ignore the standing orders. Did she explain her reasoning in more detail?"

"Um, so… I wasn't going to mention this, but since you're asking, I guess I'll tell you," Maria says. "I don't know where exactly she heard about it, but apparently the Magius are making a rumour that will brainwash anyone who wears their emblem into a loyal, well… puppet, I guess is the best word… so, if she's right, it does make sense that they'd be unable to make advanced decisions, but it's also pretty out there, so I can't help but wonder…"

"Hmm, but they did fuse Miss Yui with a rumour to brainwash her," Nanaka says. "If they are capable of such a thing, it is not such a stretch that they would think it useful to erase the will of all their followers…"

"In fact, once the rumour of Fendt Hope is defeated, Miss Taylor said she'd probably ask us to defeat that rumour too," Maria says. "So, we'll probably come back into town and find the brainwashed feathers, and destroy their Magius pendants until the main rumour shows itself. That is, assuming she's right about their plan – even she didn't sound completely certain. She did however say that we'd know for sure if they're brainwashed before we launch the attack on Fendt Hope, so if the Magius decide not to brainwash them, we can consider our options."

"At least one of us should probably speak with Miss Nanami about the plan," Konomi says. "Maybe she'll be home by now? She wasn't there when I checked before school, nor last night, but…"

"I will go," Kanagi says. "We already agreed to work together, so Nanami shouldn't be surprised to see me."

"Then, just to be clear, our plan is for everyone to meet here at the dojo immediately after school on Thursday, correct?" Nanaka says. "We will need to pass that time on to everyone else – perhaps we should inform Miss Misono and Miss Miwa as well, so that they can make their own decision on whether to attend."

"I suppose I might as well tell Miss Kirino too," Maria says. "I'm pretty sure she won't show up, but I guess it can't hurt."

"One more thing," Nanaka says. "Will we be able to stop the Magius from summoning Walpurgisnacht?"

Maria falls silent for a few seconds, biting her lip, then shakes her head.

"I'm… not sure if it would be possible," she says. "However, Miss Taylor's plan does not include preventing the summoning. In fact, she's sending a large group of magical girls from out of town to meet the witch when it appears. She even said she'd like anyone who's still fit to fight to go join that battle once the two rumours are defeated. She expects Walpurgisnacht to show up first in Shinsei Ward, wrecking the wind farms and then moving towards Minaminagi and Sakae Wards. However, she also said that the witch might veer north once the rumours are defeated, crossing through Shinsei Ward."

"It sounds like she's speculating a little," Kanagi says.

"Yes, but she apparently spoke with someone who can see visions of the future," Maria says. "The location of Shinsei Ward comes from that vision. She's only speculating about where the witch would move after that."

"Okay," Nanaka says. "But setting aside Miss Taylor's plan for a second… do you think it would be possible to prevent the summoning?"

Maria tilts her head, considering.

"I think… it would probably be difficult to prevent the summoning while also destroying Fendt Hope," she says. "From the way Miss Taylor described the Magius's plan, preventing the summoning would mean defeating the rumour that's brainwashing all their followers, before they can finish setting up whatever it is that lets them hijack the cellular network. It's probably well within our abilities to do that, but… to do it while at the same time attacking Fendt Hope would mean splitting our forces to the point that it might actually be quite difficult, if not impossible, to defeat the Fendt Hope rumour, at least if it's as strong as Miss Taylor has suggested. The brainwashing rumour is actually something of a boon for us, because it forces all the feathers out of the base so we can attack. Plus, I'm not sure if what the feathers would be doing in town is actually crucial to summoning Walpurgisnacht, or if it only boosts a signal to make her arrive faster or something. And… Miss Taylor also said that Walpurgisnacht is actually on her way here even if they hadn't planned to summon her – by preventing the summoning completely, the witch would just hit Mitakihara instead of Kamihama. I think she heard that from her seer friend too."

"I see," Nanaka muses. "All we can do is aim for the least bad outcome… and if stopping the summoning would merely unleash the witch upon another town, even as a possibilty, we cannot in good conscience go through with that. Very well. Please keep us updated if anything changes with respect to the Magius's plans, but if they continue to go as Miss Taylor predicts, then we will meet again here in three days."

With that, they all say their goodbyes and go their own way. Kanagi makes her way to Crescent Moon Villa and knocks on the door. It's answered by Iroha, who blinks at her in confusion.

"Ah, um… hello," Iroha says. "How may I help you…?"

"I would like to speak to Nanami," Kanagi says.

"Nanami…? Oh, Miss Yachiyo!" Iroha says. "There's someone here to see you!"

"Show her in!" Yachiyo calls from within.

So Iroha ushers Kanagi into the living room, where everyone else is still sitting more or less where they were earlier. Felicia has gone back to her game, and Sana looks like she's still chatting with Ai on her phone.

"Oh?" Kanagi says. "It appears that everyone is here… and the account of Yui-kun's injury was not exaggerated, I see."

"Yes, I'm doing my best to heal her right now," Iroha says.

She kneels by the couch, beside Kuroe, and starts using her magic, still trying to mend the crack in Tsuruno's soul gem. I can't really tell how much of an effect it's having, but I think the crack isn't as bad as it was when I dropped her off at the Coordinator's.

"What do you mean by 'everyone'?" Yachiyo asks. "Has someone been talking to you about me?"

"Yuki-kun said that there are four of you on a Crescent Moon Villa team," Kanagi says. "Or five, if Yui-kun is counted. Although… there seems to be an extra here…"

"A-ah, um… s-sorry…?" Kuroe says. "I'm an outsider here, I know…"

"That's not true, Miss Kuroe!" Iroha says. "You're welcome here anytime! After all, it's thanks to you and Miss Yachiyo that I managed to escape from my doppel…"

"Well, perhaps we should start with introductions," Yachiyo says. "This is Izumi Kanagi, an old rival of mine. She helped me to find you too, Iroha."

"Ah… is that so?" Iroha says. "Thank you very much, Miss Kanagi! Um, I'm Tamaki Iroha… nice to meet you! I guess you already know Tsuruno-chan? These other girls are Futaba Sana, Mitsuki Felicia, and Kuroe Asaka."

"Ah, I have met Kuroe-kun already," Kanagi says.

"Y-yeah, like Miss Nanami said, she helped us to narrow down where to look for you, Miss Tamaki," Kuroe says.

"U-um, hello," Sana says. "I'm Futaba Sana…"

"Now that we've gotten the introductions out of the way," Yachiyo says. "I'm sure you didn't come just for a social call. What's on your mind, Kanagi? And who is… Yuki-kun…?"

"Her full name is Yuki Maria," Kanagi says.

"Oh! Maria's one of us!" Kuroe says. "Um, by that I mean the group Miss Taylor put together within the Wings of the Magius…"

"Yes, it seems Taylor-kun has concocted quite the bold plan," Kanagi says. "She feels that the Wings of the Magius have taken a step too far, and intends to attack them right where it hurts the most – at their base, Hotel Fendt Hope. To that end, she has requested the aid of all the magical girls in Kamihama, and even a few from elsewhere. However, you were nowhere to be found yesterday, so I came to let you in on the plan and request your support."

"Ah, what a coincidence," Iroha says. "I was just thinking we need to do something about them too…"

"So we're gonna smash those guys, right?" Felicia says.

"That's… one way to put it," Sana says.

"But to think she could drag in all the magical girls in Kamihama!?" Iroha says. "Just how many are there, anyway?"

"A few have refused to help, but excluding those in this room, we have secured a promise of aid from over thirty magical girls in Kamihama," Kanagi says. "Including those in this room and a few others on the fence, we could surpass forty strong."

"Even the mean girl!?" Felicia gasps. "That Tokiwa Nanaka chick?"

"Yes, she is joining us too," Kanagi says.

"A-and um, even Miss Manaka as well?" Sana says.

"I believe I heard her name come up, yes," Kanagi says.

"What about Kako and Ayame?" Felicia asks.

"They are both with us as well," Kanagi says.

"And Miss Taylor has gathered others to her within the Wings of the Magius who are having second thoughts?" Yachiyo says. "How many of those are there?"

"Um, I think we're at fourteen right now," Kuroe says. "No, is that right? Um… there's four white feathers… Lita, Coeurl, Sue, and Momoko. Then there's me, Inui, Maria, Maimai, Maya, Tori, Chiyoko, Rena, Tomomi, and Mana. So yes, fourteen."

Iroha turns to stare at her. "Huh? W-wait, are you saying Momoko-chan and Rena-chan joined the Wings of the Magius!? Why on earth…?"

"Ah, um, from what I heard, it was to keep an eye on their teammate," Kuroe says. "Since she was brainwashed or something…"

"So Kaede-chan was brainwashed…? And they joined just to keep an eye on her?" Iroha says. "I see… I feel a little relieved by that. It means they don't really agree with what the Wings of the Magius are doing… they just want to save Kaede-chan… oh, but doesn't that mean we should be able to count on Kaede-chan's support too?"

"I don't know," Kuroe says. "I suppose it depends whether they can break through the brainwashing by then…"

"Oh right, I heard that Miss Shizuku was brainwashed too," Sana says. "I hope she's okay…"

"Well, in any case, I think we should definitely join this plan," Iroha says. "I was wracking my brain on what to do with the current situation, but this seems like just the solution I was looking for."

"Hold on a minute," Yachiyo says. "Before we agree to the plan, don't you think you should share the specifics with us?"

"Ah, that's a good point," Iroha says.

"Who cares!" Felicia says. "All we gotta do is show up at their base and smash them!"

"I… I don't think it's quite that simple, Felicia!" Sana says.

"Of course," Kanagi says. "But can I trust that, even if you choose not to join the attack, you will not let the Wings of the Magius know?"

"Of course!" Iroha says.

"Duh!" Felicia says.

"Um, yeah, of course not," Sana says.

"Naturally," Yachiyo says. "You can trust us, Kanagi."

Kanagi nods, finding a place to sit while she explains the plan as she heard it from Maria.

"Well, that certainly is a very bold plan," Yachiyo says. "I don't like how it's hinging on so many hypotheticals, however… but do you think it can work, Kanagi? And do you really think Miss Taylor can be trusted?"

"When I met Taylor-kun last year and peered inside her mind, she seemed like a trustworthy soul," Kanagi says. "I don't know how the Taylor-kun from that time is related to the Taylor-kun of the present, however."

Yachiyo blinks. "Huh? That's a rather odd thing to say…"

"She is a rather odd individual," Kanagi says. "She appears to possess knowledge of the future. Even back then, she already knew the nature of my magic power before meeting me – the first thing she did was request that I use it on her."

Yachiyo blinks. "She actually asked you to read her mind?"

"Huh? Mind-reading?" Iroha says. "You can read minds, Miss Kanagi?"

"Worry not," Kanagi says. "I can only use that power while I am transformed. Yes, Taylor-kun asked me to read her mind, because doing so enabled her to rest assured that the issue afflicting her at the time was merely temporary. She claims to have travelled back in time, and also claims that she has not yet experienced the meeting from last year."

"Those seem like rather outlandish claims," Yachiyo says.

"Time travel?" Iroha says. "Is such a thing really possible…?"

"Ah, could that be how she knew that girl was Ui-chan…?" Sana wonders.

