A heart dwelling within a human-shaped object. How is that different from a youkai, I wonder?-Yukari Yakumo

Anybody who's been at where i was stationed on that night can tell you that they simply didn't know much about what i was up to on that moon.

When Vestal got so drunk to the point that she passed out. Repulse and I had to carry her back to her quarters and hope she slept it off next day. After we went our ways however. I immediately began mapping out the base and once I found out how many sweets and snacks they had. I proceeded to snack like crazy while doing antics and at the same time again exploring the mysteries of my powers.

After said Heavy cruiser/Battlecarrier had just crossed over the threshold from 'Bored' to 'Sithy scheming'. Shropshire began to go all big sister on me by stroking my head and keeping me comfort. which i reluctantly accepted seeing as i had a mildly horrifying amusing thought about her being 'Mama-nanoha' and myself being Vivio. It ended with me becoming VERY active at the night and getting loud with music. this was about the point that my noise became too much to the part i had to go silent once shipgirls and personnel started waking up.

And what followed was about a few shipgirls scattering out thanks to my machinations. With them being so drunk that one of them even ended up crashing out into a bush with her underwear mysteriously missing and Duke of York getting annoyed by me off-screen. All of this gave me the cover of darkness to sneak out without blowing my cover. try my transformation more in secret when I had checked every little corner and everything three times for any hidden sensors and bugs. and i began practicing with my abilities on low-powered settings so as to not let the lightshow grab anyone's attention.

Turns out that while I don't have Area search. It is more than made up for by my newfound sixth sense and that i wasn't very likely to be fighting within arm's distance. I was likely to be fighting at long range and at that distance... sensors are more important than a floating ball of light that can be spotted. Plus. it was also nearly impossible to tell if i was relying on my sixth sense of not. since the only thing that might seem out of place would be my ridiculous reflexes and pre-cog. Obviously enough as i knew from first-hand experience. it also enhanced my physiology. allowing me to bulldoze shipgirls far bigger than i was if i had to.

I take the ability to see the future and limitless creative applications with sixth sense powers over a combat instinct in that sci-fi madoka fic. A sixth sense and good situational awareness can let you actually dodge incoming shells like a jedi and gives you resistance against hostile psychic attacks if it came down to other franchises or if i was forced to fight submarines and Long-lances. A combat instinct and knowing how to fight doesn't.

Another thing I found out is that I do have Danmaku capability. but just like everything else it was weaponized and practically identical to Nanoha's basic ranged spells-What I gained in indivinual power and semi-reliable precision-guided accuracy i lost in sheer weight of fire and bullet hell.

These twintails also looked cute as hell. much to the silent and subtle agreement of my inner magical girl fanboy self (and to the embarassment of my boy self. I was still getting used to my new voice) but i still didn't get over the fact that i sounded like Hiromi Sakuma and if i wanted to. I sounded like a younger Tamura Yukari (Ironic. given my Nanoha costume) or a tomboyish version of Chiwa saito rather than my english voice actor just without the singing skills. Another strange thing i observed about shipgirls is that it feels like i have a entire language's set installed into my soul. but my attempts gave me some headaches complete with a bad accent.

That explains why the characters in Azur lane and Kancolle are all speaking Japanese when they should be speaking national languages instead. Also. It's very weird to see the world in a purple tint when you go into targeting mode with Raising heart. rotating crosshair and lines in your vision and all of that.

It also offered me some means of backup in the event that i can't rely on my RADAR or laser rangefinding. it's not exceptionally reliable. but its a lot better than having nothing whatsoever to go off. particularly when circumstances degrade to that kind of level. You don't see Area search's sphere going underwater and being used to find submarines or detect incoming torpedoes with a early warning window in contrast to a discreet and oblivious psychic power that offers you the ability to sort of bullet-time and dodge gunfire and sense hostile long lances that leave behind minimal exhaust trails. do you?

While I am powerful as 'holy hell' powerful. most of that potential is not used. locked away behind my own greenhorn status and my knowledge being made up of a few spells and a basic healing and protection support skills. In this case. I wasn't a walking god. I was a combat magical girl who although weak and new to this thing. had a seemingly infinite magical endurance. Perhaps i would learn more later on but... they have to be discreet and not make myself obvious-that is. until i dropped my facade.

