As N Approaches Infinity

by Corisanna

Despairing as yet another timeline goes horribly wrong, Homura wanders into Karakura. There she discovers that while the spiritually-aware people of Karakura were distracted by Ichigo Kurosaki and Xcution, Kyubey contracted the Kurosaki sisters as magical girls. Drawing the attention of the shinigami could be just the advantage Homura needs.

23. ZWEIUNDZWANZIG

A/N: *sings* Have fun~!

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ZWEIUNDZWANZIG

TIMELINE X + N

Homura stared at the yellow constellation that had been Yuzu's soul in numb disbelief. Witnessing the destruction of a Soul Gem was something that would never become less horrifying with repetition.

She should have stopped time and bombed the Witch out of existence from the start. Then Yuzu wouldn't be... like this. It didn't matter that Yuzu's death would be undone when she next folded time back on itself— that didn't make the here and now any easier to deal with. Homura could have prevented this, but hadn't. She had been too interested in how useful the girls would be in the next timeline. Guilt ate at her and made her feel monstrous.

After a few minutes of staring blankly at Yuzu, Homura turned to Karin. The dark-haired girl had managed to get her arms up, crossed over her face to protect it. Rail spikes and wounds studded her body— three in her arms, one in her ribs, another straight through the area just above her left hip. Generally, injuries a magical girl should have little trouble recovering from. Homura glanced back to the other side of the room. Yuzu's death was going to be the most critical wound and there was nothing she could do about it.

Homura blinked owlishly and looked down at herself. She removed the spikes from her left shoulder and right thigh in absolute detachment, absently holding them out to one side and letting them go to hang in place as she scrubbed at blood that had trickled into her eye from a head wound. Homura looked around at the many rail spikes frozen in midair between her and Karin as she let her magic heal the worst of her wounds. After a long minute of thought, she reached into her shield and retrieved the old golf club that had been her first weapon. She slowly made her way to Karin by tapping individual spikes to allow them to continue on their trajectory— physical contact with Homura, even indirect, negated the time-freezing spell. It took forever to get to Karin, but it was an acceptable if inadequate penance. She made the spikes that had already passed Karin finish their journeys into the ground and wall, then stared at Karin as she debated what to do.

Homura finally pursed her lips and grabbed Karin's shoulders. Karin's scream continued from where it had left off until Homura tugged her backwards.

"W-what? What?" Karin blinked around at all the rail spikes paused in mid-flight. "What? H-Homura?"

Homura physically forced Karin to turn and face her and the wall. "My power is actually to stop time," she murmured as she plucked spikes from Karin's arms and made sure to maintain physical contact.

"That's a thing?" Karin asked in a daze. She stared at her arm wounds as her magic worked to heal them.

"Yes. And time will freeze for you again if you stop touching me."

"Oh. Okay," Karin said, looking pretty sure that having a railroad spike pried out of her hip should hurt a lot more than her magic was letting her feel. It reminded Homura of the face Madoka had made in the early timeline in which Homura had to pry an ice skate out of her bel—

Stop. Stop. Stop.

Karin blinked dazedly. "Oh. Did you help Yuzu already?"

Homura paused, face bent and obscured by her hair. After a long silence, Homura heavily said, "There is nothing I can do for Yuzu." It sounded like an admission of guilt.

"What's that mean?!" Karin asked urgently. She wheeled about and sought out her sister.

Even from a distance, it was obvious that Yuzu's Soul Gem had exploded. A railroad spike hovered perhaps a centimeter from the now-empty brooch at her throat. Homura knew that the pretty battle costume would evaporate as soon as she let time resume.

The raw sound of anguish that left Karin's throat would haunt Homura's nightmares.

Karin tried to dash to her sister, but froze as soon as she moved away from Homura. Homura chewed her lip, slid in front of Karin, and caught her after tapping her to let time resume for her. Karin fought to get past her, screaming her sister's name. Homura hugged her hard, at a loss. "Shh. Shh. I'll take you to her. I'll take you. Hold my hand."