"I don't know," Kanagi says. "I didn't get a sense that she was lying when I scanned her for the second time earlier this month, but the conversation had moved on from the claims of time travel by that point. However… should you take her claim at face value, then her predictions about the Magius's actions take on a new significance. She may have experienced them once before."

"That's true, I suppose," Yachiyo says. "It could also explain how she knows about things that she shouldn't be able to know, like Miss Ui and the Eternal Sakura. But still, time-travel…? I really can't just believe that so easily… anyway, that's enough about Miss Taylor herself. Do you think the plan can work, Kanagi?"

"I see no major flaws in the plan," Kanagi says. "Assuming the information it's based on is valid, then yes, I believe it can work."

"But the only problem is, southern Shinsei Ward will be hit by Walpurgisnacht," Yachiyo says. "Even if her allies from out of town manage to defeat the witch, it won't be without fallout… those wind farms in particular are a major source of power for the city, right? In the worst case, we could be talking about an extended blackout across Kamihama."

"Yes, I can't say I am happy about that," Kanagi says. "Even though Daito Ward is the furthest from Shinsei, I am sure the fallout will reach all the way there, one way or another."

"T-that… could be really bad, yeah," Sana says.

"I'm not happy about it either," Iroha says. "But it wouldn't be any better to let the witch hit Mitakihara instead…"

"Then, can we count on your support?" Kanagi asks.

"Like I said, we just gotta smash them!" Felicia exclaims.

"Hmm… I think I'd like to join you," Iroha says. "However… there's a place on their base that I want to go to first. Would it be okay if we split off from the main group while you fight the rumour? We can return to help out after that…"

"That sounds acceptable to me," Kanagi says. "I will let the others know that you have your own agenda and we shouldn't count on your help in the main battle."

"What's this place you're talking about, Iroha?" Yachiyo says.

"Of course, it's where Ui is," Iroha says. "I want to try freeing her before anything else."

"As I thought," Yachiyo says. "Very well, then I'll join in as well."

"Me too!" Felicia says.

"Um, I as well!" Sana says.

Everyone looks at Kuroe, who blinks.

"Ah, um… w-why are you looking at me?" she asks. "I'm the one who'll lead everyone to the base, after all… so of course I'm going…"

"Understood," Kanagi says. "Then I won't take up any more of your time, and I'll see all of you again on Thursday. Remember that the meeting place is Tatsuki-kun's True-Dragon Dojo."

"Got it," Yachiyo says. "We'll be there. If Tsuruno heals up well enough, we might even bring her along as well."

With that, Kanagi gets up and leaves the villa.

"Ah, that's right, what did Tsuruno-chan's father say when you called him earlier?" Iroha asks.

"Oh… I said she just has a terrible fever and we're looking after her," Yachiyo says. "He said he'd call the school to let them know she'll be absent for a few days. He was really happy that we found her, too. Apparently she hadn't been home since she went to the Memory Museum. He's going to keep the place closed for a few more days, though. I guess it's a bit too much for him to handle all by himself."

"I see," Iroha says. "Let's hope she gets better fast!"

---

I find myself in front of Mami's apartment building. While watching Kanagi and the others discuss our plans, I was apparently making my way here almost by instinct. Or… no. It wasn't instinct. Either I made a subconscious decision, or… perhaps Ashley came out to nudge me in this direction.

"Ah! Ashley-chan!"

I turn to see the speaker – Madoka. She's with Hitomi, Sayaka, and Homura. Hitomi is holding a box, which from the size looks like it could be a cake.

"Hello," I say. "Did you hear the news?"

"Do you mean about Miss Mami?" Madoka says. "She emailed me a little while ago and said that Miss Nanami and Iroha-chan saved her… so she's on her way home."

"That's the news I was talking about, yeah," I say. "Have you heard from Miss Sakura, by the way?"

"That idiot!" Sayaka huffs. "She ditched Yuma-chan with me and ran off somewhere! I haven't seen her since!"

"I see, so she's probably checking out the Wings of the Magius by now," I say.

"But Miss Mami isn't there anymore," Madoka says.

"Well… did you tell her the truth about witches, Miss Miki?" I ask. "And what the Magius are up to?"

"Um… yeah, I guess I did," Sayaka admits. "I thought she deserved to know…"

"And the Wings of the Magius have their way of preventing the witch transformation," I say. "Isn't that enough of a reason for Miss Sakura to check them out?"

"I guess so," Madoka says.

"So then, where are Yuma-chan and Nagisa-chan?" I ask.

"I assume they're either on their way here, or already inside," Madoka says. "Um… shouldn't we go inside and see?"

"Well… before that… have you noticed anyone following you since you left school?" I ask.

"Yes, now that you mention it, I thought I felt something for a moment on the edge of my awareness," Hitomi says.

"What direction were they in?" I ask.

Hitomi hesitates, then points roughly back the way they came from.

"It might have been my imagination, but… over there."

I nod. "Please, wait just a minute while I talk to them," I say.

I turn and head in the indicated direction. It's barely a minute before their presences enter the edge of my awareness, which also puts them in range for telepathy, so I contact them.

«Tamura, Chihana, Hikari, is that you?»

«W-what!?» Tamura responds. «Miss Taylor? Um, is something wrong…? We were given, um… a special mission in Mitakihara…»

«Yes, something is wrong,» I say. «I hope you haven't set any witches free within the Mitakihara witch-free zone.»

«The what now?» Chihana says. «We haven't released any witches yet… we were just about to when we noticed you were there, so I said we should wait…»

«You see, I have a different experiment running here in Mitakihara, about a way to deal with the issue of turning into witches,» I say. «There's a barrier over about three-fifths of the city that keeps witches out, so the passive impurities can slowly build up. If you unleash your witches here, they'll soak up those passive impurities and ruin the experiment. So I'm going to have to ask you to stop.»

«B-but Lady Alina said…!» Tamura protests.

«I don't care what Alina said,» I reply. «I'm cancelling your special mission. I suggest you just go home until the Magius call for you. I don't care what you do with those witches, just keep then out of central, south, or west Mitakihara. Release them in the east and kill them, given them back to Alina, whatever you want.»

«You don't actually have the authority to overrule Lady Alina though, do you?» Chihana points out.

«I don't care who has authority here,» I reply. «The experiment here in Mitakihara has nothing to do with the Wings of the Magius, and this is currently my town even if it's just temporary, so if anything, I'd say I should have one of the highest authorities on how the experiment is carried out. Therefore, if you're going to insist on following Alina's orders, you'll have to face me first. So I guess the question is… are you willing to fight me? Or will you back down peacefully?»

The connection falls silent for a bit, but then Hikari speaks up once more.

«We don't want to fight you, Miss Taylor,» she says. «We've decided to back down, but… what should we report to Lady Alina?»

«If it comes to it, feel free to lay the blame on me,» I say. «But at least try to warn me if that happens. In fact, just to be on the safe side, please send me an email if you catch any whiff of Alina's presence in Mitakihara.»

«Um… okay,» Chihana says. «I guess I'll do that, then.»

«Thank you for backing down,» I say. «I didn't really want to fight you either, but this experiment is pretty important to me.»

«I didn't even know you were doing something like that here in Mitakihara,» Hikari says. «You should've said something before…»

«Alright, I'll see you later, then,» I say.

«Um… yeah, probably,» Chihana replies.

I turn to see the Holy Brigade watching me, and head back to join them. I then join them as they head up to Mami's place, where we're greeted by Nagisa and Yuma.

"Huh! It's you again!" Nagisa gasps, pointing at me.

"Hello Nagisa-chan, Yuma-chan," I say. "Did you hear the news about Miss Tomoe too?"

"Huh? There was news about Mami-nee?" Nagisa says. "What, did she kick the bucket like my idiot mother or something?"

"No, no!" Madoka protests. "She's coming back! Iroha-chan and Miss Nanami saved her!"

"Also, you shouldn't talk about your poor mother like that!" Hitomi protests.

"Huh? Who are you calling poor? I'm the one you should be calling poor, not that idiot of a mother!" Nagisa protests.

Madoka steps between them as it looks like they're about to get into a good long argument.

"Um, so like I said, Miss Mami is coming back," she says. "In fact, she should be here really soon, so why don't we get some water started for tea?"

"Hmph," Nagisa says.

"Yuma will do it!" Yuma says.

She runs into the kitchen, followed by Nagisa, and everyone else piles into the apartment and finds a place to sit in the living room.

"Did she say how much longer she would be?" I ask.

"Um, she didn't specify exactly, but I think it should be pretty soon?" Madoka says hesitantly.

"Want me to check on her progress?" I ask.

"Yes, please!" Madoka says.

I scry on Mami and find that she's already in Mitakihara.

"Pretty soon indeed," I say. "She got off the train already, so I think she's pretty close."

Yuma and Nagisa return to the living room, the latter flopping down on a couch to rest her head on Madoka's lap, while Yuma finds a space to sit on the floor.

"Then I suppose we should wait a bit longer," Hitomi says.

"So, earlier, Miss Taylor… was that… the black feathers with witches?" Homura asks.

"Yeah, but I convinced them to back off," I say. "They were reluctant, but they didn't want to fight me, so they decided to comply."

"You threatened to fight them!?" Madoka gasps. "T-that's not very nice though…"

"Well, what they were going to do wasn't very nice either," I say. "They were going to release really strong witches just to keep all of you occupied."

"Even so, at least we'd get some grief seeds," Sayaka says. "Though I guess some people could get hurt, so that's not good… but I'd be sure to save them!"

"Well yes, you would get grief seeds, but it's still not very nice of them," I say.

"W-well… I guess you have a point, Ashley-chan," Madoka says. "But even so, doing something mean because someone else is doing something mean… that just leads to even more suffering…"

"I'm sure it helped that I personally know them," I say. "They were even on my team in the Wings of the Magius. And I did ask nicely first. They were reluctant because the order came directly from one of the Magius, so of course it makes sense that they'd want to prioritize it over my orders."

"But, regardless of the method," Homura says, "the outcome is that they won't be throwing witches at us, right?"

"That's correct," I say.

At that moment, the door opens and Mami steps in. She stops to stare at all the people present.

"Oh my, everyone's here," Mami says. "Did you all come to greet me…? Oh, and even Miss Taylor is here…"

"We thought we should have a little welcome back party," Hitomi says.

She opens up the box she'd been carrying.

"We even got a cake."

"None of you… resent me… even a little?" Mami asks. "I mean, it was because of my foolishness that the three of you became magical girls…"

"No, it wasn't," Madoka says. "I became a magical girl because I wanted to bring hope to magical girls. I wanted to be able to save magical girls who might have turned into witches otherwise. I wanted to create a world where our hope would not be denied. If anyone ever tells me that it's wrong to have hope, then I will tell them every time that they're wrong!"

Mami blinks. "Are you saying that you already knew the truth, and yet you made a wish anyway!?"

"Yes, that's exactly it," Madoka says. "So it's not your fault, Miss Mami!"

"Indeed, I actually found out about it before I made my wish too," Hitomi says. "Miss Madoka told me about the whole thing before I even met Sir Kyuubey."

"I wish I'd found out beforehand," Sayaka says with a sigh. "I don't know if I would've made my wish if I'd known. But even so, I don't regret healing Kyousuke at all."