With all my options laid out. I can't transform until i stop with the Masquerade. but i can make use of my abilities in some ways during combat that wouldn't be obvious. especially if i was alone by myself. I was going to get hit sooner of later. but i could block some incoming shells and let the others hit so as to give the impression of actually taking hits. or I could reach out with my sixth sense and have a 'feeling' of knowing where enemy subs or fleets were. Hell. it still didn't exclude the possibility of reading other's minds. even if i don't have telepathy yet... And my carrier ability was already known to Azur lane even if i was outright summoning things out of hammerspace. Energy flight decks are one level of weirdness. full-blown transformation with actual. real magic completely destroys any facade i might have.

The only way i knew that might not lead to me being put on a dismantling table was to get my fame out. Once the jig is up. the governments of Azur lane would no doubt want to take me in for tests, and the solution to that was to go public and force the whole world to know. which meant that the US or the UK would not be able to abduct of kill me without the whole world knowing. Essentially. my worldwide fame would be my insurance against death or being torn apart.

Only problem was... That would lead to a cult following and while i did desire fame and power. right. even i didn't want cult followings... not something like what Dream of pewdiepie does. Then there would be the people that believe that I was God (How ironic. given Vivio was the clone of the 'Saint kings'!) or that i was Jesus incarnate or something. Truth be told... I wasn't a god just yet. I was just a really powerful Magical girl.

And then there was the question of a whole new religion. I had lurked around the question before when reading up on how Yoda could convert the entire world to the Force. but myself? Well. even if my place in history is sealed. I could still die in combat, not to mention that whatever this new religion could be. It would be very weird and god-knows-what. not to mention that these same magical superpowers only manifested in a lone shipgirl like me and well.. You can't just apply the powers of a lone walking weapon to everyone. Just because i am the first Magical girl known to exist doesn't mean all of a sudden you can make more from humans.

Plus. it wouldn't still stop me from going through a series of extensive tests. Barrages of invites for interviews by the world's biggest new outlets and sponsers from biggest corporations and well... Everyone scrambling to get a piece of me as the whole center of attention of the whole world. Not that i am not disgusted by a large following... but the amount of fervor and blindness even if my automatic cult following would become hysterical when anything happened to me... I still didn't feel comfortable with the idea.

Sure. I can go to a crowded city centre with thousands of people. start lifting into the air. levitating myself. showing off my cute transformation and my spells. Hell. even throw around a few Starlight Breakers. collide into buildings and emerge from the other side unharmed and let everyone else do the hard work with taking videos on their phones and upload it. wait for it to trend on every social media site in a hour and a few more hours for a cult to form. But could they really take it easy on me with the tests and captivity? And would i be able to do it without accidentally killing someone if I forget to aim Raising heart into the sky instead of at the ground when i fired off a Divine Buster or Starlight breaker to show that i wasn't to be messed with?

And what about Raising heart itself? I hadn't sensed any form of AI in it so far. which meant it was a faithful life-size reproduction and copy. but it was not a intelligent device. even though it looked and acted like one. Even the whole cartridge ejection system was there when I rely on my magic capacity instead. Examining the system further revealed that it represented my ready/first-stage magical reserves when i had a excess of MP points/magic energy which were diverted to being stored in the cartridge system-letting me use a few skills without actually tapping into my main reserves.

So. transforming back to my normal form and softly humming 'Lunatic Tears' the entire time. I made my way back to my sweet bed without incident. Though. I had consumed by far the largest share of sweets. snacks and the amount of sixth sense-aided suggestion shenanigans that night. I would still have strange dreams and visions. and for the first time since i came here into being as Norfolk. i would be forced to confront the deeper swathes of my inner self...

I set down my cup. stretching in my chair with a audible sigh. A nice meal from mom, and a warm summer night were the recipe for a perfect session of roleplaying. Owning to my sleeping problems and geography. I had to be active around this time so as to have any real chance of meeting up for any meaningful effort, The moon was high in the sky. casting the walkable suburbs in a light that reminded me of what low-level bombers must have looked like during lit nighttime. The ceiling fan spun and my gaming laptop gleamed. letting me run one of my grinding sessions without the risk of being unplayable or hard on my eyes. I had not spent time with one of my close friends, in a while.

