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.

110. Paths Not Taken -- Interlude C --

She tossed and turned, visions of the past timelines flashing through her head. Memories of the long-lost fun times with her friends, and memories of being killed by them. Memories of turning into a witch, or of being killed by one. Memories of dismal failure, and memories of unexpected success. But also, memories of hope, of people picking up the pieces of their shattered lives and moving on.

There were so, so many timelines. The loops had been going on and on and on, and each one was unique in some way. She had long since lost track of the exact number, but it had to be at least ten dozen. It was probably even more than that.

Her dream flitted from one timeline to the next, crossing backwards and forwards through the progression of memory with no sense of order.

[ V ]

"Well, she's gone," Madoka said. "I hope she can find a way that we can be together in some timeline… otherwise it's going to be so, so sad."

"Hey… what makes you think I'd team up with ya?" Kyouko asked.

Madoka powered down and seized her hands, smiling.

"What makes you think I'd let you back out of it?" she asked. "Come on, Kyouko-chan… it's better for everyone if we work together. I'm sure of it."

"Well… I don't know," Kyouko said. "Guess I can give it a try though…"

"In that case, let me go introduce you to my parents," Madoka said. "You can stay at my place for awhile."

"Huuuh!?" Kyouko gasped. "What the hell're you saying!?"

"I thought you were the type of person to never turn down free food, Kyouko-chan," Madoka said with a wink.

"T-that's…!"

"Come on!" Madoka said. "Later on, maybe I can introduce you to Miss Oriko, too."

"Ain't that the girl in white?" Kyouko said. "There's no need. I met her once already. She kinda gives me the creeps with that smug attitude of hers."

"Miss Oriko is a nice person," Madoka said. "I think what you're calling a 'sumg attitude' is just from her high-class upbringing…"

As they talked, they headed back to the evacuation centre, Kyouko reluctantly following due to Madoka still clinging to her hand, not to mention the promise of food. Kyouko of course powered down too. When they arrived, they found that a few people had already started to venture outside, though most of the people were still in the hall. She dragged Kyouko over to where her family was still sitting. Tatsuya had dozed off on his father's lap.

"Mom!"

"Madoka!" Junko gasped. "Where on earth have you been?"

"Um… I went outside to check on things," Madoka said. "And while I was out there, I found Kyouko-chan."

"Who is this?" Junko said, looking Kyouko over.

"She's—"

"I can introduce myself," Kyouko said testily, cutting her off. "Sakura Kyouko's the name."

"I see," Junko said. "You're Madoka's friend, is that right? It's nice to meet you."

"Not sure I'd call us friends…" Kyouko said hesitantly.

"Of course you're my friend," Madoka said.

Tomohisa nodded as well.

"It's always nice to meet a new friend," he said. "Especially since Madoka recently lost one of her friends…"

"Eh, that right…?" Kyouko said.

"Ah, um… they're talking about Sayaka-chan," Madoka said,

"Ohhh, her…"

"Oh, did you know Sayaka as well, Kyouko?" Junko asked.

"Well… we were acquainted, yes," Kyouko said.

"I didn't see you at her funeral, however," Junko said.

"There was a funeral…?" Kyouko said. "How was I even s'posed to know that?"

"I was going to tell you about it, Kyouko-chan," Madoka said. "But I wasn't able to get ahold of you, so… I'm sorry."

"Eh, it don't really matter," Kyouko muttered. "Not like we were that close or anything…"

"Anyway, I was wondering if she could stay over for awhile," Madoka said. "Kyouko-chan doesn't have any family or anything, you see."

"Eh?" Junko said. "Do you live alone, Kyouko?"

"Ya could say that," Kyouko said. "It doesn't bother me, though…"

"But it bothers me!" Madoka said. "Do you even have a place you can call home, Kyouko-chan?"

"Well… lately I was sleeping in a hotel room…"

"That's not a home!" Madoka said.

"There's also Sakura Church," Kyouko said.

"Which is in ruins," Madoka retorted. "That doesn't count either."

"I don't know your circumstances, but I'd be happy to have you stay over as long as you want, Kyouko," Junko said. "You're Madoka's friend, after all."

"W-well… maybe for a little bit," Kyouko said reluctantly.

"But what about school?" Junko said. "Will you be okay commuting from our place?"

"School…?" Kyouko said. "Um…"

"I can help you enroll in Mitakihara Middle School," Junko said.

"Eh, I don't think I'm really cut out for school," Kyouko said.

"Wait… are you saying you haven't been attending school…?" Junko said.

"I got better things to do," Kyouko said.

"That won't do…!" Junko exclaimed. "You really should go to school! I don't want to force you, but… it's more important than you think…"

"I'd like to go to school with you too, Kyouko-chan," Madoka said. "I could introduce you to Hitomi-chan, and Kamijou-kun, and all my other classmates."

"Hey… ain't that the boy Sayaka was head over heels for…?"

"Yeah, that's him."

Kyouko sighed.

"S'pose I could always try it out for a few days," she muttered.

"Alright then, that's settled," Junko said. "I'll get the paperwork for your transfer ready tomorrow, and while I'm at it I'll ask Kazuko if she'd mind giving you a few catch-up lessons over the break. If you haven't attended school for awhile, you'll probably be a little behind."

"H-huh!?" Madoka gasped. "Mom, are you planning to invite Ms Saotome over…?"

"Yes, is there a problem with that?" Junko asked.

"N-no, it's just… it feels weird to be seeing my homeroom teacher outside of school hours," Madoka muttered.

"This is starting to feel like more of a pain than necessary," Kyouko complained.

"Just bear with it, Kyouko-chan," Madoka said. "After all, we'll be living together, so it's not all bad, right? Remember, that means free food. And I'll help you with the lessons if I can."

"Fine, fine," Kyouko grumbled. "But it's not like I'm gonna stay forever. I'll give it a go for a little while and see how it pans out."

"That's good enough for me, Kyouko-chan!" Madoka said.

[ II ]

Koharu gaped at the scene before her. Though Miss Sakura and Miss Tomoe had both fallen, Walpurgisnacht had already been defeated, and in one blow at that… only for one of the girls who defeated her to suddenly turn into a witch herself.

"Kyuubey… what on earth did I just witness?" she asked.

The little creature had been sitting on the air conditioning unit next to her. Upon being addressed, he hopped down onto the railing that she was currently leaning on.

"I though it was quite obvious," he replied. "Kaname Madoka used too much magic and turned into a witch."

"I suppose the only saving grace is that she's not as strong as Walpurgisnacht, but… since when do magical girls turn into witches?"

"It has always been that way," Kyuubey said. "Though few magical girls know of it."

"Huh… I can't believe you kept that from me, Kyuubey," Koharu said. "Well… we can argue about that later. For now, I need to destroy her before she gets any stronger."

With that declaration, Koharu swung over the balcony, pushed off the side of the roof, and landed in a roll on the ground far below. Then she made for the newly-formed barrier containing Kriemhild Gretchen. She had been too slow to bypass the labyrinth and enter the witch's chamber directly, however… which meant she found herself facing down the newborn witch's familiars. They each resembled a winged balance scale bedecked with pink ribbons. However, instead of each end of the scale holding a basin, it was just a ring with a downwards-pointing spear protruding through it. Those spears were the familiars' primary form of attack.

"As if I'd let you get the better of me," Koharu said.

She fired a spread of needles from her blowpipe, and the familiars struck were slowed in their tracks by the effect of her poison. Then she leapt in amongst them, swinging her pipe like a club and taking them all down at once. She progressed deeper into the labyrinth, repeating the same strategy whenever she came across a pocket of familiars.

"I'll save you."

She came to a stop as the eerie voice rang out through the labyrinth, barely intelligible.

"Come… come to my embrace… it's safe here."

"Huh… that's rare," Koharu said. "A witch who can talk, huh? Though it seems more like a robot spouting lines…"

"It is quite unusual," Kyuubey said. "But there have been other cases."

Koharu glanced at him.

"Oh, I didn't realize you'd followed me," she said. "I really would've preferred if you hadn't, but… now that you're here, just how common is it for a witch to talk?"

"About one in ten billion witches are capable of limited speech," Kyuubey said.

Koharu blinked. "Ten billion is greater than the whole human population… that really is rare!"

"It may be greater than the current living population, but it is a few orders of magnitude less than the number of humans who have ever lived," Kyuubey said. "Even so, there are few examples on record since we and humans formed our relationship, though it is possible there are more that were not recorded."

"Well, whatever… makes it easy to find her, I guess," Koharu said. "Just have to follow the voice."

She did just that, taking out a few more familiars before finally emerging into the central chamber where the witch lurked. She was a massive cage, vaguely shaped like a soul gem, with something sorta head-shaped at the top.

"Alright, now's the time to go all out!" Koharu declared. "I'm going to take you down!"

She summoned a second blowpipe, charging electricity into both of them as she ran a circuit of the witch. Then she put the first one to her lips, firing a spread of electrified needles, followed by the second one. The needles formed a ring encircling the witch.

"Eat my electron cage!" Koharu shouted.

Electricity crackled through the ring of needles, forming a full circuit, then spread up to the ceiling and down to the ground. It was like a cage of lightning, keeping the witch trapped within it. Whenever the witch tried to attack, the attack was rebuffed by the lightning.

"Alright, now I can whittle you down in peace," Koharu said.

She stuffed both blowpipes into her mouth and fired a new spread of needles, aiming for anything that seemed like it could be a weak point. It took nearly five minutes, but eventually the witch crumbled, dropping a grief seed. Koharu snatched it up in relief and used it to purify her soul gem, which had been getting quite dark.

"Thank goodness!" she gasped. "I managed it… somehow… that was the strongest witch I've ever fought…! I hope I never have to face another one like that…"

She collapsed on the ground, leaning up against a piece of rubble.

"I… need to get home… but… too tired to move…"

"Easy does it, now," an unfamiliar voice said.

Koharu looked at the unfamiliar girl offering her a hand.

"Huh…? Who are you…?" Koharu asked.

"The name's Yasuhiro Rin," the girl said. "I saw that huge battle from a distance, and thought I'd also try taking on the new witch. Sorry I wasn't able to help… by the time I made it to the central chamber, you'd already just about finished it off. That magic you used there was really impressive, by the way. A cage of lightning… pretty effective too…"

"Ah… thank you very much," Koharu said.

She accepted the offered hand, using it to provide the leverage required for her to regain her feet. She was still a little unsteady, but Rin provided a shoulder for her to lean on. They started to make their way towards the nearest evacuation shelter.

"Normally I'd scold you for intruding on my territory, but I suppose now isn't the time to be worried about such things," Koharu said. "As long as you're not hostile, I'll gladly accept your aid."

"But, ya know, I was shocked by what I saw when that witch appeared," Rin said conversationally. "Who woulda thought something like that was possible?"

"You mean how that girl turned into a witch?" Koharu said.

"What else could I mean?" Rin said. "Was wondering what ya thought of that."

"Ugh… I don't think I could possibly answer that question so suddenly," Koharu said. "My mind's all in a mess just from the discovery…"

"Guess that's to be expected," Rin said. "To tell the truth though, I wasn't all that surprised. I mean… yeah, it was shocking, but once I got over the initial shock, it kinda all made sense. I figured Kyuubey had to be hiding something."

"I see… but you made a wish anyway?" Koharu said.

Rin shrugged.

"Didn't feel like I had a choice," she said. "It was that or have my ear gnawed off non-stop for the next two years."

"That's… all?" Koharu said.

"Hey, hey, it's real important to me," Rin said. "Don't diss the value of a little peace and quiet, ya know?"

"Fine, fine," Koharu said. "To tell the truth, I'm glad you were here. Having someone to talk about it with makes a big difference… if you hadn't shown up, I think I might've turned into a witch myself."

"Well, guess ya owe me one then," Rin said, grinning. "How's that sound? Lemme call in a favour with you some other time."

"Sure… I'd be happy to help, as long as it's something I'm able to do," Koharu said.

[ VI ]

"I, Alina the Great, am never late!" Alina exclaimed. "It is you who are early! Now watch and learn as I show you how this is done!"

She held up her hands, a green cube appearing between them. It expanded back to cover all the waiting magical girls, then upwards to encompass Walpurgisnacht herself, sucking them all wholesale into her barrier.

It was a strange landscape, an infinite swirl of floating glass cubes reaching as far as the eye could see, and the witch floated overhead like a warship, gazing down on the interlopers.

"Oh…! Amazing!" Matsuri exclaimed. "It's like a witch's barrier, except…"

"This is Alina-sempai's barrier!" Karin said proudly.

"Why are you so smug about it, idiot?" Alina asked. "Stop wasting time, or do you expect the witch to just twiddle her thumbs, hmm?"

"Indeed… let's attack immediately," Oriko said. "Aim for the gears at the base – that's the weakest point."

"We'll stop it in its tracks!" Tsukasa exclaimed.

"Flute Blossom Resonance!" the twins chanted in unison.

Yuuri hefted her gigantic syringe and fired upon the witch, while Airi pointed at it and triggered a series of explosions. Chisato opened fire with her twin pistols, while Koharu settled down into a regular cycle of charge and fire, infusing each of her blowpipe needles with lightning before blowing them at the witch. Suzune wordlessly raised her sword and flung a vortex of flames at the witch.

"Arisa-sempai, let me take you up there," Honoka said. "It'll be easier if you can punch the witch directly, right?"

"Heck yeah!" Arisa said. "Let's go!"

"Could you take Kirika too?" Oriko asked.

"Of course," Honoka said.

She grabbed Arisa's and Kirika's hands and warped, appearing up in the air just above the witch. The three of them landed nimbly on top of the witch, and Arisa boosted herself and went wild on it, punching and kicking the floor. It was surprisingly effective, too, a spiderweb of cracks beginning to form. Kirika and Honoka attacked these cracks, working to widen and expand them.

Ever since the barrier opened, Karin had been hopping around to touch and transfer some magic to several of the smaller glass cubes floating throughout the barrier. Now she raised her scythe, shouting out her attack.

"Candy Death Squall!"

The cubes under her control flew towards the witch at high speed, smacking into the gear and leaving behind a plethora of dents and cracks.

"Onee-san, let's combine our power," Matsuri said.

"Ugh… do I have to?" Kagari replied.

The two of them were sharing a body, so it sounded a little strange, like she was arguing with herself. The witch's head began to glow, probably indicating it was building up a counterattack of its own.

"Of course," Matsuri said. "Before the witch attacks!"

She raised her clasped hands above her head and pooled magic power between them, accepting Kagari's power and mixing it with her own.

"Amnesiac Impact!" Matsuri shouted.

The gathered power was expelled as a beam of flames, punching through the centre of the witch's body, then striking the gear and shearing off three teeth. In addition to the obvious damage, the glow of the witch's attack was cancelled.

Kagari giggled. "Take that! Made ya forget what you were doing!"

"I won't let you destroy Mitakihara anymore!" Koito shouted.

She raised her hands, calling up a swarm of feathers which flew straight at the witch like a rain of daggers. Many of them found lodging in the various cracks crossing the gear's base, the force of impact working them in enough to widen the cracks.

"Nube Temporalesca!" Moe shouted.

Thunderclouds appeared above, repeatedly zapping the witch with lighting. They came with rainfall as well, but the clouds were positioned such that none of the rain fell upon the fighters.

"This damn witch sure is tough," Chisato said.

She paused her constant firing of the twin pistols to press one fist against her hip and peer up towards the witch.

"Every bullet's hitting the mark, but she just won't budge," Chisato continued.

"Hmm, how about we force her to come down, closer to the ground?" Mari suggested.

She stepped forward and summoned vines which coiled up from where she stood to seize the witch by her head. However, actually dragging Walpurgisnacht downward proved to be more difficult than anticipated.

"Ah… guess her buoyancy's just too powerful," Mari said with a sigh.

"Good enough for me!" Komaki said.

"Yeah, with this, I can at least get close and smack her with my axe!" Remi said.