"And you had nothing to do with my wish, Mami-nee," Nagisa says. "I knew something was fishy, but I was so angry that I just made a wish against my better judgement… but because of that, I got to meet Mami-nee, so it was totally worth it!"

"Yuma has no regrets, either!" Yuma exclaims. "Yuma is a bit sad to hear that she might turn into a witch one day, but Yuma is able to be useful to Kyouko and everyone else, so Yuma doesn't mind that much."

Homura smothers something that seems suspiciously like a giggle. Did she really just laugh…?

"You're an idiot right to the end, Mami," she says. "There's no way Madoka could blame you even if you had encouraged her to become a magical girl. She's too pure for that."

Mami blinks several times, then sighs.

"Ah, um, so I'll just go make some tea… I'll be right back…"

She hurries into the kitchen, and it seems like she's trying not to cry, so I guess making the tea was intended as a cover for her tears.

"H-homura-chan, you didn't have to go that far!" Madoka protests. "Calling Miss Mami an idiot and calling me pure… come on! That's not fair!"

"But it's completely true," Homura retorts. "An idiot who puts on a mask and pretends to be strong. It's no wonder she let herself become brainwashed. And don't try to be modest with me! You're the reason I got into this whole mess in the first place!"

"I… I can't argue with that…" Madoka mutters.

"Come to think of it, she and Miss Yui are awfully similar," I muse. "At least in that one respect…"

"So, to get back to the earlier topic," Homura says. "Since you've convinced those feathers to back off, does that mean we won't be trapped in Alina's barrier this time…?"

"Well… no, it doesn't mean that," I say. "There's still a pretty good chance Alina will show up here at some point and try to trap you guys. But it does mean you won't have to run around fighting a bunch of witches over the next couple of days."

"Um, that could be a bit of a problem, though," Madoka says. "My soul gem is a little muddy…"

"Yeah, we could really use a witch or two around now," Sayaka says. "I mean, obviously I don't want witches to be wandering around and hurting people, but we're basically all out of grief seeds."

Mami returns at that point with the tea. It seems she's somehow correctly enumerated the number of people present and found a cup for each of us – there are a total of eight cups on the tray. She also has a stack of plates and some forks, and a knife to cut the cake.

"Well, I can give you a grief cube," I say.

"Huh? A grief… cube…?" Sayaka says.

Mami sets the tray down and starts distributing the tea, while Hitomi reaches for the knife and cuts the cake into eight equal pieces.

"Oh, that's right," I say. "Does that mean you haven't told them about the barrier, Madoka?"

"Huh? What's this about a barrier?" Sayaka says.

"This is the first I've heard of it too," Hitomi says.

"Are we talking about a witch's barrier, or something else?" Mami asks.

"Ah… actually, I completely forgot about it," Madoka says. "Um… you said you wanted to find a way to expand it, if I recall correctly? Did you manage that?"

"Yes, from what I understand it now covers central, south, and west Mitakihara," I say. "So you won't find any witches in this area anymore. It's a barrier that just keeps witches out."

"Is that why all the witches have disappeared!?" Sayaka gasps. "Because of your barrier!?"

"No, that's not it at all, Miss Miki," I say. "The witches left before we expanded the barrier. It wouldn't be worthwhile to expand it while there were still witches here, so we waited for the witches to leave before expanding it. It just means they won't ever come back."

"But that's kind of a problem for us," Sayaka says. "I mean, it's good that there won't be any more witches, but we need grief seeds to avoid turning into witches ourselves!"

I take out a grief cube and show it to her.

"You don't need witches to get grief seeds," I say.

"Huh?" Sayaka says.

I pass the cube to Madoka, who uses it to purify her soul gem. Then I accept a slice of cake from Hitomi and try a bite. It's pretty good cake for what it is, but it's just a normal white cake with strawberries. Some would call it strawberry shortcake, but I think it's actually a sponge cake, so that doesn't quite fit, I think? At least the cake itself is tasty and the icing isn't overly sweet.

"I said, you don't need witches to get grief seeds," I say. "That's the entire point of expanding the barrier. If we eliminate witches from Mitakihara, you can get way more grief seeds than before."

Madoka offers her the grief cube, and she takes it and squints at it.

"T-that… that can't be," Sayaka says. "That makes no sense at all! How could no witches lead to more grief seeds!?"

"It's one of the secrets that Kyuubey doesn't want you to know," I say. "Kyuubey designed the system to maximize the reversal of entropy – the conversion of unusable high-entropy energy into low-entropy energy that can be used. It found a natural system here on Earth that was able to reverse entropy, but – I'm speculating now – probably only by a very small amount. So it created magical girls as a way to introduce witches into the system and increase efficiency. If left alone, stray emotions and impurities will build up in a populated area and eventually take on a tangible form, which I call a wraith. But by introducing witches into the ecosystem, those stray impurities are sucked up by the witches, and they never build up to the point where a wraith can spawn. That works out perfectly for Kyuubey, because it doesn't want you to know that if you simply eliminated the witches and allowed wraiths to spawn, you'd have yourself an endless supply of grief cubes – a slightly less efficient version of a standard grief seed."

"So, if I understand correctly, you have essentially turned Mitakihara into a breeding ground for these… wraiths?" Mami says. "But we only have your word that it will work…"

"The creatures she calls wraiths are real," Homura says. "I've seen them and fought them. It's also true that they drop large quantities of cubic grief seeds. That said, I don't know if she's right that they'll start to spawn when there are no witches…"

"I heard that from the one living person who has experienced it," I say. "Pernelle Flamel herself has witnessed wraiths spawning in this very city, back when it was first founded."

Technically I don't know for sure that she saw them here in Mitakihara, but it seems like a pretty good guess, given that Mitakihara is the oldest city on the island.

"What are you talking about?" Mami says. "Mitakihara was founded back in the late Sengoku Era – there's no way anyone from back then is still alive today."

"But it's true!" Madoka says. "Miss Pernelle is actually pretty nice – she's the one who crafted my leaf bow!"

"That doesn't prove she's a few hundred years old though," Mami says.

"Well… I guess you have a point there," Madoka admits.

"Well, setting that aside for now," I say. "You should probably speak to Liliane – I believe she plans to trigger a wraith spawn on the hill behind Mitakihara either today or tomorrow, so it's a good chance to see them for yourself."

"What do you mean by triggering a spawn?" Mami asks. "Didn't you say they spawn by themselves?"

"Yes, that's normally the case," I say. "But just like leaving a used grief seed lying around will eventually cause it to spawn a new witch, leaving a bunch of used grief cubes lying around will eventually cause them to spawn more wraiths. Right now they're in a sealed container though, so they won't spawn until the seal is broken. That's what I mean by triggering a spawn."

"I get your point," Mami says.

"I can't believe something like that exists," Sayaka says. "Wraiths, huh?"

She tosses the half-used grief cube towards me, and I catch it and stow it away.

"Kyuubey really has been keeping a lot of things from us, hasn't he?" Hitomi says. "If he's been trying to hide the fact that magical girls turn into witches, then I wouldn't put it past him to hide that there's an easier way to get grief seeds."

"Speaking of which… I guess you've already told Nagisa-chan and Yuma-chan about that too, huh?" I say. "It seems like Yuma-chan already knows the truth about witches…"

"Yuma heard about it from Nagisa-chan yesterday!" Yuma pipes up.

"We weren't planning on telling Yuma-chan, but that's what happened," Madoka says.

"What?" Nagisa complains. "She was bugging me so I told her. What's the big deal?"

"Still, Nagisa-chan and Yuma-chan seem to take it pretty well, all things considered," I say.

"Um, so, since everyone's here, I think this might be a good time to come clean," Madoka says. "Is that okay, Ashley-chan?"

"Oh, you're asking me this time?" I say. "Last time you didn't, though there wasn't exactly a chance to anyway."

"Um… does that mean it's okay?" Madoka asks.

"Well, I guess I don't have a problem with it as long as it doesn't spread beyond this room," I say. "What about you, Miss Homura?"

Homura sighs. "Do whatever you want," she says.

"I will tell no-one," Mami says.

"Yes, my lips are sealed," Hitomi says.

"What do you take me for? Of course I can keep a secret!" Sayaka says.

"Yuma won't tell!"

"I have no reason to spill random people's secrets," Nagisa mutters.

"Just for the record, not spreading it also means not going to the Coordinator again," I say. "At least until the point of keeping it secret is passed, which… I'd estimate to be about a year from now."

"So what's this about, Madoka?" Sayaka asks.

"The time travel," Madoka says.

"Oh, that!" Sayaka gasps.

"Time travel…?" Mami says.

Madoka nods. "The reason I already knew that magical girls turn into witches is because I saw Sayaka-chan turn into a witch right in front of me," she says. "I also saw Nagisa-chan's witch k-kill Miss Mami right in front of me, and Kyouko-chan gave her life to defeat Sayaka-chan's witch. Then I was about to make a wish to change the world, but Ashley-chan stopped me and convinced me to come back in time with her instead. So… the three of us have come back in time – Ashley-chan, me, and Homura-chan. Apparently, the two of them have been repeating the last month and a half over and over and over again. From what I heard, I either died or turned into a witch every time, and I guess most of you guys did too… oh, but apparently this is the first time Hitomi-chan has become a magical girl."

"Second," I say. "She also became one in the last timeline. You died, so we couldn't bring you back even if we'd wanted to. Everyone else managed to survive though. At least, everyone you know. There were a few other deaths, such as Kirika."

"Huh? I do know Kirika-chan, though?" Madoka says.

"Ah, you do? Okay, I didn't realize," I say.

"That… explains a lot, actually," Mami says. "Then, when Homura asked to live in with me, it wasn't just a complete coincidence… she was looking for a path to save everyone, right?"

"Well… technically, she was only looking for a path to save Madoka," I say. "But obviously saving everyone else helps with that, so she did put in at least minimal effort to keep you all alive. And as I mentioned, we almost managed it last time."

"Also, you were the one who asked me to live with you," Homura says. "It hadn't even crossed my mind as a possibility… because every other time you acted like you hated me…"

"Why would I do that…?" Mami wonders.

"Probably because of Kyuubey," I say. "Before you two started living together, Miss Homura started out almost every timeline by hunting Kyuubey down and killing it so it wouldn't have a chance to grant Madoka's wish. Obviously, if it told you about that back then, you wouldn't've thought very highly of her, right?"

Mami nods. "You're probably right," she says. "Before I learned the truth, I was quite close to Kyuubey… actually, I saw him again today, and told him I don't want to see him for awhile, unless I call for him."

"Did you tell it about doppels?" I ask.

"Just a little," Mami says. "Is that a problem?"

"Probably not," I say. "If you hadn't, I'm sure someone else would've."

"So, the other people you mentioned before, that you came back in time with," Hitomi says. "That was Ashley Taylor? And Miss Homura?"

"That's right," Madoka says. "You know how Homura-chan can stop time, right? She can also reverse time, with some limitations. That's how we did it."

"I did wonder about that," Hitomi says. "Since she can stop time, I thought maybe she was the one who'd initiated the time travel… but I never expected Miss Taylor to also be part of it."

"She forced herself in," Homura mutters.

"But isn't it a good thing she did, Homura-chan?" Madoka says. "Could you imagine this happy party if she hadn't?"