Karin keened but took her hand and allowed herself to be led like a child. Homura bent to retrieve her golf club and navigated the cavern as she guided Karin behind her. When they finally neared Yuzu, Homura again made the spikes around and behind her finish their trajectories. Karin fell to her knees next to her sister, still holding Homura's hand. They both stared at Yuzu, whose final expression was one of surprise. Karin gingerly reached out and grabbed the yellow frills that waterfalled out from the tails of her sister's costume.

Time immediately resumed for Yuzu. The spikes that had been going through her waist and knee rocketed out behind her and froze as soon as they cleared Yuzu's body. The frills turned into light and disintegrated in Karin's hand as Yuzu began to fall backwards. The body froze again, so Karin crawled closer and wrapped her free arm around her sister's waist. Yuzu's body finally fell against Karin, who took one look at her sister's dead eyes and wailed.

Homura let go of Karin, unable to bear the sound. She simply stood in place for awhile, covering her face with her hands and breathing.

This was her fault. She should have been faster. Should have been more aggressive with the Witch. Should've should've should've. Always should've.

Homura forced herself into blankness and turned to face the Witch. Her face slowly shifted into cold fury. She backtracked through the path she had made, then used the golf club to navigate to the turntable. After a long, calculating glare, she started retrieving things from her storage.

Pipe bombs and glass bottles filled with kerosene lobbed into all the jack-o'-lantern openings. Grenades thrown up at the mannequin. Multiple RPGs fired up at the distant ceiling because seriously, fuck that bell. Three ammunition belts worth of bullets from her machine gun aimed at the mannequin's head. Pipe bombs all around the base of the giant pumpkin and its cage of rails.

Homura was well aware that she was engaging in overkill, but she didn't give a damn. The thing had killed Yuzu. Kind Yuzu with a loving soul like Madoka's. Homura wanted to blow up everything.

Homura stalked back to Karin and positioned herself between the girl and the oncoming railroad spikes, then lifted her shield to a defensive stance, flared her magic around her in a violet flash, and allowed time to resume. Karin's wailing was punctuated by the staccato clangs of spikes ricocheting off Homura's shield before it was completely drowned out by a cascading series of explosions. The destruction of the jack-o'-lantern was grimly satisfying, but the labyrinth didn't waver until the RPGs reached their target and shattered the bell with a deafening clang.

Turned out Yuzu was right to worry about a decoy: The actual Witch— or perhaps the Witch's core?— was the bell. Of course it was. Homura could have walked into the chamber, fired RPGs at the bell, and been done with the whole mess without even fighting the Familiars. Bitter anger made her blood boil, made her pulse rush in her ears. Of course. Of course. Yuzu was dead for nothing. Just another failure to enter in her ledger of screw-ups.

Homura shielded Karin until the labyrinth completely collapsed, then slowly lowered her shield when she found herself back in the train underpass. She dispassionately caught the Grief Seed as it drifted down from above.

Karin had devolved into quieter keening, rocking her dead twin's body. Homura faltered, then approached her and gently lay a hand on her shoulder. She didn't bother trying to say anything— Homura knew better than anyone that there were no words that could relieve her grief. They remained like that for several minutes as Karin slowly came to her senses. Homura was startled when the girl sat up, scrubbed her face, and looked determined. She shuffled around, slid her arms around her sister, and lifted her into a fireman's carry as she stood and looked both angry and desperate.

"What are you doing?" Homura asked hesitantly.

Karin shifted Yuzu's weight on her shoulders. "I'm taking Yuzu to Urahara. He'll help her."

"Karin... Karin, she's gone," Homura said quietly. "Her Soul Gem—"

"Urahara's smart and knows soul stuff. He'll bring her back."

There was something wild in her eyes that worried Homura, but she didn't have time to think about it before Karin took off, flash-stepping in the direction of Urahara Shop. All she could do was follow the girl across the rooftops, Grief Seed gripped tightly in her palm.

She had a dreadful feeling this was going to get very messy very fast.

§ x § x §

A meeting convened in the Urahara Shop early in the afternoon. Kisuke, Hitsugaya, Ichigo, and Isshin gathered around the table in the back room to discuss the mystery of Mitakihara and Homura Akemi while Tessai and the kids minded the shop. Yoruichi perched on her usual cushion in cat form, observing them all.

"What've you got, Kisuke?" Isshin began.

Kisuke tapped his closed fan on the edge of the table. "Something several magnitudes more complex than I initially suspected," he said.

