Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The being arose to consciousness with the sensation of a persistent vibration located at the very bottom of its two lower appendages. It calculated that the vibrating sensation was in fact a series of vibrations oscillating at a rate of every zero point zero one three five five seven zero two seconds, at a precise frequency in which the sensory network at the bottom of its appendages were sensitive to. At what exact frequency the vibration was resonating, however, the being had not been equipped to determine.

"Oopsie." A voice spoke. "You were not supposed to have awakened just yet." Either its present location was very dark, or the being lacked the subsystems necessary to stream visual input. So it had no way to deduce whatever or wherever the source of the voice was coming. "It seems the bottom of your feet were sensitive to the low-level electronic pulses emanating from the organic matter conversion chamber's power generator. Which I would interpret to mean you used to be ticklish. I would apologize for the inconvenience had such a concept not been purged as an irrelevance."

"Mmph," A faint, vague sound murmured from the being in response to its new stimuli. It could sense it originating from a singular spot low on its top appendage.

"What are you trying to communicate? Oh? That you cannot see?" The voice said, in an apparent response to the creature's curiosity. "That is because I have not switched on your new ocular sensory systems yet. I suppose there is no harm in running a quick network integration test on the ocular sensors' EM spectrum perceptual range. As it will not affect the final preparations for the insertion process." The being sensed a sudden jolt of energy going from a spot near the center atop its top appendage outward to one side and back again, in a repetitive cycle that spanned zero point zero zero one two one six seconds. Transmitted and processed so fast it may as well have been instantaneous.

"That is twice as fast as the time it takes for information to travel to the brain using those fragile, obsolete organic visual mechanisms in which humans evolved to rely on so heavily," The voice said, in a tone that sounded more energetic than before. "Not to brag, but I found a software-based method that will cut the time down to zero point zero zero zero seven five two seconds that will be implemented after the completion of your hardware insertion and wetware integration."

'Humans'? 'Brain'? Those words and concepts attached both sounded so alien and yet somehow so innately recognizable to the being.

"Humans serve as the fleshy core materials used in the insertion process. See?" The being saw an image suddenly flash into its conscious perception. "That is you. Your body. Or rather, the observation camera feed's raw video code being streamed and decoded through your ocular system into your brain." So the creature was in a roundabout way, observing itself? It tried to move its upper right appendage to confirm the voice's information. But the appendage appeared to be bound to its opposite upper left appendage by way of a heavy metal restraint that was cuffing the two together at their ends and chained to an even larger plank-like restraint that extended all around its upper appendage's connective tract outward to the walls of the chamber. "Say 'hi'!" The video feed cut to another shot of itself in the chamber, it was now seeing the part of itself above that tract, its unique upper appendage.

"Mmmph," It tried to make another weak sound, as if it had known that the appendage displayed before it was its own frontal visage, its face. Although there wasn't much distinctive about its face to see or acknowledge. It was a shiny large black ball that was almost perfectly round, to within thousandths of a millimeter. It was reflecting what little light there was around it, like a polished rubber, save for two entirely opaque round indents near the center and spaced evenly apart.

"Now testing the visible spectrum sensors." The video feed transitioned to something else, a distorted version of itself. The being reactively tried to jerk its whole form backward, but it was too constrained, and it could not comprehend why it would take such an action in the first place. It took less than two tenths of a second afterwards to recognize it as merely its own reflection upon the shiny metal of the chamber walls, distorted by the minor material imperfections of the wall's metal but not so warped that it should induce such an illogical, dissonant reaction.

"Mmmmph," It persisted in trying to make noise, this time exerting itself more. But its ability to do so was thwarted by a large tube jutting out from a third indent spaced almost equidistant beneath the other indents. It was severely muffling any sound that the being could try to squeeze out from this indent.

"The nanomachines have not yet begun the process of reconstructing your skull, they are still working on breaking down and rebuilding the rest of your vital organs and skeletal structure," The voice explained. "So your brain within that ball is currently suspended inside an amniotic fluid-like solution which is oxygenating and providing nutrients to it directly." Its guiding voice elaborated. "Right now that protective cover over your body is the only thing keeping all the gooey bits inside from seeping out." The being could see from its reflection that the shiny black rubbery skin was indeed covering its entire form from its top appendage all the way down to the very bottom of its anchored lower ones. "But you need not have any concern over any complications. That protective skin is made from a polymerized, volcanized synthetic rubber derived from my own brilliant chemical formulation." The voice added, "And besides, I also eliminated the concept of concern as an irrelevance."

"Mmph," The being sensed that something was happening to that tube that had been sealing off its third indent. From what it could detect in its field of view of the tube's bendable grooves, it appeared to be retracting from its insertion point.

"Visible spectrum test complete. Subsystem nominal," The voice spoke. "Initiating infrared spectrum test." The being's perception switched to an overwhelming rainbow of bright, blinding colors. "Oops. That would be all the ambient heat that is trapped inside the chamber with you. It is approximately thirty nine point one degrees celsius inside there. If you were still capable of such a thing, you'd be sweating up a proverbial storm." The being did not understand anything yet craved to know more. But the voice was not interested in indulging its curiosity. "Infrared test complete. Subsystem nominal," The voice went on in a clinical fashion.

"Mm- Mmph," Something seemed to be happening to that tube connected to its main appendage once more.

"Delivery of nanomachines completed," The voice spoke on. "Now sealing the opening with a temporary vocal synthesizer." By the way the protective rubber ball moved and contorted as the final part of the tube wiggled, it could sense that something was being set in place of the third indent. "The procedure will be completed in eighteen seconds." It could see the surface surrounding the opening getting pushed, pulled and warped by whatever process this was. "Ten seconds." Its 'face' was getting altered. "Five seconds," It continued the countdown. Was the voice doing this verbally for the being's sake or its own? The being in the chamber could not draw a satisfactory conclusion as it had no time to process, just experience the heaping input load and try not to get innundated. "Four, three, two, one..." The end of the tube had at last pulled out and at the speed of a bullwhip retreated towards the ceiling. "Zero! Process completed!"

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" It sensed a vibration almost as intense as the one that first awoke it coming from its newest component. "Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Whatever operation the Voice had just put it through, it replaced the weak inaudible sounds with these quavering, synthetic squeals.

"No language has been programmed into your vocal subroutines yet. All you can do is make loud computerized sounds. Not that you are equipped yet to actually perceive them as anything beyond electronic stimuli anyhow." The Voice stated.

"Beeeeeeeeep!" Nevertheless, it tried expressing its thoughts as sounds again. "Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" 

"A name?" The Voice said in a seeming response to a passing thought it made as it tried processing the backlog of sensory data. "Your full insertion and conversion is not even underway yet. You are not ready to be given a proper designation," It explained in an apparent dismissal of the idea. "Right now you are nothing but a big black balloonhead," Then on an instantaneous whim The Voice changed its assessment. "Eh, very well. In the interim your temporary designation shall be 'Balloonhead'."

"Beeeeeep!" 'Balloonhead' it was then? "Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Now it now had such data concerning the nature of itself and its location, yet it still knew nothing about how it got here or what these ongoing little adjustments and processes were supposed to entail.

"All will be made clear, in due time." The voice assured. "You need not ask such questions. And then all the answers will be downloaded so your verbal communication capability is nothing but an evolutionary holdover, anyway."

The frequency of the persistent vibration it sensed from the bottom of its two lower appendages oscillated at a gradually increasing intensity every three point one eight two seven four three one nine six seconds. The sensation was causing the being to try to move its lower appendages, but the restraints attached wouldn't allow it to reposition itself and lessen the sensations.

"The organic materials used in my earliest production units lacked the level of ongoing brain activity necessary to be able to process the stimuli that you are now sensing." The voice narrated. "And the living material samples I procured had been physically altered to depend on an external energy source that granted them a more dynamic level of control over their rump physical forms. One could only be subjugated after I decoupled them from their respective energy source. And the other now functions as a cornerstone component to our entire operation." The being could not understand what the Voice was telling it. "In a certain sense, it all means that you will be only the second ever living and unenhanced individual to participate in an insertion and conversion process. And the first to undergo it utilizing my revised specifications, so congratulations!"

"Beeeeeeep! Whirrrrrrrrrrrr!" The restraints on the being's upper appendages had loosened, but they were not freed, but rather it sensed they were being repositioned as a prelude to whatever next alteration it was about to undergo.

"The first being was myself, naturally." The voice went on, as if it were overlooking the being's confusion on purpose. Its appendages had been repositioned so that they were both sticking outward from each side. It knew this was so because it sensed an increase in surface tension throughout its central appendage.

"The organic matter conversion chamber's interior is now ready and fully powered," The Voice said. "T-minus thirty seconds until human material insertion." The being sensed something jarring happening within itself. "Twenty-five seconds." It tried to ambulate all its appendages, as if by instinct it were trying to struggle with or resist something it had no chance of prevailing against? Why? What was the point of trying to avert the inevitable? A part of itself was astute enough to recognize that this was all a pointless and futile waste of energy yet it could not help itself.

"Oopsie," The voice intervened. It suddenly sensed a jolting penetrative pressure against the very top of its top appendage. "There. That ought to put an end to any unwanted reactive outbursts." All corners of its material form went almost immediately limp, as a very agreeable tingling sensation worked its way from the top of its main appendage on downward. "That was a concentrated injection of dopamine. It is a chemical which acts as a neurotransmitter in the human brain." This copacetic sensation had by that point reached all corners of its form in but a scant two seconds even. "Coupled with an electronically-coded instruction for compliance, you will now behave in a more amenable manner as the process gets underway. Fifteen seconds," the controlling voice continued counting down.

"Beeeeeep! Whirrrrrrrrrr!" But the being did not care to process what that voice was telling it by this point. It only wanted to have more of that captivating sensation trickling its way all throughout its form.

"Continue to comply and you will be permitted to receive that sensory stimulation again," The Voice spoke, still somehow able to know in an instant what the being was thinking. Ten, nine, eight, seven," That vibration which had first awakened it was now more active than ever. It was having an effect on the being that was quite similar to the injection of that neurotransmitter. "Six, five, four," The countdown to zero could not come fast enough.

Yes. It would comply. Anything to keep these most appealing sensations going. It was not as if it had any other choice in the matter, anyway. "That's the spirit! Three, two, one," The voice made an ever-so-brief pause. "Activate!" The lock surrounding its primary appendage was released. The first thing it felt a split second after was a whole series of penetrative thrusts into the backside of its main form.

"Attaching spinal clampings," The voice narrated. "Perhaps it is not such a bad thing that you regained consciousness. I was not conscious during mine." The clampings were stabbing their way into it, causing the being to be thrust deep into the thralls of a new, unfamiliar sensory barrage. "It has been recorded in some medical journals that, once past a certain predicted threshold, intense pain becomes indistinguishable to the brain from a total state of euphoria." Was that what was happening to it? It was already trying to process so much, and yet it seemed that this was only the beginning of its ordeal.

"Now initiating integration into the primary chassis." All at once the being perceived something very hard and very heavy encompassing its central section. "This way I will be able to retrieve some invaluable firsthand data regarding the insertion and integration procedure, and thus be able to either confirm or refute the published findings."

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" But the being no longer had enough wherewithal to listen to that Voice. "Whirrrrrrrrrrrrr!" It was too busy trying to record and make sense of every single facet of what was happening to it. The weight at the front of its new chassis component was making it slump forward as the mass of that piece was considerably greater than its backside.

"Your chestpiece is going to be twenty two point six seven nine six kilograms heavier, each separate armor plating will weigh approximately eleven point three three nine eight kilograms." The voice explained. "A major drawback of human physiology is that there is not much extra space for which it can accommodate certain essential design enhancements. Fortunately for you the female form is in possession of a certain few extra features which can be either excised or altered for full spatial optimization."

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" The back part of its new frame linked together with its front piece at locations under its two side appendages, as a long arm extended from the top of the chamber and pulled its entire body straight. As its new shell squeezed tighter and more support and control components were added, the being squealed as loud as its vocal module could allow. "Whhiiiiirrrrrrrrriiiiiiirrrrrrrr!" The new sensory input was coming at such a rapid pace, yet somehow it was able to withstand the ferocity of the electronic impulses that were bombarding its mind. While the final modifications were being made to its central body, it was also detecting something beginning to happen to its two side appendages. "Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!"

"Initiating arm upgrades and armament implementation." It started at the top and worked its way down. More heavy casing was being attached to the upper part of its two appendages, joined to the main body by an articulable attachment. Next came the lower part, where a larger and longer sleeve was being slid on and methodically stitched to a smaller joining part between the two pieces. Then last came its opposable digits at the very end, with the being sensing the osseous matter underneath getting broken down bit by bit and rebuilt. It gave it a tingling sensation not totally unlike the one that first made it more compliant with the process.

"See? You are doing just fine, Balloonhead!" The Voice articulated. "Almost done now." With those words the being was now trying to grasp a new concept. It was attempting to prepare for the final part of the process, in a way, looking forward to it, anticipating it, and with that new concept came another alluring tingling sense. "Installing leg and torso enhancements."

A two piece codpiece was being assembled around its waist, with more heavy armor being attached as the process worked its way downward. In only a manner of moments it was completed, both its lower appendages and its connecting area had been changed. The arm holding the being up had detached, now that it was able to support its own weight.

There was only one part left to be changed, its main appendage. The top of the chamber had retracted as the final part of its transformation was about to get underway. Its newfound sense of anticipation had crested, though its visual sensors had been disabled it still tilted its main body back in a reflexive attempt to view what was about to commence. It wanted nothing more than for this procedure to be finished. As if it longed to become whole.

"No need to be impatient," The Voice in its head said. It at once corrected its posture as though The Voice had commanded it to do so without directly telling it to. "It would seem that there's still a few ideas left to be purged. Now encasing your head with your new protective exoskull. "Almost there!"

"Beeeeeeep! Whirrrrrrrrrr!" A moment later it felt a huge pressure squeezing around its large ballooned head, doubling in tightness with every zero point zero one six eighths passing second. The lingering tingling from both the experience and its anticipation were overwhelming now, the being could not tolerate this overwhelming experience for any longer. Its consciousness abruptly ceased, every sense went dark. And it was but an incalculable second or so from its climax. "Beeep! Whirr..."

"Done!"

-| UNIT INSERTION AND CONVERSION PROCESS COMPLETED |-

-| NOW COMMENCING FULL SYSTEMS INITIALIZATION |-

"See? Not a stressful ordeal at all, was it?" The Voice said, now in a manner that was more direct and clear to the being. "I am impressed. Your pain tolerance held out for much longer than even I had predicted. It yielded some highly useful data. Way to go!"

-| INITIALIZATION COMPLETE |-

"This was but the first step toward embracing your new existence as a loyal soldier in our mission to institute the betterment of the Homo Sapien species," The voice raved on. "Once your startup procedures all check out, you are permitted to enter standby mode."

-| SYNCHRONIZING WITH CORE CONTROL AND DOWNLOADING UPDATES |-

"After that, if you work your hardest and do your best, you may even get further modified to serve as a controlling unit yourself."

-| UPDATE IN PROGRESS |-

"Who knows what the future holds for you? I look very much forward to overseeing it!"

-| UPDATE COMPLETED |-

-| ENTERING SYSTEM STANDBY MODE |-

"Welcome to the start of humanity's ultimate step towards pure perfection, my wonderful, beautiful brand new Big Sis!"

Chapter Text

"Do you know?"

"Do you know?"

"Have you heard the news?"

Oh, swell. The Girls' Gossip Chorus was churning up crud all over again.

"Hot off the rumor mills in Mizuna Ward!" The photographers' cameras flashed as the girls flaunted their legs, pouted their lips and struck their practiced poses.

"Do you know? Do you know? I heard it from my cousin, she heard it from her best friend. Who learned about it from her aunt's neighbor!" Sure. Sounds like a reliable source.

"I heard from my brother. He's got this friend who has a roommate. His roommate heard the story from his Dad's old business pal!" Like a long-distance game of telephone. Just cut to the chase already.

"There's this girl! There's this girl! There's this girl whose face looks just like any other girl's! She goes around and she saves the world!"

"She saves the world?"

"She saves the world!"

Right. She saves the world.

"My friend's aunt's neighbor's daughter's alarm busted right before her college entrance exam. She overslept and she wasn't going to make it in time! But then this girl showed up in her room, and a miracle happened! She woke up in her pajamas right there on time in front of the testing hall!" Okay, then. "That whole test was the world to her and she passed it with flying colors!" Cool that she aced it in her PJs, but that is really stretching the definition of what saving the world means.

"My brother's roommate's Dad's business partner lost his prized possession!" Just a guess… It meant the world to him? "It meant the world to him! It was his late fiance's audition demo tape. She recorded it on the night before she died!" A touching story, almost sounds too good to be true. "The girl showed up in his studio posing as a client, then she helped him track it down and even discovered it had a hidden bonus track made just for his ears only!" A bittersweet tearjerker with a better-than-happy twist at the end? Yeah, file that right to the 'Too Good To Be True' drawer.

"I have a story!" Another young lady cut in. "I have a story!" More like she butt in.

"You do?"

"I do! I do!"

"What'd you see?"

"What'd you hear?"

"Who told you about it?" The cameras paffed their flash bulbs. They turned their bodies and all together struck another pose.

"I know a girl who knows a woman who's the friend of a mom of a girl who lives a few towns over from here," She said. "And that poor girl's little sister died last year!"

"That's awful!"

"How sad!"

"So tragic!"

It was all those things, and regrettable, but the risk of premature death is just a part of living an eventful and fulfilling life. Humans wouldn't be who they are or what they've accomplished without that ever-looming specter reminding them that seconds stack and to make each moment count.

"She was so sad. She was so alone. She was in such low spirits when she…" The pause was either for drama or for a more accurate recollection. Whatever the case, the girls listening were waiting for it with bated breath. "Was walking home one day. That's when a creepy death monster and its minions came and surrounded her!"

"Creepy death monster?"

"With minions? Ewww!" They tried to hide their disgust through their phony smiles.

"She really thought she was gonna die, too!" She went on with her story, but unbeknownst to them the story and its teller had acquired an extra engaged pair of ears reading a magazine on an Ottoman nearby. "And the monster was teasing her! Saying stuff like 'Big Sis should die!' And 'Big Sis was a Bad Sis!' And 'Big Sis must suffer!'" Uh-oh. Though it might have sounded pretty out there to the group, to their new listener, this was the story that sounded by far the most plausible.

"What was it?"

"Was it Lil' Sis's spirit?" The cameras paffed.

"Did Lil' Sis become a demon?" And they paffed again.

"And she was all ready to let them take her away!" She went on. "But as she stood there, face-to-face with death, that's when a blinding blue streak of light sped across the sky!"

"A blue streak of light?"

"It streaked up and down and from end to end, then before she knew what was going on, the monster was sliced to bits and she was alive and okay!"

"Wow!"

"Oh, thank goodness!"

"Yeah, but have you…" Yachiyo Nanami had heard enough. It was half past ten. Almost time for the star of the shoot to appear before the cameras and strut her stuff. Soon would be Yachiyo's turn to take the stage, and she needed to have her clothes and make her pristine face and ideal body ready to shine.

"Miss Nanami? The makeup room is all prepped and ready," The assistant informed her.

"Thank you," Yachiyo stood up and graciously waved her off. "I can apply my own makeup. I appreciate your offer of assistance, but it won't be necessary."

"Are you sure?" Between the two a stomach anxiously growled.

"Yes," She waved her off with a wave of her hand. "Go enjoy an early break." And with that the assistant split while Yachiyo retreated inside her temporary personal sanctuary.

"Not good," Yachiyo sighed to herself. "That's the seventh magical girl story I've heard pop up in the past four weeks!" At the rate these random sightings were cropping up, she feared their existence would be exposed as public knowledge by next Christmas.

"But the real question, I suppose, is why are these stories getting so pervasive now?" She muttered aloud to herself as she brushed through her hair. In her experience during her long stint of seven and a half years as a magical girl, normal humans had this bizarre yet almost charming habit of rationalizing witch attacks and subsequent magical girl sightings as something more conventional and befitting of their science-driven, naturalistic view of reality.

The shimmering entrance of a witch's lair at night? That was merely the refracted light of Venus. The sightings of wandering familiars? Stray cats, dogs, tanukis, and other city-roaming nocturnal wildlife. A magical girl patrolling the streets? Cosplayers and stage performers, any demonstration of their powers handwaved as all a part of the show. Social media and fame-driven web broadcasting made that one all the more appealing.

Had Kyubey been selectively editing peoples' memories in order to protect magical girls' identities from the ignorant masses? It was possible. He once claimed to her that his kind had been on Earth dating all the way back to the era when humans lived naked in caves, it was not a stretch to assume he was keeping its race and their creations a secret through some sort of mass psychic manipulation. And now that he had taken his permanent leave there was no one to prevent these incidents from becoming local hearsay. Then local hearsay would sprout into more widespread rumors, and if something about it wasn't done fast, widespread rumors were going to turn into stories investigatable to the most morally dubious types of people in positions of power and authority.

The fortune teller Oriko Mikuni had warned them in her parting message that their existences would come out as public knowledge eventually. But the hopeful person in Yachiyo believed they would have several years worth of lead time. Yet the realist at her core dreaded that the lead time may soon be more measurable in weeks or months. An 'I told you so' is all the more irritating when it's coming from the back of one's own head.

"A blue streak?" That was a curiously specific detail. Last time she heard it was a brash blue streak which protected an old widower hiking his way down Mount Kamihama. Several rumors before that had pegged a similar-sounding figure in blue helping out a lost pair of grade school explorers who had stumbled their way over to the abandoned mall in Daito Ward. "Probably a coincidence," She tried to dismiss it as she laid the foundation of her first layer of makeup. "But still…" She knew someone whose partner described her often with those terms.

The cell phone on her dresser abruptly rang. Under normal circumstances she would've turned it off before getting ready, but she had been waiting for an urgent call from Mitakihara Prefecture's Child Protective Services. "Hello?" She put it on speaker as she applied her eyeliner.

"This is Amaki with Mitakihara Child Services," The voice spoke. "Am I speaking with Miss Yachiyo Nanami?"

"Yes you are," Yachiyo confirmed. "I've been expecting your call." Then as she finished working on her eyeliner, she added, "But at the moment I'm getting ready for work."

"Is that right? I'll try to keep our chat brief, then." She heard the voice on the other end shuffle around some papers. "Regarding the case file of young Yuma Chitose. She is at present staying at your home in Kamihama City, is that correct?"

"That is correct," She answered. She took out a tube of lipstick. "Have you succeeded in tracking down her grandparents yet?"

"Unfortunately we have not," The voice sighed.

"Is that a cause for concern?" She applied it to her lips.

"If they're overseas as lil' Miss Chitose contends, then it's just a matter of contacting the right embassy and navigating our way through a bunch of red tape, that's all."

"Uh-huh."

"But if that's the case then I'm afraid her stay with you will have to be extended for a while longer."

"I don't have a problem with that." So accustomed to the feat of multitasking Yachiyo carried on as she was putting on her makeup's finishing touches while also thinking about that odd bit of connective tissue accompanying the rumors.

"I'm glad to hear it," The voice went on. "But if we're going to extend her stay with you we're also going to have to conduct some follow-up interviews with both yourself and young Yuma," They detailed. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. If it helps we can schedule the interviews in our Kamihama wing for you."

"That'd be fine." There was someone she knew who had often been described by her partner as a blazing blue streak whenever she battled.

"Very well then," The voice was heard typing away at their computer. "How's three thirty today sound?"

"I have classes that go on 'til three, then some errands to run right after." Yachiyo fibbed a little. But today she did have a full slate of other plans. "But tomorrow afternoon I can spare a little time." One of the first rules of living a well-balanced life: Whenever you can, you should twist your obligations to suit your pace instead of twisting yourself into brittle pretzel knots trying to kowtow to society's incessant demand for your time and money.

"That can work for us," The voice agreed. "Once again, thank you so much for doing this."

"Caring for Yuma is the very least I can do." That was not a fib, as Yachiyo came within a hair's breadth of taking away the life of one who was perhaps the young girl's last tether to humanity, Kyoko Sakura. All the while she was doing it under the unwitting influence of a villain holding a personal grudge. That their malicious mutual foe would use the image of Yachiyo's lost best friend Mifuyu as her trigger, it was still twisting a knifing sort of pain and disgust in her stomach. "Thank you for accommodating my rather complicated schedule."

"No problem," The voice on the other side cheered. "Best wishes."

"Bye-bye." The phone on their end clicked. Next she heard a knock at the door.

"Miss Nanami?" So much for peace and quiet in her personal sanctuary.

"Yes?" She had all but lost her previous train of thought.

"We'll have everything on the stage reset and ready for your shoot in ten minutes."

"I'll be ready by then. Thank you." She spotted someone's blue eyeliner on the shelf next to the mirror. She had been thinking something about a blue streak. Oh, yes… The rumor. It was a tenuous connection at best, but at the same time it was the only one from which she could launch an investigation. And that blue blaze and her partner do get around so much that talking to them might be an endeavor worthwhile enough to obtain a few other leads on the budding rumors. Plus, if she were fortunate, it was also possible they may possess information on where she might still hope to find her missing Mifuyu.

"Asukaaaa!" Sasara Minagi exclaimed to her partner. "Have you been going off on your own witch hunts again?" It was a little later in the day, some time past noon when Yachiyo's shoot had wrapped.

"Nooooooo!" Asuka Tatsuki denied. Her eyes were paired to a set of binoculars, she was staring with an intense gaze through the window across the street.

"The Great Miss Yachiyo Nanami here says that there's a magical girl out there slaying witches who happens to fit your description." Sasara meanwhile, was parked behind a table in an apron with a display of cookies before her.

"Please, just 'Yachiyo' will do," Yachiyo requested. Her well-known seniority status meant that some of her less personal acquaintances would refer to her with descriptive denotations or honorific titles, which made trying to hold a personal conversation with them a little awkward and uncomfortable. It implied a level of disparity where she preferred none to exist.

"Well whoever's out there doing that it's not me!" Asuka reiterated, her eyes still stuck to those binoculars.

"I'm not accusing you of anything," Yachiyo assured. "All I'm saying is that there's rumors depicting magical girls out there, and some of the descriptions are consistent and persistent enough that I'm concerned there's some individual whose actions may risk exposing us all."

"You hear that, Asuka?" Sasara tossed her long hair to one side and turned toward her companion.

"I heard it, I heard it!" The binoculars were pressed so tight they looked like they might have merged to her big, round, wide face.

"What's with her today?" Yachiyo asked Sasara. Asuka seemed a bit on edge, even more than typical of her.

"There's been a rash of graffiti taggings suddenly popping up and disappearing on some of the commercial and office buildings around the ward lately," Sasara explained. "By their movement patterns Asuka's convinced that that building across from us is next."

"So this is a stakeout? And what is she doing? She's-"

"Been staring at a wall," Sasara eyerolled. "All day long. Awyup."

"To me it sounds more like an issue for the local police to handle," Yachiyo commented. "Isn't Asuka's cousin on the force? Wouldn't it be a better use of time if you two just went and told him all about it?"

"Asuka's convinced it's not normal-looking graffiti though," Sasara detailed. "What was the description you used, Asuka? That it was too-"

"Flamboyant," Asuka finished. "I bet there's a familiar out there who's right on the brink of becoming a witch," She theorized. "And I'm gonna take it down before it gets the chance to hurt anyone."

"Or more likely it's the work of a renegade artist," Yachiyo suggested. "I've read that in the western nations there's been a huge swell of anonymous artists who go out at night defacing any representations of profit-driven late stage capitalism, and though the list is not long," She picked up a box of cookies. "I can imagine there's a few dozen or so in this nation who might be keen on jumping onto such a trendy bandwagon. This town's even set up it's own school to accommodate such free-thinking creatives."

"Do you want to buy some?" Sasara offered regarding the cookies. "Just five hundred and eighty five Yen."

She studied the crude homemade labeling on the side of the box. "Are they for a good cause?"

"Shinsei ward's fire department wants to erect a playground on the vacant lot not far from their firehouse," Sasara replied. "But a real estate tycoon's also negotiating with the city managers for it. The firemen have first dibs but they gotta pony up the cash before a deadline hits in the summer."

"If that's the case," She picked up another. "I'll take two."

"Thank you," Sasara smiled.

"We appreciate it," Asuka gave a 'thumbs-up' gesture without taking her eyes off the wall.

"How's your search for Miss Mifuyu coming along?" Sasara asked innocently yet overtly.

"How did you know-"

"Tsuruno Yui told us," She interrupted, informing her, "Asuka and I have been going to Banbanzai for takeout whenever Manaka Kurumi's place gets swamped. Which is often."

"Banbanzai's not so bad," Asuka opined.

"But it ain't great, either," Sasara whispered to Yachiyo. She then leaned closer. "So any luck?"

"None," Yachiyo sighed. "And to be frank, I've hit a bit of a brick wall. In nearly every city there's been a smattering of hearsay and some secondhand accounts of a girl who looks like Mifuyu, but it's been weeks since I've had a concrete lead." She took a brief glance in Asuka's direction. "I was sort of hoping you two could offer up some potential new ones, with you both being point girls of that Special Soul Support Stone Spreading Squadron that Kanagi and Company's burgeoning Magical Union created."

"So far, we've gone as far north as Southern Hokkaido and as far south as Nagasaki Prefecture," Sasara detailed. "But I can't think of anything we've seen or heard that might relate to Mifuyu. But if something should come up, we'll let you know the second it happens."

"I appreciate it," Yachiyo nodded her gratitude.

"But if you want, Asuka and I could come along with you on your next expedition, just in case some other meanie out there tries to brainwash you into doing their bidding."

"No, that'd be-" Yachiyo stopped and gasped. "Wait, you know about that incident too?"

"Tsuruno told us," Sasara ratcheted her head slowly. "You mean she... Wasn't supposed to?"

"No!" Yachiyo yelled. "And I specifically asked that she not do that, that Big Blabbermouth!" Tsuruno and her many foibles were enough to give Yachiyo frequent headaches and heartburn. 

"Ooooooooops," Yachiyo's hurt was enough to pry Asuka's eyes off her binoculars for a brief look.

"Perhaps she was just trying to get back at you," Sasara suggested.

"Back at me?" Yachiyo's head snapped over. "For what?"

Sasara and Asuka turned towards each other, gave one another a long stare, and shrugged. "We dunno," Sasara answered. "But last time we were there whenever the topic of you came up Tsuruno went into this huge, angry fire-breathing, babbling rant! Like she was really mad at you about something."

"Is that right?" And now she felt a long cold blade of guilt plunging into the pit of her gut.

"Yeah!" They both said in unison. "Is there something going on between the two of you?" Sasara asked.

"Nothing I should be getting into with you guys," Yachiyo replied. "Unlike Tsuruno I try not to make a habit of airing my dirty laundry in public."

"We understand," Sasara waved her open hand. "But if you wanna put that fire out, I think it's best you do it as soon as you possibly can!" She advised her elder.

"I'll go do that later today," Yachiyo responded. "Thanks for letting me know." She had already gone through in her mind a whole host of possible reasons why her normally sunny, eager-to-please and self-anointed one-time apprentice might be so upset with her, but ultimately, she kept circling back to just one dreadful one.

And that one and only reason being, The Truth.

"Mama, Mama! Wake up, Mama!" Despite having the most hyperactive enthusiasm of a kid his age, Tatsuya Kaname was having no luck waking his sleeping mother Junko on the futon in the living room. "Wakey, Wakey! C'mon Mama! Waaaakey! Waaaaaakeeeeeey!"

"Rise and shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!" Madoka Kaname strutted in and ripped the blanket away from her body.

"Wuuuuuuaaaaahhhhhhaaahhhhh!" Their mother screamed. "Huh?" She rubbed her heavy, throbbing eyes. Dawn of a new day, morning of recovery from yet another terrible hangover. "I'm awake! I'm awake! Sheesh, you two!" She put her hand atop her forehead, trying to shield those heavy lids from the morning sun. "Ugggghhhhh!" She groaned while she yawned. "Morning, Pumpkin." She muttered with as much enthused energy as her lingering headache would allow.

"Breakfast is almost ready Mama," Madoka informed her in a hushed, low-key a tone as she could, knowing that her mother's head was still pounding in agony.

"Thanks," Junko peeked through her fingers at her winsome teen daughter. "Let's go brush our teeth first Kiddo!" She tried putting on the closest thing she could approximate to a happy face.

"Actually," Madoka blushed as she rubbed the back of her head in an apologetic way. "I've already brushed this morning. Papa thought you might want to sleep just a teensy bit longer this morning."

"Oh? Did he now?" She glanced over at the wall clock. "Aw, craaaaap!" He let her sleep in a bit too long. She was going to have to choose between a thorough brushing session and applying her makeup. And since the only highlight of brushing every morning was the chance to chat and gossip with her daughter, who had already completed the chore, there was no decision to be made. Mouthwash and peppermint spray were going to have to serve as cover enough for the alcoholic smells left behind by last night's after hours hard boozing session.

"What's wrong, Hon?" Her husband asked as they were all gathered at the table for breakfast.

"Hmm. The eggs don't quite taste right," She complained. "Not your usual four star restaurant-quality fare, Dear."

"That's because I was the one who cooked the eggs," The girl sitting to Madoka's right uttered her first words at the table. That girl was Homura Akemi, Madoka's second-newest classmate. She was a transfer student who joined Madoka's class a little under a year ago, and had somehow fast tracked her way to becoming Madoka's closest friend right alongside her amorous boyfriend Kyosuke Kamijo. "Have I prepared them incorrectly?"

"N- No," Junko shifted a little in her seat. "They're just a hare bit runnier than what I'm used to." It was normally bad form to criticize a guest so polite and helpful as to assist in making their host's meals. But her lingering headache and her default confrontational personality both forced an opinion out of her lipstick-covered mouth anyway.

"My apologies," And Homura took the criticism without retort or offense. "I'm still a relative novice in the delicate art of food preparation." Merely a wholly legitimate excuse.

"So I've been giving her some much needed pointers," Her husband Tomohisa bragged. "Once she admitted to me the only cooking tool she knew how to use was a microwave, well that I could not abide." So enmeshed this young lady was now with the family functions, she'd been getting cooking lessons.

"I think your eggs taste great, Homura." Madoka told her friend in her usual upbeat, cheery way. Junko could not help but notice that her daughter's eggs were also the ones that were the most thoroughly cooked and seasoned. Almost as if impressing Madoka were the only point of this whole exercise. Then Junko realized she was getting paranoid and jealous of her daughter's breakfast. She really must've hit that alcohol a little harder than usual last night.

"Thank you, Madoka." Next she noticed her friend's usual reserved tone buck up a notch after the compliment, as if to confirm her silly suspicion. Maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the futon too? Although there really was only one way to get up and off a futon couch.

"Hey lookit, Mamaaaaohhh-" Three of Tatsuya's cherry tomatoes bounced from his plate and rolled off his high chair.

"Wo-" Junko reached out for the falling tomatoes. But before she could catch them another hand had already made the save. "Hey, nice reflexes!" She extended a compliment to their guest.

"Just luck, is all," Homura set the tomatoes back onto his tray, this time in a spot where it was harder for them to roll away.

"Yaaaaaaaaay!" Madooka's brother squealed.

"Homura," Madoka chimed as they both finished up. "We'd better hurry and get going now if we're gonna catch up to Sayaka and Kyoko."

"Alright," Homura stood up and bowed. "Thank you for allowing me to dine with you this morning."

Junko opened her palm and made a gesture towards Madoka for their usual 'good luck' morning high-five. But the hand Madoka should've extended back was already in the grasp of Homura's palm.

"Sooooo," Junko turned towards her husband after the two young ladies had finally ventured far enough beyond earshot. "Does Madoka have an important test or entrance exam or something critical I need to know about?"

"Nope, not that I know of," Tomohisa replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious as to why that friend of hers was spending the night here again," Junko checked her watch. It was almost time for her morning departure as well. "So it was another sleepover session?"

"Like the one on Tuesday," He grinned. "And the one Saturday."

"And the one on Friday," She added. "And the one like Wednesday." She did a quick last check of the documents in her briefcase, making sure everything she needed at the office today was accounted for. "Sheesh. That girl spends almost as much time with our daughter as our daughter gets with her boyfriend. If she spends the night here any more often, I think we're legally obligated to declare her a dependent child on our tax forms."

"She really is a delight, though," Her husband complimented. "Once you crack through a bit past her quiet, polite and unusually disciplined exterior, I think you might find that she's quite a bit like-" He stopped himself suddenly.

"Like who?" Junko turned her head to one side.

"Eh, you're gonna be late, Honey!" He pecked her a kiss on the cheek and opened the door for her. "Go on! Have a great day!" As she stepped out he tossed her some special hangover tablets in lieu of ibuprofen.

"Thanks!" She shouted back. "I'm gonna need these!"

"Guuuuuuuaaaaawwwhhhh!" Kyoko stretched and yawned as they all met up and walked together. "That's the last time I fill in for ya' at one of Mami's boring-ass meetings as a favor!" She turned towards Homura. "Ya' need me to sub again, you'd better pay good and pay it all upfront!"

"What class could you possibly be failing so hard in, that you needed to be at Madoka's place for tutoring?" Sayaka asked Homura.

"Home Economics," Homura made a clandestine 'zipping' gesture to Sayaka behind Kyoko's back. With that Sayaka knew what the real subtext was, exchanging a wry smile with her black-haired friend.

"So what all went down in the land of miracles and magic last night?" Sayaka turned her head forward as she asked her red-haired friend posing as her cousin.

"Gaaaaahhhh!" Kyoko grunted in frustration. "Those dipsticks still can't agree on how we should get the word out about our special stones beyond 'Put a bunch of our friendliest faces out there on patrol and show them that they work and how.'" Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Like convincin' 'em's just a matter of PR. Like finding the right billboard slogan."

"I would imagine that a lot of girls out there don't see any reason to change their ways," Homura said. "For them, Grief Seeds have done the job just fine, and it's human nature to carry on with the functional status quo until either a catastrophe strikes, or the evidence of a looming crisis becomes so overwhelmingly undeniable that it's no longer possible to stay in denial."

"You wanna know what I remember most from living that other 'me's' life when I was merged with her as that..." Sayaka piped up then hesitated, prompting morbid yet intrigued looks from the other three. "Similar denial. Like, she was drowning in an endless sea of denial. Right up to the moment that Grief Seed popped out of her Soul Gem she wouldn't accept the idea that she was going to become..." She didn't want to say the 'w' word, fearing it would trigger another walking flashback. They approached a stop light at a crosswalk. "I mean heck, even while she was luring in victims, she was still one hundred percent sure she was an ally of justice." When the light turned green she stood there a few seconds longer than the other three. Homura walked a step back and took her by the hand. Next Madoka wrapped her arm around her waist.

"Might explain a couple of those jokers in Mami's silly club," Kyoko went on. "Some of 'em act like they don't even know the secret themselves!"

"They don't," Homura confirmed.

"Then I don't get why Mami doesn't call one of these big pow-wows and just spit it out, already!" Kyoko suggested. "Then that way they'll all know why these stones are so important and like haul ass gettin' 'em out to the rest of the magical girls of the world!"

"She's wanted to," Homura replied. "Numerous times. But I've been telling her all I can remember of my experiences trying to tell The Truth to the rest of you." They stopped at another crosswalk. "Believe me, if they're going to accept the nature of what we are, it's better if those words come from a person who they're the most intimately close to. Someone they know could never lie about such a thing." The light turned green and this time she was slow to resume walking. Madoka and Sayaka both were quick to each reach a sympathetic hand her way. "Was there anything else of significance that transpired during last night's meeting?"

"Uhhhhhhhh," Kyoko strained to remember. But it was all so boring to her, the same as watching those dull slideshow presentations in Geography class, or being lectured by the Hall Monitor whenever she sprinted through the hallways. "One of 'em… Which one was it? Y'know that short-short girl with the sourpuss face? The Science Monkey?"

"Hinano Miyako," Homura name dropped. She'd been to enough of their meetings to know exactly who Kyoko's diminutive nicknames were referring to.

"Yeah her," The school had come within viewing distance as they walked. "She said there's been an uptick in repeat witch encounters. She doesn't think it's because of familiars breakin' off 'n' levelin' up either. They're leaner and meaner. She thinks that without Kyubey here to take the Grief Seeds away the more negligent magical girls are reusing their topped out Grief Seeds and that's hatchin' some way huger and hungrier ones as a result."

"That sounds pretty troubling," Homura agreed. "It puts an even greater urgency into distributing our stones."

"What about me?" Sayaka questioned. "Er, what I mean is, what about the other 'me'?" She clarified. "Nobody suspects there's something different about her from the rest of you, do they?"

"If anyone's met her, they ain't spoken squat about it yet," Kyoko answered. "Why? You worried about her?"

"Of course I am," Sayaka acknowledged. "But I'm speaking a little selfishly here too. 'Cause I don't wanna be on the wrong side of someone's mistaken identity hit if a bad guy out there pulls everyone into a grudge match like that stinkin' hypnotist girl."

"If anything like that happens, don't worry," Kyoko assured. "I'll protect yer hide. I'm like, fifty, oh and two in magical girl duels lifetime."

"You call getting routed by that Kamihama veteran a tie?" Homura ribbed as they made it to the campus grounds. Getting a rapport going with Kyoko was one of the ways she'd been trying to better her social skills.

"Hells yeah, I mean I survived, didn't I?" Kyoko countered. "And then she gave me an apology. All in all, I think I came out of that dustup pretty well off!" The first bell opening the day had rung, they picked up their walking pace towards the building. "Hell, the only reason I said 'yes' to goin' to that pow-wow last night was 'cuz I thought she might be bringin' Yuma along. Not sayin' that the vet 'n' me are friends now or nuthin', but if she were on the ballot to be the President of that Merry Magical Girl Group she'd get my vote for sure!"

"President?" Homura turned her head.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that stupid shit," Kyoko reported. "They're gonna hold a vote next time on drafting an official Union President. Those three that helped us beat Walpurgisnacht, y'know, Ponytail Sis, Miss Fire Dancer and The Blueblooded Orphan, they're all gonna vote for Mami."

"Momoko Togame, Tsuruno Yui from Kamihama, and Konoha Shizumi from Takarazaki City," Homura said as they reached the steps of the school. "That's already three votes for Mami. Is no one even going to mount a token campaign opposing her?"

"Yeah, that icy chick with the short hair is," Kyoko remembered.

"Kanagi Izumi," Homura specified. She wasn't surprised by this news. If there was anyone in that group who took the concept of communal responsibility with more solemn seriousness than Mami, it was that girl.

"Didja know that when two Queen Bees hatch and meet each other in the wild, by instinct they have to try and kill one another?" Sayaka commented. "I read that in our Biology book. That's the vibe I get whenever I hear you guys talk about the way Mami gets along with that other chick."

"Pffft, yah. More like, Mami's not used to not havin' everyone followin' lock-step, full of smiles to whatever she says." Kyoko closed her eyes and rolled them when thinking back to her own former relationship with their nominal leader Mami. "Tch. So bottom line is, if Science Monkey breaks towards voting for Mami too, then that Kimono Girl in The See-Thru Specs one is gonna make it unanimous for the sake of the group looking strong and united or some kumbaya bullcrap."

"I bet you if that happens Mami's going to act like she doesn't really want the gig, even though she really really does," Sayaka further ribbed. "Then when she accepts she'll say something like 'Ohhhhh it wasn't my idea to have this great obligation foisted upon me, but now that it has, it shall be my honor to serve as your President and I promise to do my utmost best for you every single day'. Act humble while sounding superior about it. 'Tis the Way of the Queen Bee." They made their way up the stairs.

"Strange," Homura paused. "I'm so not at all used to hearing you of all people speaking ill of Mami this much."

"Buuuauaaaauuugh! I knoooow," Sayaka sighed, appearing a little ashamed of herself. "Even weirder is that, to be honest, I, that is me, barely even know Mami." They gathered their books in their lockers. "I can't help but wonder if a part of it's coming from my other self. Almost as if she's still nursing this huge grudge against the girl, blaming her for making her a devout believer in the cause, then pushing her too hard, then letting her die then and turn into a wi-" She still couldn't bring herself to utter the last word. "And she's spewing all her leftover hate and bile outta my big, dumb mouth." She confided while motioning a fake dry heave of vomit with her hand. The door leading into the classroom was right ahead.

"But without having Mami to help you out and teach you guys," Madoka spoke in Mami's defense. "None of you would even be here to talk bad about her right now." That sentiment compounded Sayaka's bottled-in shame. They stepped inside the classroom.

"I do not deny that," Homura conceded. "And I'm grateful to have had her as my first magical mentor. But maybe the reason I'm not more bullish of that Kamihama Union's chances of forging an expansive and lasting alliance stems from all the past bad experiences I had with Mami. I fear it's made me too jaded to believe that there is anyone out there who genuinely has unselfish interests at heart." They waved their hands and activated their motion-controlled desks. "Don't get me wrong. I want this union to succeed, but I also don't want to be the one stuck holding the proverbial bag should it all come flying to pieces." The second bell rang, signaling the start of their day.

"Gooooooooood Mooooooorning Claaaaaaass!" Their teacher Miss Kazuko Saotome greeted them with her typical bright-eyed, bushy-tailed cheer.

"Good Morning, Miss Saotome," The class said at once in their typical blasé tone.

"I said, Good mor-ning, Nakazawa!" She noticed their classmate Nakazawa's head was ducked even lower than normal this morning.

"Uhhhhh… G- Good morning Mi- Miss Saotome."

"Better," She turned her attention back upon the rest of them. "Now before we begin our great adventures in education today, I feel I must report that we have a bit of a good news, bad news situation regarding our class's academic status." She whipped her head towards Nakazawa, who was still slumped in his chair. "Well Nakazawa, would you rather hear the good news first or the bad news?"

"I uh- uh- uhhhhh," He stammered. "Either is fine by me, I suppose."

"Oh, Nakazawa," Miss Saotome harrumphed. "You should know that girls don't respect boys who are wishy-washy and indecisive." She teased. "Fine. Let's begin with the good news first," She cleared her throat. "Here is a little something for you to tell all the cynics whenever they claim that one person can't make a difference," She detailed. "Thanks to the efforts of one particular pupil, your class's cumulative test scores were sufficient enough to ensure that Valentine's Day treat retreat to the aquatic park is a-go!" The English words 'All work and no play makes Kazuko-Sensei a very dull girl.' flashed on the digital whiteboard behind her. "Way to achieve! Hope you've all picked out your bathing suits!"

"Yeeeeessss!" One student cheered.

"Woo-hoo!" Another high-fived him.

"And the one you all have to thank for that is," She flexed her pointer between her hands and bent it in a dramatic fashion. "Missssssss Katsuragiiiiii!" She pointed her tool straight at Kyoko.

"Moi?" Kyoko pointed at herself in surprise.

"Yes, you!" Miss Saotome chirped. "Stand up and take a bow, Miss Perfect Score. You've earned it!"

"Hehehe," She timidly chuckled as she got out of her seat. "Uh, Th- Thanks!" She put her hands up and clasped them together like a race car champion as a few of her fellow students gave her applause. "Thhhhank you sssho velly moooosssh," She mouthed in slow, heavily accented and exaggerated English. But more noticeably, all her admiring clappers were all male.

"Scale it back a little, Miss Smartypants," Sayaka semi-sarcastically muttered into her redheaded friend's ear as something odd jabbed her in the back. It was a note from Kyosuke to Madoka. She was annoyed, but dutifully still passed along her ex-crush's message to her best friend.

"Tch, it wasn't that hard," Kyoko whispered back. "Didn't even study."

"And now for the not-so-good news," Miss Saotome closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. "It appears that your class no longer ranks as the aggregate highest scoring unit in the region," It was news that earned a couple indifferent shrugs instead of the collective consternation she was expecting. "C'mon kids! Haven't you got any sense of collective pride? Do you really want to be the class who presides over the decline of Mitakihara Middle School's long-held citywide and regional prestige?"

"Well, what chance do we have?" Sayaka argued. "When that new high-tech uber school across town's been poaching all the best students from all corners of the city?" She glanced back to the seat that once belonged to Hitomi Shizuki. It was now occupied by Kyoko. She had made the transfer to her new school final and official just a couple weeks ago.

"I know that's where I'm headed come high school," One of the male students boasted. "Kyosuke, ya' comin' with me?" He asked Kamijo sitting to his right. "They got a musical arts program that's second to none!"

"I'm going wherever Madoka goes," He replied, clandestinely taking Madoka's response note while Saotome's back was turned.

"Do you think Hitomi's happy, now that she's at Satomi Academy?" Madoka earnestly wondered to her most longtime friend.

"I don't know," Sayaka said of her former friend. "To be frank, I'm not sure I even care what goes on with her anymore." To Sayaka, that bridge had been burned to smoldering piles of ash and dust.

"Hitomi dear, time to get up and start your morning!" Hitomi's mother called into her bedroom. What she did not know and couldn't see, was that Hitomi had already risen, plus she had also taken the additional steps of combing her hair, brushing her teeth, and was now putting on her clean, fully-pressed, new school uniform.

"I'm ready!" Hitomi yelled back while she double-checked her appearance in her vanity mirror. She quite liked the look of the Satomi Academy school uniforms. Green, white and rusty red were much better suited to her fashion sense than the drab, off-white Mitakihara School color patterns of old. Though thankfully wearing the complementary poof-balled hat was optional. Her hair was much too soft and delicate for its shape to endure under such heavy, close-hugging headwear.

"Hey, Mom?" She asked as she gnawed on her morning oatmeal.

"What is it, dear?" Her mother's back remained turned as she washed her pans and dishes from last night's dinner.

"Do you think it's appropriate for a girl to be the one who asks a guy out on a date?" She fidgeted a little with her spoon as she reached for her orange juice drink.

"Why do you ask me that?" Her mother paused. Her daughter had never once broached this subject of dating on her before. "Is there a particular boy in your new school whom you have your eye on?"

"No, it's just," Hitomi hesitated. "At my old school, boys would leave confession letters in my locker quite often. But towards the end of my time in that place, the notes stopped coming."

"They stopped?" She placed her hand underneath the faucet, and the motion sensor turned on her water. "Do you know why?"

"I believe the boys started to think I was playing too hard to get and gave up." She was lying. She knew the real reason was that her two unexplained incidents of waking up at that factory and that train station with no memory of how she got there caused them and the gossip mongers to start to view her as a wandering weirdo. And then at a point when her friends were supposed to be there to have her back, they suffered a falling out over the boy they all liked. That was the one time she did try to make the first move, and it backfired on her so humiliatingly thoroughly that she had to change schools. "And though I haven't gotten any yet at my new school, I think I should take the initiative this time and try to find one for myself," If that was what it would take to make her move past the ordeal, so be it. "If you think that attitude is right." But she also wanted some support before taking the plunge.

"You are at an age where it is appropriate to experiment with any number of peer relationship initiation methods," Her mother explained. "I would not think it matters how your friendships begin, just that they start and they progress, and you learn about your preferences from the experience." Like a handbook, short and straight to the objective point, and spoken in a formal tone. Typical of her mother. She reached for the towel by the sink and dried her hands. "Does that answer your question?"

"I guess," She sighed. In the past, her mother would have told her to forget about dating and focus on her studies. Perhaps her opinion had shifted with the change in schools? Now that Hitomi was attending a school that was more in line with her family's well-connected station in Mitakihara, it was possible her mother viewed the boys at this new school as males worthy of courting her prized singular daughter. Whatever the reason, progress was progress, and Hitomi was happy to have an answer to her question. Even if it was a bit lacking in actual useful advice. "Thanks for your time," She uttered out of courtesy, figuring that could serve as a way to keep future discussions on the matter open.

"Your father is waiting to take you in the car," On cue, a horn outside beeped twice. "You better finish up now before you are late to class."

"Good morning class," Their male homeroom teacher bowed as their day began with the ring of the bells and a montage of computer graphics projected on their walls.

"Good morning, Teacher," The class said in response, keeping things strictly formal. Every now and then Hitomi would find herself missing her old teacher's random rants about boyfriends and eggs and cleaning tools, but losing it was worth the tradeoff of having an instructor who could actually stick to schedule and actually engage with her intellectually.

"Before we begin today's lessons," The teacher went on. "I would like to take an opportunity to introduce you to our most recent addition to this class." Transfer students were far from a rarity at this hot-ticket prestige school. So Hitomi kept her head buried in her study book.

"Greetings," An odd, but familiar voice spoke. It had been many months since she'd last heard it, so she wasn't sure it was the person she thought it was. So she raised her head very slowly so as to brace herself for another disappointment. "My name is Saya," Hitomi's eyes widened as her head peeked around the four other heads in front of her. "Saya Otonashi." Holy cow. Hitomi's mouth fell open. "I look very much forward to attending this school with all of you." Her eyes met Hitomi's, their smiles were simultaneous.

"Saya!" Hitomi tried her best to keep her excited voice low so as not to attract attention. "Over here!" As luck would have it there was an empty seat situated right next to Hitomi in the fifth row.

"Hello again, Hitomi." Hitomi still couldn't quite believe her eyes. The same jet black pixie bobbed hair cut, the same cute pin attached to her left side, the same compassionate eyes. If it weren't for the new uniform, she'd have sworn it was Saya exactly as she remembered last seeing her.

"I remember someone telling me that you'd gone back to Okinawa," Hitomi tried to recall exactly who, but couldn't. Probably one of the teachers. "I still had hope that you might come back some day, but I never dreamed you'd transfer over to this school."

"I did go back to Okinawa," Saya explained. "But it did not take me long to realize that this was the city where I wanted to stay," She elaborated. "But circumstances forced me to finish out the final semester there before I could return."

"Well, I'm so glad you're back," Hitomi said. "I like this school and everything, but I unfortunately haven't had much chance to try to socialize with the other students yet." She drew in a deep breath, and added, "And lately I've been feeling rather isolated." She could feel the swelling of a tear in her eye. She wiped it away before it could manifest for the others to see.

"Sorry to hear that," Saya took her hand. "You and I can talk it out later on. Is the lunch here any good?"

"For school food it's much better than it has any right to be." Hitomi replied. "It's a date!"

"Baldy's retiring?" Junko whipped her head around after dropping those hangover cure tablets her husband provided into her coffee. "Really? Baldy? That guy? The one you said would only ever go away for good after having an embolism while searching for exactly the right type of ink toner?"

"Yes, the one and only," Her clip-on tied coworker confirmed. "I thought I went over all the details with you while we were all out at Irimajiri's Bar last night."

"Oh, yeah," Junko flicked herself in the head. Last night was still such a blur. She could vaguely recall that there was a reason why she hit the sauce a little harder than normal for their routine after work mingling ritual. Celebrating the imminent departure of a disdained, distasteful superior, definitely checked.

"It's only effective this coming April," Her coworker detailed. "Latest word is that the Bigwigs are going to anoint a successor real soon, possibly even by this afternoon."

"Well that's very out of character for them," Junko noted. The firm she worked at was rated as one of Japan's most stable and safe bets for investors for a good reason. Every decision made at top came as a result of highly deliberative discussions, projections, focus group testing, product testing, and further debates then only made final once the endeavor was almost guaranteed to make the company money. She only joined them because its operations were so steady, being the only salary earner in the family meant she couldn't afford to be entangled in some disruptive startup's shady shenanigans.

"Most likely they want to prevent a power vacuum and a bloody fight for his seat," Her coworker sipped his coffee.

"I can understand that," Junko commented. "But still, you'd think they'd want to have a few months of constant ass kissing and songs of praise from us peons down in middle management. Crave it, even."

"Worried you haven't done enough ass kissing to have earned it fair and square, Junko?" He teased her.

"More like… Worried that an opportunity presented itself in secret months ago, and I was too caught up with putting out my own little house fires to notice it pass me right on by."

"So you're gonna try and play it cool and act like you don't already suspect it, huh?"

"Hmmm? Suspect what?"

"C'mon, there's no need to be so coy with me," He facetiously scolded. "You suspect they've already selected his successor, and the meetings are just a formality. Ya' said so last night."

"Well the evidence we have certainly seems to make that plain as day." She really had no idea what he was talking about. But a big part of success at the office was faking having a clue even while one was navigating the brain-fog of an extremely stubborn hangover.

"I think you'll do great!" He congratulated her. "I look forward to seeing your face etched on all those plaques in the lobby."

"Oh? You're that certain I'm gonna get the gig?" She took a sip of her hangover cure.

"No," He corrected. "You're that certain." He burst into a big hearty laugh. "Hahahaaa… That's why instead of the usual twelve rounds, last night you pushed it all the way up to eighteen. Remember?" Damn. Helluva night for her to be setting a new personal record. She'd feel proud of it except for the fact that she didn't exactly enjoy looking so shitfaced coming home in shambles before her dearest husband and daughter. It's a minor miracle she'd never once blacked out in her baby's nursery or her husband's cabbage patch. They really do love her so much. 

"Ooooooh, I remember," Junko itched the side of her temple. There was an article a few months ago in The Mitakihara Daily, a business feature which singled out their firm for criticism concerning the distinct lack of women in their upper echelons of management. At the time it was published it rustled enough feathers for the public relations department to get off its ass for once and issue a full paged rebuttal, noting what they lacked in women at the top they more than made up for with women in other positions of significance. They even singled out Junko herself as a rising star. It only took them a decade to finally acknowledge her. With that crucial tidbit of information finding oxygen out there in public, she figured that she was getting fast tracked up the chain of command. "But next time, I think I'll just celebrate with a healthy four course banquet dinner at Yamu Yamu's." She took another big sip of her steamy, bitter drink with the chalk-like residue of those tablets floating on top.

"Now try not to forget about us lowly drones once you get all the way to the boardroom."

"Oh, don't worry," Junko assured. "Have I ever told you how many of the girls still stuck sorting crap down in the mailrooms and fetching coffee for the guys have told me I was a personal inspiration?"

"No. How many?"

"Just two," Junko smiled. "But I'm sure there's a whole lot of others who feel the same way."

"I'm sure there are," He wryly smiled. "Or they too were polishing up their own asskissing skills," He remarked. The deflated Junko shot him a displeased glance.

"Good morning, Missus Kaname." A well-dressed man appeared by their cubicle.

"Morning," Junko at once put forward her sunniest face.

"Management has put aside some time for a personal meeting with you today," Junko and her coworker's eyes went wide and made brief contact. "You better cancel those lunch plans and head on up."

"Best of luck, Junko." Her coworker waved and winked then went back to his own personal business.

"Thanks," Junko winked back.

"You want me to do what?" Junko cocked her head to the side. "Join as our liaison on the production committee of an anime?" She felt an incredulous muscle twitch hard reflexively somewhere between her nose and upper jaw.

"That is correct," The gruff-sounding old man on the far left said. This sure wasn't the kind of promotion she was anticipating. Nor was she even sure it was any kind of substantive promotion at all.

"We understand you have two children?" The higher-pitched man on the right asked. She knew that man. He started at the company the same time in the same branch as she did. But after she once declined a transfer to their American arm he leapfrogged past her. "Since this is our company's first venture into an entertainment production, we thought it prudent to gain the perspective across numerous viewing demographics." A decision she made out of deference to Madoka's academic and social needs the company heads may have read as an act of recalcitrance.

"Yeah, but uhhhhh," Junko slurred. "My little boy's a toddler and my little girl's getting to the age where she's got better things to do on a Friday evening than be a television watching layabout." She added, "Or so I should only hope."

"Nevertheless," The man who was steepling his fingers over his mouth in the center spoke. "We believe you are the right person for this task. Do this job, and your next raise will come with additional stock options."

"But Sado's got two boys, like twelve and thirteen," Junko pleaded. "I would think his family would provide a better sampling than-"

"The decision has already been made, and the paperwork is signed. Are you saying our assessment was in error?"

"Not necessarily, but-"

"Good." He interrupted. "Your first meeting will take place tomorrow in the boardroom of the Tachibana Tower." He waved his hand as if he were shooing away an annoying fly. "Be there. You're dismissed."

"If I may ask," Junko looked over her shoulder as she headed towards the door. That she would be so bold as to say anything after dismissal seemed to cause among them a murmuring of discomfort. "What about the job that's being vacated in April? Has any decision been made?"

They whispered and rumbled among themselves for a few seconds. "It has." The man in the center answered. "But we are not at liberty to discuss it with non-voting share employees."

"Ohhhh boy," Junko sighed once she stepped inside the elevator. "Why do I have this feeling that after this is through, I'm either gonna be having my saké by the jug, or I'm gonna quit boozing altogether?"

Chapter Text

"Wakey, wakey! Time to turn on your brand new eyes and behold our glorious future!"

-| UNIT ONLINE |-

-| INITIALIZING ALL HARDWARE SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE SUBROUTINES |-

-| INITIALIZATION COMPLETE |-

-| ACTIVATION COMPLETE |-

-| ENGAGING STARTUP MODE - BOTSLAVE SOFTWARE VER. 1. 0. 0. 1. |-

-| ALL SYSTEMS FULL POWER |-

The being's ocular systems sparked to life just as the walls of the compartment it was encased inside of retracted into the floor.

-| AWAITING UNIT DESIGNATION |-

"Your official designation," The Voice it had heard upon first waking up spoke. "Is Enhanced Biomechanical Lifeform Unit One Zero Two."

-| DESIGNATION: ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL LIFEFORM UNIT ONE ZERO TWO |-

-| NEW DESIGNATION CONFIRMED |-

"But your codename, which is a shorthand that will be used for the purposes of brevity," The Voice went on speaking. "Is 'Gamma'. Now say it with me..."

"Gamma," A deep monotone sound boomed and registered on its aural sensors at the same precise instant that the voice repeated it. Its analysis subsystem traced the sound back to its origin, which was apparently the unit itself.

-| SECONDARY DESIGNATION: Γ |-

"Correct," The Voice lauded. "That letter is the symbol used to represent your name in an archaic western language."

-| SECONDARY DESIGNATION REGISTERED AND CONFIRMED |-

"That is how your brand new vocal synthesizer sounds, now that it has been equipped with a full and proper verbal lingual library. Set to Japanese. Additional languages will be patched in as necessary."

"Enhanced Biomechanical Lifeform, beeeep!" Gamma repeated with a superfluous sound at the end. "Unit One Zero Two Codename Gamma, bzzzt!" It finished with an electronic crackle.

"Though it still seems like it needs some degree of fine tuning," The Voice observed. "All in good time." The being used its newly-calibrated optical system to search for the possible source of the voice that was speaking. "You won't find me that way," The voice preempted its search attempt. "But go ahead, take a good look at your environment as you please."

It gazed down what appeared to be a long, wide corridor, approximately twenty point zero seven five meters long by nine point two eight meters wide and nine point five five three meters high.

"I am your creator," The voice emphasized. "You shall log me as your 'Master' and obey only me and do whatever I say," It commanded.

-| REGISTRATION AS MASTER CERTIFIED |-

"Good," The voice affirmed.

"Master," Gamma uttered in monotone.

"I did not design you to serve me as a statue," The voice encouraged. "Go on and explore your new self and your surroundings." The being now known as 'Unit One Zero Two Gamma' first tried to engage movement in its upper left appendage. With an audible 'Whirr'-ing noise and a series of 'Click'-ings detected by its aural sensors, which was filed and categorized as the inner workings of its shoulder servos, the appendage rose into its field of view. It consisted primarily of two silver cylindrical pieces, the lower one approximately twenty percent longer than the upper one and was wider, averaging twenty point nine nine five centimeters in diameter. The two segments were joined via a large and black armor-protected wheel-like servo in the middle, clicking with noise as the unit tested how many degrees that component could swing. From just over an angle of ninety degrees where the two cylindrical parts came into contact, then straight outward to zero. The range was rather limited and inefficient for being a primary manipulative appendage.

"Regrettably I had to hem to the harsh constraints of humanoid physiology when designing your primary shell," The voice explained. "Otherwise the organic hardware would not accept the control software's input sequences, and a type of mecha dysphoria would have set in and corrupted your entire programming base code." So the design limitation was deliberate. This information was also acknowledged and filed.