The two of them hopped up Mari's vines, leaping high into the air and smashing their axes right into the gear base with such force that the weapons stuck there, leaving the two of them hanging high up in the air. After hanging for a few moments, they swung their legs up to kick off the gear, freeing their weapon, then repeating the process.

"Alina-sempai, aren't you going to attack?" Karin asked, having just shot off her second Candy Death Squall.

Alina cackled. "There's no reason to!" she exclaimed. "Why would I want to put a hasty end to this incredible show? Such a delectable witch… I must uncover all her secrets!"

"Alina-sempai… for once, I wish you'd just act like a normal person," Karin said with a sigh. "I'm usually okay with it, but… making us do all the work just isn't cool."

"Do you have a bee's nest in your brain?" Alina retorted acidly. "Can you not see that I'm already pushed to the limit just keeping the barrier intact?"

Karin blinked. "A-ahh… I'm sorry, I never thought it would require constant upkeep," she said. "I mean, every time I've seen you use it, you always trapped the witch and finished it off before I could even do anything…"

Alina snorted. "Those witches were mere small fry," she said. "They could no more break out of my barrier than a cock could miss the dawn. But Walpurgisnacht… she is a powerful witch, incredibly so. If I were to relax for even one moment, she would certainly break out. Now hush and let the great me concentrate."

"Alright, Alina-sempai!" Karin said.

"She's about to attack!" Oriko exclaimed. "Barriers, please!"

"I'm on it!" Kazumi said.

"Understood!" Moe said.

"Got it!" Airi said.

The three of them erected a barrier around the girls still on the ground, with Airi's flame barrier on the outermost layer, Kazumi's force barrier in the middle, and Moe's force barrier underneath. It was just in time, as the witch unleashed a barrage of baleful fire upon them. Airi's barrier absorbed the first beam, then Kazumi's held out against most of the rest. Once Kazumi's barrier shattered from the pressure, Moe's caught the remaining beams and barely held.

"At this rate, it doesn't seem like we'll make much progress," Koharu said. "Should we have people who work together well combine their powers for a more powerful attack?"

"You mean like a connect?" Karin asked.

"A what…?" Koharu said. "I was thinking of pooling your magic together and releasing it all at once."

"Ohh… a combined attack," Karin said.

"So like me and onee-san earlier," Matsuri said.

"The pairs we have who work well together… there are surprisingly quite a few," Oriko mused. "The Asako sisters… the Shiina sisters… Miss Anri and Miss Asuka… Miss Narumi and Miss Shion… and the Amane twins. I believe those five pairings would be the most effective."

"Huh!?" Tsukasa said. "Our attack power isn't all that strong though…!"

"Even so, it is not as though we have no attack power at all," Tsukuyo pointed out.

"That's true, but…"

"Let us just try it once, Tsukasa-chan," Tsukuyo said.

"Alright, Tsukuyo-chan," Tsukasa said.

«Oy, oy, we're in deep shit up here!»

Kirika's voice came crashing into their brains like a screech from suddenly slamming on the brakes.

«The top's overflowing with familiars now!»

«Damn, these shadows are nasty!» Arisa added. «If this goes on…!»

«You three, return to the ground now,» Oriko replied. «Miss Kanami, if you could use your magic…?»

«On it,» Honoka replied. «Just need to get a little closer…»

«Miss Komaki, Miss Remi, if you could return too, please?» Oriko said.

«Sure,» Remi replied.

«Well, if I must,» Komaki said.

Remi and Komaki leapt back down to the ground in a few bounds, using Mari's vines for footholds. No sooner had they landed back upon the field of glass cubes than Honoka, Kirika, and Arisa appeared in front of them, drenched from the the rain thanks to Moe's thunderclouds. Honoka immediately collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath, and both Kirika and Arisa also seemed rather tired.

"Everyone's back together now," Oriko said. "Let's charge up those combined attacks, as discussed."

Each of the five pairs had had at least one member present during the discussion, so they immediately got to work on the task of building up their magic.

"Onee-san and I will buy you a little more time," Matsuri said.

She raised her hands, rapidly building up power like before and discharging it.

"Amnesiac Impact!"

Just as she let off the attack, the shadow familiars that Kirika and Arisa had been fighting earlier spilled off the top of the witch and started to attack.

"Now's my time to shine!" Karin declared, stepping forward. "I won't let you get to the artillery!"

"I'm not sure how to feel about being treated like artillery," Yuuri muttered.

"I'll hold them back too!" Kirika exclaimed, also leaping forward.

Mari, Suzune, and Honoka also joined the front lines without a word, cutting down as many familiars as they could, but they just kept on coming and coming. Oriko, Kazumi, and Koharu helped out by blasting the familiars away one by one from behind. Matsuri fired two more blasts of her combined magic as well, keeping the witch from using her baleful fire.

After about a minute though, the continuous onslaught of familiars began to wear down the front-line fighters.

"Hey, I think it's about time to fire those off!" Mari called.

"Yes, I think you're right," Oriko said. "Please aim to attack all at once!"

"Understood!" Tsukuyo said.

"Let's do this!" Tsukasa said.

"Onee-san, get ready!" Koito exclaimed.

"I'm ready, I'm ready!" Komaki said.

"Are you prepared, Yuuri-chan?" Airi asked.

"As much as I'll ever be!" Yuuri replied.

"Chisato, don't hold me back, alright?" Arisa said.

"Like I'd do something like that, you dummy," Chisato retorted. "Make sure you don't drag me down either."

"Fat chance of that!" Arisa exclaimed.

"Onee-chan… I'm a bit nervous," Moe said.

"Don't worry, Moe-chan, it'll be over in a flash," Remi said.

The glow of an impending attack appeared on the witch's head. She was already beginning to charge up some baleful fire.

"I'll give you a countdown," Oriko said. "Five… four… three… two… one… fire!"

"Crescent Moon Cherry Train!" the Amane twins shouted.

A swirl of cherry blossoms, somehow bathed in light yet at the same time cast in shadow, flowed up at the witch. The attack didn't seem to do much damage, but perhaps it had some other effect.

"White Feather Cannon!" Koito shouted.

Feathers blasted out of the cannon that had been formed between them, travelling tens of times faster than Koito's feathers from earlier and pummelling the witch with force equivalent to machine-gun fire.

"Cole, Double Tonitrus!" Airi shouted.

Though it was the normal bull that Airi typically summoned for her finishing attack, now there were two of them, and they had wings to boot. They zoomed up towards the witch with impressive speed for their bulk, ramming into it with their horns. With each blow, lightning crackled through their horns into the witch's body.

"Full Boost Sealing!" Chisato and Arisa chanted in unison.

A plethora of purple tentacles whipped up into the air, coiling around the witch and tightening. The glow of impending attack faded, releasing a shower of sparks.

"Accelerated Explosion!" Moe and Remi shouted, slightly out of sync.

Suddenly, it seemed as though the witch herself exploded, or more like there were a hundred small explosions all around the gear base. They threw up so much dust that the witch was shrouded from sight.

All the magical girls present watched with bated breath as the dust slowly cleared up. Kazumi and Suzune both began to build up magic for another attack, just in case. It wasn't clear whether or not the witch had been taken out by those attacks.

But before long the dust was sufficiently cleared away to make out the witch's form within it, and several seconds later it finally emerged fully from within the cloud. The damage to the gear base was extensive, most of the teeth broken off and a large chunk missing from one side, but apparently it wasn't enough to finish her.

And to make matters worse, she attacked the moment she emerged from the cloud. Suddenly, a rain of flaming debris fell from above, each chunk the size of a small car, plenty enough to smash them into powder and raze the remains.

"Protect us!" Kazumi shouted. "I'll finish her off!"

Moe and Airi leapt forward to take the brunt of the attack, and this time the Asako sisters also joined them. The result was a four-layer barrier where the innermost layer, from Komaki, was solid metal, but somehow made transparent so they could still see. The outer barriers were smashed through within seconds, but Komaki's barrier, erected in the form of a wedge, did a pretty good job of fending off most of the barrage. When her barrier was finally broken through, Airi leapt forward again to take the brunt of the blow.

That was at the same moment that Kazumi unleashed her attack.

"Meteora Finale!" she shouted.

At the same time, Suzune also unleashed her magic, this time shouting it out.

"Camellia Flame Dance!"

Though they attacked at the same time, Suzune's flames somehow outpaced Kazumi's beam, smashing into the tattered body of the witch and spreading like wildfire up to the gear base. The beam struck barely a second later, tearing right through the base of the gears and blowing them apart. What was left of the witch just crumbled into dust.

However, the familiars did not disappear like usual.

"Wait… the witch is dead but the familiars are still attacking!?" Karin gasped. "The heck is this?"

"Though at least there are no more new ones spawning now," Honoka said.

"At last, it is time for the great Alina to shine!" Alina shouted.

Raising one hand above her head, she flung a handful of tiny green cubes, soaring over the heads of the front-line fighters and spreading out above the familiars. Then she snapped her fingers, and each of those cubes emitted a barrage of beams in all directions. The familiars never stood a chance – they were mowed down by the overwhelming firepower. The few who managed to somehow survive Alina's onslaught were easily finished off by the other magical girls.

A few seconds later, Alina's barrier kicked them all out, back into the ruined cityscape. Alina did a flourish, showing off the two grief seeds that the witch dropped, and flung one of them towards Oriko, who deftly caught it.

"You showed me something beautiful, so take that as a thank you gift," she said. "I'm going home now."

"Alina-sempai…!" Karin gasped. "You can't just—"

But without another word, Alina turned and stalked off, leaving the others staring after her until she disappeared around a corner, at which point Oriko cleared her throat.

"Everyone, allow me to thank you for your help," she said. "I believe we could not have defeated this witch without each and every one of you. If you're tired, feel free to stay in town for a day or so. I won't even hold it against you if you hunt one witch in my territory before going back, if you think you can't wait."

"Well… yeah, our soul gems are pretty clouded," Tsukasa mused.

"Mine seems okay for now," Airi said. "How about you, Yuuri-chan?"

"I think I'm okay too," Yuuri said.

"If you don't mind, I myself will be heading home for a nap," Oriko said. "Good day to you all."

And with that, the group dispersed.

[ IV ]

"We hurt it!" Shizuka said. "It may be even more powerful than the witch of our ancestors, but I think we can win this!"

"I agree," Mami said. "With you three, Miss Sakura and her Rosso Fantasma, not to mention Yuma-chan and Miss Asako, and everyone else as well… I do not believe there is a way for us to lose."

"Let's try to stun her to buy some time," Koharu said. "The three of us with lightning magic should all attack at once."

"Then we should do another symphonic blast!" Hiyori said.

"Should I try combining my power with you then, Miss Kohaku?" Sunao asked.

"I've never done that before, so I'm not sure if we'd be able to pull it off, but it's worth a try," Koharu said.

"Mami, let's do the same thing!" Kyouko said.

"Alright!" Mami said.

Elise summoned a new batch of minions to hold back the familiars, while everyone else focused on the witch. Sunao and Koharu, Hiyori and Claire, and Mami and Kyouko joined hands to build up power. Shizuka raised her swords above her head, crossed them, and shouted out her magic, stopping the witch in its tracks.

"Ceasefire!"

Chiharu, Komachi, and Yuma spent most of their efforts taking out any familiars that made it through Elise's wall of minions. Koito raised her hands above her head, summoning a swarm of feathers that bombarded the witch like a torrent of daggers. After a minute or so, Koito's barrage died off, at which point the others unleashed their combined attacks.

"Thunderous Symphonic Blast!" Hiyori shouted.

"Tiro Duet!" Mami shouted.

"Tomorrow's Double Commandment!" Sunao shouted.

The witch was about to open fire on them when the attacks landed in succession, stunning her and rendering her motionless. Those who'd just attacked, along with Koito, followed up the initial attack with a barrage of everything they could muster. Between the initial attack and the following barrage, five teeth of the great gear were sheared off, falling to the ground. One of them narrowly missed Komachi, forcing her to throw herself to the side to avoid it.

"She's getting ready to attack again!" Kyouko shouted.

Sure enough, her head was glowing. Moments later, a beam of baleful fire struck out, aiming directly at Elise. Koito leapt up, interposing a barrier to protect her while also dragging her out of the line of fire. The barrier held for a good two seconds, then shattered, but that was plenty of time for Elise to be moved out of the way.

Kyouko leapt into the waves of familiars, splitting into four copies who took down five or six each in a single swipe of their spears, and Chiharu followed suit, tying up as many familiars as she could reach. Yuma and Koharu then finished off the ones she'd restrained.

"Miss Hiroe, let's see if we can drag this witch down from the sky," Mami said.

"Ah… sure!" Chiharu said.

Mami looked around, selecting a nearby street light, and flung a length of ribbon to it. Then she leapt into the air, landing atop the street light, and leapt again, heading straight for the witch. Walpurgisnacht seemed to see her coming and unleashed a beam of baleful fire at her, but Mami somehow dodged in midair by tugging at the ribbon wrapped around the street light, then flung a second ribbon towards the witch. As planned, it coiled around the witch's head, tethering her to the street light on the ground.

Then Chiharu flung one of her ropes up into the air, coiling around Mami's ribbon about halfway up its length, then strung the other end around a different street light and pulled with all her might. Shizuka and Sunao joined in as well, their efforts drawing the witch very slowly towards the ground.

"Won't she just tear up the street light though…?" Koito asked.

Mami landed next to her with a smile.

"It's possible, but… witches usually aren't all that intelligent," she said. "This is a witch that can uproot entire buildings and throw them at us but… will it even acknowledge a measly little street light? That's what I'm hoping, anyway."

"I see," Koito said. "But you must've at least made a plan in case she did break free…"

"Of course," Mami said.

With a wink, she leapt back into the air, stringing up a new length of ribbon and coiling it around the witch's head. While Koito repeatedly held off the baleful fire, the Tokime trio put all their strength into slowly pulling the witch down with the help of Chiharu's ropes, and everyone else fought off the familiars, Mami added tether after tether to ensure the witch would not be able to regain any of the height she lost. Before long, it started to look almost like a Christmas tree, what with all the ribbons stringing up to the witch.

"I think that's enough!" Koito finally shouted. "With all those ribbons, I can easily approach her now!"

"Got it!" Mami said.

Landing back on the ground, she raised her voice again. "Everyone with ranged magic, attack all at one!" she shouted.

Sunao, Claire, Hiyori, Kyouko, and Koharu all complied, and of course Mami joined the attack as well. While the six of them bombarded the witch from below, Koito leaped onto the ribbons, hopping from one to the next as she made her way up towards the witch. Once she reached the witch's head, she leapt still higher, summoning a flurry of feathers to provide a temporary foothold for a double jump, and finally reached the gear base, where she pulled out Kensei and stabbed the stone structure.

The effect was impressive, but at the same time underwhelming. A web of cracks spread out from the point of impact, reaching all the way out to the edge of the gear base, but not a single tooth came loose. So Koito kicked off the base, pulling the sword free, and formed another temporary feathery foothold to allow her to leap up towards the edge of the gears.

Raising Kensei above her head in both hands, she extended the blade as far as it would go and brought it down, biting right in between two teeth on the edge. As before, cracks spread out from the impact point, and this time the two teeth on either side broke free.

As the girls on the ground began a second round of bombardment, Koito flipped herself up to land directly on the hilt of the sword, then pushed off of it into the air and flipped forward to land on top of the witch. Carefully grabbing the sword by the blade, she retracted its length and retrieved it, then aimed for the central core of the gear base. Familiars were already starting to appear from within that hole, but they fell like flies before Ashley's sword of truth, and before long she'd planted Kensei straight into the floor next to that central shaft.

Yet another web of cracks spread across the gear. This time, Koito summoned a flurry of feathers, sharpened and hardened like daggers, and drove them into the cracks, as well as thrusting them down the centre of the shaft. The cracks grew and grew and widened and widened, until…

"Tiro Finale!"

"Tomorrow's Commandment!"

Mami's final attack, along with Sunao's ultimate, smashed into the witch from below, and suddenly the cracks widened dramatically, and she became able to see scraps of the ground through them. Still protected from the familiars by her flurry of feathers, she dragged the sword free and lengthened it once more, smashing it down upon the gear like a hammer.