After a series of incidents and a renewed sense of interest in information bingeing. I had began to slow down and go into stasis with the whole roleplaying community. but I was still there, always being the one who was the cruiser yet trying not to indulge in the ero-ero and lusts and other various degeneracy that had plagued these servers. Some friends you could come to treasure. Others turned out to be self-aware idiots or just straight-up lolicons without even caring for the loli's interests in mind. and it was quite a task to get through all of that sludge. To that end i distanced myself and while i had took a interest in Vaush's content. I was too busy with eckharts and a few Konata izumi videos right now.

I stretched once more. crashing over to my bed with my smartphone and humming soul's refrain.

The hours passed. as a distant floating sensation began to fill me. before purple and blue flashes began to impose over the night sky. Recognition and fear flamed up at the back of my mind. before the reality set in. Portal Storms loomed in the sky. the main cluster of it pointed at me. their swirling purple masses and fog filling the sky and completely occluding the moon. The eerie half-light of the Cataclysm from the Resonance Cascade turned the suburbs into concrete boneyards. buildings in front of the windows crumbling away as i watched. Purple sparks flew and ignited around the portal rims. resolving into Marloss spores. fruits and black goo-like masses. and a blue. almost light-blue plasma blast leapt out towrad me. It illuminated my home with its power. and grew more and more massive as it raced toward me... And slowly, every so slowly. it grounded to a halt. just a hundred meters of so away now.

"And here I might. of would have died." My voice said - or someone's else who didn't belong to mine. Sitting on the bed i had just vacated. idly playing with my headphones, was Rumia. her black dress and white shirt was pristine. and she gave me an appraising look over.

"But at least you didn't die to a crashing airplane. or said something out of line that would have seen you disappeared." My other voice. my younger self wearing early 2000s clothes and a battered backpack stood in front of me. the boy's head was down and his eyes were hidden in a look of pity. taking a moment to slump down my chocolate milk.

"W..What are you?" I said. and I noticed my voice was entirely female. "What is this place? An mindspace of some kind? Or is this some kind of fervor dream that i am going to wake up from soon?"

Other-me pulled the chair and sat on it. having spun it to face me and gave me a lighthearted. if mocking tone. "No. this is not a dream you shall wake up from. Maybe you've finally gone psychotic yourself? Should've stopped being a NEET and gotten back to doing something useful for once..."

Rumia scoffed lightly. and set the headphones down, "I'd think that finding out that your personality has some uncanny resemblance to Flandre's. or EX-Rumia's self;Crazy. blood-hungry. willing to murder anyone. but at the same time having a hidden heart of kindness and attachment to anyone who tries to reach out to your crystalized heart could be a bit surprising. even more than Diane reitz's plot twist that all of Equestria is all just a hard sci-fi dream inside a Krell Mover in the same way the Monads dreamed the Xeelee."

"Fuck... So, Is this some... Post-threshold mutagen dream? Am I stuck in the Netherworld? Are you representing my other personality quirks of something? What. is Olivie Sagebrecht growing inside me like some sort of weird soulburster before i am sublimated once she takes me over? I'm also not that much of a dick!" I snapped. pointing at other me. confusion and loss of words was rapidly being replaced with irritation that gave over to guilt. "...I used to be. that is. or rather... i didn't use to have such a cold view of everyone."

Other-me laughed. but that was literally me. or something like me laughing at my own jokes. If anything it just irritated me some more. Some kind of Detonation/wild Shinano-manipulated-dream combo garbage.

"Maybe this is you coming to terms with who you are and what you wanted to be in your own escapism and your own desires to transcend your own humanity." Rumia opined. standing to join Other-me at the chair. "You are quite aware that lucid dreams exist and can be. well. quite lucid, given you've awakened to the presence of magic for yourself."

I threw my hands in the air and put them at my sides. shaking my head lightly. "Ok. enough with all of this! And enough with that whole mutation dream drama! Get to the point here."

They looked at each other. and i rolled my eyes, Seriously? for fuck sake... I continued. "Look. I don't know if this is an external or internal thing. Or Touhou Magic. Neptunia magic nonsense or some kind of telepathic linuk. But honestly. Just give me the full blunt infromation here. no sugaring down or hopium. I just want some answers already."

"Hmm.. Call it one. just one request you would say." Rumia blinked and in a instant I saw Adult Nanoha in her place... but corrupted. red markings on her face. a heterochromic red glowing eye (and lifeless. now that i looked closer) where the red marking went up to her head. with her other right blue eye being unaffected. and Raising heart's sphere on her armor. but black where it should be white. and red where it should be blue. "One conversation. between the dead. Like how Sakura saw her mother."