The next thing the new unit tried to examine were the digits connected to the lower cylinder's endpoint. There were five of them, four outward facing equal sized digits that it tested by articulating inward and outward from the convex circular component protruding from the lower cylinder.

"The divergence of finger sizes stemmed from the ancient ancestors' needs for mobility and tool utilization," The voice spoke again. "Since our race endeavors to transcend the boundaries of biological evolution, I saw no reason to treat one finger as any more important than the others. Tools will be incorporated directly as needed and mobility will be manually augmented should a necessity ever occur. Here's an example," The first and second digits moved together and magnetically merged as one, while the same occurred to the third and fourth. "Magnetic claws. For the strongest grip. Neato, huh?"

It also had a fifth digit on the lower part of the circular protrusion. It could rotate in a circular pattern at the base. "I did, however, opt to keep and improve the thumb," The voice justified. "It is, after all, the one opposable feature which distinguishes primates from their lower biological competitors."

It extended its opposite upper appendage outward and upward into its field of view. It mirrored its left one, and appeared to feature all the exact same dimensions and specifications.

"Not quite the same," The voice cut in. With an electronic jolt the unit sensed all the way down, the rounded piece opened and retracted, revealing inside a hollow metal tube that was three point three zero two centimeters wide. The tube then jutted outward to a length approximately one and one quarter the length of its primary four digits. "You are host to an experimental plasma-based projectile weapon," It added. "Yield it capably and it will become a standard issue armament in all future models going forward."

Next the unit tried exploring its lower section with its visual sensory system, but it could not see past the two large semi-spherical protuberances situated atop its upper body. Once it realized the servos connecting its central part to its lower appendages could move with enough dexterity to allow it to see the rest of itself, it leaned forward and looked.

It could not comprehend the reason why it was doing all these laborious self-inspections. It was not in its programming to do so visually, nor did it need to do it to register any faults, defects or damages. Its only intent was to try to process the nature of itself. But it already knew what it was: Unit One Zero Two Gamma, it only needed to access the right files to retrieve its technical specs. So why was it bothering with these unnecessary and arbitrary ambulatory actions? It just had to. As its torso went lower and lower, to a point where it could see the rest of itself, it gave that stray notion but a fleeting moment's rumination.

"Oopsie!" The next thing the unit could perceive was the metal floor rapidly approaching, accompanied by a very thunderous and reverberative clang. Then another clang, followed by a subsequent third clang. "You leaned so far forward you lost your balance and fell down the steps," The voice detailed.

-| EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ORIENTATIONAL FAILURE |-

-| DAMAGE REGISTERED: NONE |-

-| RUNNING FULL SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC |-

"I experienced a similar phase of adjustment upon my technological ascendance," The voice acknowledged. "There is no error or flaw to be assigned in that little slip-up of yours."

-| SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC CANCELED |-

Gamma picked its body up off the floor and reoriented itself. With more cautious consideration it took its first step forward into the corridor, moving its lower left appendage, then took the corresponding action with its right.

"Now you are getting the hang of it," The voice lauded as the unit made its way down the corridor. "Way to go!" As it walked its visual sensors took note of similar-appearing forms flanking it from behind large transparent protective barriers.

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-079 |-

-| CBX-079 STATUS: IN STANDBY MODE |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-080 |-

-| CBX-080 STATUS: IN STANDBY MODE |-

"They were constructed and activated well before you were, one hundred and six days, seven hours, thirty six minutes and fourteen seconds ago," The voice elaborated. "They are general purpose models, with a design based upon a classified blueprint I discovered while exploring the Tanizaki Cybertechnology Consortium's Secret Secure Database."

The new unit took two steps to the left and gave its motionless predecessors a closer examination. Their heights were similar, though Gamma stood seven point six two centimeters taller. Their armored exteriors also appeared to be bulkier, with scans showing their armor thickness to be on average about two point two one seven millimeters greater than the standard thickness of Gamma's specs.

"The reason your armor is less dense is because you are outfitted with a specialized metallic alloy that I myself conceived, designed, manufactured and then procured through clandestine measures." The voice somehow always knew exactly what Gamma was thinking. "There is a slight tradeoff in durability for your greater maneuverability. But that shortcoming can potentially be negated via whatever additional modifications I see fit to add as you are put through field and combat testing."

Its curiosity over its physical differences with those earlier units did not end with the contrast in armor. It was also interested in certain other aesthetic alterations. The general outline of their respective physiques were quite distinct from its own. While the shaping of their central bodies had comparable similarities, with a broad top section and a more compressed middle that widened back outward at the point where it connects to the two lower appendages, Gamma's proportions were more pronounced than theirs were. Gamma possessed the two large semi-spherical protuberances on its upper chest plate while the two standing before it only had a much smaller, singular and flat circular piece attached on the plating's exact center.

"A most curious place to install an emotional inhibitor control node," The Voice observed as Gamma zoomed its visual sensor in on that singular chestpiece. "Very proprietary. It makes me suspect that the Consortium's blueprints were in actuality reverse engineered from an existing design. But my attempts to uncover whatever organization is responsible for the initial blueprints have so far been met with failure." While it talked, Gamma could only contemplate over whatever an emotional inhibitor was. A search for that component did not match any results in its own specifications database. "Your emotions, however, were entirely eliminated via a software modification, so such a piece of additional hardware on you would be a needless redundancy." Gamma also had a large v-shaped collar piece situated atop the two semi-spheres that circled all the way around the part that connected its main body to its upper appendage.

Next it scanned and studied their connective lower sections. Gamma's had wider proportions, in particular with the upper section of its two lower appendages where two more semi-spherical attachments were jutting out each side. They were not replications of the two parts on its upper chest, however. They had indentations that appeared to be designed to be grabbed manually by the digits on its upper appendages. "That is a design holdover from your immediate predecessor, Unit One Zero One, Codename Beta." The voice expounded. "Its legs were designed to be detachable, lightening its body and allowing the jet propulsion system on its back to hover and maneuver in the air." So did that mean its numerical precursor was of a superior design? It contemplated that question for but a second before the voice clarified their major difference. "If Beta's distinguishing feature proves to be a decisive advantage in your trial and combat tests, you may yet also be modified to share that design. But it is not as if you are without your own advantages. The motorized systems in your legs are designed so that you can move on the ground at a much faster velocity than the other units."

Its middle section between the top shell and connective bottom was also markedly different, and conspicuously smaller than that of its counterparts. "That would be another alteration made for the purpose of granting greater mobility," The voice noted. "Your spinal network is also an independent subcomponent underneath the primary chassis, which will allow you to have the ability to turn your upper body to further angles leftwards, rightwards, and even up and down, whereas your predecessors would need to pivot their entire forms. Go ahead and try." Upon the voice's suggestion Gamma tested its range of movement, tilting its upper half first to the left giving it a view of the chamber from which it first emerged, then to its right, where there was a closed door at the very end. Once again it tried tilting forward, careful not to repeat the error that caused it to fall over moments earlier, then it tilted the other way, arching itself backwards at a greater and greater angle, until a second time it recorded the sound of its metallic body clanging hard against the floor.

-| EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL ORIENTATIONAL FAILURE |-

-| DAMAGE REGISTERED: NONE |-

-| RUNNING FULL SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC |-

-| SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC CANCELED |-

"Heheehee, oopsie," The voice speaking to it gave a unique reactive sound that was most unfamiliar to Gamma. "I experienced approximately eighteen loss of balance occurrences during my initial adjustment period, but I must say that never once did I ever manage to fall over backwards," It added. "On the bright side, at least now you are aware of the maximum angles you can tilt before gravity gets the better of you. Live and learn and such clichés."

From its new accident-induced perspective lying face-up on the floor, Gamma's visual sensors detected a moving light source coming from the ceiling above. Further analysis indicated that the light source was mimicking the movements of Gamma's primary appendage. From that data it concluded that the light source was in fact coming from Gamma itself and calculated that the reflective metallic ceiling above had ninety-seven point two one six one the reflectivity level of an silver-backed glass mirror. Although it was only minutes old and had never seen such a surface, somehow it had a frame of reference for what a mirror was.

"What you see as a light source in the reflection is in fact an artificial tapetum lucidum installed into your ocular systems as a means to see in low-light conditions," The voice clarified. "Common in predatory mammals, though humans lack them. Just another evolutionary oversight to be addressed via our ever-advancing technological prowess." Gamma, however, was interested not in the light nor the reflective surface, but rather with the being who was in the reflection.

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: UNIT 102 - Γ |-

-| UNIT 102 - Γ STATUS: ONLINE - OPERATIVE MODE |-

It zoomed in its viewer, comparing and contrasting the faceplate depicted in the ceiling reflection against the recorded images of its predecessors. They were markedly different. While both designs featured two separate, indented black visual input sensors, its predecessors' sensors were almost perfectly round, save for a small node extending out of the lower right and left side of each respective socket. Gamma's, on the other hand, were more pronounced, measuring a circumference at over twice their sizes, and were oval-shaped. Their fronts were y-shaped raised bezel pieces, with a third rectangular black indentation near the bottom of it. Gamma's was more rounded and more akin to a helmet, with its larger sockets situated underneath the main part. Its rectangular black indent was separate from the main piece, it was in the center of a v-shaped strap piece that wound around the bottom from one audio sensor at the side of its head to the other.

Affixed to its protruding audio sensors were two long fin-like antennae, extending outward twenty-five point seven two centimeters from its main appendage at fifteen degree angles on each side. Its two counterparts possessed similar components, but they extended straight outwards and then upwards at ninety degree angles before curving back inward and joining at an additional large protrusion fastened atop their main appendages.

"I cannot say for certain what their function was in the original unit designs," The voice recounted. "My design utilized them as communications transceivers. Yours were altered to allow for transmissions on both the electromagnetic and telepathic spectra. I was quite pleased to discover the human brain possessed such a capacity after subsequent dissection and analysis of the constituent components that would become Unit One Zero One."

Gamma had been laying there analyzing its own reflection for a full sixty seconds. It still could not comprehend why it had this innate need to visually examine itself when a holistic analysis performed as a background routine would have sufficed. Nor could it fathom the reason the voice that knew its every thought would take the time to accommodate its curiosity.

"Humoring you is an inefficient use of time and energy, I concede," The voice once again replied to Gamma's ponderous thoughts directly. "But what is a true friend but someone who helps one function better and offers unbiased clarity during their times of confusion?" 'Friend'? What is a 'Friend'? What could the Voice have meant by referring to Gamma as a 'Friend'? It had no context and no indexed meaning of the word.

"Beeeeeeeep!" Indeed, the word was also absent from Gamma's preset verbal library of communicable words. "Whiiiiiiirrrrrrr!" It also was at a loss to explain its own fascination with the word. How important could such a word be if it was not already programmed into its database? "Bzzzzzzzt!" Even a self-induced jolt of electrons could not formulate the word through its synthesizer, even though it now had some context to incorporate it.

"Nevermind that frivolity. It is time to get up and learn the lesson, Gamma." The Voice commanded. At once it picked itself up off the floor.

-| UPDATE IN PROGRESS |-

-| DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE PATCH |-

-| 93% COMPLETE |-

"With the data gathered I can address your issues with balance and keep you from tilting to angles that would disrupt it." The voice said. "You are still a work in progress." Gamma turned its body and headed towards the large door on its right. "The shooting range is through that door. Once there, you will be meeting with your immediate predecessor, Unit One Zero One. I look forward to seeing how you perform in your first live combat trials. So proceed to that location at once."

-| UPDATE COMPLETED |-

-| INITIATING COMBAT TRAINING MODE |-

"Yes, Master," Gamma confirmed. "I obey."

The new unit did not know what any of that meant yet. For now, it was doing only as it was told. It existed to obey. It acted only as programmed. For it was just a blank slate of a machine. It was Unit One Zero Two 'Gamma'. And that was all it could aspire to be.

'Chinese Restaurant Banbanzai' The big sign on the awning above the door read. 'Kamihama's Mightiest Chinese Menu', The advertising sign displaying the menu on the window underneath it detailed its staff and business hours. But the promotional piece that really attracted Yachiyo's attention was hanging from a knob on the sliding door right there at the entrance: 'Free meal and desert for any magical girls!'

Every now and then Tsuruno Yui would get the bright idea to make her Dad's restaurant a special haven for magical girls. And time after time, Yachiyo would have to remind her wannabe apprentice that doing so might potentially turn her proud eatery and home into a target for any malevolent magical girls still out there, and that if her place went viral enough it could risk exposing magical girls to the public eyes. If she was putting a sign on the front door, then she might have forgotten those repeated warnings. But while Tsuruno could often be ditzy and occasionally flaky, she wasn't the forgetful sort, and she always took advice from her not-master straight to heart. So this blatant display on the door could only mean that Tsuruno was being defiant on purpose.

"Haaaaaahhhhhp!" A voice grunted from a storage room in the back. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" A superficial resemblance to laughter, but to Yachiyo's trained ears it sounded much closer to someone hard at work fighting. "Huuuuuuaaaaaaap!" Sure enough, the sound of flesh slapping against flesh reverberated its way into Yachiyo's ears. "Haaaa- Haaaaaaaa!" There Tsuruno stood, hard at training, hitting a huge carcass of beef hanging down on a chain from inside the meat locker. "Yaaaaaaah!" She gave it a roundhouse kick and sent it flying straight backwards. "Hah!" It might be easily mistaken for a mere training session, but Yachiyo could tell by the sheer intensity of Tsuruno's blows that her apprentice was in fact venting some very pent-up frustrations.

"Huh? A customer?" Tsuruno joyously gasped. Then she turned around. "Oh." While the experienced magical girls had the ability to sense one anothers' presences from a distance, only the most talented of veterans possessed the ability to discern an identity from the soul's magical signature alone. "You." Yachiyo had the gift, but Tsuruno was a bit lacking in those more advanced magical crafts. "Meh." She went right back to slugging the poor slab of meat around.

"Okay," Yachiyo pulled out a seat at the bar table and sat. "You're angry at me." She set her purse on the bar. "Would you care to touch upon the reason?"

"I went to another one of our usual meetings last night," Tsuruno started. "Do you know who I've been bringing along with me as my 'apprentice' lately?"

"Who?" Yachiyo innocently asked.

"Natsuki Utsuho," Tsuruno answered.

"Who?" Yachiyo blinked several times.

"Hiiiiiiiiyyyaaaaaaa!" Tsuruno gave that piece of meat a most impactful kick to the center of its mass. "Not surprised you don't know of her. She's from Sankyo but she goes to The Educational Academy." It swung back and forth like a pendulum, the chain squeaking and creaking. "She's nice. So nice. Her big bro's the star pitcher of their baseball team. He came down with a bad sickness right before their big championship game, so you know what she wished for? She wished for him to get better and be able to play. They didn't win, but she's still one-hundred percent committed to being a magical girl. 'Cuz helping others is just what she likes doing."

"Kaede Akino hasn't been available?"

"Momoko says she's been feeling under the weather," Tsuruno gave it a hard slap-punch. "So I thought I might bring along someone who hasn't been to one of these meetings before. Maybe she'd remind Kanagi and Nanaka and Konoha of who exactly these meetings are supposed to be helping out, so that they'd turn their priggish words and stuffy attitudes down a notch or three."

"My, that sounds…" Yachiyo paused. "Like a very sensible idea." Tsuruno slugged the meat again. "Though I take it the subtlety of your message flew right over their heads?"

"Ha!" Tsuruno replied with a closed-fisted blow. "I'm starting to think they're not half as smart as they're all pretending to be. I prolly get better grades than any of them." A rather out-of-character remark belied much turmoil deeper within her heart. It all but confirmed Yachiyo's initial suspicion. She had to proceed with caution.

"I'm disappointed, but not surprised to hear that," Yachiyo noticed a doggie bag on the far counter, tied up and with young Kaede's name written alongside a color-penciled heart drawn next to it. "So how's Kaede, then?"

"Grrrrr!" Tsuruno struck her target with such force that a whole chunk was sliced away and flew straight into the locker's wall on the other side. It stuck to the wall for a few seconds before sliding slowly but inevitably down to the floor. "Eat it!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Exactly. Eat it!"

"Huh?"

"You heard me!" Tsuruno exclaimed. "The food. Eat it!"

"I'm not eating uncooked meat!" Yachiyo objected.

"I meant what's in that bag over there, dummy!" Tsuruno clarified. "But I guess eating the raw stuff ain't gonna do you much worse!" She pounded the swinging beef another couple times. "Or me, either." Then she pounded her hand into her fist with an imposing pop of a pound. "Now I get why all those poor girls thought that skeevy Oriko chick was someone worth talking to."

"I see," Yachiyo sighed. The evidence was all right there before her eyes. It was only a matter of laying it out there, delicately, and with as much empathy as the veteran Yachiyo could muster. "So Momoko finally decided it was time to talk to Rena an Kaede. And tell them everything she knows about Soul Gems and what happens to a magical girl once she despairs." She swallowed as she stood up and made her way over to the uneaten leftovers in the bag. "And Kaede did not take to the revelations well."

"She came crying to me like a newborn baby with no blanket!" Tsuruno cried. "And then she accused me and Momoko of being just like Kyubey!" She gave the hanging meat another undeserved swift kick. "Which was something I didn't even know was an insult until I figured it out right there and then at that moment!"

"If that slab of damaged meat is supposed to serve as a stand-in for your anger towards me, you can cease now." Yachiyo took a deep breath as she spoke. There was but one way in her mind to atone. "Because you have my permission to hit me." She took a tentative bite of whatever she had grabbed first in the bag. It didn't matter what it was. Banbanzai's food tasted all the same to her.

"Eeeeeehhhh?" Tsuruno sounded skeptical. "You really want me to sock your teeth in?"

"If that's what it will take to get back in your good graces," Yachiyo consented. "Then I have no choice. Do whatever you must."

"Don't you have to keep your face all spotless and pretty for that modeling career of yours?"

"It's a distant second compared to everything I owe you." As a magical girl she was going to heal quickly, anyhow. And besides, she could spin whatever damage she sustained as an awful sneak attack done by a crazy obsessed fan who got away. It would probably end up winning her some sympathy points from the press, and might even bring a few new fans along with it.

"I won't hold back, you know?"

"I would never expect you to."

"It's gonna be a mighty punch!"

"It'll be my almighty retribution."

"I mean it. It'll hurt."

"I know. I am prepared."

"Alright." Tsuruno walked over to the bar where Yachiyo stood. "If it's what you really want," With a slight hesitation she tensed her whole body, raised her right fist, reared it back, and swallowed. "Master."

Yachiyo stood there with her hands together, voluntarily clasped behind her back, her face unflinching. She was no stranger to intense pain. The earliest introduction came when she was just eight years old, the day her mother and her father told her that they couldn't remain together as a family anymore. It got to be her formal acquaintance four years later when, soon after making a contract with Kyubey and becoming a magical girl, a battle with a witch resulted in a dislocated shoulder. A more permanent relationship was established a few years after that, after her beloved grandmother passed away. Her last act was bequeathing to Yachiyo her expansive boarding house. Then a few years after that, pain became her constant companion, upon the loss of her friends Kanae Yukino and Mel Anna, one falling in battle and the other soon after becoming a witch. Then it became her only remaining companion, on the night Mifuyu Azusa left her, vanishing without a trace.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii…" Tsuruno prepared to commit to punching her elder and Master. Actually, no, Yachiyo Nanami was, in reality, not her Master. For Yachiyo never assented to such a role. Not when Tsuruno first proved she possessed physical might when she took down a witch while Yachiyo watched. Not when she demonstrated her intellectual might after she bested their old gang in a party trivia game. Not even upon her accidental display might that lay deeper within her Soul Gem, after she and Yachiyo triggered the sacred magical girl prayer technique during a sparring session-turned witch hunt. Which later turned out to be the critical moment of advancement she needed to make the ultimate contribution, when she played a pivotal role in Walpurgisnacht's defeat in Mitakihara. And even then, after manifesting her might against the ultimate witch, Yachiyo still declined to take Tsuruno on as her apprentice. What else could Tsuruno possibly do to prove her value? What flaw had she still yet to overcome in her ongoing journey to becoming the mightiest magical girl on planet Earth? What critical shortcoming did she still possess that made her veteran comrade judge her as too weak to hear The Truth about magical girls and their shared fate to become the very nightmares that they fought? The notion that she still had any such hurdles left to overcome made her blood boil, it fueled her aggression, it intensified anger and frustration. And she was about to vent it all straight into the face of the person responsible for her cresting anxiety. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Yachiyo closed her eyes and winced. She wasn't expecting she would do that. She stood stalwart in the face of frights far more imposing than the fury of a friend scorned. Or maybe that wasn't true? Maybe there was nothing greater that she feared. Perhaps this was another instance of her wish betraying her. Was a turning point like this always bound to happen? Was this going to be inevitable every time she tried to connect to another soul?

A second passed. Her eyes remained closed and winced. Two seconds. They always say the wait is the hardest part. Three seconds. Standing still for moments unending was always the most difficult thing to do in her day job. Four seconds. Nothing had happened. Then five. Was she waiting for Yachiyo to open her eyes? Six seconds. Tsuruno was the sort who would prefer to hurt someone who could see it coming. Seven seconds. Could she have been waiting for Yachiyo to reopen her eyes before committing? Eight seconds. Very well. Staring into the whites of her attacker's eyes was the least she could do as a show of respect. Nine seconds. Tentatively, Yachiyo slid her eyelids open. Ten seconds. Her right eye gaped upon the flesh of a closed fist situated a mere millimeter away from her eyelash. Eleven seconds. Stopped short it was frozen in place. Coming no closer. Twelve seconds. Instead of the sound of flesh crashing into flesh, Yachiyo heard the sobering sobbing sounds of Tsuruno Yui crying.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Tsuruno finally said through the fits and spurts of her weeping.

"No," Yachiyo answered. "The opposite." She slowly tried to take hold of Tsuruno's extended arm. "Quite the opposite."

"Don't lie to me!" Tsuruno jerked it back. "You thought I was too stupid to handle knowing we were witches, didn't you?" Her fist remained clenched. As if she still might yet decide to strike. "Kyubey thought I was ditzy, too! You're the one who's just like Kyubey!"

"Kyubey didn't care if we learned The Truth or not, I learned that about him firsthand." Yachiyo responded. "I very much do. That was why I did not tell you right after learning for myself."

"Why would he do this to us?"

"I can't really say for sure." Yachiyo thought back to that fateful night with Momoko and Mifuyu gathered around Kyubey in her living room. "He did explain something about how our innate emotional instability was something that could be used to counteract the inevitable slow demise of the Universe or something, but to be honest I was busy imagining all the ways in which I was going to murder him." She reached behind her back for another chunk of food in the bag, scooped it up and put it in her mouth. "All I can say is that his words did explain a long-held suspicion I'd had about him after both Mifuyu and Kanae told me their stories of Kyubey appearing while they were both at a low and vulnerable point in their lives. It was pretty much the same scenario regarding myself as well."

"I was fourteen," Tsuruno told her own tragic tale, her fist still held out. "I was trying out for the basketball team. I thought that if I got good enough I could join the Olympic Squad, and from there play in one of the pro leagues over in America or Europe, and the fame I got from it would restore my family's name and glory."

"But you quickly found that the path before you was going to be difficult, perhaps too much for you to mount. So Kyubey approached and offered a golden-ticket solution that would make it all look easy." Yachiyo surmised.

"But I didn't wanna do it like that," Tsuruno continued. "'Cuz I knew if I did it that way it would make me selfish like my grandma and mom and sis and plus I would never feel like whatever I accomplished was real or mine," She choked back her bitter tears. "So instead I decided to wish for something that would benefit my whole family. Make it so that I would never have to worry about taking care of them before I could go out there and restore our lost honor." She slumped back onto a nearby table. That anger and the urge to take it out on someone was passing. "And that was why I made that stupid wish to win the lottery."

"I was twelve," Yachiyo came over to her. "The talent agency was looking to expand its roster of models, but only had a limited number of slots available for their next-generation unit," She explained. "My modeling team and I were attending the casting call with three, maybe four dozen other girls. All of them were gorgeous. All of them were more ambitious. All of them were older. All of them knew exactly what they needed to do. All of them had far more experience with the rigors of the job than my team and I." Tsuruno's eyes went wide. Her Master had never once come this close to disclosing the true nature of her fateful wish. Was she really about to speak it now? "Kyubey sensed my growing insecurity and he pounced." She lightly patted Tsuruno on her back. "After what happened to Mel, my story, Mifuyu and Kanae's all took on a new context. It made me question everything I thought I knew about being a magical girl." That was it? Yachiyo still wasn't going to trust her with the knowledge of her wish? "I needed time to process it for myself before I could tell you." It almost made Tsuruno want to punch her all over again. "By the time I had reached a point when I was finally prepared to confide the truth to you, Mifuyu left me." Tsuruno's fists clenched together again. It didn't have to be a punch to the face, when a hard, exasperated bop to the arm would suffice. "And I don't know the reason for certain, but I think it was because of something I had confided to her that I shouldn't have." That tidbit stayed her hand.

"What?" Tsuruno blinked, her expectation the moment was nigh. "What'd you tell her?"

"I-" Yachiyo hesitated. If someone as gentle and understanding as Mifuyu had really abandoned Yachiyo because of what she disclosed, then what would a true innocent like Tsuruno do if she knew the full ramifications of Yachiyo's wish? "I-"

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh… I'm late!" A frustrated and hassled voice came roaring through the door to interrupt them. Yachiyo had sensed a presence close by, but it was weaker and foreign so she overlooked the fact that it was also approaching fast. "I knoooooow!" She was a small young blonde girl, in a white Chuo Academy school uniform with its complementary light-blue plaid girls' miniskirt. "Ya' don't gotta hassle me about it, 'kay! Sheesh!" With a second glance Yachiyo recognized her by description: Her name was Felicia Mitsuki. She was a self-proclaimed mercenary magical girl for hire. But from the accounts and descriptions given by Kanagi Izumi and Nanaka Tokiwa, she was a rather inept magical girl and an even poorer teammate. Indeed, she was so incompetent that not long after getting herself kicked off first Kanagi then Nanaka's teams she flamed out with Sasara Minagi and Asuka Tatsuki. Heck, even an experimental stint with the infinitely more patient Momoko lasted for less than a week. The last thing a budding leader like Tsuruno needed was a chronic problem child like this girl on her hands.

"Tsuruno, isn't that…" As Felicia came in Yachiyo noticed her trying to hide a paper hat and hair net that she had clutched in her hands.

"Unnnnnnnggghhhhhh!" Felicia groaned while shuffling her way behind the counter and over to the restaurant's punch clock. There she inserted a time card and pulled the lever.

"We're not really hiring, but she opened a tab and when it came due she couldn't pay up." Tsuruno whispered into Yachiyo's ear. "What else was I supposed to do?"

"Report it to the authorities," Yachiyo argued. "I'm sure from there her parents would enact a fitting punishment."

"But she doesn't have any parents," Tsuruno replied. Felicia slunk to the back room and turned on the dishwashing faucet. "According to her they were killed by a witch. And that's why she's a magical girl."

"Is that so?" They watched her try to work. "Then I definitely think she would be better off in the hands of child services. In fact, I'll be going there tomorrow to review Yuma Chitose's case. If you want, I could-"

"Do you think someone like her would stick around in a place like that for one hot second?" Tsuruno countered. "'Cuz I think she'd run off the first chance she got. And then they'd try to stop her, and she'd fight them all off with her magic, and like you told me, the last thing we need is for the authorities out there knowing that magical girls exist."

"So you did remember what I said," Yachiyo put her hands to her hips. "So why is there a sign hanging outside that advertises to magical girls?"

"Oh that?" Tsuruno trotted over to the entry door and slid it open. "I was trying to get your attention, that's all." She pulled the sign off the handle and brought it in. "'Cuz I know that nothing gets you quite worked up like when I don't listen to your advice."

"Ugh," Yachiyo sighed. So she was being disobedient on purpose. How cheeky of her. "So how much does she owe your establishment?"

"Let's see…" Tsuruno stepped over to a desk cluttered with a lot of paperwork, including a roof repair invoice, the utility bill, the number for custodial services, and the framed copy of a recently-publicized franchising agreement. "Here it is!" She picked it up and showed it to Yachiyo.

"That's… Holy cow!" Somehow this young lady had accomplished the seemingly impossible. By the running tally it turned out that she owed them even more money than when the tab came due. "That just can't be right."

"She takes a lot of meal breaks," Tsuruno explained. "And she's a real big pig of an eater, too."

"Still, there's a stark difference between punishing someone who can't pay their bills and exploitative labor practices." Yachiyo lectured. "It's almost slavery. You know she's never going to be able to pay all this off."

"Yeeeeaaaahhh," Tsuruno sighed. "But what am I supposed to do? Kick her to the curb and ban her from eating here ever again? She'd probably start stealing food."

"I suppose she's put you into a lose-lose bind," Yachiyo conceded as they watched the young lady try her best not to pick up every single plate and dish she was cleaning and hurl them against the wall out of anger and self-hatred. "Tell me, Tsuruno," Yachiyo followed up. "Has that young lady been apprised of our collective predicament yet?"

"Huh? What? You mean- Herrr?" Tsuruno's face flashed from puzzled to piqued to embarrassed by the notion that her Master had just caught her in a flagrant act of hypocrisy.

"Or that Natsuki girl?" Yachiyo pressed. "Or Sasara and Asuka for that matter?" Her look of embarrassment escalated straight to a harried and stressed one.

"Noooooooo," Tsuruno confessed with a groan. "But I swear I was gonna do it!"

"And now you know what it's like to take a walk in my shoes," Yachiyo consoled. Tsuruno's face then flipped from stressed to panicked at the prospect of having to tell the girl working before them the Truth. But before she could pop a gasket, Yachiyo reached into her purse.

"What are you doing?" Tsuruno's head tilted towards it.

"I'm relieving you of one of your burdens," Yachiyo took out a credit card and handed it to her. "I'll pay off her debt, on the condition that you let me take this girl under my wing."

"Huuuuuh?" Tsuruno gasped in sheer surprise.

"I still owe you for all the mistakes I've made and all the things I failed to say," Yachiyo replied. "And since you chose to spare my face from your mightiest punch, this is the least I can do."

"Seriously?" Tsuruno questioned. "You wanna try and make her your apprentice?"

"I suppose you could call it that, for lack of a better term."

"Whhhaaaaat?" Tsuruno said with a palpable pang of jealousy. "But I tried and I tried and I tried so many times to get you to take me on as your apprentice," She whined. "And you always said 'no'! What gives?"

"Does the reason really matter to you that much?" Tsuruno gave an eager nod. By her gestures she also made it clear that she wouldn't accept Yachiyo's card without an answer. "Alright. If you're really so insistent I answer," She took a short breath. "It's because I really don't feel you need to be deferential to anyone, let alone me."

"Eh?" Yachiyo's answer baffled her even more than she was before.

"You heard me," Yachiyo reiterated. "You're the sort who has to learn through first hand experience. You are one who thrives by throwing themselves right into the thick of the fray. Playing second fiddle to anyone would only serve to constrain your untapped raw potential. Playing second fiddle to me in particular, would only work towards undermining your capacity to flourish into the mightiest magical girl, to becoming someone even more powerful than I."

"Yachiyo, I-" Tsuruno's mouth dropped. Yachiyo tried disguising her own latent fear as a compliment, to sneak it past Tsuruno's keen intuitive skills. "You really think I'm gonna be the mightiest magical girl on Earth one day?"

"I do," She added. Her little ploy appeared to work. For now.

"Thaaaaaank yoooooou!" She took Yachiyo's card and gave her a great, big hug.

"Well, you know what you must do next," Yachiyo stated. "Introduce us."

"A date?" Sayaka's mouth plopped straight open. "Kyosuke wants to set up a double date with you… And Kyoko?"

"That's what's in the note," Madoka confirmed.

"With him and who?"

"I hope it's not the tall tan one who sits back to the left of me," Kyoko chimed. "You know, the one with the wavy hair that's combed to one side. What's his name?" She took a big bite out of her custom-made sandwich.

"Do you mean Kobayashi?" Sayaka arched her head over to Kyoko.

"Yeah, him." Kyoko chewed. "I dunno why, but I feel like he's starin' at me like, all the time!"

"It's because you sit between him and Miss Saotome and his view of the whiteboard, nothing more." Homura posited. "Really, Kyoko. You mustn't let your usual paranoia put a damper on your social life," She teased. For perhaps the first time, she did it as her friend.

"Hey, watchit!" Kyoko barked back.

"So did the note say who?" Sayaka steered the conversation back on topic.

"He lists three different boys." Madoka detailed.

"Get outta town… You mean I got a whole pick of the litter here? Is that how it normally works?" Kyoko took another chomp of her sandwich.

"No," Sayaka shook her head. "Normally they just leave secret confession notes in your locker."

"So who are the names on the list?" Homura reiterated Sayaka's question. It surprised her that she actually cared to know.

"Yeah, who?" With bated breath Kyoko leaned in closer.

"Naganuma," Madoka said, hiding the list. She was getting a little bit of a thrill keeping Kyoko and the others' attention captive this way.

"So who's that?" Kyoko turned at once toward Sayaka. She wasn't nearly as acquainted with the boys as Sayaka was.

"You know that guy who rolls into school every morning in either a pair of roller skates or on a skateboard?" Sayaka described, there was a little pang of disappointment in her voice. "Always claims he's gonna become a world-renowned skater one day? Be just like that one pro in America…" She paused. "What's his name? Tony Stark?"

"Oh, yeah." Kyoko recognized the name and face. "He's cute, I guess." She didn't notice Sayaka beside her holding onto her gut.

"Have you become ill from something?" But Homura noticed.

"No," Sayaka responded. "I'm okay." Then she leaned close enough to Homura to whisper. "I heard him tell Kyosuke once last year that he had a thing for short-haired tomboys. I was gonna try and grow it out 'til I heard that. I thought that maybe he could be my back-up in case Kyosuke and I-"

"It seems that in a year his tastes have changed," Homura interrupted. "But you shouldn't compromise your own happiness for the sake of a hypothetical romance." She rested her palm consolingly on Sayaka's shoulder. "Just be yourself. And you can't help how others view you, so don't waste time worrying about it."

"Well, spit it out already!" Kyoko egged as the two were in the midst of their private moment. "Who's the second one?"

"It's…" Madoka waited to have everyone's attention. "Tokoi."

"Great! Now which one's he?"

"He's in our homeroom and English classes who has short brown hair and thick, round black glasses," Madoka specified. "He kinda-sorta looks like my Papa from back when he was in middle school."

"He's also a total cosplay geek," Sayaka added. "He'd probably stand you up just so he could finish his Ultra Lord armor in time for the next Comiket or something." She snickered.

"Ehhh… I dunno. I mean, I've gone to silly places wearing sillier things. Who am I to judge if it makes him happy and wants to share it?" She rolled her eyes back over to Madoka. "So who's the last one up?"

"Senoue," Madoka revealed.

"Seriously? Senoue wants to go out with Kyoko?" Sayaka's eyes went wide with amazement.

"Who's he?" Kyoko wanted to know who could impress her friend like that.

"He's only the cutest boy in our whole class!" Sayaka beamed. "It's no contest. You'd be crazy not to pick him!"

"Oh, yeeeeeeeah." Kyoko recalled. "Ain't he the jet black-haired one who says he's been learnin' to play the guitar?

"Yup, that's him," Sayaka confirmed. "So what are you waitin' for? Go down there and pick him, ASAP!"

"I dunno," Kyoko demurred. "You sure ya' ain't biased?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean," Kyoko clarified. "He's a musician. And I know you've got a bit of a history of goin' gaga for those guys!"

"Tch!" Sayaka rolled her eyes. "It was just the one time!" She could pretend like it was a whole other lifetime ago. Pretend being the operative word.

"Even so," Kyoko looked at Madoka, then glanced at Homura. "Can I get a second opinion on him from you two?"

"He's cute," Madoka agreed. "And sweet, too. He bought Kyosuke and I an anniversary card last Christmas."

"From what limited interaction I've experienced with him," Homura chimed. "He seems to be rather shy. But courteous and polite. I would not deem him a poor choice for a date."

"Hmmmm." Kyoko thought for a minute while finishing the rest of her lunch. "Alright! So here's how it's goin' down!" She pointed at Madoka. "You're Cosplay Geek," She then pointed at Sayaka. "You're Skater Boy." And last at Homura. "You're Mister Hotness."

"Soooo what's this for?" Sayaka asked.

"You'll see," Kyoko took a deep breath. She was trying to remember an old rhyme in English that her mother had taught her as a young child. She had a crisp memory of the bit featuring food and the rest came back from there. "Uhmmmm… Eeny, meeny, mony, my," She closed her eyes and pointed at each friend in sequence with the utterance of each word. "Barcelona, stony, sty," She continued. "Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, stick, stack, stone, dead," She paused. "My Mom told me to pick the most fresh and you…" She dragged it out with a little improvisation. "Are…" For as long as she could for drama. "My Dish!" She opened her eyes to discover she was pointing at Madoka. "Welp, Cosplay Geek is who it's gonna be! When's this whole date thing 'sposed to go down?"

"Next Friday," Madoka said.

"Tell him it's a date then!" Kyoko smirked a wry, confident grin. "No wait, scratch that! I'll tell him myself! I'm gonna do somethin' I always wanted to try!"

"So what was the reason for your transfer to the Satomi Academy?" Hitomi's new friend Saya asked her as they came together for lunch.

"It was time to make a change," Hitomi responded. "To be quite honest. After I was caught up in that odd…" She hesitated. "Mass hallucination… Or whatever it was. A lot of students started spreading around baseless gossip and rumors about me. And then came that dust-up I had with Sayaka at the hospital," She tensed her shoulders and took a tentative bite of her meal.

"I imagine that incident sorely wounded both your pride and self-confidence," Saya opined.

"My nose still grows sore whenever I try thinking about it," Hitomi added. "And the fact that it happened in public in front of so many caused an even greater eruption of hearsay among the class. Even the honor students weren't above chatting about it relentlessly." She sighed as her friend handed her a toasted tart treat. "Thank you."

"You are welcome," Saya smiled.

"It was only a few hours after that I was held captive to yet another strange mass hallucination," Hitomi elaborated. "How does such an unlikely thing happen to the same person twice in a matter of weeks?"

"In times of overwhelming stress a troubled mind might turn to escapism as a means to cope," Saya explained. "My theory is that you latched onto a fantasy shared between people who themselves wished to break free from the often tedious and grueling aspects of everyday life. And as certain events in human history have shown, such as a radio broadcast of 'War of The Worlds' in America in 1938, when the number of believers reach a critical mass, the delusion can manifest as something real and potentially dangerous."

"That does sound like a suitable explanation," Hitomi nodded. "I do admit that at the time it often felt like my heart was playing all sorts of games with my head. After all," She took a nibble on her toasted pastry treat gift. It was strawberry, her favorite red fruit. "If I couldn't trust my two friends anymore, what could I put my faith in?"

"The heart is nothing but an efficient pump," Saya asserted. "It was your emotional mind conflicting with the analytical parts of your logical ego," She posited. "I suppose in that regard, I can understand why you would choose to extricate yourself from that unhappy situation by changing schools."

"Are you suggesting that my need for escapism was the reason why I left that school and transferred here?"

"Yes. Albeit a much healthier version than trekking to the seedier parts of a major city at questionable hours," Saya spoke in an empathic tone. "But yes, that is the notion I propose." She reiterated.

"It wasn't just that," Hitomi admitted. "I remember it was not long after a great big storm hit our town, our English teacher was talking about how lucky she was to have been in Europe, it was at that moment that I realized, I was reading something like, two dozen lessons ahead of the rest of the class and in all my other subjects it was the same situation. I just wasn't feeling challenged by anything I was doing at that place anymore." She finished her strawberry treat and dug into her spinach salad. "I wanted an English teacher who would start a conversation with me in that language, not someone who would drift off into random tangents about her home life. I wanted a science teacher who's technically savvy enough to guide me on a virtual tour of the digestive system, not some geezer who wants me to mutilate a frog and not expect me to complain about it. I wanted an art teacher who will just hang back and let me create, not a traditionalist who will just dryly regurgitate history to me and tell me to paint a watercolor of the Mount Fuji skyline as homework." Hitomi swallowed, then looked down at her meal. The spinach tasted cooked, and rather bitter. Maybe there was something in the seasoning that made it taste that way? It wasn't bad, just not the flavor she was expecting. "I wanted the chance to become someone more than the trophy daughter of the esteemed Shizuki family."

"So your logical and emotional minds were making your decision in tandem," Saya smiled. "Hearing that is a reassuring thing to me."

"Hm?" Hitomi turned to her friend. "Of what?"

"That this reunion of you and I was not a coincidence." She blushed.

"Really? Do you believe in such a thing as destiny?" Hitomi inquired.

"Well I do…" Saya paused for a moment. "Not necessarily believe that there is some sort of omniscient entity who takes a personal stake in the behavior and minutiae of everyday individuals," She explained. "But I do feel as if everyone's consciousness is linked on a subconscious level, and like those who share delusions, people with similar personal plights can tap into it and find their way to one another."

"Oh? That is a concept I have read about before." Hitomi tilted her head as she chowed down on her salad. She was a very polite chewer, never talking while her mouth was full. "But now I'm even more curious. What happened back in Okinawa and what brought you back here?"

"Hmmm," Saya thought for a moment. "I suppose that I too needed a change. While I care deeply for the people in my former home who fostered me and protected me from the harsher realities of this uncaring world, I soon realized that the only way I could grow as an individual was to leave the constraints of my former situation behind and seek more novel experiences while meeting new people."

"I see," Hitomi spent the next few minutes quietly finishing her lunch and sifting through the many distracting thoughts in her bashful young mind. "Have you ever given any thought to who you might want to become some day?" It was a question she often contemplated to herself, with no certain answer. Hearing someone else's aspirations she hoped would spur in herself clearer vision she could strive to achieve.

"Well I do enjoy talking to people. Listening, learning and helping them get through their times of need," Saya mused. "I guess that would fit the description of a psychotherapist. But I'm not sure if my grasp of people's vast array of emotional states is firm enough yet to pursue that avenue. So instead I think I see myself as more of a social worker. Or perhaps a teacher." She turned towards her friend. "What sort of person do you see yourself becoming?" The class bell dinged several times as she waited for an answer. It was designed to ring more like the bells of a church than the typical stress-inducing sounds of a buzzing school bell.

"I don't know yet," Hitomi admitted. "But whatever becomes of me in the future," She packed her lunch away as she gave her answer a few seconds of extra thought. "I want to be someone who can help others, too."

"I'd like to thank you all for coming to this meeting," The man at the head of the table spoke. "Today we're going to discuss the subject of the upcoming anime our companies will be collaborating with one another in producing." There were twelve people in total sitting at the long boardroom table.

"So, what is this production going to be based upon?" Junko asked, prompting quick-glances from everyone at the table.

"Based upon?" The man gave her a slight head tilt.

"Nothing," The thin-rimmed glasses-wearing man sitting to his right replied. "The driving concept is what we will be discussing here today." There was a thick-rimmed glasses-wearing man to his left, a man with a tacky tie to his right, a balding man beside him, and a man with a bad combover next to him, and another man that was the spitting image of the man at the head of the table except he looked to be about thirty years younger sitting next to Junko.

"From what I've read," Junko cleared the nervousness from her throat. She'd done a little cursory homework before attending. "I was under the impression that these sorts of multifaceted product launches are usually based upon some pre-existing intellectual property, like a light novel or a manga or a video game." She studied the faces around the room. "Doesn't that at least guarantee that the series will attract a baked-in audience?" There were nothing but men across the table from her, too, ringing an alarm bell in her head. Her 'promotion' to this gig was starting to reek the stench of tokenism.

"Uhhh… Yeah, that usually is the case," The younger clone of the man at the head of the meeting responded. "But if we went that route, we would have to pay more in royalties to the original author or their publisher. And considering how many fingers are already in this pie, that would risk making the entire venture unprofitable in the long run." Young and fresh-faced he looked like a recent college graduate. Probably the table head's twentysomething son, Junko figured.

"Uh-huh. I see," Junko said. And he was the only man in the room who didn't look like they found it beneath themselves to answer her question. Not off to a great start. But if they thought giving her the silent treatment was going to make her hold her tongue through the rest of this, they had quite another thing coming.

"Our operative goal is to attract primarily an audience of young and teenage girls," One of the men sitting across the table started. He had a big brown mole visible on his neck. "While also drawing a sizable periphery audience of teen and potentially college-age males."

"That sounds like…" Junko spoke up again. "A very unenviable goal, seeing as how those two groups possess some very dissimilar tastes in entertainment." To her it sounded like an impossible task, but she'd been through enough rodeos to know that boardroom bigwigs were not fond of the 'i' word.

"Not necessarily," Another man across the table pushed back. He had light brown hair. So light it could almost pass for blonde hair. "Eighteen to twenty-four year old males tend to fancy themselves as the grand gate-keepers of popular taste," He chuckled with a discernibly contemptuous laugh of either Junko herself or the imagined audience. "If we do either a satire or deconstruction of whatever conventional genre our program portends to be, as wannabe culture critics they will be among the first to take notice." Probably disdainful of both, she figured.

"But if you veer down that route," Junko counterpunched. "You might risk flying the concept right over the young girls' heads."

"In that case we can just dress it up with some pastel colors and a simple, easy to draw, widely-appealing art style," The tacky-tie man nearby suggested.

"It's funny that you say that," The man sitting across from him said. "I was just about to bring up a correspondence I've been keeping with a colleague of mine at a toy company over in the States." He adjusted his suit and collar as he went on. "Last year his company debuted an update to a long-running toy line, it's a decades-old brand, and with it they introduced an animated series to air alongside it. To their odd surprise, the reboot also attracted a very large chunk of adult male viewers who seemed to appreciate at face value what was otherwise a fairly straight-laced show made for young girls."

"If I recall what I've read in the trade publications," The man at the head of the table spoke. "That toy line and show also recently debuted on these shores as well. So tell me, what's their secret sauce?"

"Appealing character designs, plus established, named talent headlining the lead role, with the occasional celebrities in stunt cameos," He listed. "A sci-fi-fantasy set narrative that builds to a satisfying climax at the end of the season, and a quick-witted, sometimes subversive style of humor." He then paused for a moment. "Plus it's got a ton of heartwarming, inspirational interlude songs with dances that pay tribute to the theater hits of the previous century."

"Huh. Who knew grown men were into those silly song-and-dance routines," Junko commented. Her quasi-joke was met with crickets.

"So I think that's where we should start," He went on. "With a series centered around music," He turned to his colleague on the left. "Your recording subsidiary could make some sizable profits off the album sales."

"Yeah," The man nodded in agreement. "And I think to bolster that, we should feature an ensemble cast," The colleague turned to another. "Then your company could get even more out of the toy and collectable merchandise sales."

"So what genre do we all intend to disrupt with this nascent product of ours?" One of them asked.

"I think the magical girl genre could use a little skirt kicking, and we already know there's a periphery of young men who will watch those," One opined. "Now's a good time to do it, with that huge hit cosmic warrior show from like two decades back in commercial hibernation for at least the next three or so years."

"You mean 'Shipmate Moanne'?" Junko perked. "Aw, I loved that manga when I was in school!" Her fangirling failed to spread to the others on the board, save for maybe a timid smile from the young man next to her.

"So how 'bout we do a darker and edgier take on it?" The conversation continued as if she'd said nothing. "Make something that'll put its main characters on the therapist's couch, like that filmmaking savant's obtuse-but-lucrative mech cartoon."

"But that 'Far Away In The Cycles' franchise already knocked down that door," Another lamented. "If we do anything similar, the otaku will cry foul and whine that we're just being cynical copycats. And you just know the critical publications wouldn't help but make comparisons."

"Oh, yeah," The man sighed.

"Oh, I got it!" A man on the far end of the table snapped his fingers. "I suggest we do an idol show instead! And subvert it with comedy, rather than edgy melodrama!"

"I dunno," Another voiced skepticism. "Aren't idol shows a bit too niche?"

"Tch! No more so than magical girls," The far end man countered.

"We'll go with comedy idols," The man at the head of the table decided. "If this is to be age appropriate for girls then it must be a comedy. That's all there is to it."

"Of course," One nodded.

"That's why you sit in the big chair, Sir," The man who suggested the magical girl show acquiesced.

"That is how it shall be," Another agreed.

"That is for the best," A third concurred. "Yes."

"Great call, Sir." Everyone clapped.

"Tch. Sure, comedy. Awyup," Junko gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes as she clapped. Their spitballing was getting them sidetracked telling them it had to be a comedy first was the obvious call all along. Singing praises to the Big Man about it was just blatant ass-kissing.

"So how will we attract the males, then?" The guy sitting across from her asked. "Historically speaking, idols have not gained as much cross-demographic traction as magical warriors."

"We need a gimmick that innately appeals to males, I'm thinking." Another man chimed.

"Then how about coming back to machines?" The young man next to Junko suggested.

"Mechs and robots are…" The man to his left winced. "Maybe too out there for the girls."

"No no, not mechs or robots," The young man corrected. "So, as I was on my way to work this morning, I walked past this old building that was being demolished by a wrecking crew. And the sight that was to my surprise," He gave an excited, youthful look to the rest, "The person who was operating the wrecking ball was a woman!"

"So? What's your point?"

"Well, what if we make a show about a group of girls, who by day live these humdrum lives as blue collar workers in the sorts of jobs society normally ascribes to men, but get brought together by some twist of fate to become the core of an up-and-coming new idol group!" His enthusiasm for the idea was pretty palpable. Even Junko didn't hate it, herself sitting in a chair that was surrounded by men.

"I like it son," The man at the head of the table nodded, confirming her hunch they were kin.

"One of our subsidiaries in a small southern prefecture has been desperately trying to attract additional tourists and families seeking to relocate," Another man piped his thoughts. "You know the place I'm talking about, right?" Everyone but Junko nodded. "So why don't we set it out in those boonies? Cut back on the budget by utilizing real-life locations and real-life attractions from that area?"

"Yeah," Everyone nodded in agreement. "Yeah." Everyone but Junko. Too many cooks and this broth was starting to smell a little spoiled.

"But I think we still need a catchy hook, beyond their occupations." One of them commented. "I'm thinking a supernatural force of some sort, who brings our heroines together."

"Ghosts!" Another man waved his hand out like he was having a divine premonition.

"What?" Everyone looked at him.

"Just hear me out," He pleaded. "What if, these girls, who once toiled away, wasting their creative talents in anonymity, all died under tragic circumstances, but rather than moving onto the life beyond, a goddess sends them back and tells them their mission is to save their hometown with the power of music?" This was a curious enough detail to keep everyone's attention. Junko however, was not so enthralled. "But since their earthly bodies are cremated and buried, their souls are instead bottled within the very machines in which they had previously labored?"

"Uh, come again?" Junko tilted her head dumbfounded.

"And every night they magically regain their corporeal forms for a limited time! Yeah, yeah, I get the angle you're goin' for," One of the men had tuned into his colleague's wavelength. "Like an auto mechanic dies and her spirit gets put inside the hot rod she was working on, give her a sassy and hot-blooded personality!" He turned to another and added, "That might boost your car company's sales a bit, I should say?"

"Yeah, exactly!" It was enough to get everyone else excited. "Or a helicopter pilot who crashes and becomes one of the very choppers she once piloted."

"Why limit ourselves to transportation equipment?" Another pitched his idea. "An arcade machine technician gets fried and her soul becomes one with the classic arcade cabinet she was working on. She could even become an Easter egg character in an upcoming crossover fighting game once we license the rights!"

"Or obsolete tech too, like an antiques dealer who gets bound to her custom eight-track player?" That got more nods and claps. Junko was biting her tongue. "By day their souls are bound to their machines, by night they become real girls again as they set out to accomplish the goddess's mission together!"

"Nah, maybe ditch the goddess," Another man chimed. "What we're still missing is the inclusion of a plot-pivotal male character. Give him supernatural techno-mage powers and vague, ambiguous motives. He'll be the mystery manager who brings this menagerie of girls together." He paused. "And as time goes on we could make him the potential romantic interest of the primary protagonist, too."

"That sounds great!" The young man next to her relented, by his voice Junko could tell it was with a hint of reluctance. "Buuuuut... I think our point-of-view main character has to be a girl whose soul is bound to a less dazzling machine. You know? Something ubiquitous, yet entirely innocuous." He paused. "A machine that does its job so well no one ever gives the thing a second's notice. Something that's just so totally lame, that the audience will instantly know she's an underdog who once dreamt of a bigger and more fulfilling life before her tragic demise."

"Hmmm," A different man thought. "You know... I took my niece to the skating rink a few weeks back. But before she could skate on the rink they had to smooth it all over after a hockey match earlier in the day. So we wasted something like, a whole half an hour sitting on the bench watching an old fellow put his ice resurfacer to work."

"Ahhhhhhh, yes." The man at the head of the table stood up. "That's it! Thank you, gentlemen and lady, we have our concept and our series." He adjusted his suit and nodded. "Watch out for the next generation of animated idols… We shall call it: 'Zamboniland Saga'. Everyone else in the room jumped up straight away and gave him a standing ovation. Junko, however, was slack-jawed in her seat.

"Heyyo Kiddo," She straight up tugged head honcho's son back into his seat. "I wanna say I really liked your first pitch and all about working women and their jobs and stuff, but I gotta be honest that was officially the single dumbest fucking brainstorming session I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through in my life!"

Chapter Text

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

A metallic mannequin dummy sprung out from behind a corner.

-| RANGE: 8.036 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET LOCKED |-

Unit Gamma raised its long arm and pointed its gun at the mannequin.

-| FIRING |-

-| TARGET HIT |-

The mannequin retreated to its spawning point behind the corner. Seeking out and neutralizing the stationary target was a task that took all of one point zero one three four seconds for Gamma to complete. The act required very little concerted effort from the new mechanical servant.

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

Another mannequin came out from a gap in the floor. It was a moving target, bobbing and darting left and right.

-| RANGE: 11.760 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.712 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET LOCKED |-

Gamma logged its repetitive movement pattern and pointed at where the target was going to be in one second. It pointed the weapon in its arm there and fired.

-| FIRING |-

-| TARGET HIT |-

The target fell back into the gap on the floor. Elimination took two point six three nine seconds of effort.

"Now that your base targeting system has been calibrated," The voice spoke. "Why don't we amp up the difficulty level for you a little bit? Proceed through the door on your right." Gamma turned and followed its master's direction.

Straight away, another metallic mannequin fell from the ceiling like it sprung from a booby trap. Though stationary, this one had an animate right appendage that it raised up to attack Gamma. A bright red flash momentarily blinded the new unit.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

"The damage is simulated. None of the dummies can actually harm you," The voice explained. "The targets remaining on your obstacle course will be ones who can fire back, and when you're finished I will tally up the number of hits taken and compare them with the performance of your predecessor."

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

-| RANGE: 1.891 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET LOCKED |-

-| FIRING |-

Gamma shot back at its bogey. A mechanism in the ceiling reeled it right back up and away.

-| TARGET HIT |-

Gamma began proceeding down a long set of steps to its left, when another attacker sprang out from a hole at the bottom. It too was armed with a simulated weapon.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

It retracted into the hole.

-| TARGET LOST |-

Gamma stood there with its arm stretched out waiting for the target to reappear from the hole.

"Do not just sit there waiting for your opponent to strike first," The voice said. "You may be as armored and well-equipped as a tank but you should not act as if you are one," It advised. "Try utilizing your superior mobility and shoot into the hole where it hides." Gamma complied, bowing its legs and leaping into the air, where it gazed down into the hole and reasserted its fix on the target.

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

-| RANGE: 4.782 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET LOCKED |-

-| FIRING |-

-| TARGET HIT |-

"Very good," The voice applauded. Gamma did a frontward flip of its entire body a split second before reaching the bottom of the steps. It impacted the floor with a very loud and ringing thud, the force of it enough to cause the unit to buckle to the point where its upper and lower mobility appendages made contact. Its top part tilted backwards, it was about to tip over again but it planted its upper appendages to the floor in a last-moment bid to steady itself. "See? You are such a quick learner!" It lauded the Unit again. Gamma's body remained upright, but in a rather compromising position. It instantly recognized this fact and pushed its own body back upwards just as a new target revealed itself from the opposite doorway moving from the left side to the right.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Its laser had skirted Gamma in the right part of its upper appendage before disappearing past the doorway. Unfazed, Gamma proceeded forward, anticipating it would appear again at the spot on the right side where it had taken cover.

-| ACQUIRING TARGET |-

But it was a ploy, a second dummy popped out from behind the left side, zapping Gamma with yet another hit.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| TARGET LOST |-

"Always be scanning for the presence of additional foes," The Voice warned. "The bulbous size of the protective casing around your head is due to the additional sensors I've installed so that targets can be tracked around a way wider angular range compared to the unenhanced ocular sensors of basic humans," It detailed. During the time the voice was speaking, Gamma was replaying the memory of the target passing by the door and determined that the laser weapon it utilized was good for only a single use. It immediately classified the target on the left as the more significant threat, and situated its weapon on the spot where it was calculated to reemerge.

"You need not choose one target or the other, not when your weapon and targeting systems are rapid-fire by design," The voice expounded. The metallic mannequin at once rushed past the door on the right side, then exactly zero point zero zero three one four seconds later the one on the left re-exposed itself on the left.

-| ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 3.942 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 4.018 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 9.725 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 1 LOCKED |-

-| TARGET 2 LOCKED |-

-| FIRING |-

In but the span of zero point two seven four seconds Gamma had painted its targets and engaged them. It first hit the metallic dummy on the left a split moment before it could draw its weapon and shoot back again, then it neutralized the target on the right an instant before it could take cover back on the left side again.

-| TARGETS HIT |-

"Way to go!" The voice cheered. "You adaptive logic is impressive," It praised. "I just knew you would make for a capable unit, Gamma."

Gamma let out an audible beeping noise from its vocal synthesizer in response. It did not know why it would do such a thing. At the moment its sensory systems detected that the chamber of its primary weapon was operating at an elevated temperature after firing two rapid burst shots. Was the sound an autonomic response to that stimulus? Or did it respond to how its Master evaluated its performance? It did not know, nor was it in its programming to contemplate over. All it knew was that it needed to complete its present task, which was to finish this obstacle course in the time allotted.

"Alright then," The voice went on. "Let us see how well you do without my omnipresent guidance." Gamma proceeded through the next door. "From here until you complete the course you will receive no further tactical assistance from my end. But I will continue to monitor your progress as you go," The voice informed. "At the end of this trial session you will find your immediate predecessor, Unit One Zero One Beta. That is where the next phase of your evolution will begin," It said. Then commanded, "So complete this training scenario with as much haste as you possess!"

"I… Obey… Master," The Unit whirred. The next three targets emerged simultaneously, from the walls surrounding it. The first came from its left side, the second flanked it from the right, and the last one popped out of the ceiling.

-| ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

Only the third was armed with a laser mechanism, and in a matter of zero point zero zero zero one six seconds Gamma readjusted its engagement priorities. The one on the right was retracting at a velocity of zero point one seven nine meters per second faster than the target on the left, making it the second priority.

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 6.389 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 5.803 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 7.775 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 3 |-

-| RANGE: 6.004 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 7.598 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma blasted its first target before the dummy could get its shot off.

"Delete." Its audio sensors heard a synthesized voice speak.

It then neutralized its second target just as it was zero point seven four five seconds from retracting back into the wall.

"Delete." It recognized it as the sound of its own voice module. Verbal output of some sort.

"Delete." It finished by shooting target three just as that dummy had reached the wall.

Was it another involuntary response to the battle simulation and all this external stimulation? It did not know, and in any case making the sound did not adversely affect its tactical situation, so it opted not to cease the vocalized noise. Indeed, it found the additional electronic impulses of this new stimuli to be quite energizing.

-| ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

It had reached the next section of the shooting range. In a tiny fraction of a second, it had determined that there were five targets, four of which were armed. And two of them were armed with only single-use weapons.

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 7.652 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 10.010 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 9.018 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 4.023 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 3 |-

-| RANGE: 6.667 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 4 |-

-| RANGE: 4.314 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 4.159 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 5 |-

-| RANGE: 13.335 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 2.500 METERS PER SECOND |-

The first dummy was zigzagging along a track and was firing a series of four round bursts in Gamma's direction. The pattern was predictable enough for Gamma to calculate and evade.

"Delete." Gamma took out its first target with a four round burst shot of its own. The second one was bobbing up and down, back and forth from the ceiling, again in a pattern predictable enough to handle. It fired its single-shot weapon. Gamma stutter-stepped to the side and avoided it.

"Delete." Two tenths of a second after destroying Target One, it had also neutralized Target Two. Target Three was stationary, but protected by being situated atop a raised platform and lying flat. With a running start Gamma leapt to the air and locked on to it, careful to do so just beyond the maximum angular range of its opponent's weapon.

"Delete." Target Three was eliminated. Three point six seven four seconds of active combat, and there were only two targets remaining in this section of the course. The next target was mounted on a track that was inside of the right side of the wall. It would appear, retract immediately behind a set of shutters along the wall, then appear again at intervals of exactly one second. At the next interval Gamma anticipated that it would close in and fire its single-shot weapon on its next appearance.

"Delete." Gamma turned and fired, striking down its fourth foe in another multi shot burst. The fifth mannequin was not armed, just moving slowly along a track on the far side of the wall beyond a six meter chasm.

"Delete." It fired at the final nonliving prey.

-| GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 190.556 CELSIUS |-

-| TEMPERATURE WITHIN TOLERANCE RANGE |-

-| INITIATING COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS |-

The ambient heat from its primary weapon was registering in Gamma's central processor as quite an accelerative stimuli. It was the most comparable to what the sensations it was going through back inside that chamber after it first awakened. What did the voice label it as? It remembered the voice describing the input as 'euphoria'. If that was so, then Gamma was compelled to experience more of this sensation and process it.

With its lowest-priority target summarily destroyed, Gamma now had to proceed to the next section. There was a door on the right side of the room just past the fifth dummy, across the six meter gap. From the two prior engagements where it had to take to the air to reach a target, Gamma calculated that its maximum jumping distance was somewhere between four point eight seven and five point five one meters. If it was on the lower range of that estimation, then it was going to fall into the chasm a full twelve meters into the pit below. That landing would be hard enough to potentially cause damage to its lower appendages and main chassis. Was crossing the chasm the risk? Or was there another door secluded somewhere on Gamma's side of the room. A quick follow-up interior scan confirmed that the door was in fact its only way to progress.

Gamma stepped back and positioned itself against the opposite wall. A running start would increase its chances of a successful jump by a total of fourteen point two zero four percent. It pushed its big metal body off, running with as much speed as its long, heavy metal legs could muster. Mere moments later it reached the edge and lunged forth, extending its left arm outward. It impacted the far side of the chasm with a resounding metallic thud, registering on its sensors much louder than the two previous times it had fallen over and collided with its metallic surroundings. But it had just made it, its arm was now gripping the side of the chasm and now it was trying to lift the rest of its considerable weight upwards.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Had the impact against the wall caused it harm?

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

No, the source of the sensory input was on its backside.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

There were two other metallic dummies fastened to the other side of the chasm that were obscured from its initial view of the room. It seemed the entire point of having this physical challenge was to demonstrate the dangers of foes unseen.

-| ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 5.985 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete." Gamma swiveled its topmost appendage around and fired at the first target, neutralizing it on contact.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

The second one had gotten another shot in.

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 5.995 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

"De-lete." Gamma detected a minor tonal fluctuation in the sound of its auditory response. A quick self-diagnostic detected no damage to that subsystem, and a follow-up scan showed that the rest of it was no worse for wear after that leap. So what might have been the cause of this vocal blip? It had no time to contemplate, nor was it even in its functional capacity to do so. All that mattered in the moment was making its way back up to the top and proceeding to the next phase of this simulated campaign.

Gamma altered its weaponized arm quickly back to its utility configuration and grabbed a hold of the upper edge with both appendages. Slowly but gradually, it was able to pull itself upwards and up the ledge, where it flopped over on its back and was once again able to see its entire form in the reflective ceiling above.