The ground beneath her broke up, then crumbled to dust, and as she fell, she spotted a pair of grief seeds next to her. Snatching them out of the air, she flipped her body around and landed on her feet, everyone else running over to congratulate her.

"We did it!" Shizuka said. "That was amazing, Miss Asako!"

"It was a job well done," Mami said. "And Miss Asako certainly played a key role."

"For a little while there, I wondered if we could actually do this," Hiyori said. "But it looks like I was worried for nothing."

"Hey, I was thinking," Koito said. "I get that it was Ashley Taylor who brought us all together so we could defeat this witch, and she even gave me her sword, but… can she really be trusted…? She's hiding so much from us, after all… and even though it seems like she's helping us on the surface, the truth is… much more complicated…"

"What do you mean?" Mami asked.

"Well… you remember I can read minds, right?" Koito said.

"Of course… but you didn't read Miss Taylor's mind, right?" Mami said.

"Well… I tried not to," Koito said. "But it seems I just couldn't help it… did you know, Miss Taylor knew that Oriko-sempai planned to attack your school? She knew that, and did nothing to stop it… she even talked to Oriko-sempai about her plan a day or two before. Well… I guess she technically tried to talk Oriko-sempai out of it, but she certainly didn't try very hard…"

"But I wonder what she could've even done to stop Oriko…?" Hiyori said. "Other than outright killing her. Maybe she knew it was fruitless to stop her and decided to do her best to limit the damage instead… ah, but I guess she didn't do a very good job if that was her plan. Still… if she hadn't told us about it… if she hadn't insisted that we all go to my school together that morning… if they hadn't run into Miss Sakura and Yuma-chan before school started… I'm certain the death toll would've been at least four to five times greater. And, you know… she did admit knowing about Oriko's plans, so personally, I think she can be trusted."

"It's not like that's the only thing she was hiding," Koito said. "I only saw a few glimpses, because I was trying really hard not to peek, but… there were a lot of things that didn't make sense."

"Well… I'm not sure myself," Mami said. "But I'm not going to tell you that you should trust her."

"I see," Koito said. "I suppose it's ultimately a moot point anyway… she went back in time, so we'll never actually see her again, right?"

"Yeah… you're right," Hiyori said. "To tell the truth, I think I'll miss her…"

"Me too," Komachi said.

"Well then," Koito said. "I'm really tired, so…"

"Why not stop by my place?" Mami suggested. "I could make some tea, and you could take a bath or a nap or anything you want."

"Will there be enough room for all of us…?" Chiharu asked dubiously. "It would be one thing if it was just a tea party, but… for baths and naps… that seems like a stretch…"

"Of course, you'd have to take turns in the bath," Mami said. "I think it should be fine for naps…"

"I'll decline the offer," Koharu said. "I intend to go straight home."

"Me too," Koito said. "I think I'm just going to flop right into bed…"

"Sorry, but I think I'd prefer to head home too," Elise said.

"I guess we'll go with Elise-chan," Claire said.

The Hayashi sisters nodded in agreement.

"Yuma wants tea!" Yuma exclaimed.

"Ugh… guess I'll be dropping by your place, then," Kyouko said with a sigh. "Knowing you, there'll probably be cookies too…"

"If it's okay with you, I would be happy to accept your offer," Shizuka said.

"Yeah, tea and cookies and a bath, that sounds good," Chiharu said.

"Alright, then it's settled," Mami said. "Miss Tokime, Miss Toki, Miss Hiroe, Miss Sakura, and Yuma-chan will be coming with me. Then, let's go!"

"I will see you later though, Miss Mami," Koito said. "Probably tomorrow or the day after."

"I'll look forward to it," Mami said.

And so they split up, all going their own ways.

[ ∞ ]

Locked away in her little nook of spacetime, she dozed. It was as safe as safe could be in here. No-one would ever be able to find her in this safest of safe spaces.

Oh, sure. There were cracks, here and there. She glimpsed random scenes through the cracks from time to time.

A girl being burned at the stake before a huge crowed.

A magpie flitting through the sky.

The hot sun shining down on desert dunes.

A viking longship piloted by a lone woman.

A girl being decapitated before an angry crowd.

A young Japanese princess giving a speech to a crowd.

A volcano blowing its top.

A young woman narrating stories to a middle-aged man in rich clothing.

A young man in armour battling another man nearly twice his height.

A young girl praying on a train, packed in tight with hundreds of people.

A man who was more familiar to her than anyone.

Her minions constantly spilled out through those cracks, and sometimes they'd bring back little tasty morsels for her, but whenever she glimpsed that man, she'd turn them away. Something about him affected her at a fundamental level.

But she didn't know who he was.

She didn't know who she was.

Did she even have a name?

That man suddenly turned to look at her.

"Sarah," he said. "I miss you."

But obviously he couldn't be talking to her. He couldn't even see her from where he was. Sarah? Who was that? There was something familiar about it, but surely it had nothing to do with her.

Yes… all she'd ever wanted was for her people to reach paradise. The paradise of the hole she now hid herself away in surely was the answer to that, so she had to bring her people there at once, whoever they were! But on the other hand, venturing back outside was too scary, so she just huddled up in her corner and feasted on the nuggets of emotion that her minions brought back.

Sarah.

But that was of no import. Even if, by some chance, she had truly once answered to that name, there was almost nothing left of that self. She'd split herself so many times, shaving off minions to send out into the world, that what remained was nothing but the infinitesimal.

The smallest quanta of time: 5.39×10⁻⁴⁴ seconds.

[ VII ]

Hijiri paused before the door leading to Homura's apartment, considering whether she should knock or reach out telepathically, but before she was able to settle on an answer, the door opened on its own. The trio of girls from east Mitakihara emerged – Tamura, Chihana, and Hikari, if she recalled correctly. As soon as they were out of the way, Hijiri stepped in through the doorway.

"Huh? What brings you here, Kanna-chi?" Ashley asked.

"Nothing in particular," Hijiri said. "I was just wondering if you'd left yet… looks like you haven't?"

Ashley glanced at her laptop, probably to check the time.

"Yeah, still over half an hour left," she said. "Actually… now that you're here… I actually have something I could offer you. You can mimic Misaki Umika's ability to copy memories, right?"

"Yes, that's true," Hijiri said.

"Then, you could copy my memories," Ashley said. "There's a vast amount of information there about what's likely to happen in the near future which you could use, if you wanted to."

"Oh," Hijiri said. "Well, does any of that pertain to Asunaro though?"

"Uhh, no, it's mostly about Kamihama," Ashley said. "Pretty much all the stuff about Asunaro has already happened."

"Hmm… but well, I suppose it can't hurt," Hijiri said. "Maybe I could have a lock of your hair too?"

"Huh? What for?" Ashley asked. "Although… I guess it's fine if you want it…"

"Because dumping all your memories into my own brain might cause it to overload," Hijiri said. "It's better to put them into an empty vessel."

"Oh, so that's what you meant," Ashley said. "Well, let's do this then."

"Hold on," Hijiri said. "First I'll need to create a temporary container for the memories. Umika uses her book, but I don't have an equivalent to that. I'll need something to use as raw materials…"

She looked around the room, spotting a convenient wooden chair sitting in the corner, and seized it.

"This will do nicely," she said.

Using Nico's transmutation magic, she transformed the chair into a large, heavy book.

"Okay, now I'll need to make physical contact," Hijiri said.

"Forehead to forehead, right?" Ashley said.

"That's probably best, yes," Hijiri said.

She stepped over towards Ashley, who brought her face in close enough for their foreheads to touch. It was slightly unsettling, so Hijiri closed her eyes to concentrate better. Then she activated Umika's magic, scanning Ashley's brain and transforming all the memories into the book.

As the memories passed through her, she caught a glimpse of it all, and let out a shocked gasp. It was as if the girl before her had somehow been given the grand plan of how the future would go. Just the glimpses Hijiri saw about Asunaro were enough for her to realize that she'd never stood a chance against this girl – Ashley had already known almost everything about her. Her family situation, her wish, her status as a clone from Nico's wish, her envious desire for revenge, all of it.

"W-what? I only got a glimpse of it, but… no wonder you've been ahead of anyone else, with the amount of information you have."

Ashley ignored the statement, moving straight on to the next step as she backed away.

"Anyway, you also wanted a DNA sample, right?" she said.

"Yes," Hijiri said.

She reached up and drew out a lock of Ashley's hair, transmuting her fingers into blades and snipping it off.

"Well, good luck, Ashley-chan," Hijiri said. "Perhaps we may yet meet again, but in case we don't… farewell."

Without waiting for a response, Hijiri left the apartment, closing the door behind her, and made her way to the station. She pondered the flashes of insight she'd gained when she copied Ashley's memories, and before she knew it, she was in Asunaro. Heading out to Pernelle's place, she entered the barrier. It was deserted at the moment, but she went straight to the lab and approached the incubating pod that had been used to grow a new body for the other Souju twin. It had already been cleaned out, but had been left intact in case they ever found a way to properly revive Kazusa Michiru.

Though, if Hijiri had known what she now knew, she would've acted much earlier to save the life of Elise Pierrot. Still… even if Elise was dead, perhaps she'd be able to make use of Tamaki Iroha…

"That said… I don't think… I can handle so much information on my own," she said with a sigh. "Let's hope that you can manage better than me."

With that, she dropped the lock of Ashley's hair into the pod and switched it back on, then headed out into town to get some food.

[ III ]

"Nooooo! Oriko, nooooo!" Yuma wailed.

"Come now, she wouldn't want to see you cry so much," Yuuri said.

"Hey, you're not the only one who has lost someone," Airi said.

"But… but Oriko… she was so nice to Yuma," Yuma wailed.

"Well, we'll be nice to you too," Yuuri said.

"Yeah but… but Oriko…!"

"Say, why don't we see if we can find your grandparents?" Airi suggested.

Yuma blinked at her. "Ah… Yuma wants to meet Grandpa," she said. "Do you know where he lives?"

"I don't know, but I bet we can find out," Yuuri said. "What was your surname again?"

"Yuma is Chitose Yuma!"

"Then I guess we gotta just search for a Chitose in the surrounding area," Yuuri said. "Can't be all that hard, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure we'll find your grandfather really quickly!" Airi said. "That said… we're pretty tired after the battle, so wanna come home with us for now?"

Yuma tilted her head for a moment, then nodded.

"Yuma has decided," she said. "Yuma will stay with you!"

"Well, Airi-chan may have said that, but I'm not sure if the trains will be running during a typhoon," Yuuri said. "I guess it can't hurt to check, though. Let's head for the station."

They made their way through ruined streets until they reached a relatively untouched area of town. There was still considerable storm damage here, but nearly all of it was superficial, not structural. Then they arrived at Mitakihara Middle School. By this time, the rain had stopped, the wind had died down, and the clouds were just beginning to clear up.

"Oh… this is those guys' school, isn't it?" Yuuri said. "How'd we end up here? Well… there should be a station nearby though…"

"Um… excuse me!"

Yuuri turned to see the speaker, a girl wearing the uniform of Mitakihara Middle School. She had green hair worn loose and long, the bangs covering her right eye.

"Huh? Why're you in uniform on a holiday…?" Yuuri asked.

"Oh, um… I had makeup classes," the girl said. "Then the typhoon blew up so suddenly, so I thought I should stay inside, but… that wasn't an ordinary typhoon, was it?"

"What do you mean?" Yuuri asked.

"I'm sorry," the girl said. "I'm really sorry… I should've realized sooner. Maybe I could've helped… ah, um, I guess I'm not really making much sense to you, am I? Sorry, um… I should introduce myself first."

The girl bowed, then straightened up again.

"I'm Aki Mabayu, and I'm a magical girl."

"Ohh… so, you're saying that by the time you realized it was a witch, it was too late?" Yuuri said.

"Yeah… I'm sorry," Mabayu said.

"No… that's no problem," Yuuri said. "The witch got defeated in the end, by the looks of it, so…"

"Have you been a magical girl for long?" Airi asked.

"Oh, um… it's been a few weeks now," Mabayu said. "So I'm pretty new to it all…"

"Well… I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon," Yuuri said. "I think you're almost the last girl left in town, so… I wish you luck."

"Ah, we could exchange contact info if you'd like," Airi offered. "You could call us if you have questions. Maybe we could even drop by to help you out once in a while."

"O-oh, that would be awesome!" Mabayu exclaimed. "Thank you very much!"

So, they exchanged contact info, then turned and headed off. As Mabayu watched them go, she suddenly started to glow, startling her. Mabayu looked around in confusion for a source of the phenomenon, but there was nothing to be seen… and by the time Yuuri glanced back, intending to wave at her, she had vanished without a trace.

So the three of them just continued on their way. As it happened, northbound trains were still running, so they were able to safely catch a train to Asunaro.

[ VIII ]

"Mitama, you in there!?" Rena shouted. "We've got some Mirror Coins for you!"

She burst into the office, hand raised brandishing two of the coins, followed by Kaede and Karin, but stopped short at the peculiar sight before her. Mitama was sitting in her armchair, and Riko was kneeling on the floor, sobbing into her lap.

"Riko-chan!?" Karin gasped.

"H-huh!?" Kaede gasped. "W-what's going on… did something happen…?"

"It's nothing that you need to worry about, Kaede-chan," Mitama said with a smile. "Riko-chan's just sad she won't be able to see her friend again."

"Ah… Ashley-chan, I assume?" Karin said. "So she's already gone… I thought I'd have time to say goodbye before she left…"

She stepped forward to pat Riko on the head a little.

"K-karin-chan…" Riko murmured.

"I think you only missed her by about five minutes," Mitama said.

"Ugh, has Momoko's bad timing rubbed off on me!?" Rena gasped.

"Hey, that wasn't your fault," Kaede complained. "Who would've thought we'd be swarmed by former feathers on our way back here!?"

"I wish they'd just go talk to Iroha instead… I got nothing to say to them," Rena grumbled.

"But Iroha-chan's pretty busy herself," Kaede said. "She probably didn't have the time…"

"By the way, Karin-chan, Miss Taylor left a few things for you," Mitama said. "They're on the table over there."

"For me…?" Karin said.

She stepped over to the table, spotting the sword and laptop set there.

"Her sword… and… her laptop…?"

"That's correct," Mitama said.

"I don't think I'd be all that good with a sword though," Karin said. "I guess I could give it to someone else…"

"What're you waiting for, Karin?" Rena said. "I can tell you're interested. I can deal with our business, so just go look at it already."

"Ah, I suppose," Karin said.

She grabbed the laptop and sat down on a couch, unfolding it. It didn't ask for a password, simply popping straight back into what Ashley had been doing before she went back in time. There was a word processor document open, with the title 'Original Prediction' emblazoned on it, and out of curiosity, Karin began to read through it. She'd only gotten through the first few paragraphs before she gasped.

"T-this is…!"

"Hmm? Is something up, Karin-chan…?" Kaede asked.

"No, well… this is incredible," Karin said. "But I should probably read the whole thing first…"

"What's it say…?" Kaede asked, peering over her shoulder.

"Um… well, if you're fast enough, I guess you can read along at the same time," Karin said.

She continued reading, and Kaede's eyes widened as well as she too took in the content of the document. About halfway through, she came to the account of the final battle in Minaminagi Seaside Park. It certainly wasn't like an account of what had happened. There had never been a battle in Minaminagi Seaside Park – instead, the final battle had been fought by the lake on the border of Shinsei and Hokuyo Wards. Alina had never donned the Rumour of the Fur God as described in the document, but had instead attempted to fuse her doppel with Eve.

But that was only halfway through the document.

After the battle, there were accounts of the aftermath, including the trial of the Magius, and all sorts of other miscellaneous things, and then… the advent of a new war with factions from outside the city.

"Finally, I've gotten rid of those coins," Rena said. "Let's go."

"Rena… we should show this to Iroha-chan," Karin said. "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but… I think Iroha-chan will definitely want to see it."