"You… might have a point…" Homura mutters. "But it's too early to celebrate…"

"Right, in fact, that's sort of the reason why I came," I say. "I wanted to discuss the plan to take down Walpurgisnacht and the Wings of the Magius all in one fell swoop."

"Obviously, we're going to deal with Walpurgisnacht, right?" Madoka says.

"Not quite," I say. "Your power is too good to pass up, so I'd like you to be there at the battle at Fendt Hope. That rumour is very strong, and without your power and Kazumi-chan's, I think Miss Mifuyu wouldn't survive the battle. She almost didn't make it last time, even with you there, which is why I'm adding Kazumi-chan to the mix this time."

"I think it's my responsibility to try and fix my mistakes," Mami says. "So I'd like to help bring down Fendt Hope as well."

"Though you don't have that many mistakes this time around," I note. "Still… I was hoping you'd say that. I'd like all of you to join the battle at Fendt Hope. That means heading for Kamihama immediately after school tomorrow and meeting at Tatsuki Asuka's True-Dragon Dojo. Miss Homura knows the way, right?"

"Yes," Homura says.

"After the Fendt Hope rumour is defeated, I plan to ask a girl who can create portals to send you straight to Walpurgisnacht," I say. "I'll keep Kazumi-chan with me, because she proved very helpful last time when fighting Shitori Egumo. We also have another rumour to beat as well, but it shouldn't pose too much of a threat, so you can rest assured that we should be fine without you."

Madoka nods. "That sounds good to me!"

Mami also nods. "Walpurgisnacht's arrival is because the Magius have summoned it, right?" she says. "So I definitely must play my part in defeating that witch, too."

"Ah, I didn't realize they'd told you about that plan," I say. "Yeah, they're summoning her. If they hadn't though, she actually would've hit Mitakihara instead. I think their summoning is so effective partly because she was already in the area."

"Did that happen before, Homura-chan?" Mami asks.

"Except for the last timeline, Walpurgisnacht always appeared here on April thirtieth, without fail," Homura says. "The exact location and time of day have varied quite a bit, but the date has been constant."

"Still, that doesn't matter, if you guys are correct," Sayaka says. "This time it's going to appear in Kamihama, right? Do you know when?"

"The twenty-eighth," I say. "Unless something unexpected changes in the next few days, Walpurgisnacht will be summoned on the twenty-eighth after school. There's probably just enough time for you to get to Kamihama before the Magius start to put their plan into motion."

"Then we've gotta go and stop those guys!" Sayaka exclaims. "We can't just let them hurt everyone! We have to do something!"

I nod. "Yes, so therefore… will you go on Thursday to join up with the magical girls of Kamihama? They will be launching an all-out assault on Hotel Fendt Hope right at the same time as the Wings of the Magius are spreading out through the city to hijack the cellular towers. We'll take advantage of their undefended base to strike them down."

Mami nods. "That lines up with what they told me of the plan," she says. "Apparently, Miss Nemu is working on a new rumour that can help the feathers carry out the complicated task of hacking into all the cellular towers at once… she didn't give me any details of it, however."

"That's good to know," I say. "What you've just told me implies that their plan is exactly the same as last time, which means I have a better idea of what to expect."

"Then I suppose we have no choice but to join the girls of Kamihama on Thursday," Mami says. "By the way, do you know how many girls they have gathered?"

"From what I understand, they have close to forty magical girls from Kamihama who've agreed to join them," I say. "There are around five or so who've chosen not to participate – Miss Yakumo is one of them, of course, as well as Kirino Sae and Karin-chan. I've asked Karin-chan to patrol the city from the air in case the feathers release some strong witches like they did last time. She's one of the few magical girls capable of flight, which makes her the perfect candidate to guard the whole city while everyone else is attacking Fendt Hope."

"So, um… how do your friends from other towns come into this, Ashley-chan?" Madoka asks.

"Well, Kazumi-chan will be joining you at Fendt Hope," I say. "The rest will be hiding out in Suitoku Temple until familiars start to appear in town – Karin-chan is the lookout there, too. I already gave her a communicator and explained how to use it, and Kanna-chi has some to share with the girls from out of town when they show up at Suitoku Temple. For those going to Fendt Hope, I'm dropping their share off with you today. Please be sure not to forget them like last time, okay?"

"I'll make sure not to forget them," Mami says.

So I take out the ten communicators from my bag and hand them over. I've left ten more with Kanna-chi and one with Karin-chan, so that leaves nine to be distributed amongst the dissidents.

"Make sure you hold onto at least one yourselves," I say. "Other than that, I'll leave it up to everyone at the dojo to decide how to distribute them. I've already tuned them all to channel twenty-five, so you don't need to worry about that part."

"How'd you manage to get Suitoku Temple to agree to that, though?" Sayaka asks. "It doesn't seem like the sort of thing a Buddhist temple would usually be willing to do…"

"One of the girls is from an associated temple," I say. "Natsu Ryoko secured permission from the head priest at Suitoku Temple, who's a friend of her grandfather, a priest at a temple north of Kamihama. So you could say we just lucked out on connections?"

"Okay, so let me recap," Mami says. "You're asking us to meet up with the girls of Kamihama at this dojo, then proceed to Fendt Hope and destroy it. After that, the girls of Kamihama will fight Eve while we will face Walpurgisnacht. Is that correct?"

"That's pretty much it as far as you're concerned," I say. "I'll probably ask some of the girls of Kamihama to split off and defeat the rumour you mentioned earlier, or perhaps I'll get them to work together to defeat it before dealing with Eve, but you don't really need to worry about that."

"Understood," Mami says. "Is everyone else on board with this plan?"

"Yes, I'm up for it," Madoka says.

"Well, if Madoka's going, I can't be left behind," Sayaka says.

"I will accompany you also," Hitomi says.

"Obviously I need to go in order to keep Madoka safe," Homura says.

"You'd probably be lost without me, so I guess I have to go too," Nagisa says.

"Then Yuma's coming too!" Yuma says. "Yuma doesn't want to be the only one left behind!"

"Alright then," I say. "Then I'll see you sometime on Thursday. We might not meet up at the battle at Fendt Hope, but I'll probably see you at Walpurgisnacht if not before. Until then… I still have a few things to set up. I haven't yet told everyone that Suitoku Temple is the meeting place, for starters… so if it's alright, I'll take my leave now. The cake was delicious, by the way."

"And I'll speak with… was it Miss Liliane?" Mami says. "If you say wraiths are expected to spawn soon, I definitely want to see it for myself, this alternative of yours."

"I'll let her know to wait for you," I say.

So I leave Mami's place, heading back to the Hayashi house to work on all the emails I have to deal with, using my laptop since there are a lot of them.

First, I check if Pernelle has responded to my query from the day before, where I asked if she could meet the François sisters at the airport for me and help them get to their hotel. I chose her because she's the only person I know in Japan who can speak French – while an English speaker would've worked too, as they seem to speak and understand English really well, I figured they'd be more comfortable in their native language. She's responded affirmatively and noted she would be undisguised, so I send them an email indicating who to look for, including a basic physical description of Pernelle.

Then, I send emails to everyone who has promised to join the battle. This includes Matsuri, Mari, Koharu, Miu, Lina, Anzu, Hijiri, and Hoshiko, and I was even able to secure a promise of support from Lavi as well. I send an email to Mabayu too, including a mention of Nayuta in the hopes that she could maybe be convinced to join up, especially since Walpurgisnacht will probably be hitting Takarazaki a little in this timeline. I also send similar emails to Mayoi and Chiyoko, since they mentioned they were going to ask some friends to join in, and those friends would need to know the meeting place. Finally, I email Ai to ask her to join the Suitoku group.

Then I send Liliane a quick message about Mami wanting to see the wraiths, indicating that she should wait for Mami to contact her before trying to trigger the wraiths to spawn.

Of course, for Sarra and the others, I'll be meeting them personally on Wednesday, which means there's no need to email them, because I already assured them I'd be there.

---

Since I actually have nothing to do on Tuesday, I spend most of my free time watching Kyouko with the Wings of the Magius. She's summoned to meet Mifuyu just like last time, but unlike last time, Mami is obviously not there. Still, Mifuyu still tries to turn Kyouko off of joining, much the same as she did before, only with more words – she talks about how they've been brainwashing people, and shows off Eve. After Kyouko leaves, I open a secondary vision on Mifuyu and see her finally confront the Magius for their wrongdoings, only for Sorashi and the Instructor to effectively place her under arrest and confiscate her soul gem. Seeing that is very helpful, because it shows me where they're storing her soul gem on the base.

After that, I spend a few minutes checking what the Holy Brigade is up to. They've split into two teams to patrol for witches along the edge of the anti-witch barrier – Mami and the kids form one team, while the others are on the second team. That means that when Alina shows up to confront them, it's only Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, and Hitomi who get trapped in the barrier. Mami spends some time searching for them when they don't return, but she doesn't manage to locate them before it gets dark, so she takes the kids home and resolves to search again in the morning. I decide to send an email to Madoka suggesting that she could use the favour Kyouko owes me to try and convince her to join them in the attack on Fendt Hope.

Wednesday is the day of the interviews, so I head to Fendt Hope for mine. I monitor the interviews of all the feathers who have a direct relation to my plan. The earliest is Sue at twenty past four with Nemu, who I didn't monitor last time, but presumably she gives the same response she did then. At least, it's in line with my expectations, and she's told to remove her emblem. Next is Momoko and Rena, who both have their interviews scheduled at four thirty, with Touka and Nemu respectively. They're both very scathing in the interview, Rena even more so than Momoko, and they're told to remove their emblem. Kaede has her interview with Alina at the same time, but she professes loyalty to the Magius, so I guess they haven't managed to undo the brainwashing yet.

Apparently the next up is the trio of Shizuku, Ryo, and Ikumi, at twenty to five. That goes just as I expected – Shizuku tells Alina she's loyal to the Magius, while Ryo and Ikumi tell Touka and Nemu respectively that they're loyal only to liberation.

The next one up is Coeurl at ten to five. Her response is about as strange as I'd expect from her, with some reference to the apocalyptic future she hails from, but Nemu, the one interviewing her, does seem to interpret it as not being loyal to the Magius and instructs her to remove her emblem. I think it's probably fortunate that Nemu was the one to interview her. Manatsu has her interview with Alina at the same time, and professes loyalty to liberation as I'd suggested, so she's told to remove her emblem.

The next two are Mayoi and me, which go pretty much exactly as before. Hotori's and Kuroe's interviews are both at the same time as Mayoi's, and they tell Touka and Nemu respectively that they care more about liberation, like I'd instructed them, so Nemu tells them to remove their emblems.

Then it's Yukika's turn, and apparently Tsukasa also has her interview with Nemu at the same time. Both of them profess loyalty to the Magius and Mifuyu. Next is Hikari and Tsukuyo, who do the same, and then Chihana and finally Tamura. The three from Mitakihara are also interrogated by Alina about their special mission and, as I'd suggested they should, they pin the blame on me. Somehow, Alina seems to take my actions as a sign of my dedication to liberation, so I guess my worst fears are averted – I'd thought I might be marked as an enemy for doing that. It surely helps that the three of them seemed to try and paint my actions in a positive light though.