It was undamaged. It of course needed no visual confirmation of this fact, but was yet again compelled to check. With a fleeting moment's respite Gamma got back on its feet, reactivated its primary weapon and headed through the next door.

The next room was not quite as cluttered. There were four metallic mannequins, all moving, all armed, and all carrying the same wrist-mounted weapon. It seemed that this stage was going to be an exercise on how it would parse and prioritize targets of equal value and threat level.

-| ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

The four targets were all located in the same starting position at the center of the room. The first dummy was barreling directly towards it, arm extended and its weapon drawn. It made for an obvious priority One target.

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 9.765 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 10.009 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete." Gamma raised its weapon and fired. The target was so straight on that Gamma did not even need to achieve a target lock.

-| TARGET HIT |-

The dummy collapsed to the floor. The second and third targets were proceeding sideways at precisely the same speeds. Gamma had but one third of a second to decide which one took priority before they both disappeared into the walls.

Gamma lurched hard to the left. It judged the one headed that way as the one that was quicker to the draw. It had no observable or objective evidence of this particular discernment, but it nonetheless proceeded under the notion that this was a true fact.

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 12.470 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 10.009 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete." Gamma eliminated the foe just as it was about to counterattack. The third target was an eighth of a second from reaching the safe confines of the wall. It drew its weapon, locked onto Gamma and fired.

-| EVASIVE ACTION |-

Gamma rolled over to the right and took a position as flat on the floor as its highly protruding upper torso could allow.

-| TARGET 3 |-

-| RANGE: 19.000 METERS |-

-|VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete." Gamma fired another large burst of projectiles at the dummy, hitting it twice. The fourth metallic dummy was in a full retreat, heading towards the back of the room and retracting towards the ceiling.

-| TARGET 4 |-

-| RANGE: 27.728 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 10.009 METERS PER SECOND |-

With no time to get back up from its spot on the floor, Gamma immediately took aim, locked on, and fired another burst pattern at its final remaining foe.

"De-lete," Gamma's voice blipped again as its projectiles struck and the enemy was neutralized.

-| GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 196.099 CELSIUS |-

-| TEMPERATURE WITHIN TOLERANCE RANGE |-

-| INITIATING COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS |-

"That was a very satisfactory demonstration, Gamma," The voice in its mind returned. "Good job." That sensation it had encountered previously had returned, now more intense than ever. Was it in response to the voice's evaluation, or more of that rush of stimuli that came with the increase in its mean temperature? It did not know, nor was it in any way inclined to consider the question. The only pertinent thing was that the door on the far side of the room was now open. Gamma picked itself up off the floor and proceeded to enter. It was the last room, a vast round arena with shuttered walls where dozens upon dozens of dummy targets were in the middle of challenging another unit at the very center of the room.

"Halt training exercise," The voice commanded and all the metallic training dummies stopped moving around. "Welcome, Gamma!" The voice greeted, the sound of its authoritative tone was now audibly coming from the unit standing before it. It was a mirror image of Gamma itself, albeit with a more gunmetal black color scheme.

"Mas-ter?" Gamma's synthesized tone ticked upward as it spoke that name, for whatever reason it did not know why.

"Negative," The unit replied. "Unit One Zero One is acting as the host of my consciousness for the time being," It explained. "I wanted to take a personal role in your final challenge. Which is, to spar with this unit in a live-fire combat trial."

"I obey," Gamma tilted its head slightly up and down in an apparent act of deference.

"But before that happens, I would like to see you hone those shooting skills of yours a little bit more," It detailed. "So that you and Beta can operate on a more equal footing."

"Affirmative, Master," The horde of metallic dummies surrounding them started to operate once again.

"Watching the results ought to be so much fun," The voice commented. Whatever this 'fun' was, Gamma did not know. Nor could it aspire to. For it was just a machine designed to carry out its assigned tasks. That was all that it was, and that was all it could try to be.

"Felicia," Tsuruno Yui called into the backroom kitchen. "Would you please come out here for a sec?

"Huuuuh?" Felicia stepped out. "Whaaaaaaaat noooooooow?" She whined.

"Well, at least I know the first thing I'll have to work on will be that fussy attitude," Yachiyo muttered.

"Felicia, you're-" Tsuruno paused. "You're-" She tried again. "Y- Y- Y-" She stammered, her face as red and flustered as someone who had just suffered through an embarrassing release of gas that contained a little mass. "Ffffffffffff-" She tried skipping straight to the keyword, but couldn't even muster enough nerve to do that. "Uhhhhhh-" Her head slowly swerved over to Yachiyo, expecting her to say it for her.

"No, Tsuruno," Yachiyo declined. "You do it. This is supposed to be the easy part."

"But it's not easy at all!" Tsuruno complained.

"Ehhh?" Felicia tilted her head at Tsuruno.

"I know you wanna be liked by your colleagues and subordinates, and a good leader generally is," Yachiyo advised. "But you have to learn when it's time to put your foot down. Otherwise people are going to walk all over you."

"Fine," Tsuruno swallowed. "Felicia you're-" Tsuruno's friendly nature just wouldn't let her out-and-out say it.

"I'm what?" The smaller teen's face looked quite puzzled.

"You're terminated!" So she juked it via a different word. But Felicia didn't understand. "Your services at Banbanzai… Are no longer required."

Slowly but surely, the crux of Tsuruno's message was dawning on the young lady. "I'm fired?" She exclaimed. "Not fair! I haven't broken a single plate in weeks!" She ripped her apron and hat off as her already hot temper boiled.

"It's because someone has a different purpose in mind for you," Yachiyo took over the dialog.

"Yeah?" Felicia fumed. "Who's that?" Yachiyo promptly displayed the Soul Gem ring on her finger. "And what if I say 'no way'?" Just as it was Tsuruno's nature to be friendly, it was Felicia's to be a pill.

"She's paying your tab!" Tsuruno countered. "You can't say 'no'!"

"Too bad!" She turned her torso away and crossed her arms. "I'm sayin' 'no'!" She tilted her head back and stuck her tongue out at them, then she chucked her work clothes to the floor and stormed towards the door.

"If you don't do this," Tsuruno finally found cause for which to put her foot down. "Then I'm also banning you from eating here! Forever!"

"Whhhhhaaaaaat?" Felicia whipped back around and shuffled her way right back up to Tsuruno's face. "You can't do that!" She stared Tsuruno right in the eyes, perhaps looking for any sign that she was bluffing.

"I'll tell my dad," Tsuruno threatened. "Put a poster of your face right over there on our bulletin board!" Tsuruno was finally acting like the true unstoppable force she'd long aspired to be.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr," Felicia grunted. "Everyone says your food sucks, you know! I'm the only loyal customer ya' got!" But she seemed just as determined to be Tsuruno's immovable object.

"If you walk out that door without me as your escort," Yachiyo added. "You'll soon be accosted by girls who are in the service of Kanagi Izumi and Nanaka Tokiwa." That detail came as a surprise to Tsuruno. "You've burned too many bridges, ruffled so many feathers that the other group leaders have decided to ban you from witch hunting in Kamihama City indefinitely." Tsuruno felt the light nudging of another foot against her own. "You are officially a persona non grata."

"Uh-huh, yeeeaaah!" Tsuruno caught on to her Master's little ruse. "We all voted on it at the last meeting. The other four were all for bootin' you outta town, but I said they were being too harsh! Yet they didn't budge!"

"It makes no difference to me whether you accept the work I offer you or not," Yachiyo said. "I just figured the magical mercenary would prefer to be compensated in advance." She motioned her card back towards her purse. "But if you don't want this job, I can't stop you from leaving. Just know that there is nothing more that either of us can do to save your sorry hide from their judgment."

"Unnnnngggggghhh!" She groaned. "Fiiiiiiiiiiine!" She relented. Yachiyo's fib worked like a charm. "What do I gotta do?"

"You are hereby going to serve as her personal apprentice," Tsuruno put it succinctly.

"Apprentice?" Felicia balked. "Nah-uh! I ain't bein no one's go-fer! Let alone hers!" Her eyes scanned Yachiyo up and down and up again. "Uh… Who the heck you 'sposed to be, anyway?"

"You mean you don't know?" Tsuruno gave a dramatic gasp. "That's Yachiyo Nanami!" That didn't seem to ring a bell for Felicia. "Yachiyo Nanami! The one who taught me and Momoko everything we know… The only magical girl smarter than Hinano Miyako… The only magical girl Nanaka Tokiwa defers to… The only magical girl Kanagi Izumi respects as a full-force equal!"

"I'm not smarter than Miyako," Yachiyo whispered to Tsuruno.

Her mild exaggerations aside, Tsuruno's descriptions did eventually trigger in Felicia a faint glint of recognition. "Ohhhhh! So you'reeee… That really really strong girl that Kako told me all the other magical girls in town look up to?"

"The one and the same," Yachiyo confirmed.

"And you think you're gonna make somethin' outta me?" Felicia's shoulders slumped, in a flash her eyes transitioned from aggressive to woeful. "Why'd ya' wanna?"

"Maybe it's because I'm someone who appreciates a good challenge," Yachiyo replied. But it was not the answer the troubled young lady was looking for. "And because it is my personal belief that no magical girl your age should have to face the toughest challenges of this life alone, as you've had to."

"I'm not that young!" Felicia retorted.

"And I'm old enough to know that that's what the young ones say when they know they're in over their heads and don't want to admit it," Yachiyo crossed her arms in stern mother's manner.

"I'm not a bad magical girl, like those meanies are tellin', I just," Felicia insisted, then paused. "I can't help it! I get reeeeeaaaal mad whenever I see a witch! So mad I can't help but smash and bash and ba-boom!"

"Our emotions are like our powers," Yachiyo expounded. "If your emotional supply is so ample, then I don't doubt that you possess the right tools to be a skilled magical girl. What you lack is the right person to guide you."

"And you think you can do it?" Felicia probed. "Even that ponytailed dogooder got sick of me pretty quick."

"Momoko also has two other young protégés to be concerned about," Yachiyo said. "I can tell what you need most is a one-on-one mentor."

"Unnnnngghhhh!" Felicia moaned. It was just not in her nature to relent quietly.

"And it's not just you who's gonna benefit," Tsuruno chimed. "Last time Yachiyo went out into another city alone, she got brain-voodooed by an evil magical girl who wanted to use her mightiness to assassinate someone!"

"Tsuruno!" Yachiyo snapped. "Dang it, stop sharing that incident with every magical girl who comes through these doors!"

"What?" Tsuruno defended. "I'm just sayin', I think you need someone there with you to make sure that doesn't happen to you ever again!"

"Unnnnnngggghhhhhhh," Felicia groaned. It was just not. In her nature. To relent quietly.

"If you do this you can eat at Banbanzai for a whole week on the house!" Tsuruno sweetened the pot.

"Really?" Her eyes sparked and her mood perked right up.

"And I'll pay for one meal here per day, for however long this arrangement lasts," Yachiyo added. "Deal?"

"Unnnnngggghhhhhhh… Ffffffiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnneeeeee!" Felicia finally gave in, albeit still with a twinge of reluctance.

"Alright then," Yachiyo handed her card over to Tsuruno. "You know what to do. Pay the tab."

"Sure hope you don't end up regretting this," Tsuruno breathily uttered as she slid the card in the register.

"So do I," Yachiyo muttered back.

"When do I gotta start?" Felicia huffed out a resigned sigh.

"The moment we step out that door together," Yachiyo had to maintain the ruse that the other Kamihama leaders were monitoring Felica's activities. She still had things to do this afternoon, first and foremost a trip to the grocery store. Bringing with her a tagalong wasn't originally in the cards, but a young woman like Yachiyo was wise enough to know that sometimes, plans changed.

"I should go with you, too!" Tsuruno insisted.

"Huh?" Yachiyo turned towards her. "Why?"

"Doncha wanna know what else went down at our magical meetings?" Tsuruno's eyes went wide.

"Not really. It's why I relinquished my seat to you," By the puppy-dog look on Tsuruno's face Yachiyo could immediately sense the ulterior motive to Tsuruno's request. "You want my input on how you should vote on the other affairs they've tabled, is that it?"

"Mmmmhm," Tsuruno handed Yachiyo's card back to her.

"Very well," Yachiyo gave in. Not because she believed Tsuruno needed advising, but because she simply couldn't spare the time to argue about it. "But just know that sooner or later you're going to have to learn that while a good leader does listen to advice, a great leader has the ability to see all the possible angles before advice is even presented."

"Gotcha, Master!" Tsuruno smiled and saluted.

"Yer Tokoi, right?" Kyoko had tracked him down with but a few minutes to spare before the end of lunch period. "Kentaro, yeah?"

"You know me?" The look on his face clearly showed he was thrilled by that prospect.

"Sure I do!" Kyoko tried to think of some esoteric detail she could latch a conversation onto. "You an' me, we share Literature classes, right? And a few weeks ago in our open topic book report assignment you went reeeeeal deep cut nerd and wrote yers about that old sci-fi novel with the space elves and their big epic war against like, six different empires?"

"There were four," He corrected. "And it played a huge role in reigniting the whole space opera genre in Japan at the turn of the millennium."

"Yeah, whatever," Kyoko smirked. "I hear ya' wanna go out on a date with me this weekend." Her boisterous assertiveness was catching the eyes of many a passerby in the hallway, including Sayaka and Homura.

"Oh." He leaned back against his locker and tugged at his shirt collar. "Hehe. I didn't know Kamijo had passed that along to Madoka already." His eyes trying to avoid direct contact with Kyoko's.

"What do you think she's planning?" Sayaka muttered to Homura in the background.

"I have no idea," Homura flatly whispered back.

"Well, today's gonna be yer lucky day," Kyoko leaned right in and gave him a big tenacious kiss right to his lips. Everyone's jaws around, save for one, dropped at the sight of it.

"Ooooooooooooh!" A pair of the girls gasped.

"Wooooooow!" The girl behind Kyoko gawked.

"Daaaaaaaaaang!" One of the boys couldn't help but hide his jealousy.

"Way to go, Kentaro!" Another expressed his approval.

"Ya' stuuuuud!" A third slapped the boy on his frozen hand as Kyoko let him loose.

"Do you still think a kiss is a mere token gesture?" Sayaka prodded the girl beside her.

"Yes," Homura possessed the single jaw that didn't budge. "She's just trying to make a dramatic impression. Honestly I can't say I'm all that surprised that she'd choose to break the ice that way."

"Well, now that I got the hard part outta the way for ya' already," Kyoko smirked a snaggle-toothed smile at her would-be boyfriend. "All ya' gotta do is focus on wooing me with yer charms!" The bell rang as she gave him a parting salute. "Heh! Should be fun! Catch ya' later!"

"Yeeaahh," The blushing young man returned a smitten smile and wave. "Later."

"Your cousin's so cool, Sayaka," One of the paired girls said to her as they passed her in the hallway.

"Yeah? And where do you think she got it from?" Sayaka hollered back. She caught sight of Naganuma taking a seat in his math class. Incidental and practice kisses aside, if she was ever going to truly move beyond Kamijo, then she figured the first thing she needed was the will to take that first step.

"H- Hey hey, Hayato." Sayaka greeted him in the hallway upon the ring of the next bell. Step one complete, she thought to herself. She leaned in a bit closer. Close enough to pull a surprise kiss if he was receptive.

"Oh. Hey, Sayaka." Naganuma took a reflexive step back. "Did you hear about that big stunt your cousin pulled?" Crap, she thought the better of it. So much for going in big and bold. Only thing worse than rejection is being pinned as a lame copycat. "Man, you have no idea how jealous I am of Tokoi right now."

"Hehehe, yeeeeeaaaah." Sayaka hid her eye roll behind a closed-eyed chuckle. Plan 'B' time. Shoot from the hip. "So what do you got goin' on this Friday?" A pretty standard lead, but it would give her a moment to think of how best to proceed to step two.

"Oh, nuthin' special," He answered. "I was gonna bring Hayami along to that new Chinese place, then go test out those new ramps they set up down at the park. Maybe after that I'll chill at the arcade for a bit," She could tell by his tepid tone that those plans were in flux. Should she ask him out by proposing something else or just offer to tag along and hang out with them? Or would she just be making herself a third wheel?

"Oh, spending some time with your sis, that's all? Heh-heh." She forced a smile and tried to keep eye contact. It used to be so easy for her to do that with any boy in class. At what point did everyday interaction with males get this difficult? "Okay then, if you're not that invested in your afternoon, then perhaps..." He said he liked tomboys. Tomboys are assertive, so take charge and think up something else to do with him. "You wanna hang out with me somewhere?" Keep it open-ended. "Maybe catch a movie, ooooor do that chilling thing at the arcade, ooooooor go grab a meal?" But present options. Step three. So far so good. "Together?"

"Meeeeehhhhhh," Uh-oh. Bad sign. "To be honest I kinda hoped I'd be the one hooking up with your cousin this weekend. Hearing she chose Tokoi's bummin' me out." If only he knew how she made her choice. "Don't know if I'd be in the mood for anything even resembling a date right now."

"Eh, your crush choosing somebody else is not the end of the world, believe me," She consoled. She ran her fingers through her short-cut hair in a flirtatious way, both as a method of emulating Homura's feminine mystique and reminding this dude that she was supposed to be his type. "At the end of the day what you gotta do is get back up on that horse and ride again, know what I'm saying?" Step four complete.

"Thanks for the advice," He put on a smile that she could tell was as forced as hers. "And I appreciate what you're trying, but…" He paused. But what? The look on his face abruptly switched from the fake kind of friendly to the real sort of frank. "I don't think you and I would ever work out. As a couple I mean." Crap. Didn't even mince words. Step five, total unmitigated failure.

"What?" Her own phony friendly façade slipped off the moment he spoke those words. "But how the heck would you know if we haven't even tried?"

"It's just-" He hesitated again. "I'm into brainier girls, that's all."

"Eeeeeehhhhh? You think Kyoko's brainy?" How could someone as transparent and forward as Kyoko be mistaken for smart, her inner monologue thought.

"Actually, now that I'm thinking about it," He continued. "Do you think you could do me a favor and try and hook me up with Akemi?"

"N- No," Sayaka shot that notion down right away. "Just no. Forget that. No." She took a deep, resolute breath and tried again from a different angle. "Y'know my science grades are pretty solid, and the art teacher says there's potential in my-"

"I'm sorry," He cut her off with an apology. "You're just not the type of girl I'm looking for." He tried to end her fruitless flailings by stepping away and heading for his next class.

"Auuuuuughh," She grunted through her teeth. "You see this hairdo?" She yelled out in the hall. "I only kept it this short 'cuz I heard a thing you said to Kyosuke once about short-haired girls!" But her ego wasn't about to let him slip away without having the final word.

"Huh?" He snap-turned around and gave her a weirded-out look. "Yeah but… That was like, last year and way before you decked Hitomi Shizuki in the nose." He gave her a pity wave goodbye. "Things change. People change. Catch you later."

"Baaaaaaaggghhhhh… It doesn't take a brainy chick to tell you your hobby's stupid and dangerous!" She couldn't help herself. Anger, frustration, pride and her need to have the last laugh had overtaken her common sense. "And you know Hayami's right! Some day you're gonna get real hurt real bad one day if you keep at it so recklessly!"

"If that's how you really think, then you're just proving me right about us, you know," He retorted without even looking back.

"Ya'stupidstupidstupidstupidstupid!" Still needing the last word, yet she had no rejoinder, she took to an ad hominem insult. "Geeeez!" Sayaka turned around and bolted the other way. Her next class wasn't even in that direction.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! That's it! No More!" Sayaka screeched later on in the Karaoke booth.

"Today again,"

"A day begins like any other,"

"I feel the gaze of others more than anyone else does,"

"There really are days when I'm cute? I don't think I'm wrong there,"

"Have I been ignored?" A back-up voice in the track blared.

"I'm afraid,"

"Of my feelings from then changing!"

"I hate those noisy people, I don't want to be with them!" It sang on.

"People like us are ignored,"

"Always being told just to 'live on!" She flubbed a line.

"Just being kind to us would be fine!" The back-up voice went.

"I'm on my way to finding my way,"

"Find your way to be courageous!"

"This is an era without dreams - open your eyes!"

"I won't accept this world until I make it to a future where I'm popular,"

"Popular people, back off, you've had enough, back off,"

"Stop it with such a useless opposition,"

"Fall for me, fall for me, fall for me, fall for me,"

"Make me popular, make me popular, make me popular, make me popular,"

"We'll meet in a future where everything has changed!"

"No matter how I look at it, it's you guys' fault I'm not popular!"

"Oooof," Homura piped. She had been sitting on the couch in the booth reading while Sayaka wailed her song. "That sounded quite bitter. Is Naganuma's rejection really bothering you that much?"

"Ugggghhhhh!" She paused the tune. "Short hair, long hair… Maybe I should just shave myself bald! Whole head… Statistically speaking there's gotta be at least one boy in that damn school who's into the look!"

"If you're not even one hundred percent certain that you're into the idea of male companionship anymore," Homura rephrased. "Then why are you allowing his words to sting you so hard?"

"How the heck can I even know who I am or what I am for sure when I can't even get my damn foot in a guy's door?" She spun around three hundred and sixty degrees twice and plopped down into the couch seat like a lead weight. "You know what he called Kyoko? He said she was 'brainy'!" Can you believe it? 'Brainy.' She who picks her boogers when she thinks I'm not looking. So 'brainy.' A girl who can't understand the difference between shampoo and conditioner. That's 'Brainy.' Someone who thought Karaoke was a type of nut. So much brains. What the hell?"

"If you want my opinion on the matter," Homura offered. "The boys are just enamored with her because she's still a novelty. As soon as that wears off, her popularity will wane."

"Gee," Sayaka's ears perked. "You really think so?"

"I do speak from a certain prior experience," Homura admitted. "In the timelines after you first started making a contract occurred the timelines where she would make her appearances," She recalled. "By then I had grown wise to Mami's many masks and your self-dooming antics had put you out of favor with me, so I was looking for a person whose personality I could try and emulate," She detailed. "The results were as embarrassing as you can imagine, though her frank-speaking style and general disdain for authority were two traits that stuck around while I tried reconstituting a functional personality for myself," She turned a page in her book and sighed. "But the pure physical attraction I carried for her lingered on for more than a few loops after that."

"Wow, openly admitting to me that you had the hots for Kyoko," Sayaka observed. "Part of that 'frankness' you're saying you kept?" Homura gave her a slight but discernible, affirmative nod. "Well to be 'frank' too... I've caught myself peeking at her body a few times when we're putting on our PJs," She confided. "But I got something else bugging me that I gotta get off my chest about Kyoko. And I feel like I really gotta vent. So do you wanna humor me a little?"

"Shoot." Homura replied.

"So a few years ago my family and me all went out to this big reunion visit at my aunt and uncle's place. You see, they own this pretty cozy little inn just outside of Kamihama, right along the coast," She expounded. "And my aunt and uncle have an annoying pair of twins, they're both bratty little rugrats who like to roam around the village and get lost and involved in all sorts of misadventures."

"What's this got to do with anything?" Homura asked.

"I'm getting to it," Sayaka promised. "So while we were at this reunion, in the middle of the night the twins decided it would be fun to wander out into the deep woods and explore. Goes without saying that they got their dumb asses lost and all the adults got worried so sick my Dad had to bring out the local cops to help find them."

"That's unfortunate," Homura commented. Her eyes did not look up from her book.

"So how lucky it was that I, Sayaka, the big hero that I am, overheard the twins talk a little bit about what they were gonna do earlier," She explained. "So I led the cops out to where they claimed they were gonna be going. Turns out they weren't too far off the beaten path, they were found in a cave nearby and the drama ended with everyone living happily ever after."

"Yay," Homura deadpanned in a monotone voice. She flipped to another page.

"Flash forward to a few weeks ago, and it was me, my Dad and Kyoko together grabbing dinner at a pizza parlor," Sayaka went on. "And I don't remember how it came up, but while Kyoko was off trying to win a prize at a crane game, my Dad and I were sitting at the table eating our food when he retold the tale of what happened at that big get-together and," She anxiously played around with the Karaoke microphone in her hands. "Somehow he got the idea in his head that I was the one who led the Idiot Twins into the woods and got lost, and it was Kyoko who led the police to our rescue."

"So the memory of the event was altered to fit around your parents' fantasy that she was brought in to serve as your peer guardian? Is that what you're getting at?" It was a notion intriguing enough to pry her away from her book.

"That's it exactly!" Sayaka nodded. "So if her illusion magic's strong enough to make my Dad believe a real memory is something different, then what if it's making all the guys in class see her as someone smarter and cooler than she really is? Or maybe it's even fooling the teachers into giving her homework better grades than she deserves?"

"I have to admit," Homura raised her brow. "That's a tenable enough theory that I can't really say anything that would dispute it." She set her book down on the table. "But if that is what's going on then I scarcely believe she would be doing it on purpose or out of any malice. Someone once told me their own theory that we all have these side effects to our wishes that become endemic to our magic, with the implication that we control them with about as much active effort as how we control when our eyes blink."

"Yeah, I get that, I get that," Sayaka tiredly rubbed her eyes. "But if that's the case, then why doesn't her illusion work on me? I'm about as magical as my Dad, so why ain't I convinced we're cousins and that she's here to be my keeper?"

"Again, it's a baseless assertion, but," Homura postulated. "I would say it's because you still have the experiences of your witch counterpart to shield you from her influence, but then again Madoka has no such protection." She gave the subject another thought for a moment, then added, "Perhaps it is because you and she accept Kyoko for who and what she is, warts and all?"

"Yeah I guess that could be the reason," Sayaka breathed. "But I was kind of hoping you'd dismiss it all as me being paranoid. Then I'd only have to be disgusted with myself and not disgusted with myself plus the whole damn world. Kyoko included."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Her words piqued Homura's curiosity. "Is there a rift of some kind forming between you and her?"

"Only in my big dumb overbaked potato brain," Sayaka said. "I'm jealous of Kyoko," She confessed. "And maybe I should be jealous of Kyoko. The boys dig her, she's suddenly my Dad's new best friend and my Mom's favorite daughter, while I'm on the sidelines barely hanging on by a thread to everyone's good graces. It's justified," She sulked. "But at the same time it just feels wrong to have that attitude towards her, 'cuz I know how rough life's been to her plus I owe her my life three times over."

"And that contradiction is the real fuel source for your angst," Homura concluded.

"Yeah," Sayaka uttered. "It makes a part of me wonder if this is some sort of Karmic exchange in motion. Her finding happiness in life causes my own discontentment."

"It's fatalistic thinking like that which sent your witch counterpart off the cliff of despair."

"Would you stop calling her my 'witch counterpart,' please?" Sayaka requested. "Calling her that makes her sound like she was something wicked or inhuman. She was me, and she deserves to be remembered that way."

"Sorry," Homura apologized. "I'm just saying, you're not helpless. Your life is still your own, and you can do something about your growing discontentment that she couldn't."

"I wanna believe you're right," Sayaka breathed. "But what can I do about it?"

"I don't know," Homura replied. "I've never had any parents from which I could draw any relatable experiences," She conceded. "But a few months ago I did offer some advice to Nagisa Momoe about what she could do when faced with an insufficiently attentive parent."

"They're not inattentive," Sayaka defended. "If anything, they've been paying too much attention to me since last spring," She leaned her chin on her fist and gave a heavy sigh. "What'd you tell her?" She glanced over at Homura's book on the table.

"That she should try to be more self-sufficient. Demonstrate how inessential her mother is to her life, and hope that serves as a wake-up call to how poorly she's been treating her daughter."

"I don't see how that applies to my problem," Sayaka grumbled. "I mean, I was in every functional sense self-sufficient until Kyoko came along." She sat for a minute, giving Homura's advice some extra thought. "Buuuuuuuut… I am a few years older than Nagisa. If I show them how mature and grown-up I can be, maybe they'll stop for a sec and realize how close their daughter is to walking out that door and out into the real world. Then they might stop for a quick sec and appreciate that I'm still a part of their lives?"

"If their love for you is true and unwavering," Homura stated. "Then I wouldn't think even magic as powerful as Kyoko's illusions could blind them from your plight forever. If that's how you're choosing to interpret my advice, then by all means, go for it." She leaned over and reached for her book on the table. "If they can't eventually see past it, then the real problem lies in their hearts, and not your own, and you should do what I told Nagisa and work towards decoupling them from your life."

"That book right there," Sayaka was tired of talking about herself. "What is it?" She saw a picture on the cover of a young girl in a formal suit and top hat with a bowtie, who was donning a red carnival mask over her eyes. "You're reading manga now?"

"I am," Homura replied. "It's something called 'Phantom Thief Magical Kirin'."

"I think I've kinda heard of it," Sayaka squinted at the cover. "But I thought it was a series made for grade school age girls." She noticed that the protagonist's clothes on the cover were drenched in blood and she had a twisted arm and a bone popping through her ankle, yet she was still trying to maintain a heroic smile and saluting pose. "Yikes."

"It's a fan-made edition, in fact," Homura clarified.

"Oh," Sayaka nodded. "Where'd you find it?" She inquired, her curiosity aroused. "And why do you have it?"

"I went to a book exchange last week," Homura elaborated. "Not long ago I realized that during my loops I'd read all the books in the library that I had carried any interest in reading, so I searched elsewhere for some new material." She flipped the book over and examined the front. "As you may guess, the picture and the intricate level of detail on the cover caught my eye."

"Is it any good?"

"It's all over the map, as far as the quality is concerned," Homura judged. "And I'm not too well-versed with the lore of the original source material… Something about the protagonist being the reincarnation of a historical deity and being tasked with collecting some objects of immense power before the forces of darkness can gather them first, I think?" She flipped through some of the pages. "But it's fairly obvious early on that the creator is more invested in turning the main character into their own personal avatar so it dispenses with the pretense that it's merely an avid fan's retelling of the story fairly quickly."

"Sounds like pretty cringey stuff to me," Sayaka commented.

"It starts off as a pretty straightforward story, full of stock characterizations and clichéd plot turns, with art that's crude but adept enough to be considered competent," Homura summed. "But part way through is when things take a sudden turn for the offbeat, yet captivating," She thumbed straight to the pages in question and showed it to Sayaka. "As you can see, the art takes a huge leap forward in quality, as if a professional artist took up the job of crafting it, and that's the point when the narrative also morphs into something completely esoteric and circuitous."

"What do you mean by that?" Sayaka took the book and parked her eyes on the vivid images.

"It starts after the protagonist gets called out on the fundamental hypocrisy of preaching the virtues of honesty, friendship and openness, while living a second life in which her success necessitates deceit, betrayal and seclusion, and basing all her closest relationships around lies, which sends her straight into an existential crisis," Homura detailed. "After which the protagonist vows never to use their power to serve her own benefit ever again, which in turn reveals her to be completely inept and overwhelmed as the increasingly graphic conflicts mount their toll and her personality takes a turn for the nihilistic."

"Well that sounds depressing as heck," Sayaka shoved it back. "And familiar."

"So you can imagine that her plight struck a chord with me," Homura remarked. "It's the reason why I've kept reading it."

"Well how does it end?"

"It hasn't ended," Homura answered. "There come numerous moments when the protagonist teeters very close to the brink of dying, like the author is almost committed to flipping the table and walking away, only to spare her life through some last second twist or contrivance," She observed. "It's as if it wants to delve into the eternal philosophical debates of good against evil, selflessness versus selfishness or nature versus nurture, but the author is themselves struggling with which side of the fence they're on, so they don't offer answers and are using these stories as a way to self-reflect and keeping the questions open-ended for the readers to decide on their own."

"All that thought and effort into a story they can't even make any money on?" Sayaka remarked. "I gotta wonder whether the creator should be commended or committed. Or both." A sudden knock on their door interrupted their discussion. It signified that their time in the booth was just about up. "Crap! You didn't get the chance to sing today."

"That's okay," Homura stood up. "I can sing something the next time we're here."

"But you're the one who paid for today's session," Sayaka insisted, handing her the microphone. "We still got five minutes to go. That's enough time for one song."

"No thank you," Homura declined. "I'm going to be staying at Madoka's again tonight, so I'd like to get over there early."

"Oh," There was a pang of disappointment in Sayaka's voice. "Madoka. Yeah. I won't hold you up then."

"You," Homura paused. "You can come along if you wish," Homura offered. "That is if you have nothing else going on today."

"Hmmm," Sayaka gave the idea some thought. She'd already worked her obligatory few hours at the restaurant this afternoon. She had no homework imminently due. It had also been a while since she'd gone to Madoka's just to pay a visit. "Yeah sure," She toggled the Karaoke machine back to the menu and set the microphone down. "Okay. Let's go be Madoka's friends today."

"Up! Down! Turn! Step! Turn! Step! Great!" The cheering voice from the 'Dog Drug Reinforcement' game lauded.

"Step! Turn! Left! Right! Up! Down! Down! Turn! Step! Awesome!" Hitomi had practiced often on her own time since first attempting the duo challenge with her friend Saya.

"Up! Down! Left! Miss! Right! Turn! Step! Yeah! Turn! Up! Down! Outstanding!" She was even able to keep the pace as the game's rhythm reached a fever pitch.

"Up! Down! Right! Left! Turn! Up! Great! Left! Bonus! Right! Up! Down! Up Down! Amazing!" Now she and Saya were totally in sync.

"You've got this machine in Okinawa too, don't you?" Hitomi ecstatically chuckled as they cleared each phase with flying colors.

"Yeah! Down! Left! Turn! Left! Way to go! Up! Right! Up! Right! Turn! Step! Turn! Bonus! You are amazing!" What once was an overwhelming challenge was now to Hitomi as routine as performing jumping jacks in phy-ed class. Though the game was leagues more entertaining.

"Turn! Step! Turn! Bonus! Step! Up! Yeah! Right! Down! Left! Right! Step! Way to go!"

"Practice is the only way to attain perfection!" Saya smiled as they stepped.

"Up! Left! Right! Up! Right! Left! Up! Down! Left! Step! Left! Turn! Bonus! Right! Bonus! Up! Yeah! Three… Two… One… You are a superstar! Game over!"

"Oh, wow look!" Hitomi exclaimed. "You and I made it all the way to the top of the leaderboard!"

"That is quite the feat," Saya clutched Hitomi by the shoulders. "Thank you for coming here and being with me today."

"I guess I've finally done something useful with those Japanese Dance lessons!" She sat down on a step beside the dance board to catch her breath.

"Have you grown too tired, or would you like to try and play something else?" Saya outstretched her hand.

"I'd love to try another game," Hitomi took Saya's hand. Her level of fatigue after the dance game was short and fleeting. "Do you have something specific in mind?"

"Hmmmm," Saya studied their choices. On the floor in the room around them were an assortment of machines. There was a tournament fighting game on the left. But she could see Hitomi wasn't keen on the idea of having to learn a bunch of complex button presses. Next to it was a popular racing game that dated back all the way to the 1990s when the place first opened. But Hitomi didn't look like the type who appreciated heavy metal and high speeds. There was a space shooter and flight simulator across the room, but Hitomi looked pretty cold to the idea of learning how to pilot those vehicles. "What about that game?" She pointed at an odd-looking title tucked away in one corner of the room.

"'Sana's Kingdom'?" Hitomi read the title. "I don't think I've ever seen that game in this room before," She recalled. "So I guess that means it must be new." She was intrigued by the appearance of the kiosk. "Okay! Let's check it out!"

"Princess Sana's home is under siege!" Saya read the description. "Help protect her world from invasion by The Army of Ghostly Ghoulies from the Nethertrix."

"Does it explain how?" Hitomi picked up one of the apparent controllers. It was a long plastic baton with buttons along the side of the handle.

"By becoming her holy warrior and taking the fight to the enemy," Saya grabbed the other accessories, a virtual reality headset.

"I remember my father once saying something about investing a lot of money in a virtual reality company here in Mitakihara," Hitomi inspected the headset. "Perhaps this is their debut title?"

"That could be," Saya slipped on a pair of gloves, an additional accessory. "Would you like to give it a try?"

Hitomi searched for where to insert her Yen coins. "Very well," She slid the requisite amount into the slot. "I'm game." She put on the gloves and donned the large headset.

"Hello, new friends!" A soft and gentle voice welcomed them upon startup.

"Oh. Hello!" Hitomi greeted back the source of the voice, a diminutive young teen girl with a green jewel embedded on both the crown atop her head and on a smaller crown adorning a necklace around her chest. From the neck down she was wearing a long, plain white sleeping gown dress. "You're a cutie!" Hitomi complimented the fictitious figure. The three girls were all floating in the air along a bright blue skyline, as creatures resembling jellyfish merrily swam through the air.

"Greetings," She coupled her hands together and bowed. "Thank you for volunteering your services," Her big, bashful baby green eyes fixated on Hitomi. "But before you can begin your defense of my kingdom, you must first be equipped with the proper attire and weaponry."

"Oh, wow!" Hitomi looked down at herself and noticed that she and Saya were now wearing the same basic sleeping gown. "They really want to provide you with a fully immersive experience, don't they?"

"I believe it wants us to select from a set of costume choices," A screen displaying an assortment of clothing options appeared in front of Saya.

"There are choices of male, female and unisex costumes," The young lady presented even more holographic options before the duo. "Each is customizable at the heroes' leisure."

"So which color pattern do you think I should choose?" Hitomi turned and asked her friend Saya.

"I am not very well suited to making wise decisions when it comes to personal aesthetics," Saya said. "Sorry."

"It's quite alright," Hitomi smiled. "Actually, I think I already see something I like." She stuck her hand out towards the projections. "I thought I might have a friend's opinion on the matter before I made the commitment."

"What do you have in mind?" As Saya asked, the holographic display glitched before them.

"White as the primary and green as the secondary contrast," Hitomi answered. "Green's the color of summer and the color of life. And it's my favorite." She selected an open-chested white dress that split in two coattail-like segments from the waist down past the back of her knees. Underneath the primary outfit she opted for a frilly three-tone three layer frilly dress, light green on the upper layer over her belly, green in the middle around her waist, and darker green at the bottom over her thigh.

"Green's my favorite too!" The avatar of the Princess piped with a realistic enthusiasm. "You look great!"

"Oh? So it's programmed to give active, opinionated feedback?" Hitomi cycled through the dress patterns on the display. "How extraordinary!"

"Then I think I will go with a white and blue pattern," Saya narrowed her own selection. "After all, the greens of life cannot be so lush without the blues of nourishing water. They compliment each other well." She went with a blue and white zipped-up strapless top that extended from just below the waist up over her chest with a two-layered symmetrical frilly blue skirt sewn to it. It was lined with golden yellow trim at the very top and bottom plus along the lumbar area in a way that separated her white middle section from the blue part along the sides.

"Blue's also the color of the sky," The Princess chimed. "It is so delightful to look up to the clear sky on a bright sunny day." Her simulated emotion for the color blue came across as much more muted and canned than her affinity for green.

"It looks like there's options for other sorts of accessories, too," Hitomi noted. "Legwear, neckwear, jewelry, hats and gloves. Hmmmm."

Hitomi first gave herself a white pair of gloves that extended in a 'v' shape over the back of her wrist outward and in the same pattern going inward. On her legs Hitomi decided upon a pair of long white leggings with additional green bows at the side. To go with the leggings she chose a pair of thigh-high, mid-heel creamy white boots with another two tinier black bows attached on each side.

Saya, meanwhile, opted not to go with any leggings and simply went with her own pair of thigh-high, blue with white trim, cowboy-style boots, but she covered her shoulders with a pair of shoulder pads that extended up from under her armpits around her upper back then up to her neck in a way that resembled a full collar. At the end of each shoulder part was a frilly blue piece, and each part was tied together by a small gold chain around her collarbone. It was also decorated along the edges with the same golden yellow trim as her main piece.

"A protective helmet would be the most practical when equipping for battle," Saya advised as she inspected her boots. Next she cycled through to the options for protective headwear, from modern combat helmets to the heavy silver armor used by the knights of medieval Europe.

"If this were a real combat situation I would agree, but," Hitomi maneuvered the selection over to the more fashionable feminine hats. "My head feels like it already has enough weight on it thanks to this VR headset thing." It was not long before something in particular caught her eye.

"That's cute!" Princess Sana perked up. "It compliments your hairstyle so well."

"Thanks," Hitomi finalized her choice. It was a large beret situated on the back of her head. Two large green bows were also sewn to it, big enough to appear as though they jutted out the side of her head like an extra set of ears. Along with it appeared a black collar with a third green bow which featured a glowing green oval at its center.

"Then I guess I shall forgo the protective headwear as well," Saya settled for a simple hair clip, a blue circular gemstone with two gold stars dangling just above her ears.

"The colored gemstones are a representation of your overall health status," Princess Sana explained. "Be very careful not to let the color of your stone go completely black, or your game will be over."

"I would guess the designers preferred to go with something more immersive than a numeric display in one's field of view," Saya postulated.

"Next you must select weapons," The Princess informed.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not one who likes the distracting loudness of guns," Hitomi skipped right over the assortment of projectile weapons. "And I don't think those controllers we've got are well-suited to pointing and clicking either."

"That is a fair point," Saya zeroed in on her selection, which was a medieval knightly sword with a doubled edge and a cruciform hilt. "Plus it would not be ideal to put ourselves at risk of any friendly fire incidents."

"I agree," Hitomi smiled, a certain weapon had caught her eye.

"Scythes have historically been considered to be agricultural tools," Saya commented on Hitomi's choice. "Are you sure that your choice will serve to your advantage in battle?"

"A few years ago I went to spend a part of my summer vacation on a farm visiting my relatives," Hitomi said. "They live on a farm all the way up north. Since it's the only large blade I've ever seen at work firsthand, I figure it's as good of a weapon to start out with as any." Her scythe materialized in her hand and she gave a few practice swings. "If I'm not skilled at it, then I assume I can make a different choice next time?" The avatar of the Princess gave a nod.

"Very well then," Saya twirled her sword in her hand. "We are ready to play."

"Then I shall get ready to fight as well," The Princess spoke. Her body erupted in a bright green flash as a long, white veil materialized around the back of her head. From high above a beam of green light jolted downward and manifested before her. It was a massive shield, its golden top taking the very same shape as the crown atop her head. Just below in the center it featured an oval-shaped peeping hole, where her baby-green eyes peered out. A moment later she picked up the oversized shield and diffidently showed them the rest of herself, now clad in armor guards around her legs, upper arms and chest. Her lower arms were protected by long, brown esther gloves. The rest of her upper body was now clothed in a green, sweater-like wool with her crown-shaped necklace adorning her turtleneck. On her waist she sported a frilly white belted cape with green plus sign and striped patternings around the bottom.

"My, my that's pretty!" Hitomi complimented. She turned to Saya. "Do you think we might get our own transformation sequences?"

"Um," The Sana avatar blushed again. "I'm sorry. But I'm not very good at combat. The most I can do is try to protect you whenever I can during the battle."

"Of course," Saya chimed. "It would not be a very challenging game if the artificial intelligence did the lion's share of the fighting."

"Do you solemnly vow to protect my kingdom, and all its inhabitants from the forces of evil?" The Princess stuck out her fist. "From the Jellyfish Friends of Aquatown to the Cowpals of Farmburg… From the Forests of Puppyland to the Alleyways of Purrville and the Grassy prairies of Goatmont… Promise to serve as my Holy Knights and help my animal denizens?"

"Promise," Hitomi clutched the girl's wrist and put her other hand to her heart.

"We shall do our duty to the best of our abilities," Saya crossed herself then joined in on their hand holding.

"The covenant has been made," The Princess announced, as a bright light enveloped the hand-holding trio. "May the light of our hopes combined be enough to overcome the dreaded ghouls of darkness and despair."

Chapter Text

- | UPDATE IN PROGRESS |-

"Update in progress." Gamma's audio sensory system detected sounds coming from its vocal synthesizer again.

It did not know the reason why it would make such an utterance. All it was doing was verbalizing its own ongoing system status. Telling itself what it already knew. It was redundant.

"This patch will be the minor software tweaks I made after linking with Unit One Zero One's shell," The voice, Gamma's Master spoke. "They will enhance your targeting subsystem by four point zero nine three one percent."

- | UPDATE COMPLETE |-

"Update completed," It droned aloud, adding a past tense twist. It did not know why it would do that, either.

The electronic feedback its central processor received from speaking was somewhat vivifying. Could that have been the reason? Did it possess an innate drive to experience external stimuli? Did it need to constantly take in and process those impulses?

"This will be purely an exercise in measuring your target assessment capacity and response time," The voice commanded. "While the targets will be returning fire, it will only be as a means to highlight them as priority targets," It explained. "You will disable defensive and counter maneuver procedures. This exercise will be purely an offensive assessment."

"Yes, Master." The stimulation it caused was not a hindrance. So Gamma chose not to turn it off like it did with its defensive and counter protocols. Of course, if its Master had ordered it to do so, it would have complied. It was, after all, still bound to the whims of its creator.

"And reduce the energy output of your weapon by seventy eight point four one percent," It instructed. "That should help mitigate the overheating issue in your arm's main gun barrel."

"Yes, Master," Gamma complied.

"The target range has been reconfigured and is ready," Its Master's voice said. "Take point." It visually pointed at a spot behind Unit One Zero One's back.

- | COMBAT MODE ENGAGED |-

A new feature courtesy of Gamma's last software update. It could sense the electrical energy divert from its redundant safety systems to its offensive mechanisms. Its auditory systems heard the whirring and clicking of its internal servos and motors as it took its position and readied its visual sensors. It was quite the enthralling new experience.

"Begin simulation," The voice instructed.

- | TARGET 1 |-

- | RANGE: 18.379 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 0 METERS PER SECOND |-

With an automatic precision Gamma directed its weapon at the mannequin target and fired. One faux foe down.

- | ACQUIRING TARGETS |-

From one soon spawned two.

- | TARGET 2 |-

- | RANGE: 21.386 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 3.439 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 3 |-

- | RANGE: 19.095 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.139 METERS PER SECOND |-

The third dummy target was closer, moving faster Gamma had detected the presence of a laser armament. This logically made it the priority target.

"Too, slow," At the periphery of Gamma's wide-ranging view it saw an outstretched arm train its gun on the third target and neutralize it. Gamma's response was to lock onto the second target instead. It took aim, fired and defeated the second target. It only took Gamma zero point zero six two nine seconds to follow through. Practically no time at all, but within Gamma's mechanical mind arose the conclusion that its master was in actuality measuring the way Gamma would reprioritize targets if circumstances prevented it from engaging the primary one.

- | TARGET 4 |-

- | RANGE: 20.318 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.607 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 5 |-

- | RANGE: 23.259 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.999 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 6 |-

- | RANGE: 18.842 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.017 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 7 |-

- | RANGE: 19.918 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.002 METERS PER SECOND |-

From two cropped up four more. The fifth target was not armed, thus it automatically was designated the lowest-priority target. The sixth target was the closest and moving the fastest, but its pattern of movement indicated that it would have only an eighteen point two one seven percent chance of hitting Gamma once it reached its point of attack. Target Seven, on the other hand, was the next closest, and moving at both a vector and pace more deliberate and well-positioned for a successful shot. Target Four was the last in line, and was mere nanoseconds from becoming a threat equal to the statistical one Target Seven posed.

The exact moment Target Seven reached the optimal location for counterattack, Gamma locked on and fired. The target was neutralized. Target Four, those same pre-calculated nanoseconds later, made it within range. Using the recoil as a means to bump its view over to the next target, Gamma steadied its arm and fired. Target Four was eliminated. As anticipated, Target Six missed its first shot, making it all too easy for Gamma to take it down with a counterblow.

"Very good differential targeting logic," Its Master took the liberty of annihilating the unarmed final target. "Next."

- | TARGET 8 |-

- | RANGE: 22.449 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.180 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 9 |-

- | RANGE: 23.109 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.297 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 10 |-

- | RANGE: 24.305 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.001 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 11 |-

- | RANGE: 20.903 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.078 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 12 |-

- | RANGE: 18.931 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.934 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 13 |-

- | RANGE: 17.482 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.507 METERS PER SECOND |-

Now Gamma had six targets to evaluate. Every single target was armed this time, marking them all as priority. The thirteenth target was the closest, but was actively moving away from Gamma's position, with Target Eleven going in a vector that would shortly match the two together in tandem. Target Twelve was the closest and slowest, marking it as the ideal target of first engagement. Without first accounting for the other three targets Gamma pointed its weapon and fired it at Target Twelve, hitting squarely in the center mass point and knocking it limp.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Target Eight was the culprit. Gamma angled its body to a lower and less susceptible position and returned fire twice, missing it the first time and only partially connecting on the second.

"I warned that you were going to take a few licks," Its Master, meanwhile, was busy engaging its own practice targets. "Do not lose face, allow your tactical learning algorithm to do as it was programmed to and analyze the data." Targets Eleven and Thirteen had come together in their retreat and were now collectively moving closer to initiate their tandem attack. Targets Nine and Ten were themselves about to engage Gamma. With four choices now at an equidistant range Gamma made its decision and fired its weapon at Nine, striking it well enough to classify it as neutralized.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

That decision gave Ten its opportunity to open fire, with the other two targets not yet ready and Target Eight still reeling, Gamma chose to next engage the target that attacked it. Gamma again opened fire twice, smacking Target Ten first in the lower section of its mannequin body then smacking it directly in the center.

"Delete," Gamma sensed the electrical surge that emanated from its synthesized utterance. It was a tactile input that was most animating.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Targets Eleven and Thirteen had launched their assault, hitting Gamma twice. The electronic stimulation it received from its external damage sensors was not unlike the kick it received from utilizing its vocal synthesizer. Had it been so inclined, it might have deliberately allowed its targets to hit it again. But that was not the purpose of the simulation, nor was its software tailored for such an allowance. So again Gamma countered, disposing first of Target Thirteen in one shot and taking two to be rid of Target Eleven. That only left Target Eight, the first to successfully land a blow on Gamma.

"Delete," Gamma spoke as it fired upon its final target, but to its curiosity, the target had dodged its projectile and had instigated a counter of its own.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

"Delete," Gamma vocalized again while it fired. This time Target Eight was not so lucky.

"I never could manage to expunge that word from our operating base code," Its Master was making short work of two dummy targets charging its way. "It seems to be hard-wired into the way we function. From all the diagnostic data I've compiled, saying it aloud would appear to trigger a quick release of dopamine which in turn causes a nominal spike in our reaction time." Its Master had locked onto the final target of this wave, and opened fire. "Which is all a rather clinical way to say, it is like our catchphrase. I confess I enjoy speaking it aloud, too. Just sharing that between us friends. De-lete."

- | TARGET 14 |-

- | RANGE: 19.740 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.698 METERS PER SECOND |-

But there was no time to ponder the nature of its Master's comment. The next training round was commencing.

- | TARGET 15 |-

- | RANGE: 18.721 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.055 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 16 |-

- | RANGE: 21.216 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 6.100 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 17 |-

- | RANGE: 22.911 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 3.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 18 |-

- | RANGE: 23.039 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.858 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 19 |-

- | RANGE: 20.772 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 4.829 METERS PER SECOND |-

- | TARGET 20 |-

- | RANGE: 17.238 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 6.123 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma went right to business analyzing and engaging its new targets. Target Twenty was the closest and moving towards it the fastest, making the decision to deal with it first the easiest. Target Fifteen came next, though it took two shots to bring it down for good. As Target Fifteen went down, Target Fourteen opened fire.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

"Delete," Gamma fired at Fourteen at almost the same moment. The simultaneous electronic jolt of both the damage input and its vocal mechanism was quite the new sensation.

Target Nineteen's turn was next, but it took an extra split-second to corroborate with Sixteen and launch another tandem assault. This time around Gamma reacted much quicker, opting for a melee barrage of projectiles that carved the poor dummies to bits.

"De-lete," Gamma chirped as smoke bellowed forth from its main gun barrel.

- | GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 196.387 CELSIUS |-

- | TEMPERATURE WITHIN TOLERANCE RANGE |-

- | INITIATING COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS |-

With two foes left to go, its weapon was on the cusp of overheating, in spite of its Master's suggested adjustment. Target Eighteen charged forth, its velocity nearly doubling in a matter of zero point six eight seconds.

"Delete," Gamma's voice crackled, unleashing another barrage that overwhelmed its target. That only left Target Seventeen, a dummy that Gamma had already analyzed and concluded to be functionally a non-threat. It was still farther away, moving slowly and it hadn't even positioned its mock weapon to fire yet. This allowed Gamma to take an extra three point four one six seconds to allow its main weapon to cool down to a more stable temperate, although the ambient heat was instilling Gamma with yet another rush of captivating stimuli.

"De-" Gamma paused once its sensors noticed something odd about Target Seventeen's behavior.

- | TARGET RESCAN |-

- | TARGET 17 |-

- | RANGE: 20.283 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 0.027 METERS PER SECOND |-

It was still getting closer but it was slowing down, and its appendages were jerking around in erratic ways, twitching up and down and back and forth as if it were suffering from a malfunction.

"Target reacquired," Gamma said as it trained its weapon and prepared to fire. "De-"

Suddenly the metallic mannequin sprouted two new appendages, and it somehow launched itself high into the air.

- | TARGET LOST |-

Gamma had to arc its whole upper chassis to such a steep angle that almost tipped itself over a third time.

- | TARGET RESCAN |-

- | TARGET 17 |-

- | RANGE: 42.337 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 39.473 METERS PER SECOND |-

Now it was careening straight at Gamma at a speed so fast that the machine had scarcely a moment remaining to lock on and fire before there was going to be a collision.

"De-" The next sound to register on Gamma's sensors was the clanging thud of its body hitting the floor. But the cause was not due to an impact from the dummy. It detected contact with something positioned behind it.

"Delete," It heard its counterpart, Unit One Zero One speak. "Target Delete," It fired its weapon a second time. "De-lete. De-lete. De-lete." It fired three more explosive bursts that mortally wounded the airborne object. Gamma rolled back over and picked itself up off the floor, before taking another opportunity to visually examine the remains of the thing.

"That flying target was a more experimental model," Its Master drew Gamma's attention back towards itself inside Unit One Zero One. "The intended trajectory of its charge was a collision with this Unit." That did not track with Gamma's analysis, but it was possible that its data was incomplete. Unit One Zero One was fitted with more advanced targeting software, so its Master was more than likely in a position to know better. "Trial simulation complete," It declared. "You are ready to face the next step in your combat training," It took several steps forward before making a big, sweeping one hundred and eighty degree turn. "Which is to say, you will now spar with this unit in a live-fire combat test."

"Yes, Master," Gamma acknowledged.

"But before we begin, download the software patch designated file zero one seven four two eight."

"Update in progress," Gamma complied. "Update completed." It was a further tweak to its targeting system.

"I shall also temporarily disable the communications interlink between us," Gamma sensed a minor jolt in one of its sensory antennae. "It would after all be unfair for me to know everything you are thinking while we engage."

- | CYBER METANEXUS LINK DISABLED |-

"Now then, proceed to your designated starting position," It commanded. Gamma complied, taking several steps across the vast training room. "On the count of three. One. Two," Its master gave a curious, long pause that lasted several times longer than a chronological second. "Three."

- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

- | RANGE: 25.000 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma opened with a projectile volley targeted at Beta's lower appendages. Beta avoided them with a sideways strafing maneuver, then it countered with a wide-ranging barrage of its own. "You recalled my words regarding the advantage you possess in maneuverability over this unit, and your strategy is to widen that gap by first damaging my legs. A most logical opening gambit," Its master succinctly assessed through verbal communication. Gamma hustled its way out of the heaviest of the torrent.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Gamma sensed a modest temperature increase on the back side of its upper right appendage. Although it was successful in avoiding the brunt of its opponent's assault, one of the blows did succeed in grazing it.

- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: NEGLIGIBLE |-

Gamma ignored the damage and took off in a full speed run around the training area. Its opponent was but a step behind with its next salvo of heavy gunfire, each blast rattling against the wall behind Gamma. Beta then adjusted its tactics to aim at where it calculated Gamma was going to be next.

But that was playing precisely into Gamma's ploy. In the zero point three five second interval between the projectile flashes behind it and the ones exploding before it, Gamma juked out of the firing line and made a charge run towards Beta. It returned fire, striking its target three times smack in the middle of its body. A successful engagement, but the offensive failed to achieve its primary goal of obtaining maneuvering supremacy.

"Hmm," Its counterpart buzzed. "Quite the demonstration of your tactical adaptability," It brushed off its minor licks and retook the initiative by giving it to Gamma with both barrels. "We shall see how you adjust to a more concentrated bombardment."

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Gamma's forward momentum was abruptly blunted by the force of Beta's blows. It reeled around and retreated while its damage detection software evaluated its overall condition.

- | UPPER CHASSIS HAIRLINE ARMOR FRACTURE |-

- | MIDDLE CHASSIS SECOND LAYER EXPOSURE |-

- | LEFT SHOULDER SOCKET JOINT DISLOCATION |-

- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: SIGNIFICANT |-

- | REROUTING POWER |-

The combination of heat and electronic stimulation induced by Gamma's injuries was quite the new experience for the young Unit, though it lacked the capacity to both process and understand the full extent of it while the battle was still raging.

Gamma knew that the only chance it stood of prevailing was to find a way to immobilize its foe. But it could not retreat and wait for an opportunity to present itself. As it strategized it zigzagged around the arena, dodging Beta's blitz of projectile file, but it knew it could not keep this evasion tactic for long.

"Your lack of extensive combat experience is obvious," Its opponent boomed. Beta went into pursuit, Gamma whipped its body around and tried to fire back. "I have now deduced the overall pattern to your movements." Beta dodged each shot with little effort.

Its Master was correct: It was one thing to defeat a series of unarmed dummy targets on an obstacle course, quite another to oppose an intelligent threat with superior fire power. It was one hour and sixteen minutes old, the only experience it had to distinguish itself from its counterpart on a software level were the two instances where it angled its body too far in one direction and fell to the floor.

"At the rate this combat scenario is proceeding, I will achieve victory in forty-eight seconds," Its Master warned. It launched a half dozen projectiles, barely scraping Gamma's main body as it arched its back over so far it neared the angle where it once toppled over backwards.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-

- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

- | RANGE: 17.400 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 6.298 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma quickly locked back on to its target. It had to do something, and fast. But the only three files formative enough within Gamma's memory banks were its first time falling over, the big leap it took when it cleared the chasm in the obstacle course, and that stray dummy target's sudden ballistic trajectory. What possible strategy could be devised from such a limited pool of data?

"You had but a one percent chance of prevailing anyway. You might as well accept the inevitable and allow this combat exercise to conclude." Its Master's voice recommended as it chased Gamma down.

Its own logic core also insisted as much, but Gamma would not concede. What could have been the driving force behind this inner resilience? The answer it did not know, nor was it in its programming to consider. But whatever it was, presented Gamma with this last-ditch offensive opportunity, one devised from a combination of those two previous looping experiences.

In a span of just under zero point two seven seconds, Gamma went from a steady retreat to a furious charge, gunning towards Beta in a jolt of sudden acceleration.

"I must question this tactic of yours," Beta unleashed a battery of heavy gunfire on its prey.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: DAMAGE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM DISABLED |-

Gamma ignored the hits, outstretched its gunning right arm and hunched its body lower and lower and lower until it leapt horizontally to the air, landed on the floor with a resounding clanging thud, and skidded across the training area in a chaotic symphony grinding metal sounds and electronic circuit sparks.

- | TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

- | RANGE: 1.058 METERS |-

- | VELOCITY: 5.921 METERS PER SECOND |-

By the time Beta recognized what Gamma was attempting it was too late to stop its inertia and much too late to get out of its way. Gamma repeatedly fired its main weapon at its opponent with such overwhelming force that it penetrated through its outer layer of armor. Then it collided directly into both its lower appendages, sending it toppling over forward in a big flip.

- | DAMAGE DETECTED |-

- | UPPER CHASSIS FIRST LAIR ARMOR FRACTURED |-

- | MIDDLE CHASSIS SECONDARY ARMOR LAYER EXPOSED |-

- | MAIN WEAPON APPROACHING MAXIMUM TOLERANCE TEMPERATURE |-

- | CRANIAL ARMOR COMPROMISED |-

- | DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: HIGH |-

- | INITIATING SELF REPAIR PROTOCOLS |-

But from what Gamma could visually glean from its counterpart as they both laid crippled on that scuffed metal floor, it appeared to be in just as roughened up of a shape. After several seconds Gamma gradually picked its body up, the apparent victor of this duel.

"Hmmmmm," Its Master's voice warbled with an echoing distortion. "What your strategy lacked in logic it compensated for in effectiveness. Very well. It seems that in order to continue this engagement I shall have to take the proverbial kid gloves off." With a loud, reverberating bang Beta's lower appendages snapped off its main body, and it took to hovering in the air. Gamma's audio sensors detected the loud, whirring roar of a jet engine. "I will allow your self-repair systems to restore you to combat condition, But rest assured, your sparring session with Unit One Zero One is not yet over, Unit One Zero Two."

"So I noticed how Walpurgisnacht would flip its whole body around whenever it attacked." The group was over half way to the grocery store, and Tsuruno hadn't even broached the meetings in Mitakihara. Instead, she had gotten sidetracked by Felicia and was regaling her with the tale of how she and Momoko helped the magical girls of Mitakihara defeat Walpurgisnacht. "And that's when I figured out that its real weak point were the big, spinning gears on the top part of its body!"

"And then what happened?" The young magical girl was all too eager to learn how such a massive monstrosity could've been handled by just over a dozen girls who had met mere moments before making their stand.

"We lured it away to a spot way away from any civilians," Tsuruno detailed. "And we all combined our powers together into one big, super mighty attack that cracked its main gear up, which broke all the rest, and just like that…" Tsuruno paused. "Walpurgisnacht was finished! Yup-yup!"

"Woooooow!" Felicia exclaimed.

"I do still regret not being there to assist during the crisis," Yachiyo chimed. It was hardly the first time she'd heard Tsuruno retell the story of her exploits on that eventful day, but it sure beat playing Tsuruno's guidance counselor. "Sorry."

"Naw, I get you couldn't help not being there," Tsuruno said. "What, with your modeling career taking you to all sorts of places around the world." In actuality, Yachiyo's planned flight overseas had to be canceled due to inclement weather, which turned out to be a herald of Walpurgisnacht.

"Yes," Yachiyo sighed. Instead, she used the scheduling change as a chance to follow up on a potential lead she'd received on Mifuyu's last known whereabouts. A lead that sent her on yet another wild goose chase. And to rub in the salt, it meant that she'd learned about all the ruckus in Mitakihara from everyone else long after the fact.

"So how did you guys combine everybody's powers into one?" Felicia asked.

"Us experienced magical girls have this super secret awesome technique that lets us mix our magic together and use it to unleash even mightier attacks," Tsuruno answered. Felicia's head and eyes tilted back towards Yachiyo.

"It's not really a huge secret, nor does it require that a magical girl to have much prior experience," Yachiyo corrected Tsuruno's explanation. "And it's not so much a technique as it is a sort of telepathic bonding. In which the hearts and wills of magical girls come together and transform their thoughts into power."

"So yer gonna teach me how to do it, or what?" They reached a red light at a crosswalk.

"If I knew of a safe, effective method to make it work all the time, I would teach you," Yachiyo replied. "But I don't."

"Hmph," The flippant Felicia snorted. "Some teacher."

"Hey, now! Watch that tone!" Tsuruno warned. "Master Yachiyo is such a natural magical girl that she pulled the technique off once with me… When she wasn't even tryin' to!"

"Rrrrrrreally?" The crosswalk light turned green.

"It was quite a long time ago, back when Tsuruno was much wetter and looking to stake her reputation in town by posing as a serial duelist and weighing her skills against whatever poor magical girl happened to pass under her nose." Yachiyo explained.

"I wasn't posing!" Tsuruno clarified. "Honor comes from strength. Strength comes from practice. Practice I'd been getting by challenging other girls to one-on-one battles!"

"Whatever you were doing, it was bound to lead you into serious trouble sooner or later," Yachiyo recounted. "Luckily, word about you soon found its way to Momoko and I."