"That's not ominous at all," Yoruichi said drily.

"First, I would like to note that if you haven't been keeping up-to-date with the news out of Mitakihara, you should know that at least four disappearances have happened since Miss Akemi traveled to Karakura: one girl in Shinchi and three girls in Asunaro. Therefore, I am less inclined to believe she is involved with whatever force is causing the incidents. I'm keeping my mind open to that possibility, though, as we have no way of knowing if she has defected from a larger group of accomplices."

Ichigo and Isshin frowned disapprovingly, but didn't say anything. Everyone else remained neutral.

"Now that that's out of the way, I'll get into particulars," Kisuke continued. "After exhausting the information from human sources, I requested data on the area from Twelfth Division. My initial suspicion was that, given the population growth in the Mitakihara metropolitan area in the last thirty years, the spiritual density of the area should be about mid-level— on an exponential scale, of course— but that the presence of so many teenagers with spiritual abilities might indicate that some force was artificially inflating the density figures there. However, the data proved my hypothesis completely wrong. Instead, density figures remained only slightly higher than they were when the area was first settled after wetland drainage and land reclamation. This should be impossible given the length of time humans have been gathering there in significant numbers. There should be a natural if slow increase in density as more souls gather in one place and influence one another into spiritual strengthening, no matter how minor. I suspect that something is artificially depressing the spiritual density while selectively allowing individual spiritual growth. This is quite a contradictory situation— when a soul strengthens beyond a certain threshold, it begins to slightly affect the souls around it via... a form of unconscious resistance training, if you will. Multiple individuals demonstrating spiritual awareness should indicate a gradual cascade of spiritual strength through the community. That's not happening. Selective strengthening without spillover implies direct interference, though I currently do not know what form that interference would take."

"Something Hollow, though, right?" asked Ichigo. "I'm no expert but the way Homura described that Sayaka girl sounded like she Hollowfied."

"That is the second conundrum, yes," Kisuke admitted. "Though it cannot be declared with any certainty that the interference itself is Hollow in nature, something about the procedure appears to be related to Hollowfication."

Isshin narrowed his eyes and grimly said, "You're thinking an experiment like Aizen used to do."

Like the one Isshin himself had interrupted and become entangled in the night Masaki Kurosaki saved his life.

"Possibly," Kisuke said quietly. "There is a certain strangeness about it all. My scan of Miss Akemi did detect the Hollow-like residue that you described, Isshin, but the readings don't quite match the known range of Hollows. All measurements are slightly more... intense."

Ichigo scowled. "Meaning?"

"The energy is Hollow, yet not quite Hollow at the same time. Something a bit different."

"What kind of difference?" asked Hitsugaya.

"It's hard to say," Kisuke hedged. "Moving back to Miss Miki, the description certainly did sound like a Plus gradually declining into a Hollow state."

"But she was alive," said Hitsugaya. "That should only be possible if a Chain of Fate is detached from the body, correct?"

"True," said Kisuke. "However, we have no way of knowing whether or not her Chain of Fate was intact. We do know her soul maintained its basic structure because she was reportedly able to fight the Mitakihara 'monsters' with her 'magic'. When taken in the context of complete Hollowfication at a later point and her only beginning to fight a few weeks ago, one can infer that she manifested powers akin to a shinigami or Fullbringer via some form of outside modification."

Isshin raised his eyebrows. "Are you implying something may be trying to artificially create living shinigami like Ichigo?"

"Perhaps," said Kisuke. "Hypothetically speaking, someone could try to create living shinigami by severing the Chain of Fate of a spiritually aware person and forcing the soul to cope or go Hollow, thus forming a shinigami-Hollow hybrid. Probability would lean toward most subjects going Hollow. Perhaps their aim is to to create Hollows which could cause mayhem while partially disguised within a human body. I do know that this hypothetical entity can't be using the Hollow soul transfusion procedure Aizen used to experiment upon the original Visored unless they have a mediatory artifact similar to the Hōgyoku— without a counter, souls subjected to a Hollow transfusion slip into Soul Suicide. I would lean toward them not having such an artifact unless they are grossly incompetent at using it, though— Aizen was able to turn Tōsen into a flawless hybrid, after all."