After that, the only ones left that I'm interested in are Inui, Chiyoko, and Maria, who all give pretty much the same response as before, plus Maya and Tomomi, who respond as I'd instructed. Inui does tone her response down a little bit, but not much. All three are asked to remove their emblem. Maya's interview is at the same time as Chiyoko's, with Touka. Tomomi has an interview with Alina right after Maria, at six thirty.

Once all the interviews I'm interested in are over, I check what Kyouko is up to.

---

Kyouko is wandering through Mitakihara near Mami's house when she suddenly runs into the genuine article.

"Kyouko!?" Mami gasps. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" Kyouko retorts. "I can't be around here, that what you're saying?"

"No, no, I was just surprised to see you," Mami says.

Yuma leaps forward and glomps her.

"Kyouko! You're back!" she says. "Yuma was worried about you!"

Nagisa huffs and looks away.

"Stupid spear sister," she mutters.

"Oy, I heard that!" Kyouko protests. "Who're ya calling stupid!?"

"Kyouko…" Mami says.

"Speaking of, where's that idiot Sayaka?" Kyouko asks. "Ain't she usually with ya?"

"Well, I was just looking for her," Mami says. "She and the others went on patrol yesterday, and they haven't returned… say, why don't you help me search for them?"

"Why should I?" Kyouko retorts.

"I'll cook dinner for you," Mami says.

"Free dinner!?" Kyouko gasps. "Alright, just this once, I'll help ya out!"

Nagisa giggles. "The spear sister is so easy, isn't she?"

"But only if the peanut gallery keeps her mouth shut," Kyouko adds.

"Fine, fine," Nagisa says. "Show us the way, Lady Kyouko."

"No no no, such formal address just makes me feel like an old bag!" Kyouko protests.

"Whatever!" Nagisa says.

Mami chuckles a little.

"I'm glad that you and Nagisa-chan get along well," she says.

"In exactly what universe is this called getting along?" Kyouko asks.

"Never mind that," Mami says. "Let's go. I searched near the west and north borders yesterday, and Miss Oriko informed me she had seen no signs of them, so they are most likely somewhere near the eastern border."

"Borders?" Kyouko says. "You mean like the borders of the city?"

"No, the barrier," Mami says.

"Huh? Oh, is that what that weird tingling was?" Kyouko says. "I thought it felt like I was stepping into thick mud… but only for a second, and then it was gone. What's it for, anyway?"

"According to Miss Taylor, it will keep witches out, and in the town without witches, we will be able to fight a different sort of monster called a wraith that drops grief seeds in large quantities," Mami says.

"You gotta be kidding, right?" Kyouko says. "No way something so convenient exists."

"I am still a little skeptical as well," Mami says. "However, I can confirm that wraiths are real. I saw them with my own eyes on Monday. The only thing I am still unsure of if is whether they will spawn naturally in the city without witches… the ones I saw were artificially induced to spawn."

"Huh," Kyouko says. "Well, guess I'll stick around for a few days and see. Not like there's any witches back in Kazamino anyway."

"You will!?" Mami gasps. "You'll come stay at my place!?"

"No, I never said that," Kyouko retorts. "I'll find my own place."

"Aw, I was hoping," Mami says.

"Even if I wanted to, you've already got two boarders in that tiny place of yours," Kyouko says. "There ain't any room for me there even if I wanted to move back in."

"I guess you do have a point," Mami says. "Still, I think four should still be fine. Five would definitely be pushing the limit."

"Enough talking," Nagisa says. "We gotta find the rose sister before she goes whoosh!"

"Whoosh?" Kyouko says.

"They should have enough grief seeds to last all day," Mami says. "I'm sure we don't have to worry about them."

"Oh, ya told the brats about that too, did ya?" Kyouko says.

"Well… it wasn't me, but apparently they found out one way or another," Mami says.

"Still, we gotta find her fast!" Nagisa insists.

"Yes, let's hurry," Mami says.

They head towards the old industrial district, searching for about an hour before finally coming across a flowery portal. Of course, it's not sealed by Mami's ribbons this time. Instead, it has a cross composed of sheets of paper with tiny writing plastered over it, which I suppose must be Nemu's magic.

"That's Alina's barrier!" Mami gasps. "Maybe they're inside!"

"Dammit!" Kyouko shouts. "Those Magius make me so mad…!"

She transforms, kicking and slashing at the pages until they break free. As she does so, faint voices seem to issue from within.

"Hey!" she shouts. "Anyone home!? If you're in there, head this way!"

"Miss Kaname, Homura-chan!" Mami calls. "Miss Miki! Miss Shizuki! If you can hear me, the exit is in this direction!"

A minute or so later, Madoka, Homura, Hitomi, and Sayaka emerge from the labyrinth. Everyone powers down, and Madoka lets out a sigh of relief.

"We made it!" she says. "Thanks so much, Kyouko-chan, Miss Mami! Thanks, Nagisa-chan and Yuma-chan!"

"I suppose I should thank you as well," Homura mutters.

"Thank you very much, Mami-sempai," Hitomi says. "And, um… Miss Kyouko, is it?"

"Sakura Kyouko," Kyouko says. "Guess you're the newest one around here, huh?"

"Shizuki Hitomi, a pleasure," Hitomi says.

"If ya say so," Kyouko says.

"You really saved us back there, Miss Mami!" Sayaka says. "Though I gotta say, I never expected to see Kyouko coming with you to help us out."

"Who said I came to help you out?" Kyouko retorts. "You gave me info before. I figured I'd come pay ya back with something I heard in Kamihama. Then I bumped into Mami by accident, and when I saw the Magius's magic I pulverized it. That's all."

"Ah, okay," Madoka says. "Anyway, you did help us. We were really having a rough time getting out of there."

"So what'd you find out, Kyouko?" Sayaka asks.

"It ain't a pretty story," Kyouko says. "Brace yourselves, okay?"

"Okay," Madoka says. "I'm ready!"

"Yeah, go on," Sayaka says.

"Well, I joined up with the Wings of the Magius for a bit, to infiltrate them and figure out what they were up to," Kyouko explains. "But I just can't wrap my head around them. They've been brainwashing people, apparently. And they're raising some strange, witch-like creature in the basement which they call their 'proof of liberation'. But what really turned me off about them is what they're planning to do next. You'll never believe this… they're gonna try and summon Walpurgisnacht to Kamihama!"

Madoka gasps. "W-what!? No way… how could a witch be a proof of liberation…?"

"And that's about everything I found out," Kyouko concludes.

"I still can't believe that they'd actually summon Walpurgisnacht," Homura mutters. "If they'd ever seen her in person, they'd immediately realize that's not something to do so lightly… I can only conclude that they're foolish and overconfident…"

"Hey, I hate to throw a wrench in the works here," Sayaka says. "But what even is Walpurgisnacht? You've been mentioning that name for awhile now… and weren't we talking about it on Monday, too? I was distracted by the cake, though…"

"Yes, I am not familiar with it either," Hitomi says. "I missed my chance to ask on Monday…"

"It's a witch," Kyouko says.

"Oh," Sayaka says.

"It's a really powerful witch," Madoka says. "If it came to Mitakihara, it could easily level a large chunk of the city… maybe even the entire city, if there was no-one to challenge it…"

"A whole city?" Sayaka says. "Don't you think that's kinda crazy-sounding?"

"But it's true," Madoka says. "That's the kind of incredibly strong witch it is."

"She's not exaggerating," Kyouko says. "Those're the facts."

"So Miss Mami was caught up in something that dangerous?" Sayaka says. "This… this can't be happening…"

"Yes, well… I was not in my right mind," Mami says with a sigh. "But now I feel I must put right my mistakes…"

"Yeah!" Madoka says. "We need to go to Kamihama!"

"Wait!" Homura says.

"Homura-chan, don't even try to stop me this time!" Madoka says.

"But it's already late," Homura says. "We should at least go back home first."

"But!" Sayaka begins.

"Look at your phones," Homura says.

Madoka take hers out and looks at it, blinking. Sayaka follows her example, gawking at what she sees.

"Oh…" Madoka says.

"No way," Sayaka says.

"It's been a whole day since we got locked up in that labyrinth," Homura says. "No-one was able to contact us, right? Your families are probably worried sick… and Yuma-chan and Nagisa-chan too."

"You're right," Madoka admits. "We should at least go home first… oh, I also have a message from Ashley-chan."

"Thank you," Homura says, letting out a small sigh of relief.

"Yeah, okay," Sayaka agrees.

"Then, I suppose we'll all go to Kamihama tomorrow, right?" Hitomi says.

"Yes," Mami says. "Kyouko, you're coming too, right?"

"Why should I!?" she retorts. "We traded info, like we agreed on. Now I'm free to do whatever I want, and I ain't interested in playing buddy-buddy with you guys."

"Well, if you have any wish to punish the Magius, you should join us tomorrow," Mami says.

"Yeah, Miss Taylor has a whole plan put together," Sayaka says.

"She'd like you to join in on the plan too," Madoka says. "She told me she's even willing to call in the favour you owe her…"

"Dammit!" Kyouko says. "Well, I'll think about it."

They all make their way towards Mami's place, with Sayaka and Hitomi breaking off early, and Madoka separating from them just outside Mami's apartment.

---

Wednesday evening finds me at Kamihama International Airport with Inui, waiting for Sarra and the others to arrive. We're there about half an hour before they finally emerge, Chevonne and Janice pulling full-sized suitcases, while Sarra and Alice appear to have squeezed everything they need into their school backpacks. I wave, and Chevonne spots me first, running forward to hug me out of the blue.

"Ashley!" she says. "It's been so long! We've missed you!"

"That's for sure!" Janice says, also hugging me.

"Speaking of which, recently I suddenly remembered the day we first met, Chevonne," I say.

"Ah, really?" Chevonne says. "Um… I don't really remember that well, to be honest…"

"Oh, you just transferred into my class, and you had an accent, and you were the only one who'd talk to me," I say.

"Oh yeah!" Chevonne gasps. "Now that you mention it, I guess that did happen! I'd totally forgotten!"

"What's this about…?" Janice says. "Something from before I met you two?"

"Yeah, I think it was a year or two before that," Chevonne says. "I'd just moved from Scotland and I happened to notice they'd sent her to Coventry, so… I thought I should talk to her."

"Speaking of, what on earth did you mean by Coventry?" I ask.

"Oh right, that's not really something you say in America, right?" Chevonne says. "It's a euphemism for shunning someone. I think it might've come about because there was a prison in Coventry at some point? But I don't really know, honestly."

"So what made you remember that all of a sudden?" Janice asks.

"Ah, it was my last visit to a Coordinator," I say. "It tends to dredge up old memories… this time it was that one."

"Ah… a Coordinator, huh…?" Chevonne says.

With that catching up dealt with, I turn to greet the others as well.

"It's great to see you too, Sarra," I say. "And Alice."

"I'll admit, there've been times when I missed that connect ability you demonstrated," Sarra says, smiling. "And I feel I'd like to spend more time with you, so I could get to know you as well as Chevonne and Janice do, you know? Your relationship… it makes me a touch jealous."

Ashley bubbles out all of a sudden.

"Hold it right there!" she says. "Sarra, don't you dare talk like that! You're my friend just as much as Chevonne and Janice are, okay? Sure, I might never have spoken to you if not for Chelsea making a wish, but I'm really glad we met! I don't rank my friends, okay?"