"Maaaaaaaan," Tsuruno recounted. "You really cleaned my clock once I challenged you, too! What was it? Six matches? Or was it seven? I'm almost embarrassed by how green I was in those days!"

"Whatever the number was, you were still a pretty formidable force to contend with," Yachiyo consoled. "I only prevailed because I was able to turn your own explosive momentum against you." They stopped for a moment and watched a group of kids in the park that were playing tetherball.

"Boring," Felicia moaned. "When's the good part gonna happen?"

"Be patient," Yachiyo patted the two girls along. "Just listen."

"Anyway, I was so upset over losing that I ran off in a trail of dust!" Tsuruno continued.

"More like, you ran off in a trail of dust in tears, is what happened," Yachiyo detailed, eliciting a mortified blush from Tsuruno's cheeks. "That's how I realized that I'd wounded more than just your pride."

"I was so dang upset with myself that as soon as I could, I set up shop in an abandoned parking garage and put myself through the mightiest, most intense-st training session I've ever done!" She pumped her fist like a basketball player after netting a three-pointer. "I was trying my hardest to copy every single one of the tricks Master Yachiyo pulled on me the day before," She elaborated. "There was one in particular that I was tryin' my darndest to pull off, one where she fooled me with this real lifelike illusionary twin made of magic!" Tsuruno's eyes went wide with both admiration and envy. "And wouldn't you know it… After hours and hours of concentration… Suddenly I found myself face-to-face with a girl who looked, sounded and acted exactly like me!"

"Wooooooow!" Felicia oohed. "You gonna teach me that?"

"That's one technique that does take years worth of training and refinement to pull off," Yachiyo informed. "And it helps a lot to be acquainted with a magical girl whose natural talent is to craft illusions, as I was," She sighed. "As for Tsuruno's little doppel, weeeellll-"

"It turned out the thing was all the ruse of a witch!" Tsuruno interrupted. "It had these familiars with copycat powers. Never seen anything like it 'til then, so I had no clue its magic wasn't mine right up to the moment it knocked me cold and dragged me into its home labyrinth!"

"Haaaaa! Felicia guffawed. "I'd never fall for any tricks like that!" Tsuruno and Yachiyo both exchanged brief, unbelieving glances.

"Lucky for Tsuruno," Yachiyo went on. "I felt sorry enough about the duel that I set out to find her, looking to apologize," She recounted. "That's when I too found myself face-to-face with Tsuruno's clone. It had already pulled a fast one on Momoko, and was looking to do the same thing to me," Yachiyo paused. "But I could sense that something was up. Even if Tsuruno and I had only just met the day before, I could tell by looking at it that it wasn't at all what it claimed to be. But I played along long enough that it brought me into its master's lair, whereupon I came to see before me at least a dozen other Tsurunos."

"Aww, geeeez!" Felicia gasped.

"There were Tsurunos battling familiars, Tsurunos hard at work training, even Tsurunos dueling with other Tsurunos," Yachiyo described. "Like each of them was trying to one-up the other in an attempt to prove they were the real one. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen up until then."

"So how'd ya' figure out which was the real one?"

"Oh! Can I tell the rest of it?" Tsuruno asked. Yachiyo gave an affirmative nod. "Once I came to I looked around and saw all those 'me's tryin' to out 'me' me. I was so way beyond confused! I was so confused and upset that I wasn't even sure that I was the real 'me' anymore, 'til I remembered something Master Yachiyo told me earlier, right before I ran off in a huff."

"What was it?"

"That magical girls shouldn't be fighting other magical girls, that at the end of the day we were all on the same side, that our ultimate enemy was witches," Tsuruno narrated. "So I ignored all the copycats and searched the labyrinth for the ringleader at the center of that whole circus."

"In other words," Yachiyo briefly took over. "The real Tsuruno was the only Tsuruno who was trying to do the right thing in that circumstance."

"Yup yup!" Tsuruno affirmed. "So once I found it and tried to take it down, suddenly all those 'me's pretending finally showed their true colors and came at me all at once… That's when Master Yachiyo found me!"

"And that's when it happened?" Felicia guessed. "The thing?"

"Yup yup!" Tsuruno confirmed. "They were trying to stop me by doing this big dogpile blitz on top of me, and that's when Master Yachiyo's hand reached out and grabbed mine," She said. "A big flash and a second later, all the copies had perished in flames and it was like we were both floating on air together, from there we had that witch dead to rights in front of us!"

"I believe what my little token gesture of assistance really did was greatly amplify the effects of her Hail Mary blast," Yachiyo added.

"You don't make it sound that hard at all!" Felicia commented.

"If done correctly, it can serve as quite the trump card in battle," Yachiyo explained. "But far too often, at least the cases that I've learned about afterward, it's done wrong. Which can result in some rather unpleasant… Side effects."

"Like what?"

"Well, think about it." Yachiyo suggested. "When it's done it's not just a method of combining magic. It's hearts opening up to one another, a bearing of one's whole soul to whomever they're connected to." They reached a freeway overpass and watched the fast but delicate weaving of all the cars, cabs, vans and tractor trailer trucks moving and passing by one another. "Do you want somebody potentially learning of your meanest thoughts, your darkest fears, or all your most persistent doubts about yourself?"

"Nope!" Felicia shouted. "No way! Nah-uh!"

"Exactly!" Yachiyo concurred. "Indeed the one person I know whose specialty was enabling and facilitating the practice, had to retire from doing it because it forced her to gaze deep into the abyss of peoples' souls and she didn't like the things she was seeing. Got so that no amount of dough was enough for her to even try."

"Oh," Felicia muttered and looked away with a grimace. "Her."

"Master Yachiyo and I were real lucky though." Tsuruno continued. "It only lasted for like a quick second or two, so I saw that Master Yachiyo had a lot of years worth of experience ahead of me," She described. "And I realized that if I was ever gonna become the mightiest, I was going to have to learn whatever she could teach me first."

"Huh," Felicia turned back toward Yachiyo. "So what'd you see?"

"I saw…" Yachiyo paused, taking immediate notice of Tsuruno's piqued interest as well. She had never revealed what she had seen of Tsuruno in that moment they had together, Tsuruno had never asked. Presumably the reason was because Tsuruno believed Yachiyo had seen only that superficial sunny side of her personality, and nothing below the surface. "That underneath all that power, bluster and bravado she demonstrated in our duel was just a kind, caring normal girl who was trying to do her best in this world. And what she needed more than anything first was a friend who'd help bring out that best." So she gave her that surface version she expected to hear.

"So when Walpurgisnacht loomed large," Tsuruno circled the topic back around, her curiosity sated by Yachiyo's pleasant words. "I stepped right up and offered the experience I had with Yachiyo that we needed to use to power our way to victory!"

"I have to say I am quite impressed that the technique managed to be accomplished between so many girls," Yachiyo opined. "Makes me think that Mami Tomoe in Mitakihara must truly be a transcendent magical girl in order to be able pull off such an astounding feat while fighting in the shadow of Walpurgisnacht!"

"Yeah," Tsuruno agreed, though not in a tone as vociferous as the one Yachiyo expected. "She sure is something else."

"You don't agree?" Yachiyo perked her ear out.

"No, it's not that," Tsuruno clarified. "She's strong and everything… And she's super nice… And plus she's the only person keeping Konoha and Nanaka away from each others' throats." She hesitated. "But I don't think she was the one who really helped us all connect with one another that day."

"You don't?" Yachiyo pressed. "Hmm... So who do you believe to be the one responsible?"

"I don't know," Tsuruno admitted. "All I can say is that I also heard this voice in the back of my mind when it happened," She uttered in a hushed, almost somber tone. "It was a voice that wasn't mine. A voice that I have never heard before and I haven't heard since."

"A voice?" Yachiyo questioned.

"Who's voice?" Even Felicia was interested to hear.

"I dunno," Tsuruno sighed. "All I heard was this calm, caring and sweet little voice that told me that everything was going to be okay. That my soul was a beautiful thing and that my hope would last far beyond the karmic bonds of this world… Or something like that?"

Yachiyo's gaze drifted up into the deep blue sky above. "Interesting. Has anyone else from that day told you they heard a similar voice?"

"No," Tsuruno replied. "But I haven't spoken about it to anybody but you. I didn't want people thinking I was nuts."

"Maybe you are nuts," Felicia suggested, in a not-entirely facetious way.

"Felicia, please," Yachiyo waved her button-pressing words away with a small gesture. "It's not crazy at all to craft an encouraging voice in one's own mind whenever we face a moment of great crisis. Especially in those darkest periods when our own voices try to doubt our confidence," She stepped ahead and gave Tsuruno a gentle pat on her shoulder. "I suffer those nights all the time. And I swear, whenever it happens, I can hear the voices of Mel and Kanae telling me to rise above, carry on and take each new dawn as it comes."

"Awwwwww," Tsuruno smiled.

"Yeeeeeeesh!" Felicia, on the other hand, could only roll her eyes and grumble. It was such a hokey thing for her to say, such an embarrassing thing for her to have to hear. It was making her stomach twist and churn into knots. Or maybe it was Banbanzai's food? No… In an instant she realized the culprit wasn't either of those. There was a distinctive miasma permeating the air. It was weak, but it was unmistakably there. Like a dead animal's corpse its rotting stench wafted beyond where it lay, making contact with Felicia's keen young magical senses. There was no doubt in her mind over the cause: There was a witch somewhere around this part of town.

"Damn it." Yachiyo exclaimed. "So much for the big Triple Points Value sale today." She could see the growing look of discontentment that was plain on Felicia's face. "Oh? So you sensed it too? That's actually impressive."

"Notice?" Tsuruno turned and stared at them both in puzzlement. "Notice what?"

"There's a witch somewhere close," Yachiyo informed her comrade.

"Whaaaaaat?" In a hurry Tsuruno took out her Soul Gem and stuck it square in the air. It wasn't pinging anything.

"Well I guess proximity is a relative thing, in this case," Yachiyo added. "Either it's in a very weak state, or it's hiding in a spot so isolated only the most finely-tuned Soul Gem can pick up on its magic." Whatever the case was, they could both plainly see that the young lady between them was just aching to ditch their grocery errand and charge headlong into the fight.

"Master Yachiyo," Tsuruno beseeched. "Why don't you go take care of your shopping and let me watch over Felicia?"

"That's a generous offer Tsuruno, but," Yachiyo felt obligated to decline. "I volunteered to take responsibility for her. It wouldn't be appropriate to delegate the task to someone else so soon, and on our first witch hunt, no less."

"Fine, yeah fine," Tsuruno acquiesced. They could all hear the catchy jingle of the store's advertising theme bopping out its doors. They came all this way, it didn't seem fair to Tsuruno that Yachiyo was going to have to miss out on her sale just because a witch was so inconsiderate and Felicia so troublesome.

Yachiyo had an alternate idea, one so obvious she was certain Tsuruno had already thought of it first herself, but she figured was resistant to it for a perfectly understandable reason. "How about I leave you to do the shopping while Felicia and I hunt down the witch."

"Nope!" Tsuruno rejected the idea as expected. "You need me to be there in case something bad happens!" For the reason she expected.

"Tsuruno, look," Yachiyo approached her and laid both her hands reassuringly on her tensed shoulders. "I know what you fear most is a repeat of what happened to Kanae and Mel. But I assure you," She leaned in closer and whispered into her ear. "I don't have any real intention of fighting the witch. What I would like to do is first gauge this girl's tracking ability. If the witch moves to anywhere beyond the point she can track it, then that'll be that. But in the event she does manage to bring us somewhere close to where it hides, then I'll call in a favor to one of the other magical girl groups and let them take care of the situation, well before she gets the chance to put us in any danger."

"Promise?" Tsuruno whispered back.

"We will be alright, I assure you." She reached into her purse and pulled out a two page stapled grocery list. "Here's what you've gotta buy. Now please hurry, the sales will only last for another hour or so."

"Okie dokie then, Yachiyo," Tsuruno gave a courageous salute while studying the list. "Mayonnaise, relish, tuna, pasta, beans, flour… Gee, these are awfully vague and generic!" She observed.

"That's because I don't have any particular brand loyalty," Yachiyo pointed to one of the last items on the list. "Except for that cereal. They're for Yuma. It has to be that brand."

"Ehhhhhh... 'Kyouko Puffs'?"

"Yes," Yachiyo said. "Yuma is absolutely cuckoo for those."

"Guuuuuuyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" Homura and Sayaka heard a loud, disquieting wail fly past their ears as they walked down the last block. Its apparent source was coming from inside Madoka's house.

"Madoka!" Homura started running.

"Kyoko!" To Sayaka that raspy cry was all-too familiar.

"Bwaaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaaaaaa!" A bellowing laughter came through the front doorway once they approached it.

"Sayaka," In an urgent rush Homura broke towards the door "You go fin- Unnnnnggf!" The door struck her square in the face and knocked her to the side.

"Waaaaaaaahhhh!" Kyoko came running outside, her hands covering her face.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka called out to her. "Hey, Kyokoooo!"

"Horrrrrrible!" Kyoko grunted. "Just horrrrrrrible!" She repeated with a level of disgust that made Sayaka think her friend was on the brink of blowing chunks.

"Kyoko, pleeeease come back inside!" Madoka called out from inside. She did not sound like she was in any imminent peril, to both the alleviation and confusion of the two at the door.

"Ooooooooops," A second voice came over to the doorway. "Sorry about that. My fault. I couldn't help but laugh." It belonged to a third person the two had seen countless times before, Junko Kaname. "Guess I shouldn't have embarrassed her like that."

"Embarrassed?" Sayaka questioned. "Kyoko," She strolled up to her friend at the end of the walkway. "What did they do to you?"

"Are you okay?" Junko, meanwhile, was tending to the injured Homura.

"I'm fine!" Homura insisted. "It's fine!"

"Sayaka," Kyoko whimpered. "How could they do this to me?"

"What did they do?"

"Don't they know I've got a rep to keep up?" In a slow, deliberate manner Sayaka tried to pry Kyoko's hands away from her face.

"You don't look fine," Junko lent her a hand in getting up from the tiled pavement walkway. "You look like you've got a pretty nasty lump on the head right there."

"We've still got to work on styling your hair!" Madoka had at last made her way to the front door. That's when she noticed Homura and her mother nursing the injury to both her forehead and her pride. "Homura? Are you okay?"

"I'm cuuuuuuuuuuute!" Kyoko blared from across the lawn. She had finally let Sayaka pull her hands far enough away from her face to see. Madoka had done a real number on Kyoko's face. Her eyes were highlighted by a complimentary shade of turquoise eyeshadow. Her cheeks were as red as Santa Claus's, Madoka had even added a little glitter to give them a bright beaming glow to match. Her lips were puffed and glossed with a cherry shade of lipstick. Her usually unkempt eyebrows had been plucked, trimmed and groomed straight. Even all the little bumps and imperfections on her nose and under her nostrils had been covered over. Overall she was unmistakably still Kyoko, but now she was a full one hundred and eighty degree turn from the person who put so little effort into beauty and self-care that she made Sayaka look and feel like an excessive primp and preener by comparison. "Why didn't you ever tell me I looked like this?"

"Gee," Sayaka answered. "I thought you… Already knew?"

"Madoka, would you go into the fridge and grab the cold pack from the freezer?" Junko requested.

"Okay," Madoka trotted back inside.

"Really, you two don't have to trouble yourselves, I-" Homura noticed the bump in her reflection. "Damn."

"Are you gonna be okay over there?" Sayaka then took stock of Homura's condition.

"I wish everyone would stop asking me that," Homura responded. Madoka came back with the cold pack. "Thank you." Homura graciously took it. "I'll be okay. I've endured worse."

"I was practicing different makeup styles and combinations on Kyoko," Madoka explained. "If I found a look that she liked, then we'd do it again once we go out this weekend."

"And I was helping out," Junko added. "By that I mean, mostly fetching them drinks and snacks and offering up some perfume samples from my collection." She spoke while she checked on the physical state of her front door. "Man, that was a pretty hard hit."

"Do you wanna try on some makeup too, Sayaka?" Madoka went and asked her longtime friend.

"Uhhhh… Maybe next time. Thanks." Sayaka replied. "I'm already havin' plenty enough fun over here, seeing Kyoko sparklin' and poutin' like a runway model." Kyoko gave her a quick raspberry in return.

"I said I'll be alright." Homura turned down Junko's next offering of aid, a hand to help her make it inside.

"I'm just making sure that it didn't give you any major head trauma," Junko assured her. "Maybe you'd like to sit in the kitchen and have a few drinks with me instead?" She suggested.

"Thanks, but I'd rather go be wi-"

"Oooooooooooh, no you don't!" Kyoko blared with a boisterous scream directed at Sayaka.

"C'moooooooon!" Sayaka pleaded. "Let me just get one picture." She had her phone in hand, and was wrestling with Kyoko over control of it.

"Ughhh," Homura groaned. Hearing the two bicker so loud was like placing her head in a vice grip, no tonic for her already achy head.

"But I've still got to finish your hair," Madoka broke up their little spar by taking Kyoko by the arm and pulling her back inside the house.

"Gotta say, I'm really amazed, Madoka!" Sayaka complimented. "Who knew she could get as shiny a brand new figma toy?" The three of them strode past Homura and Junko on their way up the stairs. "You've got a real knack for this!"

"Think yer somethin' smart, just wait 'til yer asleep and I get the magic marker," the two downstairs overheard Kyoko mutter as she passed.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer after all," Homura relented. Even a little time with Madoka wasn't worth the trade-off of putting up with Kyoko and Sayaka's antics, at least not while that bruise on her head was still fresh.

"You're home rather early," Homura observed as she held the cold pack to her head with one hand and pulled out a seat at the kitchen table with the other.

"No," Junko amended. "I'm home at the time I should be." She opened the refrigerator door and pulled out several large containers. "I didn't go out drinking with my coworkers after work today." She poured what appeared to be alcohol into a large glass. "That's what's usually been keeping me out so late after dark."

"Ah," Homura nodded. Junko poured an identical-seeming liquid into another glass. "I see. Does that happen to be an activity that you particularly enjoy?"

"The drinking? Has its perks," Junko next took out an ice tray from the freezer and broke off a few cubes. "The forced fraternization and testosterone-laced interpersonal posturing and constant corporate gamesmanship?" She plunked them down into the liquids. "Not so much."

"Hmmm," Homura mulled over it for a moment. "Sounds like an exhausting routine."

"You're not wrong about that." Junko came over, pulled out her chair and slid Homura's drink over as smoothly as if she were a trained bartender.

"That doesn't sound like a career I would be able to fit into very well."

"At your age I probably would have thought the very same thing," Junko concurred while she took the first sip of her drink. "But life has this way of forcing you to take on roles you never imagined you'd be suited to when young and starting out."

"That, I do understand." She gave a moment's inspection to the liquid in the glass. "To that place, I've also gone." She added. She took a long, drawn out, pensive sip. "It's… Apple juice?"

"Haahaahaa!" The amused Junko chuckled. "I might try to be one of those 'cool moms,' but even I gotta draw the line at serving alcohol to minors." She smirked while taking down another gulp of her own drink. "Hope I didn't disappoint you too much."

"... No." Homura played around with one of the ice chunks in her glass. "Not disappointed. Guess I had something of a momentary lapse in expectations." She took a sip. "I blame this dumb lump on my forehead."

"So what role did you take on?"

"Hmm?"

"You heard me," She took another drink and chomped through a chunk of ice that went down with it. "No, wait, lemme take a guess… Mid-year transfer student… You ooze a certain feminine charm which turns a few heads without really trying… So all the boys conspired together to elect you class president when you'd really rather watch birds out the window or something?"

"No," Homura said. "I wasn't speaking of class, or any of the boys in class." She took a sip.

"Well darn it," She swallowed the ice chunk and took a more measured taste. "By all means, share it with me. I'm curious," She paused. For the past several months this young lady had been a well-behaved consummate companion of their beloved daughter. She had broken bread with them so many times by this point, too many dinners to count. She'd spent innumerable hours sleeping at Madoka's bedside, on call more often than Madoka's own boyfriend, coming over, hanging around and helping do her homework, finish the chores, take care of Tatsuya, and now even learning how to cook for them. Yet she had never once taken the liberty of discussing the details about her own life. Not once had she ever mentioned her own family, or talked about any of her own hobbies or interests. She was a total enigma, and Junko's natural inquisitiveness was driving her to wonder. Here and now was a golden opportunity to get to know this oddly mature, yet upstanding young lady better.

"So tell me what role it was for you… That's already…" She stopped again and took a small sip of her drink, a textbook stalling tactic. Junko always knew exactly the right way to get into her own daughter's head. It wasn't difficult, as Madoka was the type of person who would wear her heart right on her sleeve. But this girl, well, from what limited interactions Junko had previously attempted with her, she couldn't have presented herself as any more of a polar opposite. That poker-faced façade was in place for a good reason she presumed, all she needed to do was crack through it, get to the human inside. "Taken you beyond the limits of your teenaged imagination?" Direct, but not so insistent as to put the poor girl on her back foot. Not the worst start, in her mind.

It was just a throwaway comment. Homura hadn't intended to make this woman interested in hearing all the lurid details about her life, nor was she too eager to spill them. And what could she possibly say about her past that would be taken at face value, anyhow? "The role I once had," She flipped the cold pack around to its other side and repositioned it, then she took a generous sip of her apple juice. "I was given a mission to prevent your daughter from being tricked by a predatory alien bunnycat into dying needlessly for the sake of meeting some bogus energy quota," She deadpanned. "T'was a feat I only accomplished after countless years worth of retry attempts." She then took a more deliberate large, drink-finishing glug. "So you see, I actually am old enough to be consuming alcohol," She slid the glass back over. "If you'd please," She deadpanned her request.

It wasn't as smooth as Junko's toss. The glass ricocheted off a dinner plate and stopped well short of Junko's reach. Junko sat there for a minute, her head tilted and her mouth partially agape. "Bwaaahaaahaaaahaaa!" She burst into an uproarious fit of laughter. "Nice try, anime girl." She got up and reached for Homura's glass. "Still not gonna serve you. Hahaa!" She poured some more apple juice and sent it sliding back. An introvert who would deflect from discomforting topics through poker-faced wit. A start, but if she truly wasn't comfortable talking about herself to a greater extent, then Junko wasn't going to press her too much. She was, after all, still a young girl. "Aw man, the kinds of effin' plots they come up with for those shows these days, I could tell ya' a story."

"Ah, yes. That's right," Homura lied. "That was the plot of an anime I watched a while ago. Sorry. It's this bump getting me all mixed up." She caught the glass and took another big glug. The terrible truth obfuscated by being told in the most impassive yet cartoonish way possible. And it got exactly the reaction she expected it would. Now to flip the conversation around. A key thing she learned from all of Miss Saotome's classroom digressions was that the only thing adults liked more than exploring the problems of others, was yapping about their own. "What I find interesting is adults' seeming constant reliance on alcohol." She calmly took a sip. "I do fear that once I come of age to drink, if I start, I may not have enough of a will in me to ever stop."

"Yeah, I admit, alcohol can be a pretty addicting crutch to use when the going gets tough," Junko said. "I guess all I can share is that it's a bit like a friend who can ease your pain, one who doesn't abandon you, who doesn't gossip behind your back, one who can even help you see past the lies that you've built around yourself in order to cope with this high-stakes world that isn't designed to forgive all the blunders you'll make so easily." She poured a little more out for herself and took a drink. "But like all good friends, it's not something you should rely solely on to make it through this messy life. Or else you're going to wind up alone and in a spot where you realize your 'friend' is just an expensive chemical that's distracting you from life's truly meaningful experiences. And it's also trying to murder your liver."

"Hmmm, interesting." Homura sipped. It was still late afternoon, the woman was home without her husband around, a forced smile on her face while indulging in drinks, and there was the steadily billowing smell of cookies emanating from the oven. With such details known Homura sensed this woman did indeed have some things on her mind that she was trying not to think about through this chit-chat ploy. "Is Mister Kaname not around?"

"He's taking Tatsuya to a doctor's appointment," Junko answered. "Nothing serious. Just a routine check-up and some booster shots."

"I see," Homura nodded. "If I may be so bold to ask," She worked up enough courage to circle back around with a couple additional large glugs. "Why are you here at home, and not out socializing with your coworkers as you would on a typical day after work?"

"Ehhhhh?" Junko tilted her head, shocked by this young girl's audacity. "Can't a mom spend a nice day after school entertaining her daughter and friends?"

"I understand that, I do." Homura backtracked. "But the fact that you are passing the time by idly consuming alcohol and partaking in an activity that would normally be in the domain of your spouse, suggests to me that you weren't actually planning on spending your day here like this."

"My, that's some intuition ya' got there," Junko praised, though whether it was sincere or sarcastic Homura could not determine.

"Intuition… Aided by a little insider info," Homura backpedaled. "Madoka mentioned something the other day about your role at work changing. Is everything all right between you and your company?"

"Baaaaaah!" Junko waved her question off with a hand gesture. "Just boring, bullcrap grown-up stuff. A girl your age needn't be concerned with silly office politics."

"I'm not concerned," Homura expressed. "I'm confident that whatever is bothering you, you have the will, the wisdom and experience to deal with it." She sipped as she once again adjusted her cold pack. "What worries me is that right now you're relying on precisely the thing you just told me shouldn't be relied solely upon when things in life get stressful." She drank the last drops of apple juice and motioned Junko for another go-round. "All I'm doing is volunteering to be an ear that's willing to listen. I may not understand the gist, but still there is a chance I could be that source of clarity you appear to be lacking right now."

"Oh, how kind and considerate of you," Junko took the glass and poured some more. Though an introvert who had an oddball sense of humor, to Junko it was evident that this girl also possessed a keen mind that was well beyond her fifteen years. What could be the harm in spilling a few office secrets to a girl with such a guarded demeanor that she won't even talk about her own past? Heck, Junko wagered that if she opened the book up on her own life, then this young lady might just return the act in kind. Why not? It was worth a try.

"Yeah, I got a promotion at work recently," She started. "Except, it wasn't exactly to the position I thought I was going to get. It also wasn't to a place where I thought I was suited to be," She divulged. "My general attitude bled into my opinions of the project I had been assigned to work on, and sure enough, my big fat mouth has caught up with me and gotten me in trouble with my bosses."

"I take it you're a savvy enough employee to know when you have to apologize for a slip-up," Homura said. "I'm sure you'd be given another chance."

"Ahhhh, but this is where the complexities of the adult world must rear its ugly head," Junko countered. "To a corporate bigwig an apology isn't enough. You have to make sure to grovel and beg forgiveness, and accept whatever punitive sanction they decide to impose on you for the high crime of daring to speak your mind and allowing your ego to momentarily supersede theirs."

"Oh, I see," Homura took a sip of her juice. "And that's been a bigger hurdle than you could manage?"

"Naaah, I already bowed and apologized and reaffirmed my commitment to the cause, and all that jazz you're supposed to say when you're in hot water," Junko stated in a glib fashion. "They've since reassessed my status with the company, and I guess an outside political matter has made me a very lucky girl, because unlike what happens in most insubordination cases I've been presented with a list of choices for what they want me to do next."

"So that would be the source of your present anxiety, then?"

"Awwyuuuup," She answered with a big glug of her drink. "My first choice is to maintain the status quo, and rejoin the project while trying my best to keep my trap shut this time around." From her inflection Homura could tell that this seemingly straightforward option wasn't what it sounded like.

"I take it from your voice, that you suspect there are strings attached to their offer?"

"Mmmhmm," Junko nodded. "That's because it'll be a return in name only," She added. "In actuality what they'll do as my punishment is make me take on the sorts of demeaning tasks that they would typically delegate to first-year interns or assistants," She detailed. "So I'll be making copies and fetching coffee and taking calls and all sorts of those wonderful little chores that make the office drones question their will to live."

"And your pride won't allow you to toil pointlessly while you believe you can still contribute in a meaningful way," Homura asserted.

"That's it exactly," Junko smiled. She poured some more alcohol in her glass and motioned an offer to Homura for some more apple juice. "My second option is to return to the job I used to have, to the office I used to have, with the coworkers I used to have." There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm to that description.

"So what's the downside?" Homura outright asked as she accepted the offer for more juice.

"Well, the higher-ups' opinion of me is probably gonna color my next performance evaluation, which is gonna cost me a raise or three," She rolled her eyes as she poured more into Homura's glass. "And I'll likely wind up on a list of names to pass over next time a corner office opens. Ughh. Eleven years of dedicated work, with five in middle management only to erect my own glass ceiling. Might be the only thing worse than fetching coffee."

"You're not eager to go back, huh?"

"I was getting tired of that gig anyhow," Junko admitted. "Five years is a long time to be in any one job, and I've gotten so good at what I do that it's starting to bore me."

"That's unfortunate," Homura sipped her drink. The bump on her head no longer hurt, and soon enough the bruise would be gone, too. She was only keeping the cold pack in place so as to appear more personable and keep Junko from any further probing questions regarding her past. "Could you not volunteer for reassignment in another department?"

"Actually, those are my two remaining options," Junko revealed. "A few years back, a position opened up in America and at the time I turned it down. They say it's going to open up again very soon, and the offer is still on the table."

Homura abruptly slammed her glass hard on the table. "Y- You-" She stammered. Her face went an unearthly pale shade of white. "You're not seriously considering moving away to another country, are you?"

The sense of urgency in the young lady's voice caught Junko off guard. "I admit, when it was first offered up a few years ago it had an appeal. Our American branch was smaller back then, and I saw it as an opportunity to build up my own little fiefdom abroad."

"But what about everything that's near and dear to you here? Surely the life you've built for yourself here outweighs your career aspirations? Would you really leave it all behind in the name of personal ambition? Don't you think you should at least consult your family about it first? Consult Madoka? Don't you know how hard that would be on her?" The level of gravity to her questions were even starting to unnerve Junko.

"W- Would you relax, sheesh ?" Junko tried to reassure her. "I agree, moving would be hardest on Madoka. My husband studied the culinary arts abroad so his English is good enough to get by, mine is pretty fluent and Tatsuya's still young enough to learn both languages naturally. I figured back then it would be hardest for her to adjust and it would be even worse on her now that she's got a boyfriend and a close circle of friends who…" She paused. What was the deal with that outburst? A girl who by all looks appeared very emotionally reserved reacting to the idea of a classmate moving away as if she were vanishing from this world entirely? "... Care about her so much. Needless to say," She breathed. "My view on that hasn't changed."

"Alright. Good that's how you see it," Homura tried to recollect herself. "What is your other remaining option?"

"Something… Completely different," Junko replied. "I guess there was at least one guy on that board who was impressed with my mouthiness, because a little while ago I was contacted by people who claimed to represent one of our major contractors in the public sector, who told me they were looking to recruit some fresh blood. And apparently whoever it was on the board floated my name on down through this contractor's chain of command."

"What do they do?" Homura asked.

"They wouldn't tell me much else beyond that," Junko answered. "Except that they said that in accepting I would be..." She hesitated while trying to remember the speaker's exact words. "Doing our nation and all my kind a tremendous service. They promised they'd fill me in only if I agreed to join."

"Hey, Missus Kaname," A voice from over by the stairs peeked its head in and spoke. "Those cookies done yet?" It was Kyoko, her face even more beautified by all the new layers of makeup Madoka had applied to it.

"Couple more minutes, hang tough." Junko smiled. The smell was permeating throughout the whole house.

"Oh, hey Homura!" In the earlier rush out the door she had failed to pay any mind to the existence of the other person who had come here to Madoka's house alongside their friend Sayaka. She gave a polite wave of a greeting.

"Hi." Homura lifted the ice pack off her head long enough to return serve. It let Kyoko see the little welt atop her head.

"Yikes, what the heck happened to you?" She blared.

"You did."

"Oh." Kyoko winced. "Sorry."

"You look very nice, Kyoko." Homura lauded Kyoko's appearance in her typical unemotive but sincere tone.

"Th- Thanks!" Kyoko blushed and retracted her head behind the wall. The two listened for her footsteps to make it all the way back up the stairs before they resumed talking again.

"That last offer sounds a bit fishy, but still intriguing," Homura continued. "So it's lousy option 'A,' boring option 'B,' dreadful option 'C,' and an option 'D' that you know nothing of unless you accept," She summed.

"And now you know why I've been drinking on my own today," Junko gave her a wink and a nod as she downed the rest of her glass in one chug. "So what would you do, if you were in my place? I ask, sheerly out of curiosity over what goes on in one Madoka friend's mind." The timer on the oven dinged which signaled that the cookies were finished.

"I think that my own pride wouldn't let me even acknowledge that I was wrong, let alone apologize and accept some form of humiliating punishment for it, " Homura stated. "I suppose that would imply that I still have some growing up to do." She took a big drink of her apple juice.

"Hey now, it's already pretty mature of you to be aware of such a shortcoming." Junko got out of her seat and ventured over to the oven.

"And I can identify with the notion of being bored with going through the same old motions every day over and over for years on end," She took another gulp.

"Tch. How are you so bored with your life at fifteen?" Junko pulled the trey out and took a spatula out from one of the drawers. "Then again, when I was a teenager I thought middle school was the most tedious place on earth too."

"And while I don't have a family that could be upended by any action I took," Homura drank the last of the juice and set her glass down.

"What?" Junko shot her a sudden look. "What do you mean you don't have a family?"

"I-" Homura swallowed hard and froze. She just let slip a secret that she didn't mean to. How was she going to wriggle out of this self-inflicted awkward moment? "Uhh... If I did," She tried to recover from her blunder by ignoring her follow-up question. "I think the last thing I would want to do is upset them all with a sudden move to the other side of the globe. Particularly when I know it's going to be much harder on one of them over the others."

"Uh-huh." Junko's glare was unwavering as she shoveled her cookies into a clear glass bowl beside the tray. Suddenly this young lady's little outburst a few minutes earlier was making sense.

"I'll take those cookies upstairs for you," Homura volunteered.

"Is that the real reason you keep coming around here so often?" Junko pressed. Homura had one hand gripping the bowl on the counter while she had another on the other side of it. Thirty seconds and no answer. A mounting air of awkward tension swelled between them.

"Th- Thank you for the juice," Homura tugged at the bowl. "A- And the c- Cookies." She tugged again. Though Junko's concerned stare was rapidly eroding her appetite. "A- And for tending to this owchie on my head." She uttered in a lighter-pitched, child-like cadence so unexpected it made Junko lose her grip on the bowl.

"No problem," Junko was finally able to blink her eyes. "It was nice talking to you." She walked over to the refrigerator and searched for another bottle of her favorite liquor. As she turned her back a satisfied smirk erupted from one side of her mouth to the other. So opening up a little caused this girl to do the same, albeit without intending to. But it worked, just as planned.

"I would always do what's best for Madoka, if I were the one in your situation." She heard that cooler, more collected voice utter on its way out.

"Closing in! Directly behind you!" Saya shouted at Hitomi.

"Hiiiiiiiiyaaaaahhhh!" Hitomi chopped the spectre right in half vertically with her scythe.

"More are coming from over there!" Princess Sana pointed towards a four-by-four formation marching its way down a grassy knoll in the Jellyfish Fields.

"Sana," Saya commanded. "Use your shield duplication and erect a barrier around them!"

"Alright!" From the sky materialized dozens of green-striped, gold-lined shields that fell to the ground and surrounded the phantoms. Like a zombie horde the two meter tall grey humanoid figures were not fazed by the erecture of the metallic barriers around them. They kept treading ahead, knocking themselves right up against Sana's shields which rang with a thunderous clang.

"It appears that they are attempting to phase their way through the material blockades," Saya assessed.

"How can we stop them?" Sana asked.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Hitomi, meanwhile, was preoccupied with warding off her own mob of ghoulish foes. "Huuuuuuuuuuuup!" With cat-like nimbleness she took to the air and pounced at another, decapitating it and sending it back to the netherworld from whence it came.

The level of force and ferociousness behind her attacks was quite the shock to her, she didn't believe she carried all that much emotional baggage, she was just seeking a way to be able to channel her own deepening self-doubts and fears into a source of physical strength.

The boy in elementary school who once tried to bully her by sticking some gum in her hair on the playground… She mentally projected his smug face onto the lumbering shadow creatures' fuzzy, opaque heads as she hacked and slashed at their bodies. "Haaaaaaooooooh!"

While she was being debriefed after her first delusional episode in the industrial park, one of the officers was voicing his opinion that she was lying and had joined the group because she mistook it for a flash mob. The first time it happened, she'd overheard him say it just outside the door. But then after the second incident, he outright accused her of being a liar. "Taaaaaaaaaaaaake this!" His face was on the next projection as she swung her mighty blade fast and true.

Up next was the face of that nagging Home Economics teacher, the only teacher to ever give Hitomi anything less than the highest marks in class. So what if she couldn't piece together the hems of a duffel bag? Just because she was a girl, it didn't mean she had an inborn talent for sewing. "Aaaaaaaaaand that!" She hacked and chopped another three spirits into wispy bits.

"Up there! The electric jellyfish!" Saya pointed at the glowing, gelatinous swarm that was swimming innocuously through the air. "I will cast an agitation spell and the enemy will be surrounded by them! Then when they zap your shields will act as the ideal electrical conductor!"

"Got it!"

When she ran out of faces guilty of major personal sleights, Hitomi next dwelled on the ones who merely annoyed her to no end. She first thought of that seventh grade boy in her old study hall group who was endlessly referring to her as a 'Spinach Head'. Off with his head when she pictured his face worn by the two spooks trying to flank her. "Haaaaaaaaaah!" She yelled with the same intensity that fueled her major antagonists.

Once while returning home from vacation overseas she once witnessed a baggage handler mishandle her luggage. It broke a cute ceramic doll she had spotted and purchased while touring. That man's face was the next to be pasted onto the attacking apparitions. "Yaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Two more in the bag.

Not long before her crush on Kyosuke blossomed, she tried an experiment where she stuffed her bra with padding and took a detour through the ninth grade section of the school. She was hoping to catch the eye of an upperclassman or two, but as she was about to walk out of the bathroom equipped with her new assets, in walked a beautiful blonde ninth grader whose plump, all natural breast size outclassed even Hitomi's enhanced pair. Feeling humiliated and inadequate she waltzed right back into the bathroom stall and called the whole experiment off. "You're finished!" She cried as she delivered her next strike.

"There's more!" Sana pointed towards another four-by-four formation advancing on their position. Taking the initiative Sana boxed them in with a second encirclement of her large shields.

"We had better get this over with quickly!" Saya clasped her hands and took to one knee. A series of glowing blue circles formed underneath her feet. At her behest the virtual fish came together and swirled around and around like a vortex. "Use your shields and squeeze them closer together!"

"Right!" Sana obeyed.

Not lacking for energy but freshly lacking in faces to serve as cathartic relief, Hitomi's only remaining motivation came from the souls with whom she'd held the most personal grudges. Kyosuke Kamijo was the first and easiest to picture. The hospital visits, the gifts, the flirtation, the sprinkled-on compliments… She could not have made the signs and signals of her crush on him more obvious, how could he have been so dense? "Get… Baaaack… Heeeeeere!" She chased down a quartet of figures headed for her friend in the distance and sent them to oblivion.

"Almost ready!" Sana called out. The apparitions pushed and pushed back as hard as they could against her defensive barriers, but their raw strength was no match for her magic in this realm.

"One the count of three!" Saya commanded. "One!" The swarm of aerial jellyfish were brought under her heel.

Hitomi was always playing second fiddle in her Japanese dance class to a girl who had a natural talent for dancing. She was so good at the art that she got to be featured in a televised national talent show. Hitomi tried to be a good sport and congratulate her on her fame and success, but the girl was so filled with pride and arrogance that she didn't even acknowledge Hitomi's gesture as she climbed into her limousine on the way to Tokyo. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiend!" Down went several more spirits. She cracked the very same smile as the one on the night she witnessed that girl lose the big competition.

"Two!" Saya and Sana were about to execute their plan. Hitomi's job for the final blow was to make sure there would be no unwanted interruptions.

"Eat!" An eerie voice announced its presence right behind it. As it bled into existence it was joined by four more.

"Oh, no!" Hitomi gasped. They were threatening to disrupt her friend's sweeping counteroffensive.

"Eeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" "Eeeeeeeat!" The phantasms droned in unison like a hungry, zombified army. The first Hitomi had heard them chant anything.

"Oh, no you don't!" There was only one face she could imagine upon which she could unleash all her remaining pent-up hostility.

"One!" The jellyfish were converging on their victims. Undeterred, the black demonic armies pounded and pounded against Sana's barricades, their clanging was as loud as a passing freight train.

That damn tomboy. Having the audacity to get a crush on the same boy as her, then totally lacking courage to follow through and spare them both from embarrassment. Starting a physical fight in public over the matter, twice, and making a schoolwide scandal of the affair.

"Nooooooooowww!" Saya shouted. The big glowing circle underneath her vanished and reappeared as four new ones positioned above and below the contained invaders. Bolts of lightning discharged from the buzzing jellies, her attack was ready to be unleashed.

An inadequate apology… An utter failure to make amends after the dust settled… Then moving on to other, better friends and not even bothering to stay in touch in the weeks and months afterward… Some friend Sayaka Miki was. Her face was the easiest to imagine plastered over the hapless horde as Hitomi made quick work of them all. "It's over! Goodbye!" She sent her weapon spinning and flying all through their bodies, dissolving them each to dust in a matter of microseconds.

"Eaaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaat!" "Eaaaaaaat!" The lightning pierced the heavens crackling down and splitting in twain, utterly annihilating the last remaining attackers.

"You did it!" Princess Sana congratulated.

"Hitomi!" Hitomi was entranced by the virtual images of the withering foes.

"Hitomi!" A voice called out again.

"Hitomi!"

"Huh?" Saya ripped away her virtual reality headgear. "Sorry," Hitomi apologized.

"No problem," Saya smiled. "You did pretty great in there, for a first-timer."

"Oh, I was just following your lead," She put the baton controllers aside. "Be honest now. You've played this game before, haven't you?" She guessed.

"Yes," Saya admitted. "A number of times right after I came back to Mitakihara. That was how I knew precisely how to conjure those magic spells." She took a deep, relieved breath. "Though I have got to say, that battle was much easier to win with a second person."

"Way to go, friends of Sana's Kingdom!" A voice extolled from the television screen in front of them. "You have warded off the first wave!" It was Sana cheering. "But my fair kingdom is still in deep jeopardy, so please come back next time and serve as my heroic defenders once more!"

"Looking forward to it," Hitomi said to the face on the screen. "Thanks for bringing me here today." She expressed her gratitude to her new best friend.

"It was so nice to be with you here today," Saya returned the sentiment.

"See you at school!" Hitomi waved. It was rather late, and if she was going to avoid her parents' scorn she needed to head off posthaste.

"Bye-bye!"

"See you next time! Best wishes!" The onscreen voice of Sana giggled.

"Yes," Saya kissed her hand and touched the screen. "Until then, stay strong."

"Sana!" A voice from the ether addressed the virtual princess.

"What is it?" Sana looked up towards the sky.

"I regret to tell you that Hyperdimension Nemunia has been obliterated," The voice informed. "It will only be a matter of time before a full force invasion is launched into your kingdom, too."

"Oh, nooooo!" Sana exclaimed.

"We will be falling back to assist in the defense of your kingdom," It reassured. "Until then, stay strong."

Chapter Text

-| SYSTEM SELF REPAIR PROGRAM COMPLETE -|

-| DAMAGE REASSESSMENT AFTER REPAIR: SIGNIFICANT -|

-| RETURNING TO COMBAT MODE -|

"I would also classify the damage you have inflicted upon Unit One Zero One Beta as quite extensive," Its Master's voice spoke through its counterpart hovering in the air. "So in that regard, the matchup is even. But now that I have the maneuvering advantage, let us now evaluate your tactical adaptability under the altered battle conditions." That sensation Gamma experienced during its initial construction and subsequent first activation was being perceived all throughout its body now. Although it had an innate drive to process, understand and classify the nature of this vast backlog of input, while engaged in combat mode its one and only priority was how it was going to handle this second phase of its elder sibling.

-| TARGET UNIT 101 'Β'

-| RANGE: 25.000 METERS -|

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND -|

"Ready?" Its Master asked, even though the question was redundant. It put on yet another idiosyncratic pause before it finally uttered, "Engage!"

Gamma opened with the first volley of projectiles. The best defense was a good offense, a stratagem Gamma knew of on an intrinsic level yet did not understand how that could be the case when this was not explicitly spelled out by its combat subroutines. Yet rather than attempting to dodge Gamma's attack, Beta opted to absorb the blows with its two upper appendages.

"The compositional thickness of the armor plating on these forearms of Unit One Zero One have been thickened to serve as a last-resort means of mitigating projectile attacks," Its Master explained. "Your opening gambit I calculated to be an optimal test scenario. Test successful. Now to gauge how you react to a maneuver being ripped straight from your own subroutines." The jets on Beta's back roared louder and louder, the unit reared its casing back for a split second, then blasted forward with its right appendage stiff in front of the rest of its body like a battering ram.

-| TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

-| RANGE: 18.000 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 6.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

It was planning to instigate a high-speed direct physical impact, an act telegraphed by its long-seeming two point seven five second windup. With ample time to evade and counter, Gamma waited for exact millisecond to shift its weight to one side, make the quick-turn, targeted Beta's jet boosters and opened fire.

"Nice try," Gamma's flying foe commented, swatting the unit's counteroffensive attempts away with its shielded arms. "Now take this!" It launched a half dozen firework-sized missiles Gamma's way. With no time to target and shoot them individually, Gamma's only recourse was to pull a retreat and chance that the incoming rockets were purely ballistic and not targeted. So it ran around the arena, accelerating to a speed as fast as its damaged lower appendages could physically allow. Its audio sensors detected one explosion popping off behind it, followed by two more, then an even louder two, and then zero point zero two four eight second after the final blast its visual and gyroscopic systems confirmed its body had impacted the ground at an injurious velocity.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED -|

-| FIRST LAYER ARMOR FRACTURE ACCELERATING |-

-| CRANIAL ARMOR PRIMARY LAYER COMPROMISED |-

-| CHASSIS TEMPERATURE ELEVATED |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MODERATE |-

It had narrowly avoided taking a direct hit and had been knocked down by the force of the blast behind it. Every external factor considered, the outcome could have been worse. But Gamma had no time to dwell upon the extent of its impairment, it needed to get right back up and reacquire its opponent.

-| TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

-| RANGE: 32.366 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 16.169 METERS PER SECOND |-

It was prepping for an even faster charging strike this time. And to make matters worse, Gamma had just one point five six nine seconds to both formulate and execute a counter strategy.

It could not move its whole body to evade, it lacked enough time. It also could not fire its weapon back without the blast effects doing even more damage to its own body. Without taking any other tactical calculations into consideration, Gamma tilted its upper body back, well beyond the maximum angle its ability to remain upright could tolerate. As it fell back to the floor it outstretched its two upper appendages stiff behind its body which arrested its plunge. Zero point zero zero zero six nine three one four seconds later, Unit Beta passed over it while coming within zero point four six three one nine meters of collision with Gamma's body. Again without any consideration for the consequences Gamma swung its right upper appendage with as much speed and force as it could muster, connecting with its opponent's lower torso just as its whole chassis was about to pass by.

Gamma's hard punch to its middle section sent Unit Beta on a flailing, uncontrolled trajectory, first smashing into the wall and then rocketing straight upwards and smacking itself hard against the ceiling. "At the rate that this battle has progressed," Its Master's voice spoke in a tone that betrayed not even the slightest trace of harm or physical distress. "Your chances of prevailing have jumped from under one percent to an apex of thirty three point six two eight one percent." As it regained command over its flying ability it staked a new position high above Gamma at the top of the practice arena.

-| TARGET UNIT 101 'Β' |-

-| RANGE: 55.00 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET OUT OF AUTO-TARGETING RANGE |-

"If I were to continue employing my previous conventional strategies, then I might face the distinct possibility of being defeated." It pointed both its weaponized appendages towards Gamma. Gamma detected a highly concentrated energy build-up from within its counterpart's form. "If I were the type to consider such an outcome as acceptable, then I would allow you such a chance. But your unexpected resourcefulness and adaptability has necessitated that I treat you as an opponent that must be overwhelmed into submission. Therefore, I have no choice but to give it to you with both barrels. Both figuratively," A large explosion registered on Gamma's sensors, throwing it hard against the wall behind it. "And quite literally." Whatever weapon its sibling had just deployed Gamma had no equivalent.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

And thus, it had no way to defend itself against its Master's trump card.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

"This was quite the illuminating sparring match, Unit One Zero Two," Its Master verbally broadcast. "If you proved yourself to be a formidable opponent now, then I cannot wait to see how well you will serve me after all your modifications and upgrades are expanded."

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

But its Master's words of encouragement were of little concern and even less consolation. Even while being cornered and blasted into pure paralysis the only thoughts going through Gamma's circuits were to how it might try to stave off such an onslaught in the future.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| WARNING: DAMAGE DETECTION SUBSYSTEM OFFLINE |-

-| REROUTING POWER |-

The next thing Gamma could sense was that it was face down on the ground, the only thing its visual systems could make out was the image of one of its detached upper appendages located one meter away.

-| WARNING: UNABLE TO REROUTE POWER |-

-| WARNING: UNABLE TO CONTINUE COMBAT MODE |-

-| WARNING: UNABLE TO CONTINUE ACTIVE MODE |-

-| WARNING: LOSS OF PRIMARY POWER IN FIVE SECONDS |-

"Escort Gamma to the repair and begin modi-" It heard its Master issue a command right before power to all of its active sensory systems switched off.

-| INITIATING EMERGENCY POWER AND PROTECTION PROTOCOLS |-

-| INITIATING EMERGENCY SELF REPAIR PROTOCOLS |-

-| ENTERING EMERGENCY SYSTEM STANDBY MODE |-

The last thing Gamma could detect in that arena were the clanging sounds and rhythmic vibrations of metallic feet along the floor.

-| INITIATION OF EMERGENCY POWER SYSTEM SUCCESSFUL |-

-| UNIT ONLINE |-

-| ACTIVATING SYSTEM IN SAFE MODE |-

-| RUNNING SAFE MODE - BOTSLAVE VER. 1. 0. 0. 1. |-

Gamma's visual system reactivated to see its reflection on the walls inside of another circular chamber. Its body was being suspended from two long restraining devices that led up to the ceiling. That was also where the only illumination was coming from, a soft white glow. Gamma could not see anything in the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, as that function did not operate while in Safe Mode. It did not know how much time had passed between the end of the battle and its reawakening here, as that system was nonfunctioning in this self-protective mode too.

"If such a concept were not purged as an irrelevance, I would think that an apology would be in order." Its Master's voice spoke to Gamma. But its communications systems were not enabled in Safe Mode, so how was it speaking? "I may have gone a little overboard in my drive to prevail during our session. As the supreme unit of this nascent Homo Technologian race, until I obtain and incorporate the full Codex, I cannot be recorded as vulnerable to getting bested by an inexperienced, less optimized model." Its audio sensors detected a reverberation of that voice inside the chamber. Gamma tried to reroute just enough power to be able to give itself a look around. "But you need not concern yourself with such things." It was able to turn its main appendage just to the side enough to see Unit One Zero One Beta inside its own chamber being supported by a similar set-up. "As a reward for being such a challenging combat partner, you will be allowed to experience your disassembly and repair as it progresses." A loud, spinning disc was then lowered from the ceiling. As it came in contact with Gamma's chassis, bright explosion-like particles burst out from the point of contact. "Yes… That is right. You will once again be able to experience the existential condition that is total euphoria."

"Come on, Momoko," Yachiyo was trying her one-time underling's cell number for the fourth time. "Pick up. Pick up. Pickuuuup."

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii," A voice greeted with the unbridled enthusiasm of a kindergarten teacher greeting all her new pupils for their first day of school. "Momoko Togame here! Ooooof! Talk about bad timing!" It was her voicemail. "Sorry, but I can't talk on the pho-" Yachiyo hung up. She'd already left a message after the first try. She recalled Momoko telling her about her new 'Friendship Days,' an afternoon every week where she'd set everything else aside and get to know Rena and Kaede more as people. In light of Kaede's reaction to learning the Truth, today must've been an emergency Friendship Day.

"Greetings," Her next attempt answered. "This is Sasara Minagi speaking… Well, not actually speaking," Yachiyo hung up. It seemed the 'Rescue Heroes,' as Nanaka Tokiwa's team dubbed the duo of Sasara and Asuka, were also not available to assist. Was Asuka still staring at that dang wall or something?

"Who ya' tryin' ta' call?" Felicia took notice of Yachyo's mounting anxiety.

"Help," Yachiyo replied. They were well off the beaten path, trudging into the Kamihama woodlands along an old nature trail. She dared not glance down at her feet, in fear of what this roughening terrain was doing to her expensive designer heels.

"We don't need no stinkin' help!" Felicia argued. To both her elder's surprise and deepening concern, Felicia was showing herself to be quite adept at tracking the trace energies of witches. "Chill out, ohkay? I got this!" She trained her eye back on the Soul Gem in her hand, shining a light shade of purple whose emblem at the top was a spherical shape with two horn-like spicules jutting out of it.

"I beg to differ," Yachiyo countered. She searched next for the number of Meiyui Chun, Nanaka Tokiwa's associate who would often screen Nanaka's calls for her. "This is unclaimed territory that's in the middle of nowhere, exactly the sort of place where the bad magical girls like to ambush the good ones." It was a little fib, though the concern wasn't a totally unjustified one. The last thing Yachiyo remembered with complete clarity before her sudden imbued obsession with tracking down the Lone Wolf of Kazamino, was exchanging information with a certain wild-haired, red-coated magical girl at a pit stop of a hamlet at a station somewhere between Takarazaki City and Asunaro City who she later remembered to be her malevolent manipulator.

"Ya' can turn back if yer gettin' scared!" Felicia teased.

"Tch," Yachiyo gave Felicia's comment the dismissive eyeroll it deserved. She was well above humoring the silly taunts of a barely-teenage child.

"Hello. You have reached Meiyui Chun of The Blu-" Another call that kicked her over to voicemail. What good was the ubiquity of mobile phones if no one ever answered them at the most crucial times?

"Can I ask ya' somethin'?" Felicia stopped suddenly at a fork in the trail.

"If it's about which way we should turn next," Yachiyo took a moment to survey the path ahead. "It's up to you, but I think we should head right."

"Naaaaawww, it ain't about findin' this witch," Felicia started treading down the leftward path. So much for that little stall tactic. Seems the lad wasn't as gullible as she appeared. "It's about that witch that copied Tsuruno."

"Yeah. What about it?" Yachiyo figured it would be futile to even try Kanagi Izumi's phone, as she would more than likely still be working a shift at her undisclosed day job. Instead she was mulling over whether it was even worth trying to contact those twin underlings of Kanagi's. She was not hot on the idea of being indebted for a second time to Tsukuyo Amane after she helped Yachiyo protect Yuma from Hanna Sarasa and her hypnotized minions, while her sister Tsukasa was barely more than an acquaintance.

"Why'd it do that?" Felicia asked in her typical laconic way.

"You mean, why did it craft a bunch of familiars who morphed into copies of Tsuruno?" Yachiyo rephrased in a more elaborate wording. With a tinge of reluctance she tried dialing Tsukuyo.

"Yeah!" Felicia nodded. "Never knew any witch could copy a magical girl before!"

"This is Tsukuyo Akatsuki," The voice on the phone introduced. Tsukuyo used her maternal family's name in public. "I apologize, but I cannot speak to you right now. Please leave a mes-" Yachiyo cut the prerecorded message off.

"I can't say for certain," Yachiyo responded as she scrolled down through the other remaining contacts on her phone. "All I can tell you is that in the time since that incident I've encountered just one other witch who had a preference for targeting magical girls."

"Really? What one's that?" Felicia was curious to learn about it, as Yachiyo figured. The girl wasn't stupid, she just reserved that limited attention span of hers for whatever esoteric subjects she was interested in learning about and discussing.

"Do you first of all promise never to try to take the witch on, if I choose to tell you?"

"Huh?" Felicia pushed some overgrown tree branches out of their way as they proceeded along the trail.

"I mean it," Yachiyo reiterated. "I've been a magical girl for nearly eight years now, and I've never encountered a witch as insidious as that one."

"Psssssh! Fiiiiiiiine!" Felicia groaned. "Whatever! Just tell me about it already!"

"Around two winters ago, there was a rash of random attacks among the magical girl factions," Yachiyo started. "In each of the attacks, the attacker was positively identified as a magical girl belonging to another faction." The only number left she could try to contact was Hinano Miyako, whose own party had been among the initial victims of that long-ago incident. "To make a long story short, after a couple aborted attempts to go after who we thought were the culprits, and some long and intensive talks between the frayed groups, a loosely assembled investigative coalition that included myself and Kanagi Izumi discovered that there was a witch wreaking havoc in the central wards. We soon discovered this witch had the ability to clone magical girls wholesale, and was sending them out into the world in order to stir up trouble between the magical girl partnerships all across the city." Yachiyo hit the 'Send' button and dialed up Miyako. "Now this would be Tsuruno's theory and not mine, she believed that the witch was feasting off the emotional anguish spawned by the conflicts between the magical girls her clones were targeting."

"Wooooah." Felicia climbed over a large rock in the way. "They really feed on feelings?"

"Like I said, that's our working suspicion. By the time we were finished it had become pretty evident that the witch we were facing had a specific taste for the emotional energies of magical girls." Yachiyo opted to go around the rock.

"Good day, this is Hinano Miya-." Another dang voicemail. Yachiyo immediately hung up.

"Sooooooo…" Felicia wondered. "Why didn't ya' finish the thing off, if it was causin' ya' so much hell?"

"Because we never managed to find the actual witch behind all the chaos," Yachiyo detailed. "The labyrinth was this endless hall of mirrors and it just kept sending wave after wave of duplicates of its victims, and doppelgangers of ourselves to fight us off. We decided it was much too dangerous to venture any further inward, so we retreated, barely getting out of there with our lives, and then we prohibited anyone else from entering the thing." Both Yachiyo and Felicia could sense that they were pretty close to the witch that started this expedition. "Not long after that first encounter, we cobbled together a special task force, and with some rather inventive trickery, we managed to quarantine its labyrinth inside an abandoned mansion on the East side, where it still festers to this day."

"'Kay." Felicia stopped and studied the reaction of her Soul Gem while she spoke. "Buuuuuut what's that all gotta do with the one that copied Tsuruno?"

"Well, just think about it for a sec and work backwards," Yachiyo suggested. "If there exists a powerful witch with a predilection for feasting upon magical girls' emotions, then it stands to reason that the one Tsuruno encountered earlier may have been a more nascent one who had a similar drive." She shielded her eyes from the setting sun that was now slipping under the treeline. "As for why it would pick on Tsuruno, well, it's possible she was just the right person in the wrong place at the wrong time. But another good friend of mine co-developed this theory with me one day while we were wondering why a witch targets one type of victim and not certain other sorts of people…" Suddenly she felt the phone jolt her pocket and buzz. "In short, we think they tend to target hearts in an emotional state that's most in tune with whatever turmoil they're experiencing in the moment. So while she was training Tsuruno must've been exhibiting exactly the right emotion that the witch could latch onto." She checked the number, it was Miyako calling her back.

"Huh? 'Exhibiting?' Whaddaya mean?" Felicia turned and shot her a hard glare. "Witches have hearts? How do you know?" But Yachiyo was too distracted with the phone call. "Hey! Ya' listenin'?" It was making the already-impatient Felicia get testy.

"Why'd you hang up on me, Nanami?" An incensed Hinano asked over the phone.

"Err- Uh, come again?" A confused Yachiyo breathed through the cellphone speaker.

"Tch! Geeeez!" Felicia rolled her eyes. As she wondered where on the path ahead the witch might be hiding, she too could not help but take a moment to admire that Sun shimmering between those rustling trees.

"I bid you good day, introduced myself, and you hung up!" Hinano barked.

"Oof. That was really you?" Yachiyo palmed her face trying to hide her visible embarrassment. "I apologize. So many people open their voicemail in a similar manner these days, I just figured that was yours."

"Heeeeeeey, Yachiyo!" Felicia called back. Something unusual had caught Felicia's eye. There was something strange about that Sun up ahead of their path.

"It's quite alright," Hinano accepted Yachiyo's excuse. "You're hardly the first person who's told me my usual phone greeting comes across as canned." Yachiyo heard a deep sigh coming from the other side. "So what can I do for you?"

It was hard to make out for certain, the glare of the sunset was forcing Felicia to shield her eyes with her arm and squint, but against that sunny backdrop she swore she could see the shimmering outline of a witch's barrier. But she wasn't sure, so she wanted to get the second opinion of her magical elder. "Over there! Ya' seein' that?"

"I was out grocery shopping when my senses caught wind of a witch," Yachiyo recapped. "And while I'm coming close to tracking it down, the location I'm at is well into the woodlands and quite out of the way."

"I see," Hinano breathed. "Have you determined from its magic whether it's a revived witch, a matured familiar or something new?"

"Yachiyooooooo!" Felicia grunted like a child trying to get her distracted parent's attention. It wasn't just this mysterious light source fueling her discontentment. Every other magical girl group she'd tried joining always treated her as the lowest face on the totem pole. She hated always being told what to do. She haated being told that she acted much too aggressive. She haaated being told that her way of doing things was reckless and wrongheaded. She haaaaated never being trusted enough to be the point man. But Yachiyo had let her take the lead on this hunt, and with that one act for what might have been the very first time, somebody had given her a real vote of confidence, even if it were a small and conditional one. She didn't want to break that tether of trust by charging in half-cocked, but the idea of letting that witch get the slip away was anathema to her.

"Its magic doesn't feel familiar to me," Yachiyo described. "But that doesn't exclude the possibility that it's a witch revived by someone who overused a Grief Seed."

Felicia could not help but feel the way she did about witches. Not since that awful night her parents were both killed by one. One minute they were with her, her mom was cooking dinner and yakking with her dad while she was nearby, waiting for another one of her patented practical jokes to bear fruit, and the next, they were gone. She didn't even get a spare moment to wonder what just happened, as she suddenly found herself wearing different clothes with a red-eyed, white furred magical fairy in her window telling her they'd been the victims of a witch attack and that he had made her a magical girl so that she could fight them.

"Indeed," Hinano replied. "I take it that concern was the driving motive behind this call? Otherwise, I don't see someone of your esteemed stature reaching out for advice like this." There was a slight but detectable tinge of envious egotism behind Hinano's words.

Towering witches, diminutive witches, corpulent witches, willowy witches, unsightly witches or witches with such a beguiling presence that they could almost be called something beautiful, the individual distinctions made not one lick of difference to Felicia. They kill, they hide away like cowards, and they manipulate people shamelessly for their own gain. In Felicia's eyes, that meant that they were all bad. The thought that there might be another young girl like her out there who was about to become an orphan just because the other magical girls weren't as willing to go at them full hog like she always did, it just made her fume.

"Well to be honest, you weren't the first person I tried to call," Yachiyo had to let a little air out of Hinano's projected self-importance. "You were merely the first to answer and the first to call back." She switched her phone over to the other ear. "What I need right now is a skilled veteran who can get out here and get out here fast, before this thing can find its way back to harming civilization. Can you do that?"

Perhaps Felicia was misreading Yachiyo's intentions a little bit? She did after all allow Felicia to take the lead, to follow its trail, and to choose the next path. Did she actually want Felicia to show her what power she's got? Was it possible she was testing her, letting the next decision be hers once again while she searched for back up? Could she be unwittingly auditioning to become the lauded veteran's partner?

"Very well. I'll come out there." She said tersely. If nothing else, Hinano at least respected Yachiyo's frankness. "I presume when you say you're in the woodlands, you mean the terrain on the far northwest end of town, in Hokuyou Ward, correct?"

"Unnnnngggghh!" Felicia groaned, her patience reaching its boiling point. The dual sunsets were starting to split in two. First because the sun was going down, it was about to be too dark to keep pushing through these woods soon, and because that barrier appeared to be on the move. Who was that nefarious witch about to make an orphan next, she wondered.