"Huh? What the heck is it?" Rena asked.

"It seems like Ashley-chan's prediction of what'll happen," Karin said. "It starts way back at the founding of the Wings of the Magius, and there are a lot of details that are wrong, but it also continues into the future as well."

"I think maybe… it's like the original future that she was working to avoid, or something?" Kaede added.

"Given that it's titled 'Original Prediction', yeah, that's probably about right," Karin said.

"You saying you want to stop by Crescent Moon Villa later?" Rena said. "Not like you need my approval for it or anything… by the way, are you really going to leave that kid like that?"

"R-right!" Kaede gasped. "We should cheer her up…!"

"Ah… Riko-chan," Karin said. "You're right… I'm sorry, Riko-chan, I got a little distracted over here."

"T-that's okay," Riko murmured. "Ashley-nee wanted you to see that, anyway… so… it's fine…"

[ I ]

Kohaku Koharu stood atop a tall building, watching warily as the massive witch drew closer. There were two magical girls already fighting it – the veteran, Tomoe Mami, and the new rookie in pink who she'd recently taken under her wing. For some reason, there was also a third girl with them who wasn't a magical girl.

"They look like they're having a hard time."

Koharu glanced at the young woman who was standing next to her. A student attending Kagura University as a freshman, she had apparently made her contract only three days ago. They had literally just met, due to coincidentally choosing the same vantage point to check out the battle. The woman had short black hair and wore glasses.

"Yeah, I'm not liking the look of that battle," Koharu agreed. "Frankly, I'm considering whether to just make a run for it… I don't think I could beat that witch on my own, so there isn't really any point in trying… it's more important to be alive."

"Huh, but you have me with you, don't you?" the other woman said.

"How could I possibly rely on a newly-contracted girl of unknown powers who I've known for all of ten minutes?" Koharu retorted.

"Yeah, okay, you're right," the woman said. "My power's pretty useless anyway. All I can do is see glimpses of the past… I can't even control it."

"At least you have an effective weapon," Koharu said. "That's more than can be said for some girls who get the bottom of the barrel in powers."

The woman looked at the weapon in question, currently gripped in her right hand. It was a ring of metal with a grip passing through the centre, with outward-facing spikes spaced out along three-quarters of its circumference.

"I'm not sure what it is, but yes, it definitely looks like it would hurt if you got hit with it…"

"Seems similar to the Chinese feng huo lun," Koharu said. "Probably much more effective than my blowpipe. Still… I don't think a witch like Walpurgisnacht can be defeated with mere weapons."

"Looks like the veteran just kicked the bucket," the woman said.

Mami had just been taken down by a blow to the head, piercing through and shattering her soul gem. The other two girls ran up to her and spent some precious time grieving over their friend's death. Then the rookie stood up to rejoin the battle, but there was no way she could possibly win where even Mami had failed. Sure enough, after just a few minutes, her lifeless body fell to the ground.

"Hey… isn't that Kyuubey over there?" the woman asked. "Think the third girl's gonna make a contract?"

"I suppose if she ended up with a super-effective power, I could consider stepping in to support her," Koharu said.

But while the girl did indeed make a contract, she used her power to escape, not to fight. The flash of her contract was followed moments later by a flash that seemed to consume her, probably a form of teleportation.

"I guess that was inevitable after seeing both of her friends die," Koharu said. "Dammit… at this rate, my home won't be spared… but there's no way I can fight that thing…"

"It could even reach the university, and who knows whether they would reimburse the tuition if they need to rebuild," the woman said. "If only there was just one more ally we could rely upon…"

"Guess this is a good time to announce my presence."

The two them spun in shock to face the girl who'd snuck up behind them. She hadn't even transformed and was just wearing blue jeans and a grey hoody.

"Heya," she said. "The name's Yasuhiro Rin… I tailed that thing all the way from Kazamino. Spotted Miss Sakura protecting that church of hers along the way."

"Ah, nice to meet you, Miss Yasuhiro," the woman said. "I'm Kuroi Kana… but are you saying you can actually fight that thing?"

"Weeeeell, I can't say there's no chance," Rin said. "But I guess it'd be a real long shot, huh…"

"If only we could convince Miss Sakura to come to our aid," Koharu mused. "But knowing her, she wouldn't be interested… though maybe if we let her have the grief seed…?"

"Hey, who's that girl down there?" Kana asked, pointing.

Koharu followed her finger and blinked. Kyouko had appeared down below and was checking out Mami's body.

"Ah, that's unexpected," Koharu said. "I didn't expect Miss Sakura would actually come… let's go see if she's up for a fight."

She hopped down from the building, just casually falling ten storeys without worry, and ran over towards Kyouko. Walpurgisnacht had turned north and was no longer directly above the scene of the battle. Kana and Rin followed her.

"Oy! Miss Sakura!" Koharu called.

Kyouko turned to see the three of them approaching.

"Oh, it's you," she said. "Seems Mami finally went and kicked the bucket… never thought I'd see the day."

"I just wanted to ask if you'd mind taking on that witch with us," Koharu said. "We could let you have the grief seed."

"Hmm… s'pose it'd be cool to avenge her, but there ain't no point in fighting a losing battle," Kyouko said. "Y'all got a strategy you think can win?"

Rin transformed with a grin.

"I think I do," she said. "We'd have to combine our powers, you and me. Our magics are almost opposite, so I'm sure we can create something explosive from the combination."

"And according to that oracle, the gear is the weak point," Koharu said. "Did you hear that from Kyuubey as well? Looked like Miss Tomoe didn't get the memo, come to think of it… or maybe she forgot…"

"I mighta heard it," Kyouko said. "So just throw everything we got at it, is that what you're saying?"

"That's about right," Rin said. "To be honest, I don't think Miss Kuroi and Miss Kohaku would be able to help much… so I'd recommend they just stand back and watch. Though I won't hold it against you if you prefer to attack anyway."

"What's your basis for that statement?" Koharu asked.

"Based on what I've seen of your powers in the last week," Rin said.

"It's true that my raw combat power is only about average, but I think I'd at least be able to stun her," Koharu said.

"Oh, I haven't seen you do that before," Rin said. "Well, like I said. Feel free to help out. A stun sure sounds handy."

"Then I'll just stay out of it," Kana said. "Since I have no way to attack it in the first place. I can't fly, so I won't be able to reach it with my weapon, and I don't have any attack magic. Good luck, you three."

Koharu, Rin, and Kyouko broke into a run. While still running, Rin grabbed Kyouko's hand and seemed to feed magic into it.

"Ah, I get it!" Kyouko said. "I do the same, right?"

"That's right," Rin said. "This is a move that the magical girls of nearby Kamihama seem to use a lot – they call it 'connect'. I thought it would be useful for this battle."

"I see," Kyouko said. "We can do a stronger attack this way."

"I've never even heard of this," Koharu said. "You said it's common in Kamihama?"

"Yes… apparently, it can be tricky for some girls to learn it," Rin said. "So I guess that's why you usually don't see it much… but there's someone in Kamihama who'll teach you, in exchange for a grief seed. Not that I took her up on that offer – I just watched and figured it out. But still."

"How do you know all this stuff…?" Koharu wondered.

"Well, I've spent all the time since my contract just wandering all over to learn what it's like to be a magical girl," Rin said. "I can even ride the trains without paying thanks to my cool stealth magic, so why not explore a little, right?"

Up ahead, Walpurgisnacht had suddenly taken a curve to the east, heading for the university district just as Kana had feared. However, Koharu raised her blowpipe, charging her magic into it until it was crackling with electricity. Then she put it to her mouth and fired a single shot, a needle with a bolt of lightning trailing behind it. It struck the witch on its head, which normally would've had no effect whatsoever, but then the lightning streamed up through the witch's body and coursed through every part of it, gears included. She abruptly stopped in mid-air, rotating in place

"That's perfect!" Rin said. "Now let's strike that gear of hers with everything we've got!"

Kyouko and Rin formed a gigantic spear between them, Kyouko's magic coursing across it to set it on fire, while Rin's magic froze the fire. With that paradoxical combination in place, they threw the spear together in one fluid move, and it flew straight, striking the gear head-on close to the centre.

At first glance it seemed like it hadn't done much if any damage… but then the flames and the ice reacted violently, producing a massive explosion that sent cracks spreading out from the impact point all across the gear. But despite all those cracks, and a couple of fragments breaking off at the edges, the gear remained pretty much intact.

"Dammit!" Kyouko gasped. "It wasn't enough! We'd best get out of here before she shoots back!"

But before anyone could move in response to her suggestion, a pair of attacks streamed in from across the river, their sources screaming the attack at the top of their lungs. One wore a white hooded cloak with pink accents and had Kyuubey perched upon her shoulder, while the other girl was dressed like a witch, complete with the stereotypical pointed hat.

"Candy Death Squall!"

"Strada Futuro!"

A rain of light arrows and miscellaneous debris squarely struck the gear, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. The witch's body, no longer able to support itself, crumbled into dust, dropping a pair of grief seeds. The girl with the witch's hat snatched them out of the air before bringing the two of them down to land. At first Koharu had thought they were riding on a broomstick, but up close it was revealed that it was actually a scythe. Rin chose this moment to power down, returning to her casual clothing.

"Um, sorry if we stole your kill," the girl in white said. "We can let you have the seeds if you want… there's two of them, for some reason."

"Well, I was promised a seed," Kyouko said. "So I guess I'll take one of them. You lot can argue over the other one."

The girl nodded. "That's fine with me! Is that okay with you too, Miss Misono? Oh, by the way, I'm Tamaki Iroha!"

"Ah, yes, that's fine… and I'm Misono Karin."

Karin handed Kyouko one of the grief seeds.

"Have you guys seen a Miss Ashley Taylor anywhere?" she asked.

"Ashley Taylor, you said?" Rin said. "I thought I caught a glimpse of her just after Miss Tomoe and Miss Kaname died, crawling through the rubble… but she disappeared at the same time as Miss Akemi. I don't know if that was teleportation or what, but I doubt you'll find her anywhere near here."

"Huh… so does that mean she's okay, or not?" Karin wondered.

"It sounds like your friend is okay," Iroha said. "I'm sure she'll come back later… but what are your names?"

Koharu stepped forward. "I am Kohaku Koharu, and this is technically my territory. Though I will thank you for landing the finishing blow, I'd nevertheless like to claim the second seed."

"We didn't use that much magic anyway," Iroha says. "You guys had almost finished it off already. So that's totally fine with me."

"By the way… are you new, Miss Tamaki?" Rin asked. "I've seen Miss Misono around a few times, but I never ran into you."

"Ah, yes… I literally just made a contract about an hour or two ago," Iroha said. "Then I happened to run into Miss Misono who was worried for her friend, so I just sorta tagged along…"

"Huh? You say you've seen me, but I've never seen you…?" Karin said.

"Cause I didn't want you to," Rin said. "Magical girls are said to be territorial, right? I just wanted to scope things out without stepping on anyone's toes. The name's Yasuhiro Rin, if you were wondering."

"Oh, okay…?" Karin said. "Nice to meet you, I guess. So… Miss Kohaku gets the grief seed? No objections? I have a spare already, so I'm okay with that."

"Fine with me," Rin said.

Karin handed Koharu the grief seed.

"However, I will allow Miss Yasuhiro to use it once, if she wishes," Koharu said.

"Nah, I've got a spare too, so I'm good," Rin said. "But thanks for offering."

"That suits me just fine," Koharu said.

She purified her soul gem, then stashed the grief seed away.

"Miss… Tamaki, was it? Are you from around here?"

"Ah, no," Iroha said.

"We came here all the way from Kamihama," Karin explained.

"I see… then you should know that what Miss Yasuhiro said is true, and as previously mentioned, you are presently in my territory. Given the circumstances, I don't intend to initiate any hostilities, but that may not always be the case."

"Ah, yes," Iroha said. "I understand. Although I think it would be better if magical girls would work together more often… but I don't plan to make a habit of coming to, um… Mitakihara, is it?"

"Yes… as long as you understand," Koharu said.

[ IIIS∴ ]

"You've greatly improved, Aki Mabayu."

"Thank you very much, Homura-chan!"

"At this rate, you should be able to defeat a witch on your own," Homura said. "Though, obviously, Walpurgisnacht is an exception…"

"Of course," Mabayu said.

The two of them were sitting in Homura's strange apartment, the walls filled with all sorts of information on Walpurgisnacht. It was like one of those smart homes she'd heard about – the walls seemed to be some sort of digital screen that could project anything Homura felt like putting up there. Mabayu wasn't sure why one of the things she felt like displaying was a pair of opposed pendulums, constantly swinging back and forth, but it did feel a little calming, watching them. Maybe that was the reason.

"We've done quite well so far," Homura continued. "We defeated all the major witches before they could drag Madoka in…"

Mabayu nodded. The rose witch, the artist witch, the clothesline witch, the television witch, the sweets witch, the sacred tree witch… she and Homura had destroyed them all before Mami or anyone else could get to them. Madoka hadn't contracted yet, and Mabayu had managed to sever the memory that usually led Sayaka to contract, so she too was still a normal girl. Kyouko hadn't even decided to drop by this time. Mabayu privately thought that the last part was a bad thing though – they could use her for the final battle.

If anything, they'd overdone it a bit. Mabayu wasn't quite sure, but… she suspected the reason Mami had turned into a witch this time was because she and Homura had been snapping up all the witches in the area. So even though Mami had managed to survive past the battle with the sweets witch, she hadn't made it to the final battle this time around. At least they'd taken down Mami's witch immediately, so it hadn't had a chance to hurt anyone, but still…

"If only Miss Tomoe were still with us," Mabayu said. "Can we really beat Walpurgisnacht without her…?"

"We'll have to make do," Homura said. "Didn't you say you can make all my attacks strike the weakest point?"

"Yes, if I splice the best outcome in," Mabayu said. "But that's just the best outcome you could've possibly gotten even by yourself, whether by skill or luck… I can make it certain, but I can't make your attacks any more powerful than they already are."

"Hmm, well… like I said, we'll just have to make do," Homura said. "Come on now… you should get some sleep. Walpurgisnacht should be here in about six hours."

Homura set an alarm clock and laid out on the couch, facing away from Mabayu. But Mabayu couldn't seem to get to sleep, no matter how much she tried. She thought back to everything they'd done until now, across the past few timelines since she first met Homura and the others. Homura was so fixated on Madoka, but was it really okay to save only her? It didn't quite sit right with Mabayu.

Of course, she'd been trying her hardest to save the others though, only to fail miserably at the most unexpected of moments. For Mami to suddenly face off against the silver mech witch, of all things… and when her soul gem was already so clouded? Mami had never before fought the silver mech witch in any of the previous timelines, but this time she must've been driven into a corner because Mabayu and Homura had taken down all the other witches before she could even get to them. They'd been planning to snag the silver mech witch next, leaving it for later because it didn't move around much, but then Mami had gotten to it first.

It almost felt hopeless. No matter how well they seemed to be doing, there was almost always a wrench thrown in the works, something that they never could've predicted, usually something that could be traced directly back to their interference in the flow of events. Mabayu sighed. Would this be the final timeline? Or – and the thought seemed to make her heart freeze over – would she be stuck in these loops for the rest of her life? Was there even an end in sight? After so many loops, she was starting to doubt her own motives in helping Homura out. What was she even fighting for?

She wondered what had happened to the two magical girls she'd met way back in… was it the first timeline, or the second? They'd seemed to be from out of town, and introduced themselves as Yuuri and Airi. Though they'd given her their contact info, Mabayu had been unable to remember it once time had turned back – she just didn't have much of a memory for numbers like that. They'd never appeared again after that timeline, though, and she couldn't help but wonder if that anomaly could somehow be the key to escaping this closed loop. The little girl who'd been with them, Yuma, had appeared once since then, in the company of Kyouko, but she hadn't recognized their names.

Eventually, the alarm went off, and Homura sat up.

"Let's go," she said.