"A-ah, alright," Sarra says. "Um, who's Chelsea?"

"Chelsea is me," Ashley says. "And Ashley is me too. It's a long story, but I seem to have developed two different personalities?"

She giggles and taps her fist against the side of her head, even sticking her tongue out a bit.

"Can we just get the greetings over with?" Alice puts in. "I wanna get to the hotel and crash."

Ashley settles down within me, and I resume control.

"Did you not sleep on the plane, Alice?" I ask.

"I tried, but it was too noisy," Alice says. "So I've decided, I hate planes. I don't wanna go on one ever again… though I guess I gotta, at least one more time, but other than that."

"Huh, okay," I say. "Um, now, let me introduce another friend I've made here in Japan – Itsumi Inui."

Inui takes a step forward and bows, addressing them in English, the same language we've been speaking the entire time.

"My name is Inui Itsumi," she says. "You may just call me Inui. Ashley does the same, so I've gotten used to it."

Chevonne blinks. "Huh? Doesn't that have a special meaning in Japan, to use someone's first name?"

"Oh, did you know?" Inui says. "It is true that in Japanese we usually do not use someone's first name unadorned, but I cannot expect you to do the same for me in another language."

"In that case, it is a pleasure to meet you, Inui," Sarra says. "I am Sarra Basset."

"Likewise!" Inui says.

"Ah, I suppose we should formally introduce ourselves too?" Janice says. "Janice Hatheway, a pleasure."

"Chevonne O'Keefe, how do you do?"

Everyone looks at Alice, who blinks.

"E-eh!? Me too? Um… if you really must know, I'm Alice Chandler…"

As we make our way out of the airport, a thought suddenly occurs to me.

"Come to think of it… did you guys ever manage to find a Coordinator in the US?"

"No, we didn't," Sarra says. "I did some asking around, and there were some rumours of someone in San Francisco, but when Chevonne and Janice took a trip to investigate, they learned she'd moved on."

San Francisco isn't far from Santa Cruz, so that wouldn't be much of a trip. In other words, a quick and easy investigation?

"Any idea where to?" I ask.

"We did ask around about that too," Janice says. "Several people thought she might've gone to Los Angeles. One person heard a rumour she was heading for Mexico City. There were two girls who thought they remembered her talking about heading for Portland, and someone even mentioned Houston. Since it was all over the map, we decided to head home for the time being. That was just last week, so we haven't had an opportunity to go looking again."

"I see, so you have a lead but haven't found one," I muse. "Do you have a name, by the way?"

"Ah, we do, actually," Chevonne says. "Her name is Leandra Isabella García Katz."

It sounds mostly Spanish. Given what I know of Spanish names, that's either a two-part first name and two surnames, or a first name, a middle name, and two surnames. However, the second surname doesn't sound Spanish at all. Her mother wasn't Hispanic, then?

"Huh, you even have her full name?" I say. "I was expecting just a given name or just a surname."

"I suppose she was quite memorable to the people she treated," Sarra says.

"Any idea how old she is? Though I guess it doesn't matter."

"No idea," Janice says.

"So you're going to go look for her again, I guess?" I say.

"At some point," Janice says. "We haven't decided whether to check Portland or Los Angeles next."

"Isn't Portland at least twice as far as Los Angeles?" I say. "I'd think that makes it an obvious choice…"

"Probably a bit more than twice as far by car," Chevonne says. "But they're also in opposite directions, so it's not as obvious as it sounds…"

"I guess that's true, yeah," I say. "There's at least a fifty-fifty chance that you're wrong and have to go all the way back without anything to gain for it… ah, but come to think of it, there might be a separate reason to visit Los Angeles."

"Oh?" Chevonne says. "What would that reason be?"

"Hmm… it's quite a long shot, admittedly, but… I think Amanda Lee used to live there," I say. "I kinda wondered if I'd be able to find someone who knew her and maybe get some clue about why she disappeared all of a sudden…"

"…who…?" Chevonne says.

"Ah, I guess I haven't mentioned her to you before," I say. "She used to be fairly popular on Youtube and… I think it was Twitch? Or Tiktok? One of those streaming services that was around back then. She did covers of J-pop songs, mostly from anime, and she streamed video games, and she also did professional voice acting in anime dubs. However, she suddenly disappeared about twenty-five years ago, and is assumed to be dead."

"Huh… how did you even find out about her?" Chevonne asks.

"Well… it's a long story, but… there just happens to be one song she covered that I really love," I say. "And her disappearance seems to be a complete mystery. I just can't help but be curious about it. If she were still alive, I think she'd be only a little older than my mother."

"A mysterious disappearance certainly sounds like it could be the work of a witch," Sarra muses.

"Oh, is that why you're interested?" Janice asks.

"Well, sort of, but not exactly," I say. "There are several mysterious disappearances of well-known people from the past fifty or so years that I'm curious about, but she stands out more than the rest because her videos depict not just Kyuubey but also some of the friends I've made here in Japan."

"Huh? But those friends are only eighteen at most, right?" Janice says. "They weren't even born yet when she made that video…"

"Yes, that's my point exactly," I say. "But there's no denying they're the same people. The magical girl costumes are an exact match. Well, for four of the five, at least. The fifth one's a little different from what's depicted in her video, but even so, getting four out of five down with such accuracy is… strange, to say the least. So that's why I'm so curious about her."

"Hey, doesn't that mean she must've been a magical girl too?" Chevonne says.

"It does suggest that," I say. "But I don't think I can take it as proof. There are other possible explanations."

"Like what?" Sarra asks.

"Like… memories of another life, perhaps?" I say.

Inui gasps. "Ah! T-that's definitely a possibility…!"

"Hmm, I dunno," Janice says. "That seems kinda far-fetched…"

"More far-fetched than magic?" I point out.

"Ah… you have a point," Janice admits.

"But even so, it's a bit weird for you to suggest it," Chevonne says. "I never thought you believed in that sort of thing, Ashley…"

"Well, I didn't," I say. "Right up until it happened to me. That's where Chelsea comes in."

"Huh? Are you serious!?" Chevonne gasps. "So um… you're saying Chelsea was your name in your previous life?"

"That's… I don't know what to say," Janice says. "I don't want to believe it, but… but I don't think you'd lie to us about something so crazy…"

"It really is pretty crazy," I say. "I guess you could say it's that illness last year that caused me to remember."

"Oh yeah, you did seem different after you recovered," Chevonne says. "You didn't even remember our names… though it seems you've gotten your memories back by now, huh?"

"Yes, possibly not all of them, but at least a good portion of them," I say.

"Did you tell Inui about that too?" Janice asks.

"I did," I say.

"Why'd you tell her before you told us?" Janice asks.

"Well, because she was here, and you weren't," I say. "To be honest, I didn't want to mention it over the phone. I'd rather Kyuubey doesn't find out about it, and I don't know if it monitors radio or cellular communications."

"Oh… so that's why you seemed a little nervous on our call last time," Janice says. "You thought Kyuubey might be listening in…"

"I might be paranoid, but… if Kyuubey finds out a tenth of what I'm planning, it would probably find some way to force me to turn into a witch," I say.

"Surely you're exaggerating," Chevonne says. "Kyuubey might not be a particularly nice guy, but he's not vindictive like that!"

"It's not vindictiveness I'm worried about," I say. "Kyuubey is the maintainer of the magical girl system. Its entire purpose is to keep the system maintained and functioning. It's like… like… like a mechanic whose job it is to go around and lubricate moving parts on a regular basis at a factory. Or the antivirus on your computer. Or… well… anyway, I might be thinking too highly of myself, but… if it thinks I pose a threat to the stability of the system, then I don't think it would hesitate to get rid of me. It might not do so right away – there's probably a tolerable level of instability. But if I keep at it… eventually, I'm sure it'll make its move. I even have evidence that it has done something similar at least once in the past."

"What are you planning, anyway?" Sarra asks. "What kind of plan could make Kyuubey actually treat you as a threat?"

"It's very long-term, but… I want to make a world where magical girls will never have to turn into witches, or even fight them," I say.

"Do you think that's even possible?" Sarra says.

"I think it's possible," I say. "But it's definitely not easy. Maybe I'll fail. I don't know. But there's a path before me that could make it work, and I can't not walk upon it."

"Um… what do you mean by 'can't not'…?" Inui asks, looking a little confused.

"It means she feels obligated to walk that path," Sarra says. "It's a double negative, so they cancel out, but… used in this way, it's more than just saying she can walk that path. It means she must walk that path."

"Huh… you're right," I say. "I guess there are cases when double negatives don't technically cancel out…"

"My first language is Spanish, which doesn't do double negatives, so I really had to get used to it when I first moved here," Sarra says. "I mean, it helped that I was only four years old at the time, but still… I used to get confused by them, so naturally I noticed the exceptions to the rule as well."

"Huh, I thought you were born in the US," I say. "Where'd you move from?"

"I was born in… where was it again… oh yeah, Costa Rica, I think it was," Sarra says. "Or maybe it was Honduras? Somewhere in Central America, anyway. But I barely even remember what it was like there… I've never been back. I grew up entirely in the US. Honestly, I've never even thought of going back."

"You're not even a little interested in where your family came from?" Chevonne asks.

"Maybe a tiny bit," Sarra says. "But it's right at the bottom of my list of things to do one day. When Mom brought me over, her parents and my uncle came too, so we don't have any family over there except maybe my father. And, well… this is reading between the lines a bit, but I get the impression he was part of the reason we left in the first place, so… yeah."

"Say, what about you, Alice?" Ashley asks, suddenly bubbling up again.

Alice blinks at me. "What? Why do I gotta talk about my family? There's nothing to tell, really. It's just me and my Dad and my little brother. Until today I'd never set a foot outside the state of California."

"Oh, you have a brother?" Chevonne says. "You've never mentioned him before…"

"Well, why should I?" Alice retorts. "It has nothing to do with you guys. It's not like you'll ever meet him anyway."

"You don't want us to meet him?" Ashley asks. "That's sad… I'd like to meet him. Why don't you introduce us when I'm back in the States?"

"There's no point," Alice says. "You'll just laugh at him like all the other kids, anyway!"

"Why on earth would we do that?" Janice asks. "He's our friend's brother, so of course we wouldn't laugh!"

"What does that have to do with anything!?" Alice said. "I used to have friends too, you know! I even wished for them! It was nice at first, having friends for once, but then… they met Nate, and… well, I told them we're through. And then I switched schools so I didn't have to see them again. Friends don't mean shit."

"Um… I do not believe those are what you would call 'true friends'," Inui says. "Though I may not be one to talk, as my experience before meeting Ashley is entirely from… how do you say it… comic books? But… a friend is someone who does not laugh when it would hurt you. A friend is someone who tells you that you are worthwhile even when you hate yourself, who tells you that you deserve to live no matter how useless you feel."

"Well, that's the sort of friends the three of us are, right?" Janice says. "Chevonne, Ashley? Besties forever!"

"That's right," Chevonne says.

"Yes… I guess we are," I say, taking control again. "I may be something of a different person than I was last year, but I would like to be friends with all five of you."

"You're all just talk," Alice mutters. "When you see him flailing about like a windmill, you'll definitely laugh, I know you will."