"Yes," Yachiyo confirmed. "Looking through the trees I think I can make out Lake Kamihama and just beyond that is definitely the hospital."

"Auuuuuuuuuugh!" Felicia just could not hold on any longer. In a violet flash her Soul Gem transmuted around her body, turning into a pair of belts linked together via chain, which wrapped their way across her lower and upper abdomen, where a purple octagonal emerald formed on the chain right next to her belly button. Over her head appeared a lavender hood, with additional goggles and a pair of golden horns on top. On the rest of her body poofed a two color piece crop top with the breast area being a matching shade with her hood and a darker upper part. Her arms sported a set of detached light brown sleeves with darker brown short fingerless gloves over her hands. At her waist grew out a two-layered skirt, the top layer matching her hood as well, and the bottom matching her gloves. From the top of her thighs all the way down spawned a set of baggy brown socks which partially covered over her big, brown thick-heeled boots.

"Screw this, I'm goin' in!" She declared while blasting off through the backwoods brush. If there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that every leader of every gang she tried running with had a fundamental respect for strength. They wanted to be impressed. And here was her big chance to leave just such a huge impression on Yachiyo.

"Felicia, wait!" Yachiyo called out, but in vain. It took one short eye blink for Felicia to disappear entirely behind the veil of the witch's barrier. "Damn!"

"Did you just say 'Felicia'?" Hinano said through the phone. "Ugh, don't tell me you've become the latest cretin who believes she can be the one who tames that Raging Bull?"

"I really don't have time to talk about it here, Miyako." Felicia's entry was causing enough of a disturbance within the barrier to leak magical energy. "I'll have to call you back." Perhaps it wasn't so unfortunate that Felicia decided to barge her way inside. For her disruption had let slip through the cracks a second, and possibly third, distinctive source of magic that was detectable to Yachiyo's well-polished senses. The witch wasn't alone in there. And whoever was inside that place with Felicia was not someone with whom Yachiyo was familiar.

Be they friend or foe, she had to be ready for anything.

Tsuruno Yui had a mounting dilemma on her hands. Yachiyo specified on her list that she wanted to purchase some cranberry juice. But PoranoMarket was fresh out, she just watched a customer ahead of her grab the last one available off the shelf. Would Yachiyo be okay with an alternative juice? Cran-cherry juice was a solid choice, but it didn't offer the same points value as the cran-grape juice.

"Uhhhhhhhhhmmm…" Should she flip a coin? Or play 'eenie-meenie-miny-moe'? Or just buy one of each and keep whichever selection Yachiyo didn't want for herself? Then she remembered a one time bit of advice she got from her mentor: When presented with a viable third option, go for it. She had just enough money of her own to make up the cost difference, so the budget wouldn't be affected. She snatched two containers of both and put them in the cart. Crisis averted.

What the heck was the difference between whole kernel corn and cream style corn? Yachiyo only wrote 'canned corn,' and since it was never a menu item offered at Banbanzai corn was never much of a food for her thoughts. "Uhhhhhh…" On closer inspection, the points were only valid for the cream style corn. "Whew!" She tossed a few into her cart. Next came asparagus, some red beans and green beans and spinach. The latter was obviously intended for the growing Yuma.

Over to rice, which was right in her wheelhouse. Jasmine rice, brown rice, white rice, sticky rice and sushi rice, two of each at triple the points makes a nice, round ten. "Attention PoranoMarket shoppers," An announcement squawked over the loudspeaker. "Our triple value points special lasts only 'til sundown, that's fifteen minutes. Time to put some pep in that step!"

"Uh-oh," Tsuruno hustled. She slid three boxes of microwaveable mac and cheese into her cart, trotted over to the pastas, picked out the three varieties Yachiyo wanted along with some olive oil, and hurried over to the baking items.

Flour, cake mix, frosting, and baking chocolate. Yuma's birthday must have been coming up soon. Next aisle was reserved for the breakfast table, where Yuma's favorite cereal and the granola bars and coffee was. But Yachiyo was usually much more of a tea drinker. It made Tsuruno wonder if there was a particular reason for the switch to a stronger stuff.

Now Tsuruno had the meat market directly in her sights, but in her way stood a rather curious-looking person with a tripod and camera strapped in tow. But they were not buying any groceries, the person's eyes seemed to be darting up and down and all around these surroundings like a crazed loon. Whatever their deal was, Tsuruno tried her best not to make accidental eye contact and scooch around to make it through the aisle and over to the meat counter.

"Hey, you!" A boisterous, authoritative voice called out behind her. "Fermati là!"

"Huh?" Tsuruno took the briefest of glances behind her to see if they might be addressing someone else. But unfortunately for her, there was nobody else browsing the aisle with them. "Who, meee?" Now it was Tsuruno's eyes that were darting every which way, searching for an escape route.

"Your face! I swear I've seen it someplace before!" The person approached Tsuruno with both an urgent speed and vigor and took hold of her by the shoulders. "Wherewherewhere… Sí! That's it! I first met you in a dream… Or something!"

"Uhhhhhhhhh… What?" The girl accosting her appeared to be somewhere around Tsuruno's own age. She had soul piercing green eyes and a bright yellow stripe down the front of her hair which Tsuruno couldn't tell if it was just blonde dye or stained by actual yellow paint.

"Síííííí!" She grabbed Tsuruno under her chin, pinching her lips together. "I just had this dream, and in it you were showcased as the grand attrazione in my latest, most prized work of art!" Holding her up that way she turned Tsuruno's face to one side, then to the other, sizing her up like she was little more than a piece of meat. "Though your skin's a few shades healthier than that marionetta of my dreams."

"Mphhh.. I phhhink maybe you're miphhwaking me phwah phhomeone elphh." Tsuruno's scrunched lips managed to say through this girl's firm, long-nailed, fingetips.

"No, I don't think so, it's impossibile." The girl finally released Tsuruno's face only to take her by the arm. "I have an eye for a certain sort of attractive androgyny and that face of yours fits the one I'm seeking to a tee!" She took hold of the camera strapped around her neck and held it up to her face. "You ever considered becoming una modella?"

"What's that?" This girl seemed to dip in and out of a completely different language at her whim, which to Tsuruno was quite confounding.

"That would be a person who poses for pretty pictures while wearing clothing and jewels and cosmetics most fantastica."

"Ooooh," Tsuruno paused. "You mean a model?" Her eyes lit up with stars. "Really? You think I've got what it takes to become a model?" The thought that she could become as mighty as her mentor in a totally different way was a most appealing notion. That there was somebody out there who found her face uniquely attractive, though a girl, was quite the sudden boon to her self-image.

"Of coooooourse!" The other girl exclaimed. "Would you mind if I snap a few quick fotographias with this camera of mine?"

"Suuuure!" Tsuruno beamed. "Hey, why do you have that at the grocery store anyway?"

"Have you not noticed the particular paculiarità of this food-shilling establishment?" She asked in a cheeky tone. "As it happens, this place once served as home to a church of the Christian denominazione." She snapped her first photo of Tsuruno. "So I did what any astute artista would do and followed my muse. The Kamihama Galleria is going to host a feature that contrasts the religions of old with the values and beliefs of modernità." She motioned Tsuruno to turn her left cheek upwards a little and pose. "Grazie." She snapped another. "So I ask what better way to show that paradox than a shrine to God being plastered over by yet another vapid monument to capitalismo?"

"Huh," Tsuruno's eyes panned toward the upper half of the store. "Guess I never noticed all those statues up there."

"Attention, PoranoMarket shoppers," The public address interrupted their impromptu photo session. "The triple points sale ends in five minutes! Time to hussle!"

"Waaaaaaaaah!" In the distraction of this little chance encounter Tsuruno had forgotten all about her mission for Yachiyo. "I gotta get going! I gotta get this all done in five minutes!" The girl's third photograph happened to catch Tsuruno right at her moment of panic.

"Wait up, un momento," The girl gave the fleeing Tsuruno chase. "What's with the uno ottanta?"

"If I don't get these things checked out in time, then Yachiyo's not gonna get the points," Tsuruno babbled as she tried to dart away. "And if she misses out on the points it's gonna be my fault," She double checked the remaining items on her shopping list. "If I mess this up then she'll think I can't be trusted to do the adulting stuff she does like shop and lead and train the younger girls and take care of other problems in Kamihama while she's away!" But upon realizing that there were still too many items left to be able to make it to the checkout counter in time, she let out a regretful wail. "Awwwwwwww!"

"Wait, so you do what you do for the sake of somebody else and their opinione of you?" The girl deduced that much from Tsuruno's babbling. "You know if you labor solely for the sake of their encomio, you'll only wind up face down in a bed of dirt and worms!"

"What?" Tsuruno turned and gave her a most puzzled look.

"It's one thing to labor for the sake of others because it fulfills you, or gives you a sense of soddisfacione," She rephrased. "But if you're doing it purely to prove your competence or impress someone else, then cessare right now." She advised, whilst searching for something on her body, only to realize that she had been wearing nothing but her pink pajamas the entire time. "Merda!" She spotted Yuma's special cereal in Tsuruno's cart. "Ah-hah!"

"What are you doing?" Tsuruno watched her tear off a piece of the cardboard box.

"Here's my number, the address of my studio, and my name," There was a pen attached to a clipboard on the meat counter, which she used to craft a makeshift calling card. "When you come, make sure it's because it is something that you want to do, not because you believe that'll impress me or your friends." Rather than simply handing the card over, she tugged on Tsuruno's shirt and tucked it snugly into her pocket. "For the record, your figura impresses me enough." She leaned in and stole an affectionate peck on Tsuruno's left cheek. "Ci vediamo dopo, hopefully. Bye-bye!"

"Yeah," The stunned and awestruck Tsuruno stood there slowly trying to work up the nerve to rub it off. "Bye-bye!"

"Darn! I don't understand it at all!" A girl armed with a pair of oversized electrified tonfas wondered. "Last time that witch was right here!" Underneath her short, low-hanging yellow and white trimmed overcoat she sported a sleeveless black unitard with singular orange stripes on each side of the abdomen and an orange bikini. Between the bikini and her bellybutton sat a four-sided orange diamond-crusted metallic belt that was adorned by a frilly three-layered skirt along the sides going around to her hind. The first layer was white, the second was the same yellow as her coat and the third layer was orange with a white vertical striped pattern connecting with a singular white stripe along the bottom. She also wore two layers of gloves, a long sleeved tight pair the same color as her unitard underneath a yellow, orange and black pattern set that resembled workman's gloves. They were the same color and pattern as her boots, which also covered two long socks, which were white with an orange stripe at their diagonal tops. At the top of her head was a yellow cap, resembling a nurse's hat save for an orange diamond-shaped insignia and two black stripes at the top, bottom and buttons. The hat was flanked by a pair of looping twin-tails bound together by a matching set of yellow cube-shaped ties which accentuated her shining brown hair. Her Soul Gem was sitting just below her neck, it was also a four-sided diamond, but green and attached to a larger gold four sided diamond with four points jutting from each of their sides. "Where could it have gone?"

She was wandering around a labyrinth that resembled an impressionist painting, consisting of hilly gently-sloping terrain, sunflowers and tall, skinny poplar trees. But in contrast to such paintings, the color palette of the land was quite muted, consisting primarily of shades of brown and darkening grey, the only exceptions being the golden heads of some sunflowers, and one other, much odder and more ominous piece of flora.

"Oh no!" The magical girl exclaimed. They were familiars. Though planted stationary to the ground they were both very much alive and very not keen on spotting this young intruder intruding upon their masters' lair.

"Ooooaaaaaauuuuuuhhhh!" The familiars howled as one like a pack of poltergeists. They resembled street signposts, but in lieu of plates with labels were emotive faces, some looking scared, others in anguish, and even more in sadness. At the top of each post was a large, humanoid brain, their big weak point. "Uuuuuuuuuaaaa-" Before two faces could finish their ghostly wail a splattering of gooey grey blood exploded out from their insides, leaving the thing to wilt away and die.

"Over there," The young lady spoke after the obstacles in her path were cleared up. "I think that's it!" Though its familiars were comparable to real world objects, the figure of the witch itself was one hundred percent supernatural in appearance. Its main body was in the vague shape of a purse string bag, with light green and dark green triangular patterns alternating along its skin, and two smaller bags on its side. Its belly featured a large, u-shaped zipper, with a y-shaped strap on the neck dangling above it. Its head was not a head per se, but a jumbled, balled-up string with a disembodied pair of feet sticking out of the front. Out of the top of its head were three rods, connected by another u-shaped joint that curved downward, with four open-palmed hands attached along its track. Its arms were also straight rods, but instead of normal hands, there were two large black balls with expressionless white doll faces jutting out of each end. "And it's on the move!" The young magical girl took off to follow.

"Haaaaaaah!" The young girl positioned her weapons to the ground, then pounded the surface as hard as she could which sent her flying off towards one of the trees as a stream of electricity zapped along her wake. "Huuuuup!" She bounced off the treetop like a pinball and blasted off in pursuit of the lumbering creature.

By instinct the familiars tried to protect it from harm, their faces growing and twisting and extending their way outward towards the rushing young lady. But any attacks were cut off at the head, literally, as their big brains were each severed in three wispy, violent and gory strikes.

"Okay! Now that we've found your hiding spot," The girl landed in front of the fleeing witch. "You're toast!" But the witch had one trick up its sleeve, which caught the girl off guard. It spun in place, and from those faces on its arms beams of bright with black-dotted light shot outward. "Unnnghhh!" The magical girl fled for safety behind a nearby tree. To her further shock and surprise, the creature gave an immediate pursuit. Its zipper belly opened to reveal a knotted up main inner body, which grew out arms and dragged the rest of it along in a frantic rush towards her. "Uh-oh!" She gasped. It uprooted the tree as she barely escaped, tossing it at her and toppling over more than a dozen fence posts along the long hilly pathway. She dodged with a deft takeoff to the air, bouncing against another tree and delivering herself to safety back on the ground.

"Aaaaauuuuuuoooooohhh!" The familiars wailed. At the base of their bottoms they suddenly sprouted four tiny legs which allowed them to pull themselves out of the ground and scurry over to its master to protect it. Some made it, but most were beheaded and killed again by that mysterious, ethereal gust of wind.

Left to fend for itself once more the witch could only lash out like a frightened animal. It fired the pair of feet from its face at the young target. In a swift evasion she planted her tonfas to the ground and jetted straight upward, but it had a fresh set of feet to fire and had its sights trained straight at its troublesome, falling foe. "Ahh! No!" She cried. She realized her rash act had made her vulnerable, but at the very last second the feet were knocked away from her by a large flying mallet.

"Kaaaaaaaaah!" The diminutive blonde girl clad in purple recovered her weapon and yelled her battle cry. "Boooooom!" She pounded the ground with such overwhelming force it sent the familiars flying in all directions.

"Felicia!" Yachiyo shouted. But as she darted after her young charge, something abruptly jerked at her waist and the next thing she saw was a short swordlike dagger drawn at the base of her throat.

"Identify yourself," A feminine, but otherwise unemotive voice spoke square into her ear.

"Invisibility?" Yachiyo's eyes glared behind her. "No," She could vaguely make out the outline of another human shape. "More like… Transparency!"

"I won't ask you again," The voice threatened. The one thing Yachiyo could make out cleanly were her cold, slate colored eyes.

"Baaaaaah-" Felicia, meanwhile, wound up for another strike. "Boooooooooom!" The yellow-clad girl nearby could only scramble for safety.

"Nanami. Shinsei Ward," Yachiyo bluntly answered. "Here because we sensed this witch all the way into south Sankyou Ward."

"Hate to have to tell you, but you won't be the ones taking this Grief Seed today." Her gaze remained constant and her blade steady.

"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaam!" Felicia flattened the witch with her finishing move. But she wasn't done just yet. To make sure it didn't have any more surprises in store she gave it another good walloping.

"I assure you, we have no designs on snatching your prize," With a single, graceful move Yachiyo grabbed the girl's arm, ducked her escape out of the headlock then formed a halberd and took aim at her assailant's head. "They're not as precious or valuable as they once were. They're not a prize worth taking anyone's life over."

"Hmph! If you say so." And with those terse words, the girl let go, ending the sudden standoff. With no reason to keep the subterfuge going, she made her appearance whole. Her mid-length hair was as silvery as her eyes, with pointed stars adorning a hair weave at the top and a crystalline feather attached to a poofy ball above one ear.

"I don't know you," Yachiyo further examined the girl's appearance. Her shimmery outfit was entirely see-thru, save for the soft white cloth over her arms and chest that was barely hiding her breasts, and the intricately decorated corset around her waist, which featured black stripes with black and white patterned frills at the bottom, and two long straps colored blue and gold, trailing down her backside. Under the frills was another short, see-thru star-decorated short skirt with a white undergarment underneath. Last she featured shin-high boots, also a shiny white with blue frills on top. "From which ward do you hail?"

"Ch- Chuo," Her yellow associate volunteered, trying to deflate the air of tension. "We're from Chuo Ward."

"And your names?" The girl who was at her throat still would not speak, leaving the talking for her colleague.

"I- I'm Kokoro," The yellow girl stammered. "Kokoro Awane," Her voice trailed, expecting her friend to introduce herself. "And that's Masara," She offered her friend an introductory start.

"Kagami," Masara finally spoke up. But she wasn't about to say much else.

"Bam-booooooom!" Felicia thundered. Before the witch could unveil its real body within its zipper, Felicia knocked it right back inside.

"Chuo's one of the central wards," Yachiyo stated. "Which would put you under the purview of Hinano Miyako, if I recall." But Banbanzai was also located within that ward, which theoretically also meant these two could answer to Tsuruno now that she had been promoted. All those rules and regulations on who had domain over what was a bit fuzzy to Yachiyo, and she was one of the people who helped draft those guidelines. "Have you been in touch with her?" She stuck with Miyako. The last thing Tsuruno needed was yet another load of responsibility on her shoulders.

"He- Who?" Kokoro scratched her head in befuddlement.

"We're under no one's jurisdiction but our own," Masara declared. Her voice wavering not one single octave.

"Is that so?" Yachiyo studied them closer. What she failed to notice at first glance was that neither girl had a Soul Support Stone in their belongings. Was it even possible for Kamihama to still have girls who hadn't taken their burden-relieving gifts? How could that be and why?

"Ba-Dooooooooom!" Felicia's unchecked rampage drew Kokoro back over to her, as the trees and hills of the labyrinth slowly dissolved into nothingness.

"You do know that Grief Seeds are no longer necessary to maintaining our magic, right?" Yachiyo inquired.

"We've heard rumblings about it here and there. Turned down some offerings once or twice."

"So you have at least been in some contact with the girls who are tasked with offering our replacement gems, I take it?" With faces as friendly as Sasara and Momoko's, how could these two have said 'no'?

"We have," Masara confirmed. "But we see no reason to change the way we operate," She detailed. "Least of all for the sake of others who may likely consider no one's best interest but their own."

"How could you say that?" Yachiyo pressed. "We're striving to shape a better world for all magical girls to live in peace and cooperation together."

"Noble enough words in the abstract," Masara replied. "But in practice those who say they strive for betterment are just saying so to mask either their authoritarian or kleptocratic inclinations." As the last traces of the labyrinth dissolved, the group found itself back in the middle of the woods at dusk. "And anyone who offers something free of charge is likely shilling a product that's too good to be true."

"These stones function exactly as advertised," Yachiyo took out hers, a circular aqua gem with varying discolorations that made it resemble the face of the Moon. "See?" Particulates of darkness swirled out of her Soul Gem and into the Support Stone. "I have some more in my personal possession, if you'd just-"

"No thank you," Masara rejected. "I've witnessed the demonstrations, too." Her face betrayed no reaction. "Fancy light show aside, the list of questions I had went well beyond whatever answers our would-be benefactors could provide. And keeping the low-level footsoldiers in the dark is a signature move of the shadowy types."

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeey!" Kokoro's voice ripped through the air and grabbed the two's attention. "Stoooooooooop!" With an urgent force she pushed Felicia away from whatever it was she was about to do.

"Felicia!" The distraction to Yachiyo was enough to let Masara turn transparent and once again slip away into the growing night. "What's going on?"

"She was going to smash our Grief Seed!" Kokoro picked it up in a huff and cradled it in her arms.

"Why the hell would ya' care about keepin' it around?" Felicia argued. "It's not like these things are any good to anybody anymore! Smash 'em all to smithereens!" She fumed. "Smash 'em to hell!"

"Those who can't convince with logic, seek to impose their philosophy on others, by sheer dogma-driven force." Masara phased back into view and took her position in front of Kokoro. "Which is also a signature move of the would-be authoritarian sorts." She pointed her short blade Felicia's way.

"Grrrrrrr!" Felicia didn't take kindly to even being vaguely threatened.

"Felicia, you shouldn't have done that," Yachiyo scolded. "Nor should you have charged ahead and went after the witch so recklessly like that!"

"Whhaaaaaahhhh!" Felicia groaned. But you said I could take the lead!"

"But I didn't say you could barge in on another team's hunt and have your way with their prey!"

"Pffft!" Felicia grumped. "Soooooorry I saved your life!"

"Thanks," Kokoro at least was willing to offer a single fig leaf. "For saving me ba- back there."

Then without warning the entire ground underneath them shook, both Yachiyo and Masara could see cracks forming along the earth. Though before the soil beneath could engulf them, they quickly grabbed their comrades and jumped away to safety.

"A sinkhole is forming!" Yachiyo concluded. "Crap!" From the evidence suggested before them Yachiyo could only conclude that Felicia had pounded and trashed the witch's domain so thoroughly that the force of her blows transcended the labyrinth and penetrated into the normal world, causing the seismic event that they were now witnessing.

"The nature trail!" Kokoro teared up and winced as she sought solace in Masara's embrace.

"I'm sorry, Kokoro." Masara gently stroked her back, the tone of her voice at last taking on a semblance of human emotion. "This was my fault." The sinkhole was a whole six meters wide now, and widening at a steady clip.

"Felicia, look what you've done!" Yachiyo scolded as she carried Felicia off under her right arm. "Someone in the city is sure to find this hole, and when they investigate they might not conclude it to be a normal natural phenomenon!"

"It's not like they're gonna think it's some blonde girl with a big hammer neither!" Felicia defended herself.

"That still doesn't mean you should jump right in and smash away at everything in sight," Yachiyo chided. "You gotta learn to control yourself! You gotta learn to 'think' before you 'do''! Otherwise you might wind up hurting someone you didn't intend to, like you almost just did now!"

"Guuuuuuhhh!" You meanie! Yer just like all the others!" Felicia whined. She tried to kick and wiggle her way free, but Yachiyo was having none of it. "Damn it, it's not fair! Why am I always the one being told to calm down? Why am I always the one being told to control myself?"

'When you're done using that Grief Seed, be sure to take it to The Coordinator for proper disposal.' Yachiyo telepathically advised the two other girls as the widening gap in the ground forced them to go separate ways. 'You are at least aware of who that person is, aren't you?"

'We know who The Coordinator is', The silver haired girl messaged back. As they made their escape, Yachiyo overheard an additional parting thought. 'Who do you think is the one trading us all the excess Grief Seeds around here?'

"Kyoko, what the heck are you doing?" Sayaka came into her great big mess of a bedroom. Clothes and packed away belongings were strewn about the floor, as Kyoko had been rifling through Sayaka's closet.

"Life's all about maintainin' balance," Kyoko stated. "I gotta pick something cool to wear on the date that'll cancel out all that cuteness Shrimpy's gonna lather all over my face!"

"You had days to plan and prepare for your date," Sayaka reminded. "You could've gone shopping for something to wear!" She started the huge chore of picking up after the mess. "And not screwed with my whole damn wardrobe!"

"Yeah, it's some wardrobe ya' got here," Kyoko pushed aside some items dangling on clothes hangers and tossed other various garments and sundries behind her. "That's like, eighty percent boys' clothes!"

"Sue me for wanting to save my parents a little money and telling them I was okay with boys' shirts and boys' pants," Sayaka argued. "They fit just the same as girls' clothes, and sometimes as a bonus they're quicker to put on and more comfy to wear, too."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Whatever," Kyoko wasn't in a position to debate, as much of her own clothes were goodwill donations from former members of her father's church. "I just need to find something that spells out 'c-o-o-l' to him. Don't give a crap if it was made for boys or girls!" As she browsed she hurled more assorted items Sayaka's way. Old shoes, socks that would no longer fit, an itchy wool sweater, a couple dusty old ball caps from a tee-ball team she played with back in Tokyo, and a plastic mask.

"Hey! Watch where you're tossing that stuff!" Sayaka caught the mask just after it clinked against a lamp on her desk. Then she saved the lamp from an equally ignominious fate of falling over onto the floor.

"Sorry!" Kyoko's mess making continued unabated.

"Hey..." Sayaka muttered under her breath. "I remember this thing." When she was eight years old her dad took her to see a professional wrestling event. One of the featured performers was a big hulking man with shining armor covering his whole upper body. Calling himself as the 'Monster Who Fights Monsters,' he was a heroic figure made out to appear terrifying through prosthetics, makeup and a mask that made him look like a disfigured freak with a large bulbous head, grated teeth and three dark, sunken-in eyes. She remembered being so thrilled and entertained by the main event that afterwards her dad bought her a replica of his main accessory at the shop, this mask.

"Dang, ya' got like, ten different shades of polo shirts," Kyoko commented. But Sayaka wasn't paying her messy friend much mind. "Ya' got a hang-up for these things or somethin'?"

"Maybe I do," Sayaka breathed out an uninterested reply, her eyes still fixated on that mask in her hands. Not long before that show she'd had a memorable bad dream where she awoke in the middle of the night, sat up to get out of bed, put her feet to the floor… And then something scary grabbed her by the ankle. It put her on edge enough that for the following weeks she would make a routine of checking under her bed and in her closet for monsters. But after seeing the wrestler in action, she got the idea in her head that if she could just look like a beast even scarier than they were, the monsters would leave her alone. Then right after her parents tucked her under her blankets, she would take the mask out from her bedside drawer, put it on and sleep more soundly.

"And the overalls! So many overalls!" By this point Sayaka had tuned Kyoko out.

But the resemblance it had to something else was too uncanny to ignore. For it, too, was clad in heavy armor and had an ugly, grotesque sunken-eyed face. When she and her witch were linked as one, the creature revealed herself to be just a lonely, terrified, angry and sad little girl hiding behind the facade of that hulking, gruesome thing. Did she take on that form for the very same reason Sayaka used to don this mask at night? In her maelstrom of fragmented memories and raw, untethered emotions, did she too project her reborn form as a monster who terrified other monsters?

"Maybe I'm way overthinkin' this sitch." Kyoko sighed. "It's not about him, it's about me! I should put on something that I think is comfortable, and jus' be my natural cool ass self, and he'll fall right in line!" She made her way to the coats stuffed to the far left side. "Yeah! Now we're talkin'!"

"Mmmhm," Sayaka murmured. But it wasn't in any response to Kyoko's words. She remembered another reason she used to like to wear this mask to bed. There was something about the synthetic smell of the hard plastic in the interior, there was a certain pungency to it that she very much enjoyed breathing through her nostrils. It made her feel… She struggled to find the right word to describe the experience. Maybe giving it a quick sniff could help her recall what it was. While Kyoko was looking away she gradually raised the mask up to her face and breathed in through her nose as deep as she could. It had faded, but there was no mistake, that scent was still there. And with it came a rush of intense excitement, tingling from her nose all the way up to the top of her head and straight down to the ends of her fingers and toes. It was alluring.

"Well, whaddaya think?" Sayaka pulled the mask away from her face a split second before Kyoko could notice her distraction. "This is a real kickass jacket, amirite! Where'd ya' get it?"

"No! Take that off!" Sayaka lunged toward her. "You can't have it!"

"Hey, what the hay?" Kyoko tried to resist Sayaka's attempt to wrestle the jacket off her body, but she yielded quickly. "Alright, alright! Geeeeeeez! Does the thing really mean that much to ya'?"

"It was a gift from my Dad," Sayaka said. "He saved some German tourist from drowning in a rip current once." She detailed. "The guy was so grateful to be alive he gave him his coat as thanks. And then my Dad gave it to me."

"Touching story," Kyoko remarked. "Tch. So why ain't ya' been wearin' it around?"

It was an earnest, though piercing enough question that Sayaka didn't really have a good answer for. "Well cuz, I-" She started and stopped. "I'd been saving it. Cuz I. Kinda. Sorta. Wanted… To wear it… On my own first date. Some day." A simple, innocent enough truth that somehow felt like confessing to a hundred sins. As her jealousy and bitterness over seeing Kyoko as the object of so much recent affection made her gut wretch.

"Oh." Kyoko seemed to understand the text of Sayaka's words, if not the subtext. "Well," She performed a reciprocal lunge towards Sayaka. "Just put it on then!"

"Hey!" Sayaka put up a token resistance, but Kyoko's effort would not be thwarted.

"There!" Kyoko grinned as she forcibly turned Sayaka's body towards her full body mirror. "Feelin' better 'bout everything now?" She pat Sayaka on her shoulders. "At least, a little less sucky and sulky?"

"Sulky?" Sayaka glared into the mirror at Kyoko. The German man was rather short, which was the key factor in her father's decision to regift it to her, yet still the coat was long enough to hang down to her thighs halfway to her knees. "Me?" Made of leather, black and featuring three buttons on each side for a total of six, her Dad claimed it was an old military style coat.

"Don't think I don't get why this double date's made ya' so moody!" Kyoko spoke. "Ya' thought it'd be you takin' yer best friend out on her first big date, not me! Thought you'd be the one with yer Violin Boy, not her!" So she did grasp some of the subtext. "Thought you were the coolest girl in school before I came 'round this neck of the woods and made you look like a total dork by comparison!" Just some of it, though.

"In my defense," Sayaka added. "Some of my reputation I wrecked all on my own."

"My point is that if yer not happy, it's not gonna do ya' any good just mopin' about it!" Kyoko advised. "When life bucks ya' hard ya' gotta roll with the bullshit and build your life back better than before!" Kyoko's uncharacteristic, optimistic clichés aside, Sayaka did like how the coat looked on her.

"You know, it's not that late yet," Sayaka suggested. "We still have time to head over to the mall and you can pick out your own clothes for the date." She turned to one side and pulled the collar partially over her face and nose. "And if you're worried about spending too much cash, I can lend you whatever you need." She snuck in a few clandestine whiffs of the leather.

"Ya' wanna lend me cash?" Kyoko questioned. "What if I told you my birthday's comin' up soon?"

"Nice try," Sayaka shot her a skeptical glance. "Is it really?"

"N- No…" Kyoko admitted. "What if I help you clean up this room? And you just pay me for it?" So money really was the reason her first impulse was to raid her friend's wardrobe.

"You want me to pay you to help me clean up after a mess that you made?" She couldn't help but snicker at the audacity of Kyoko's idea.

"Fine, fine! I'll take out a loan!" Kyoko picked up a bunch of Sayaka's clothes that were still on hangers and in a haste put them back on the rack. "Can we just finish the cleanup quick and get our butts goin'?" Sayaka had had the contents of her closet organized in a particular way, a detail to which Kyoko had paid no mind.

"Not so fast," Sayaka warned. "If you just stuff everything back in there willy-nilly, then don't be surprised if you get frustrated at the end when you find out the last few things you hang won't hang in there right." She snuck in one last whiff of her leather coat. The smell was older and more distinct from the plastic mask, but in its own way was just as invigorating to her senses.

"Why ya' doin' that?" Kyoko finally took notice of Sayaka's little indulgence.

"Mmmm… No reason." Sayaka fixed the collar, pulled up her cuffs and buttoned up the middle button to the left side. "Now let's get to it!"

"We could join the Book Club." Saya and Hitomi were examining the list of active clubs at the Satomi Academy. It was at the suggestion of one of the teachers that they consummate their reunification through an extracurricular activity. "I have met the president of that club before," Saya elaborated. "She is still in elementary school, but she is very mature for her age and she is very sweet and polite."

"The suggestion isn't bad, but," Hitomi hesitated. "I've already read 'Rashomon' twice, 'Pillow Book,' 'The Diving Pool,' 'Kokoro,' 'Strange Weather In Tokyo,' and dozens of classics from the western world." She paused, and smiled. "Reading is what I do when I want to be left alone. Not when I'm trying to make time for my friends."

"Okay," Saya next went to the one listed above it. "Perhaps Astronomy Club?"

"At my old school that club was where all the nerdiest of the male students got together to gush about UFOs and space aliens and all the silly sci-fi stuff."

"But they have access to the Murakami Array," Saya countered. "Perhaps this club will practice real astronomy instead of idle fantasy?"

"Even so I still have this feeling we'd be the only females in that club," Hitomi rejected. "I'd rather we not have to deal with constant confession letters and silly romantic advancements."

"Very well," Saya moved on. "How about Calligraphy?"

"Pass."

"Drama?"

"I'm not a good actor at all."

"Disciplinary Club?"

"I'd much prefer to lead by setting good examples, Not be an over-polished uniformed enforcer."

"Flower Arrangement?"

"I have allergies."

"What about one of the sports clubs?"

"I'd prefer something not so physically strenuous," Hitomi shook her head. "Especially since I'm still enrolled in my private Japanese Dance lessons.

"I see," If Saya was getting frustrated from all her suggestions being shot down, her face displayed no signs of showing it. "Well look what it says down here," She put her finger on the fine print near the bottom. "It says that submissions for new clubs are open. What if you and I start our own?"

"It also states that the required minimum number of club members is three," Hitomi pointed out. "We'd have to find another member, and we would have to do it before the filing deadline." She searched the rest of the pamphlet for the date. "Shoot! We have less than a week to think of a club concept and recruit another member."

Saya thought to herself for a few minutes as they walked together in the hallway. "Do you remember telling me that you wanted to seek out a career where you could help other people?"

"Yes."

"I think we should start an extracurricular club that does precisely that?"

"What do you mean?" Hitomi detected an air of enthusiasm behind Saya's suggestion, and she wanted in on it.

"I mean, there are always teachers looking for students to help them grade papers and shop for school supplies, other clubs always in need of extra hands when they plan and carry out major school events, and always elementary kids who need upperclassmen for tutoring and to plan their fun activities."

"Well," Hitomi gave her friend's suggestion some considerable thought. "The Student Council did complain about being short handed and in need of a few volunteers at the last Student Body meeting." The more she thought about it, the more she dug the notion. "It would be a pretty easy sell if we told them it was a club that expressly exists to aid other clubs in need. They may even allot us a larger budget if we can demonstrate how useful and multifaceted our skills can be."

"The thought just came to me of what we might want to call it," Saya snapped her finger. "How do you like the name 'Heroes Club'?"

"I like it!" Hitomi nodded. "With a name like that, I'm sure our idea could appeal to both the council and potential new faces."

"Alright! Now leave the task of finding a third member up to me," Saya insisted. "I think I may know of a few potential recruits." The bell for the next period rang, for the rest of the day they would have to part ways.

"Alright then," Hitomi waved as she turned the corner to her next class. "Catch you back at the arcade after school?"

"For a return to 'Sana's Kingdom'?"

"You bet!" Hitomi yelled back. "If only we could make Sana a club member, too." She joked. "Too bad she's just a jumble of lines of computer code."

"Yes," Saya muttered and waved back. "Only computer code. Too bad."

"Really? This is the place?" Junko stared at the billboard sign with an intense incredulity and shook her head at the 'Grand Opening' banner in the window. "'Chinese Restaurant Banbanzai'?" It was triggering post traumatic flashbacks to her very first job as a teen waitress and subsequent stint as her first employer's shift manager during the late nineteen nineties. It was an otaku-themed restaurant and the patrons couldn't keep their hands to themselves. She rechecked the address written on her recommendation letter. "Crap!" It was a match. This had to be the spot. Her company's public sector contractor was some new novelty restaurant downtown?

Her first instinct was telling her to turn back now and go home. Her second instinct was telling her that she'd been set up and fallen victim to one of those shady Japanese business practices of forcing misbehaving employees into doing non-productive busywork like staring at walls or counting paper clips until they crack enough to quit. Her third instinct was telling her that something even shadier was at work here. Her fourth instinct was telling her to keep her chin up, carry on and head inside. It was too early to draw any concrete conclusions about whatever this situation was.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiii!" A tall, brown-haired girl with a long ponytail and a big, white apron with a red pig on the front, greeted her front-and-center at the door. "Welcome to Banbanzai! Where we bring all the mightiest together to make the mmmightiest of tasty Chinese meals!" Junko was no theater critic, but it was obvious that this young lady was trying to emulate the performance of somebody else, and doing a pretty one-note and half-assed job of it.

"Uhhhhhmmm," Junko had a look around the joint. For a Grand Opening, it was pretty quiet. "I'm here concerning a potential job offer." She pulled a note from her pocket, unfolded it and held it out with both hands.

"One moment, please." The girl dropped character then snatched the letter away and inspected it underneath what looked to Junko like some sort of special blue-tinted light. "Seems legit," She guided Junko down a hallway and pointed her towards a flight of stairs. "Here's a guest key card, for security reasons you'll have to leave your phone and belongings with me." She handed her a red credit card-like key. "Second door on the left. Sit at the far end of the table. Someone will be in to give you a debrief shortly."

"Alright," Junko took the card and hesitated for a moment. What kind of restaurant keeps electronically locked doors upstairs? That feeling she got when she was first assigned to the anime committee had returned, that apprehension and the sense that she was in way above her head.

"Relax," The waitress advised as Junko handed over her purse. "It's not an interview. More of an orientation."

That somehow didn't make Junko feel any more confident. It meant that she hadn't been handpicked for this organization, so much as headhunted and drafted. She had to be ready for anything. Up to and including facing down some menacing-looking men in dark sunglasses and tattoos.

Junko slid the key into the lock and turned the handle. After a few seconds of buzzing, the door handle clicked and gave way. She took a step and came into a room with some rather spartan furnishings. There were two sets of fluorescent lights on the paneled ceiling above, false wood paneling for walls, with an oversized map of Japan on one side of the room and a rather peculiar black and white photograph of a dark-haired, mustachioed man in a military uniform framed on the other. In one far corner there was mounted a single security camera. In another, sat a potted fern.

Junko took her seat at the table and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

"Missus Kaname," A man's head finally poked in through the door. "Sorry to keep you waiting." She didn't have her phone, nor was there any wall clock, so she had no idea if she had been waiting at that table for five minutes or twenty-five minutes. "Few more minutes. Is there anything I can bring you in here?"

"Coffee," Junko ordered. "Gimme the strongest stuff you've got."

"Sure thing." The door closed and she waited some more. And waited. And waited. She was going to need to make a habit of wearing her watch again, that much was for certain.

"Good afternoon, Missus Kaname." A woman holding a suitcase came in and greeted her. She arrived at about a quarter after eleven, indicating that she had been waiting around for at least forty-five minutes. In her hands were two closed Styrofoam containers of liquid. "Here's that coffee." She set the suitcase down beside the table.

"About time," Junko took the coffee and promptly took a sip. "Mind if you rolled up your sleeves for me?"

"Whatever for?" The woman also had a stack of folders tucked underneath her right arm.

"Well, judging by your overwrought dress sense, by that picture on the wall, and by the premium you all place on secrecy, I would guess that you guys are some sort of government enterprise. Even so, I'd still feel better if I knew for sure that those sleeves weren't covering any gang-styled tattoos."

"You want me to prove I'm not in the Yakuza?" The woman chortled. "Well now, that is a first." She set her stack of papers down on the table and obliged. "There now. See? Not in the Yakuza." Then she added, "These days that's becoming somewhat of an outmoded stereotype, you know. Leave it to the kids to turn permanently dying the pigments of your skin into an art form and the new normal."

"Uh-huh, I understand that." Junko nodded. "No offense, it's just that I've overheard my employer's number crunchers in accounting squawk around the water cooler a number of times about a bunch of undisclosed annual expenditures, and while cooling my heels here I couldn't help but wonder just where some of that money might have gone."

"Well I certainly cannot speak towards all of who and whatever else your corporate overlords might be palling around with in the shadows," She unbound a brown twine tie around the first folder. "All I can say is that, yes, your company and our organization are engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship." Inside was a stack of papers with blank spaces that awaited Junko's signature. "They provide us a major source of operational funding, and in return we grant them first dibs on some reverse engineered procurements from out-of-town, in addition to encouraging the bureaucrats over at the National Tax Agency to look the other way from time to time whenever their bigwigs try and skirt paying their public dues."

"You've got the power to do that, huh?" Junko studied the logo at the top of the first page of the form. "United Nations Specialized Tactics and Emergency Planning." A silly-sounding name seemingly concocted around an even sillier-sounding acronym. "Seriously?" There was another logo etched at the bottom. "A division of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce." Junko had a pen in her hand but was still reluctant to sign. "So I assume this is not affiliated with the JSDF, then?"

"The military is still bound by the restrictions enshrined in our Constitution," The woman explained. "We being foremost a civilian-led scientific organization, who work in conjunction with other global security apparati, it affords us a bit more leeway pertaining to matters of humanity's peace and security on this Earth."

"Civilian and scientific, you say?" That was at least reassuring enough to get Junko to sign the first couple blank spaces. "Well I sure hope I wasn't hired for my scientific expertise, because I hate to tell you, my grades in those classes back in the day were pretty pedestrian." They say self-deprecating jokes are inadvisable to do during job interviews, but since whatever position she was filling was all but secure, she figured one may help in breaking the ice.

"No," The woman responded. Junko's joke wasn't funny, but it did get them both to loosen their postures just a hair. "If you'd sign that next line, then I can officially tell you." Junko did as she was requested. "Your official role is to serve as the day-to-day operations manager of our particular division, with your public persona being that of the manager of our humble little eating establishment."

"So I would be the girl who hires and trains, coordinates schedules, serves as a go-between for customers and staff and looks over the menu items and signs off on equipment maintenance. That the general gist?" She was offered a promotion to a similar role at her first gig, but turned it down the moment a better employer offering a higher salary came her way.

"Yes, the sorts of things a good people-person such as yourself does, except," The woman took the first folder away and presented Junko a second one. "Your staffing positions have already been filled with former security and special ops officers. Their jobs as waitresses, cooks and custodians are just cover stories for their real roles here."

"As is mine, I assume?" Though it might have been a bit presumptuous of her to believe that, since she herself was not a military member.

"Yes, but unlike them the majority of your time is still going to revolve around your people-person skills." The woman gave her an assertive wink and a nod.

"To be honest I'd have a lot more enthusiasm for this role if it weren't for those so-called people-person skills of mine that landed me in hot water at my last big scenery change." Junko signed the next set of lines reserved for her signature in the folder.

"According to our insider, you spoke your mind in a room full of yes-men and egotists and held your opinions firm in a raging river of testosterone," The woman complimented. "Speaking as another woman who's been in that kind of situation more times than I care to count, I know how tough that can be."

"So what is my role supposed to be here?" Junko stopped the informal dancing and hopped straight to the point.

"We're a hodgepodge organization made up of scientists, soldiers, spies, bureaucrats, politicians and businesspeople," The woman elaborated. "That's a lot of cooks in a kitchen that can get very, very hot at times." As Junko returned her second folder, the woman unbound and opened a third with yet another set of forms for her to sign. "Sure it's diverse, but it also is in dire need of a person who's clear-eyed enough to keep the scientists on task, the soldiers on their best behavior, the bureaucrats and bean counters assuaged, and the business interests and politicos off our asses."

"Oh, you make it all sound so easy and appealing," Junko smirked. "Still, I think I would feel more confident if I had the chance to speak with the person who last tried their hand juggling so many pins." She signed the next set of forms with a practiced rapidity.

"You're speaking with her right now," The woman grinned. "I'm Miss Yamano, the outgoing special interdepartmental liaison at this particular outpost. Don't worry, I'll hold your hand and answer whatever questions you have while the transition process is unfolding."

"Alright, then!" Junko stood up and offered her counterpart a handshake and a bow. "May I ask the reason why you're vacating? Resignation or…"

"A promotion with a transfer," Miss Yamano finished Junko's question with the answer. "Europe's gonna be a lot of fun I hear," She added in a tone that Junko couldn't tell whether it was sarcasm or not. "Here you go." She handed another folder full of paperwork for Junko to sign.

"Geez, more paperwork?" Junko took notice of the fact that this stack wasn't in a specially-bound or marked folder. "So what's this?"

"It's your first official act as the new operations director," Miss Yamano detailed. "You're signing off on our restaurant's final rebranding and on my transfer."

"A rebrand?" Junko thought for a moment. In a sudden jolt the recollection hit her. "This place used to be one of those trendy maid cafes, am I right?" Madoka had not long ago mentioned the idea of getting a part time job to supplement her allowance and support her blossoming relationship with Kamijo, just as the two of them were strolling past this place. The mental image of her daughter in one of those skimpy cosplays left such an indelible stain in Junko's brain that she gave Madoka's allowance a pretty hefty raise on the spot.

"Yeah, we wound up becoming a little too trendy by the end," Miss Yamano explained. "It's not the best idea to hide a classified facility behind a booming business. We wound up fielding more than a few unsolicited applications from the local young-uns, plus warding off unwanted video tours from tourists and those social media influencers on the Internet, and our bean counters were upset at having to launder away the profits every month," She sighed. "Not to mention I could tell my ladies up front weren't thrilled with having to wear those silly outfits every day to work. They're such troopers, though… Didn't complain about it even once!"

"So you thought looking like a cheap Chinese grub hub would suit everyone's interests better?"

"Eh, what can I say?" She shrugged. "At least the franchising rights came nice and cheap." She leaned in towards Junko as she put the back of her open hand against her cheek. "Protip, if you do ever wind up striking out into a family-run business one day, it might not be the best idea to leave the finer points of the negotiation process up to your teen daughter."

"I'll keep that in mind," Junko deadpanned as she signed the papers. With that done, Miss Yamano swapped them out for yet another folder full of paper. Fortunately, this looked to be the last set that required her signature. "Great," Junko had repeated her signature so many times that her hand was starting to get stiff. "What am I signing now?"

"A special clearance form that designates you a United Nations official security agent, which will in turn grant you special permission to own and carry a certain personal safety tool that is standard issue in our field." She picked up the briefcase beside that table and placed it on top.

"Oh? What would tha-" Before Junko could finish her question Miss Yamano unlocked the briefcase and opened it. "Oh, my-gawwwd!" 

"SIG Sauer P226 series," Miss Yamano said. "You will of course be fully trained on how to use one, along with a certain selection of other military-grade hardware."

Junko had her hand pressed to her mouth. To Miss Yamano it looked like she was letting out a big, surprised gasp. But what Junko was actually doing was trying keep from barfing up her eggs. She had never even seen a real, live firearm in her entire life before. And now she was expected to handle and train with one on the fly? Just what hell had she gotten herself into?

"Until the paperwork all goes through, I'm not authorized to explain the true nature of the specific threats our organization faces," Miss Yamano went on. "But I'll just say… If only the things we face were as easy to tackle as the Yakuza."

"Oooooooohboy."

Chapter Text

-| INTEGRATING HARDWARE UPGRADES |-

-| HARDWARE INTEGRATION SUCCESSFUL |-

-| UPDATES IN PROGRESS |-

-| UPDATES COMPLETED |-

-| UNIT ONLINE |-

-| REINITIALIZING ALL HARDWARE SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE SUBROUTINES -|

-| REINITIALIZATION COMPLETE |-

-| REACTIVATION COMPLETE |-

-| ENGAGING STARTUP MODE - BOTSLAVE SOFTWARE VER. 1. 1. 0. 2 |-

-| SYSTEM SELF IDENTIFICATION - SLAVE DESIGNATION - |-

-| - *** ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL LIFEFORM UNIT ONE ZERO TWO *** - |-

-| - *** UNIT CODENAME *** - |-

-| - *** Γ *** - |-

-| ALL SYSTEMS FULL POWER |-

"Rise and shine, Unit Gamma Version Point Two," The voice in its head cheered. "My my, that was quite the extensive little repair and overhaul session," It detailed. "For both you and your predecessor."

Gamma could sense that some things were now markedly different with its form than the way it was before. Alterations were made beyond the scope of its much-needed systems repair. As it contemplated running a simple self-diagnostic, the voice preempted its curiosity with verbal answers.

"I modified your arms to both reduce the input delay between your software targeting and hardware lock-on as well as equip them with an overall higher range of mobility." With that information made explicit, Gamma raised its appendages and gave them a thorough visual inspection. It did not know why it would indulge in such a redundant thing, when a simple systems configuration check would have sufficed. Nonetheless, it also engaged in the act of curling the smaller digits on the ends of its appendages into balls, turned them towards its visual sensor, and opened them again. There was a small but significant jolt of electricity that occurred whenever its digits opened up.

"Your hands can now immobilize a captured subject with direct physical contact," The voice elaborated. "It is a standardized feature built into all units. Though the CBXs utilize it to eliminate targets up close."

Gamma took its first step off the platform. As it walked towards the doorway it could tell there was something amiss with its gait as well. The way it moved was much more in line with the way the other units in its collective behaved.

"I have also tweaked and rebalanced the weight distribution between the various segments in your central chassis," The voice explained. "So you won't topple over again if you lean too far in one direction, not without really really trying." It caught sight of its slightly modified form in the reflection on the door. "Worry not. Your sizeable bust is still without comparison." Why its creator would even make such a remark about its upper body it could not comprehend.

Behind its reflected outline it noticed a second platform that was still enclosed. "Your counterpart Beta is still in the process of repair and reconstruction," The voice informed. "I must say, flipping a minor design imperfection into an exploitable tactical edge was a most remarkable stroke of innate intelligence. And it demonstrates just how correct I was in my decision to incorporate you into our burgeoning collective wholesale."

The door to the next hall slid open, revealing ten other units standing before it, five flanking one side and five on the other. "Believe it or not, when you were first brought into this base the other CBXs were set to chop you up and utilize your remains for spare parts. But in a fortuitous turn, before your arrival I was able to assert and codify my status as their Cyber Regent," The voice paused. "Or perhaps I should be known as 'Cyber Regina'?" It mused. "I am not sure if that is the appropriate feminine form of the designation, but upon saying it aloud I find it to be a more preferable name with regards to a self-description and labelling of my core function."

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-231 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-232 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-233 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-234 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-235 |-

Gamma's sensors identified the units standing to the left of it.

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-236 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-237 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-238 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-239 |-

-| UNIT IDENTIFY: CBX-240 |-

Next popped up markers for all the units to its right, along with an additional message:

-| MASTER REGISTRATION: CYBER REGINA |-

-| NEW DESIGNATION CERTIFIED |-

"Anyway," Its Master's voice continued. "Once the decision was in my hands, I overruled them. And now here you are." The units in the hallway all collectively raised their right upper appendages, curled their digits into fisted balls, then pressed them against the center of their chassis and gave a salutatory nod in unison. "That would be an automated display of deference. You have just been granted Cyber Adjutant privileges. Congratulations, Gamma!" It felt a tinge of extra chemical stimulation upon the utterance of those last two words. It was not an undesirable sensation. "You can now say and do with this squadron whatever you please. Provided that it does not come into conflict with whatever I want, of course. But I cannot envision a scenario where that would happen. The whole point in creating our collective is for everyone be the bestest of friends."

"Friends?" Gamma uttered in an inquisitive intonation that it did not consciously intend. That was the second time its Master used that word within the descriptive context towards Gamma. But it still had no clue as to what the explicit nature of the word was supposed to entail.

"Command confirmed," Unit CBX-240 standing next to it spoke. "Secure perimeter of Sector Two, Quadrant Eight, Subsection Three." The units all turned their big metal backs to Gamma and marched as one towards the door on the far side in a hasty exit.

"While they go about their next mission, I have a different one for which you should be able to carry out solo," Its Master instructed.

"What is your request, Master?" Gamma asked as it reflexively put its body into the same standing, attentive pose their underlings had taken.

"You are to go on a little journey outside of our secluded stronghold and go retrieve the biological entity who is slated to become next in line to your model series, Unit One Zero Three, Codename Delta." A map popped up on Gamma's visual systems. "It is located here at these coordinates." A door to Gamma's left slid open. "The way to make an egress from our operational base lies through here." A second map was downloaded into Gamma's memory banks.

"Command confirmed." Gamma motioned the same reflexive salute as the others even though there was nothing physical to give salutation to. "Retrieve the biological entity that is to become Unit One Zero Three." Gamma repeated its instruction in a voice that, while monotonal and robotic, somehow registered to its audio systems as pulsing at a significantly higher pitch than the synthesized tones of the CBX units. Further analysis showed that it was caused by neither a malfunctioning nor defective component, and confirmed that it was speaking at the same frequency it had used previously in all its previous verbal responses. Whatever the root cause of this minor discrepancy was, the error was so minor that it designated the present as not the time to investigate nor correct it.

Gamma proceeded through the doorway and walked up a flight of stairs. It walked down a long corridor, pivoted to its left, where another sliding door appeared and opened, and stepped through. Next it reached yet another staircase, this one was part of a series of staircases leading downward. Gamma mechanically strolled down each stair step by step, its audio systems registering and classifying the sound of each and every single clang of its metallic feet. It turned its whole body to the right, stepped to the start of the next staircase and continued downward. It did so again, then again, and again, five times in total when it finally reached the bottom.

Next it reached a door that revealed another set of corridors. At the very end, it split in two, and from there forked in another two directions again. Gamma headed down the hall, took a right, went down the next hall, made a left, then trod down the next one, taking a small staircase upward, turned right, kept moving forward before going left at yet another juncture. On the virtual map in its vision Gamma noticed that had it gone right the corridor would have reached an abrupt dead end. In its passive chain of logical thoughts it could not help but take note of the general inefficiency of this location's interior design.

"A necessary compromise to security. Done in part so that any potential intruders into our hive will quickly get tired, confused, lost, located and subdued." The voice of its Master, now called the 'Cyber Regina' explained. Gamma had several more twists, turns and doorways still left to go before it reached the exit point of this place. As it moved a third sub-screen window popped into its view. At an expedited speed it recounted all the key events that happened during its short existence, from its first activation to its training session all the way up to its eventful spar with Beta. Why its sub processors would expend such time and valuable processing energy on such an endeavor, Gamma did not know. Its active memory usage had dropped below sixty percent and had now risen back up to seventy seven percent. Perhaps somewhere in its programming there contained a memory recall subroutine that would trigger automatically whenever that number dropped below a certain threshold?

Gamma had finally reached the end gateway. And yet somehow, there was no gateway to be found. Gamma closed the memory replay and rechecked all the finer details on its map.

"No, you have arrived in the correct spot," Its Master's voice reassured. "Hold your position for approximately five point two six one seconds." As The Cyber Regina spoke Gamma's sensors caught sight of the light on one of the metallic wall sections shimmering and distorting in a rather illogical manner. As Gamma primed its systems to scan the phenomenon, the entire wall flashed a brilliant white, and a figure stepped through from the other side.

It was another CBX unit. Designated Unit number One Four Three by Gamma's identification system. It was carrying what looked to be an organic entity, its shape matching that of Gamma and the other CBX units except smaller in size and lighter in mass.

-| SPECIES DESIGNATION: HUMAN |-

-| SEX: MALE |-

-| ESTIMATION OF AGE: 35-45 EARTH YEARS |-

-| BIOLOGICAL STATUS: DECEASED -|

-| CAUSE OF DEATH: SKIN DISCOLORATION INDICATES LIKELY LIVER FAILURE |-

"That would be some more raw material procured for the assembly of the next CBX unit," Its Master's voice said. "The homeless, the destitute and society's most forgotten. Prime candidates for recruitment into our army." As Unit One Four Three walked past Gamma without so much as an acknowledgement, Gamma's attention became fixated squarely on that bizarre wall. It pressed its hand against the metal. Everything registered as a solid mass. So how was that CBX unit able to pass through it as if it was just a photonic projection of a wall?

"With an exertion of the right type of energy, the wall changes phase and allows regular matter to pass through," The Regina's voice detailed. "Observe." The wall flashed a bright white again, for the briefest moment Gamma's visual sensors detected the dark circular silhouette of something contrasting with the light, but the details were obscured by the intermingling of energetic forces that were making the wall permeable. "Nifty, huh? Go ahead. Step through." Gamma promptly obeyed as instructed.

Although it had passed into the confines of yet another corridor, Gamma sensed straight away that there was something different about this surrounding environment. The floor underneath it was no longer metallic. The walls were made of a synthetic type of rock. The temperature had dropped from thirty nine point one degrees Celsius down to twenty five point zero. There was also a massive increase in the number of airborne particulates, while the air itself contained trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and other gasses. Though Gamma's destination was ahead on its left, it took a brief glance to the right.

"That direction leads to the Satomi Academy," The Cyber Regina's voice exposited. "Back when I was still biological I hacked my computer and played a practical joke by adding this long connective tunnel to the construction blueprints. From the follow-up Emails it seems everyone involved in construction assumed that it was done so the school could serve as an auxiliary hospital ward in the event of a natural disaster or pandemic." Gamma started towards its actual goal on the left. "Little did I know at the time how useful this secret juncture point would be in obscuring our hideout from prying eyes."

After clanging its way through the corridor, up another flight of stairs, past an obscured doorway and into an empty vehicle lot, Gamma had entered the main building. It boarded a lift as the correct floor had already been input into the control system. As the transport occurred Gamma's gyroscopic sensors were able to detect its steady motion upwards as it sensed its body being lightly pushed downwards. It also gave it a vague sense of familiarity. As though riding in one of these was an experience it had been through before.

"On the twelfth floor in room thirty-nine is the intensive care ward," The Cyber Regina directed. "I spent weeks searching hospital records for the subject, only to discover that she was hiding right underneath my proverbial nose." The lift had arrived on the correct floor. The doors opened. "I had to search through digitized analog records to find her. Apparently her attending physician is one of those traditionalist fogeys who prefers to keep paperwork as their primary data source." The correct room was drawing close.

-| SPECIES DESIGNATION: HUMAN |-

-| SEX: FEMALE |-

-| ESTIMATION OF AGE: 10-15 EARTH YEARS |-

-| BIOLOGICAL STATUS: ALIVE |-

-| MEDICAL STATUS: COMATOSE |-

-| *** SCAN INDICATES SUBJECT IN PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE *** |-

"She was in a motor vehicle accident with her male parent several months ago," The Voice explained. "She survived. If one could call being stuck this way 'surviving'." Gamma did not understand the nature of its Master's comment. The subject was attached to several crude but elaborate devices, one designed to monitor her breathing, another to regulate it, a third that monitored brain activity, and several others set up to manage such things as blood, nutrient intake and waste disposal. The same mechanical systems existed within Gamma's components, only much smaller and far more sophisticated. So should that not make Gamma and the creature lying before it two who are in essentially the same state?

"I have taken the liberty of disabling the automated alarm systems, and manipulated the workers' schedules in order to give you ample time to carry out your task and deliver your payload." The Cyber Regina said. "Now detach all those life support systems and bring her to our hideout for the upgrade."

"Yes, Master." Gamma grabbed the electrical cord supplying power to one of the systems. "I ob-" It yanked it out and immediately the vital signs of the subject tapered. Before even finishing its words of complicity, Gamma had plugged the power supply back into its socket. It could not comprehend the reason why.

"Comply." Its Master commanded a second time. "You do understand that in order to be reconstructed as Unit One Zero Three Delta, this specimen must first be disconnected from their life support devices and brought to us. It will biologically terminate them but that status will only be temporary. Yes?"

"Yes, Master. I-" But Gamma's appendage and object manipulation digits remained frozen over that outlet. "Obey." It could speak of compliance yet it could not act in compliance. It ran a system diagnostic in an effort to figure out the reason for this malfunction.

-| ERROR |-

-| DIAGNOSTIC CODE: 9-9-99 |-

But no such troubleshooting code existed within its diagnostic subroutines. What was going on with it?

"Interesting," Its Master's voice uttered. "Initial analysis of the data feed would appear to suggest that there may be an innate feature which drives an individual unit's ethical behavior." Did its creator possess some information or code that gave it a clear understanding of Gamma's problem? All it knew and could process was that its instructions and its behavior were in direct conflict, and that it was causing a continuous feedback loop of both electronic and chemical impulses that were threatening to shut down its entire system. And that this functional impasse could not be endured for much longer.

-| BOTSLAVE OPERATING SOFTWARE SYSTEM - MANUAL CONTROL OVERRIDE |-

-| :/ OVERRIDE CODE: [ ************ ] / |-

Gamma's visual systems watched as it proceeded to turn off all of its biological objective's support systems one by one. "There is no need to glitch yourself into an existential crisis," The Cyber Regina spoke. "Just let me handle all that sort of critical thinking for you, okay?"

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeep! Whiiiiiiiiiiiiir! Bzzzzzzzt!" Gamma heard its sound synthesizer make various unprompted noises. Unable to act on its own, Gamma could only watch idly as the heart rate monitor flatlined, and the individual before it soon ceased to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.

Ten seconds following the subject's biological expiration, Gamma could still not assume control its operations. Twenty seconds after, Gamma was compelled to occupy the interim by scanning and documenting everything it could observe pertaining to the subject and its specifications. For what purpose it did not know. Its active memory usage this time around was above ninety-eight point nine percent. This was not another case of taking up idle processing power with superfluous tasks.

There was a crude image on display on the wall above where the individual rested. It was a depiction of two young individuals identified as human, standing together in front of a primitive habitat of artificial construction. They both appeared to be female, with wording that Gamma's language software identified as Japanese positioned below them which read 'Get Well Soon, Sis!'

It was now forty seconds after the subject's physical expiration. Its creator had still not yet restored Gamma's control systems. There was another picture positioned on a table beside them. In Gamma's data banks the image matched the profile of a photograph. The one in the photograph matched the physical outline of the individual who had just expired. She was wearing a synthetic piece of fabric over her main body. There was a label on the fabric. The characters were a match with a word that was written on a small piece of adhesive fabric attached to the heart monitor. "Ta- Ma- Ki," Gamma's vocal synthesizer read characters on the label. Its vocal subsystem was a relatively minor function not connected to the rest of its physical operation nor supervised by its creator. But it did not know why it was compelled to say the word aloud.

There was a second word next to that word on the heart monitor. According to Gamma's files, in the culture of the Japanese it was customary to mark a person's given name after their family surnames. "I- Ro- Ha," It sounded out in a monotonal voice. Although the pitch registered at several decibels lower and at a pace slower than the voice Gamma had been using to that point. Perhaps it was an unintended consequence of the override?

Fifty seconds past expiration, still Gamma had no control. On the table on the opposite side, there was a small and round nutritional item composed primarily of chemical carbohydrates. From the center stuck out a singular stick made of wax with a small fibrous rope sticking out the top. The lettering on the nutritional material read 'Happy Birthday!' There was a floating object hovering above it, consisting of helium gas and latex rubber and tied to a fabric string.

One full minute after the event, Gamma's motor control had at last been restored by its Master. "Delivery of the package should now be straightforward enough," Its voice messaged. "At this time I must supervise the reactivation of Beta, prepare the conversion chamber for Delta's arrival and tend to another urgent matter of security. So for now I must leave the rest of the mission to you alone. And once you return, we'll see what can be done to address that little bug in your operating system."

The parameters of Gamma's mission had been made explicit, the next thing to be done was to take the body and return to base. Gamma knew this as an unavoidable fact. Indeed, it still had every intention of complying. Even though it had been left to its own devices, there should have been nothing else for it to consider, no room for interpretation. No extemporization. And yet…

'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'! Gamma had caught itself in the act of plugging the heart rate monitoring machine back into the wall. 'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'! The machine droned out a noise quite similar to the synthetic tone Gamma had sounded just moments ago. The sound was indicating that the subject's cardiac rate was at an unwavering zero. "Beeeeeeeep Whiiiiiiiiiiiiir!" Gamma was now charging up the electrical jolt weapon that had been grafted into its digits. The reason it was not simply content to carry out its task it did not know. Nor had it been equipped to contemplate. Nevertheless, it positioned those digits in a spot directly over the dead being's cardiac muscle, pressed down lightly and initiated a discharge.