"Someone could be making mistakes learning how to use such an artifact," Hitsugaya suggested.

"True," Kisuke allowed. "However, the gradual decline seems to imply that the Hollowfication is not a sudden process as when the Hōgyoku or transfusion is used. I only have anecdotal evidence to go on, though. I will say that whatever hypothetical entity conducting whatever hypothetical experiment is knowledgeable enough to target young girls as they approach spiritual maturity. Their souls enter a period of being extremely malleable and adaptable to change at that point, which most girls experience within a similar age window. It's more difficult to pinpoint when individual boys will hit spiritual maturity."

"Girls approaching spiritual maturity may also be easier to convince to do things just by virtue of being younger," Yoruichi commented. "Boys tend to be older when they mature spiritually. Even a couple extra years could lend them just enough life experience to be warier. Whoever or whatever is doing this may be capable of appearing innocuous or trustworthy to a young girl." She cocked her head. "On the other hand, they could be intimidating and coercive to young girls."

"Reasonable," Kisuke admitted after a moment's thought. He carefully switched gears. "All of this conjecture is, of course, based upon taking Miss Akemi's testimony largely at face value. And I am certain that she is at the very least hiding details."

Ichigo scowled. "What makes you say that?"

Kisuke tented his fingers and considered his words. He had to tread lightly; it looked like Ichigo had already taken the girl under his wing. Kisuke prepared to face obstinate defense from him. "I have experience with interrogation and reading people from my time in Second Division. She was very careful with her words. Most obvious was her evasion of actually describing one of her monsters. That was a skillful deflection. I do know she was outright lying about how much experience she has using her powers."

Hitsugaya raised his eyebrows, Ichigo continued scowling, and Isshin nodded. "I have to agree with that one," Isshin said. "The way she casually healed herself without even looking at the wound told me as much— there's no way she could master that in a month or two. She also showed little reaction to having wounded herself or feeling pain."

"Yes, and I've seen her fight twice," Kisuke continued. "As I told Yoruichi, she is very polished and controlled. Also tactically intelligent. In addition, I have seen her manifest a weapon."

Everyone around the table expressed surprise.

"What kind of weapon?" asked Hitsugaya.

"Oddly enough, a buckler," said Kisuke. "A small shield attached to her left forearm. She used it offensively as a bludgeon. What I find even more interesting is that she manifests it from a ring on her left hand, but that ring can also turn into an object I have yet to identify. It looks like a large, egg-shaped amethyst set in a gold stand. I followed her after she left the library— which I think she is using as a ruse to get away from you, Isshin. She wanders along the railway corridor, holding this egg and watching it like a compass or sensor of some kind." Kisuke looked around the table and debated whether or not to mention to Kurosaki girls' involvement. He decided against it because he didn't know if Ichigo in particular could feign ignorance if he knew his sisters might be in danger. Kisuke didn't want to show his hand to the girls just yet. "I suspect she is looking for a curious rift in the spiritual structure of the world—"

"What the hell does that mean?" Ichigo asked skeptically.

"Let me back up. The other day I sensed her reiatsu wandering around and suddenly disappear. Concerned for her safety, I sought her in the general area of where I sensed her last. Finally, I resorted to using a sensor to look for anomalies in the area. I had just discovered... a sort of weakness in reality complete with visual distortion of light, if you will, when Miss Akemi suddenly appeared at the site and the weakness disappeared."

Isshin stared at him grimly. Kisuke had been vague about what he had seen that day. He knew the father had just confirmed that his daughters were directly involved in the mess. Isshin kept his mouth shut after glancing at his son, though.

"Again: What do you mean by weakness in reality?" asked Ichigo.

"Imagine the spiritual energy of the world as a cloth. Doorways into and out of it such as senkaimon and Garganta are like holes with zippers that can be open and shut. This felt like a portion of said cloth... hmm. You know how when you wear a pin or button, there is often an apparent hole when you remove it? But then it usually closes up as you wear the clothes and the threads shift back into place?" Ichigo nodded hesitantly. "That's what this felt like in the aftermath. That there had been a hole and it was shifting shut. An additional oddity was the faint presence of Hollow-like reiatsu at the site of the anomaly."