Mabayu got up and followed Homura outside. The typhoon had already sprung up, so they headed towards the river. Before long, they spotted the procession of Walpurgisnacht's festival familiars, but as always, they ignored them, heading straight towards the main witch.

"L-let's do this!" Mabayu exclaimed.

"Yes," Homura said.

Just like last time, she pulled out an impressive arsenal that must've been stolen from a military base somewhere, including rocket launchers and even surface-to-air missiles. Mabayu focused on the feel of the film running through her head, splicing in the best flight path for every individual missile. It took quite a toll on her, but she'd practiced quite a bit for this day, so she was pretty sure she could handle it.

And then… the attacks just stopped. Mabayu opened her eyes and spotted Homura half-collapsed on the ground. It seemed she'd already run out of weapons. The witch still hovered in the air above, but it was as if it had lost interest in them. Instead, its attention was now focused on the girl with pink hair who stood way up on a nearby roof. Even from this distance, Mabayu could barely make out the form of the incubator next to her.

"N-no…!" Homura gasped. "Madoka… don't…!"

She seized the edge of her shield and twisted it, and the now familiar grey filter was overlaid upon the world – the sign that time had been stopped. Homura leapt up and ran towards the building where Madoka a stood, but she was so exhausted from the battle so far that she wasn't able to make it all the way there before her magic gave out. Colour returned to the world as she reached the base of the building, and she disappeared inside, no doubt seeking a staircase to take her to the roof. But she was far too late, as that was the moment when Madoka glowed brightly like a second sun before transforming into her magical girl form. Then she drew her bow, aiming directly at the witch. The world went grey for a few more seconds as Homura barrelled out onto the roof, but then colour returned yet again, and Madoka loosed her arrow.

Even as the arrow flew true and tore through Walpurgisnacht like butter, it was clear that Madoka had overexerted herself. Homura yelled at her, but she was far too late. The witch transformation had already proceeded past the point of no return. Homura must've realized it as well, for she seized her shield once more and twisted… and for a moment, Mabayu found herself back in that infinite black expanse, the place where she could see the film of reality branching in all directions.

Then she was right back where the timeline had started – the day before her final exams, before she'd moved to Mitakihara.

[ 𐆔ЭV ]

Pernelle was sitting in her armchair, reading a book, while the Souju twins, whose spare body had just recently been completed, were currently snoozing on the couches.

Suddenly, something unseen drew her attention. She blinked, looking up in surprise. Several seconds later, both of the Souju twins also stirred, eyes fluttering open. They sat up groggily, rubbing at their eyes and looking around in apparent confusion.

"Whazzat…?" Luca asked.

"Ain't it a witch…?" Ayase said.

"But I've never felt such a strong witch," Luca said.

"Yes… isn't this one even more powerful than Walpurgisnacht?" Ayase noted.

"Have ye both seen Walpurgis in person?" Pernelle asked.

"Once, from a distance," Luca said.

"Was it in China…?" Ayase said. "I think it might've been around Taizhou…?"

"Of course, we made ourselves scarce," Luca said. "No way we're taking on something like that…"

"If ye wish not to face this witch, ye should leave Japan with all possible haste," Pernelle said. "The witch yet remains far away… however, if I can sense it from such a distance, then it is not merely a little more powerful than Walpurgis. It may even be sufficiently powerful to swallow this island whole… or, mayhaps, even all of Japan."

Luca and Ayase blinked at her in surprise.

"You gotta be kidding me," Ayase said. "Can a witch even get that strong…?"

"There once was a witch that swallowed up all of France," Pernelle said. "France is larger than Japan… ye can consider it as approximately one and a half times the area of Japan, although Japan is narrower and more elongated. I remain unsure of the limits on such things, yet… it appears plausible."

"Eh… then I guess we'd better split," Luca said. "Think we got time to catch the ferry?"

"I cannot say," Pernelle said. "Ye should be prepared for the possibility of the witch's labyrinth outpacing your flight. I however plan to stay, to observe the phenomenon from up close."

"Well… farewell then," Ayase said. "Hope you make it out."

With that, the two of them headed outside. Pernelle followed them as far as the street, then leapt high up into the air, forming a barrier to serve as a platform. She turned to gaze to the south, but the witch wasn't visible from here. It wasn't clear from this distance whether it would be like the Queen's Twilight, deploying a country-scale barrier, or more like Walpurgisnacht, simply running amok in the real world.

It looked like it was coming from the direction of Mitakihara, so she warped to a point directly above that city. Below, she could see the damage left from a battle against Walpurgisnacht on the east side of the city, by the river. She looked around for people, but there was no-one to be seen, anywhere in the city. It would appear that the entire city was already contained within the new witch's barrier. So that would make it more like the Queen's Twilight, then.

Pernelle pondered the situation, considering whether it would be worthwhile to scout out the interior of the barrier. It didn't take her long to decide it would be a fruitless endeavour, however. That said, she did decide to scout out the exterior – knowing the location of the entrance should be helpful.

It took her nearly an hour, during which the extent of the barrier extended by several kilometres in every direction and enclosed most of Kazamino in addition to all of Mitakihara, but she eventually found the portal facing the bay. The emblem had a black star at the centre, with a pair of black wings near the bottom and a black crown at the top. There was also a purple ribbon snaking through the centre of the emblem.

"Hmm, it's growing quite rapidly," Pernelle mused, reverting to her native French since there was no-one else around. "But if the portal indicates the direction it's facing, then… perhaps it hasn't noticed Japan yet. It's clearly aiming to swallow all of Shinriku, but it remains to be seen whether it'll continue to expand once it's done that…"

At that point, a woman leapt up from down on the ground and landed right on Pernelle's barrier. Pernelle blinked in surprise, for it was none other than Hilda.

"You were still in Japan?" Pernelle asked, switching to German.

"I was monitoring the time-travel situation after meeting with Frau Taylor," Hilda said. "There seems to be an issue of late, however… I'm quite sure I've had the exact same conversation with her no fewer than twelve times… yet she never showed any signs of deja vu herself. It makes me wonder if she failed in her efforts to take control of the time travel… but now's not the time to speak of such things. I've been scouting the interior of the barrier."

"Ah, that's quite helpful," Pernelle said. "What have you learned? Have there already been a lot of casualties?"

"Due to the recent typhoon, the loss of life thus far appears to have been minimal," Hilda said. "Most of the citizens were already holed up in their designated evacuation shelters. There are some local magical girls working to defeat the familiars, but it doesn't look like they'll be able to make much progress. I've already given out grief seeds to about fifteen girls – Masuyo Mari, Kohaku Koharu, Yasuhiro Rin, Miki Sayaka, Shizuki Hitomi, Hayasaka Yukimi, Mamiya Erika, Kure Kirika, Asako Komaki, Nagatsuki Miyuki, Sakura Kyouko, Chitose Yuma, Masumi Chihana, Hinata Aina, and Yuuki Mina. About half of those are newly-contracted, however. I don't think it would be fair to expect much from them."

"Hmm, so even in this crisis, Kyuubey is still handing out contracts?" Pernelle said.

"He was at first, yes," Hilda said. "I haven't seen him for about two hours, though. It's likely he eventually decided it was too dangerous to remain in the area. He did mention to me that he estimated this witch to be capable of destroying all of humanity within thirty days."

"Thirty days…?" Pernelle said. "He must be predicting that the rate of expansion will increase, then… at the current rate, it would take nearly a year to cover the entire planet…"

"If all of the newly-contracted girls turn into witches, the main witch's power would rapidly grow as it consumes them," Hilda said. "Perhaps that's what he's factoring in? It would also grow quite quickly if it could consume a large number of humans."

"Perhaps," Pernelle said.

"I've used my magic to protect the evacuation centres," Hilda said. "It should be able to keep the people safe for a couple of days, but I'm going to continue monitoring the situation from within."

"Understood," Pernelle said. "Then I'll continue to monitor it from here. We should contact each other every few hours to exchange information."

"I'll do my best on that," Hilda said.

She returned to the ground and hopped into the portal, while Pernelle continued to monitor the expansion of the witch's barrier from the air. Moving her observation point to the east, she observed as cars simply vanished right off the streets and train cars were suddenly emptied of people.

Over the course of about three hours, the barrier expanded to cover the entire bay area, including Takarazaki, Kamihama, and several smaller outlying communities. Three more hours, and it was beginning to encroach on Hohzuki in the interior. Whatever the reason, it seemed Kyuubey had been right in predicting that the rate of expansion would increase over time.

Hilda's regular reports indicated that most of the affected areas were in bad shape. Only Mitakihara, with everyone already in evacuation shelters, and Kamihama, with its unnaturally high magical girl population, seemed to be doing a decent job of keeping casualties down. Hilda had continued handing out grief seeds, dispensing close to two hundred all told, with quite a few new magical girls as well – one trio in particular had apparently impressed her.

"Tamaki Ui's healing magic is far more potent than most," Hilda said. "And her barriers are almost as strong as yours, so she's been able to save a lot of people. Then Satomi Touka's destructive power with her flames is akin to a volcanic eruption, making it easy to hold the familiars back from key strongholds. And finally, Hiiragi Nemu's manifestation is able to create a myriad of foot soldiers who can hold back the waves of familiars whenever Touka's not around. It also helps that they were aware of the witch transformation even before they contracted, so they're very careful with their magic consumption."

They'd also hit a stroke of luck in finding a girl in Kamihama who could destroy grief seeds with her magic – since Kyuubey wasn't around, it was important to destroy used grief seeds to limit the witch's expansion even a little. There was also a Coordinator in Kamihama, so Hilda had applied her protection magic to that girl's office to create a safe haven where magical girls could be treated.

Twelve hours after the witch had emerged, with three-quarters of the island covered, Pernelle had another unexpected encounter. A huge eagle flew up from the mountains in the centre of the island, wheeling through the sky for a few minutes before making a beeline for her. As the eagle came closer, she realized it bore a familiar magical signature.

"Oh my," she said. "Now there's someone I never expected to see again."

She watched as the eagle approached, expanding her barrier to give it a place to land. As soon as it touched down, the eagle transformed into the familiar fox-eared form that Pernelle remembered.

"Pernelle," she said. "Long time… no see…"

"Yes… it has been a very long time," Pernelle said, in Japanese. "I never expected that ye would still be around."

"Crisis… what happened…?"

"I know not the details," Pernelle said. "But this witch is surely the most powerful witch in all of human history. I think it is impossible for anyone other than those three to defeat it… which means we have no choice but to wait for Scheherazade. Although, with that said, I am unsure that even they could defeat this one…"

"Huge," the fox woman said. "Too strong. Can't fight."

"Indeed," Pernelle said.

At that moment, Hilda rejoined her, blinking at the unexpected new guest. In the short time the two of them had been chatting, the barrier had already expanded to cover the entire island, from what Pernelle could tell.

"Who's that…?" Hilda asked.

"An old acquaintance," Pernelle said in German. "She's probably approaching two thousand years of age by now."

"I see," Hilda said. "Well, I bring grave news. My protections are not holding out as well as I'd hoped. The magical girls fighting back in Mitakihara are starting to give up. Kamihama is holding out slightly better, mostly thanks to Ui's barriers, but things are not looking very good there, either."

"I see," Pernelle said. "I'm hoping Scheherazade will—"

Suddenly, space twisted about a kilometre ahead of them, and a window opened up in midair. A blonde woman hopped through, projecting a purplish hexagonal barrier below herself and landing upon it. She was dressed simply in what amounted to little more than a tracksuit, and had a sword sheathed at her waist and a pack on her back. Looking around, she spotted the group standing on Pernelle's barrier and approached them, forming a pathway from her barriers. The window in the air squeezed shut behind her.

"That magic…!" Hilda said. "If I'm not mistaken… it appears to be Flavian magic…"

"Do you mean the rumoured hidden church…?" Pernelle said. "That doesn't check out… why would they show themselves at a time like this? I've never even met them myself… to tell the truth, I always doubted the rumours…"

"I agree, it doesn't fit with their usual methods," Hilda said. "But while the rumours are exaggerated, I can assure you that their existence is very real."

They waited until the woman was close enough for them to talk. At that point, she cleared her throat.

"Excuse me," she said in Italian. "I can hardly believe my eyes, that you'd get here before me, but… are you not Pernelle Flamel and Hildegard von Bingen?"

Pernelle narrowed her eyes, responding in the same language.

"I believe it's polite to introduce yourself first," she said.

"My apologies," the woman said. "I am known as Anna. I'd sought you out some time ago, but your husband said you were on a trip, so I was at a loss as how I might be able to find you, but… it seems luck was on my side. Not only are you right here on the site of the Witch of Salvation, but you even have Hilda with you, as well as—"

"Get to the point," Pernelle said. "What do you want from us?"

"Ah, I'm sorry," Anna said. "I wanted to ask the three of you to help me defeat this witch."

"What makes you think that's possible?" Pernelle asked.

"Well, to begin with, I have one big advantage over witches like you," Anna said. "My magic won't go out of control if I overuse it. I'll only collapse and pass out, requiring a few hours to recover… or that would normally be the case, but I have with me a large supply of rare magic potions that I can consume to rapidly regain power. That also means I don't need to rely on corrupted souls to restore my magic, so I can let you have them all when it's over."

"And how exactly does that help?" Pernelle asked.

"It helps because the Witch of Salvation needs to be hit by all the power I can possibly muster," Anna said. "If any of you were to attempt it, you'd run out of magic very quickly and your magic would go berserk, right? I may not have as much magic as you, so I'll run out faster, but with my magic potions I should be able to sustain the attack for close to twenty minutes. It should be just barely enough to defeat the Witch of Salvation. Well… that's assuming her strength is at the expected level. From looking at her right now, I'm getting the impression that she's about half as strong as I predicted…"

"So, what exactly is your proposal?" Pernelle asked.

"I'd like the three of you to protect me from the familiars," Anna said. "I'll save my power for the witch. I know exactly where to find her – she should be squirrelled away within the Kagura University campus, in the northeast of this city."

Pernelle turned to her companions, discussing it with the both of them in their native languages of German and Japanese, and both of them nodded.

"Alright," Pernelle said in Italian. "I think it's worth a shot. Please lead the way, Anna."

So they descended to the ground, locating the portal on the bay about halfway between Kamihama and Mitakihara. Stepping inside, they almost immediately found themselves facing the familiars, which resembled balance scales, but instead of holding a basin on each side, there was a spear which they attacked with. However, their attack power was weak, meaning that Pernelle's barriers were more than enough to keep them all safe. That left Hilda and the fox woman to clear a path through them in the direction Anna indicated.

Thanks to Anna's directions, they arrived at the central chamber within no more than an hour. For a witch of such a huge size, Pernelle privately thought that to be impressive. They'd made a wrong turn and had to backtrack only once.

"Alright… now I'd like you to use any kind of boosting magic you know on me," Anna said. "I'll use the boosting magic I know as well. Then, just stand back and watch, and of course keep the familiars away."

Hilda applied some protective magic to her, likely the same magic she'd used on the evacuation shelters and the Coordinator's office, and Pernelle transmuted a chunk of the wall into a makeshift breastplate, which Anna gratefully donned. Then Anna pressed her hands together as if praying, and her own magic coursed through her body. From Pernelle's analysis, it appeared that the magic replicated a magical girl's standard physical enhancements, meaning that Anna now possessed the same physical capabilities as a magical girl – the superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes needed to bring down a witch.

Then they charged into the witch's chamber, Anna opening the fight with a veritable torrent of blue flames that seemed to oddly stick to the witch. Pernelle could tell that they were no ordinary flames – not only did they physically combust, they also appeared capable of corroding the very soul. That property would make them extremely effective against a witch, who was in essence a disembodied soul.

Then Anna clapped her hands together, but the sound produced was less of a clap and more of a gong, like a church bell. The sound resonated through the chamber, causing the witch to shudder. It also seemed to be restricting the witch's movements – a stun effect, Pernelle surmised.

Finally, Anna set her backpack down next to Pernelle, then unsheathed her sword and leapt into the air, attacking the witch directly. When the stun wore off, the witch of course attacked back, lashing out with tentacles, but Anna was apparently able to heal any minor injuries she sustained, and she simply sheathed her sword, unleashed that gong magic again, and resumed the attack.

