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.

31. DREIßIG

A/N: I hope everyone had a restful week. Or at least a non-disastrous one.

§ x § x §

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DREIßIG

TIMELINE X + N

It took a moment for Homura's brain to push through shock and kick into gear. With a cry of dismay, she materialized her shield as quickly as she could and immediately froze time. Her first thought was to fetch Orihime with the time-stop intact, see if maybe the Soul Gem could be repaired by her godlike power. Then she looked at Karin's face.

"I know what it feels like when it h-happens to you now."

Karin's eyes had already gone blank once again, but what caught Homura's attention was the expression on her face. The girl had apparently shattered her own Soul Gem while deliberately looking straight at Homura in expectation that her friend would try to save her. Karin's empty eyes bored into Homura from an expression of haunted pleading.

"She was better off that way."

Homura understood the implied request— let me die— but recoiled from it. She was overcome by white-hot rage— how dare Karin do this in front of her like this, knowing what she had seen? How it had hurt her? Homura wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her fiercely. But she reined herself in.

"I tried to hurt everyone and Yu-yuzu-uu is d-dead and oh my God she was inside me oh my God!"

Because really, she understood why Karin would make that decision. Homura momentarily put herself in Karin's place, imagined remembering a twisted version of herself so protective of Madoka that she dragged her corpse along into her nightmare world of her own creation and—

Unbearable.

So Homura couldn't blame Karin for coming to this decision. Her anger left as suddenly as it had come, leaving behind exhaustion. She sat back and dully stared at her friend. After taking a minute to clear her head a bit and brace herself, she let time resume.

Hitsugaya rose to his knees with a wordless shout as Karin's body slumped onto the table through the evaporating shards of her Soul Gem and scattered walnut shells in every direction. He hurried around the table, urgently calling Karin's name. Her body was doll-like when he lifted and turned her. Desperate, he looked at Homura and the shield on her arm. "Akemi! Stop time! Get Inoue!"

Sounds of alarm drifted into the room from various points in the shop as people registered the sudden disappearance of Karin's reiatsu. Homura stared numbly at Karin's slack face. "I tried. I was too late."

"INOUE!" Tōshirō roared as the sound of people running echoed through the building.

Orihime actually shoved Ichigo out of her way at the door as she engaged her Shun Shun Rikka at a run. The fairies streaked across the room and formed their glowing shield over Karin and Hitsugaya. Nothing happened. A fairy chimed something sadly, causing Orihime to cry, "Keep trying!"

Urahara entered the room, surveyed it with a glance, and locked onto Homura. "What happened?"

Homura blinked at him, still in shock. She slowly pointed at the abandoned nutcracker. There was no sign of Karin's Soul Gem. Urahara's mouth turned down. Mr. Tsukabishi put a hand over his face and slowly shook his head. Isshin ran into the room, calling his daughter's name. He pushed past his son, who had stopped in his tracks at the sight of his sister. Isshin knelt beside her as Orihime tearfully disengaged her fairies.

"What happened?" Isshin demanded breathlessly.

Hitsugaya's mouth worked for several moments before he could stammer, "Karin— she— Soul Gem— she— s-suicide."

Ichigo gasped behind him as Isshin covered his mouth and hunched tensely. Isshin took a few deep breaths and straightened. He held out shaking arms; Hitsugaya shifted Karin's body into them. Isshin held her close and rocked her, breathing hard but otherwise too emotionally battered to express anything.

In Homura's head, she heard echoes of the conversation that morning— it was the right thing to do— and wondered if he felt complicit in his daughter's suicide. Homura felt complicit and she hadn't said anything like that. It was one thing to say those words in abstract and an entirely different thing to hold his daughter's body after she sought the same end. The injustice of it all burned in Homura's chest, rose in her throat, escaped from her mouth.

"This won't happen next time."

Homura's voice rang clear in the silence. Attention turned to her. She clenched her fists tightly, mouth drawn tight as she controlled her breathing and felt like she was facing a firing squad. "This won't happen next time," she repeated. "She won't remember this, you won't remember this, and it won't happen next time. It won't."