"Flailing about like a windmill… are those your words, or those of your so-called friends?" Sarra asks.

But for me, that phrase dredges up something that I had almost forgotten about my school days as Chelsea Flanders.

"Flailing…?" I say. "Hey, Alice… could it be that your brother is deaf?"

Alice blinks at me.

"H-huh!? W-what makes you think that?"

"Well, you see… there was a deaf girl in my class back in… I think it was around 2015? She could only speak in sign language, so her mother – or at least, I always assumed it was her mother – had to come to school with her every day to interpret for her. And… the kids in class used that exact same phrase to describe her behind the adults' backs. So what you said just reminded me of that. I would never laugh at someone who's only trying to communicate, not after experiencing that second-hand."

Alice stares at me, blinking several times, and then she flushes a little and turns around.

"Y-yeah, okay," she mutters. "I'll… I'll think about it… alright? B-but no promises!"

"Wow, I think you hit the nail on the head, Ashley," Chevonne says. "I never even made that connection at all… though it's obvious now that you've said it."

"I didn't notice the connection either," Sarra says.

"Speaking of which, did you say 2015?" Janice asks. "But you were born in 2033 just like us, right? So was that a memory from your, um… past life?"

"Yeah, it was," I say. "It wasn't a good time to live, to be honest. You're lucky you all missed it. It was a bad time not only in the Unites States but also in the United Kingdom and several other parts of the world. I was actually in Canada back then, which wasn't quite as bad, but it still wasn't great."

"Is that so…" Chevonne says. "I hadn't heard anything about that though. They don't teach recent history in school…"

"That's because they haven't learned their lesson, I'm sure," I say.

"Mom told me a bit about it, and we've both read up on it as well, because she believes it's important to know," Sarra says. "The Republican Party tried to subvert and overthrow the government, and almost succeeded more than once…"

Janice tilts her head. "Republican Party…? Was there a party by that name?"

"Ah, well… lots of things happened, apparently," Sarra says. "Both the main political parties pretty much collapsed and ended up rebuilding themselves, so that's why we now have the Labour and Heritage parties instead of the Democratic and Republican parties. It's mostly just a rebranding to distance themselves… I don't think they've changed all that much in their core beliefs. But at least the Heritage party seems to believe in democracy."

"Honestly, it's really hard to believe that the two parties that persisted pretty much since the founding ended up being replaced by new ones," I say. "They evolved a lot over time, and even if you tried to label one as the good side and one as the bad side, it varied by time period… but the names persisted no matter what, until… that. Whatever it is that happened in 2024. I don't know what that is, because I only remember up to the year before that."

"Actually, after meeting Kyuubey, I've come to think it may have been an actual miracle," Sarra says. "The first female president of the United States of America… and she even got two terms."

I blink. "Huh, really? Who was it? I do remember Elizabeth Warren trying to become a candidate, but she didn't get very far… was it her?"

"No, it was some nobody who appeared out of nowhere," Sarra says. "Which makes it all the more miraculous, right? Ah, I guess out of nowhere is a slight exaggeration. She'd been in a municipal office in one of the big cities in the south, I forget which one… but she wasn't completely new to politics. She was pretty young too, in her thirties, I think – last I heard she was still alive. I think she might've been the youngest ever president."

"So you think a magical girl was involved in her presidency?" I ask.

"I think there's a strong possibility," Sarra says. "But I have no way to know who it would be…"

"Yeah… if she's that young, it could've even been her," I say. "But it also could've been her daughter if she had one, or even someone else who has no relation to her whatsoever…"

"Well, we're here!" Inui announces.

"Ah, sorry for boring you with that talk Inui," I say.

"What? It wasn't boring at all," Inui says. "I love hearing about history, you should know that. Mostly I only know about Japanese history, but it's just as fascinating to hear the history of other countries too."

"Ah, well, anyway…" I begin.

"You might not have been bored, but I sure was," Alice says. "Let's drop these things off and go eat something. I'm starving!"

"I thought you said you wanted to sleep?" I say.

"That was before I realized I was starving," Alice retorts. "Food takes priority over sleep."

"Well then, I will check in," Sarra says.

"I'll come with you," Janice says.

So the two of them head off to the reception desk.

"Alice, you are not interested in all that talk of history?" Inui asks.

"It's just, I don't like to talk about it," Alice says. "After all, that cult is what took Mom away from me."

"Huh? What cult?" I say.

"You haven't heard of it?" Alice says. "What was it called again… Holy something stupid… the one with the stupid orange face on all their flags. It's basically made up of the sore losers from the Mercedes presidency."

"Oh right, that cult was in the news a few years back," Chevonne says. "Holy Rumpland Escape or something like that? I might be remembering wrong, but it's at least close… I only remember it because it sounded funny…"

"Ah… yes, I can see how that's related," I say. "Sorry about that, Alice… I had no way of knowing that you had a personal connection to those events…"

"Whatever, it's all cool," Alice says. "I don't care that much."

After Sarra and Janice finish checking in, and the luggage has been dropped off in the hotel room, we head back out into the street.

"So what are the good places around here, Ashley?" Chevonne asks.

"This is Minaminagi Ward, so I don't know many," I muse. "But… how does Chinese sound?"

"Chinese sounds okay," Alice says.

"Yeah, why not," Sarra says. "We're pretty close to China, so maybe it's even more authentic!"

"Well, I have no idea if it is or not," I say. "Inui, can you show us the way?"

"Hm? The way?" Inui says. "Ah! Are you thinking of Mei-kun's place?"

"Yes, that's the one," I say. "By the way, it sounds really weird hearing you put a Japanese honorific in an English sentence…"

"Oh, you are right," Inui says. "The habit is hard to break… but follow me!"

She leads us to Meiyui's Chinese restaurant, where we even find Meiyui herself waiting on tables. She greets us cheerfully in Japanese.

"Miss Inui, Miss Ashley, welcome!" she says. "Come in, come in! I am always glad to see a familiar face."

"Hello, Mei-kun!" Inui says in the same language. "Ashley and I are just showing around her friends from America."

"Ah, then will you need an English menu?" Meiyui asks.

"Oh, if you have one, that'd be great!" Inui says.

"We get many tourists since we are near the airport," Meiyui says. "Master paid some guy to translate it. I hope it's understandable. I will give you the normal menu as well, just in case."

Meiyui shows us to a table and presents us with two menus, one in Chinese and Japanese, the other translated entirely into English. I glance over them both for a moment. It's not the best English, but I don't see any obvious errors in translation, at least. Sarra and the others pore over the English menu while Inui and I check out the Japanese one.

"So, you know the server?" Sarra says in English. "Do you come here often?"

"Actually, it's my first time," I say. "I met her somewhere else though."

"It is my second time here," Inui says. "The mapo tofu is amazing! But very spicy… but very delicious… it is impossible to describe it in words…"

"I'm not sure if I can handle something extra spicy," Sarra says dubiously.

"I've tried mapo tofu before," I say. "I doubt it was anywhere near as spicy as it is here, but… you know, in the US, when you say spicy, you usually think of chilli peppers and a sort of burning sensation, right? It's not like that at all. It's more… hmm… I guess I'd say numbing…?"

"Hmm… maybe I could give it a try, then," Sarra says.

"These aren't the sorts of dishes I'm used to seeing on a Chinese menu," Chevonne says. "Usually you see things like, uhh, Peking Duck, or um…"

"Peking is based on a mispronunciation of Beijing, so that's more northeasterly," I say. "I think the food here is more typical of southwestern China."

"Yes, yes!" Meiyui says in English, practically popping up out of nowhere and startling me. "I from Hong Kong, yes? But the clan starts out in Sichuan, so most our dishes from there. Some from Hong Kong however."

Her English is pretty bad, but at least it's understandable. I suppose if she deals with tourists a lot, she has to manage some English. She sets out a glass of water for each of us.

"Ready to order?" she asks, beaming at us.

"Ah, yes!" Inui says in Japanese. "I'd like the mapo tofu again!"

"Of course!" Meiyui says. "Is so delicious, yes? So spicy, yet so delicious! I'm glad you see the charm of mapo tofu."

"Um, me too," Sarra speaks up. "The mapo tofu."

"Others for mapo tofu?" Meiyui asks.

Chevonne and Janice exchange glances, then shrug.

"I guess I'll try anything once," Chevonne says.

"Yeah, sure," Janice says.

"For me, I feel like some noodles," I say in Japanese. "So I guess I'll go with that dandan?"

"Yes, the dandan is very good too," Meiyui says in Japanese. "Also spicy. Not quite as spicy as the mapo tofu, but still very spicy."

"But then, I'm sure most of your food is spicy," I say.

"Yes, yes, of course!" Meiyui says.

Alice picks out the sole dish I can see that's marked as 'mild', so I guess she doesn't much like spicy food. Then Meiyui turns towards the back and shouts in Chinese. I recognize the words dandan and mapo tofu, so I guess she's passing on the order. A man's voice responds from the next room in the same language, and she replies.

"Then, please wait," Meiyui says in English. "It is here soon."

With that she moves off to deal with a customer who's getting ready to leave.

"Do you dislike spicy food, Alice?" I ask.

"I… I don't hate it now and then," Alice says. "But I'm not a fan, no…"

"Perhaps Banbanzai would have been better for Alice," Inui says. "Mei-kun's place is more authentic Sichuan food, but Banbanzai is generic and bland versions of popular food across China. Even their mapo tofu is barely spicy in comparison…"

"In comparison maybe, but it's still pretty spicy," I say.

"Yes, perhaps about a quarter as spicy," Inui says. "And many of their dishes are not spicy at all."

"Even so, Miss Yui really likes her spicy food," I say. "So there's definitely super-spicy options at Banbanzai."

Inui shrugs. "Options, yes. I only mean it is more generic. It is also much further from the hotel…"

"Plus it's temporarily closed," I add. "So we wouldn't've been able to go there even if we wanted to."

"Why's it closed?" Alice asks.

"Family issues," I say.

"Oh…"

A little later, Meiyui comes out with my dish and Alice's balanced on one arm, with a stack of five plates on the other. She sets down the stack and distributes our food, then disappears into the back and returns with a pitcher of ice-cold water and a pot filled with mapo tofu, dishing out the food.

"Who's the extra plate for?" Sarra asks.

"I join you?" Meiyui says. "Is fine?"

"Ah, um… yes, I guess you know Inui and Ashley, so I don't mind," Sarra says.

Meiyui nods, pulling over a chair from the neighbouring table and taking a seat between Inui and Sarra.

"Is the owner your father or do you just work here?" Chevonne asks.

"I live above," Meiyui says, pointing at the ceiling. "But Papa and Mama stay in Hong Kong. Master is… friend of Papa."

"So he's a friend of your father, huh," I muse. "And I guess he's part of the Soukai clan too…"

"Yes, of course!" Meiyui says. "We of Blue Seas Clan stick together."

"Um… what's this… Soukai, or… Blue Seas… Clan…?" Janice asks.

"Um, it's… kinda like if the Five Families of New York suddenly decided to become upstanding citizens and donate to charity or something…?" I say. "I'm not sure exactly what they do, though…"

"T-the mafia!?" Chevonne gasps.

"T-that's awfully hard to picture," Janice says.

"Yeah, but that's the best way I can think of to describe them," I say.