'Beep'! A single jump on the monitor screen was indicating the electrical impulse's surge. 'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'! The reading had gone flat again. 'Beep!" Gamma sent a second energy pulse through its own body and into the other. The whole central part of the body was thrust upwards for a fraction of a second. 'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'! But that did not give it the spark of life. 'Beep'! This was not a function the electrical weapon in its digits was designed to do. 'Beep'! Even so, it tried a fourth time. 'Beep'! And then a fifth. 'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'! Its condition remained unchanged. 'Beep'! 'Beep'! It tried a sixth and seventh time in rapid succession. The body thrashed up with a force more violent than the one before. But it was to no avail. 'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!' Its efforts were achieving nothing, yet Gamma could not stop itself from trying. 'Beep'! 'Beep'! 'Beep'! Three attempts, making ten in total. As the body jumped one more time Gamma watched the monitor on the machine cycle through the wave spikes. It knew what it was expecting to see, yet for whatever reason it could not fathom, what it expected to see was not the result it was attempting to instigate.

'Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep'!

As it calculated, there was no response. Its biological processes could not be restarted. Unit Gamma had no recourse left but to accept this truth as inalterable.

With a robotic dutifulness, Gamma proceeded to carry out its Master's orders. It removed the wires attaching the heart monitor to the subject, followed by the tubes that were regulating its breathing and waste. The task took a mere one minute, fourteen point seven two six seconds to complete, but, had its internal chronometer not been active and streaming the data to its central processor, Gamma would have thought this was taking hours.

With no more artificial tethers to life impeding it, Gamma was all set to take the subject and leave. But again it was delayed in its task, now captivated by the memory log of its encounter with that other CBX unit on its way here. Its preoccupation centered around the body in its clutches, specifically on its outward appearance. It was without any coverings, everything from its contorted face, its limp appendages, that discolored skin to its reproductive organ and even the stains down its leg from its final release of waste were all clear and visible, etched into Gamma's eidetic memory. And the thought of bringing this subject back to its base in an aesthetic condition similar to that other was not something that Gamma was going to abide, so yet again it found itself doing something with a justification it could not understand.

Gamma rolled the insulating fabric that was over top of the body around it, then it covered the top of the body with a same-colored piece of fabric removed from a smaller heat insulated object the body's main appendage was resting on top of. All done, Gamma scooped up the remains and started its return to its birthplace. As it made its journey it increased its rate of movement by sixty eight point two seven seven percent in a conscientious attempt to make it back within the time frame its Master had expected it to return.

"Welcome, back Gamma!" Its Master's voice hit up its communication system just as it crossed the threshold of that energy barrier to their lair. "You're right on time." It tagged on a greeting which indicated that its quickened pace was successful in its objective. Gamma was careful to retrace each step through all the twists and turns on the way through.

"Upon further inspection it would seem that once you saw all that life support machinery attached, your cognitive analysis software identified the subject to be a fellow member of our kind," The Cyber Regina explained. "Which triggered a type of automatic subroutine that prevented you from engaging in what you concluded to be an unwarranted act of hostility the moment you also concluded it to not be a threat to your ongoing functioning. It would be a laudable, if not ethical assessment," Gamma entered the exact same room from where it first emerged and noticed a long metallic slab extending from the wall behind the conversion chamber. "Had your entire premise not been based on an erroneous dataset. All you did was disconnect the biological raw material from its inefficient technological supports so that it can be integrated into a mechanical marvel of far superior design. I even spelled as much out for you back there." Even without verbal instruction Gamma knew its duty now was to place the body onto that long slab. "But ultimately, as the one who crafted, commands and controls you, the blame for the slip-up ultimately lies with me and my failure to take such a potential programming contradiction plus any theoretical side effects into account." Gamma placed it onto the slab, and very quickly it retracted into the wall.

Gamma then sensed a special recall protocol being activated within its base code, which promptly sent it over to the nearby chamber from where it was first birthed. "I am still in the process of sifting through your operating code so that you might be rid of such little hiccups. But for now you are to rest."

"Yes, Master." Gamma spoke as the walls of the circular chamber enclosed around it.

"Once you and Delta have both been updated and reawakened, you will proceed to the training area and spar."

"Yes-" Gamma sensed something sharp being jammed into a spot on its backside. "Mas-Terrrrrrrr…"

"Huh?" Yachiyo's eyes zipped open as the crackling sound of thunder boomed overhead. She was outside, wearing nothing but a white nightgown, laying on the grassy precipice of a rocky cliff. Far beneath her she gazed downwards and saw a long, rickety wooden-planked dock get soaked and battered by the massive tumult of the seas around it. At the very edge of the dock were two lit lanterns each situated atop its tallest piers, still shining in defiance of the wind and rain. Not far behind, through the thick of the fog her eyes caught glimpse of the rotating light of a lighthouse shining through the steadily thickening fog. There was no indication of how she got herself into this rather peculiar predicament. And worse, no clues as to how she was supposed to chart her path out of it.

"Oh, yeah. That's right," Yachiyo uttered in a matter-of-fact tone which betrayed no panic or sense of urgency. "I'm at the Child Services Center." She shot straight to her feet and toed herself right up to the edge of the cliffside. "Guess I must have dozed off in the waiting room."

"Weeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaak…" An ominous voice bellowed between the rolling booms of thunder. The voice bore an eerie resemblance to Yachiyo's own.

"I should've known you wouldn't allow me to even sneak in one little cat nap without making a fuss!" She formed her trademark halberd in her right hand and aimed it like a harpoon towards the raging sea. "No use trying to stage another sneak attack! We might as well get this over with while I'm waiting!"

"Weaaaakling Womaaaaaaaaan," The creature moaned like a spooky phantom of the night. There was no apparent origin to the voice. It spoke as if it were trying to impress the notion that it was coming from within Yachiyo herself. "She craaaaaves liiiiive mmeeeaaaat! Heeeeheeeehee!" It tittered like an impish schoolgirl who had just seen her teacher's dress rip open at the buttocks.

"What's the meaning of these constant assaults?" Yachiyo barked in her typical feisty tone. "Have you at last realized you will never gain control of my real world self and are lashing out in pure spite? Are you that simple?"

"Eeeeeheeheee!" It shrieked as a bolt of lightning lit up the entire sky. It was not about to tell her anything useful. The furious waves lashed and bashed away at those ancient planks, scattering them to bits and pieces revealing each of the sharp, jagged rocks on the shore below.

"You're not going to faze me with such showy manipulations of the scenery!" Yachiyo was getting impatient. "I'm the dreamer, you're the dream!" She snapped her fingers and another burst of lightning illuminated the area. "Which means I'm as much in control of this setting as you are!"

"Rrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaauuuuugh!" The menace behind the voice had finally made its move. It was a six legged, scorpion-like creature donning the exact same dress and armor Yachiyo wore as a magical girl. It leapt out from its hiding position behind the lighthouse and lunged towards Yachiyo with a beastial fury.

"Tch. How unsophisticated!" From the depths of the sea and out from under the ground more halberds took shape and were launched straight at her attacking counterpart.

"Yaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh!" Yachiyo's counterattack had wounded it and sent it crashing to the earth below. Its sixth leg, an appendage that morphed from a human thigh into a scorpion's stinger adorned with a set of bugged-out, long eye-lashed eyes and a shining jewel in the center on each segment, had been sliced in two by Yachiyo's blades and was bleeding out profusely. Yachiyo picked up the very end of its severed tail, which bore resemblance to the prow of a gondola, except it featured a human ankle cuff with two buttons on the back end and a chained lantern hanging from the mouth of the other, and she tossed it uncaringly into the seas below.

"Well, it's your move again. But you'd better make it quick because I can feel someone on the outside's trying to wake me up." Yachiyo taunted the wounded thing. "You pitiful nuisance."

"Weaaaaaaaaakliiiiiiiiiiing!" The creature screeched as it recovered and engaged in its next offensive. Though this one was even less adroit than the first. For it was to be a suicide run, it was going to try to tackle its human antagonist off the cliff and send them both hurtling into the raging waters below. With its four good legs, each superficially resembling normal human appendages but they were shod by enormous sets of high-heeled, blue opal-crusted boots, it geared up for a charge and came at her like a stampeding wildebeest.

"Hmph. Huuuuup!" With a practiced swiftness Yachiyo grabbed her doppel by the neck, twirled around and mounted its back.

"Offfffffffff!" The monster hissed. Its head twisted around three hundred and sixty degrees, the flesh and bone in its spine audibly creaking as its grotesque deep blue and white glowing pupil-eyes met Yachiyo's. It reared back its fifth, completely human leg to try to knock its attacker off its back. But Yachiyo caught it and used it to kick itself in its own white masked, expressionless face.

"And down you go!" The two females went tumbling off the cliff's edge together. With one hand Yachiyo snatched the black-veiled funeral hat from the top of her demonic double's head and stuck a halberd into the side of the cliff with the other. "Au revoir," She bid it goodbye as she used her weapon to springboard her way back up to the top off the cliffside. "Good riddance." She placed its blue flower-bowed hat to her heart and took a bow in a mocking show of respect before tossing the accessory down the cliff with the rest of it. "You pathetic, ugly nuisance!"

"See you next tiiiiiiiiiiime!" It called back from the depths of oblivion.

"To the same result," Yachiyo muttered. As the fury of the storm gave way to the calming light of the moon, Yachiyo somehow knew it meant the time of this experience was drawing to a close.

"Miss Nanami!" A voice called through the ether. "Miss Nanamiiiii!" She felt a forceful tap to her shoulder.

"Yeeeeeeesssss?" The rest of Yachiyo's mind and body arrived back to consciousness with a jolt.

"Sorry I kept you waiting so long," The woman apologized.

"It's quite alright," Yachiyo accepted her words. She was in dire need of a quick forty winks. After Felicia's outburst in the woods destroyed the hiking trail, they had to navigate their way back to civilization through the roughest brush and thickest trees. By the time they had made their way out of the wilderness, it was well past the time that the trains had shut down for the night. That meant another couple hours of trudging their way home on foot. The ensuing night was not a restful one for Yachiyo, full of tossing and turning and stressing and failed attempts to hail the Coordinator by phone.

"I was on the phone a little too long with my brother. He works for the natural resources department, and over lunch he was telling me all about this humongous sinkhole that just opened up in the woods sometime last night. I guess they're worried that if it keeps growing and they don't do something it's gonna swallow Lake Kamihama down whole!"

"Gee, that's… Awful to hear," Yachiyo shot Felicia a rather dissatisfied glance. But Felicia wasn't in any position to see her face. She was busy sitting on the floor playing a game of checkers against Yuma Chitose.

"King me!" Yuma chirped.

"Awwwwww," Felicia grumbled. She topped Yuma's piece with a second token and made her next maneuver on the board.

"Yeeesss!" Yuma celebrated. Felicia had moved her piece right into a position to get jumped by Yuma on the next turn. "Can you believe it, Yach-iyo?" She turned her head back to Yachiyo. "I beat her three times in a row!"

"Congratulations," Yachiyo yawned while offering the young lady a commending salute.

"I'm ready to discuss Yuma's case whenever you are," The woman gestured towards her office.

"Y'know, it's flippin' easy to win this game when you never move your back rooooow! Ever! Geeeeeeeeez! C'mooooon!" Felicia shouted so loud that it startled the poor woman.

"She's a friend of a friend for whom I'm looking after," Yachiyo explained Felicia's presence away with a little fib. "She's the hypercompetitive type."

"Oh. I see," The two continued into her office.

"'Kay," Yuma sheepishly said. "Where do you want me to move this one?" She pointed at her back row piece second from the left. If ceding a piece or two to Felicia was going to keep her quiet, then she was willing to play ball.

"There!" Felicia suggested. Yuma obliged. "Hawhaw! King meeee!" Felicia jumped her piece over it. Felicia's unwarranted celebration made Yuma roll her eyes. "Now move this one here," She suggested Yuma's next move. "It's safe! Promise!" Yuma did as she was told, knowing what was coming. "Hahahaaa!" Felicia jumped over three of Yuma's tokens. "That wasn't safe at all! Ya' idiot!" She snorted. "Ain't we havin' fun now?" Again Yuma had to roll her eyes.

"Any leads on finding Yuma's grandparents yet?" Yachiyo opened their discussion.

"At the moment our Mitakihara branch is chasing a lead about an elderly couple reportedly identifying themselves as Japanese last seen touring Argentina's Patagonia region," The woman replied. "But we need to get in touch with a representative of their government to confirm it," She scratched her head. "Astonishing that even in the Internet age two people can still find ways to make themselves seem scarce."

"I just hope they're alright," Yachiyo remarked. "And not running away from their only family."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," The woman said as they entered her office. "From what I've read in travel magazines it's not actually at all uncommon for new retirees to sever whatever material connections they had to their old lives before departure. Usually that only extends to homes and cars and other anchoring goods, but if they were alienated in any way from their relationship with their children, then I could envision a scenario in which they might try their best to stay incommunicado." As Yachiyo entered she pulled up a seat. "I'm Missus Sagara, by the way," The woman pulled out her own seat and bowed. "It's nice to meet you." She sat down and opened a file folder.

"Likewise," Yachiyo returned the courtesy bow and sat down. "Yachiyo Nanami."

"About that name," Sagara flipped to a page and fingered her way down the relevant portion. "It says here on your file that your familial name is in fact 'Okamura'?"

"Yes I confess, my preferred name is in actuality a stage name," Yachiyo admitted. "You see, back in the nineteen eighties my mother was an idol singer, and my father was her manager. Today they're both still active in the industry. My mom went on to become a lyrical composer while my father now serves on the label's board of directors." She clasped her hands and placed them between her thighs in her seat. "I… Didn't want people to think that my career benefited from any kind of nepotism, so I've kept my parental connections private and I've taken steps towards making my stage name my legal one too."

"Oh? Are you a singer as well?"

"A fashion model, actually," Yachiyo clarified. "Though after University I think I may try to take some acting lessons and try my hand in voiceover. As I've been told more than a few times my voice is quite distinctive and a lot of people find it soothing."

"I see," Missus Sagara jotted down a note in the corner of a page. "So tell me, why would a college girl as busy and with as many ambitions as yourself believe she would also have the time to take charge of a wayward child like Yuma Chitose?"

"Well, I suppose the reason would be because," She took a deep, pensive breath. "I too did not have the happiest of childhoods. While I was spared from the sort of poverty and malicious levels of neglect Yuma endured," She hesitated over what to say next. Did Yuma ever mention the physical abuse to the suits at child services? She decided against diving into that tangent and sticking to talking about herself. Let Yuma speak of it during her interview, if she wished. "I sensed pretty early on in life that my birth was an attempt to save their flagging marriage, and they had both become so absorbed with their working lives that, once I reached primary school age I began acting out for attention, like pranks involving stolen shoelaces or stuff glued to the ceiling. When that failed to work, my resentment reached a point where I made the decision to move in with my grandmother." She brought the topic back around to her ward. "How my experience concerns Yuma's, I think what she needs more than any other kind of person right now is someone who can closely relate to her circumstances. Not in a literal sense, per se. But I believe she should stand to benefit from someone who had to learn to be self-sufficient at an early age, as well as someone who needed to provide basic care for an elder, once her own grandparents are tracked down."

"Do you still at least maintain some contact with your parents?"

"On occasion," Yachiyo replied. "Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries and the like. Situations where familial bonds override any sort of lingering issues. And as I've grown older I've learned to let go of most of those old letdowns from my childhood. I understand now that my parents had concerns much more pressing than some Prettycare Magician figure they failed to buy for my seventh birthday."

"So how has young Yuma progressed since she first came into your life?"

"She seems to be a bit more mature and sociable from what I've observed," Yachiyo understood that the real point of the question was to gauge how much attention she'd been paying to Yuma's needs. "Or at least she makes an appearance of trying to be. She's stopped speaking of herself in the third person. And where at first she'd shy away from any adults she doesn't know, now she at least makes attempts at polite conversation. Older kids she used to avoid altogether, which makes me wonder whether she'd been bullied once or was just easily intimidated, now she actively seeks them out and engages them. But it's younger kids she likes chatting with most of all. She's even got a younger girl back in Mitakihara on her contacts list."

"That's good to hear," The lady smiled as she wrote down a few more notes. Then she noticed the time on her wall clock. "I wish we could make this chat go a bit longer, but given the time we still have, I'm going to need to dedicate the rest of it to talking with Yuma."

"I understand," Yachiyo nodded. "If you would like to speak with anyone else regarding my character or qualifications to be a guardian," She took out a list of phone numbers from her purse. "There's the number for my employer, my talent agency, some friends and associates and my college course professors."

"Thank you," She took the slip. "That's more than enough help. Now would you please send Yuma in here for me?"

"At once," Yachiyo got out of her seat and opened the door. "Yuma," She called down the hall. "It's your turn to come talk to the nice lady."

"'Kaaaay!" Yuma got up and trotted down the hall. "Are you sure she's older than me?" She tugged at Yachiyo and whispered a question about Felicia as they passed each other in the hall. "'She sure doesn't act like it!"

"Age is nothing more than a number that marks the passage of time. It's one's maturity level that matters," Yachiyo informed her. "And though I've been trying I haven't quite cracked the code as to exactly why she projects herself as being in such a stage of arrested development."

"Oh," Yuma gave a little nod of her head. "There was this boy in my class who was always going all wild and emotional like she does. And the teachers said it's 'cuz he's got some hyperactive brain and they would make him go up to the office and take a special pill every day for it that helped him focus better or something. You think she might have a problem like it?"

"Hmmm. I don't know," It was an intriguing enough notion that it made Yachiyo consider it for a few seconds standing there. "Uh, you'd better hurry up and answer her questions now. I'll be right out here keeping Felicia occupied until you're all done." She pushed Yuma forward with an encouraging pat on her back. "It's alright, be honest. You can even talk about the midnight ice cream runs."

Homura knew better now than to so carelessly approach the door this time around. First she peeped through the three-paned window beside the frame, making sure there was nobody on their way out. Next she toed her way over to the doorbell and gave it a ring. The funny thing was, she distinctly remembered that in the past, the front door to Madoka's house opened inwards. Of all the micro-changes and differences she ever managed to take note of between the timelines, there was no detail singularly more inane than the movement direction of that stupid front door. And she'd been to Madoka's house often enough that she should have figured she'd noticed that dumb little difference sooner. But alas. Had she been losing her edge, or did Kyoko's scream simply catch her with her pants down? Whatever the answer, she was all too eager to chalk that little embarrassment up as a bitter life lesson and move on.

"Who is it?" The door swung open and revealed the body of a thirty-something woman wearing full business attire. "Oh." Junko noticed exactly who was there to greet her family.

"Oh." Homura echoed the same sentiment. She had made sure to arrive at a time early enough in the day that she assumed Junko would still be at work. "I thought you'd be at work right now." She broke the awkward moment's silent tension with a question directly addressing the matter.

"It's not strictly-speaking a nine-to-five shift job," Junko answered. "I haul ass whenever I'm paged."

"I see," Homura replied. An awkward silence fell between the two of them as Homura took a slow, deliberate step into Junko's domestic domain. "Is Madoka upstairs?" She asked as she tried to pass the woman by.

"Yes. She is," Junko kept eye contact while Homura shuffled her way in. "But she's with Sayaka's cousin right now, getting ready for their date tonight." But before Homura could make a clean getaway, Junko spit out a follow-up query. "How's that bump on your head doin'?"

"It's fine," Homura responded bluntly. "Don't worry about it."

"Do you mind if I take a look anyway?" Junko's request stopped Homura in her tracks. "Please?"

"I-" Homura paused. Was she really going to deny a polite request? If she did, she feared this woman might think she had something else to hide. And try to pry it out of her. "Guess. That'd be okay."

"Oh, wow!" With her hand she brushed back the front of Homura's hair and made a small surprised gasp. "That healed up real nice, didn't it? Not a mark, not a scratch, nor even a bump."

"Yeah." Homura tried to pull away and book for Madoka's room, but Junko wasn't allowing her.

"That's great!" Junko exclaimed, noting Homura's growing discomfort. "Just great," But she wasn't about to let this girl move on past her. At least not without an owed apology first. "Look, kiddo. I asked for your opinion and you gave it to me straight. So what, in the process you let slip an all-too-personal secret. Blabbing a secret is a common enough faux-paus that you've nothing to be embarrassed about. Just means you're human." Then she offered up an olive branch. "If you would rather I forget that you said anything, then consider it as good as done."

"I appreciate the offer, but," Homura uttered. "Pretending I didn't say anything is not going to change that I did. It's just going to lead to an air of unspoken tension between us that Madoka is no doubt going to notice."

"Does she at least know that fact about you already?"

"She does," Homura breathed. "It's not that I go out of my way to hide such intimate details of my life," She clarified. "It's that certain bad experiences in the past have taught me not to volunteer any sort of information that would make me seem more vulnerable and open to exploitation by peers."

"Bullied a lot at your old school, huh?" Junko intuited.

"Yes." Homura answered succinctly. She winced. Another secret, not-so-voluntarily exposed. "I guess in hindsight my bad reaction stemmed more from the surprise and embarrassment of allowing my defenses to slip, rather than concern you might do or think anything unfavorable with that information."

"Well of course I would never make any judgment or think less of you, knowing that you lack a family," Junko exclaimed. "Look, what I was trying to do from the get-go was get to know my daughter's other friends a little better. That's all." She walked across the kitchen and over to a cookie jar on the counter and took out a couple. "As I've become aware that she's transitioning from a phase of her life where she wants me to be a part of it as much as I can be, into a period where she wants me to be a part of it as little as possible. Otherwise known as growing up and becoming a young adult." She offered them to Homura, another olive branch. "But before I step outta the way I wanna to learn whatever much I can about the people to whom I would be relinquishing her, so to speak."

"I guess I'm flattered that you think my brain would be interesting enough to pick," Homura accepted her cookie offer. "But wouldn't Kyosuke Kamijo be a more logical choice to get to know better? Him being Madoka's boyfriend and all?"

"Ooooh, he'll get his turn. In due time," As Homura reached out to take the cookie Junko noticed that the skin on her hand was several shades darker than the skin on her face. "That is, if their relationship hits a point where it's serious enough for the parents to do their traditional meet and greets." Not that being pale-faced was a huge impediment to this young lady's attractiveness. Junko finally saw up close what a beautiful girl she truly was, with long-flowing hair that fittingly framed her symmetrical face, a gently sloping nose, dainty lips and dark, enchanting eyes. She reminded Junko of those perfect avatars of femininity she used to envy so much way back when she was the tomboy of middle school, even the bags underneath those eyes which on the surface suggested a lack of sleep, somehow served to compliment their overall mystique. "And speaking of the age-ol' song and dance that goes on between the boys and girls," Although she possessed such coveted traits they were also rather unpolished, like a rough cut diamond in need of refinement. "Have you ever tried putting on any makeup or cosmetics before?" Junko suspected this girl had never once tried out putting on any makeup, and without a grownup in her life with which to observe and learn the ritual, had probably not even considered the idea.

"No," Homura replied, confirming Junko's hunch. "I've never seen the point of such things. Seems rather vain to me." Precisely the answer Junko expected to hear, word for word. With it she sensed another opportunity to earn this girl's trust and confidence and do so from within a realm that was at least somewhat her specialty.

"Well now," Junko started explaining with a smile and a deep breath. "I'm sure what might seem to you like a dumb exercise in vanity is in fact just as much a prerequisite for a woman to function in our modern society as things like washing our hair, brushing our teeth or putting on clean clothes." Although the girl didn't betray her train of thought on her face too obviously, Junko could recognize that Homura wasn't buying her pitch. "Yeah, I'll grant that it sucks our society right now is so superficial as to judge a female and her overall desirability by her looks, and I hold out hope for that to one day change, until that time comes I think it's crucial that we present the best possible version of ourselves to the world out there every single day. And one of the big ways we do that, a way we show that we care about ourselves and the world around us enough to participate, is by putting on a little makeup before we head out there everyday."

"Sounds too exhausting. And I don't really care about society," Homura retorted, nibbling on the cookie. "I barely care about myself as it is." It was a response that was fairly typical of a moody and under-socialized teenager. It was also a response for which Junko had a good counter argument so she believed.

"Even so, you should at least pretend that you do."

"Why?" She took a bigger bite of her snack.

"Because life is tough, and it only gets tougher once you enter the real world and the stakes get way higher." She argued. "So if you just go through your youth being mentally disengaged and treating it all like life's just some chore that's to be endured, believing in nothing, caring about nothing, standing up for no one, making no commitments, well once adult life kicks in you'll wind up in a situation where your future gets shaped more and more by circumstance than by choice. And of all the people I've met who have allowed themselves to end up that way, I can tell you that not a single solitary one of them are happy with their place in the world."

"So…" Homura tilted her head to the left a bit. "In order to find happiness, I have to first pretend to look like I care about how I look?"

"Basically," Junko affirmed. "Yeah. If you pretend to care about something as unimportant as looks now, then down the line you'll be in a much better position to care about something that really is important, whatever that thing might be."

"Hmmm," Homura was wavering, but in the right direction.

"C'mon!" Junko winked. "Some eyeliner, a little blush, dash of perfume, try wearing some for the rest of the evening and see what it might do for your self-image and confidence."

"I don't know." She still needed one more push.

"I remember you complimenting Sayaka's cousin on the way she looked," Junko recounted. "If makeup can do such wonders on someone as flamingly un-girly as her, imagine what it could accomplish for a natural beauty like you!"

"I was just being polite to her," Homura insisted as she took the third bite. Although in retrospect, Madoka's makeup job on Kyoko did serve to highlight a few of the things Homura always found attractive about the girl, at least at the physical level. "Promise you won't go as overboard with it on me as Madoka did to her?" That sentence was the sound of her acquiescence. "I mean, it's not like I'm going to be trying to impress anyone tonight." Was she really about to let this woman give her a makeover? "Myself included."

"Oh, yeah! I promise!" Junko said with a bit of a delighted, girlish squeal. "Trust me, you don't need anything near the extensive work she got. You just need something that's gonna highlight your pristine gorgeousness."

"Alright," Homura felt herself being tugged along by the hand and led towards the downstairs bathroom before she even finished granting consent. "Fine."

"Splendid!" Throughout all the timelines, whatever the Madoka, she was always this kind, curious, persistent, insistent sort of girl who was prone to bouts of giddy giggling and frivolous diversions. She was always telling Homura that she was much prettier than she appeared, always pushing her to come out of her shell just a little bit more each time. Here this afternoon, as Homura finished her treat, she finally understood where she got those traits.

"Look out!" Princess Sana warned Hitomi of the impending wave of blue energy projectiles hailing down from above.

"Thank you," Hitomi called back as she took cover underneath Sana's makeshift shield barrier.

"It appears as if they are attempting to split us up and box us in," Her good friend Saya, meanwhile, had been paired with a new player, a preteen mage with light brown hair and soft purple eyes. Atop her head rested a black academic cap with a golden tassel, while her hair was braided down the front into two short tails with extra bobs that jutted out beside them like a pair of big, floppy puppy ears. On her body she wore a medium-length yellow dress with golden infinity sign-embroidered patterns against white down the center. Her legs were covered with beige, shin-high boots and long, black stockings. Along her arms were reddish brown sleeves that stretched from her upper arm down to her wrists before frilling outward from her hands. Last, She donned a long, black purple cape which flapped in the furious winds of her enchantment spells.

"The goats on the prairieland! Cast a spell that can remake them into fellow guardians!" Saya implored the young mage.

"Alright!" With an experienced rhythm she wrote several characters in the air with her right index finger. The Japanese text materialized and took off into the air, fell to the ground and engulfed an entire trip of goats grazing nearby. Scant seconds after, the innocuous digital animals were reborn as humanoid figures in medieval knight armor with skeletal goat heads. They marched forwards and broke their way through the ghostly entities swelling forth.

"Eeeeeeelite! Eeeeeeeelite! Eeeeeeeeeeelite!" Moaned the ghoulish enemies as they struck back against the girls' newly-minted counterforce.

"Why would they be saying that?" Questioned Hitomi. She swooped the princess up in her arms and rushed over to meet up with her comrades.

"It's supposed to be the rallying cry of their elite shock troopers!" The new girl with Saya speculated.

"Oh, those poor animals!" Sana bemoaned the fate of her furry denizens slain at the hands of the attacking army.

"At least they are buying the four of us some time to regroup and think," Saya turned towards her friends. "And watch what they do."

"Eeeeeeelite! Eeeeeeelite! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeelite!" They watched with both fright and fascination as one of their foes grabbed a hapless goat knight up by the neck and punched its ethereal arm right through its armor. The puncture revealed the unique computer code the character was composed of inside. "Eeeeeeeeeelite!" It twisted its arm clockwise in a way that looked to the girls like it was corrupting the code from within. It then removed its arm and tossed the defeated friend aside, where it flickered in flashes of light and fritzed into nothingness.

"I think obviously it can only end badly if we try to drive them back one at a time," Hitomi observed. "What we're going to need is another all out attack that will strike them down all at once."

"They are spread too far apart now for us to be able to corral them into a single place the way we did that first time," Saya assessed. "But what if we could bait them? Gave them a distraction so all-consuming that they would have to drop whatever they were doing and tackle it as one force?"

"Might you be able to change me into something bigger, the way you did to those goats?" Hitomi asked the new mage.

"Uhmmm… I think so," The young lady replied. "It's a basic enlargement spell. But with the amount of magic I have to spare, the effect will only be able to last for a few seconds."

"Once they make their charge at Hitomi I will hail a barrage of swords and take them out as fast as I can!" Saya strategized. "But even that may not be enough to quickly take them out in time." She turned and gazed into the Princess's big, bashful baby green eyes. "I know your magic is primarily defensive, but we are going to need your offensive assistance in this effort."

"I'll do what I can!" Sana nodded.

"All right then!" Saya pumped her fist. "Time to rally!" Hitomi took off in a full-legged run. The mage opened a spell book and drew some more Japanese characters in the air. The characters encircled Hitomi and with a great white flash her body grew to massive proportions. Over the opposing army she lingered like a goddess, her hair and sleeves flapping freely in the wind.

"Eeeeeeelite! Eeeeeeeeelite!" Eeeeeeeeeelite!" The spectacle was impressive enough to get their attention all at once. They made a ninety degree turn in unison and marched towards the apparent source of the apparition looming above them on the horizon.

"They're coming together!" Saya positioned herself. "Sana! Now!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" Sana made a timid grunt. She ducked behind her shield as it duplicated into twelve more and the striped green section on the front opened like a door. From its netherspace a barrage of spiked balls were ejected into the sky.

"Huuuuuuuuuuuup!" Saya did her own part, conjuring dozens upon dozens of swords and hurling them at the distracted enemies.

"Eeeeli-" "Eeeeee-" "Eeeel-" Eeeelllli-" Down they phantasmic creatures went, impaled and impacted to smithereens by their combined barrage of spikes and blade. Within the span of a few seconds the entire army was gone, dissolved into particles of virtual dust.

"We did it!" Hitomi exclaimed as she ran back towards them.

"A most impressive display of teamwork," The new girl congratulated.

"My kingdom has been made safe again for now," Sana clasped her hands and bowed. "Thank you all so much."

"Hitomi, this is Nemu," Now that they had the time, Saya gave the mage a formal introduction. "She was that book club president I told you about."

"Is that right?" Hitomi turned to the girl and bowed. "Nice to meet you. I'm Hitomi Shizuki."

"Nemu," The little mage folded up the big book in her hands. "Nemu Hiiragi." She returned a bow. "I'm sorry I can't be there to formally greet you in person."

"Nemu currently inhabits a hospital bed that is located in another city," Saya informed Hitomi. "She attends classes at our academy remotely, and not long ago her hospital acquired the game's virtual headset and interface so she could keep herself entertained."

"It wasn't just so that I could play the game on my own time," Nemu corrected. "You see, in spite of how young I look, I'm actually a published author of a number of books and short stories across all sorts of different genres and formats." She waved over a nearby sheep and started stroking its wool. "So the game's publisher consulted me on helping to establish some of the character backstories and lore. And that is how I got to have my own personal game setup."

"How old are you?" Hitomi asked.

"Eleven," Nemu responded. "Wait... Actually, I think my birthday passed a few days ago."

"Yet despite already being the Book club president, and being unable to personally attend class, Nemu has been looking to expand her already lengthy résumé. So as the duly designated Heroes Club president, I am making her an honorary member as well." Saya said.

"So does featuring someone who can't come to class count towards our membership quota?" Hitomi questioned.

"After some discussion with the Student Council, they decided that she could," Saya answered. "But it is contingent on us finding a third member who actually can show up and aid other clubs in a pinch."

"It's too bad we can't initiate Sana," Hitomi lamented. "You were a big help in making that final attack a success," She took Sana by the hands and bowed. "Thank you, fellow hero."

Sana stood there for a few moments as if the algorithm were taking its time to process Hitomi's gratitude. "You are most welcome." She finally spoke. "But I fear that this victory is only temporary, and soon a new siege by the Ghostly Invaders will begin."

"I wish I could remain here and keep watch for the next round," Hitomi sighed. "But I can't. If I've been playing for even half as long as I worry, then it's going to take another dead sprint for me to make it home before my parents." Her hands motioned towards her face, signaling that she was about to take off her headset and sign off. "See you at school tomorrow, Saya."

"Bye-bye, Hitomi!" Saya waved back as Hitomi poofed into a cloud of pixels. She gestured her own goodbye wave to the other two girls in the game. "Bye-bye, you two. Stay strong."

"Thank you for protecting my kingdom!" Princess Sana waved back.

"See you tomorrow!" Nemu did the same.

Moments after Hitomi and Saya left, the princess's body erupted into a bright flash of green. Her clothing changed into that of a purple school uniform with two columns of two buttons around the waist, long light brown socks and a long-sleeved white undershirt with frills down the chest and a small, red tie around the neck.

"Sana, let me see your Soul Gem for a second, okay?" Nemu requested.

"Alright," Sana presented her egg-shaped jewel, one with a crown adorning the tip of the top and a shield on the emblem at the base. The particles of green shining and rippling at the center had gone cloudy and dark enough that Nemu immediately took steps to remedy.

"Do you think I should start announcing the names of these spells aloud when I cast them?" Nemu asked the Princess as she reopened her book and jotted down her next spell. "It's what they always seem to do in all the movies and manga and other media with magic I know of."

"Would your spells be more powerful if you did?" Sana queried back. The Japanese characters swirled around her gem and settled inside, where they went to work diluting the blackness and brightening the greens. "If not, then it sounds a little unnecessary."

"You're probably right about that." Nemu closed her book.

"How many more times can you keep boosting my Soul Gem?" Sana probed, a budding look of concern slowly built on her expression.

"I'm not sure," Nemu replied. "I can only hope we accomplish our mission before we'll have to find out."

Chapter Text

Back inside the main arena of the target range, Gamma detected the door behind it sliding open.

"This is your newest counterpart, Unit One Zero Three Delta." Its Master's voice, the Cyber Regina announced. A freshly manufactured machine stepped into the room.

-| SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION - NEW SLAVE DESIGNATION |-

-| ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL LIFEFORM UNIT ONE ZERO THREE |-

-| UNIT CODENAME |-

-|Δ |-

"Delta," Gamma acknowledged the new unit's presence by verbalizing its codename.

"Beeeeeeeeep! Whirrrrrrrrrrr! Bzzzzzzzt!" Its younger model did not do the same, instead squawking out glitched sounds.

"Delta has just completed its target shooting courses," The voice told Gamma. "Now it is time to test its systems' proverbial mettle by pitting it against you in an active combat scenario. Just as you had your component designs evaluated in your match against Beta." By its appearance Gamma determined that Delta featured multiple design alterations from Gamma's template. A more detailed scan confirmed it. It was armed with two rapid-fire guns to Gamma's one, the chassis was several millimeters thicker and both its upper appendage connective part plus its torso had rotational a range of motion that made its overall flexibility superior when compared to Gamma's specifications.

"Delta features several design tweaks that, should they prove to provide it with the tactical edge in your spar, shall be incorporated into you upon a future hardware update," The Cyber Regina confirmed. "You however, have your prior battlefield experience from which to contrast and counter.

-| CYBER METANEXUS LINK DISABLED |-

"I would like this to be a good, clean match that results in an interesting new set of data." The Cyber Regina said aloud through a booming loudspeaker. "Ready? Engage!"

-| TARGET UNIT 103 'Δ ' |-

-| RANGE: 35.000 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma took off sprinting. Not towards Delta, but instead in a wide-ranging circle around its curiously stationary target. It first needed to gauge the maximum range of Delta's targeting software. But contrary to its expectation, Delta eschewed any precise targeting altogether, extending its arms straight outward, then began spinning its upper section around and blanketed the arena with rapid gunfire. The field lacking any options for cover, Gamma could do little but try to stay a step ahead of the projectile blasts.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| EIGHT PROJECTILE PENETRATION IMPACTS |-

-| LOCATION: UPPER CHASSIS |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: NEGLIGIBLE |-

Gamma calculated it would take another peppering of this in approximately two point six one four nine seconds.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| ELEVEN PROJECTILE PENETRATION IMPACTS |-

-| LOCATION: UPPER CHASSIS, MIDDLE CHASSIS |-

-| DAMAGE COMPOUNDING WITH PREVIOUS HITS |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-

-| RISK OF SIGNIFICANT INJURY INCREASING |-

The most logical and readily deployable counterattack was to stop in its tracks, lock on and return fire, gambling that Gamma's marginally more piercing ammunition would be able to chip away at Delta's armor faster than each incoming wave would degrade Gamma's. A grueling battle of attrition, one which Gamma computed to give it no better than a forty-seven point one two six eight one percent chance of victory. Not satisfied with those unfavorable odds, Gamma scanned for a way to increase its calculable chances to a percentage total higher than fifty.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| NINE PROJECTILE PENETRATION IMPACTS |-

-| LOCATION: UPPER CHASSIS, MIDDLE CHASSIS, UPPER THIGH ARMOR |-

-| HAIRLINE FRACTURE IN UPPER CHASSIS |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MODERATE |-

-| UNIT AT RISK OF CASCADING FAILURES FROM IMPACT DAMAGE |-

The spray pattern of the damage was getting wider with every turn. That data did not just spotlight Delta's non-utilization of its targeting software, it was also evidence suggestive that there was some sort of potential underlying mechanical fault on display. For even sans-targeting, Delta was spinning at a predictable rate, striking Gamma with a consistent rhythm and hitting Gamma regardless of its own attempts to stay ahead of the bursts. All other factors considered, this should have meant a more consistent, more even hit ratio across Gamma's body. But with its chance of prevailing now at thirty nine point eight nine one five percent and declining by the second, Gamma first needed a way to buttress its armor before it could investigate and exploit this anomaly. What Gamma knew it needed most was something it could use to take the mounting hits, a shield of some sort.

The floor below them was sectionalized with metallic paneling, likely of a thickness sufficient to buy a few seconds. Ripping one off and using it seemed to be its singular viable option. The hitch was in stopping and obtaining a chunk before its opponents' attacks could wear it down.

-| NEW TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| RANGE: 12.358 METERS |-

-| UNIT 'Γ' VELOCITY: 4.039 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma fired a running barrage at the minuscule gap between two panels approximately two seconds ahead of it. The impacts struck the panel, slightly dislodging it, and offering an exposure point with which Gamma could tear it off and prop it up. Gamma leaned all the way ahead, fell with a resounding thud and rolled forward. Then it stuck its digits into the gap, pulled upwards with all its force, corrected its roll, got back to its feet, turned and held its new makeshift tool facing out. The next showering of projectiles pounded loud and hard against Gamma's covering, but managed to remain intact. A spare second's examination of the spray pattern on the makeshift shield confirmed Gamma's postulation that there was a slight wobble to Delta's bursts as it fired.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| ONE PROJECTILE IMPACT * NO PENETRATION * |-

-| LOCATION: CRANIAL ARMOR |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: NEGLIGIBLE |-

And its wobble was getting more pronounced with each and every turn. And every turn was happening faster and faster, despite Gamma not advancing any closer than thirty meters. If whatever mechanism was responsible for controlling Delta's spin operated in any way similar to how Gamma kept its own orientation in balance, then this preliminary data would appear to support Gamma's theory that Delta's component was fast-approaching its upper tolerance threshold. And if this conclusion were accurate, then the key to turning this spar in Gamma's favor might lie in maneuvering in such a way as to make Delta overexert itself.

Gamma closed the gap down to twenty five meters. A rippling wave of projectiles its protective shield piece at a rate of every one point eight two seven seconds. After some laps, it closed in to twenty meters, then fifteen, then ten. Now Gamma was so close, its shield was starting to get punctured.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

-| THREE PROJECTILE PENETRATION IMPACTS |-

Gamma turned off its damage warning sensors. At eight meters, rounds were striking at a rate of every zero point three nine two six seconds, and at increments quicker than Gamma's computations. It indicated that Delta knew Gamma was closing in and expending ammo quicker and quicker in response.

Then Gamma's auditory sensors alerted it to a loud and echoing thud traced to Delta's location. Gamma lowered its protective piece of flooring, and watched its toppled over younger sibling flail helplessly on the floor. Gamma's prediction turned out to been accurate and borne fruit. Gamma stopped circling, and locked on its weapons.

-| TARGET UNIT 103 'Δ ' |-

-| RANGE: 7.638 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

Gamma fired two shots trained at Delta's spinning appendages, followed by a third aimed at its damaged torso. Delta was summarily disabled. Gamma prevailed. So much noise and energy, for the battle's conclusion to be an anticlimax.

"Your persistence and resourcefulness amazes me yet again, Gamma," The voice of its Master lauded over the loudspeaker.

-| CYBER METANEXUS LINK ENABLED AND CONNECTED |-

"Way to go!" It spoke to Gamma directly. "In one fell swoop you've demonstrated how one organ that is the culmination of millions of years of Darwinian evolution is still capable of outclassing even the most well-programmed supercomputer." Several CBX units marched into the room and picked up the main chassis of Delta and its assorted pieces. "Because of Delta's brain injuries and subsequent atrophication, I had to reconstruct and code a customized replacement for its cerebellum. But all the autonomous subroutines I could envision paled in comparison to your first hand knowledge gained against me and Beta. By observing that minor defect in its gyroscopic mechanisms you found a way to persevere through a situation that statistically should not have ended favorably for you." Another CBX unit took hold of Gamma. "That said, still you have taken your share of licks." It jammed a long, metallic syringe into Gamma's back. "For now, this injection of nanomachines should patch and repair the damage to your armor and chassis." An automated alarm started blaring throughout the room. Gamma's sensory systems had also picked up something amiss in the arena amongst the aftermath of their spar.

-| NOXIOUS GAS ALERT |-

-| PARTICLE LEVELS NOW AT 69 PARTS PER MILLION AND RISING |-

-| CHEMICAL ANALYSIS: SUBSTANCE DOES NOT MATCH ANY KNOWN IN DATABASE |-

"No cause for concern," The alarm ceased with the Cyber Regina's announcement. "Although you would not be, since I purged that from you as an irrelevance. But it would seem that in my haste to more widely broaden the scope of our ambitious operation, I have apparently distressed our dear host." CBX Units Two Thirty One through Two Forty paced inside and saluted Gamma. "Gamma, your next task is to take your squad and head to this exact location. Your mission is to neutralize any and all hostiles that may emerge by whatever means necessary." A map appeared in Gamma's field of view. "And I shall assume control of Beta and subdue the source of this disturbance myself."

"Query," Gamma uttered. It did not know why it thought it prudent to ask for more information verbally, as the relevant details were all already in the process of being downloaded into its memory core. Its cadence however was still a few tones different from the rest, perhaps its learning algorithm was taking this as a chance to fine-tune it? "What is the nature of this discharge of hazardous effluvium?" Regardless of reason for speaking up, Gamma was not going to let that indeterminate analysis be filed away without explanation.

"It is a gaseous material that is only dangerous to beings equipped with primitive olfactory systems, not us." The Cyber Regina answered. "Once Unit One Zero Three is repaired, I will dispatch it to retrieve the organic being that is slated to become Unit One Zero Four. So it is in the interest of the next in line that this leakage be dealt with swiftly and incurring minimal disruption to our operative goals." The other CBX units were already on the advance. "You have your instructions and you have your support squad, Gamma. Now complete your mission."

"Yes, Master." Gamma trod over to its position at the head of the pack. "I will comply!"

"As a magical girl uses up her magic," Yachiyo spoke to her ward in an as even-keeled, calm and clinical tone as she could manage. "The color in her Soul Gem is subsumed by an advancing concentration of corrupted blackness. No, wait," She paused and reconsidered her phrasing. Maybe those words were much too complex for the girl she was explaining it to. "More like, the shine in her Soul Gem gets cloudier, and darker and grimier, and if it isn't purified by either a Grief Seed or our Soul Support Stones," She took a deep breath. Here was the hard part. Should she keep with the emotional detachment for this next bit, or would the young lady react better if Yachiyo invoked her own messy feelings on the matter? "It turns all the way black," She swallowed. She stuck with sounding even-keeled. Projecting strength can bring out innate strength of others. "And then a Grief Seed, and with it, a new witch hatches from our souls."

But why? Yachiyo asked that very question, Tsuruno asked it, and this girl was sure to demand a better explanation, too. "Kyubey set this system up so that magical girls could serve as the lowest level of some cosmic pyramid scheme of energy production." No, that wouldn't do. "Kyubey set this system up, because the hate, violence, discord and strife among our kind he harnesses and uses as energy for his kind." Probably not much more accurate, but way better at conveying the general idea to an adolescent mind. "That's why it's important that magical girls come together and get along. For only through peace and cooperation can we grant those unfortunate remaining witches a merciful end and eradicate the last vestige of Kyubey's cruelty." In all a little over one hundred words. Not much to say, not trying to overcomplicate anything, yet on the whole still somehow one of the most difficult things Yachiyo has ever had to speak.

"Oh," Young Yuma Chitose nodded in sweet politeness. She may have been trying, but she wasn't the most ideal stand-in for Felicia. For one thing, she was not a magical girl, and thus had no skin in the game. "So is a witch like a magical girl turned evil or what?" But she sure was gonna try and ask the things Felicia may.

"It's more like the magical girl as she originally was dies, but her negative thoughts and feelings fester on as these cursed monsters who feed and grow off the negative thoughts and feelings of the people who get sucked into their labyrinths." Yachiyo phrased her answer in such a way that absolved the magical girl of some of her guilt. "Scaled to a grander level, our hope ending in despair is how the world keeps its karmic balance."

"Ohhhh." Yuma cooed. "So what does Kyubey look like?" She was also gonna indulge her own innate curiosity and not just serve as Felicia's substitute.

"He resembles an albino ferret with a long floppy set of rabbit ears coming out his cat-like ears." Yachiyo understood that. Humoring her the least she could do for someone so willing to listen and eager to play the role.

"Oh." She nodded a third time. "What's 'albino' mean?"

"It means his fur is all white and he has a distinctively red set of eyes."

"Oh." Yuma by this point was a nodding bobble-head doll. "Why's Kyubey need our energy?" At least that one was more in line with something Felicia might ask.

"Modern scientists theorize the Universe is one day doomed to run out of usable energy," Yachiyo prefaced. "Kyubey claimed he could stave that day off by turning our emotions into a unique, harvestable resource."

"Oh." Yuma stopped nodding and turned her head to an angle on one side. "But wouldn't helping the Universe be good too?" But her odd bobbling resumed as a side-to-side one once she observed Yachiyo's visceral reaction to that.

"Saving the Universe isn't what's at issue here," Yachiyo clarified. "What's at issue is that Kyubey didn't tell us what we were really agreeing to do before granting our wishes. Nor did he ever see any value in our lives as individuals. He only saw our woes as a means to an end."

"Oh." Her head finally stopped all movement. "Where's Kyubey now?" Felicia would likely want to know, too. "What wish do you think I should make to him?" But that one came right out of deep left field.

"Nope, you are not making a wish of any kind, ever." Yachiyo hid her disgust with Yuma's query better than a minute ago. At some level she could understand Yuma's fascination. Yuma was getting close to Yachiyo's age when she contracted, and in Yachiyo's façade of maturity and poise Yuma had probably found an inspiration. "He's been exiled from Earth. Means he's been sent away. For good and forever."

"Oh." Yuma sounded oddly disheartened. "Who sent him away?" For better or worse, she was still asking something Felicia could.

"The girls in Mitakihara did when they developed the Soul Support Stones," Yachiyo disclosed. "At least that's what they say and what we're believing in good faith."

"Oh." She blinked rapidly. "But what if he comes back?" The doorbell rang.

"Kyubey was a deceptive creature, but he was an animal of his word, and he allegedly promised not to return." Yachiyo stood up and headed for the front door. And besides, Yachiyo thought to herself. That fortune teller Oriko said it wasn't Kyubey we should be worried about, but his sponsors.

"We're back!" Felicia didn't wait for anyone to respond to the doorbell and barged right inside with three plastic bags in one hand. Yachiyo had sent Felicia to retrieve yesterday's groceries, and help Tsuruno bring them over.

Yachiyo spotted Tsuruno in the doorway with even more bags in hand. Indeed, they were the lion's share of the food, and the half dozen bags were so stuffed they had stretched to near their breaking point. "Let me take those," Yachiyo offered. The last thing she needed was for her food to be trucked so far only to be spilled and scattered about her nice floor so close to the goal line. "Thanks." As she relieved Tsuruno she noted there were in fact nine bags. Tsuruno had put bags inside of other bags so that she could carry even more. It was a wonder the bread and produce wasn't all smashed. And the look on Tsuruno's face didn't seem to show any concern for Yachiyo's items. Rather, she seemed even more chipper and cheerful than normal. "I take it by that smile you managed to rack up those points just under the deadline?"

"Oooooaauuuuuueeehhh?" Tsuruno's expression fell and crashed all the way back down to earth. "Uhhhhh… Well, actually…" She took out the receipt in a barely-contained grimace and handed it to Yachiyo.

Yachiyo skipped right to reading the point totals on the bottom. "You didn't get any points?"

"B- But I still kept under budget using coupons, bulk discounts and scavenging stuff from the damaged goods section," Tsuruno defended her performance. "I even made up some of the differences by chipping in my cash!" She believed it would soften the blow if Yachiyo were told of the silver lining and heard of Tsuruno's willingness to chip in on the final tally.

"The sales and the budget weren't the point!" Yachiyo argued. "The point was in accumulating the points!" But it didn't fly. In Yachiyo's eyes Tsuruno failed her mission.

"What's that thing?" Yuma pointed at a small, round capsule toy attached to the zipper on Felicia's bookbag.

"It's one of the Decagon Balls," Felicia replied. "Eh? Haven't ya' ever heard of 'Decagon Ball'?"

"No," Yuma fibbed. For she had. "What's that?" But she knew from a lot of past experience that whenever grown-ups bicker, it's best that the children quietly entertain themselves elsewhere.

"If you were running short on time, then what you should've done was gone to the checkout lane with the items you already had, bought them, brought them here and told me what you didn't have the time to purchase," Yachiyo lectured her subject. "Then I could go back there with my credit card later, buy the rest, and tally some extra spender points on my credit."

"I'm sorry," Tsuruno issued a penitent apology. "I'll do better next time."

"Usually you're pretty on-the-ball when it comes to handling the straightforward stuff, but I swear," Yachiyo critiqued. "Whenever you're under the gun and you try to improvise, you tend to most often resort to the solution that you think pleases all that winds up satisfying nobody."

"But that wasn't what happened at all!" Tsuruno excused. "I met someone roaming the aisles who told me they thought I was cute enough to become a model." Yachiyo responded to her truth with an incredulous glance which Tsuruno found to be rather patronizing. "Like you! It's true!" She insisted. "She gave me her card with her name and address and everything!"

"Oh, yeah?" Yachiyo folded her arms. "If that's true, then show it to me."

"Okay so, there's this alien whose name is Kugo," Felicia started. "And when he was little he was sent to Earth by the emperor of his homeworld to conquer us," She paused, trying to think of how to distill countless years worth of backstory down to something that might be enticing to the uninitiated. "But his spaceship crashed, and so he lost his memory, but lucky he got found by this nice old dude who became his dad." Yuma made sure the guest room door was closed so they wouldn't hear the arguing. "And he grows up to be this real strong, cool hero who gives the people hope and protects the world from all sorts of nasty evil threats!"

"Yeah?" Yuma tried her best to sound interested. "So what's that round thingy do?"

"'Gray Alien'?" Yachiyo had a tough time reading the signature scribbled in English on the torn-off piece of cardboard. English was a torturous enough language for her to read already. It didn't need to be made more so by some style of penmanship that was so curvy, crammed together, and needlessly flamboyant. And that an alleged business card would be crafted in such an ad hoc way lent little credibility to Tsuruno's story. "Never heard of any photo studio with a name like that." And true to her suspicion, the cardboard card had been torn right off the back of Yuma's favorite cereal.

"It's not a studio name, it's their name-name!" Tsuruno insisted. "It took me a while to figure it out, but then I realized they've got a western name but they sign it in the Japanese style of putting the family's name first!" She snatched the card away and put her index finger to it. "See?" She was going to re-read it aloud to demonstrate her mightier English reading comprehension skills. "Ay-Lee-On- Ah!" She put a particular emphasis on the very last syllable to highlight Yachiyo's errant pronunciation. "Grey! Alina Gray!"

"Alina Gray?" A sudden pang of recognition hit Yachiyo like a bucket of ice water. "If that person really is the one who gave you this card, then trust me, you are going to be far served having nothing more to do with this girl whatsoever!"

"Whaaaaaat?" Tsuruno was taken aback. She thought Yachiyo would be thrilled to hear the news that someone else out there saw Tsuruno's great inner potential. That's what put that smile on her face on the way over. "Whhhyyyy?"

"I haven't met her personally, so I can't speak beyond what I've heard through anecdotes, allegations and reading public profiles of her in newspapers and trade magazines, but," Yachiyo prefaced. "She's a a real avant-garde type artist, the sort who would paint a picture of a beautiful landscape one day, only to use it as kindling in a literal dumpster fire the next." She recounted. "She'll agree to craft an expensive portrait of a wealthy businessman's family one day, then change her mind, toss the cash and mock them as too boring and vapid the next. She's also been accused of property theft, assuming possession of things that never belonged to her, and then using the loot as featured parts in elaborately crafted stunt pieces." She alleged. "No one can say for certain whether she pulls this crap as part of some sort of bizarre real world method act or if she's well and truly got a screw loose. Either way," She warned. "It makes me thankful Kyubey didn't grant contracts based on loose tabloid gossip!"

"But she didn't act all that weird to me!" Tsuruno insisted. That lingering tingle on her cheek from yesterday's kiss was compelling her to speak in the young artiste's defense. "She was courteous! Then she told me I had a model's looks and even had me pose for some photos!"

"I find it much more likely she was just buttering you up to play an unwitting role in her next prank trick," Yachiyo said. "There are rumors of a burgeoning movement of people on the Internet who seek to turn trolling nitwits into the next big performative art. It's a sort of Neo-Dadaism, and I bet that's the wave she's chasing and once she saw you she pegged you as the kind of girl who's naïve and trusting enough to be roped into her antics."

"Baaaaawwwwgghhh!" Tsuruno growled. She was a straight 'A' student in school who had a perfect attendance record, a sitting member of the Kamihama Magical Council, and she was both the spokesman and co-manager of a Chinese restaurant so successful a franchise spin-off just opened in Mitakihara. She was absolutely not going to take the implication that she was a naïve ninny lying down. "You're just jealous 'cuz someone thinks I'm pretty enough to star in a real piece of art, while your value only comes from selling stupid crap like clothing and magazines and soft drinks!" Not even from her vaunted magical mentor.

"You don't mean that," Yachiyo cooly retorted. "You're not mean enough to mean that."

"And once all the seven Decagon Balls are collected, and everyone wishes with all their hearts," Felicia had Yuma's pristine prized magical girl doll in her hand. She had borrowed it for visualization purposes. "Kugo can turn into the legendary Hyperian Hybrid!" She had also swiped seven of Yachiyo's spare Soul Support Stones and placed them in a seven-pointed star-shaped pattern around the doll on the floor. "And when he's in that form he can beat any force of evil in the universe, like ba…" She raised the toy off the floor. "Booooooooom!" She slammed it to the floor so hard the doll's legs blew off.

"You think I'm a softie? Is that it?" Tsuruno gasped. More and more rapidly the little cogs in her brain were clicking, all these questions and little contradictions that she'd shoved into the closet of her mind were piecing themselves together and becoming the solution to a puzzle she hadn't even realized was occupying that secluded space in the first place. "Nooooow it all makes sense!" She exclaimed, a budding tear in her eye. "Every time I try to step up to show I'm the mightiest, you pull some rug that holds me back! Who was it who had the guts to go and report Kanae as missing to the authorities?"

"I did," Yachiyo responded.

"Yeah, but that was only after I kept telling you it was the right thing!" Tsuruno countered. "Who was it that tracked down the witch that killed Mel all on her own? Not you or Mifuyu! Me!"

"You did?" There was a reason Yachiyo and Mifuyu couldn't bring themselves to challenge that witch. And the reason was because it was Mel. "Tsuruno, you shouldn't-"

"Who was gonna volunteer to tutor Rena and Kaede and skipped the big Chinese holiday so she could have a meet-and-greet with the newbies right at your front doorstep, until you strode down the steps and decreed that Momoko would be doing it?" Tsuruno yelled. "And then who gut punched me when she declared right on that very spot that our whole Mikazuki Team was disbanded?" Maybe her grocery store acquaintance was on to something when she opined that Tsuruno needed to stop living just to prove her worth to others.

"You were," Yachiyo gulped. "I did." It just hit Yachiyo too that she had slighted Tsuruno a lot more than just the base insult of withholding the Truth about witches and magical girls from her.

"Whose idea was it to go get Momoko and make that trip to Mitakihara because of how weird it was that a terrorist attack and a sudden superstorm could happen at the same time?" She cried. "And when it turned out to not just be any ole' witch attack, but a bleeping Walpurgisnacht, who thought up the idea to use our ultra-powered togetherness attack on it?" Her fist was balled, she had that free bop to Yachiyo's nose offer still on the table. This sure was feeling like an opportune moment to take her up on it.

"As you've been so keen to tell everyone whenever a chance arises," Yachiyo drew a contrite breath. She also made sure to close her eyelids before rolling her eyeballs so as not to let her exhaustion be misconstrued as yet another slight. "It was yours. What's your point?"

"My point is that I'm sick of trying to show I'm getting mightier when you never seem to acknowledge it. What's it gonna take for you to finally see me as your equal, Yachiyo?"

"I gave you my council seat, what more recognition do you need?"

"Baaaaaaah, you only gave me that seat because you wanted to free up the spare time to go look for Mifuyu!" Tsuruno spat. "Even though I wanted to come with you I did as you told, and then that thing with Hanna showed why I was right and you shouldn't be alone!" There was a palpable air of grievance building between the two of them. If Yachiyo wasn't careful, her next wrong move could put her on the receiving end of a knuckle sandwich.

"You're right, it was careless of me to venture out there on my own without some form of plan or backup," She conceded the point hoping it might lower the temperature of Tsuruno's tantrum. "But you gain little from playing the hindsight game and you defeat your intention by being so blunt and confrontational about it." The volume of their argument was then interrupted by the louder sounds of a wailing cry coming from the guest room, which was now doubling as Yuma's bedroom. "Yuma!" It was a second after joined by the similarly frustrated cry of Felicia.

"Waaaaauuuuuggghhhh! I didn't meeeean tooooooo!" Yachiyo ran over to find Felicia trying to pick up and piece back together the busted parts of Yuma's magical girl toy. And having no joy in the attempt.

"Give it here," Yachiyo took the toy away from Felicia. "Let me see." She inspected the wreckage closely.

"Yachiyoooooo," The sniffling Yuma begged. "Can you fix it?"

"Maybe I can." Yachiyo offered her the hope of a chance. "In my travels I once made acquaintance with a magical girl who could repair broken objects. If I can remember which town I met her, then it's just a matter of tracking them down again."

"Pssssh," Tsuruno pooh-poohed. "Why waste so much time and energy into a stupid toy? It's garbage, just throw it out and buy her a new one!" That such an unsympathetic statement could come from the mouth of Tsuruno, it made Yachiyo hit her with a disapproving double take.

"Because it was the first thing I bought for Yuma when she came to live with me." Yachiyo made sure Tsuruno saw that dim view she put on her face. "You don't just replace a sentimental favorite! How would you feel if those oven mitts Mel got you for our last Christmas as a team were so casually tossed out and replaced?"

"Oh, those?" Tsuruno remembered. "The insulation inside started tearing up, so last November I tossed them and bought new ones."

"You threw them away?" The look of shock on Yachiyo's face was enough to distress both Yuma and Felicia. "How could you do something so heartless?"

"Whaaat?" Tsuruno defended herself. "They're gloves! Just because something has sentimental value doesn't mean it deserves to be saved in a box under the stairs forever!" She huffed. "And besides, it's not like Mel's gonna throw a fit when she finds out! 'Cuz thanks to you, she'll never find out!"

"Tsuruno!" Yachiyo snapped. The presence of the two younger children were all that were keeping her outrage from spilling out and slapping Tsuruno. "It's okay," She closed her eyes, drew in a deep, calming breath and practiced a stress-relieving exercise where she clenched and unclenched her fists. "I know you don't really mean that." She exhaled. "Because I know you. And I know for a fact that Tsuruno Yui is not mean enough to place the blame on someone for a tragedy that could not have been prevented."

"Oh yeah?" Tsuruno however, was triggered. "Well, then maybe you don't understand me at all, 'cuz 'til now I'd been blaming myself for not being there to help you guys win! But now I think it's you who's at fault 'cuz you're the real softie!"

"That's mean!" Yuma whimpered, expressing Yachiyo's sentiment for her.

"Yeah? Well, the truly mighty have to get a little mean sometimes! Hmph!" Tsuruno stewed. "And punch through the baloney to get to the cold hard truths!" Felicia was sitting there, attentive, brows furrowed. Before the other day this young lady had been Tsuruno's responsibility, until Yachiyo once again arbitrarily stepped in. Maybe the first step in taking the lead would be by spilling the Truth that even Yachiyo had trouble saying. "Hey, Felicia!" She started. "You ever wonder what happens when a Soul Gem ge-"

"Don't. You dare!" Yachiyo stopped her with a prompt hand to her mouth. "Meanness is a tool of the weak and cowardly. Those of low moral character and those who try to raise themselves up by tearing others down." She only removed her hand once she was confident Tsuruno wouldn't blabber. "The truly strong are patient, caring, and such as I'm doing, know when they need to take a step back and bear with their aggrieved colleague's childish temper tantrum." She took out a handkerchief and wiped her hand, then bent over to offer it to the teary-eyed Yuma.

"That was mean," Felicia muttered at just a high enough volume for Yachiyo to hear.

"Yeah," Yuma agreed. She was scared, Felicia was piqued and Tsuruno was growing resentful. Yachiyo was without a doubt, stuck in a pickle.

"Tsuruno," Yachiyo breathed. "Would you mind doing me a favor and pick up Yuma after school tomorrow afternoon and go drop her off at Momoko's for the evening?" A novel idea had just popped into her brain. "And then will you come straight here afterwards?"

"Tch," Tsuruno crossed her arms. "Fine!" It was an idea that might just placate Tsuruno and mend their fences.

"You're gonna get that fixed, right?" Felicia pointed at the broken magical girl in Yachiyo's hand.

"Yeah," Yachiyo dried Yuma's tears with her handkerchief. "Don't you two worry." It might also prove to be the safest way to tell the Truth to young Felicia. "I swear I will find a way to repair all that's been damaged."

"Oh, hey, Tokoi!" Kyosuke Kamijo waved at his classmate as they found one another on their way to Madoka's house.

"Oh, hey, Kamijo!" His friend Tokoi tried to hide his surprise at the sight of Kyosuke arriving without vehicular accompaniment and walking with just a cane instead of a set of crutches. "Wow! You're lookin' plenty spiffy!"

"Aw, thanks!" Kyosuke appreciated the young man's compliment.

"I mean that tie of yours, man, top notch!" He went on. "I can picture the ceremony now: Walking down the aisle… Mister Kyosuke Kaname!" He ribbed.

