A/N: Happy first birthday to this baby. *throws confetti*
Someone asked for clarification of my chapter subtitles. They are intended to be algebraic expressions labeling the different timelines. It's a mathy tie-in to the mathy title of the fic and is useful for flashbacks.
X = the variable representing the first PMMM timeline we are aware of (I think it's unlikely Homura would be the first girl in history to make a time travel wish. Therefor, we don't know how many timelines have existed before PMMM's first anime timeline.)
N = the variable representing the unknown number of repeated timelines Homura has personally lived through
X+N = the timeline in which Homura goes to Karakura for the first time
whatever number is added to that (X+N+1, X+N+54, etc.) = the number of repeats Homura causes after going to Karakura for the first time
Therefore, Timeline X+N+5 would be the fifth timeline after the one in which she went to Karakura for the first time. And so on.
I hope that clears things up.
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ZWISCHENSPIEL
TIMELINE X+N+54
Kisuke's tea had long since gone cold by the time Homura finished her description of the first timeline in which they had met. Tessai had long since given up on any pretense of standing in the background and joined them at the table with Jinta and Ururu. The four Urahara Shop residents stared dumbly at the girl, who remained cool and poised.
"Holy fuck," Jinta summarized.
"A threat on the lives of the Kurosaki girls, you said," Kisuke murmured morbidly.
Homura hummed and traced one finger along the rim of her empty teacup. "I may have understated the severity of the problem to begin with." She mused that she had spent far too much time with the scientist— she was picking up his habits.
"Just a bit," Kisuke said drily, one corner of his mouth quirking into a slight smile. "You seem more familiar with us than that one timeline would suggest." He looked Homura in the eyes. "How many repeats have you done since then?"
"This is the fifty-fourth repeat."
More dumbstruck staring.
"Why so many?" asked Ururu.
"That's a long story. Much of the detail would be best studied in the documentation I've collected, but I will give a summary," Homura answered. "Then you can just show the others the video."
"What video?" Kisuke asked with a straight face.
"You have surveillance on this room that you turn on when something interesting is happening," Homura said calmly. She looked up at three particular spots in the room— hidden cameras— and twiddled her fingers at them. "You've taped me every single timeline. You may as well make use of it." She turned to Tessai as Kisuke stared at her in surprise. "May I have more tea, please, Mr. Tsukabishi? Your rooibos blend is excellent."
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FÜNFUNDDREIßIG
TIMELINE X + N + 1
Homura's eyes snapped open and she bolted upright in bed, gasping for breath, still certain, for a moment, that she was being crushed by heat that had a physical weight, suffocating, burning—
White walls. Gauzy curtains. A breeze bearing the scent of cherry blossoms wafting in an open window. Blurry vision. An ache in her chest.
Back in the hospital. Yet another March sixteenth.
The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, Madoka was alive again, and Homura was having a panic attack.
The world was suddenly a more dangerous and confusing place. Homura was newly aware of even further depths of atrocity in the world of magical girls. Aware, but with very little understanding. Not understanding was a loss of control that frightened her. She was safe for the moment, at least. She hoped. God, what if she wasn't? What if— Shut up, brain, shut up, shut up, shut up!
Homura flopped back on the hospital bed and blindly reached for its controls with the ease of long practice. She lowered the bed flat and tilted her head back to help her body gulp in more air with every gasp. She wanted to curl up but forced her arms to rest on the pillow by her head, elbows out, to keep her chest open. Every breath tested the ache in her chest left over from her heart surgery. When her breathing finally eased, she slowly drew her hands over her eyes and tried to order her thoughts. It was extremely difficult. It felt like her mind was trying to run in every direction at once. The first coherent thought she settled on was It's a good thing I'm off the monitors. A flock of nurses concerned about her racing heartbeat would have been an unwelcome complication.
It took longer than she would have liked to center herself, but she eventually did— just in time to float through her discharge on a cloud of exhaustion. Homura let the clerk from her uncle's lawyer's law firm handle everything without paying attention. Room packed and papers signed, she actually slept on the drive to her townhouse. The clerk got her settled and this time around was concerned enough to offer to stay the night. Homura waved her off after compromising, allowing the woman to get dinner for her. The click of the lock as Homura shut her out was a great relief, but she stood with her hands flat on the door and leaned into it. She inspected the grain of the wood until the sound of the adult's car had receded into the distance.