"Fine." I replied. seeing no choice out of this. A part of me was very curious and fascinated to be in a dream that i was aware of.

"Remember when you passed out for a nap. your guard down because things got too boring? Well. In a way you would say I represent... the vengeful. revenge-happy and sadistic part of you. Mostly. I am not the same as the other-norfolk you saw. But on to the point." She glared at me. "You have said to yourself many times before that you've considered becoming the villain yourself. giving in to your witch or your darker side and just let go of your own shackles on morality as a kuudere. yandere. tsundere. it does not matter as they don't describe you correctly." Nanoha crossed her arms. as if giving instructions.

"And for my request. Keep yourself alive. Don't lose your sanity this early yet. Take your time and be methodical rather than rushing in head-first. hack into Azur lane's secrets and check if there's a secret to the origins of Kanmusus. Prepare for time-travelling. Mirror seas weirdness and/or Code-G/Code-T/parallel worlds/etc. Decide your fate on who you become." Nanoha said. checking them off like a invisible clipboard as she went down the list.

"And DAPRA. And everything else involved in this whole black project conspiracy. You've had a sense for filtering the bullshit conspiracies out and getting to the real ones like the Saudi's involvement in the WTC Attacks to provide a casus belli and spread democracy. You've good at goodreads without drinking the flavour aid when it comes to germany. After all. you've read collapse websites without flinching at the doomer theme. You did read Jennifer diane's stories with humans becoming ponies. and you didn't even flinch at the hate mail and comments other than wondering where they are now. It's quite fitting as you've a fan of TG/TF captions and roleplays." Other-me hissed. fingers curling into fists. glaring at the laptop. If his eyes were fusion cannons. the wall behind me would've had a good hole blasted out of it.

"Look. that whole... eugh. controversy can sit and spin." Interrupted. pointed a finger at other-me. "I get that history is written by the last one standing or the victors here. and they have a good reason to conceal their own crimes and shames like Stalin's pillaging of the eastern front in its final days. post-war and play up their own war heroes and feats so everyone doesn't feel sorry for the losers in question."

I turned around to look at the window behind me before turning around again to face them two. "The US couldn't invade Yugoslavia if they hadn't figured out a way to manufacture consent for a war that was basically a build-a-protectorate workshop to provide a means to smuggle arms into the middle east. The Washington Consensus and American hegemony is what drove the United states to where it ended up as. and its desire to keep a hegemony or reconcile itself with bad economics... Go figure with the Subprime die off." I spoke as though trying to be careful with my words here out of a subconscious fear.

"So do you want to rule instead? Like your American friend. Polar has said many times and to try their damned best?" Nanoha interrupted. turning back and walking toward the sink to turn on the faucet. preparing to start wishing the dishes before looking back at me. eyes hard. "I already know that you feel in your heart that you've not the brightest at dealing with the complexities of a Imperial dictatorship. or in your case. literal Magical girl Empire that ends with the phasing-out of humanity by Memory-cube-based lifeforms in the form of T-dolls and Panzer girls. Are you going to just cause the Limits to Growth scenario. then? What of all your lofty talk about wanting to do something for the world? Is Hong Kong. Japan? Thailand? Your Friend's countries worth inflicting genocide on third-world countries and forcing everyone to live like poor indians? Is an Kanmusu worth more than a Human? A Magical girl more than a normie? An African or Cantonese Chinese? Arabians? Even J Diane Reitz. who got dogpiled on by a bunch of human supremacists and 12 year-olds several years ago for her conversion stories pointed this problem out with her future projections that are ironically coming true. What will you do. then?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" I shouted back. before continuing, softly. "I don't. I am a fan of Soviet deep battle tactics. i know.. but something like that is super-complicated for me. i mean. how do you conceptualize saving this world of psychopaths and billionaires? How do you govern. with your heart in the right place. A Meguca ruling over billions? How do you conquer them when there are fundamentalists that will resist to the very end? Not to mention the super-rich will not stand by as the power structure is dismantled? And without my friends... well. How do you save the world? Can i?"