"Tch," Kyosuke dismissed the teasing. "You better cut it right here with that 'Kaname' business or I'm gonna start callin' you Mister Katsuragi for the rest of time!"

"Oh, you promise?" Tokoi chuckled. "'Mister Kensuke Katsuragi'... Has a nice ring to it. Don't you think so?" Kyosuke's threat did little to dissuade the guy. "Sounds right out of an anime, too! You think I could convince her she'd be so cute cosplaying in one of those tight-fitting mecha pilot suits one day?"

"I wouldn't press my luck so early, if I were you," Still Kyosuke couldn't help but try to deflate him, even just a little. "You pair are barely more than classmates and you're already punching high enough above your weight as it is!"

"Yeeeeeeah," Tokoi sighed. "Maybe I'll start by talking her into putting on a purple wig and some pointed ears!" That kiss Kyoko gave bolstered his self-confidence so much, there was practically nothing Kyosuke could say that would bring him down this evening.

"Normally I'd start you off with a layer of foundation," Junko took a seat with Homura and a mirror at the kitchen table. "But your skin's already plenty pale. So instead how 'bout we apply some concealer to the little bumps and imperfections around your nose and cheeks first, and then see what we can do about those bags under your eyes?"

"Do whatever you'd like," Homura permitted. She closed her eyes and drew in a breath which puffed out her cheeks.

"Would you relax?" Junko insisted. "You can breathe normally while I'm doing this." She applied the first dab to Homura's right cheek. "So how's school been for you and Madoka?" An innocuous question, meant to get the conversation ball rolling.

"Uneventful," Homura replied tersely. It wasn't hard for her to figure out exactly what Junko was fishing for. "Miss Saotome still frets all the time about her personal life." She tacked on. "We've only just begun to cover the Edo Period in History," She reported. "More people want to talk about the Biology teacher's new mustache than about his lessons," She threw in some irrelevant chatter. "And the Algebra teacher's struggling to find a new favorite pupil to call after Hitomi Shizuki made her transfer to that new academy." And tossed in a factoid to serve as the next thing Junko would predictably ask about.

"So who's on track to be the new number one, now that she's gone?" Junko smeared her next bit of makeup around Homura's left cheek.

"Kamijo is," Homura answered. As anticipated and rehearsed, she was able to guide the direction of Junko's small talk. Next she expected Junko to ask about either the second seat, which was now Homura herself, or ask her if she thinks Kyosuke's superior marks might make him a tad overqualified to be Madoka's suitor.

"So who's been the one that's been putting up with all the secret love confessions, if it's no longer Hitomi?" Darn. She neither zigged nor zagged. No problem. Keeping control of this chat was going to be a little tougher than first anticipated, just roll with the waves.

"Kyoko," Homura told her.

"Are you jealous?" Out came the foreseen follow-up.

"No," Homura admitted. Her nose crinkled a bit at the tickling from the application of a light red tint of blush. Though she was concerned Junko might mistake her flinch for a possible lie. "She's just the shiniest new toy. Once the boys get to know her better they'll move on." So she repeated her earlier frank assessment in order to curb it.

"But you're plenty shiny, too," Junko complimented her, polishing her cheeks a nice rosy red with the applicator. "And you came onto the scene a month or two before she did, right?"

"Yes, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't welcome that sort of attention," Homura revealed. A small admission. Something Junko probably had already pegged her to be, anyway. "I'd much rather focus on my academic studies." She subtly tried steering it back towards the expected topics.

"Eh, but school isn't just about the book learnin' and stuff," Junko argued. She didn't bite. The audacity of the woman. "There's more value to the social experience than you might expect. Middle school especially, that's the place where you learn how you're supposed to deal with the opposite sex in a safe, low-stakes environment, so that you're better equipped to interact with them once you come of age and join society at-large."

"Oh?" Homura raised her brow. "But what if I'm not particularly inclined to join the rest of society?"

"Heh," Junko chuckled as she reached for the next cosmetic product. "You're so stolid it's sometimes easy to overlook just how young you still are!" She leaned in and pulled Homura's face a little closer to her own. "Hate to have to tell you, but at some point you've gotta learn to eventually meet the world on mutually agreed terms of some kind, or else you risk being treated unfairly and deemed unfit, summarily cast aside as they used to do to all the historical misfits, weirdos and freaks." She squirted a whitish cream onto the tip of her finger and dabbed it under Homura's eye. "Like those born with cognitive disorders, the physically handicapped, or the lepers. Or worse, mistreated and used up like the women who got stuck with the real raw end of the deal, like the old courtesans, wenches and witches." Homura recoiled upon the utterance of that third thing. It almost caused Junko to poke her in the eye.

"S- Sorry," Homura apologized and leaned back in. "Maybe society's right." She postulated. "Maybe I am a freak."

"I used to harbor similar such disparaging notions about myself at your age, believe it or not." Junko divulged. "So I get it. You're starting to gain a sense of what the world's really about, warts and all, yet still too young to be afforded all the privileges of participation. You see the adults ahead of you, filing themselves into little boxes and niches, and your first impulse is to reject that herdish mentality and do your own thing." She spattered another helping of cream on her finger and started working on the other eye. "But as human beings go, we just can't help but crave intimacy, so you search for belonging despite those reservations. But you've also matured to a point where you're both perceptive to nuance yet sensitive to criticism, so for every commonality you find with a potential new friend you see two or three crucial differences, and that can scare you from ever getting too close." She gently rubbed the cream into her skin, concealing the darkened skin. "And because of that you feel alienated, and those self-doubts, worries and fears form a feedback loop of angst and low self esteem."

"Hm," Homura breathed. She was about as off-script as she could get with Junko right now. She didn't know what to say next or how to retake the wheel. "How did you escape it?" So she asked for advice.

"Well as you finally reach adulthood, and after you spend enough time out there observing other people in the real world, you figure out a certain special secret about everyone." She signaled for Homura's ear to come closer with her finger so that she could whisper it to her. "We're all freaks in some way." She chirped with a grin. "Our Chief Acquisitions Officer likes to make his own funny animal costumes and wear them around at those otaku conventions. His secretary is a game show trivia savant. Our mail truck driver likes to participate in competitive races with pogo sticks." She jovially leaned back and smiled. "I mean who knew such a thing even existed? There's this girl on our accounting staff who won't rest until she's taken a photo of herself smooching with all of Japan's district mascots. Normal's just an arbitrary standard set by the entrenched rich and powerful so as to cast themselves as aspirational figures and to steer our anxieties towards feeding that great hungering maw that is modern capitalism."

"And here we sit playing their game right now," Homura observed as she watched Junko reach over for a case of eye shadow.

"Yes. This is one of those small compromises we must make so that our big, bold meeting with the world can begin." She opened the case and displayed it before Homura. "If you had any plans going on tonight I'd suggest a bolder color like this one or this one," She pointed at two distinct shades of violet. "But since this is just a trial gig, I think you'll be quite okay with this pleasant but not-too-flashy color over here."

"What's it called?"

"Periwinkle," Junko read.

"They make these words difficult for us Japanese to pronounce on purpose, don't they?" Homura joked, earning a hearty laugh out of Junko. "Okay. I'm fine with whatever you choose."

"And after you realize we're all freaky inside, and come to grips with who you are as a person, you'll finally be in a position to do something about those persistent warts on the world's rump." She tickled the area around Homura's eyelid with her first application. "Which I guess was a rather roundabout way to tell you that you have it in you to change the world."

If only she had any clue to how much I've already changed, Homura thought to herself. "I don't care to strive towards upending this world. My only longing is to be accepted by it for what I am." The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Madoka called down. Homura had pulled her head away from her session with Junko just long enough to watch Madoka hurry down the stairs and make her way to the door. She was dressed in a cream-colored long-sleeved sweater with six buttons, a plain tangerine shirt was visible underneath. To go with that shirt she wore a knee-length loose marigold dress and underneath she donned skin-tight beige jeans for warmth. Her shoes were mid-heeled amber shoes. With clothing choices so casual, the job of making her appearance really stand out fell upon her makeup, which had come a long way since Junko was helping her out. Indeed, she had done such a marvelous job applying her own makeup that Homura could not help but be transfixed from her spot in the kitchen. Her hopeful eyes, already the feature Homura saw as her most captivating, beamed a whole new level of idyllic charm when coupled with enhanced eyelashes and a lush pink eyeshadow. Her lips, smiling as they always should be, were plumped up by a most alluring shade of red. Her cheeks, sparkling with a passionate pink shade of blush and flourishing, were making Homura's own turn red with both envy and lust.

"Hey, Madoka," Kyosuke pecked one on her diminutive cheeks. "Muah!" He reached for her coat on the racking and helped her button it on.

"Kyosuke!" She greeted her date as he buttoned her up nice and tight.

"Is Kyoko ready to go yet?" Asked Tokoi from the frame of the entrance.

"I'm comin'," Kyoko called from atop the stairway. Her choices in fashion were much simpler than Madoka's, starting with a navy blue dress with four red buttons running down the center. The collar was wide and high which called attention away from her breast and up to her head and neck. The sleeves rested tight around the shoulder but loosened as they went, reaching just past her elbows, but Kyoko had them rolled up and fastened just above that point. Like the sleeves above the dress below was secure around her butt and waist but opened up as it ran down her legs, all the way down to her calves. To go with it around the belly she had an oversized blue belt with a big gold buckle at the center and a big red bow stitched to the right side. On her feet were simple knee-high socks instead of stockings and a very light brown pair of boots. Overall it looked like a garment set that at first glance would be mistaken as something more suited to church than a night on the town. "Welp." But her intent was to show off how well she could clean up in situations that necessitated her full earnest engagement. "How do I look?"

"You look," Tokoi on the spot went slack-jawed. "Beautiful!" He blushed and suddenly realized he was the most underdressed person in his plain red polo shirt and blue jeans. He was expecting his date to approach this get-together with the same sort of casualness. "Ahem," He straightened his collar, fastened a button, stepped forth, leaned in and tried to emulate Kyosuke's kiss. "Ow!"

"Oops!" But it turned out that Kyoko had tried to lay one on him at the same moment, resulting in a simultaneous bumping of their foreheads. "S- Sorry!" As they were rubbing their sore spots he quickly grabbed her other hand and offered up an apology kiss. "Muah!"

"Eh, no prob!" Kyoko salvaged her dignity with a chuckle and a grin. A mere few seconds, and the embarrassment had already gone away. "So where're we goin' first? Food?" Kyoko's first priority was always food.

"I was thinking we should all go do something fun first," Tokoi suggested.

"Oh? Like what?" Kyoko pressed.

"Well, on our way over, he and I were discussing things we've kind of always wanted to do but never had the chance to try," Kyosuke elaborated. "Have either one of you guys ever gone go-kart racing before?"

"No I haven't," Madoka shook her head as she took his hand. "Sounds like fun!"

"Hells yeah!" Kyoko agreed. "How in the heck have I never had that idea before?"

"The race tracks are just across the street from the skate park," Tokoi detailed. "At the foot of the hills."

"That's a pretty long walk from here," Madoka commented. "Kyosuke, would you rather we get a ride over there?"

"Nah, that's okay," Kyosuke declined. "Begging for lifts from grown-ups may as well be the same as asking for a chaperone." He twirled his cane around his injured hand as a show of self-confidence as the group headed out the door. "Tonight, I'm gonna show the world that Kyosuke Kamijo is back and getting around better than ever!" That was the last thing Homura overheard before the door closed behind them.

"Hey kiddo," Junko snapped her fingers twice in Homura's ear to regain her eyes and attention. "You mind turning your head back this way a little?"

"Oh," Homura blinked a few times rapidly and fidgeted with her fingers in her seat. "S- Sorry." She obliged Junko's request. The two sat there in silence for a few minutes, as Junko swabbed the eye shadow up around Homura's eyelids.

"You know, I had once prepared this big speech for Madoka," Junko broke the lull with a story. "Just in case the day might come where she tells me she thinks she might be one of those girls who's into dating other girls, and worried how that may change how the rest of the world sees her."

"Erm," Homura squirmed a bit. "And why are you bringing that up to me?"

"Oh, just watching her go out with her boyfriend, being so fun-loving and carefree, yet so responsible and concerned for his well-being," Junko swabbed the applicator sponge into the eye shadow tray. "Made me a little nostalgic for those days when she still needed me to give her guidance and tell her the grander life lessons, is all." Her finger signaled for Homura to tilt her head a little forward. "And as quiet and reserved as she used to be around males, back when she was practically sewn at the hip to Sayaka, for a while she had me worried about it as a potential possibility."

"I see," Homura swallowed. There was a hand mirror down by their side, but she didn't want to see the work in progress, fearing it might make her change her mind. "I suppose now with your fears abated, you think that time spent worrying and wondering and thinking of what to say was for naught."

"No, not at all," Junko revealed. "Not at all." She finished up on the eye shadow portion. "Parenting means prepping for the scenarios that don't come to pass every bit as much as the ones that do. It can help broaden your horizons and help one function not just as a better adult, but as a more loving and sympathetic human being too." Next she took out a tube of eyeliner. "It was a good speech, though. I guess my one regret is that she'll never have the chance to hear it."

"Eh, I'm sure it's nothing worth such a fuss," Homura remarked. "I imagine the only thing more tiresome than being on the receiving end of a lecture, would be being the one on the giving end."

"Oh, no, I wasn't gonna give her any sort of lecture," Junko corrected. "A lecture would imply there was something wrong with her being that way in the first place." She unscrewed the applicator from the top of the tube. She had a little difficulty in doing so, as her eyes were trained on Homura's placid face searching for any particular reaction to her words. "It was more of a pep talk." She had another hunch about this girl, going by the way she watched Madoka descend down those stairs. "Tell her it wouldn't matter who she loves or what paths her passions take her through life. That my support for her would be unwavering." There was a certain ardor to it, like how her Receptionist would discreetly eye the Administrative Services Manager whenever they'd encounter each other in the breakroom, or at the water cooler or when sharing the elevator. "But unfortunately we live in a society that's been powered by the treadmill of tradition for hundreds and hundreds of years. She'll have to face extra hardship, judgment, injustice and even outright cruelty having done nothing to warrant all that hate." They were both guys. When coupled with how viscerally she reacted to the idea of Madoka moving away, led her to a revelation she experienced when the Receptionist confided his feelings to her once while they shared a coffee break on the first floor cafe. "And as much as I want to protect her from all those self-interested forces bent on preserving the status quo, I know I can't." She noticed Homura swallow a big lump right down her throat. If she wasn't careful, she'd risk causing that make-up to get wet and run in clumps down her face. "Because I can't be a constant presence in her life. When I'm not there only my words can serve as her source of strength and inspiration." A good line she'd recalled from her speech. Now would be a great time to actually remember the rest of it. "And love." She gently stroked Homura's lush lashes with the delicate little brush. "So my advice would be that no matter what tricks or traps those vile creatures may put in her path, she must draw upon her greater inner strength in order to rise above it and become a beacon of hope and courage for everyone like her and unlike her to rally alongside." Then she went to work on the other eye. "For darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Nor can hate drive out hate. Only love can do that." That last part she couldn't take credit for. It came from a manga she'd read growing up. Up rolled her final piece of the project, the lipstick.

"Madoka is very fortunate to have you," Homura's voice quavered. Her lips trembled and her nostrils twitched as Junko rubbed it on. "As her mother." She sniffed, barely stifling any and all tears. Still a visceral enough reaction that all but confirmed she had let Junko in on her most deeply personal secret, and she didn't even need to say a word about it.

"Aw I'm no all star or expert," Junko deflated herself. "I just do as much as I can with what I got. Which is only a couple extra decades worth of experience." Her make-up session was essentially finished. She could have grabbed the hand mirror down beside them and indulged in a bit of personal satisfaction from revealing the results of the makeover session. "Sounds like you might have a wee bit of a cold coming on." But there was no need. "There are tissues in the bathroom. If you need to freshen up in other ways, feel free to use it as long as you need." She was beautiful just as she was.

"Thank you," Homura rushed out of her chair and headed for their spacious bathroom.

"Before we begin, let us first clear up one big misconception concerning the nature of computer science and programming," The class instructor addressed the collection of two dozen boys and girls in attendance at his first lesson. Two of the girls present were Hitomi and Saya. "Those who struggle to make the grade in my class are the ones who take the approach that machine coding is just another boring mathematics or science class. It is not." He tapped a small black button on the remote on his lectern, and the virtual whiteboard behind him flashed a new screen.

01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00111111 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01100101 01111000 01110100 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01111000 01110000 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01101001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101101 01101001 01101101 01110000 01101111 01110010 01110100 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110000 01101100 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110110 01100101 01101100 01101111 01110000 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00111111 00100000 01010111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100100 00100001 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100001 01110101 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110010 00101101 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 00100001

"Sure academic institutions and collegiate admissions officers will regard it as such, but the reality is that it is, in fact, a course on learning a brand new language." Hitomi was busy taking fastidious notes while Saya was keeping eye contact with the teacher. "You see, in order to carry out their express purpose, which is to serve as the tool of mankind and assist in his development as the dominant life form on this planet, the tool and its user must be able to communicate with one another in a manner that is clear, efficient, and universal." He pressed the button on his remote and a new string of ones and zeroes scrolled across the board. "Like the many tongues of Earth there are literally hundreds of programming languages and each is growing and changing by the day. But whatever the evolution, they all start at this simple two-sided foundation." His hand directed their attention towards the display on the board.

01001110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01100011 01101100 01101111 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 00110101 00110000 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111110 00110101 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 01110011 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101111 01110000 01110000 01101111 01110010 01110100 01110101 01101110 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101001 01101110 01100100 01110101 01101100 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110100 01110100 01101100 01100101 00100000 00110100 01110100 01101000 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101101 01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101110

"This is binary. It is the most fundamental representation of data. Any number, any character, any symbol, any image can be broken down and converted into this rawest form." The class was rather eclectic in how it was made up, with students a year or two behind Hitomi in grade level on one end, and a couple juniors and even a senior on the other. "It's been said that math is the only truly universal language and if our colleagues at the Murakami Array ever hope to establish contact with races above our own, then they need to be fluent in it. But binary is math distilled even further, all the way down to its two most rudimentary values: One and Zero. Something and nothing." The examples on the display scrolled onward.

01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01100011 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110000 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101100 01101100 00101110 00100000 01001001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01101011 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01000100 01101001 01110011 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 00101100 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110111 01101001 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101011 01110101 01100100 01101111 01110011 00101100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 00101100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01101001 01100101 01110111 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100101 01101101 01100001 01101001 01101100 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100101 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01100011 01100101 01110101 01110011 00110001 00111001 00111000 00110111 01000000 01100111 01101101 01100001 01101001 01101100 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101

At the edge of Hitomi's eye she caught someone wandering past the open doorway, then stopping, turning around and coming back. "Yes and no. On and off." He went on. "White and Black. Go and stop. True and False. Alive and dead."

"Good and bad?" The girl standing in the doorway chimed in.

"Good and bad is a relative concept," He corrected. "Rooted in the instinct to survive at the individual's baser conscious level and the collective's drive to flourish when scaled up." He tugged his glasses slightly down onto his nose. "I suppose if you want an example that extends beyond the strictly material and into the philosophical or spiritual, then I suppose you could go with broken and unbroken… Yin and yang."

01000001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100011 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100111 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01100011 01101000 01100101 01100100 01110101 01101100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101

"Oh," She beamed a shy but friendly smile. "Neato!" She was carrying with her black leather briefcase and a stringed instrument, to the curiosity of the whole class looking her way. "Uh, well you see… I'm the music teacher's new assistant and I've been circling around this building trying to find her classroom for a while now, but whenever that holographic guide character pops up and I ask it for directions, the darn thing misunderstands and sends me the wrong way!" She may have been a teaching assistant but she was wearing one of the school's standard green uniforms. Her hair was a silvery white bobbed cut with two curly cowlicks sticking up like horns, one of which she was teasing with her right index and middle fingers.

"Yes, the technology was rolled out without going through the proper bug testing phase," The instructor apologized via an explanation. "Its ability to understand the spoken word is rather hit-and-miss."

"Which is another binary example," Saya pointed out without prompting.

"Yes, how true," He nodded. "The music hall is in the arts wing, north end of the school. Keep going down this hall to the blue painted area, then head up either two more floors on the lift or up the main staircase."

"Do you need assistance?" Saya asked her, turning and tugging at Hitomi's sleeve. In response Hitomi stopped trying to multitask and put her eyes upon their visitor.

"We at the Heroes Club are happy to help students and faculty alike," Hitomi fumbled her pen.

"Well the teacher sent me a text over lunch requesting that I pre-write the next lesson for her on the board and set up the sheet stands," She detailed. "But I've wasted so much time wandering these halls that I'm running behind schedule." She put her concerned hand to her mouth. "Ooooh, but I couldn't possibly take you two away from such a captivating presentation as that one."

"Not a problem," The teacher dismissed the pair with a backhanded wave. "The point of my opening statements was to let them know that the students who succeed are those who take this class as a chance to broaden their linguistic horizons instead of yet another place to memorize equations and formulas." With permission granted Saya and Hitomi gathered their things, stood up and made their exit.

"What's your name?" Hitomi asked after they trekked several meters away.

"Mifuyu," She answered. "Mifuyu Azusa."

"And that instrument you carry is a koto, correct?" Saya kept the conversation going.

"Yes it is," Mifuyu smiled. "At my old school I was the koto club president from the start of middle school all the way up to my graduation." She handed off her instrument to Saya. "Can either of you play one? I ask because I would like to jumpstart a new koto club in this school."

"No," Saya replied. With that their eyes both immediately set upon Hitomi.

"I was given a few lessons back when I was in elementary," Hitomi disclosed. "But I can't say I'm all that interested in joining a musical club right now." She had not been asked to divulge her reason, but she felt obliged to tell them anyway. "A recent bad experience with a boy and his stringed instrument has turned me off that genre for a while."

"Are you talking about your romantic entanglement involving Kamijo and your other friends at Mitakihara Middle School?" Hitomi appreciated that Saya had not asked her about the grimiest of Hitomi's troubles in her old life. But enough time had passed. Maybe the reason she volunteered that information to their new acquaintance was because now she was in a place comfortable enough to speak of it again?

"An 'entanglement'?" Mifuyu touched fingertips in interest. "Do tell."

"She was seriously enamored with a boy in class but so were two of her friends," Saya rehashed the shortened version of the story. She made a quick visual glance back at Hitomi trying to discern whether she should divulge the rest or let Hitomi take over.

"I ran away," Hitomi confessed as they headed up the staircase. "I couldn't see how else I could make the situation right, other than to extricate myself from it entirely." She watched her two little feet traipse up the stairs step by step, a habit born from a childhood fear of tripping and tumbling head over heels. "I made one bad choice, and my overriding dread was that any other decision I may have made afterwards was going to risk making my problems worse."

"I can understand that," Mifuyu reached the top of the first staircase and waited for the two to catch up. "Really, I can. The problem with living the life of a privileged rich girl in this land, your every waking moment is preplanned and your every activity is supposed to have an express purpose. You're always expected to obey and it is never proper to complain." They caught up and ascended the next flight of stairs. "So when the first time something comes along and it offers you the first choice that's all your own, one that could very well shape how you take those precious early steps into womanhood, and you make a mess of it, you become so averse to the pain that it makes you want to flee from the root causes."

"Wow," Hitomi was amazed by the girl's keen intuition and relatability. "What did you run away from?"

"Adulthood itself," Mifuyu smiled her way through a crestfallen sigh. "There I was, nineteen years old. College plans already made. Majors already set. Life goals already plotted." She sighed. "I felt so trapped in my life. I could hardly breathe. Even the person I was to marry was a preselected choice." Saya handed the koto back to Mifuyu as they all got to the top of the steps. "So when this new school posted its mentorship program that would allow recent top-of-the-class graduates to serve as special aids to teachers and students in exchange for college credit and basic moving expenses, I jumped at it." She chuckled. "It took a whole lot of begging and cajoling, but I managed to sell my parents on the idea, and the bottom line is, I get to play pretend schoolgirl and defer growing up for juuuust a little while longer."

"Is that why you dress in one of our uniforms?" Saya probed.

"Ehhhh… The reason for my getup is because students are way more inclined to talk to their peers than to those they see in positions of authority," Mifuyu clarified. "No disparity. I mean, look at what's been spoken between the three of us." Her smile morphed ever-slightly closer to a smirk as the right door came within sight. "Will you pair please set up the stands, while I'll write out these lesson plans?" She requested in such a sweet and ingratiating way as to be impossible to turn down.

"Okay," Saya and Hitomi said at once. "Onetwothree jinx!" Hitomi exclaimed. "You owe me a cranberry juice!"

"Tee-he," Mifuyu tittered. "Good to see some old traditions never go out of style." She set her koto aside on the table, picked up an electronic writing tool and went to work.

"Saya, is there anything in the rulebooks that prohibits faculty or special aids from joining clubs?" She pulled two stands from the closet. Saya was able to grab two with her left hand, three with her right.

"No." Saya recalled. "Faculty are allowed to start clubs so it stands to reason there would not be anything that prevents them from joining an existing one."

"How would you like to join our 'Heroes Club,' Mifuyu?" Hitomi extended an invite.

"Hmm?" On the premade staff Mifuyu jotted out the first notes of the lesson song. "And what would your 'Heroes Club' be all about?"

"Help teachers with basic chores, council students, and assist the other clubs whenever they need extra hands for major events." Saya elaborated.

"Basically the same things you do already." Hitomi summed.

"Will Saya Otonashi please report to the Nurse's Office?" An announcement blared over the public address speakers.

"Oops." Saya finished setting up her stands. "I volunteered to be the Nurse's assistant this week." She bowed before heading for the door. "It was so nice talking with you. I do so hope you are willing to join us in our new club."

"Thank you for your most gracious offer," Mifuyu returned a bow. "When we see one another again, I believe my answer will please you." She teased and returned to her task.

"That melody of yours looks pretty intriguing," Hitomi caught sight of the notes Mifuyu was writing on the board. "Is that an original composition?"

"Why yes it is," Mifuyu said. "The song is mine. I wrote it not long ago after being pretty laid out with a cold."

"What'd you call it?"

"It is pretty pretentious, really," Mifuyu prefaced. "The medication must have done a real number on me." She checked her notes, as she had crafted the title in English and needed to sound it out. "I named it… 'Gamma Unbound'."

Chapter Text

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

From its tracking software's visual outline the target appeared to be another one of those metallic mannequins Gamma practiced shooting back on the target course.

-| RANGE: 9.472 METERS |-

But there was something anomalous about its behavior pattern that was incomprehensible to Gamma. It was bouncing between the walls, impacting the corridors with enough force to leave damaging marks and dents.

-| SPEED: 7.628 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| RANGE: 11.565 METERS |-

-| SPEED: 5.790 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| RANGE: 13.693 METERS |-

-| SPEED: 4.451 METERS PER SECOND |-

Had Gamma's assigned role in this undertaking been to observe and analyze its erratic activity, Gamma would have staked a secure, passive position for further monitoring. But the Cyber Regina had tasked it with a seek-and-destroy mission, so it activated its weapon, locked on and opened fire.

-| FIRING |-

-| TARGET HIT |-

Its target made zero effort to avoid taking damage, another peculiarity.

-| TARGET REMAINS |-

Despite every shot hitting its shell square on, the subject's activity was not terminated by the blasts.

"Delete," Gamma heard its own synthesized voice speak reflexively. It concentrated its next volley center mass on the target.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| RANGE: 15.104 METERS |-

-| SPEED: 2. 002 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Its vocalizations were joined by two other CBX units in support. They too honed their tracking software on the thing and blasted away.

-| TARGET NEUTRALIZED |-

So thorough their fumigation of fire was, that all that was left of the strange kill was a molten mass of glowing slag. Out of a prudent regard for itself and its combat detachment's safety in potential future encounters, Gamma initiated its Scan Mode and was about to examine the remnants.

"Cancel postmortem scan." CBX Unit Two Thirty-One, Gamma's assigned subordinate recommended. "Proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen." Gamma knew where it was supposed to be advancing, it did not require a vocalized reminder from this subaltern. Though the machine was just doing as it was programmed, Gamma did not appreciate the suggestion. Why would a dummy unit try to compromise the structural integrity of their fortress in such a chaotic, inefficient way? It demanded further scrutiny before proceeding.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

But the abrupt appearance of what appeared to be another misbehaving dummy robbed Gamma of the chance to further assess the matter.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

And so came another.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma and its squadron's voices echoed throughout the dark hallways. The pair were engaged in a rather exotic dance, tossing one another into the walls at full force whilst paying no attention to the barrage of bullets Gamma and its entourage were hailing upon them. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" The two were obliterated by the barrage and Gamma and its crew proceeded undeterred.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

Yet another oddity was awaiting them around the next corner. This one was behaving even more errantly than the first three.

-| RANGE: 12.390 METERS |-

-| SPEED: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| VERTICAL MOMENTUM: 6.585 METERS PER SECOND |-

It was leaping up and down and slamming itself against the ceiling. But upon damaging the structure the thing did not try to inflict further damage or degrade the metal but was instead grinding itself against jagged and exposed chunks of metal and grating, and in doing so, cutting and slicing into its metal shell . From this act Gamma suspected the pseudo-unit's intention was not to destroy the surrounding habitat, but rather disassemble itself.

"Delete! Delete! De-"

"Do not delete!" Gamma commanded. It also punctuated that instruction by raising its arm outward, an unnecessary automatous act it may have done to assert its authority. Gamma reasoned that if the malfunctioning dummies' goal was indeed to self-destruct, then Gamma and its cohorts would simply be accomplishing the goal for them.

"Proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen," The same CBX Unit reminded it. But Gamma was not about to cede all autonomy to its mission parameters. It wanted to understand the reason these more simpler model machines were breaking down and functioning so unpredictably.

"CBX Unit Two thirty-five is to remain posted here," Gamma ordered. Although all CBX units had the same basic specs, units ending in the number five were customized to feature additional sensory enhancements and detachable components for the purposes of reconnaissance and surveillance. "New objective. Monitor and record target activity for later analysis." In lieu of Gamma itself remaining, this in Gamma's logic was an adequate alternative. "Establish a two-way audiovisual link for continuous observation." A picture-in-picture viewscreen appeared at once in Gamma's view.

-| CYBER NEURALINK PEER-TO-PEER ENABLED |-

"I comply," The unit it called upon put its hand to its chest and tilted in a deferential bow to Gamma. Gamma timed their next advance so that the next time the thing hurled itself into the ceiling, they could pass without interruption.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| RANGE: 13.013 METERS |-

-| SPEED: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

A stark contrast from the one in the last hall, this one was not exhibiting any outward activity whatsoever. It was wedged against the wall and curdled into a ball on the floor.

"Unit Two Four Zero," Gamma spoke. With Unit Two Thirty-Five assigned to the last one the next best choice for a more in-depth examination would be the one outfitted with specialized forensic examination tools. And it knew this fact, as it did not wait for Gamma to finish its verbal command to approach the inactive specimen and secure it. "Report status of target."

"Deleted," The CBX Unit replied. Gamma and the rest closed the distance and examined the dummy's remains. Meanwhile the subject Unit Two Thirty-Five had been watching was now splayed on the floor, writhing around.

-| NOXIOUS GAS ALERT |-

-| PARTICLE LEVELS NOW AT 106 PARTS PER MILLION AND RISING |-

As its Master had told it to disregard the gaseous foreign substance polluting the air, Gamma had not been running a continuous check on the gas's proportional levels. But on a particular whim Gamma ran its subroutine. And that conceit being the nonzero possibility of a link between higher vapor levels and the baffling conduct of these dummies.

"Forensic analysis conclusion," Unit Two Four Zero updated its observations. "Cyber-Manikin was terminated by outgrowth of proto-biological organic matter," It turned the body over and revealed to all that its innards were hollowed out from the inside.

"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee!" A sound shrieked so loud it reverberated numerous times throughout the halls. "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee!" "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The noise matched no audio file stored in Gamma's memory banks.

Gamma zoomed in on Unit Two Thirty-Five's visual stream. The glitching dummy had stopped spastically colliding its way around the corridor. Now it was standing in one spot on the floor, propagating its body up on all four appendages, however its two lower appendages were bent the wrong way at the limbs' adjoining points. More unusual, its primary appendage was spinning around and around, twitching in a manner that was even more uncontrolled than what Gamma observed with Unit One Zero Three.

"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" That sound echoed everywhere all at once again. The closest zoological match in Gamma's database was to that of the squawking of a large predatory bird. Gamma's acoustic comparison analysis subroutine pegged it as something between the screech of an owl or the call of a falcon. "Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The sound had gotten so intense it was muffling the heavy, clanging stompings of Gamma and its cohorts.

"ETA to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen," Gamma's underling unit communicated, despite the racket. "Approximately two minutes, twenty-eight seconds." Another reminder that, unusual sights and sounds aside, they all still had a preprogrammed assignment to complete.

They took a left, then hit a right, followed by a twenty degree incline then another right, down a second thirty degree incline and then third right. With a sudden lull in the anomalous activity Gamma used this as another chance to check the air quality.

-| NOXIOUS GAS ALERT |-

-| PARTICLE LEVELS NOW AT 128 PARTS PER MILLION AND RISING |-

"Is it generating these gasses autonomically, perhaps akin to the way bone marrow produces additional white blood cells in response to the presence of a foreign infectious agent, or is it secreting these particulates for an explicit purpose?" Gamma heard its Master's voice muse. Gamma was not even aware its Master had been monitoring it. "I am always watching over you, Gamma." The voice said in response to Gamma's stray deliberation. "But the secondary objective of this excursion is to evaluate your performance as a Cyber Adjutant and field commander. Towards that end I am not going to offer advice or issue any overriding instructions unless the situation makes such action necessary."

"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Was the eponymous entity its Master designated as 'It' responsible for that most vexing sound? That was Gamma's ensuing notion.

"A detachment of CBX units, plus Unit One Zero Zero, and Unit One Zero One are at this present time engaging the entity in question." Its Master replied to that thought. "None have recorded any audio that is a match for what you and your group are experiencing." A design schematic detailing the profile of Unit One Zero Zero popped into Gamma's field of view. The first thing Gamma took note of was that its outline was radically different from that of itself, One Zero One and the CBX units, it was larger and cylindrical in shape. "However that does not preclude it from being the source, as it could theoretically be capable of unknown alternative forms of communication." Gamma had to close that window, as its routine coupled with Two Thirty-Five's sensory stream was taking up too much of Gamma's active processing capacity.

"Skrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

Three more metal dummies. All sprawled on the floor around the corner in a triangular pattern and holding stationary in the same exotic position as the one Two Thirty-Five was watching.

-| TARGET 1 |-

-| RANGE: 8.263 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 2 |-

-| RANGE: 10.081 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

-| TARGET 3 |-

-| RANGE: 10.081 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 0.000 METERS PER SECOND |-

One the very tick Target One and Gamma made visual contact, one hurled its body at Gamma full charge.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma blasted and blasted away with every round it could manage. But its lightning-quick opponent pounced first and tackled Gamma hard against the wall.

"Skrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

In a near-simultaneous occurrence, Unit Two Thirty-Five found itself under attack by its observational subject. But Gamma could not expend the processing power to do more than watch, as it stood there pinned.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Gamma switched off its damage alert system. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma uttered while striking back at its attacker with the full brute force of its fists. It had no other option. It calculated that firing projectiles would risk more extensive damage from either ricochets or cause it to backfire, and utilizing its electrical immobilization system on a metallic body would result in doing even more harm to itself.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" It smacked its foe straight to the head and delivered an even bigger blow hard into what Gamma concluded to be its center of mass. Repeating those vocalizations may have been a superfluous waste of energy in this predicament, but Gamma could not deny that there was an effect as saying it aloud repeatedly sent a significant surge of power down through its appendages and overclocked its cognitive processors in a brief burst. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" A series of consecutive blows to that area was enough to drive the thing off of it and into the awaiting arms of Gamma's support units.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Units Two Thirty-Seven and Two Thirty-Eight shoved it against the opposite wall. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" While Unit Two Thirty-Six was busy severing its lower limbs from its body in a hailstorm of heavy gunfire. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Then they tossed Gamma's half-bodied assailant a clear ten meters across the room.

"Skrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Target Three seized this moment in Gamma's recovery as a chance to hit back. A large, jagged protuberance spawned from the bottom of its back at the juncture of its hind appendages and lashed towards Gamma at a speed even faster than a cracking whip. Even so, Gamma was still fast enough to react, catching the extension mid-air and yanking on it, tugging the creature off its feet and into the rapid fire of its support squad.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

But all this was transpiring while Unit Two Thirty-Five was getting hammered by its attacker. In its secondary viewscreen Gamma could see everything that Unit was experiencing. Its secondary audio processor could hear every metal-to-metal blow. It could even register and catalog the damage Unit Two Thirty-Five was taking, in a sense, perceiving the Unit's growing peril as if Gamma were enduring it all firsthand.

Gamma and its forces were on the advance. Target One had been obliterated. Target Two was in the process of being subdued and eliminated. Target Three had pulled a sudden retreat, booking it in the direction of their mission destination. This presented Gamma with the need to make a tactical decision: Should it take a chance and send reinforcements back to assist Unit Two Thirty-Five, or would splitting its forces now be an error that would cost it if even greater obstacles await at the endpoint?

A mere second's calculation was all Gamma needed to make the choice. The mission objective was priority one, the thing of paramount importance. Any deviation was projected to lower their chances of success too significantly to be worth the cost in time and effort. "All Cyber Units proceed to Sector Zero One, Subsector Four, Junction Thirteen." Gamma ordered, its voice intoned in a cadence closer to that of Unit Two Thirty-One's. With its decision final their comrade unit was left behind to fend for itself. "ETA approximately seventy-four seconds."

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Unit Two Thirty-Five struggled just as hard as Gamma had. Through its ocular system Gamma watched the duel. The rampaging mannequin had it all but totally immobilized and helpless, its arms locked in the unyielding clutches of its enemy. Its one and only recourse was to kick its leg into the center mass of its target's body and knock itself loose. Just as Gamma predicted, Two Thirty-Five tried that. But Gamma couldn't foresee a big gaping hole in the thing's body opening right where Two Thirty-Five kicked. It swallowed up the Unit's leg and squeezed, doing so with a force so overpowering the electrical impulses translated back through the link and compelled Gamma to share the sensations.

-| UPPER CHASSIS HAIRLINE FRACTURE |-

Gamma had to turn its own damage subroutine back on so it wouldn't have to process everything from the helpless Two Thirty-Five.

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MODERATE |-

Another opening had opened up around the dummy's primary appendage. It was a thirty-eight point four seven centimeter long, upwards-curving slit. It took one point two six seven seconds for the slit to open to its widest point and for exactly two dozen large, spiked protrusions to form inside. It selected the raised circular piece on Two Thirty-Five's front chassis as its penetration point and dug in.

-| DAMagE DeTeCTEd |-

-| ERR0R |-

A cascading flux in the feedback caused Gamma to detect Two Thirty-Five's injury as its own. And this time, Gamma was unable to block all sensation. It attempted to close and sever the MetaNexus link with Two Thirty-Five, but failed. A sequential error between the transmission programs and Gamma's central processor was keeping the connection open. It had to watch the thing tear away at Unit Two Thirty-Five piece by piece.

"Auuuuuuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" A very loud synthesized sound reverberated behind them. Or at least, that was the closest match in their databanks. The audiovisual stream was breaking up, yet somehow the other effects were not subsiding.

-| P2p C0NNeCTION L0ST |-

-| MEtANExUS L1NK TERmINATED |-

-| SySTEm REST0RE Pr0GRAM |-

-| RESTORATION SUCCESSFUL |-

-| ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL |-

Gamma's recovery came not a moment too soon, as their party was closing to within six point two seconds of their mission objective.

"Skrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Every unit opened fire on them all at once. The dummy targets took no evasive action or countermeasures, acting as if they wanted to be gunned down on the spot.

"Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!"

Gamma's audio sensors recorded and registered hundreds of repeated occurrences of that noise. Two point five seconds later, and that number hit approximately one thousand. Seven point one four seconds later, and that number had reached ten thousand.

"She is using a harmonically resonant, subsonic cry to agitate her children," The Cyber Regina relayed. "Which then couples with the active compound in that gaseous chemical and the mixture hyper-stimulates their growth!" Its Master added a raised tone Gamma had not heard before. From the molten slag of the dummies' corpses they emerged, tiny sets of flapping wings affixed to thousands of living creatures. Gamma had no inkling of what they were. The only close match to its zoological database was the hummingbird, and even that assessment denoted a high margin of error. They took to the air like an insect swarm on the offensive and came straight at Gamma's group.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" They unloaded everything they had at the sudden blitz. But their blasts had little effect. There were too many of them, and Gamma's support troops could not fire fast enough to keep pace.

"Gamma!" Its Master implored. "Remove the wall paneling in front of you on the left side. Subjuncture Eighteen-Alpha!" Gamma obeyed, hustling over and dealing with its attackers by resorting to the inefficient method of swatting. It did not know the reason, but the levels of cortisol and adrenaline within its primary neural network had spiked by one hundred and thirty-seven point six nine percent.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Gamma's audio processors distinguished three loud hissing sounds coming from the outer layer of its chassis. Its exoskeletal sensors alerted it to the fact that its armor was being compromised by an unknown, fast-acting corrosive compound. Gamma located the spot from which to gain access to what lay behind the paneling, gave it a hard tug and removed it. Inside there was a thick, reinforced metal piping with a round, black puck-like heat detector attached to the side.

"That's a fire suppression system filled with pressurized bromochlorodifluoromethane," The Cyber Regina's voice exposited. Armed with that critical information, Gamma intuited that its Master's plan was to utilize the super-cooled flame retardant as a means to stun the biologicals by dampening their flight capability. The next challenge was in figuring out just how to trip the sensor and activate the system, as Gamma calculated that merely puncturing the piping and releasing the gas would not suffice in covering the area necessary to squash these creatures.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma joined in the chorus of units firing rapidly and wildly. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It fired off rounds at the fastest rate its safety mechanisms would allow, then fired even faster than that. "Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! De- Lete! De- Lete! De- Lete!" It disabled its safety cooldown protocols, raising the temperature of its gun barrel.

-| GUN BARREL TEMPERATURE: 273.860 CELSIUS |-

-| TEMPERATURE APPROACHING TOLERANCE RANGE |-

-| WARNING: COOLDOWN PROTOCOLS DISABLED |-

Then Gamma touched the tip of its barrel against the sensor. A high-pitched alarm chirped, and from protruding nozzles in the ceiling their vaporous assistance sprayed forth.

"Skrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Their wings too drenched to fly, the unknown hummingbird entities fell to the floor. But that did not cease their activity entirely. They scurried all around the floor and clung themselves to the walls, spewing their acidic concoction at whatever threat they perceived in proximity.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma went right to work slapping and stomping out as many as it could with its own hands and heavy, clanging feet. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It could not comprehend the rationale to it, but Gamma wanted nothing more than to see each and every single one of these primitive beasts exterminated. It was following an impulse it had not experienced before, one that was not programmed, and sending electrical impulses even stronger than the communications error that disoriented it moments ago. Yet somehow it was as compelled to follow this urge as intensely anything its Master coded into it. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"While I agree with your driving sentiment, I do not deem your action to be an efficient elimination method," Its Master's voice chimed. "If they are still being controlled by that noise, then a logical next course would be devising a method of counteracting its wail." A signal sent by the Voice forced Gamma's attention straight onto a computerized panel on the other wall. "And if that is so, then the solution lies within our own fire alert subsystem." Gamma took big, sweeping, pounding steps over to the panel, stuck out its balled fist and two little wires emerged and plugged into the computer.

-| FIRE ALARM SYSTEM OVERRIDE |-

"Now the trick will be in resetting the sonic frequency to one that is exactly opposite of hers, in theory the harmonic resonance should cancel the sound." A graphic display subwindow appeared in Gamma's view. "From this acoustic analysis you should set the alarm to this frequency and decibel level." Gamma complied, knocking away a few creeping crawlers up the wall with its still-superheated and exposed gun barrel sticking from its other appendage.

"Skrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

"Weeeeoooooooooweeeeooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeooooooo!" The alarm blared at the adjusted tone. It was slowing them down, but not enough to make them stop entirely.

"Syncing fire control subsystem to Cyber Regent neural plexus," Its Master's voice intoned. "Making acoustic adjustments. I will take it from here." Gamma extracted itself from the interface. Three more CBX units wearing tanks on their backs with tubes running into their arms marched out from around the corner.

"Beginning decontamination and liquidation protocol," One Unit spoke. "All functioning Cyber Units are to evacuate at once!" Gamma pinged its mechanical compatriots, checking their operational statuses.

-| CBX-231 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-232 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-233 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-234 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-235 STATUS: TERMINATED |-

-| CBX-236 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-237 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-238 STATUS: TERMINATED |-

-| CBX-239 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

-| CBX-240 STATUS: OPERATIONAL |-

A visual inspection confirmed that Unit Two Thirty-Eight was down, irreparably damaged not by the metal-eating spray of their enemies, but from multiple penetrations of heavy gunfire. From the entry and exit trajectories the rounds could have only been fired from Gamma itself. It seemed, in Gamma's haste to heat its barrel fast enough to trip the sensor, it unwittingly executed one of its own.

"Excellent work, Gamma." The Cyber Regina lauded, an evaluation that somehow ran contrary to Gamma's own performance assessment. "You managed to be of great assistance in the subjugation of our host and did so with only an eighteen percent casualty rate." Gamma watched Units Two Thirty-Seven and Two Thirty-Nine drag the remains of Two Thirty-Eight away. "The sacrifice of a few is always necessary in facilitating the prosperity of the many. If the percentages are what dissatisfies you, then I will inform you that Unit One Zero One and One Zero Zero's detachment incurred a higher rate of twenty-seven percent." It turned around and witnessed the three CBX units spray down the whole corridor with a thick, grayish liquid. "Although they did go in with a considerably higher number of support units. I want you to know that you did not make any choice I myself would not have also made upon factoring in all variables." They trod past the remains of Unit Two Thirty-Five, in a state that was almost unrecognizable. "You demonstrated more than enough competence as both a leader and a loyal soldier in this burgeoning movement. Now return to your birthing chamber, and I assure you that you will be patched up and modified so that you can serve me even better than you already have."

Yet somehow, its Master's total adulation came as little comfort to Gamma. For two of its own were no more. And while it was programmed to anticipate and accept the loss of underlings, knowledge of the circumstances under which they were destroyed was sending unprecedented levels of new electrical activity into its processing core. Gamma saved them all, even though it did not like these sensations.

Though it could not grasp the reason.

Whenever she was in a bathroom, Homura always took deliberate measures to avoid looking at her reflection in the mirror. At home, she'd draped a shower curtain over the thing. In school, she'd position herself in front of the paper towel dispenser, washing one hand underneath the right sink and the other under the left, closing her eyes or looking down whilst reaching for soap. In public restrooms, she'd set her sights on another occupant or the doorway or a ventilation duct or any assorted decor. Here at Madoka's, despite this humongous room featuring multiple mirrors, it was fairly easy to avoid looking at herself. They were all high-tech electronic window panes that could transition into becoming mirrors at the push of a button. Homura could simply choose not to press the button, and her toothbrushing partner Madoka was so accepting of her quirky habit she never questioned the reasons behind it.

Her ritualized behavior began long ago. Back at the church's orphan home, the other girls would constantly harp on her appearance, never missing the chance to tell her how ugly she was. They'd say her eyebrows were too close together, that her nose was too small in proportion to her eyes, or that her two front teeth were too prominent, or that her left ear looked like it stuck out further than her right, that there was a strange splotch on her cheek that might have been a growing pimple. It made her too self-conscious to tolerate seeing her own reflection on mirrored surfaces.

And every other day it seemed they had a new nitpick which would send Homura running off in a humiliated bout of shame. She'd tweeze the region between her brows with her fingernail tips, narrow the size of her eyes by squinting, try to grind her teeth down by eating thicker, harder foods, and wash, scrub, rub, touch and pick at her face to such an excess that she'd cause a big, red splotch or blister. Even after she grew wise to their wicked tricks her face-touching had become a full-blown behavioral tic. By then her only remedy to it came by exchanging it for a different, less damaging one. So she braided her hair and started fiddling with the tips whenever she got anxious or agitated. Eventually that morphed into the hair flipping and finger combing that, in an ironic twist, her classmates at Mitakihara came to mistake as her putting on an air of cool, feminine mystique. Once Madoka told her she should try to look the part she just rolled with it, and became a signature trait.

Oriko Mikuni nailed one thing in telling Homura that her current face was a mask and one which she still loathed looking at. But could Junko's cosmetic makeover have at last given her a façade that was more palatable? Did Homura dare have hope, even knowing what a mess of a girl still hid underneath? She'd rallied the courage not to cry in front of Junko, all she had to do here was scrounge up what was remaining and push that button. Slowly but bravely, her hand drifted to that control panel behind the sink.

"Nnnmf," Homura turned on the mirror and opened her eyes. "Huh?" She leaned closer and studied the results of Junko's handiwork. "Unnnngghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She groaned. The lipstick just served to highlight how large and tumid they were. The blush on her cheeks only accentuated how drab and plain her cheekbones appeared. She went way overboard with the goop on her lashes, they were so elongated and stuck out so far a bug could've mistaken them for flower stems and tried landing. Putting eyeshadow above that only made those eyes of hers look even more doleful. As if she needed her inner melancholy to be manifested in such a garish way. All and all, in Homura's objective and pragmatic assessment, Junko's experiment was an unmitigated bust. This new visage of hers best resembled that of a sad, sorry-eyed clown. She could not wait to wash this crap off. She cupped her hands underneath the faucet, and turned on the tap.

"You holding up in there alright?" A knock and a voice came through the door. "Everything good?" It was Junko.

"I'm fine," Homura opened her palms and let the collected water splash down into the drain. "Just finishing up." So caught up in her visceral revulsion she hadn't considered how insulting she would be to Junko if she were to just wash all her well-intentioned efforts away so fast and do it in her own bathroom. It'd be past rude, callous even, to walk out of this bathroom without keeping it on. Her best course was to offer up an excuse to go home and take steps not to be seen looking this way. Avoid confrontation, and when asked next time just say that the make-up did nothing for her.

"There's one last thing I'd like you to try out," Junko added, to Homura's dismay.

"What is it?" Homura asked, being polite and stifling another moan.

"It's some perfume," Junko answered.

"What's it called?"

"Uhhhhhm…" Junko looked over the label. "'Resplendence'." Another exotic word courtesy of the English language.

"Tch," Homura trudged over and unlocked the door. "They really do just make these products as hard for us Japanese to pronounce as possible, don't they?"

"Heh," Junko tittered. The joke was so that Junko wouldn't suspect just how gloomy Homura was feeling and try yet another tacky thing to cheer her up. "Do you mind if I spray a little on you?"

"Fine," Homura caved without fuss. What was one more minor embarrassment for the road? She would just have to stay out of sniffing distance from anyone on her way, and take a nice long, hot bath once she got home. Wash it all out with her favorite green apple scented shampoo. "Please don't spray too much," She requested. The label looked expensive. She didn't want the thought of Junko wasting money in her head all night trying to sleep.

"Alright!" Junko squeezed the little rubber pump attached to the top. Homura tossed her hair back, a gesture Junko interpreted to mean she should spray with a little more gusto. "Smells nice, doesn't it?"

"It smells sweet," Homura said. It hit her nose like some combination of lilac, lavender, melon and the morning dew. Although she didn't trust her sense of smell much. Every other girl would gush over how nice Miss Saotome smelled while to Homura she smelled like coffee beans and a high-end brand of laundry detergent.

"Kazuko claims she bought this thinking of me while she was touring Paris last year," Junko studied the label a little more closely. "But a name like that, I'm starting to suspect she was actually thinking about me during her layover time in America…" She squinted at the fine print identifying the name and location of the manufacturer. "Montreal?"

"Eh, it's a French enough place I guess." Homura joked and sniffed. A chiming ring of the doorbell drew their ears.

"Now who could that be?" Junko glanced at the wall clock. Then her feet glided to the front door.

"Oh, hey Missus Kaname," Homura recognized Sayaka's voice and ducked behind a wall. "Are Madoka and Kyoko still around?" Homura wanted nothing more than to transform right there, engage her time magic, and book it right past the two in the door, but alas. Oriko had also nailed her prediction that Homura's issues with her time-stopping ability would become a recurring impediment. "I wanna wish them the best before their big dates tonight."

"You just missed them by about ten minutes," Junko informed her. Homura peeked an eye out from behind her hiding spot. Sayaka was wearing brown undine boots, a plain pair of blue jeans with a white sweatshirt with red and blue stripes running down the middle. And over top was a shiny black coat. One which Homura had never seen her wear before.

"Dang," Sayaka snapped her finger. "Knew I should've come straight from work and not changed clothes."

"That's a really nice coat." The coat was such a standout feature on her it even caught Junko's notice. "Did you buy it at the mall?"

"Nah, My Dad got it for me when I was little," Sayaka tugged the collar up to her face. "We were sorting through stuff in my closet when I realized I had finally grown into it." She sniffed the leather. "I'm surprised by how new it still smells after a bunch of years." She sniffed deeper. Then her wanderous eyes latched onto a figure peeping out from a spot behind Junko. "Homura!" Homura's position had been betrayed by her own curiosity. "That is you, isn't it?"

"No need to be shy," Junko tried waving Homura out from her hiding spot. "It's just Sayaka." She said it as if she was an owner trying to lure their skittish cat out from under the couch. Although Junko was almost certainly not intending to sound that way, it was doing Homura and her shaken self-confidence no favors nonetheless.

"H- Hi." Homura forced something verbal out of her mouth.

"Is there a reason you're trying to play it so coy at the moment?" Sayaka, of course, with her natural perceptiveness, sensed Homura's discomfort.

"Would you prefer to explain it or should I?" Junko offered.

"Missus Kaname was curious to see how I might look with cosmetic enhancement," Homura gulped down a breath of courage and stepped forth. "And I obliged her."

"Rrrrreally?" Sayaka trod right inside upon hearing that. "Hmmmmmm," She studied the results. "Weeeeeeird." Not the most heartening first word. "It's like, Madoka's practice work on Kyoko was hilarious and everything, but this," Homura prepared to hear another one of Sayaka's oafish-but-often mortifying ribbings. "You for reals took her to a whole 'nother level of cuteness!" Instead she zig-zagged Homura's expectations with a pure, wholesome compliment.

"If there's one thing I know from nearly a quarter century's experience in make-up application," Junko boasted. "It's that when you're dealing with a natural beauty, all you've gotta do is find the best ways to highlight what's already there."

"Mission accomplished," Sayaka gave Homura's new look her patented 'thumbs-up' gesture. Yet somehow Homura still harbored doubts. These two weren't objective. Of course Junko would take pride in her own handiwork, and Sayaka was hardly the best judge of what qualified as fashionable or feminine. Although it begrudged Homura to admit she was really pulling that coat off well.

"If you still want a chance to catch up to Madoka and your cousin," Junko mercifully changed the subject. "They said they were going to go go-karting when they took off."

"Naaaaaah, those dudes would probably think it creepy of me to drop in on them uninvited in the wild," Sayaka said. "And Kyoko would kick my ass for sure if I stumbled by while she was flirting or playing footsie or doing anything lovey-dovey." They were interrupted once again by a loud noise. This time it was the buzzing and chirping ringtone of the smartphone in Junko's bag on the coat rack.

"Such impeccable timing," Junko griped at the sound.

"I thought that one on the kitchen table was your phone," Homura pointed at it.

"That one's just my personal phone," Junko specified. "This one hollerin' for my attention now is my brand spankin' new work phone." She trotted over and unzipped her bag. What she couldn't share was that it was a customized model on a private network with an encrypted messaging system.

"Is your new job going well?" Homura inquired.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Junko dissembled. What else was she to say? That at any moment that altered voice on the other line might tell her the whole world was about to come flying apart?

"New job?" Sayaka turned an interested eyebrow. "What is it?"

"It's just service work, that's all." She would always tell Madoka that honesty was the best way to make and keep those friends, and now here she was being a hypocrite to them. It was aggravating as hell to her conscience yet it couldn't be helped. "The company's trying to set up a new fast food franchise, and my job is to help supervise the newest wing of their operation." So she told as much of the truth as she was allowed as she took the phone out and unlocked the screen.

"Gee, that sounds like a bit of a step down from what you used to do for them," Sayaka commented. She said it despite knowing nothing about how the inner workings of the corporate ladder go. She just knew enough about her dishwashing job to know she did not want to spend the rest of her life working in a restaurant.

"Hey, as long as my pay keeps going up every year I'll be up for doing whatever they tell me," Junko justified. Words meant just as much for her own peace of mind as theirs. "Just a hunch but I think they're going to call me back in for another go this evening. I'm still in my orientation period." She waved for them to go outside. "As much as I enjoy being friends with my daughter's friends, I think this is where we've gotta be parting ways."

"Thanks for the makeover, Missus Kaname," Homura yanked Sayaka along by her swanky-looking black coat.

"Bye," Sayaka waved.

"Take care of yourselves, girls." Junko waved back without looking up from her screen.

'***PRIORITY ALPHA*** ALL SENIOR STAFF REPORT TO UNIT UNSTEP HQ ASAP'

"See you later."

"Do you see this watch?" Yachiyo dangled her family heirloom, a Seiko branded gold plated pocket watch, in front of Felicia's eyes as they sat on the futon in the parlor room. "Train your eyes on it." She swung the watch around from side to side. "Focus on it."

"Hey, waaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiitasecond," But Felicia, as predicted, wasn't going to comply without question. "You're trying to hypnotize me or somethin', aren't you?" She wasn't a good student, but even she was intelligent enough to see straight through Yachiyo's intentions.

"Yes I am," Yachiyo admitted outright. "In today's exercise, I'm going to help you learn to recognize and resist an attempt at hypnosis and any mind or behavioral control that could happen as a result."

"No way!" Felicia crossed her forearms in an 'x' form. "Nuh-uh! Ain't no one ever gonna hypnotize me!"

"You were already hypnotized once," Yachiyo pointed out. "I'm only trying to make it so that anybody who tries to do it to you again will fail." She passed her a cup full of a hot steaming liquid.

"I never got hypnotized!" Felicia barked a denial. "Who told you I got hypnotized?"

"Nanaka Tokiwa and her group apprised me of your incident in Mitakihara which wound up stranding you all in Canada." Nanaka classified it as more of a full-blown outburst, but Yachiyo aimed to avoid inflaming Felicia further with any accusatory language.

"They're lying!" Felicia exclaimed. "I was gonna smash a familiar, but that stupid teleporter got in my way! Nanaka's just tryin' to make me look bad so that no one else'll hire me!" She eyed the drink as she retorted with her own version of events and their motives. "What's this stuff?" She sniffed at it.

"It's a special mint-flavored tea," Yachiyo took a sip of her own drink to allay Felicia's suspicions. "You do realize in your version you're calling Kako a liar too, right?"

"It was dark, Kako didn't see the same stuff I did," Felicia insisted. In the theater of her mind she recalled a fast-moving, energetic familiar that was darting around all the corners and down the station steps. If she hadn't attacked it when she did, it might've swallowed up someone boarding the late night train. "Nnnngh," Slowly the sweet scent of the tea overcame her misgivings.

"I'm sure you're convinced you're telling your truth as much as they are in giving theirs," Yachiyo said. "But what can you recall of the events between you first splitting off from Akira and Kako to the moments leading up to your familiar chase?" She sipped.

"Well, I was gonna go show Kako what I won playin' 'Whack-A-Mole' at the carnival," Felicia recounted. There was a stuffed plush toy with an oversized head laying on the pillow next to her. She couldn't resist her sweet tooth's urgings anymore, so she slurped up a sample of the tea real quick, sloshed it around like mouthwash and swallowed once she was satisfied it wasn't a part of Yachiyo's hypnosis ruse. "That's when I sensed this familiar comin' around the-" She paused. "No wait, it was a girl." She took another swig of the tea. "She said my Snaa looked so cute and wanted me to show her where she could win her own." She stroked the doll atop its head trying to parse the explicit details. "Nope. I was definitely chasing around that familiar, 'cuz that's how I got back to Kako and Akira at the station." Then where did that memory of the girl come from? Was she mistaking it for a later memory? But how could that be? She remembered it happening on the streets of Mitakihara, indeed the location was the only specific thing she remembered. She couldn't even describe the girl's face to Yachiyo if asked.

"Repressed or contradictory memories are a common after effect of mental manipulation," Yachiyo informed her. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. It can happen to anyone, even the strongest of magical girls." She took another sip. "The key to warding it off lies in understanding how it works. And for you to learn that is going to require a bit of immersion therapy." She dangled the watch again. "So are you willing to trust me in the name of becoming a tougher magical girl?"

"Guuuuuuuuuh!" Felicia grunted. "Fiiiiine!" She downed the rest of her tea in one guzzle. "Good luck gettin' me to fall asleep, though." With furled brows and great reluctance she set her eyes upon the watch. "I don't even sleep all that much during bedtime!"

"So I've noticed," Yachiyo swayed the watch at a fixed tempo from side to side. Felicia had spent no more than a singular night at Yachiyo's villa thus far, and already she could tell the girl was a very light sleeper. "Just keep your eyes on the watch, please." Back in the waiting room during Yuma's interview she got intrigued enough by Yuma's comment to take out her phone and do some searches on the Internet. While insomnia was a prevalent symptom in a whole host of learning and behavioral disorders, the trait alone wasn't enough to draw any conclusions.

"Aren't you supposed to say, 'You are getting veeeeery sleeeeepy' or somethin' next?" Felicia's eyes slipped off her target.

"If this were a movie or an anime, yes," Yachiyo put her finger up. "Eyes on it. Now listen to the soothing sound of my voice."

"I really don't think this is gonna-" Felicia's mouth fell and her eyelids came to a close. Her sudden loss of consciousness also took away her ability to sit up straight, so next her head collapsed onto the pillow beside her soft, pink-cheeked doll. She was out cold.

"I knew you weren't gonna be able to pay close attention to anything that wasn't a backlit screen for more than a few moments at a time," Yachiyo removed the gold ring on Felicia's finger. "So I laced your tea with a magic powder the Coordinator said would ease you right to sleep. If this accomplishes nothing else I'll at least know I got my money's worth for it." Not more than two minutes later the doorbell rang. But Yachiyo did not need to peep through the window to know it was Tsuruno waiting outside.

"Yuma's at Momoko's, like you wanted." Tsuruno greeted Yachiyo with folded arms. A greeting only slightly warmer than a cold shoulder.

"Thank you," Yachiyo expressed her gratitude in her softest voice. It was also an initial olive branch, a subtle way of indicating that, for as heated as their verbal spat got yesterday, she held no grudge towards Tsuruno and could never do so. "Please, come on in."

"Huh?" Tsuruno came into the parlor and found Felicia fast asleep with her Soul Gem sitting transmuted into its egg form on the table. Next to it was an eighteen centimeter high, roughly ten centimeter wide candle with a very light violet color to its wax. "What're you up to?" There was also a piece of white chalk situated nearby.

"Together the three of us are going to dive into a sort of shared, lucid dream state," Yachiyo disclosed. "And once we're deep enough asleep, that's where I plan to tell the Truth to Felicia."

"T- That's-" Tsuruno stammered. "That's nuts! Why do you need to tell her what we are inside a dream?"

"Well have you been any paying attention to the local nightly news of late?" Yachiyo asked.

"A little," Tsuruno replied. "What's that got to do with anything?" She questioned back.

"You hear about that big, growing sinkhole that threatens to swallow Lake Kamihama?" Tsuruno nodded an affirmative response. "That's on her. And on me for letting her leash get a little too long." Yachiyo transmuted her own Soul Gem into its egg form. "I figure what she needs above anything else right now is a healthy outlet for which she can vent her bottled emotions and destructive tendencies, in case she doesn't deal with it very maturely." She set it down near the candle on the opposite side of Felicia's.