She was trying to convince herself as well as them, but Urahara was the only one who looked like he knew that. Thankfully, he held his tongue. He just nodded curtly and looked around the room. "As sad as this is, we have to move forward with our tasks so we can ensure it doesn't happen in the next timeline."

"What?!" Ichigo snarled. "Just like that?! 'Your sister deliberately destroyed her own soul, please go finish your essay'? Really?!"

"Cold," Jinta muttered in agreement.

Isshin took a deep breath and gently stood. "I'll keep writing," he croaked, then carried Karin's body down the hall gingerly as though every step made him ache.

Ichigo wavered uncertainly, angry and powerless. Sado gripped his shoulder and grounded him. "The best thing you can do to save her is continue the project," Sado murmured. Ichigo covered his face, nodded jerkily, and staggered back toward the room the friends had been using to collaborate. The three flocked around him supportively.

Homura would not be jealous of Ichigo and his friends. Not in this situation. Would not.

(She was.)

The others trickled back to where they had come from until only Homura, Hitsugaya, and Urahara were left in the room. Gloom settled over them. Hitsugaya avoided meeting their eyes as he had with everyone who had already left; Homura stared Urahara straight in the eye and tried to disguise her uncertainty with defiance— dared him to call her out for her empty bravado.

He chose to comment on neither. "Miss Akemi, Captain Hitsugaya, have you completed your assignments?"

Hitsugaya mumbled something and shuffled back to the table, subdued, then picked up his pen and began to write unsteadily. Homura nodded and answered, "I am satisfied with it for now. I presume you wish to review it before you forward it?"

"Indeed, I do," Urahara murmured.

Homura felt his eyes follow her as she fetched the laptop. She tensed up and moved stiffly, retreating into an armor of formality and aloofness. Urahara looked like he was going to ask her something, but thought better of it. Instead, he murmured his thanks and suggested she rest. Homura ignored him and sat across from Hitsugaya, hands neatly folded among the walnut shells on the tabletop. She would have dismissed him from her presence if she could.

Urahara must have realized it. His lips quirked up briefly in dark amusement at her before he retreated to his lab, leaving her with Hitsugaya once more.

The shinigami and the magical girl sat without speaking for a long time, the scratching of Hitsugaya's pen the only sound in the room as Homura sat still and expressionless as a statue. Brilliant sunset dimmed into twilight, but the whole building remained hushed.

"How do you do it?" Hitsugaya suddenly asked Homura.

Homura blinked and took a moment to regain her bearings, having been quite lost in thought. "Do what?"

"She's my best friend," Hitsugaya said dully. He obviously meant Karin. "She died in front of me two times in two days and I just watched both times. I fought her twisted soul. We brought her back, but we still lost her." He hesitantly turned his eyes toward Homura and searched her face. "How do you stand it?"

Homura tipped her head in question. Neither of them was sure whether or not she was being deliberately obtuse.

Hitsugaya pursed his lips. "Seeing your friends die over and over. The same ones over and over. You think you've saved them then they die again. And you keep going on. Just twice is... How do you bear it?"

Homura looked away from his haunted face. There were many answers she could give. That she distracted herself planning how to tweak the next timeline; that she lost herself in weapons heists and cheap takeout and physics and ballistics; that she made herself sleep at night by forcefully imagining one of her rare memories of a Good Day over and over until her consciousness faded. Instead, she quietly said, "I don't know."

§ x § x §

Homura pulled herself upright around midnight, blearily realizing she had fallen asleep on the table. Across from her, Hitsugaya tiredly ran his fingers around the edges of the letter he had written, though he didn't appear to be reading it. The others were gradually assembling with papers and notebooks; some carried small items in their hands. No one spoke. Everyone just sat or stood silently and listened to the rushing of wind in the eaves until Urahara arrived with several packages.

The scientist looked around the room and nodded. "Let's get to work."

It took a long time to seal everyone's letters and objects one at a time as most of them needed to be taught how to do it with their own power. Homura watched with interest. She wondered what significance some of the objects held but thought it would be rude to ask as even Urahara spoke in a subdued, quiet murmur in the atmosphere of melancholy. The expressions on their faces as they relinquished cherished objects was enough to convince her that they had selected important things that would catch their past selves' attention. After several people took their turns, the process gained the solemn feel of a ritual.