Several times, Anna hopped back to take a break, falling back to fish out a glass vial from her backpack and chugging the contents. Then she leapt straight back into the fray, usually leading with a new bout of those blue flames.

After keeping up that routine for about fifteen minutes, the witch finally crumbled under the continuous onslaught.

"I'm surprised that actually worked," Hilda said. "And we didn't even have to do much… just keeping those relatively weak familiars at bay."

"You're calling them weak, but they were about as strong as an average witch," Pernelle pointed out.

"True enough," Hilda said. "But considered relative to the strength of their witch, they're quite weak. I would've expected a witch of this strength to possess familiars of a level comparable to Walpurgis herself."

As Anna gathered up the grief seeds that the witch had dropped, the barrier collapsed, dumping them out onto the main campus of Kagura University, just like Anna had predicted. She came over, presenting the three of them with a whopping twelve grief seeds.

"Here's your corrupted souls," Anna announced.

"Twelve from a single witch…?" Hilda said. "I've never heard of such a thing… two have been seen on rare occasions, but…"

"I suppose it just goes to show that her power was that far outside the normal realm," Pernelle said.

So each of them took four seeds, and then Anna bowed, said farewell, and disappeared using that window in the air. The three women looked at each other.

"Well… I shall start helping with the cleanup," Hilda said. "What about you two?"

"I'll check how things are in Asunaro," Pernelle said. "But if the Pleiades Saints didn't make it, I'm probably going to return to Paris."

The fox woman remained silent, turning to gaze across the river. She likely hadn't understood the question in the first place. And so, just like that, the three of them parted ways once again.

---

She woke suddenly in a cold sweat and sat up, panting as if she'd just run a marathon. There had been something mixed in with her dream that didn't stem from her memories, a subtle malevolence seeping in as if from the cracks between the timelines. It was like she'd been seen by some eldritch deity intent on driving her to madness.

After managing to recover her breath, she suddenly realized she wasn't in her bed anymore. Instead, surrounding her was a weird landscape littered with dead trees, modelling dummies, and huge eggs.

"A witch!?" she gasped.

As she leapt to her feet and transformed, several of the eggs suddenly hatched open, revealing grotesque plant-like bodies with a head of sorts and three tentacles set atop a short trunk. Without waiting for so much as a by-your-leave, they lashed out with their tentacles. At the same time, each of them opened that gaping mouth of theirs and wailed, the sounds filling the entire space and ringing in her ears.

Shaking her head to clear it a little, she dodged the first round of tentacles by leaping into the air, landing next to one of the creatures, and chopping it up with her scissors. It turned out it wasn't actually very strong, so she moved on to the next and made quick work of them. Once they were gone, the barrier collapsed, dropping her back out into the bedroom of her apartment.

"So it was just a few familiars, not a witch," she mused.

Powering down, she plodded into the next room, opening up the shrine and gazing at the photo set therein. She placed a stick of incense in the burner and lit it, then pressed her hands together.

"Mother," she murmured. "Did you know this would happen? What was the future you saw like? Why couldn't you use that power of yours to save yourself?"

She paused for a good minute before forging on, hesitantly.

"I… I'm sorry, Mother," she said. "At first, I just wanted to forget… those visions you told me about… they terrified me."

The silence stretched on for several seconds, during which she swore she heard an owl somewhere off in the distance. The apartment she'd once shared with her mother was in the middle of the city, so maybe it wasn't actually an owl, but it definitely sounded like one to her. It was that sound breaking into her reverie that prompted her to continue.

"Oh, I know… there was nothing… nothing at all inherently terrifying about them, but… the thought of… being unable to… go against fate…? That was what terrified me."

Tilting her head as if listening to someone, she nodded. There was no-one to listen to, of course, but she could imagine what her mother might have said.

"I know better, now," she said. "I haven't made that wish for nearly five years now, in subjective time… now that I understand that fate isn't something to fear, but rather, something to face."

She fell silent for a good long while, then spoke up one last time.

"I miss you so much… Mother…"

With a sigh, she put out the incense and closed up the shrine, then turned to step back into the bedroom. As she crawled back under the covers, a thought occurred to her.

"Kyuubey," she said.

The creature appeared before her almost immediately, tilting its head at her.

"Did you need something from me?" it asked.

"I wondered if you could tell me anything about a magical girl named Sarah," she said.

"Sarah is a very common name," Kyuubey said. "There have been thousands of magical girls to bear that name across history."

"That's fine," she said. "If you don't mind… just pick one and tell me a little about her. For example, the first one, or a particularly notable one, or…"

"Is there some reason behind this request?" Kyuubey asked.

"One, I'm curious," she replied. "And two, I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep all alone here in the dark. If I do doze off while you're talking, you can just leave."

"Very well," Kyuubey said. "The earliest magical girl on record with the name Sarah was born in a small country known at the time as Kaldu. Her people were well-fed and had everything they needed to survive, but they were a minority who was frowned upon by the ruling class. This situation led Sarah to wish for a land that her people could call their own…"

As the incubator droned on, she couldn't help but think that there was something vaguely familiar about the tale. However, before she got a chance to analyze that sense of familiarity, she had fallen fast asleep once more.

---

It's a shorter chapter than usual, but that meant I had more time to work on chapter 111, so it should still be ready by next week. I probably could've even posted this chapter earlier, as it was pretty much done by the end of Tuesday, but I decided to hold onto it so that there isn't an extra-large gap before chapter 111. I did also do an extra proofread of it with the extra time though. Anyway, all this means is that Act 3 will begin next week, provided I don't run into any major blocks. I hope you look forward to it!

This chapter features an external viewpoint character who has already been introduced, but I wonder if anyone can guess who it is? Personally, I think it's pretty obvious, but… I wanted to keep it at least slightly ambiguous. The identity of the witch featured here (other than Walpurgisnacht and Kriemhild Gretchen) should also be fairly obvious to anyone who's paying close attention.

We get to see some girls fighting here that we haven't seen much of before, in particular Koharu and Alina… not to mention this is the first time we've seen Rin in a battle as well. It's also probably the only time we'll ever see Kriemhild Gretchen's familiars.

Although there's a completely new magical girl who appears in this chapter, I haven't featured a profile for her, as she has no impact on the main story here. If she appears in a later chapter, I'll add a profile for her then.

---

Review Responses

Here I'm going to respond to a few specific reviews from over the runtime of Act 2, Timeline 9. I'm not going to respond to each and every comment, and I'll avoid any responses that give heavy spoiliers, so apologies if I don't mention your review (and thanks for commenting regardless). As before, I will quote the text that I'm responding to for each review, in addition to noting the commenter and time. I'll also note that there could be some mild spoilers in these responses, so read on at your own risk.

JAGwin (chapter 102, Jul 30, 2023)

› Firstly, in case you forgot, I would like to bring up that Juri used her flamethrower as a bludgeon later in this very event when Yuna got too close for her to shoot effectively.
› Secondly, Juri doesn't strike me as the type to go for a fist fight rather than using her flamethrower, whether conventionally or not, unless her flamethrower isn't an option for some reason. That might just be me, though.

You sort of have a point, and yet this scene in the original source definitely gives me an impression that she's not using her flamethrower until the generic flunky jumps in the way. I'm not sure if it's my misinterpretation though? It's possible.

I'll think about altering this scene, but I'm not sure yet what exactly I'd change, so it'll have to wait awhile.

› I don't know whether or not this is an error, so question; Has Sakuya ever canonically used her speed boost on anyone other than herself? The only time she's used it at all that I'm aware of is Arc 2 Another Story Chapter 3, and that was on herself.

I'm unaware of any canon instance when she's used her speed magic on anyone other than herself, though I would think she'd be using it on herself to some degree in literally every fight, so I find it a little hard to believe that Another Story is the only place in canon…

But yes, extending her speed magic to someone else is something I just made up.

› I only know them as the "Hikaru Army". Is this an alternate translation?

I think you could say that, yes. The translation I saw on the wiki was "Hikaru Soldiers". I changed "Soldiers" to "Knights" because I thought it sounds better, it fits better with her nickname of the "horse", and the change in meaning is fairly minimal. Then, since her name can mean "shine" and her element is light which suggests that was probably intended, I essentially translated her name to get "Shining Knights".

› As far as I can remember, Hikaru always calls Yuna "Yuna-san". Granted, it's possible that she addressed her differently during Crimson Resolve, given the circumstances, but if so I would expect her to be MORE formal than usual, not less.
› Once again, as far as I'm aware, Hikaru always calls Yuna "Yuna-san", and this time she's dropped the act, so there's no reason for her to refer to her differently than normal.
› Also, I just realized that Hikaru always calls Ao "Ao-san". So why isn't she using honorifics for her in this chapter?

I was lax with the use of honorifics in this chapter. Being based on an event meant I didn't have a voice track to go off of, and I never thought to check the transcription, so I basically just assumed no-one uses honorifics, which obviously was a terribly wrong assumption. I'm going to do a pass of chapter 102 later on to fix it up, but it'll probably wait until whenever I get to covering the current timeline's version of Crimson Resolve.

› Wasn't the random generic that Chinatsu is based on barred from participating in this battle because of the attempted Grief Seed theft?

Though that totally would've made sense, I'm unaware of anything in the first half of Crimson Resolve that suggests this. Was it mentioned in the second half? I skipped over most of the second half when writing this chapter; I'd already watched the whole thing clearly but a little detail like that, if present, would've been easy to forget. The impression I got was that Yuna forgave Chinatsu her transgression in exchange for what amounted to a vow of loyalty.

› And as a general note, you seem to be treating Torayamachi and Ryuugasaki as having the same number of members (including the Janomiya infiltrators) as they did in Crimson Resolve, despite the fact that Hilda's interference explicitly caused Futatsugi to suffer fewer losses than in canon.

I'm basically operating under the assumption that most of their losses occurred during or after that battle… but even then, perhaps they should have had a few more girls than in canon. I did make a list of everyone in both groups (some of them nameless), so I'll give it some thought and maybe make a few small revisions.

› You're timeline for Meiyui's Wish and Mikoto becoming a Witch is correct, however, the landsharking from Meiyui's MGS had nothing to do with her Wish. That was a later incident that WAS attributed Sarasa

Ah, you're probably right on that point… in my previous response on this topic I might've been focused too much on when each girl contracted.

› According to the Schools page on Puella Magi Wiki (not to be confused with THE Puella Magi Wiki), it's in Sakae.

Huh, you're right. I don't remember seeing that even though I've looked at that page many times. Still… that still leaves open the question of why is KFA not marked on the map, and why is there one extra unknown school marked down next to the Kamihama Athletics Field? I might update that reference to name the field instead of the school.

› *spit-take* What the HELL is the Symbol Witch doing in Futatsugi!? *reads on* Wait, Sakuya actually took it down!?

It may have been an evolved form, but it was also not the main witch; and the Symbol Witch does seem to have a reputation for being unusually weak… or at least its offshoots are.

› For the record, it's called a kanabo.

I am aware, thank you, but a kanabo is in fact a type of club, so that is not an error.

› Why the hell did Chiyoko wait so long to tell Torayamachi about the Kamihama situation? She was supposed to hold off for a day or two, not an entire week!

Good question. It wasn't a whole week, mind you, but it was definitely several days. Maybe she was feeling depressed or something and didn't want to get out of bed.

› I meant Kagome's debut scene in this fic, not canon.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned the mandrake plushy in my rendering of her debut scene in the chapter where they first defeated the Mirror offshoot.

Rafly26 (Chapter 102, Jul 31, 2023)

› In Magia Record part 2 chapter 12 episode 5 Iroha can send 'leaf that have Kagome magic' into the past, doesn't that mean Iroha have power to time travel other object?

Although I haven't yet seen the second half of arc 2 due to the translators being really slow to release, I have watched the first half of Puella Historia, which appears to attribute that power to Sena Mikoto, rather than Iroha. Exactly how that works I'm not yet clear on, but perhaps you'll understand since you apparently have seen chapter 12.

› Random thought about Himena Aika, don't you think that both souls Himena and Hiko (her lover) situation is kinda similar with Ashley and Chelsea?

Yes, I think they're actually in almost the exact same situation – one of them died and fused with the other.

plowplum (Chapter 101, Aug 4, 2023)

› Mitama must have a cast iron stomach to eat her own food without collapsing; just hearing the description is nauseating enough

Don't forget Mikage also ate it! She must've built up some resistance over the years, or something.

› That comment about Ulala's eyes makes me wonder if she could've possibly been brainwashed when she killed Chelsea and Inui in the vision. It's also possible that Ulala is a red herring and that another magical girl could be responsible. While yoyos aren't a common weapon, it's not out of the realm of possibility for it to be a girl with a similar weapon particularly with new characters popping up each timeline. Could the 1st Tart event be occurring within the next timeline?

Looks like someone got the hint. But regardless of who she was, if she was brainwashed, who could've done it?

› Episode is a pretty weird name to call someone. And she happens to be a magical girl who takes jobs from the Vatican? After finding out about the anti magical hit squad operating in Yukuni, Im surprised the Vatican would hire a magical girl for an assassination task,,unless the job was meant to be a suicide mission in which Episode wasn't meant to survive explaining why her handler would just dump her there ntm sending only two people to hunt down what is essentially a vampire queen.

Yeah, Episode is a weird name, but she's a Monogatari character so that's just how it goes. (Though I did genderswap her so she could be a magical girl – the character named Episode in Monogatari is a guy. Dramaturgy was also genderswapped, and her given name Hedwig is my own selection.)

I think it's best to think of the Vatican as not being a completely united front. Martha is an extremist who just hates magical girls with a passion, while Guillotine Cutter (the one who hired Episode and Dramaturgy) is a more pragmatic agent who'll do whatever it takes. And hiring a vampire or a magical girl to take out a vampire is actually a very pragmatic choice, as both vampires and magical girls are stronger than ordinary humans.

› So Nagisa doesn't get saved the next time around? I would presume Chelsea would want to see Nagisa due to her being a member of the Holy Brigade plus preventing Mami's death by Charlotte and easing her lonliness by having Nagisa as a companion. As for not repeating the Yukuni Festival, I could see why Chelsea would drop it even if it sounded cold since it's not like saving the Festival stopped the eradicators from forming anyway; the main issue would be stopping the bus crash from occurring since that's when the advocacy group died leading Folklore to subscribe to the will of the universe theory. As for Sasa, it sounds like the Kazamino team would've subdued her on her own so long as Oriko didn't get involved

It seems like you misunderstood something. The final timeline moved up the starting point by about one week, so Nagisa being saved and the interference at the Yukuni festival are already fixed events.

› Poor Riko. Girl has been dealing with abandonment issues and how one of her onee chans has died and the other is leaving forever

Yeah… but at least the other ones (Karin and Rui) aren't going anywhere.

JAGwin (Chapter 103, Aug 6, 2023)

› Chelsea said that Elise could restore a Grief Seed to a Soul Gem without releasing her Doppel if she was being cleansed with at least two Grief Seeds while she did it, not that she could do it two more times without unleashing her Doppel.

Sure, but if two grief seeds allow Elise to restore one soul gem without a doppel unleash, and they've just obtained four grief seeds, the math checks out for Elise's statement.

› Putting this in the thoughts section because I'm pretty sure this is just a case of our personal terminologies being different, but to me, someone "losing their Soul Gem" means that their Soul Gem has been misplaced or otherwise, well, lost. When the intended meaning is that they outright died (and there's a need to specify that they didn't become a Witch, which I would normally think that saying they "died" would already do), I would say that their Soul Gem was broken.

I think I see an overlap here – a "lost" soul gem could either be broken or misplaced, but if the girl is "dead" then that excludes a misplaced soul gem. So in context, since they were talking about people who died, "lost" was temporarily synonymous with "broken".