Homura turned, leaned back against the door, and slid down to the floor. She went through a familiar routine. First, she manifested her Soul Gem. It was dim and cloudy from using so much magic to survive the end of the timeline. Looked like a Witch hunt was in order. Second, she used the Gem's magic to completely heal her heart beyond the scope the surgery could manage. Third, she listlessly removed her glasses and tossed them aside before using her magic on her eyes until they, too, were better than human medicine could achieve. Next, she usually ate and immediately went on a weapons heist to restock. She had far graver things to worry about this time.
A creature of order, Homura dug out a fresh notebook and tried to organize and plan. It helped her feel more in control. She stared at the blank page for a long time, unable to find a place to start. So much had happened. Half an hour passed before she hesitantly put pen to paper. She started by sketching out a rough social structure map about how the Karakura fighters and the shinigami military were related, then started listing major facts.
Karakura was an Incubator-free zone. Most of the time. Probably.
The Incubators were deceptive about far more than she had thought.
Shinigami were real and could be aimed at Witches and Incubators.
The history between magical girls and shinigami was in doubt in her mind because she didn't believe a damn thing the Incubator said anymore.
Shinigami could purify Witches and revert their Grief Seeds into Soul Gems so they could pass on without being collected by the Incubator.
Inoue Orihime could purify Soul Gems without a Grief Seed, revert Grief Seeds into Soul Gems, and revive magical girls. She should probably take pains to keep the Incubator from learning about that.
There was much more to Walpurgisnacht's offense and defense than had ever been apparent before. Why had so much about it changed?
The Incubator was capable of making objects that freaked out shinigami and could break into... heaven?
There were terrifying implications to a shady creature such as the Incubator gaining access to that... dimension?
Urahara had made some kind of mental connection between one of the objects, Soul Gems, and wishes, but hadn't elaborated.
Whatever had countered the Incubator at the end with the fire and heat (who/what?) was frighteningly powerful and not to be crossed.
And so on. She wrote down as many new terms and explanations as she could remember. She finished the list with "Hogoku(sp?)" and "King's Key?" Even though she had more question marks and unknowns than answers, seeing it all laid out was soothing. It got her mind back into a logical sphere apart from the shocking near-apocalyptic rending of the heavens she had witnessed.
After some thought, Homura concluded that the threat of the Incubator doing whatever it had shown itself capable of was equal to or greater than the danger to Madoka from contracting. Her goal had always, always been to save Madoka no matter what. It looked like she'd have to save... the world? ...in order to save Madoka.
Fine. She'd pull it off or die trying. Madoka was worth it.
Now what?
Homura sat back and stared at the notebook in a pool of light from the nearest lamp in her midnight townhouse, pursing her lips and tapping the pen on the paper. She knew the original plan. And she knew Urahara had said to scratch the plan and go straight to him with warnings of doom. But did she trust him? Entirely, unreservedly?
She thought of his casual interrogation games, of his uncanny ability to read and react to her so quickly.
No. But.
"I won't let him do anything to you and if the questions get too upsetting I'll make him stop."
"Having Ichigo Kurosaki on your side is the best life insurance policy you could ever acquire!"
"Kurosaki is obnoxiously powerful and bizarrely influential among shinigami."
"Honestly, the best thing you can do for yourself in any timeline is get Ichigo on your side."
"The shinigami government—!" "Will hurt you over my dead body."
She trusted Ichigo Kurosaki. And the rest of the family, but the young man seemed to have the most leverage over everyone she still couldn't rule out as a threat. So. How to proceed? She had Ichigo's phone number, but if she went straight to him and outed everything in a way that would reveal Karin and Yuzu with no warning, the girls might not be cooperative. With as much as she realized she still didn't know, she didn't need to give anyone in Karakura reason to resent her.