It was nearly two in the morning when Urahara finally sat back and looked at the stack of neat packages on the table. He was the only one to fill multiple packages, mostly with research. Everyone watched him with tired eyes. Urahara turned to Homura. "You can store them now."

Homura nodded once and materialized her shield on her arm. One by one, she carefully picked up packages and slipped them into the shield's mysterious interior as Urahara watched with keenly interested eyes. When she was done, she looked up at the scientist and waited for him to explain the next step of his plan, if he had one.

The folded fan appeared in Urahara's hand again. He lightly tapped it in one palm. "Now. Walpurgisnacht."

Homura tensed. "Yes?"

"I read your little treatise. Well done, by the way. Anyway, I'm curious about how you phrased something." Homura tilted her head inquisitively. "You wrote 'Walpurgisnacht is said to be a massive Witch associated with severe weather phenomena and natural disasters.' Can you elaborate on that for us?"

"Of course." Homura relaxed, finding the question much easier to deal with than expected. She smoothed her skirt and organized her thoughts. "While the Incubator gave that vague description in an early timeline, I have found it to be invariably true. The Japan Meteorological Agency always reports a supercell bearing down on Mitakihara from the sea and orders evacuations to shelters around seven or seven thirty. Walpurgisnacht doesn't have a true barrier, but the supercell around her kind of acts like one. As the storm approaches, a parade of Familiars appears. It looks like a carnival. Then Walpurgisnacht descends and starts destroying things."

Urahara looked at the ceiling and scratched at the stubble on his chin. "When I submit the data to Twelfth, I'll suggest they monitor a fifty kilometer radius for coinciding spiritual and meteorological irregularities. Maybe they'll be able to intercept the Witch before it makes landfall." He looked down as Homura opened her mouth to say something. "I know it will be undone when you go back, but it will be good to know if the Thirteen Divisions can pull that off. I'll stay in contact with them." Homura blinked, shut her mouth, and nodded. Urahara tapped his fan against the edge of the table thoughtfully. "I checked the weather before I came up. A lot of Japan is seeing storms of one kind or another developing. I'll write a script or something so I'll only get notifications for whatever happens near Mitakihara."

After a long silence, Ichigo impatiently asked, "What do we do now?"

Urahara sighed. "Try to get some rest, I suppose."

Jinta scoffed. "Like that's gonna happen."

§ x § x §

Renji woke to the shrill of his Soul Phone around four in the goddamn morning. He rolled over on one of the futons the magical girls had set out in their living room for his team and groggily took the call.

"Abarai. What."

By four-thirty, Renji was completely awake and on edge.

He texted the two sentries he had set on third shift atop the roof and woke the rest of his team. Umika came downstairs in sleepy confusion as the shinigami gathered to be briefed. She looked to their leader and noticed the grim set of his face. "Is something wrong?"

Renji swiped a hand through his hair and sighed. "I think you had better get your friends down here. We got some weird intel about a Witch and I wanna see if any of you know something."

Umika frowned but nodded and retreated up the stairs.

Everyone was finally alert and functional around five, drinking hot cocoa Kazumi had insistently shoved at them. Renji relayed what Twelfth had told him and turned to the magical girls, who all looked disturbed, and asked what they knew.

Umika frowned at the floor and slowly said, "I know I've heard the name before..."

"Kyubey said it," Kazumi blurted.

"Eh?"

Kazumi's eyes were wide and earnest. "I heard him. He said it. When he named Dawn of Hyades. He said something like 'Is that the legendary Walpurgisnacht?' and then said no."

"And whaaat is Dawn of Hyades?" Renji asked.

The magical girls all shifted uncomfortably. Kaoru took a deep breath. "It's a long story, but the short version is there was someone who managed to fuse a bunch of Witches into one big one."

"We beat it by combining our magic," Umika added.

"Well, that's encouraging," Renji muttered.

"You need to go protect people from this Walpurgi-Witch, right? Right?" Kazumi asked.