At that point, Meiyui interrupts the conversation with an exclamation of how spicy and delicious the food is. Prompted by that, Sarra tries it too, followed by Chevonne and Janice.

"This… really is different," Janice says. "It's spicy but… completely different from the spicy I'm used to…"

"It's tasty, but… I'm not sure," Chevonne says.

I try my noodles. They're also pretty spicy, but fortunately there's plenty of water. Perhaps it's because of the spiciness, but we mostly eat in silence until the food is all gone. Even Alice, after complaining a little bit about how spicy it is, ends up wolfing it down.

Once we're finished, I pay for everything, and Meiyui sees us to the door.

"I see you tomorrow, yes?" she says. "Miss Ashley, and Miss Inui?"

"Yes, I guess you probably will," I say. "I hope it goes well."

As we head back towards the hotel, Sarra comments on the exchange.

"Oh… is she a magical girl…?" Sarra says.

"Yes, she's on the east team for tomorrow," I say. "You're all on the west team, so you probably won't see much of her until the very end, unless something goes terribly wrong."

Yes… if Touka and Nemu take control of Eve and chase after Walpurgisnacht, that would definitely not be good. I hope it doesn't come to that, but I'm already working out how I would deal with it if it does happen.

"I see," Sarra says. "So when you said you met her somewhere else, that must've been in a witch's labyrinth."

"Huh?" I say. "I mean… you're right, but how did you guess…?"

"Because that's how you met me," Sarra says. "I just thought it made sense. Did you meet Inui in a labyrinth too?"

"Ah, no, she just walked up and talked to me out of the blue," Inui says. "To be honest, I was a bit turned off at first… and for a month or so we barely spoke at all… but… when she saved my life, everything changed."

"Oh, she saved your life?" Sarra says. "Do tell."

"There is little to tell," Inui says. "I was in despair because my boyfriend was about to die… I was about to turn into a witch, and… she told me exactly what I needed to hear."

"Ah, is your boyfriend okay?" Sarra asks.

"No, he did die," Inui says. "But I do not care about him any more. The truth is, he was a terrible boyfriend… I was only trying really hard to deny it, because he was my wish."

"That's rough…" Sarra says.

When we enter the hotel lobby, I spot the François sisters exiting the dining area and wave, greeting them in French. As usual, the taller Adèle is wearing cute clothes, while the shorter Gisèle just wears jeans and a T-shirt.

"Good evening, you two!" I say.

They spot me too and come over.

"It's been awhile," Adèle says. "You never wrote, other than this serious stuff…"

"Yeah… it would've been nice to hear what you think of your exchange program," Gisèle says.

"I'm sorry, I had a lot on my mind," I say. "By the way, did you have any trouble finding your way here?"

"Well, it was a shock to see who you sent to meet us," Adèle says. "To suddenly see the famous Pernelle Flamel in the flesh…"

"Yeah, I almost died of shock!" Gisèle says. "You should've explained it better so we'd at least be prepared!"

"That said, I was also surprised that she knows the language," Adèle says. "Apparently she lived in Japan for a time… has she told you about that? We didn't pry into it…"

"She's told me a bit about it, yeah," I say.

"Um, so, it looks like your friends are a bit confused," Gisèle says. "Do they not speak French?"

"Not well enough to hold a conversation, at least."

"Then we should switch to English, no?" Gisèle says.

"If you're okay with that," I say.

So Gisèle does just that, addressing the others in English.

"Good evening," she says. "You're friends of Ashley, yes?"

"Ah… so you do speak English," Janice says. "Yes, we're friends… I'm Janice Hatheway."

"Nice to meet you," Gisèle says. "I'm Gisèle François, and this is my older sister, Adèle."

"Nice to meet you," Adèle says.

"I'm Chevonne O'Keefe."

"Sarra Basset."

"Alice Chandler."

"I am Inui Itsumi, nice to meet you!"

"So, I was wondering, is there anything to do around here?" Adèle asks.

"That's a good question," I say. "Inui, do you know of anything?"

"Hmm… there are a couple of historical sites I have always wanted to see in Minaminagi Ward," Inui muses.

"Just checking, but… are these well-known sites, or crazy-obscure sites?" I ask.

"Some of both, I would say," Inui says. "If you are willing to go further, though, we could visit Mizuna Castle. I believe it will only be open for another two hours, so we will not have much time, but it should be enough to see most of the main points."

"Oh, a castle?" Adèle says. "That sounds like fun. Let's go!"

So that's how we end up touring Mizuna Castle… but nothing of note happens there. We just chat a little about the city's history, including Tsuyu's time period.

---

Kyouko leaves Mami's place, satisfied after her meal, and sighs. Apparently she left Yuma there, for she's all alone.

"So… what'll I do now?" she mutters. "This really pisses me off, dammit… I should be over the whole 'friends' and 'feelings' junk by now… I swore I'd use my power only for my own sake! Dang… it really must be Yuma-chan's fault… I shoulda dumped her ages ago… cause here I am thinking about… about her… and Momo… and… and even Mami… Sayaka… huh? Why'd that idiot pop into my head…?"

She shakes her head, as if that would knock the unwelcome vision from her brain.

"Actually… I'm still hungry, dammit… maybe I'll grab some more grub in Kazamino."

With a sigh, she heads into Kazamino, stopping by the small ramen stand that she often frequents. The guy running it isn't alone – he has his daughter with him today, who's helping him pack things up.

"A-ah!" Anzu gasps. "M-miss Sakura…"

"I ain't here for you," Kyouko says. "Just gimme a soy ramen, with lotsa onions."

"Huh?" Anzu says. "Aren't we closed…?"

"Coming right up," Mr Kimiko says, starting to prepare it.

"Ehhhh!? Y-you're just gonna do it anyway!?" Anzu gasps. "Dad, you can't be so easy on people! You've gotta stand up for yourself!"

"Hey, what's your deal?" Kyouko asks him.

"I ain't sure what ya mean," Mr Kimiko says.

"Don't be smart with me," she retorts. "How many times have I been here, and yet you always keep making that ramen of yours no matter what?"

"Well, I figure if ya can't pay, ya must have a good reason," Mr Kimiko says. "Everyone's gotta eat, right? Long's I can make people happy with good food, that's enough for me."

"Daaad!" Anzu exclaims. "How often do you do that!? That's why everyone takes advantage of you! You won't make any money like that!"

"I ain't in it for the money, Anzu-chan," he says. "I just wanna feed people and make them happy. That's all there is to it. If I got a customer, I'll make ramen for them, even if it's the middle of the night."

Anzu sighs. "You're just too kind, Dad…"

"Hmph," Kyouko says. "I don't need your pity."

"Who said anything about pity?" the man asks. "I just said everyone's gotta eat. It's that simple. Still, Miss Sakura, was it? I'd be grateful if ya could pay for your meals here sometimes. I've gotta eat too, ya know. Even just a small tip would be great – pay what ya want, ya know?"

"Whatever," Kyouko mutters.

But despite that, she does dig out a ten yen coin from her pocket. After staring at it for about ten seconds, she even digs out a second one, placing them both on the counter. It's still nowhere near the price of a bowl as noted on the man's sign, but he accepts it and pockets it with a sigh.

"Much obliged, ma'am," he says.

"I guess it's better than giving it away for free," Anzu grumbles.

The man slams the bowl down, and Kyouko slurps it down with gusto. She's almost done when Akane Mai shows up.

"Miss Sakura…? Is that you?"

Kyouko ignores her long enough to devour the last of the noodles, then drink the remaining broth. Finally she slams the bowl down on the counter and turns to face Mai.

"Ain't ya one of Lina's gang?" she asked. "The hell're ya doing in my territory?"

"H-hey, it's my territory too!" Anzu protests. "In fact, you just ran off, so I think I have a better claim to it than you do!"

"Whatever!" Kyouko says.

"I thought you'd moved to Mitakihara," Mai says. "So, since Miss Kimiko here isn't as strong as you are, we had to spread out to cover part of your old territory. By the way, I'm Akane Mai."

"I don't give a crap what your name is," Kyouko retorts. "But ya do have a point, I guess. Can't really blame ya – either of ya – for taking on the territory I abandoned. For now, I just came back for some grub."

"Will you be ordering some ramen too, Miss Akane?" Mr Kimiko asks.

"Ah… thank you, but I've already eaten," Mai says.

He nods and starts to pack up again, Anzu helping out.

"By the way, Miss Sakura… are you going to join the battle against Walpurgisnacht tomorrow in Kamihama?" Mai asks. "We'd be glad to have someone as experienced as yourself."

"O-oh, yeah!" Anzu gasps. "That would really be a huge help…"

Kyouko blinks. "Huh… how'd ya both know about that?"

"My team heard it from Ashley Taylor and Mikuni Oriko," Mai says.

"Ah… I only heard it from Miss Taylor," Anzu says.

"Huh… well, I was thinking on it," Kyouko says. "I ain't sure yet."

"I see," Mai says. "Well… please do let me know if you wish to retake some of your old territory. We're already stretching ourselves to cover it, so we'd actually be grateful if you returned… although, with the witch shortage, it did help to have a larger territory, but I don't expect that shortage will last forever."

"Is that so…" Kyouko says. "Well, I'll think about it. Seeya."

With that, she turns and stalks off again.

"Guess I did promise Mami," she mutters. "Never thought I'd be teaming up with her again… but I guess fate works in mysterious ways…"

---

Everything is coming together. My plan to destroy Fendt Hope goes into effect tomorrow afternoon. All that's left is to hope that nothing goes wrong… and to deal with it when it inevitably does.

---

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 (†).

Hevelius (Azusa Mifuyu)

The Doppel of vocation. Its form is an aviary. The master of this emotion will use all powers at her disposal to stay alive in this reality, including this all-in-one Doppel. Countless bird-shaped minions known as "Sugar Geese" emerge from her shadows on the ground, attacking her foes on command. The mere touch of a Sugar Goose will cause its target to taste such sweetness that it will inspire a maddening addiction. This makes it easy to make targets accept most lies, even with just a few geese. The Doppel sprouts from the tongue and arms, so she cannot speak while using it.

---

So I seized the opportunity in the scene with her American friends to insert some of the near-future worldbuilding that has been rolling around in my head for awhile but never managed to be relevant, and I think this is also the first chapter that (indirectly) reveals the exact year these events are set in, though I believe it was already possible to correctly guess it based on the correlation of days of the week with days of the month combined with other references to years. At least one person guessed wrong, however.

Someone mentioned that it looked like Sana's magic might have ceased to have effect when they climbed onto Teddy Mk II in the previous chapter's chapel scene, potentially exposing them, so I added a couple of clauses clarifying the situation.

I tweaked Maya's profile in chapter 84, because I decided she would be in Izumi Sougetsu's class and the wiki describes him as a third year, making him and Maya both 15 years old.

I recently realized that I got Akane Sumire's name backwards in all but the first chapter that referenced her, so I went through all the chapters to correct at least references in the main text…. I corrected references in author's notes too where I found them, but I may have missed a few, as I only checked chapters where her name appeared in the actual text.

I would say chapter 98 is about two-thirds complete. However, it's likely going to require a few more revisions before I'm satisfied, so while there's a chance it's ready by next week, it's quite possible it won't be.