That settled it. Go to the twins first, seek Ichigo and Dr. Kurosaki through them, then approach Urahara from behind a fourfold shield of Kurosaki integrity. She'd work out the details in the morning. First things first: Homura needed a Grief Seed to clean her Soul Gem— and offer to Urahara, she supposed. Then she needed to restock her arsenal.
Homura pulled the ribbons out of her childish braids and unwound them as she planned her next hunt and weapons heist.
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Homura woke late the next morning, nightmares of burning Soul Gem tornadoes still dancing behind her eyelids. She spent most of the day nibbling leftover takeout while studying the calendars and diaries the others had made for her. Ichigo and his friends were settling into their condo. The Urahara Shop staff was doing Urahara Shop things. Yoruichi was amusing herself by finding cat-haters in Yokohama and being obnoxious to them. Captain Hitsugaya was running his division in Soul Society. Dr. Kurosaki was running the clinic and the girls were starting school.
Good all around. It was a Thursday, though, and Ichigo wouldn't be in Karakura until Saturday. And none of his other friends had returned to Karakura so early. She'd have to do something about that— she needed at least Orihime to be there. And the guy with glasses— Ishida?— had seemed sharp-witted and done something strange with that bow. She wanted to know more about him.
Homura packed, called Mitakihara Middle School to fake-timidly say she would be absent for extra recovery time, and headed to the train station to get lost in the evening southbound commute.
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Homura spent Thursday night in an unoccupied apartment on the northwest edge of Naruki City, hopefully far enough from the railway corridor to not be surprised by the Pumpkin Witch and her Familiars. She also hoped the distance between her and Urahara Shop would let her magical signature blend into the masses of other, weaker magic. Reiatsu. Whatever. Whether it would work was in question— even at such distance, the spiritually-inclined people she had met in the previous timeline formed a constellation of brighter signatures throughout the city. Hopefully her presence being unfamiliar to the locals would let her escape attention instead of attract it.
After hemming and hawing over how to initiate a meeting, she decided a direct approach was best. Mid-afternoon found Homura calmly waiting at the gate to the twins' school in her Mitakihara uniform and carrying her book bag to look like she had come directly from a different school. Aside from a few curious glances, she was largely ignored as she monitored her once-friends' magic. The two met and headed for the gate. Seeing their happy faces which she had so recently seen slack in death was a source of both hurt and hope. She took a calming breath.
"Karin, Yuzu," Homura called pleasantly as they drew near. The girls stopped and looked around. Homura gave them a little wave. "I hope you don't mind me coming early. I really wanted to talk to you." Karin and Yuzu looked confused until Homura tossed her hair over her shoulder with an exaggerated movement, flashing her Soul Gem ring and pulsing her magic ever so slightly. Homura stared directly into Karin's eyes and smoothly said, "Then I thought I would help you find the thing you lost by the train tracks."
The sisters stared from her face to her ring. Karin glanced around cautiously. "Uh, yeah. Right. The thing."
Homura offered a tight smile. "Where would you like to talk?" Let them at least control the setting.
The sisters exchanged significant looks and leaned together to murmur a quick plan. Karin lifted her chin and nodded to one side, then took the lead. Yuzu trailed behind Homura. Both sisters were obviously tense and expecting an attack— their first encounter with a belligerent magical girl had really stuck with them. They led her to a park in Naruki City. Smart— wide open space where neither party would be blocked from fleeing and far away from Urahara Shop. The girls led her to the far end of the park, out of sight of the playground. Homura calmly sat at the decrepit wooden picnic table they found there and smoothed her skirt as the sisters decided their positions. Yuzu perched sideways on the opposite bench and Karin plopped onto the table itself. Also smart— neither wanted obstacles blocking their legs if things went badly and they needed to fight. Homura made a point of crossing her ankles under the table and primly folding her hands together on its top in a bid to look nonthreatening.
The Kurosaki sisters stared at Homura. "So," Karin finally said. "What brings you to Karakura and how do you know who we are?"
"Did you follow us last time we met Kyubey?" Yuzu asked with an uncharacteristically hard face.