Renji raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, we're gonna rendezvous with the other teams and set up a defense."

Kazumi made a determined face and clenched her fists enthusiastically. "We'll help!"

Surprised, Renji said, "What? No. You shouldn't have to fight anymore. You're kids."

Kazumi pouted but Umika scowled. "Kids to you, but we've fought a huge Witch before. And my power could be useful."

Renji skeptically drawled, "What's this great power?"

Kaoru smirked as Umika inclined her chin and said, "My magic book reads my opponents and tells me about them— what they're focused on doing, motives— sometimes their weaknesses."

Renji stared for a minute, then sighed. That was just too damn useful to pass up. "Fine. Whatever. We need to get ready. The rendezvous is in an hour."

Kazumi cheered, then stood and declared, "Let's make breakfast!"

"Uh, do we really have time...?" the team's scientist asked.

The cheerful girl laughed and threw her arms wide. "Of course! We'll work together to make it go faster and the food will give us plenty of energy for beating the big Witch! Cooking together makes us friends!"

Umika and Kaoru looked thoroughly amused at their friend's antics and the bewildered expressions on the faces of the shinigami.

§ x § x §

Sunday morning in Karakura dawned on a gloomy drizzle that steadily turned into a windy, bitter downpour. Homura sat on the back porch holding a cup of hot tea as she stared at the rain, stuck in a melancholy nostalgia. As badly as it had ended and as much hope as the future held, she would be sad to leave the people in this timeline. They would be the same people in the next timeline, yes, but they wouldn't know her, wouldn't have shared time with her. That erasure of bonds was why she had learned to not branch out and make more friends in the various timelines— it hurt to leave them behind and be the only one to know what they could have been.

Lost in thought, she startled when Isshin shuffled up and sat beside her. He offered her a pained smile, face wan with dark circles under his eyes. She wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't slept at all.

Isshin silently contemplated his own cup of tea for awhile. "It's almost seven," he said quietly. Homura hummed acknowledgment but otherwise didn't respond. "I wanted to talk to you before you... go."

Homura turned and eyed him cautiously. "What about?"

"I'm sorry."

Surprised, Homura asked, "What for? I'm the one who—"

"No," Isshin cut her off firmly. "I understand your actions. I don't blame you. I want to apologize for expecting you to take on a heavier burden when you go back. You've had so many problems with just your own circle of friends. You've been fighting a battle that should never have fallen to you in the first place. It's selfish of me to want you to intervene for my girls on top of that." He gave a little self-deprecating laugh. "And yet, I still want you to do it." He shook his head. "I'm sorry for that. If I could go back with you, for you... I'd do it in a heartbeat. You don't deserve any of this. And it must be terribly lonely."

Homura was stunned. Isshin searched her face and smiled sadly. He reached over and lay a hand on her shoulder. "For what it's worth, this 'me' thinks of you as an honorary Kurosaki. Hopefully, other 'me's will, too." His lips quirked and he squeezed her shoulder. "You're my third honorary daughter, you know. Rukia, Orihime— now you. My children seem to collect you for me under the strangest of circumstances. I can't complain."

Homura tried to respond but was at a loss for words. Her vision blurred and she couldn't even swallow properly.

Isshin glanced over his shoulder at the sounds of the rest of the shop waking up and moving around. He turned back to Homura and lifted his hand from her shoulder to the side of her head. "Look at me. Listen to me, Homura. I might not get a chance to say this later." She looked up at him. His eyes were fierce. "You are brave. You are strong. You are good. Never forget any of that. Live that. Keep on spitting in the face of fear and despair. You'll get through this. You will. I believe in you. We all believe in you. Got it?"

Homura took a deep breath and nodded, face determined. Isshin grinned sadly, ruffled her hair, and drew her into a one-armed hug as they both resumed watching the rain in silence.

§ x § x §

The various teams of shinigami stationed themselves at strategic points throughout Mitakihara proper, each just barely in view of the other. Three battle-ready magical girls stood beside Renji and searched the skies. It was a miserably wet and windy day. They all stood tense, waiting.