After a long silence in which everyone processed the explanation, Yoruichi asked, "That begs three questions, really: One, why would she be looking for such a thing? Two: Why and how does she disappear at the anomaly? And three: If this thing she's looking for is similar to what she knows from Mitakihara, why haven't we noticed anything in our own back yard?"

"The first question, I am unable to answer, though I would like to think Miss Akemi is trying to counter whatever is going on," answered Kisuke. "The second, I only had a brief time to feel the anomaly, but I would guess that it is a doorway like a Garganta, though I do not know where it would lead. As for the third, I did some research." Kisuke tapped his fan on a small stack of notes. "While there haven't been cases of missing or mysteriously dead girls in Karakura, there have been several brief periods during which similar suicides or deaths occur. For example, eight months ago there were four drownings in the same bend of the river in two weeks. The past two months have seen three suicides and four pedestrian accidents along the railway corridor in Karakura and the cities directly to the east and west of us. The two survivors don't remember the time leading up to their injuries."

"And Homura is searching by the train tracks," Isshin said heavily.

There was a lull in conversation as everyone mulled over the information and guesswork.

"An expedition was dispatched to Mitakihara on Monday, was it not?" asked Hitsugaya. "Has Twelfth relayed any information to you?"

"...About that," Kisuke hedged.

Everyone looked at him with varying degrees of dread. Ichigo muttered, "That doesn't sound good."

"Yes. Well." Kisuke cleared his throat. "The original research party consisted of Department Head Rin Tsubokura and two unseated soldiers from Thirteenth Division as escorts."

"The 'original' party?" Yoruichi asked morbidly.

"While they made their scheduled reports on Monday through Wednesday afternoon, they failed to make the next three scheduled reports. Third Seat Akon broadcast a signal to activate the emergency beacons in their Soul Phones, but was unable to connect with any of them. Attempts to contact them via Hell Butterfly also failed."

"Ohhh, shiiiiit," Ichigo said grimly.

Isshin tiredly scrubbed a hand over his face. "Reaction?"

Kisuke tapped his fan against his chin. "Yesterday, Captain Ukitake and Lieutenant Kuchiki deployed to Mitakihara with Third Seat Akon to perform reconnaissance and attempt retrieval."

Ichigo had opened his mouth to ask a question when the back door was kicked in and Karin hurtled into the room in a strange red costume, then crashed onto the table and dropped Yuzu next to her. Kneeling on the table, she lunged forward and grabbed Kisuke's black haori in both hands and desperately shrieked, "HELP HER!"

Everyone looked down at Yuzu as Akemi silently landed on the back porch and watched dolefully. Yuzu was in her middle school sailor uniform, which was normal. Not normal were the multiple large puncture wounds around her body and the glassy, vacant look in her open eyes.

Isshin and Ichigo shot up to their knees and yelled, "Yuzu!" while Hitsugaya and Yoruichi stared at the body with wide eyes.

Isshin shuffled to the end of the table, sat on it sideways, and reached for his daughter's face. He lightly slapped her cheek a few times. "Yuzu! Yuzu, sweetheart, can you hear me? Yuzu, Daddy's here, I'll help you, I'll help you, it's okay, baby, it's okay." He continued to ramble and search her for an obvious life-threatening injury. When he found none and noticed she wasn't breathing, he shifted position and started chest compressions. "Ichigo!"

Years of assisting in a clinic had Ichigo slide into place to do rescue breathing before he could even think about it through his shock.

Karin shook Kisuke again when he didn't respond. "DO SOMETHING!"

Kisuke knew what he would find even before he reached around Karin and hovered a hand over Yuzu's upper chest, but he initiated the diagnostic kidō anyway. Finding no soul, he glanced at the other people in the room before looking back to the Kurosaki family's feverish attempts to revive their youngest. With a heavy heart, he quietly said, "I'm sorry. She's gone."

"No! No, she's not!" Ichigo yelled between breaths, tears streaming down his cheeks. "C'mon, Yuzu!"

"No, no, come on, baby, come on," Isshin said in a faltering voice as his compressions became less professional and he started to choke on tears. "Please, baby. Please come back. Come back to Daddy."