› I wonder why Chelsea feels like she needs to stick to Arc 2's script. Even leaving aside the fact that things might go off the rails just as a side effect of her actions during Arc 1 (for example, as someone else pointed out, preventing Folklore of Zero from attempting their "experiment" in Kamihama means they have no reason to prop the Neo-Magius up, meaning Himena may very well never take over, leading to the group disbanding early on), there's also the possibility that things might go better if she intentionally changes things.

Oh, don't worry. I'd already thought of that. It's Ashley/Chelsea who's being short-sighted here, scared of veering too far off the script and losing control of the narrative. By the time you read this response you'll already know what I mean. It took Iroha's idealism, Oriko's foresight, and Mabayu's assurance of success to drag Ashley off the rails into an outcome even better than she could've imagined.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily extend all the way into arc 2. She wants to roughly stick to arc 2's script for the simple reason that if things change too much she can't predict what'll happen anymore. Certainly she might get a better outcome if she changes things, but she also might get a worse outcome. So once Walpurgisnacht is down I'm sure she'll continue to be somewhat conservative about changing things… but as seen in recent chapters, she's open to suggestions.

JAGwin (Chapter 104, Aug 12, 2023)

› Chelsea, this came up literally right after Walpurgisnacht on the last Timeline! Time-traveled to Coeurl's era, protagonist of Null Magical Girl, does ANY of this ring a bell!?

She's got a lot of stuff on her plate. I don't think it's that weird if some of the less important stuff slips her mind. Also, remember that it's already been a little over two weeks since she came back in time. There's no reason for the last timeline to be totally fresh in her mind.

› Kosane is Homura's mother!?

Yep – been slowly building to that for quite some time now. I think I already hinted at it the first time they visited Charmchi's place.

UrWishy (Chapter 104, Aug 12, 2023)

› "Akemi Kosane"
› That's an interesting name... Weird it didn't click to Homura if she is actually her mom.

I think it's entirely possible not to know one's mother's given name, especially if a large portion of your childhood was spent in a hospital and even before that she wasn't home a great deal.

› -Where'd you got that from Inui? There is no reason for you to try and know about this to begin with (you don't even remember the last timeline, ur ded)

It comes from her conversation with Coeurl in the current timeline – that's what triggered her to do the research that uncovered the name. If you go back to chapter 103 you can see a brief foreshadowing.

Admittedly, Ashley just brought her name up a priori with no explanation, but I guess Inui knows Ashley well enough by now to realize that she wouldn't suddenly mention a random name who had absolutely no relevance to the ongoing conversation. Plus, Coeurl clearly recognized the name, supporting the idea that she's important somehow. So Inui decided to look her up and probably discovered her master's thesis, and maybe even the fact that she'd married and changed her name.

JAGwin (Chapter 105, Aug 20, 2023)

› Good grief, that Witch just would not DIE. I was actually starting to expect someone to wind up using their Doppel even with Karin's intervention, because nothing else seemed to be working.

Well, I couldn't just make it an easy fight because Karin joined, now could I? It was strong enough to make Momoko worry and call on her friends, so it should be a challenge to defeat.

› *Hinata Aina has entered the fic* Strange... Why did this happen in THIS Timeline and not any of the ones before it?

Good question! Though we don't technically have confirmation that it didn't happen in the other timelines…

UrWishy (chapter 105, Aug 21, 2023)

› I wonder if Iroha's memory is gonna return before/at the memory museum. Or if the fragments are enough to change the flow.

Well, as you now know, her memory did indeed return at the memory museum, and what a huge difference that made!

› Hinata Aina? Let's hope she's not insane.

I see someone has recognized the name…

JAGwin (Chapter 106, Aug 27, 2023)

› "Mami leads [Iroha] to the old railway yard, using her Magius emblem to reveal the portal, ..."
› Err, how far away is that? Unless I'm misremembering, the railway yard is in Kosho, and I don't think the railway yard or the Memory Museum are near the Sakae-Kosho border

You're correct, it's a fair distance away – the old railway yard is towards the north end of Kosho Ward, so about as far from the border as you can get. The Memory Museum is somewhat close to the border though. In any case, I sort of snuck in a little timeskip there.

› Now that AmaLee has come up again, I feel obligated to point out (now that I've looked her up a bit) that her OC's appearance in her covers of Magia and other songs has actually been given an explanation that's related to the lore of her V-Tuber persona, Multiverse Monarch (or possibly Multiversal Monarch, I'm not quite sure which is correct, but I think it's the first one). Granted, I suppose that could just be a cover story in this continuity...

Thank you, but I've already taken that into account. However, I don't expect that to come up in any detail until act 4 or 5, or near the end of act 3 at the very earliest, so it'll be quite awhile yet…

› I don't get it, how does the Amane twins's choice of honorific regarding Alina deny her humanity?

I think Karin's point is that they view her with a sort of sense of awe that prevents them in some way from seeing Alina as a potential equal. It's like she's a thing to be revered, rather than a person in her own right.

› You know, I started wondering if Iroha had gotten her memories of the previous Timeline back after she woke up from the Memory Museum's dream/vision/whatever, but I figured I was just letting my imagination run away with me until she regrouped with Chelsea and confirmed it.

She was trying to subtly hint at Yachiyo to get her to spill without letting on that she already knew the answer, which (in her view) might have come across as creepy. It didn't work out very well, mind you, but that's why she didn't just immediately come out and say it.

› Something on the east side of Kamihama... the only thing I can think of is the Mirror Witch. I wonder what Chelsea intends to do there. *sigh* Only way to find out is to sit back and wait for the next chapter.

Good guess, but as you now know, it was way off. She had some extra time, so she decided to see if things are in place for the chiming bell that transcends time…

› "'She could've just asked me for the location, but I guess when it comes to timing, it's better to find it yourself, ..."
› I'm pretty sure that "yourself" is supposed to be "herself", because she's talking to Inui, not Iroha. Also, if the previous point is correct, then you might want to change "it's better to find it" to "it's better for her to find it" for the same reason.

That's intended to be a "generic you", ie "it's better for one to find it oneself". However, that alternate phrasing sounds overly formal to me, so I changed it to "yourself".

plowplum (Chapter 102, Aug 28, 2023)

› Yuna didn't have enough anger to evole? Geez, just how *pissed off* was Mary when she ascended if declaring the intention of wiping out a city of meguca and nearly killing a loyal follower in a blind rage didn't fit the parameters for Yuna.

Mary was not overly angry at all. Her evolution was triggered by a different emotion from anger. She probably had some anger towards the Romans and Judas, but that wasn't what triggered her evolution.

› On another note, it would probably be best for Chelsea if PB never found out about Chelsea nudging things in favor of the WoM forming. Chiyoko and Iroha were already upset about Chelsea being aware of the witch thefts and kicking off the hospital trio's contracts respectively, if PB knew about Chelsea's actions in starting up the org that caused them so much grief she could lose any goodwill with the PB, may be even becoming enemy #1

A very good observation. Indeed, if Yuna heard the full extent of Ashley's involvement, her target might just shift away from Kamihama…

› I havent fully read Crimson Resolve so it was a treat to read the chapter to find out Promised Blood's backstory.

I didn't even adapt the entire event – most of the second half was cut, apart from the ending where Chiyoko (originally a nameless mook) explains things and Yuna goes nuclear on Juri. I'll likely cover the second half in a later chapter, though.

plowplum (Chapter 103, Aug 28, 2023)

› If Chelsea did manage to finish the Magia Record game, then wouldn't she be familiar with the Puella Historia event? She should how and why Tsuruno and Sana happened to be present in Tsuyu and Chizuru's time period

Puella Historia is the edge of Chelsea's knowledge of the game. Anything beyond that is unknown territory for her (for example, she has no knowledge of Scene 0 or, probably, the LycoReco crossover). But yes, she knows how and why Tsuruno and Sana got there in the game. What she doesn't know is whether that applies to her reality, because she has plans that she thought should've rendered that time travel unnecessary. So she's not sure whether her plans fail, or if some other reason surfaces to do the time travel.

› it does peg the question of why Chelsea wouldn't be affected by the rewrite, same thing with her and Madoka not being affected by Oriko's wish

You could take another look at Mary's explanation for this in the previous timeline (chapter 89). Though who knows how accurate that is…

plowplum (Chapter 104, Aug 28, 2023)

› The power transference thing reminds me of Yachiyo's inheriting hope power with the powers of deceased magical girls being transferred to a nearby survivor and Himena's Synthesis though with the latter the power transference is only temporary and doesn't require the death of the power donor.

Certainly there are some similarities, but they are not the same thing. The power transference, and Pernelle's hypothesized mechanics of it, is another nod to To The Stars – specifically, Oriko's research on the topic.

› Speaking of Himena, it occurred to me that it might be possible for Pernelle or Hijiri to produce a new body for Hiko to inhabit. [...] Granted there's the snag of trying to separate Hiko's soul from Himena to inhabit a new body but a possibility could always arise with magic involved

Hiko's not a magical girl (boy), so his soul isn't a nice convenient stone that can just be moved form one body to another. So there are quite a few issues with this idea.

› With the affirmation that the Vatican has been actively trying g to cover up the existence of magical girls I do have to question how it is that Tasuke whose been active in trying to spread meguca awareness via his books and the Tokime Village that has been cultivating magical girls from its members hasn't been paid a visit from anti meguca assassins particularly since Ashen Revolution has shown that the Vatican or at least its employees don't have any issues with targeting humans.

The Vatican has many ways of achieving its goals, not all of them violent. Tasuke's book on the Tokime Village sure was oddly unsuccessful… and what on earth happened to all his manuscripts of Their Hope And Dreams that he sent to potential publishers? Doesn't it seem like something intervened to make sure his book wouldn't be published?

› Unless Lucy's barrier was serving as a shield to prevent any non-visitors who weren't meguca from entering the village though that would mean by taking Lucy down the Tokime trio (Shizuka, Sunao and Chiharu) may have opened the village for attack by anti meguca assassins

The barrier around the Tokime village does prevent people from entering unless they are related to the Tokimes or escorted by a Tokime. Magical girls can also force their way in, as Ashley did in chapter 48. It's as yet unknown whether Vatican agents such as Anna, Martha, or Guillotine Cutter would be able to force their way in… or other "sorcerers", like Oshino Meme.

It's not Lucy's barrier, however. Nor is it Heilig Brennmägdchen's barrier. (Reminder: that's the name I gave to the Mikoshiba's witch hiding beneath the Tokime shrine.) Although it's linked with Heilig Brennmägdchen's barrier, the barrier around the Tokime village is generated by a magical artifact created by the clan founder. That may have been mentioned around the end of chapter 48 or maybe in chapter 51, but I'm not sure. It was at least implied that there was some other source for the barrier, given that it didn't collapse upon defeating Heilig Brennmägdchen.

› Would this be the first timeline where Iroha encounters Kagome

No. Iroha encountered Kagome under the exact same circumstances in both of the previous timelines. I mostly skipped over it in timeline 8 (there may have been a single sentence nodding to it), while in timeline 7 I narrated it without naming Kagome.

› I may be wrong but I thought the KMR trio's fight with Albertine took place around the same time as Iroha, Yachiyo and Tsuruno's encounter with the Commoner's Seahorse at Mizuna Shrine and that was why Momoko didn't intervene with the Iroha v Mami fight in the last timeline

I'm not sure how that meshes with the fact that Momoko did show up at the last second at the Séance Shrine. The anime timeline is a little vague though – if I recall correctly, we don't see much of KMR after the Séance Shrine.

plowplum (chapter 105, Aug 29, 2023)

› Im curious as to why Aina would pop up now in this timeline when she didn't in previous ones

Technically we don't know for certain that she didn't pop up in previous timelines. Giving the timing of her contract, it's not impossible that she made it in every timeline but just went unnoticed until now.

› The Hinatas seem to have a habit of stumbling across long lost relatives who also happen to be magical girls; first, Matsuri's missing twin Kagari, then her cousin Kaede and now another cousin Aina.

I guess Hinata is just a popular name. I'm sure neither Hiramatsu Masaki nor Tensugi Takashi nor GAN nor Hieronym expected me to seize on the fact that the same name was used and link them all up into a single family.

› though that's now one more potential fighter against Walpy

It might've been helpful to have Aina in the Walpurgisnacht fight, but unfortunately she was still in the hospital, so she didn't attend.

plowplum (chapter 106, Aug 30, 2023)

› When did Chelsea find the time to save Nagisa and prevent the Yukuni Festival disaster? The previous timeline before she looped made it seem like she didn't plan on repeating those events

She went back in time to a point after Nagisa had already been saved. The nature of Homura's power is left vague in the anime, whether it's a rewind by a fixed duration or to a fixed point in time. I've interpreted it as a fixed duration, so by waiting an extra week before going back in time last time, Ashley ensured she didn't have to repeat the first week's worth of stuff.

› This is the first time Touka's pulled out a Bond dinner before the Memory Museum lecture.

…no it's not? She did it in the first Magia Record timeline too. For some reason or other, she decided not to in the second Magia Record timeline (from a meta standpoint that was because it was the anime timeline, sort of).

› I wonder if Tsukasa is responsible for the choice of Chiaki's, she is a regular there

She was probably the one to choose that, yes.

› We still haven't had Iroha and Yachiyo go back to the Hundred Years War though granted Im not sure if Tart event 1 was during Arc 1 or after.

Well, the answer to this question appeared in chapter 107, so… yup, that's still in the future. I don't plan to cover the Tart events directly in this fic, but there will definitely be more references to them.

Farsight21 (chapter 107, Sep 4, 2023)

› Out of curiosity are the human forms of the wraiths that appeared in the manga, going to be a thing in your story? I mean the ones that can mimic other people and magical girls?

Currently there are no plans for the human-form wraiths to appear. As I recall, they were a result of a strange interaction between ordinary wraiths and the law of cycles, mediated by Homura and the ribbons she received. Since the law of cycles doesn't exist in this fic, the human-form wraiths probably won't either.

JAGwin (chapter 107, Sep 5, 2023)

› You could just physically hold him back. *reads on* Chelsea, why didn't you follow him into the building?

You made a very good point here, so I added a little context that makes neglecting that approach seem less forced. The updated paragraph is:

"We all hurry after Sougetsu as he turns a corner, heading into an alleyway and pulling at the door of an abandoned building, which is apparently unlocked. By the time we get there, he's no longer in sight, and I'm not sure where the stairs are."

› Hilda when she left Promised Blood's formation at the end of the last Timeline

Uhh, Chelsea never saw this. She only heard about it second-hand from Sakuya. Also, though she wouldn't know since she didn't see it personally, it wasn't teleportation, but more like a stealth magic.

› possibly Mary, I don't remember if Chelsea has ever seen her appear or if she always arrived somewhere out of sight

As I recall, Mary has always arrived out of sight.

› Okay, firstly, the only person I remember using teleportation that Chelsea has seen the entirety of is Pernelle. Counting people vanishing to who-knows-where or appearing from who-knows-where, there's also (…) Mary and Hilda, and in both of their cases, Chelsea has only seen either where they came from (…) or where they arrived (…), never both in the same teleport.
› Secondly, this seemed more similar to Shizuku's and Mayoi's portals than any kind of teleportation, and even then, they don't have some sort of interdimentional void that you pass through to get from side to another. Furthermore, Shizuku's ability to make portals (or Spacial Fusion, as I believe she calls it) is her Personal Magic, which I assume is also the case for Mayoi, and Chelsea doesn't have any sort of power copying ability, so she cannot POSSIBLY have learned this by watching them (it would be like Mami learning to stop time by watching Homura if she did).

You're missing at least Coeurl, Honoka, and Anna. For Honoka it's her unique magic, but I think that probably isn't the case for Coeurl, and Anna's not a magical girl in the first place so she doesn't have a unique magic. She's seen both ends of the teleportation in the case of Honoka and Coeurl, but obviously not in Anna's case.

Also, portals count as a form of teleportation in my book. Sure, there are differences in mechanics, but the end result is mostly the same.