Waiting.

§ x § x §

A single pair of red eyes observed the shinigami from within the camouflage of construction scaffolding on a high rise condominium.

§ x § x §

No one in Urahara Shop really knew what to do that morning. Everyone was as listless as Homura herself. Mr. Tsukabishi and Ururu made breakfast on autopilot. They all nibbled disinterestedly at their food, listening to the steadily worsening storm outside as they sat at the table tensely waiting for Urahara's tablet to beep a notification about an evacuation order for Mitakihara. When nothing had happened by seven thirty, eyes started darting toward Homura. A sense of heaviness and dread pressed down on them.

At ten minutes to eight, Urahara frowned and picked up the tablet. He tapped around its screen and frowned harder. "There are no severe weather warnings for Mitakihara. Stormy, yes, but nothing serious on radar."

Homura's face twisted in confusion. "That's impossible."

"Does Walpurgisnacht come in every timeline? In a storm every timeline?" asked Yoruichi.

"Yes. Always," Homura said.

"What's different?" Urahara asked tensely.

Homura looked back to the scientist in surprise. "What?"

"What's different about this timeline? How does this timeline deviate from any you've experienced before?"

Homura thought for a moment and answered, "Karakura. I never went to Karakura before. I never even left Mitakihara before." She looked down and thought. "But... Madoka has never died before today, either."

Mr. Tsukabishi rubbed his chin. "And Madoka was very powerful, correct?"

Homura nodded with pursed lips.

Yoruichi hummed unhappily and glanced at Urahara and back. "How powerful?"

Biting her lip, Homura answered with deliberate vagueness. "It is hard to say for sure. It has been awhile since I really felt her fight."

Urahara's eyes narrowed. "You mentioned that she and you together were enough to defeat Walpurgisnacht in some timelines and that she beat it herself in at least one," he pressed.

Homura shifted and glanced away. After a long pause, she quietly said, "There have been timelines when she contracted during the battle, killed Walpurgisnacht with one shot from her bow, and immediately turned into an even more powerful Witch."

Everyone stared.

"Just how fucking powerful is she?!" demanded Jinta.

Homura shrugged and reluctantly answered, "Several times more powerful than me, when she gets in the right mindset."

Everyone kept staring. Homura wondered what that meant to them. Whether any of them were foolish enough to think they had seen her go all-out.

Yoruichi leaned back and squinted hard at Homura. "Madoka can one-shot Big, Bad, and Ugly as soon as she accesses her powers for the first time. Zero training. Zero experience."

"Yes."

"So she's the second coming of Ichigo," Yoruichi concluded.

"God help us all," muttered Ishida.

Before the entire conversation could derail, Mr. Tsukabishi cleared his throat and asked, "Is it possible this Walpurgisnacht is only attracted to Mitakihara when Madoka is there? Like a Hollow looking for a strong soul to eat?"

Urahara and Homura blinked and tilted their heads in similar expressions of surprised thought.

"Now, there's an interesting hypothesis," Urahara murmured.

"I do not know," Homura admitted after some thought. "It is a conglomeration of Witches and it behaves differently than other Witches."

"You mean the labyr—"

Isshin cut himself off as everyone in the building shuddered at the sudden weight of a terrifyingly strong magic.

"The hell is that?!" Ichigo shouted as Homura went stark white and scrambled for the back door. Heedless of the confusion behind her, she ran out into the storm in her stocking feet and searched the skies. Immediately drenched, she slogged her hair out of her face and ran around to the front of Urahara Shop. She slid to a stop in the mud at the gate.

Fluffy pink poodles the size of camels wore golden saddles and bore catlike riders while hauling circus wagons in a parade. Pink and green elephants trumpeted as they marched down the street pulling something along in the air by many dozens of carnival pennants. Stuffed animals cavorted in the low mist between their feet.

In the distance, an enormous shadow in the sky.

Walpurgisnacht had come to Karakura.

§ x § x §

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A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR?!

D:

I swear Kazumi is that cheesy in canon. Also that her manga has a big thing with cooking and eating together before battles. I think it's a "let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die" kind of thing.

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.