"Makes the sealing of Gensokyo and the secrecy of Madoka's Puella Magis look like a picnic on a clean day." Other me opined in. now looking like a corrupted version of Sakura Kinomoto. but in this case, less so and with red body markings taken from Fate Grand order's Alters. "Even with two organizations. One that is basically a hyper-scientific group of communes making XEDRA look safe with protocols. and a organization that has a commander who would be dishonorably discharged for violating multiple laws that forbid you from just going around and getting your women subordinates pregnant with some hybrid baby all just for the dreams of some incel-like. lonely men who would make poor husband material theirselves that makes escapism in Trekkies seem tame or because its yet another #418 KMS or Siren tech shipboy story. Oh, and would have been reformed several times over once the scandals got out. and several psychologists assigned as well."

I nodded my head in agreement. As much as i played Azur lane... I believed in the idea of working your relationship up for a happy ending. You couldn't build a relationship out of lust. and the children. the trapping children you saw in a failed attempt to fix relationships with a mother and father that hated each other or either not caring for the kid at all and kicking them out once they grew up... Oh boy. I really despised these kind of parents.

I stood. and walked over to the other window with the plasma bolt frozen in place. motioning for Nanoha and Sakura to join me. "I don't know if this is just me coming to terms with my existence. Deciding that i'm done being a human long enough or that you are just mere avatars of some Al-hazard Lost Logia. You could be time travelling Angels from Eva or maybe just a figment of my imagination for all i know. But we all know the reality of the situation, we could throw reform after reform at the world till Rapture. and still not make a dent, Capitalism becomes proto-fascist late-stage capitalism nightmares because social democracy. democracy. direct democracy. whatever. ultimately. psychopaths and power-hungry poeple learn how to subvert the system from the inside and instill theirselves as shadow rulers in the end. or either Revolutionaries theirselves ultimately became what they tried to destroy out of a fear from being targeted and the need to hold on to power. After all. your closest friends are always targeted in purges." I went on. a tiny part of me glad to be sparring with a equal when it came to philosophy.

I put my hand on my chin.

"Hey. stop going on with taking Chomsky's stance and giving out a IQ-filled speech yourself that idiots with their small heads couldn't filter out in their poor memory anyway." Sakura-me interjected I turned and glared at her. and she shrugged, unrepentantly. "Yeah. The world is being subverted by cartels who only look out for theirselves, and they only care about their financial empires and they have leaders and presidents that have decided to shut their eyes and they don't care what happens to future people once Nature and blowback effect comes to reclaim its debt fuck-all and-"

"Enough." Nanoha said. "Suffering is suffering. Sympathetic pain from hyper-empathy is sympathetic pain. Quantifying it to demean is not appropriate. sakura."

"Ok. Mom. whatever." Other-Sakura replied.

"Yes. Mother. Mother to all shipgirls and Magical girls. no matter the issues. " She said. primly. the red. crimson glow in her left eye seeming to lighten up with its intensity. "You did have a idea that once involved you and Polar being Amazon and Z35. That you two were basically buried in Greenland until you recovered. scientists did some experiments on you. Both of you woke up, and in confusion and self-defense you accidentally caused Second Impact. explaining the underwater cities and the islands in Azur lane's lore. The chance there is impossibly low. but not zero. And true of not. You've still the Progenitor of All Magical Kanmusus. Do you deny it?"

Neither of us replied. Keeping silent.

"Are you going to abandon all of your comrades even if they are just useful pawns and idiots in your-No. our schemes? Abandon the fight. abandon the possibilities?" She shook her head. and walked up closer to touch me and look out the window. facing me as she replicated my motion of putting my hands on the window. "There are no lies between us. You are the same as us, Maybe better. Maybe worse, Maybe we represent different sides of you but Us. no matter what happens to you psychologically."

Other-Sakura piped in. "You talk a big game here, son. But it's a lot easier to make snarky jokes. laugh at your own countrymen for beating their sons and wives. laugh at trumpists who got deported and who got taxed higher and were left to die in a pandemic. only to be fed bullcrap about medication and anti-vaxxer crap than seeing what you see on the ground. And in the impurity of it all. and trying to stay out of it lest you get hurt."

Sakura stood on the bed and waved out at the low-rise apartment house about to be destroyed. "For everyone here. There's hundreds of workers who are supporting your lifestyle. And behind that are many more wage slave Serfs. And many more. all dead and forgotten because they simply couldn't pull their bootstraps together to work theirselves to death on a 80-hour work week just to live. It's easy to throw a hundred Yuan at Mcdonald's donations. and feel good. Right now. We are the unexpected variable here. Without us, Either Azur lane and the Sirens will be locked in a endless war forever. Or the sirens will not change under your reforms and will ultimately become determined exterminators theirselves. of the world wins. and goes back to its pasttime of petty rivals and wars which ultimately ends with a full-blown resource war."