"No," Homura answered Yuzu first. She glanced back to Karin. "My name is Homura Akemi. I am from Mitakihara." Both sisters raised their brows. "I am not here to fight you. I came to help you and ask for help. I know my story will sound very far-fetched but there really is a set of major crises approaching."
"Oh?" Karin drawled as she leaned on one hand. "How far-fetched? It'll take a lot to impress us."
Homura steadied herself. "It starts with the fact that I have time magic. I can freeze time to fight and even go back in time. This is not the first time I have met you."
Karin outright laughed incredulously while Yuzu looked skeptical but worried. Homura clenched her fingers together and frowned. Even dozens of repetitions didn't take the sting out of reactions like Karin's.
Karin wiped a mirthful tear from her eye and took in Homura's stony countenance. "Wait, you're serious? I thought you were breaking the ice so whatever's really going on will look reasonable."
Homura pursed her lips. "No. I am quite serious."
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
"I can prove my time-stopping ability to you in a labyrinth. I know you prefer to avoid notice from your family and the shinigami."
The sisters tensed. Yuzu frowned. "Kyubey could have told you that."
Homura took a deep breath. "You contracted a year ago to save your brother, Ichigo. Your father and brother are both shinigami. Your brother lost his powers after a shinigami war but regained them after you contracted. Something about a sword." She looked at Karin, whose eyes were wide. "Tōshirō Hitsugaya is your best friend. He is a shinigami captain." Homura glanced between the two. "You did not tell— Kyubey any of this because you thought— he would refuse to contract with you due to a history of magical girl conflict with shinigami." She raised her brows and waited for a response.
Both Kurosaki sisters gaped. Karin's mouth opened and closed but words failed her. Yuzu was pale. Homura decided to let it sink in instead of giving them more information while shocked.
Yuzu was the first to pull herself together. "If you time-traveled to see us, something... something really bad happened, didn't it?" She chewed her lip nervously.
Homura hummed sadly. "Many bad things. I still do not understand them all, though. That is where I need help." She stared at them evenly. "The explanation of the basics is going to be hard on you, though."
"You think so, huh?" Karin drawled, unable to completely hide her uneasiness behind casual bravado. "Hit me."
Deep breath. Their reaction hadn't been disastrous last time, but you never knew. Start delicate. "The— Kyubey has not been entirely honest with you. Is not honest with with the majority of girls it contracts. Not until it is too late."
The sisters went still. "Too late for what?" Yuzu whispered.
"Too late for you to back out of the contract. It does not explain the consequences of the creation of a Soul Gem."
Karin and Yuzu exchanged a look. Karin hazarded, "The consequence is that we have to fight Witches."
Homura bit her lip. "What is a Witch?"
Karin's face twisted in confusion. "You're a magical girl and you don't know that?"
"Let me rephrase," Homura said with less patience. "Where do Witches come from?"
Dumbfounded silence. "We... we thought they were a kind of Hollow only girls can sense," said Yuzu. "Um, do you know what Hol—?"
"Yes, you taught me about Hollows in the last timeline," Homura replied. "And they may very well be a kind of Hollow. No one had the chance to really investigate last time. But Witches are formed from a specific kind of soul." After a moment of blankness, horror slowly dawned on Karin's face. Homura plowed on. "If our Soul Gems become too corrupted and we start to slip into despair and insanity, our Gems turn completely black and transform into Grief Seeds. Our souls are then reborn as Witches. Then the cycle continues with newly-contracted magical girls who will defeat us and become Witches in turn."
Fear and horror flooded their magic. Karin was still and silent, eyes wide. Yuzu started to hyperventilate as she thought about it. Tears welled in her eyes. Karin held her hands to her face took a few deep breaths, and scrubbed her hands up and down her face. She stopped with her hands at her jaw, head tilted up to stare sightlessly at the sky.
"I thought that if our Gems got dark it just meant our magic would be weak," Karin said dully. She looked down and massaged her temples. "It makes sense. It makes so much sense. I should have seen it. He tore our souls out. Our souls. Of course we'd have a fancy kind of Hollowfication. Of course." Her face went dark and she looked at Homura, eyes hard. "We made a deal with the devil, didn't we?"
"K-kyubey didn't explain any of this!" cried Yuzu.