I also don't think it's absolutely impossible to copy someone's unique magic without having a copy power. A unique magic is still magic of some form. It's probably vastly harder than copying a magic they learned later on though. It probably also depends just how unique the magic is. I don't think all unique magics are created equal – some of them seem to be truly unique and have strange effects and conditions (eg Temari Kira or Nanami Yachiyo), while others seem fairly run-of-the-mill (eg Ami Ria or Mitsuki Felicia).

In any case, everything you're complaining about is literally just her speculation of how it happened, not the actual cause – and while Ashley isn't completely wrong, she's mostly wrong. I already intend to have Pernelle comment on it early in Act 3 (maybe even in the very next chapter), so you can expect her analysis to be more on point.

And as a bonus, in case anyone's wondering, the main reason I chose shadow-walk as her teleportation manifestation is because that's how I recall Kuroi Kana's teleportation being described and it seems to suit a dark-element teleporter. (Though for obvious reasons Kuroi Kana does not have a canon element.)

Oh, and as a side note: Mayoi's teleportation does have an "interdimensional void", at least in my interpretation. Passing through her portals involves traversing a tunnel about a metre or two long, unlike Shizuku's (or Anna's) where the two places are directly connected and you just need to step through.

› Chelsea initially asked about both Iroha and Ui, but afterwards both she and Melissa referred to them in the singular, like they're only talking about ONE of them. If they were supposed to be talking about both, then "she's here" should be "they're here" and "she won't" should be "they won't".

I'm pretty sure what happened here is that I initially wrote it for just Iroha and then shoehorned Ui in later and missed a needed update.

› While the "or similar" does apply to Ikumi since she's graduated from high school and is currently employed, Yumi should still be in high school because she's a year younger than Ikumi unless I'm badly mistaken.

Hmm. I thought I recalled something about her being in a sports school. You do appear to be correct about her being a year younger than Ikumi. I suppose we could go with the "she literally just graduated" interpretation, though I'm not sure if there are other problems with that…

I'll think it over and maybe remove her from that scene. It's not like she has any importance there.

› Wait, who talked to Ryo and when was that?

Iroha, offscreen. Her mission was to talk to as many people as possible, so of course Ryo was among them. It's possibly a little unclear in the text, but Ryo is addressing her, not Ashley, when referencing what was said "last time".

› Watch as they get separated immediately. /jk

You say it's a joke but this is literally what actually happened in the chapter.

› Actually, now that I think about it, where did that booze come from in the first place? No one in the WotM is old enough to drink, so none of them could have bought it.

Maybe she stole it from her parents? Or she lied about her age and the person selling forgot to ask for ID? Or she snuck it out with her illusion magic? (Though that last one seems like a very un-Mifuyu thing to do.) Or she faked her ID with illusion magic?

I dunno.

I guess the other possibility is that the age you can purchase liquor at went down at some point between now and the time depicted in the fic. I seem to recall hearing that some of the ages are being adjusted lately/soon so it's not impossible that others might be too.

There are a couple girls who are technically old enough to buy it, but I don't think the authorities would believe them. (Mayoi and Coeurl.) Tsubasa is also definitely old enough, but this is before she showed up.

› I'm seeing her listed as Water, and that is her canon element, so what was it before?

Miyuri was previously listed as fire on the wiki (and by extension in her chapter 66 profile, which was mostly lifted from the wiki). I generally do any required updates to past chapters just before posting the next one, so unless FanFiction is indexed on the WayBack machine I don't think there's a way to see old revisions. (Though for this particular question you could've checked the wiki's revision history.)

› Allow me to present a scenario to best express my issue with "on the base"; Imagine that you're at someone's home with two other people, and one of them says they're going to the garage to do something. Later, the other person asks you where the first one is. Do you tell them the first person is "on the garage" or "in the garage"?

Of course, in that case you would say "in the garage". But a "base" is a different kind of location than a "garage". If you think of it as referring to Hotel Fendt Hope and the surrounding grounds, then "in" stops making sense. I think "at" does mostly make sense in that case, but something about it seems a bit off to me. I did a search and found that "on the base" is used pretty commonly, though only about half as often as "in the base". That's including some contexts where one of the two makes no sense whatsoever though, so I'm not sure how representative it is.

So, since I prefer the sound of "on the base", that's what I'm going to continue using. There might be valid arguments against it, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are equally valid arguments for preferring it. Sometimes grammar isn't all that clear-cut.

There are definitely places where it's unambiguous that you must use "on", like "on the island", "on the field" (sports field or battlefield; not agricultural field or meadow, which would use "in"), or "on the road". This one seems to be more ambiguous.

NovaOfBeginning (Chapter 107, chapter 107 . Sep 7, 2023)

› Maybe even have her learn some basic swordsmanship from other magical girls that use swords, nothing that changes much just make sure she knows how to actually grip it properly and such.

While that might seem like a good idea on the surface, it's probably not as simple as just choosing a magical girl who uses a sword. I think magical girls usually have some instinctive mastery of their weapon, which means they're not necessarily the best teachers. She'd probably do better with someone like Tokime Kaguya (Shizuka's mother) as a teacher.

› It doesn't just have quantity, with 1.9 million words and counting with no discernible end in sight, it also has incredible quality!

I just want to note that the word count is slightly inflated on FanFiction due to including all the author's notes and the comment response sections. The word count according to AO3, as of chapter 107, was around 1.76 million. Right now as of chapter 109 it has risen to 1.82 million. That does exclude author's notes, I believe – which means it even excludes the Magical Girl and Doppel Corners. (The opening excerpts or rumour texts are counted, however.) It definitely excludes comment response sections, since I excised them from the AO3 version entirely. (It seemed silly to include responses to comments that didn't even exist on the same site; and AO3 unlike FFNet has a robust commenting system, so responses to on-site comments are better placed in the comments themselves.)

plowplum (Chapter 107, Sep 8, 2023)

› So when did Chelsea manage to gain Ryo, Ikumi's and Yumi to her side? Cause last I checked the former two were devoted to the idea of liberation which is why they never had to wear the pendants and were assigned the duty of guarding Fendt Hope so what could Chelsea and/or Iroha had said to convince them to go against the Magius's plan

I haven't worked out exactly what Iroha said, but based on Ryo's words it seems like she promised an alternative to the Magius's liberation. Perhaps Ashley shared a little with Iroha about how the APS could be expanded even without Eve and the Magius (ie, some info from the game's second arc).

› I thought it was neat having Kyoko be the one to Connect with Mami; after all, who would know Mami better than her former protege/surrogate sister. Considering how the MR game/anime didn't delve much into Mami and Kyoko's history together it was nice to see it acknowledged with Kyoko snapping Mami out of her brainwashing

The game did acknowledge this possibility in Another Story, but the Magius showed up before Kyoko could finish the job in the game. So that's why Inui and Iroha stalled them so they'd show up too late to stop it.

› I was wondering why Homura didn't just use her Time Stop to freeze the Feathers and take them out until the Flower Speaker barrier appeared and I realized time stop wouldn't work there due to the helipad possibly counting as part of the Uwasa's body like how Homura couldn't activate time stop within Fendt Hope

I think it's probably more that there are so many people that it'd be hard to move around in time stop. Though she can fly now, so it's less of an issue, but maybe she's not quite used to that yet.

UrWishy (chapter 106, Jan 29, 2024)

› Actually I was partially wrong, Inui and Nene used up the ambient magic to charge their attack causing them to emit/turn into "wurdons", as Kyuubey called it, to fill and saturate the place and banning any magic in there.

I'm a little surprised that anyone besides me remembered that conversation! Even I almost forgot.

JAGwin (chapter 108, Jan 29, 2024)

› "'So the Witch of Symbols has the power to manipulate time, huh?' I muse. 'Is manipulating time such a common power? I can think of several… Homura, Miss Remi, Amaryllis, possibly Miss Iroha… and maybe Yuzuki Rion counts too…'"
› I'm not sure if this is actually an error or just Chelsea letting something slip, but Rion isn't a Magical Girl yet.

The latter. She's aware Rion isn't yet a magical girl.

› Why did you change Aru's name?

It just felt better to me like that. There wasn't a strong reason or any source evidence to support it.

› Hmm... *ticking things off on fingers* Could be referring to Kosane and her time-travel shenanigans, could be Remi and her ability to send information to her past self, could be someone I've completely forgotten, could be someone I'm not familiar with in the first place, or it could be someone who hasn't been introduced yet.

It's someone who has already had a profile featured. That's the only hint you'll get.

plowplum (chapter 108, Feb 1, 2024)

› It was interesting seeing Walpurgisnacht from the perspective of a non-meguca character with zero potential. Perhaps Wakaba might end up being part of a Meguca advocacy group should Chelsea attempt to form one

It sounds like you misunderstood that scene – the witch that Wakana was unable to see was intended to refer to Eve, not Walpurgisnacht, who wasn't yet visible. It doesn't really affect the rest of what you said, though.

JAGwin (chapter 109, Feb 5, 2024)

› Regarding Tsuyu and Chizuru, their first meeting was actually covered in The Sea is a Link Through Time. Granted, considering they're all of three years old in this chapter, it's actually more likely for them to have forgotten each other than not if this was the only time they met before that, so this can at the very least be hand-waved without too much trouble.

Yup, that was my thought too. Who remembers someone they met once when they were three and then never saw again for 10 or more years?

› (aside from the era-related errors that have already been addressed)

Addressed as being intentional, you mean? I'm assuming you mean how Tsuyu's story has been thrust forward by 200 years, and Hatsu's story is likewise in a different time period than it was in the game. But if they're intentional, doesn't that make them not errors?

› And as a general note, I'm not sure if this is an error or just something that didn't come up within the context of this chapter, but I distinctly remember it being established that Mikoshiba's ability to control the Tokime Village Witch was something that the Mikoshibas obtained by getting someone to Wish for them to be able to control Witches (and not just that one specifically).

I didn't specifically touch on how Mikoshiba gained the ability to control the witch, so the possibility that she got someone to wish for the power hasn't been ruled out. I do feel that it would be strange for her to be able to control any witch though. If she could do that, why not merge her pet witch with the so-called Wandering Deity that constantly orbited the village?

› which would also at least IMPLY that the Mikoshiba clan's Wish-trafficking had been going on even in those days.

That was indeed the implication I intended – that the Sect of the Sacred Tree had been trafficking wishes in that time period, just like how the Mikoshiba of the Tokime Village did so in the modern day.

› Who's Darinu?

The name has been mentioned exactly twice in the fic before, in chapters 87 and 100. She's a magical girl from ancient times, who Scheherazade claimed to be the oldest living magical girl.

› I was thinking that she might be the same Mikoshiba from Tokime Clan Tale, having gotten someone to use a Wish to make her immortal (presumably in the "does not age and cannot get sick" sense, not in the "cannot die at all" sense), but from the sound of things that's not the case in this fic. That said, my suspicions about the dancers not actually being people (based on Chelsea noting how odd it was that they ALL committed suicide after Mikoshiba's death) seems to have been correct, although I don't think I guessed that they were Familiars.

These are interesting conclusions you've drawn. I want to note that the dancer familiars were mentioned way back in chapter 48. Other than that, you can expect to get a bit more information on this once act 3 begins.

› Another thing I suspected was that the Mikoshibas outside Tokime Village were wiped out by a Tokime's Wish, although I wasn't sure if it was done by someone who figured out what was going on and wanted revenge or someone whose Wish was chosen for her by the Mikoshiba of the time for some reason (eliminating competition, maybe?).

If you think about it carefully, the events depicted in the chapter could be interpreted as revenge from a Tokime's wish. Think about exactly what led Setsuko to that point.

plowplum (chapter 109, Feb 6, 2024)

› every other long lived meguca has attained an adult appearance

Except for Coeurl, and also Mel and Elisa. Not to mention Mayoi's and Episode's situation, though that's slightly different.

› I'd assumed that the Tokimes had always used their wishes to support the land of the rising sun

It just didn't fit with the spirit of Sakuya's wish to have the historical Tokimes be patriotic towards Japan. Shinriku between 1582 and 1703 (when Youha formally surrendered to the Empire) was thus an entirely independent micronation from the Empire of Japan, with the Tokime clan taking on the role of the ruling family. Clearly that didn't last long, but it certainly hewed closer to what Sakuya had wished for.

› On one note, how was Kiku able to avoid being detected as a magic user when it was shown that she did make a contract and thus should've have had a soul gem ring

This is a plot point, so I'm afraid I can't answer that right now. You'll find out in due time.

Note that it wasn't just that she didn't have a ring. The magical girls of the Tokime weren't able to detect her at all, except when she was actively using her magic – just like how Ashley wasn't able to detect Anna.

Feel free to guess at how that contradiction can be resolved. I did leave some clues in chapter 109. Or just wait and see.

› though the rest of the clan did remain loyal

Well, those of the Akatsuki clan who we see directly were all still loyal to the Tokime clan, at least. That doesn't rule out the existence of some we didn't see who were less loyal. Kyoutaro could have just been the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

› Given the influence of the Mikoshibas and Tokimes in Kamihama, why Tsuyu and Chizuru referred to as Battle Shamanesses rather than Diviners or Kazuras?

Good question. Maybe they wanted to keep things a bit under the radar, since the Empire had at some point found out about a magical girl's weaknesses. Though there's no expectation that they remember such a thing for long, calling Tsuyu and Chizuru battle shamanesses instead of magical girls might've been a way to protect them a little, just in case.

Or, it could've just referred to the way that both of them got directly involved in battle.

› What happened to the child that Oyura was implied to be carrying since Tsuyu doesn't make any mention of an aunt or uncle?

There's a seeming plothole in the series, whereby Masatsuna and Tsuyu both die, thus implying the Mizuna family to be wiped out; yet we have a Mizuna in the Taisho Era, about two hundred years later (or four hundred years later in vanilla Magia Record). Oyura's daughter is my answer to that – she's intended to be Mizuna Ruri's ancestor. Presumably Tsuyu just never happened to mention that she had an aunt. There might've been no reason to, especially if her aunt wasn't currently living in the Mizuna mansion in Hokuyo.

In fact, I noted in chapter 109 that the child was born (and was a girl). It was mentioned in the conversation between Youha and Oyura after Oyura returned to Mizuna, commenting on how she wouldn't be able to know her mother but at least she'd have an older brother in Masatsuna. I could forgive you for missing it, since it was an aside during a more important discussion, but… it was certainly there.

› If Oyura planned to have the Tokime descendants power up the ancestral sword to be able to take out a super witch then why was it necessary for her to become a witch as that would leave two powerful witches roaming around the village

The only sure way to prevent the Mikoshiba's witch from growing incredibly strong was to have a different witch become incredibly strong in its place. At least, that was her reasoning. Whether or not she was right is unimportant.

› Just how far away did that fox lady take San'emon away that it took him 25 years to come back to Mizuna?

I'd say it's more that he just, uhh… got distracted and forgot to return. At first he would've been recovering from his wounds, of course. Then maybe he decided to stay with the "fox lady" because he liked her. Then eventually he remembered he'd left Suwe behind and thought about returning, but due to the distance, it took him awhile to actually get to it.

You're quite right that there's a little stretching of the suspension of disbelief here. I don't think it's completely implausible, but it's certainly a little strange.

As for how far she actually took him… it wasn't that far, though neither was it extremely close. Probably around halfway between the Tokime hidden village and Kamihama. It would probably take several months at minimum to walk that distance, which may have somewhat influenced his reluctance to leave – it was a great commitment. Plus it's nearly all mountainous terrain, so he'd have to make the journey in summer, and if it's far enough he might even need to stay in a village over the winter at least once. (I don't think it's quite that far, but still.)

On bearback, however, the journey probably took little more than a week. The bear was a magical girl after all, so she had superhuman strength and speed, plus she could probably follow paths a human would find great difficulty in navigating, making her route overall more direct – leaping up or down cliffs or over gorges, going straight over a mountain peak instead of taking a detour through a pass, that kind of thing. Oh, and she also wouldn't have to stop to sleep, which would cut down the time quite a bit. I guess she still would've had to stop a few times to let San'emon eat, but that's a much shorter break time than sleeping.