"That's overstating it." I argued. "Declining war support counts. and for all of its flaws. the UN does try its best and I imagine a international Kanmusu force would try to purge itself of corruption and sexual scandals every so often.. And I imagine the Sirens at some point would question why they are stuck in a endless war."

"And barring the terrible. How many theories you have constructed yourself about how magic could be reconciled with physics when you were at your peak in a Touhou server. How you went with Satori's psychic abilities and slowly but surely expanded and piled more abilities on top of it such that every Gensokyoer possesses a natural sixth sense to explain their abilities in Danmaku duels." Nanoha countered. before holding up a hand to forestall anything i may say. "You and i know that is just a hypothetical in the same way theorists construct models. But I. yes. I would be instrumental in combining Magic with Technology in combined arms. from major to minor like Buildcraft's infinite and perpetual-but-slow oil regeneration like these MLP rock farms. where simple pebbles can become entire mountains. And perhaps the most prominent icon. A symbol."

"Plus. This might be all just arguing with yourself." Other-Sakura finished. "You already know you are going to do it, you are going to try to play it off as being too much power for you. or that you prefer to delegate the task to someone else even if you have a martyrdom complex. But if you look deeply enough we represent parts of you who you buried. It's guilt. and a sense of duty to bring life to a ship that only existed on paper. and a thousand other things. You've a Mahou Shoujo. But no right-thinking Mahou Shoujo can live with the flaws of either the Siren technocracy or the corrupt system of today's world. and not act. Otherwise Chomsky himself would not have risen to the position he did. and Greta would not have managed to attain A+ grades while pulling her weight with activism since everyone has been ignoring the scientists theirselves for decades now and watering down the reports to make it seem less alarmist out of PR fear and fossil fuel disinformation."

"So. Is this all just a pep-talk or... a confrontation with the Self that I buried out of sheer guilt then?" I replied. as Time itself slowly unfroze and the plasma bolt began to move toward us once more.

"More coming to terms. More, understanding what we are. Who are. And what are. And your ideals and what you want to do." Sakura said. now with her distinctive staff in her hands. "The only one of your. Our kind. you know. But i think. none of us would rather trade it."

"No. I wouldn't. I might wish it hadn't have happened. but I am not... unhappy." Nanoha said, glancing at her. "Even if you represent the snarky and the teenlord part. and crude. And quite frankly, your usage of such synonyms and analogies is... glaring."

Sakura grinned. "Heh. blame that one on internet memes and later on becoming more wiser and getting yourself out of the rabbit hole. Nanoha-san. Also, I'm better looking than these ugly looking neckbeards who all unironically say how they want to screw kanmusus theirselves. I mean god, they hate lolis theirselves yet they drool over the idea of over-inflated tits and butts that makes fat mukbang seem healthy and without pain given it grew from lonely Koreans having dinners with online watchers and telling them life stories?"

The rest of our conversation snorted and for me. I nearly facepalmed. at that one.

"What's done is done now. either way. Norfolk. Karina or what name you call yourself. And we can't purify ourselves of that crossed threshold. What matters is what we may do. The gift you have given me is knowledge. And hope. and willpower." Nanoha replied. a small. sad smile on her lips. the corrupting red glow on her left eye gone. revealing a lifeless and empty eye. "Maybe I am actually Norfolk herself. Maybe I am really you. the part of you that wants to become Nanoha herself to the point of even shedding your identity and leaving everything behind. I might be really Nanoha herself. Maybe I am truly gone. Nothing more than a passing wisp of fog. But I know we can make your. and our's dreams a reality. And I'd take Fate-chan's Photon Phalanx Shift a thousand times for it if i could save Vivio from what she went through on the Saint's Cradle."

She reached out a hand. to grasp mine. It felt warm. and soft to the touch. and this time I found myself as Homura Akemi as she slowly pulled me in. I didn't reject this as I buried my head in her breasts. almost like a mother comforting her middle schooler daughter as she softly stroked my head. The blue light was searing bright. casting her as just an outline now, and I felt my other hand grasped by Sakura Kinomoto.

"Come on. Let's face our death together. I think we will see each other again. I promise you that." Sakura inquired. Together. we watched our bolt of disintegration race toward us. "After all. you come from-..."

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