Kisuke reached around Karin to put a hand on Isshin's shoulder. Gently, he said, "Isshin. You can tell her soul isn't in her body. I'm sorry, but she's gone."

Isshin gave up on compressions and threw himself across his daughter, howling in grief. Ichigo fell back jerkily, sitting hard a bit away from the table like an abandoned marionette. He stared at his little sister's unseeing eyes in paralyzed horror. Yoruichi, Hitsugaya, and Akemi helplessly watched the family tragedy unfolding before their eyes.

"NOOO!" Karin shrieked madly as she clawed at Kisuke. "YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE LYING! SHE'S RIGHT HERE! HELP HER!"

Kisuke drew back his hand to place it on Karin's shoulder, worried about her hysterical rage. "I'm so sorry, Karin. There's nothing I can do."

Karin half-crawled, half-flailed back across the table and staggered to her feet. She took a few steps, tangled her hands in her hair, squeezed her head, and screamed. And screamed. And screamed. Hitsugaya scrambled to his feet and stepped to her side, hands awkwardly fluttering over her before settling on her shoulders and squeezing. If Karin noticed, she didn't respond. She just kept screaming, eyes wide and unfocused.

Tessai, Jinta, and Ururu charged into the back room, ready for battle. They took in the tableau in a single glance and gasped. Jinta stumbled forward, moaning, "No, no, no, no, no."

Kisuke turned to the ruined doorway and fixed a calculating stare on the bloodied girl from Mitakihara, who was standing clutching something that felt like concentrated Hollow reishi while wearing a strange purple and white costume with that odd little shield on one arm. Her face and reiatsu were overflowing with regret. He waited for her to look at him, then evenly asked, "What happened?"

Akemi frowned, pursed her lips, and opened her mouth. Then she startled and darted her eyes over to the remaining Kurosaki sister. "Karin! Your Soul Gem!"

Kisuke looked Karin's way and saw Hitsugaya turn to him with wide eyes full of alarm as Karin began to radiate Hollow reiatsu. Akemi hurried to Karin and grabbed her arms to force the girl to face her. A strawberry-shaped jewel on Karin's forehead shimmered with red and black energy.

"Stay still!" Akemi cried, holding up a small black jewel set in silver. "I'll purify—!"

Karin smacked Akemi's hand away and screeched, "NO!"

Akemi looked shocked. "What?!"

"NO!" Karin shrugged Hitsugaya's hands from her shoulders and staggered a few steps back until she hit the wall, returning her hands to her head as though holding it together. Her eyes were crazed. "NO!"

"You'll turn!" Akemi yelled desperately.

"I don't care! I don't care! That thing killed Yuzu! I won't touch it! I won't touch it! I don't care! I'd rather die! I'D RATHER DIE!"

Everyone had gone quiet to stare at her, so the series of cracking noises that emanated from Karin were clearly audible. No one managed to even utter her name before the gem at her forehead flared, burst into red and black light, and reformed into an egg-shaped jewel set in tarnished gold. The red costume disintegrated around her, leaving her in her school uniform for a brief instant before her eyes went dull and her body fell slack as the corrupted red jewel exploded.

The sheer force of the explosion and the dark gale it initiated sent the unprepared occupants of the room rocketing backwards. The contents of the room went with them, furniture and tea set and light fixtures shattering against the buckling walls while the people gasped for breath after their impacts. Tessai managed to grab Karin's lifeless body and shelter it from the waves of reiatsu that washed over them all. It was like being caught in a violent hurricane of Hollow reiatsu. It was intense and awful— then suddenly stopped. The group recovered and surveyed their surroundings.

They definitely weren't in Urahara Shop anymore.

Kisuke darted in front of Akemi with shunpo, drew his blade, grabbed her by the wrist that bore her shield and a purple gem which was now shaped like a diamond, and held his blade to her throat in one smooth motion, face hard.

"Explain. Now."

§ x § x §

Homura's mind froze, then immediately switched to racing. Whether or not Urahara knew exactly what he had done, he had effectively nullified her ability to retrieve a weapon or escape from him by freezing time. She was trapped. If she wanted to survive to make another attempt to save Madoka, she might have no choice but to talk.

§ x § x §

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A/N: I am so sorry, Isshin. (u.u)

This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.