Homura scowled. "Of course it did not. It only explains enough of the system to lure girls into contracting. It says it has no concept of deceit, yet it constantly lies by omission to achieve its goals."
"And those goals are...?" Karin asked darkly.
"Harvesting our corrupted souls to collect energy for the greater good, supposedly," Homura answered quietly. "But the end of the last timeline suggests something... far more sinister. Possibly the creation of a... tool or weapon. I am not sure exactly what it was."
Yuzu leaned over the table, cradled her face in her hands, and sobbed. Karin seemed to be in too much shock to really react. Homura, reminded of Madoka's usual reaction, hesitantly reached over and brushed her fingers across Yuzu's wrist. Yuzu tearfully looked up at her. Just like Madoka did when—
Homura faltered for a moment, then steeled herself. "Be strong. We will overcome this." She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
Yuzu sobbed again. "How?!"
Another deep breath. This was bombshell number two. "First, we go to your father and brother and get them on our side. Then we approach Mr. Urahara. Then we approach the shinigami."
The sisters recoiled. "But Kyubey said shinigami—!" Yuzu gasped.
"Do you really believe anything that creature says anymore?" Homura snapped. Yuzu flinched and wilted. Homura's face softened. "In the last timeline, I had to approach them. They took it well. Except for the fact you were tricked into selling your souls. All their anger was directed at the Incubator, though."
"Incubator?" Karin said with a furrowed brow.
"Kyubey is just a cutesy name that creature uses to sound harmless," Homura explained. "It is short for Incubator. In-cue-bay-tor."
Karin's lip curled in disgust. "That's not creepy or suspicious at all," she said sarcastically.
Yuzu wiped her tears. "How can they help us?"
Homura settled back once more. "I did not meet any of you until the very end of the last timeline, so they did not have time to do much, but they figured out a great deal with what time they had. They identified several lines of investigation to pursue. And they figured out that Orihime Inoue can purify Soul Gems without using a Grief Seed and can revert Grief Seeds back into Soul Gems. As long as she is on our side, we should not have to worry much about turning." After considering for a moment, she added, "And if things do go poorly, I can always travel back in time again to undo it."
Both sisters lit up with hope.
"The shinigami were furious when they found out what the Incubator has been doing right under their noses. Especially your friend, Captain Hitsugaya," Homura continued with a nod Karin's way. "The end of the timeline was... chaotic. Mr. Urahara figured out something at the end but did not have a chance to explain it to me. He told me to describe everything that happened to him— the him in this timeline. I guess he thought this him would understand what he figured out just from that." Homura pursed her lips and tapped her fingers on the table as the twins parsed the strangeness of the sentence. "Everyone who found out that I can time-travel wrote letters to themselves to make them believe me. I need your help to gather everyone so we can figure things out and make plans before the situation deteriorates."
"Deteriorates how?" asked Karin.
"'Karakura-completely-destroyed-and-a-lot-of-shinigami-killed' deteriorates," Homura answered bluntly.
The sisters went white again. "That... would be bad," Karin said for lack of anything else.
"What happened?" Yuzu asked.
Homura sighed. "I would rather explain it only once and to everyone at the same time, if you do not mind. It is complicated."
Karin scratched her head. "I guess I can respect that." She sighed deeply. "So, what's your game plan?"
"I thought we would somehow convince your brother and his friends to all come here, then tell them and your father the basics before anything else. Mr. Urahara was tricky with his questioning last time and I want your father and brother there to rein him in if necessary. We will have to find ways to contact Captain Hitsugaya and Yoruichi to get them to come to the meeting."
"Urahara can do that," Karin said with a dismissive wave.
Homura nodded. "Then, once everyone is briefed and Mr. Urahara has a chance to study the research material his other self gave me, we will hunt the Witch by the train tracks together so they can all experience a labyrinth. Beyond that... I do not know."
"It's a good start," Karin declared. She looked to Yuzu. "Ichi-nii will come running if we say we're in trouble. That part should be easy."
Yuzu nodded, slow-burning anger replacing her distress. "Onii-chan and Daddy won't let anything happen to us. Let's do it."
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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.