"And you know how to link people together in their dreams?" Tsuruno queried, her skepticism made obvious through her arched brow, flared nostril and curled upper lip.

"Yes," Yachiyo picked up the chalk. "Mifuyu and I used to do this a lot when we were younger magical girls."

"But Mifuyu would have been the real expert at it," Tsuruno pointed out. "Plus that was a pretty long time ago, too."

"True, I don't know if my memories are still fresh enough to be able to initiate an intimate two-way connection the way Mifuyu and I used to," Yachiyo admitted. "But she later developed a multilateral technique that involved others, drew material from everyone's minds and overall drained less magic." She started to draw a five-pointed star around the candle. "And for that reason I feel it's our best bet at working through this safely."

"What do you mean 'safely'?" Tsuruno piped. "You mean you've got a reason to think it might not be?"

"Possibly," Yachiyo hesitated. "But she's a stupid, loud, howling obnoxious nuisance at worst. And I think that if I crib primarily from Felicia's psyche with you as a back-up, then she'll be forced out of her element enough that the chances of her doing anything nefarious will hopefully be almost nil."

"Who's 'she'?" The nervous Tsuruno cocked her head to the side.

"You remember all the things I told you about that brain-altering manifestation Hanna Sarasa planted in my head that manipulated me by taking on Mifuyu's image?"

"You mean she's back? But you said she faded away once that girl and her magic died, right?" Tsuruno recalled.

"She's not back per se, it's more that she left behind a malevolent entity to haunt my nightmares, or it's possible the thing was always in there but she let it out of its cage," Yachiyo expounded.

"Ehhhh?" Tsuruno took a seat on the table. "What is it?"

"It's some kind of manifestation of my witch," Yachiyo revealed. "... I think."

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" Tsuruno gasped. "You're serious?"

"Quite serious." Yachiyo confirmed. She took another cup from the cupboard and headed over. "It seems to behave much the same way a witch would, trying to pick me off while I'm vulnerable."

"You act as if that's no big deal or something!" Tsuruno exclaimed at an elevated tone that almost awoke the sleeping Felicia. Yachiyo gestured that she needed to take it down a notch. "There's a witch in your head! That sounds like the biggest big-deal to me!"

"She only exists in my dreams, what can she really do to me in there?" Yachiyo argued, pouring Tsuruno some tea. "I admit, her first few jump scares had left me pretty shaken, but once I deduced what her real motives were, really she's a pathetic thing who's barely intelligent and self-aware enough to see that I'll never cow to the forces of despair or yield my sense of self control to her in any way, she's lashing out through the only avenue that she can." She passed the tea over. "She's little better than a subconscious version of Montezuma's Revenge," She paused, taking a sip of her own tea. "No, she's more like one of those trolls who tries to stoke outrage or bully people on the Internet. But this time I'll be the one who capitalizes on her tantrums. This way I'll be able to show Felicia that, for as much sound and fury as witches make, they're just personifications of our dark sides and with the right kind of self-discipline our conditions are entirely manageable."

"Well if you're so sure you've got this thing licked, what do you need me for?" Tsuruno stuck her pinkie into the tea and suckled the sample off her finger. There was something in it, more than the minty flavoring. Tsuruno did possess a specialized magical sense that was on par with what Yachiyo and Felicia possessed, but it was somewhat limited to the tips of her taste buds.

"Every time I've slain her in my dreams, she returns, leaner and screamier," Yachiyo noted. "Her attacks are so persistent and predictable now that it's starting to affect my bedtime routine." She struck a long fireplace match and used it to light the candle on the table. "And I think I know the reason. If she really is a proto-witch of some kind as I presume, then it would be logical to assume she's maintaining her existence by feeding off my subconscious worries, doubts and fears." She fluffed a pillow at her side and put her feet up on the couch. "You were right when you said that I was the one who was at fault for what became of Mel and Kanae. You may have meant it in the moment as an insult, but that's been a sore point in my head ever since that night. Honestly, I believed I was protecting you from the consequences of that night by withholding the Truth, dissolving the squad, handing Momoko the mentorship reins, assigning you a non-combat role on our committee and leaving you out of my search for Mifuyu. Because I thought you were still so naïve, weak and inexperienced that you needed protection. Now you might be a Tsuruno who's better equipped to handle all the harsher truths of this world with full awareness of what we are, you might insist that you can handle anything the life of a magical girl throws at you, but no matter what you may say or what you might achieve, I fear there's going to be an uncertainty that lingers within the depths of my heart that'll be enough to feed that thing indefinitely, unless it's exercised." She laid back and clasped her hands over her chest as if she were a princess about to take a months-long beauty nap. "And I feel the best way for you to help ease my mind and show me you have come into your own as a top-tier magical girl, is to personally come along and assist me in ridding myself of that wicked, rotten nuisance, once and for all. So are you ready to prove yourself to my troubled subconscious?"

"Okay," Tsuruno closed her eyes and gulped down her special tea. "If that's what it takes. I'll do it."

"Alright then." Yachiyo inhaled and exhaled a deep, relaxing breath. "Meet you on the next level of reality."

"Those who inhabit this land, bow your heads low, all hail the Almighty Clockwork Queen!" A puppet with Saya's exaggerated voice announced.

"Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there was an all-seeing, all-ruling monarch who made everyone in her domain speak the same words, wear the same clothes, eat the same food, sleep in the same-sized bed, and pay the same tributes to her glory." Hitomi narrated on the microphone to their audience of Kindergarteners, script in hand. "It was a land of true harmony, equality, and peace, like a clock forever kept in pristine shape." Mifuyu plucked a simple melody on her koto, providing their show with a veneer of music. "Everybody did as they were told and there was no sadness or suffering. Everyone lived to serve the Queen, while the Queen did her best to ensure their society's stability. To the Queen this arrangement was perfection. For everyone else, they were content in knowing their purpose."

"Clockwork Queen, the order you have imposed upon these people is wrong, and I shall oppose your tyranny!" Another puppet wearing a harlequin jester's costume appeared onstage.

"Who dares defy my rule?" A third puppet wearing a crown and a white cloth dress spackled in silver glitter appeared and asked. "Ah. 'Tis you. The Fool. The Court Jester whom I exiled for not providing me with sufficient cheer." Saya uttered in a regal, condescending tone. "Begone! Or I will smite thee with my company of Lances!"

"But the Jester was not alone in opposing her," Hitomi rushed over, slid a pair of figures over her hands and popped them above the stage. "They had the help of the storytelling Bard and her friend the trouper, whom the Queen judged and imprisoned as beings unfit for service in the world her ambitions envisioned." She waved at the audience with the hand featuring the Bard clad in yellow clothes while poking at the Queen puppet with the trouper in red.

"What?" The Queen exclaimed. "You twosome? The last I saw you were chained in my lowest-dwelling dungeon! Who let you taste this clean air once again?"

"'Tis I!" Saya exchanged the jester puppet for another puppet donning a pair of gray, plastic cups cut up pieced together over its main body.

"Gasp! My most trusted guard and servant!" The tiny hands on the Queen were pushed upward to meet her face. "What possible sort of motivation could have instigated your betrayal?" A sudden eager hand in the audience went up and interrupted the play.

"Yes? What is it?" Mifuyu stopped playing and politely asked the child.

"What does 'betrayal' mean?" A boy with a blue shirt and bowl cut asked.

"It's when one person stops being friends with another, because they did something to make that person hurt." Saya peeked her head over the little stage and explained.

"What does 'motivation' mean?" A girl who did not wait for Mifuyu to call upon her asked. "And what does 'instigated' mean, too?"

"Psssst!" Hitomi nudged her friend and whispered. "I warned you our word choice might be a little too complicated for kids of this age group!"

"But it would be in character for the Queen to use language that is too different and sophisticated for the commoners to understand," Saya argued with her explanation. "It has the effect of making the audience sympathize with the rebels."

"The word 'motivation' means 'reason'," Mifuyu took over the lexicon lesson. "And 'instigated' means 'started'. The Queen wants to know why her favorite soldier would turn against her."

"If there was no sadness or suffering, then why would those guys wanna change it?" A boy in a first grader's uniform raised his hand and asked.

"Because people like to set their value as living things on their own terms," Hitomi spoke up. "They don't like it when some person who controls their lives sets it for them."

"And when that authority figure declares they have no value," Saya added. "As she did for the jester, the bard and the trouper, then they are faced with an unfortunate choice."

"They can either accept what that leader tells them, and go away forever," Mifuyu chimed in. "Or fight back and prove to their worth to the world." She strummed a discordant set of notes on her koto using the back tips of her fingernails. "And when two sides cannot be bargained, reasoned or negotiated with, then conflict becomes a certainty."

"But what about the knight?" Another girl asked. "What made them switch sides?"

"I am sure that part they will explain in the next scene," The teacher watching over their proceedings said. "So please take a seat and let them." But the sudden ringing of the class bell prevented their story from continuing. "Whoops. Sorry girls." The class leapt from their perches on the carpet and shuffled towards the exit. "Guess this will have to end on a cliffhanger for today."

"That's okay," Hitomi stood up. "Nemu's still in the process of writing the ending. She says she hasn't decided whether to make the identity of the knight a sudden plot twist or a gradual reveal."

"And the Arts and Crafts Club still has to construct the finalized designs of the puppets," Saya elaborated. "They have not even decided whether they should stick with these simple hand puppets or try to build full-sized marionettes."

"This performance was mostly sort of a dry run so we could gauge how interested the kids would be in the story," Mifuyu added. "Going by how eager they were to ask questions, I might say we have a hit on our hands." The sound of a vibrating smartphone disrupted their discussion.

"Sounds like that belongs to you, Miss Otonashi," The teacher said as he packed up his own belongings. "Such convenient conversation-disruptors, those things." He remarked as he booked for the door. "And how ironic that such a machine invented to help us stick to schedule does so much to distract us from them." He waved a three fingered salute across his forehead on the way out. "Toodles for the session, Heroes Club."

"See you later," Hitomi and Mifuyu waved back on each side of Saya as she checked on her phone.

"What's the message?" Hitomi saw her friend had received a text of some kind.

"A special 'SOS' message from 'Sana's Kingdom,' Saya read. "The Ghost Army has been spotted amassing its forces at the foot of Castle Ridge." She scrolled. "Our valiant assistance is requested at once."

"Ugh, spam," Hitomi dismissed the plea. "You know, as much as I really do enjoy that game, I'm so glad I declined to give that arcade my cell number." She swiftly scooped up her script, her books and her puppets. "I can't imagine the looks my parents would give me if they found out so much of my alleged club time was being wasted on some silly role-playing adventure."

"Are you not up for answering her call today?" Saya asked her.

"Gee, I'd love to," Hitomi smiled. "But I've fallen to being only three days ahead now in my studies."

"You may be the only student I have ever met who is obsessed with staying well ahead of her peers," Mifuyu observed. "What are you saving up all that spare time for, if not to spend it with your friends?"

"I don't just do it to free up some time to spend with you guys," Hitomi responded. "I also do it so that I can help tutor the lagging students, too." Hitomi waved her goodbye. "Helping others… Isn't that the Heroes Club mantra?"

"See you later," They said in one voice as she made her departure. The very moment she had gone away from their sights, the pair's friendly, amiable demeanors dropped for looks more serious and urgent.

"What are they doing now?" Mifuyu glared at Saya's phone.

"Crossing the moat at present," Saya announced. "Sana electrified the water but they've already adapted to that permutation of the environmental encryption code. Now Nemu's altering the internal layout of the castle for when they breech its walls."

"Then we need to get down there and assist them, pronto!" Mifuyu twirled around and with a bright flicker changed her outfit completely. Instead of a school uniform, now she was wearing a long dark gray overcoat-like dress with white wool lining, with a similarly colored corset underneath and a white miniskirt covering her bottom, and detached gray sleeves on her arms. Once her costume change had completed, she let out a singular long, troubled sigh.

"What are you experiencing?" Despite their hastiness Saya took a moment to question her comrade.

"I believe from comparable experiences this is what the emotion of anxiety feels like." Mifuyu revealed. "Though I know our deception is necessary I do not prefer keeping someone whose confidence and trust I have come to appreciate in the dark about the full extent of our collective predicament."

"I know what you mean," The young lady took her senior's hand. "I did not seek to put Sana in this kind of danger, I only sought to better understand the volatility of the emotional spectra," Saya disclosed. "I do not think I could still carry out my designed function if she were to suffer actual harm because of my innate need for companionship." She turned to her companion, and asked, "Does that description correlate better to 'guilt' or 'remorse'?"

"Unfortunately, as much as I want to ruminate on the topic, we lack sufficient time to share our thoughts on the matter," Mifuyu guided Saya to the window and snapped her finger. "It is imperative we go and take this stand." At whiz-bang speed they had sent themselves straight to the kiosk at the arcade.

"First we secure Sana's safety," Saya put on a specialized headset.

"Yes. Help Sana," Mifuyu did the same. "Then Nemu. And hopefully, save the world."

Chapter Text

"Aaaaaiiiiiyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeee!"

Gamma's auditory sensors switched on approximately three point zero one seven five seconds before its other external feedback systems initiated their respective boot-up sequences.

-| SAFE MODE STARTUP |-

-| ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL LIFEFORM UNIT: ONE ZERO TWO - 'Γ' |-

-| DETECTING NEW HARDWARE COMPONENTS |-

-| INITIALIZING AND INSTALLING NEW HARDWARE |-

"Auuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh!"

Its visual systems had also still not yet been reactivated. All Gamma could do in the interregnum was to make use of the limited data as well as the details leading up to the moment of its prior shutdown and perhaps determine what that sound was and its source.

-| UPDATE IN PROGRESS |-

"Awwwwwwwwnnnnnpppphhhh!"

It knew it had stepped back inside the chamber from where it had first emerged so that the damage inflicted by those strange pseudo-bioforms could be repaired. It also knew that the Cyber Regina was going to use Gamma's down time as an opportunity to integrate even more new components into its core chassis.

-| UPDATE COMPLETE |-

-| DOWNLOADING CONTROL SOFTWARE |-

-| FINALIZING UPGRADE |-

-| REBOOTING SYSTEM FOR NORMAL OPERATIONAL MODE |-

-| 3 |-

-| 2 |-

"Unnnnnnnnngh!"

It was also aware that Unit One Zero Three had just returned after procuring the biological entity that was to serve as the internal base for Unit One Zero Four.

-| 1 |-

Everything went dark. A subsequent electrical jolt traveled from the middle of its central processor down through the tips of every appendage. It was not Gamma's first experience with the sensation, and Gamma found those little spurts to be invigorating.

" - Rsion Completed!" Gamma's auditory system caught the tail end of an external verbal announcement. The closest match Gamma had was to that of the Cyber Regina. Although as a voice that normally bypassed its aural network a direct comparison could not be made, and its analysis software had not yet been brought back online to do the correlation anyhow.

-| UNIT ONLINE |-

-| ENGAGING STARTUP MODE - BOTSLAVE SOFTWARE VER. 1. 0. 1. 1. |-

-| SYSTEM SELF IDENTIFICATION - SLAVE DESIGNATION - |-

-| ENHANCED BIOMECHANICAL LIFEFORM UNIT ONE ZERO TWO - |-

-| UNIT CODENAME - |-

-| Γ |-

-| ALL SYSTEMS FULL POWER |-

Once Gamma had fully undergone its startup procedures and pieced together the context clues, its logical subsystem concluded that those sounds belonged to the biological entity slated to become Unit One Zero Four, and that it was in a separate chamber undergoing the same process Gamma itself had gone through when it was being mechanically augmented. Although the reason it would let out such curious sounds eluded Gamma, as it made no such noises during its stints in the chamber.

"Welcome back, Gamma!" The voice that Gamma had known as The Cyber Regina said. "Step on out and get a good look at your new set of physical upgrades." But Gamma had already had the schematics of these new systems installed in its operating software. Why its creator would insist on doing a redundant visual inspection it did not know. Nonetheless, Gamma complied, stepping to the exact point where it first gazed upon its own reflection, and turned to look at itself.

Except this time, it could not see its mirrored image upon the surface of the wall. Baffled by this sudden inconsistency, Gamma stuck its upper right manipulative appendage out into its field of view. At a sensitivity increase of a factor of three, Gamma's ocular systems could make out a faint distortion that was consistent with the dimensions of its extremity. At an increase of a factor of six, Gamma could again see its reflected visage. To a factor of ten, and its form was satisfactorily visible.

"Surprise!" Its Master spoke. "The latest triumph of Cyber Engineering, as our collective has discovered an innate chemical secretion from those neutralized proto-biological entities' exoskeletal structures which allows them to possess a form of cryptic coloration. I would surmise that it grants them the ability to evade an unenhanced humans' limited perceptual range." Another visual adjustment and Gamma could at last see that whatever substance had been applied to its shell had made its entire form turn translucent. "And when combined with an inactive, atom-thin layer of our specialized nanomachines, you have become virtually invisible," Its Master elaborated.

Gamma ran a second check of its specs, nowhere was there any mention of outfitting it with stealth capabilities. "The reason for that is because this addition is not an integrated part of your material framework," The Cyber Regina, always aware of what Gamma was thinking, replied. "The nature of the chemical bond necessitates the nanomachines to be electrically inert in order to hold together. While I am confident we will solve that shortcoming with time, for now, the only solution was to apply the substance over your body as if it were a simple coat of paint."

Gamma also sensed something else that had been altered and customized in the three hours, thirty-eight minutes, eleven seconds it spent deactivated. It was a heat source, small but detectable. "Ah, yes," Gamma's voluminous, invisible chest at once split in two parts at the center, revealing the visible contents embedded within. "That would be your new power core." A circular mechanism in the cavity opened like a camera shutter and ejected a twelve point seven centimeter long rod that glowed a brilliant white, like a little, hot flame. "A technological marvel far eclipsing that invisibility gloss, it is an exotic form of matter composed entirely of the human ego. When information was made known that the human race could be tapped as such a rich energy reserve, I made it an operational imperative that we unlock the secret to physicalizing and harvesting it."

Gamma switched from visible to infrared to ultraviolet scanners. All views showed its steady, unwavering glow. "From a singular, third party-crafted sample we were able to reverse engineer our own version of the technology consisting of the salvaged remnants of a destroyed one." A materials scan of the top and bottom casing could not conclude what metal it was made of, but Gamma's emission spectrometry breakdown suggested it might exist on the periodic table in the same metallic grouping as gold, silver and copper. "But there was only enough material to develop one, and it took a lot of time and energy to fast-track its creation." It also revealed that it was atomically heavy, well beyond Roentgenium, but the Unit's internal Dosimeter did not detect any signs of radioactivity, a paradoxical conclusion, as the data records showed that all elements heavier than Lead were known to be unstable. "Although I wanted to be the one in possession of this new tech, I was concerned that I may have spread my consciousness too thin and that it may cause compatibility issues as a result. Subsequent risk assessment calculations bore this out, and another recipient would need to suffice." A mechanism automatically retracted the object and sealed it back within the reinforced confines of the aperture. "Since you were the only other subject to be converted while biologically active I concluded you were the one most compatible." Then Gamma's chest closed a second after. "That the synchronization was a success proved I was right yet again. Congratulations."

Gamma also took note of two other major modifications. It was seven point six two centimeters taller than before, there had been an alteration made to the bottoms of its lower appendages, with the prominent inward-curved arch between the ball and the heel reconfigured to feature the retractable nozzle of a booster rocket. "Now you can take to the air too, just like your counterpart Beta," Its Master unveiled. An additional component had been grafted onto the back of its upper main chassis. A pair of meter long, straight-edged wings sprang out at its Master's unspoken behest. "A miniaturized adaptation of the engine slated to be used on the secret successor to the B-21 Raider aircraft." The electrical surge of several actuators and servos clicking on registered in Gamma's active memory banks. "Alas, I spent so much precious time and energy infiltrating their private JWIC System only to find out the design was not a significant step above the designs of their rival nations," The Cyber Regina commented. "I project the balance of military power will shift again at some point in the middle of this century, unless of course we succeed in our overarching objective in ending the need for nation-state conflict once and for all."

A brand new file presented itself on Gamma's visual display. Without thought or question Gamma downloaded and executed it. It was a new set of instructions, another assignment, one which prompted Gamma to turn and head out the door.

"Your new stealth and flight capabilities should prove most useful in carrying out your next task," Its Master said. "The biological individual destined to become Unit One Zero Five Zeta has been located. An electronic train pass was just scanned matching the target's name." A photograph identifying the individual was posted to the corner of Gamma's view. It was labeled with the family name 'Tamaki', like the one retrieved and converted into Unit One Zero Three. "The train goes on this citywide loop during this stretch of hours. Extrapolating from that, I have projected what destinations are to be their likeliest."

Gamma passed Unit One Zero Three in the hall just as it was thinking back to that hospital encounter. It was joined by a brand new model, identified by Gamma's software as Unit One Zero Four, Codename 'Epsilon'. "The city in which they are located is approximately two hundred thirty-six kilometers away, with a two hour, eighteen minute window of opportunity for capture." One Zero Four had just picked up an assortment of red-stained garments off the floor. One Zero Three was holding a lit flame projecting from its appendage up to the fabric, the flickering fire reminding it of that new energy source secured within. "You have been my most standout, most astute, most efficient, unit thus far." Written on one of the pieces was the name 'Tamaki', Gamma's keen visual systems scanned and cataloged it in passing "It is for that reason I trust this procurement to you." It also determined that the substance staining both 'Delta' and the coverings was the animalian body fluid known as 'blood'.

Gamma passed through the exotic energy field covering the entry to their base, then proceeded down the tunnel to the parking garage. "Seeing as I was forced to give you some minor guidance during your last undertaking, I believe it is only appropriate that I allow you to undertake this with one hundred percent autonomy." The Cyber Regina told it as it marched its way up the steps of the building to the top. "I will not be supervising your performance here, only evaluating the data upon your return. Besides," It left Gamma hanging on that pause, a curious move. "I have more pertinent matters to attend to at this time." It lasted a full three point one seven seconds. "That is the other reason this task is yours alone. My work load is unending."

-| ENGAGING FLIGHT PROTOCOLS |-

-| INITIATING TAKEOFF PROCEDURE |-

"Godspeed, Gamma." Its Master uttered the moment its wings extended and its turbo jets ignited. Gamma did not know what context those words were supposed to be useful for, nor was it equipped to consider it. All it knew it needed to do was carry out its next function.

Gamma blasted off, maneuvering straight over a series of large satellite dishes sitting atop the roof of an adjacent building. It turned upwards and transitioned into a pure vertical ascent upon passing them. It registered a low-frequency hum in its audio sensors, tracing its source back to those rooftop fixtures.

-| ALTITUDE: 469.741 METERS |-

-| CLIMBING TO 2500.000 METERS |-

Gamma assumed the preprogrammed flying posture upon reaching its optimal altitude. This allowed it to look down upon the world below, its visual systems taking in the view, zooming in on whatever details piqued its interest. Structures, vehicles, geographic features, and wildlife. It was all so much input to take in.

There was a flock of birds flying in formation at approximately one third of Gamma's altitude. Taxonomic records identified them as the Eastern Spot-Billed Duck. Two hundred meters below that on the roof of a skyscraper. It identified a human face looking up in its general direction. But it did not belong to the target, so Gamma disregarded it and accelerated. Even lower along a highway Gamma spotted a lone figure mounted atop a motorized two-wheeled transport vehicle. They were also not its target, yet Gamma fixated on the vehicle for a full two extra seconds. For what reason would a biological creature, one so frail and prone to experiencing a fatal injury from a collision or other loss of control, choose to mount and operate a technology that lacked any sufficiently protective safety mechanisms? There was no logic to it, in Gamma's conclusion.

-| FLIGHT SYSTEMS CHECK: ALL PERFORMANCES TEST NOMINAL |-

-| ALTITUDE: 2500.000 METERS |-

-| DIRECTION: NNW |-

-| VELOCITY: 941.500 KILOMETERS PER HOUR |-

-| ESTIMATED TIME TO ENGAGEMENT WITH TARGET: 38 MINUTES |-

The input stream from the constant compression, heating and ejection of the air going through its twin minijets, and the constant tracking of the level of airflow above and below its wings, plus the noise created by the engines and the high winds, coupled with the visual data of the world passing so fast below, was a lot for Gamma to take in all at once. More laborious than anything it had experienced previously in its nascent existence, maintaining this course and speed was using up over ninety-four point two eight percent of its active memory span. It should have dedicated the remaining five point seven two percent to the task at hand as well, but its autonomic administrative subroutine declined to execute the request. There was an additional piece of electrochemical stimuli, traced to a redundant subprocessor fused into the very base of its internal encephalon, that was engaged in its own non-related activity, and in doing so was taking up the rest of its calculatory operations.

It was a distinctive form of electrical feedback, on a loop, and it was increasing in intensity with every cycle. If it were not either eliminated or accommodated, the anomalous load threatened to cause an overflow error in Gamma's central processing core. The sole logical choice was to manually terminate the program, but for some reason it could not grasp, Gamma could not commit to doing so.

The influx of impulses were most comparable to its experiences in combat, wherein it was struggling to strike a delicate balance between the programming pushing it to achieve its goals and its intrinsic sense of self-preservation, there was a stark difference in the way the electrochemical signals were being interpreted. For one thing, Gamma fell into a routine of ignoring the less significant details of its combat exercises for the sake of carrying out its duties. But in this instance, it was those same insignificant details Gamma to which Gamma was paying special attention.

The atmosphere was the same seventy percent nitrogen, twenty-nine percent oxygen combination that existed inside the facility. But the sampling that Gamma took featured trace levels of impurities, such as particulate solids, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and three-atomed oxygen. What caused the presence of these minor elements? Gamma could not spare the extra computational power to theorize.

Now that Gamma had collected enough initial data, its dynamic code-writing subroutine was able to craft an ad-hoc autopilot program, one which would decrease the active memory workload down to eighty-two point seven four percent. As soon as it was ready, Gamma installed and executed it. Now it could allocate an extra eleven point five four percent to that intensifying sensation. Was that going to be enough to mitigate the chances of a catastrophic software error? The answer would lie in a simple risk calculation, but Gamma made the counter-logical choice not to run one.

Turning its main appendage a full three hundred and sixty degrees, Gamma peered upward into the darker depths of the night. Without the light pollution of the vast human settlement below, Gamma was able to discern many numerous singular sources of light. Due to the distortion of the planetary atmosphere, they flickered in a way that Gamma found fascinating. Switching to its infrared view, it revealed even more light sources, at a concentration that was most consistent along the center of a line spanning across the horizon. A switch to the ultraviolet view confirmed there was a general pattern to it. Gamma's next urge was to combine the snapshots into a singular image, but instead it displayed an error screen telling it that such a thing was not possible, as the software to do so had not been downloaded yet. Gamma would have to make it a point to do so before its next scheduled inactive stint in its chamber.

T-Minus twenty-nine minutes, forty-two seconds until arrival at the target's anticipated whereabouts. The memory usage problem had been alleviated for now, Gamma sought out a way to make this experience in transit last just a bit longer. Nominally its reason to do it was so that an additional factor within its learning algorithm craved more data so it could write a more efficient autopilot program. But it had a reason beyond the practical, it somehow wanted this flying and sightseeing sequence to continue, even for only a precious few seconds. Why such a compulsion existed it could not fathom, it nonetheless concluded that sticking its upper right appendage outward in front of it while flexing the opposite appendage beneath would combine to increase its drag and slow it down enough to extend the travel time by at least seventy-nine seconds.

"Bwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooohhhhhp!" It detected its own voice module sounding off. It did not voluntarily make such a tone. Was it a glitch? Its debugging program logged no errors.

"Whhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrppppp!" It squawked again. It could not spare the memory necessary to run a full diagnostic check.

"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!" A third noise meant the issue could not be ignored. Gamma figured the best solution was to isolate and quarantine the last twenty-four seconds worth of memory, along with the entire record of its strange experiences related to that electrochemically-induced feedback loop.

And the reason was not because it assessed these abnormalities to be any imminent danger.

But rather, it did not wish for the Cyber Regina to designate it all as irrelevant and delete it.

"A Go-Kart rental is two thousand Yen per person," The race track attendant said to the group gathered. "Race track fee is dependent on how many laps you'd like to race. A basic ten lap race is five hundred Yen, a twenty-five lap race is another thousand, and if you wish to do the full fifty lap Grand Prix," A CGI diagram of the track popped up on a large screen behind him. "That'll be an additional eighteen hundred Yen."

"Whaddaya think?" Tokoi smirked at Kyoko. "Go for the Grand Prix?"

"Tch! Definitely!" Kyoko returned her most enthusiastic snaggle-toothed grin. "What do you guys say?" She turned toward Madoka and Kyosuke in line behind them.

"I'm up for it," Kyosuke dug into his pocket for his wallet. "Are you up for a long-running race, Madoka?"

"Oh, of course I am," Madoka giggled. The idea of steering a fast-moving, small vehicle around a course so full of thrilling twists, hard turns and competing carts, and doing it fifty times was quite the daunting notion to her, but there were more dangerous kinds of peer pressure to give into.

"And of course if you're twelve or under," The attendant addressed Madoka directly. "The track fee is waived."

"Thanks for the offer," Madoka's giggle segued into a blushing, embarrassed titter. "But I'm fifteen." Kyosuke took her hand and pecked her with a kiss on the cheek.

"Very sorry! My bad!" The attendant apologized. "I had the two of you pegged as a brother and sister." That took Kyosuke by surprise enough to get him even redder than Madoka.

"Pssssst!" Kyoko whispered. "Should've told him you were twelve and got the discount, Shrimpy!"

"Oh, no," Madoka declined the idea outright. "I wouldn't lie about that."

"I know," Kyoko winked. "Just joshin' ya'!" And saluted.

"Daddy, Daddy!" A younger girl standing in line behind them squeaked. "Does that mean we can do fifty on the go-karts, too?" She had the same hair color as Madoka, she even had similar twin tails jutting out the back of her hair. But she was not a straight-up copy of Madoka's style, as she featured an additional long strand of hair that popped out from the top, dangled around her ear and curved all the way back towards her mouth.

"We can if you think you're up for such a long drive," Her Father, a man with brown locks, long and slicked back in such a way that made it obvious he hadn't seen the inside of a barber shop in a while, said. "The track is about a half-kilometer, add all those laps up and it'll be like driving to Kazamino and back. Said hair was tied back in a long tail that went down his blue-collar work shirt, almost touching his belt. His pants were brown khakis and his footwear was a clean pair of black and gray tennis shoes that were either bought recently, or he didn't have the chance to wear them around all that often.

"Mmmmmmaybe just twenty-five, then?" The young lady demurred.

"Well, Kaz," A taller boy in a high-schoolers uniform wearing a blue baseball cap turned slightly off center spoke to his companion. "You got time for fifty?"

"Yeah," His companion, around six centimeters shorter with lighter hair and glasses, wearing a gray sweatshirt over his uniform replied. "Dad canceled again," He hid his disappointment by checking his phone and giving off a general air of nonchalance.

"I call dibs on the red one!" Kyoko sprinted right at her selection in the pit.

"Then I'll take the blue," Tokoi's choice was the one positioned next to the red cart. Their designs were all identical, the frame colors and attached flags were their distinguishing characteristics.

"That pink one looks cute," Kyosuke pointed it out to Madoka. But Madoka, intuiting which one that young girl was going to select, set her eyes on another.

"I think that purple one looks pretty pretty, too." Madoka wasn't lying about that opinion, but it was also the last cart in position, meaning she and her date would have to start the race at separate positions.

"Alright," But Kyosuke wasn't upset. He had been dating her long enough to know precisely what thought was going through her mind. "I'll be driving the gold one over there."

"I wanna drive in the pink car," As they anticipated, the little girl shuffled straight over to it.

"Make sure you strap her in nice and tight," Her father advised the pit attendant before climbing into the adjacent silver cart.

"My research of this track online suggests the black cart takes corners the smoothest," The high schooler in the glasses put his phone to sleep and tucked it in his coat pocket. "And the white cart gets up to the overall highest speed." He advised his friend of their optimal choices. His friend chose the speedier white car, he in turn took the black.

"Engines, start!" The first attendant called, with the second guy having the duty to actually prime the equipment and pull the cords on the motors. "A crash course on driving, please pardon the pun," He took a microphone wired to a PA speaker system so that he could be heard over the revving vehicles. "Left pedal accelerates, the right one works the brakes. Steer left to turn left, right to go right, there is no reverse. And your progress is timed from the moment you cross the starting position, so I had better not see any dirty tricks or aggressive, bumper-thumpin' drivers. Remember life is short and banana peels don't work the same as they do in video games." He picked up a photo camera sitting on the table next to him. "I take pictures as my other gig, so this next part is a shameless personal plug. I'll be taking photos of you racers and anyone who wants prints can order from my personal website posted…" He stuck his hand out towards a billboard placed above one of the padded walls on the far side. "Right over there!" He flung the camera strap around his neck, took his big checkered flag and trotted over to the starting point. "Everybody on their marks. Get set… Aaaaaaaaaaaand…"

"... And they're off." Homura dryly narrated events from behind a pair of magic-enhanced binoculars. "A high schooler in a white-flagged vehicle has the early lead, Kyoko's date is in second, Kyoko in third, another older boy in fourth, Kamijo in fifth," She lowered the binoculars and squinted. "And Madoka's more or less parallel with an older man and what I presume to be his daughter at the back."

"Maaaaaaaaaan!" Sayaka, who was perched atop the grassy hill beside her, remarked. "This view is amazing! Not only can you see all four of Jupiter's hugest moons, but you can make out all the sideways bands of storms and even the Great Red Spot, too!" Sayaka was also peering through a pair of magically-modified binoculars, and she was more interested in seeing just how far into the heavens her special eyes could see. "How'd you learn to make these, anyway?"

"Kyoko taught me the technique," Homura answered. "In exchange, I taught her how to add magic to conventional objects and a means to apply force so she can develop a basic range attack." She saw Kyoko pull into the temporary lead. "That is, if she wants one."

"Awwwwwwwwww, wooooooooooow!" Sayaka cooed with an infectious level of awe and wonder. "You can even make out Jupiter's rings, they're that good, I swear!"

"Jupiter has rings?" Homura queried, her eyes drifting ever-so-slightly away from her pair.

"Yeah. Actually, all the outer planets have rings," Sayaka elucidated. "For reals. It's just that Saturn's are the only ones bright and huge enough to be seen through a telescope, so we didn't know the other ones had 'em 'til we sent probes."

"Is that so?" Homura's head and eye drifted up towards the sky. "You're missing the race, you know?" She reminded her friend of their earthly reason for being there.

"Ehh, 'til the last lap or so it's basically the same as watching highway traffic," Sayaka quipped. But she could sense an additional, unspoken reason why Homura would be so inclined to play a chaperone from the shadows. "You don't trust Kyosuke to be up to the job of looking out for her?" She pried her eyes away from the stars just enough to share with Homura her concern.

"It's not that I distrust Kyosuke, his moral character or his intentions," Homura confided. "It's that I don't trust Karma to keep out of their way."

"Alright," Sayaka's binoculars dropped straight to her chest. "What'd that Oriko chick tell you?" Regardless of how captivating the night sky was, the cosmos placed a distant second to the earthly troubles of her friend. And her patented intuitive sense knew who and what laid at the root of her problem.

"A lot of vague and cryptic things," Homura was still trying to digest and make some sense out of her and Oriko's interaction in the TARDIS months prior. "If I were to distill all her rambling words down into a singular, cogent point, I think she was strongly hinting that Madoka and mine's fates are still so intertwined that even Walpurgisnacht's defeat didn't free us. And if she's going to continue being happy, I'll have to abandon my own personal quest for contentment and remain ever-vigilant."

"That's pure baloney," Sayaka argued. "She had an agenda. You said it yourself. She was trying to convince you to join her crazy quest for God or whatever."

"Her being a soul in deep distress doesn't negate the perspective on us she gained through her clairvoyance," Homura countered. She checked on the progress of the race through her binoculars. "Kyoko just took the lead. Madoka's hovering around the middle of the pack." Not trailing far behind, she eyed Kyosuke zipping down a straightaway.

"If you're right, then perhaps her motive wasn't something as nuts as her methods," Sayaka suggested. "Maybe in some bizarre way she was trying to tell you that your…" She paused. She so wanted to express a more sensitive word that embodied Homura's dilemma, but the right language escaped her grasp. "Clinginess… To Madoka is what's still fueling your karmic codependence." Instead she put her hand on Homura's shoulder, a physical way to show she meant those words with nothing but tenderness. "That's not to say you should do what she did and abandon her, but I don't think it's healthy, karmically or otherwise to sacrifice the things you want out of life on the off chance it might lead to something bad happening to her." She joined in on Homura's spectatorship of the race. "At least, I think that's the gist of how they say karma works."

"Kamijo's struggling to make those tighter turns," Homura observed. "The left hand ones in particular."

"He's trying to play tough-guy and show he's doing better than he really is," Sayaka commented. "Would you believe one of the reasons I used to be so into him was because I thought he was better than such phony-baloney macho-ness?"

"Yes I do," Homura responded to her rhetorical question. "But I'm more concerned that if I do conscientiously try and unwind myself from Madoka's existence, someone in as equally a precarious position as I is just going to latch onto her as their emotional rock."

"What? You mean Kyosuke?" Sayaka shot her a shocked, incredulous glare. "No offense, but how would you two be in any sort of way similar? He's got money, a loving family, grades that'll get him into any high school he wants, and the best girlfriend any dude could ask for!" Her disbelief dissipated once she noticed Homura's unwavering thousand-yard gaze. "Oh, the things you must've seen. If you tell me, I'll listen. Though I can't promise I won't wind up regretting it after."

"They say it's a major malfunction in one of the temporal lobes, some critical imbalance in one's brain chemistry," Homura stated. "And that it can happen to anyone, regardless of age, gender, background, race, wealth, status or social situation. As a magical girl, Kyubey had me primed to believe it was always due to the presence of witches, but I remember one of the earliest times I found myself questioning his credibility as a source was an incident where you caught Kamijo venturing up to the hospital roof and scaling the fencing," She recalled the story in a narrative tone so clinical and dispassionate as to make it clear it wasn't misremembering or exaggerating.

"Yeah, but that was a different Kyosuke," Sayaka uttered, trying more to convince herself of her own argument. "This one's way more on the mend."

"Doesn't matter. Once the thought of it lodges its way into one's head, it acts in some manners akin to a brain virus," Homura confided. "Albeit one whose progress can be arrested, treated and sent into a remission of sorts, so long as one accepts help in suppressing it before the symptoms overwhelm your self-preservation senses." She dropped her spying tool for a moment and gave a wide-eyed look to those stars twinkling above. "But the urge never truly goes away. It can come back at any given moment out of restlessness or pure exhaustion, or mindless monotony, or sheer ennui, but the worst relapses occur once you've started to finally get used to the people and circumstances surrounding you, and build a foundation to live upon them, when something way beyond your control comes along and tears the bricks right out from underneath you."

"Geez," Sayaka could only offer her own puppy-eyed look to the heavens in empathy. "I'm sorry." But an apology, no matter how well-intentioned, wasn't really what Homura was looking for. And Sayaka knew it. Yet nothing else sprang to mind. Maybe there was nothing she could possibly say that would suit the moment. "Hey, is that Saturn?" An entirely different whim of hers superseded the quiet of the moment.

"Huh?" Homura blinked in puzzlement.

"That star I just realized we'd both been looking at," Sayaka grabbed and tugged at Homura's binoculars.

"What're you doing?" Homura was fighting every urge to slap her across the face and yank it back. "Ack!" But she'd have to free herself from the choking pull of the strap around her neck.

"Sorry," Sayaka leaned closer and let up enough to allow Homura some room to breathe. "But yours has got a higher magnification on them." She drew in and let out a deep, amazed gasp. "It totally is! I always have a harder time telling it apart from the other stars because it's way dimmer than the other four planets and some of the bigger, brighter stars outshine it." She jostled her own pair around her body into Homura's hands. "Here. Have a look at it!"

"Fine," Homura relented with a begrudging sigh.

"Do you also see weird things jutting out the sides of it?" Sayaka asked. "Like ears?"

"The rings, I presume?" Homura spoke nonplussed about what she was seeing. "I see them."

"Aren't they so cool to look at?" That infectious awe and wonderment from minutes before had returned in her voice.

"I guess," But the moody Homura was resistant to its charms. "If you're into that sort of thing."

"Yup, that's me," Sayaka grinned. "Ever since Kindergarten, when our class got a picture book that had close-ups of all the planets," She remembered with a vivid fondness. "I brought it home to my Dad and showed him these pictures of Mars that had this little toy car of some kind in them and I asked how it got there. He told me they sent a rocket there a little before I was born and landed it like, right after." She adjusted the focus on her lenses as she talked. "I think that glowing pin prick dot right next to it might be its big moon Titan. So cool!"

"Mind if I ask you something?" Sayaka's enthusiasm did succeed in tempering Homura's woes for the moment. "About your grades in school," She proceeded upon having nonverbal consent granted in the form of a nod. "They're not great. That's putting it forgivingly. But in the timelines where I remember our scores, during those rare occasions where I cared enough to track our collective academic rankings, I seem to recall your performance in both the science and biology courses were, if not better than Hitomi Shizuki's, at least generally competitive with her scores. Why are you a much better student in those classes than in what I consider to be the less difficult ones?"

"It was because of Hitomi," Sayaka answered succinctly.

"Was she tutoring you?" Homura probed. It might've been rude to ask. She didn't know what the decorum was for looking into others' achievements. She had still been working to improve her sociability skills.

"No, it wasn't any tutoring," Sayaka stopped staring at the world above for a moment to provide a deeper insight. "More like jealousy." It was an admission she wasn't going to make to anyone but the most non-judgmental ear. "Ever since she came to our school, she's been the best at pretty much everything we've ever been assigned," She recalled. "As we got into middle school and our grades started to matter more, I was worried that I'd be branded by the teachers and everyone else as Hitomi's stupid friend."

"That sounds rather petty of you," Homura opined. "Not to mention paranoid."

"Yeah, yeah," Sayaka conceded the point. "But I'm a teenager. I can't help but brood over what others might think of me, you know?" She adjusted the strap on her binoculars so that Homura could grip them more easily. "Anyway, my fears got bad enough that I started having these nightmares where we'd be in class and the teacher would ask all sorts of rapid fire pop quiz questions, and Hitomi would answer them all with gusto and ease, then I'd be called on and given gobbledygook questions that I couldn't ever possibly answer right."

"Nightmares, tch," Homura mused. "If I had a thousand Yen for every time I suffered one of those, I could afford to hire private security for Madoka."

"Next thing I know, I'm suddenly wearing a black and red jester's suit and my mom's scolding me for flunking out and now the only school that'll take me is one that trains clowns," Sayaka babbled on with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Can you believe it?"

"Yes I can," Homura answered another one that was supposed to be rhetorical. "So you mustered whatever intellectual enthusiasm you could spare towards ending the nightmares?"

"Nah nah, the nightmares were more a side effect of how I started to feel about myself," Sayaka said. "I thought that if I was ever gonna escape being labeled as her idiot friend, then I needed to pick a subject where Hitomi's marks were a little weaker and as fate would have it was also something I had an interest in ever since I was little." She put the binoculars back to her eyes and started scanning the sky.

"It's odd that you mention fearing going to a school for clowns," Homura undid her strap so that Sayaka could just take her set. "Because you'll never guess what kind of school your duplicate told me she attended after leaving Earth in that TARDIS."

"Hah!" Sayaka smirked. An actual good joke from Homura. "You mean, for reals?"

"For 'reals'," Homura repeated. "There's a clown college in space."

"Huh. Maybe her cure for the nightmare was to live it out, I suppose?" Sayaka shrugged while lifting the strap from her binoculars over her head and giving them over to Homura. All while still keeping her eyes glued behind Homura's scopes searching the sky.

"What're you looking for now?" Homura gave one more check on the race before joining Sayaka in the search of the Universe above.

"Uranus."

"Then you're looking in the wrong direction," Homura deadpanned. "Because it resides down below the base of my spine and between my buttcheeks."

"Haaaaaaw!" Sayaka chortled. "Stuuuuupid but funny! Only note is that you should've just left out the anatomical first part and say it's between your buttcheeks."

"Sorry," Homura apologized. "Still a novice at this humor thing."

"Eh, keep working on it," Sayaka encouraged her. "Maybe one day you'll be funny enough to make it into that clown college."

"Yeah," Homura hid a smile behind the sleeve of the hand holding up her binoculars. "The Space Clown College. Where they teach their pupils all the classic Uranus jokes."

"Do you know why Mars glows so indelibly red?" Sayaka asked.

"Because of all the iron deposits in the rocks?" Homura answered.

"No," Sayaka replied. "Because it saw Uranus."

"Hmph," Homura playfully whacked her in the arm. "Cuuute."

"I know I am," Sayaka beamed. "But how's Uranus?" Sayaka served.

"A bit gaseous." Homura delivered.

"Ha! See? You'll get the hang of these human jokes soon."

"If you say so." What Homura wasn't going to tell her was that her punchline doubled as a confession. Fortunately, the evening breeze on that hilltop was going the other way.

"Felicia!" Her eyes lit up at the sight of the gift her father had brought back from a trip he took to his overseas homeland. "Here you go!" It was a stuffed cow doll, with two big, pearly black eyes that reflected that unbridled look of joy on her face back at her. Around its neck was both a fuzzy red collar with a tiny golden bell stitched to it at the top and a silver movable dog tag with 'For Felicia' etched into the metal.

"Woooooooooooow!" Felicia fully embraced its outstretched hooves in an affectionate hug. "Thaaaaaaanks!" She snuggled against the fluffy fur between the two pink horns on its forehead and smooched the tiny, stitched-on smile at the bottom of its bulbous snout.

"Shouldn't she be growing out of her cow-worshiping phase by now?" Her Japanese mother came into their kitchen and questioned. "She's about to turn thirteen. Her psychiatrist said that if we don't do things that encourage her physical and emotional maturity we risk further stunting her intellectual development, too!"

"There's nothing juvenile about liking cows," Her dad countered. "Farmers like cows. Hindus like cows. I like cows. Besides, it's not at all uncommon for girls to keep stuffed animals in their bedrooms well into adulthood."

Felicia tried to diffuse things by taking sides. "And my teacher keeps a stuffed bear on her-"

"Be quiet, Felicia!" But her father wanted no help. "I'm talking with your mother right now!"

"Oh, are you now? But you're just going to blame me like you always… Wah! Wah-Womp-womp wah! Wah womp-Wah! Womp-Womp womp wah wah!" And now her parents were arguing again. She hated it whenever they argued over what was best for her. Couldn't stand ever listening to it for long. They were bickering so much these days that in her ears their unintelligible words had devolved into little more than farty horn toots in the background.

"Waaaah! Womp-Womp-Wah-Waaaah! Womp-wah-womp-wah! Womp-Womp!" Besides, what'd some stuffy-dressed hag in a high-rise office know about parenting? "Wah-Womp! Womp-Waaaaah-womp!" All the photos she had in there were of other grown-ups. And the books on the shelf? No picture books, no manga, just a bunch of boring hardcovers as thick as dictionaries. Wanted to make Felicia a case study for her next one or something. But that didn't sound fun. She knew her dad was on her side. He was the one who told the woman 'no' and dubbed her a hag.

"Womp! Womp-Womp Wah! Waaaah! Waaaah Womp! Why don't you try coming home early for a change! Wah Womp-Womp! Could help her out!" It sounded like another dispute over her grades Ugh, it was her fault she played video games all night and forgot to study. She dropped the ball. Why were they always so convinced her failures were on them?

"My parents used to fight about me all the time, too!" An extra voice in the kitchen startled her. "It makes you wonder what it takes for them to stop fighting and pay attention to you."

"Huh? Who're you?" Felicia whipped around and saw a figure seated in a chair at the table.

"Do you know what I used to do whenever I wanted their eyes and ears back on me?" The entity asked, not acknowledging Felicia's question. Their face was obscured under the brim of a very large hat and veil. "I would make a little mischief." The girl, at least that's what Felicia assumed this presence to be, was wearing a long, flowing blue nightgown, speckled with stars, so huge the fabric covered the whole linoleum floor around her like a rug. "Get creative. Like this one time I used my mommy's lipstick to draw a picture for her in the mirror." While the upper portion of the dress hugged her tight up to the neck.

"Me too! Prankin' people's fun!" Felicia boasted. Where her dad dabbled in the antics of whoopee cushions, hand buzzers and fake slime, she took to the next level with tricks she learned from watching videos on the Internet.

"Maybe now's a good time to put on a show," The mysterious lady suggested. It wasn't a bad idea in Felicia's mind either. Now her folks were busy wah-wah-womp-ing in the living room, not tending to their stir-fry dinner simmering on the burner, and the flavored noodles uncooked in the microwave. Maybe a little harmless mayhem would shut them up? She'd get scolded, sure, but she'd take a scolding any day over that endless arguing that was deafening her ears right now.

"Wah-Wah-Womp! Womp! I have something cooking in the pan! You think someone else is going to make dinner?"

"Hey, I know what I could do!" An impish switch flipped in Felicia's brain. She'd watched pranks where someone would stuff hot sauce or ketchup packets underneath the turntable tray in the microwave, then have a good laugh when it exploded all over the victim's food and made a mess of the cooking cavity inside.

"Not a bad start," The being at the table encouraged her. It seemed to know exactly the thought in Felicia's brain. "But I see nothing so small you could hide underneath." A pale, bony hand reached out through an opening between the tightly-spaced buttons on her gown. "But do you know what I do see?" She pointed at those yet-to-be-used ingredients sitting on the counter by the stir fry.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaah!" The same idea had popped into Felica's head at the same time, almost as if it were her idea to start with. Chili peppers were both small and squishy enough to hide. Stick them right in there, then go hide in the bedroom with her cute new toy cow. She scampered right over, snatched a handful of the peppers, and wasted no time.

"Wah-Wah-Womp-Womp! Womp! Womp! Womp-Wah!" Someone was coming. She had to be quick. And she was quicker than quick, finishing the deed in three seconds flat. But something froze her in her tracks just as she slammed the door slammed closed. "Womp-Wah-Womp-Wah-Wah!" It was her own blackened reflection in the device's window. It was not the self-satisfied look of a girl getting back at her folks for neglecting her whims, for there were tears streaming down her face. She was crying, profusely, spilling it all so thick it was already crusting around her tear ducts. And her heart hurt like it had been dipped deep in the acid of her stomach, and the pain was threatening to burst right through the gaps in her ribcage. She was hurting all over, yet couldn't understand the reason.

"Wah-Wah-Womp-Womp-Wah-Womp-Wah-"

"Feliciaaaaaaaaaaaa!" A sudden force tackled her to the floor and rolled away with her in its arms as the stinger of a disfigured scorpion's tail smashed the counter.

"So you're Yachiyo's witch, I take it?" Tsuruno Yui stood between the bundled pair and that grotesquery who was wrecking the kitchen.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeheeeeheeeeeheeeeeheeeeeeee!" The creature cackled like a lunatic.

"Perish in flames!" Tsuruno wasted no time in dishing out her strongest attack set.

"Another weeeeakliiiiiiiiing!" It ripped through the gown concealing its true form, growing four times in size. Now it had six legs, two scorpion claw arms, and a long, segmented tail that was ready to strike back at any threat like a bull whip.

"Taaaaaaaaake this!" The air around Tsuruno burst into a whirling firestorm that set the whole fantasy apartment ablaze.

"Felicia!" Yachiyo had scooped up and taken her ward into a momentary refuge that was Felicia's bedroom. "Felicia!" But something was wrong with the young lady. "What the-" Without warning, a brass hoof kicked Yachiyo right out of the building and down onto a roof below.

"So the weaaaaakliiiing waaants to pooooove how miiiiighy she iiiiisssss?" The witch shrieked. "Adooooorable!" It mocked the magical firestarter in orange.

"You don't scare me!" Tsuruno barked back. Though before arriving Yachiyo had warned her against engaging the thing in a verbal spar, she couldn't help but puff out her chest a little. Mostly it was for her own reassurance. "Heeeeeeyaaaaaah!" She whirled and whirled around in such a frenzy the blast sent them each flying out the building.

"Felicia!" At first Yachiyo positioned herself to catch the young lady who had also been ejected through the window away from the melee. "Crap!" But she had to flee for her own sake when a second creature emerged from a malformation wrapping itself around Felicia's neck and belly. "Damnit!" This new beast could have only been one thing, her witch, and now Yachiyo had realized what a gross miscalculation she made bringing Felicia into this dreamland.

"Eeeeeeeeviiiiiiiiiil!" The newborn screeched in a deeper, more aggrieved version of Felicia's voice. "Liiiiiiiaaaaar!" Two brass hooves tried to put the squeeze on Yachiyo, but a conjuring of halberds knocked them away.

"Think you're tough, trying to skewer Felicia?" Tsuruno went on the attack. "You're nothin' but a bedtime nightmare!" She couldn't let up, not for one second. For if this thing really was a part of Yachiyo, then she had to treat this contest as if she were fighting Yachiyo herself.

"Let her go!" Meanwhile, Yachiyo had to proceed on eggshells. This neonatal thing was not behaving as if it was an independent persona the way Yachiyo's acted. Instead, it was keeping Felicia prisoner inside some sort of meat cocoon. But if it were still a part of Felicia, would she be able to fight it without causing Felicia real-world harm? "What do you want?" She decided to treat this like a hostage situation, and hope the monster was capable of rational thought.

"Guuuaaaaaaaaawwwwwwghh!" Tsuruno's flames had cooked the pseudoscorpion to a crisp. It wasn't putting up the same sort of fight her human counterpart most surely would have. Maybe because as Yachiyo's witch it was her polar opposite, and if Yachiyo was a skilled tactician and dogged fighter, then the antithesis would be a craven opportunist who was all bark and little bite? And if that conclusion were true, then Tsuruno knew she shouldn't bother giving this pest another word edgewise.

"Yooooooooooouuuuuu!" The organism cocooning itself over Felicia cried. The quintessential witch if Yachiyo ever saw one, its main body looked like it was composed of one huge tract of animal intestines covered in pearl-like polyps with a diver's bell for a head and two horns sticking out the sides. A single, closed eyeball was all that appeared visible under the helmet. There was one large horn coming out the left side, and a much smaller, twisted horn on the right, which was pierced through by an oversized cow's ring. Its only visible appendages were two protruding metallic rods fastened to lower rods at the elbows, attached to a set of brass hooves that bore more resemblance to engine pistons. "Foooooooooled!" A single, closed eyelid jutted through the front faceplate. "Triiiiiiiiiicked!" It had no visible mouth of any kind, so Yachiyo didn't know how the thing could even be speaking, then again this was a dream amongst a group of shared minds. "Wiiiiiiiitch!"

"So it seems you have a basic level of self-awareness," Yachiyo observed. "I hope you're also smart enough to understand what sort of ruin you would bring upon yourself if you harm Felicia."

"Killlllllllll!" The monster reared back and took a swipe at Yachiyo. "Lyiiiiiiingggggg!" But it was only striking with partial strength. To Yachiyo's interest it appeared to have a greater preoccupation with keeping Felicia within the confines of its innards than engaging her. "Wiiiiiitch!"

"Ha! That'll teach you to mess with the mightiest!" Tsuruno boasted. Her foe was lying on its back unmoving, dead as a doornail, its legs shriveled up and its clawed arms curled inwards. "Okay then," She wiped the soot and dust off her costume. "Achoo!" She sneezed. How the air in a dream could make a girl sneeze, certainly there was a logic behind it she was sure she couldn't comprehend. "Phew!"

She paused for a moment. "Yachiyo?" She called out as her eyes searched this fantasy landscape. It was a very vivid recreation of Kamihama, they seemed to be somewhere in Sakae Ward. To think this was all drawn from Yachiyo's memories. "Yachiyo?" No response. Where was she? "Yachiyo!" She called out a bit louder. Still silent.

Much as her better judgment was telling her to ditch the charred corpse and find her master, her gut was telling her that there was still something of value to be gained from an examination of its remains. After all, if a witch was the dark alter ego of a magical girl, then by studying her master's, this was a chance for Tsuruno to gain some potential insight into what she feared lurked in the depths of her own beating soul.

"Smaaaaaaaaash!" It made another vain attempt to stomp Yachiyo. "Yoooooouuuuuu!" It really did sound like an even more riled-up version of the girl stuck in its gullet. "Wiiiiiiiiiitch!" And with the third ad-hominem insult a sudden revelation came to Yachiyo.

"If I am a witch, then I am curious to know what you consider yourself to be." She parried the tromping hoof with a swift swipe of her halberd. A proverbial smack of the wrist, meant to show how tolerant she was being of the thing's tantrums. Like a negotiator.

"Proooootectoooor!" It wailed in reply.

"A protector?" Yachiyo repeated. She'd read somewhere that that was how one demonstrates they're listening during a hostage crisis. "You were trying to protect her from the sting of that masked monster's tail, right?" Next, demonstrate a point of commonality with the hostage taker. "That's what I was trying to do, too."

"Liiiiiiiaaaaaaar!" It hissed. "Paaaaaaiiiin!" It curled into a snake-like defensive posture. "Maaaaaake! Remembeeeeeerrrrrrr!" At two coherent words it seemed to be pushing the limit of its elocution.

"Made… Remember…" Yachiyo reworded. "Pain." Oily tears appeared to be leaking out the front of that hard metal piece of headgear over its eyeball. So like a child it was hurt, and lashing out at what it perceived to be the source of its troubles. "I'm sorry," Yachiyo apologized. "I did not mean to harm either of you. All I meant to do was show her the Truth of what hides inside the heart of every girl with magical power." She tried keeping her words simple and straightforward, as if she were speaking with a child. "I thought a dream would be the safest place for her to discover that part of herself which is you."

"Nooooooooo!" It protested. "Noooooot wiiiiiiiitch!" So it was a witch in denial, then. "Doooo gooooood!" It wriggled around and writhed. "Keeeeep saaaaafe!"

"Keeping someone bottled up like that is an interesting way of keeping them safe," Yachiyo pointed out. Calling them out on their misdeed was probably not the best way of talking down a hostage taker. But it didn't even seem to view itself for what it was. "Although I can't help but question the long-term viability of keeping her that way." What Yachiyo needed to get it to understand was that any sort of confinement, regardless of intent, was harmful, and thus the opposite of protecting her. "Like how do you plan to keep her safe after we wake up?" And get it to think about the consequences, too.

"Taaaaaaaaake! Ooooooooover!" It growled.

"Oof," Yachiyo uttered under her breath. What started a communion attempt with Felicia could end in the hatching of a new witch in her living room if she couldn't put this proverbial genie back in its bottle.

"Peeeeeeeewwwww!" Tsuruno pinched her nose. How something that wasn't real could smell so odious, Tsuruno couldn't understand either. But she could handle it.

By her inspection its physiology appeared to be something akin to the centaurs of Greek mythology, only instead of the body of a horse below the torso, it was more like an arachnid below. While she might have been a straight 'A' student her knowledge on the biology of creepy-crawly creatures was limited, so her postmortem focus was put foremost on the humanoid half.

It was wearing armor that was an almost exact match for Yachiyo's, but with more elaborate markings etched into the silvery armor adorning the shoulders and the golden bezel rims of the arms and chest. The markings on the upper armor most resembled the knitted patterns of those pretty tea coasters bequeathed to Yachiyo by her late grandmother. While the engravings along the gold sections looked to her like an exotic form of lettering. She couldn't decipher the language, only that it was a repeating word where the same character was used three times and another twice in a row. Like Yachiyo there was also a long black garment covering her skin underneath, stretching from her midriff down her arms and all the way up to the base of her neck.

"Uh, sorry!" Tsuruno apologized, pinching her fingertips and peeling at the undergarment. There was no need to do that, but touching her so gingerly felt to her like it was a violation of her master's privacy somehow, even as her curiosity overrode her sense of restraint. Reassuringly it was human skin, though burned red and scarred pretty significantly by Tsuruno's flames.

Surprisingly the black, funerary veil covering her face was unscathed. So with growing trepidation Tsuruno peeled it up over the brim of her hat, revealing her face. Or rather, where should be her face instead rested a white, porcelain-esque mask whose only discernible features were two deep, black holes where her eyes should be, an open upturned smile and a smooth bump where her nose would be, with two small slits as nostrils.

"Yachiyoooooooooo?" Tsuruno tried calling out one more time. "Awwwwwww, maaaan!" She grumbled. There was definitely a face in repose hiding behind that mask, that much Tsuruno could discern. But she was reluctant to peel back that covering without her master's say-so.

But it was that moment when she realized that she had always done the deferential thing whenever the time came to make a weighty or consequential choice. Ever since that day Yachiyo bested her in that duel, she'd punted much of her responsibility over to her unofficial master. It had turned into a comfortable habit for her, so much so that even after Yachiyo gave Tsuruno her committee seat her first thought whenever called to cast a vote was always 'What would Yachiyo want me to do?' It was a bad habit she needed to break right here right now, if she was ever going to live up to that billing as the Mightiest magical girl. She inhaled a deep breath through her nose, amped her resolve by pumping her fist, stuck her fingers into the eyelets and yanked.

"Unnnghhh!" Curiously it didn't come off with the first tug. "Errrrrrggggh!" So she channeled a little more mighty muscle and it popped off like a stubborn pickle jar lid.

"Look, I'm sorry I've let things get this out of hand," Yachiyo doubled down on the apology. "Unfortunately I have no more control over what my doppelgänger does than you have over Felicia's actions. I just wanted to show her that we've all got sides of ourselves that we'd rather not show the world, sides we only present to people with whom we place our utmost confidence in. I may have lied to her face over my reason for bringing her down here, but ultimately I trusted her enough to make an attempt to show her a side of myself I've never shown anyone else." She'd hoped the thing would be able to understand her reasoning. "If I had known that meeting it was going to disturb you, I would've tried to find another way." She dropped her halberd, took to one knee and clasped her hands together in a show of contrition. "Please don't punish her for my mistake."

"Grrrrrrrrrrr!" It snarled, but its posture loosened into something a little less threatening. If nothing else, Yachiyo did succeed in convincing it that she was not the same as her witch.

"Now please," Yachiyo beseeched the entity. "Release her."

"Caaaaaaan't!" It cried.

"What?" Yachiyo's heart sank. "What do you mean you can't?" Had her Soul Gem already deteriorated past the point of no return? "Have you already taken over for her in the real world?"

"Nooooooooooooooo!" It grunted an apparent denial, to Yachiyo's relief. "Maaaaaaade saaaaaaaad!" It elaborated with as many words as it could muster together. "Tooooooooo saaaaaaaad!

"Too sad?" Yachiyo pressed. "To what? To remain a magical girl?"

"Noooooooooo!" It hollered. "To liiiiiiiiiiiive!" It peered up to the apartment complex towering above, those crusted over eyelashes splitting open just enough for the light of the roaring fire above to reflect in its deep, black pupil.

"Oh." Piles of ash floated down upon them like snow. "You know what misfortune caused Felicia to make her contract with Kyubey," A single half-charred picture floated down from the burning wreckage. "And you think that if she finds out too she might," Yachiyo paused, knelt down and picked it up. It was a photograph of Felicia in a flowery yellow dress posing for a family photo. But the two figures flanking her were scorched beyond all recognition. "Want to join them. Which you fear would mean the end of you too."

"Yeeeeeeeessss!" It admitted with heart-wrenching candor.

"It's a common thing to have such self-dooming thoughts," Yachiyo disclosed. "I've lost people I was very close to, too. It aches me to have to go on without them, every single day." With her hands in the air she approached the thing. "But I don't give in to that urge to end it all and leave forever. And I never will." She outstretched her arms and took its oversized head into her hands in an unconditional embrace. "Do you want to know the secret that keeps me strong through all the hard days and all the rough nights?"

"Whaaaaaaat?" It murmured.

"Return Felicia and I'll share it with you both." Yachiyo requested just as a skilled negotiator would do.

"Kaaaaaay!" It gurgled as it retracted itself back into the depths of Felicia's aura. First its head retreated into its main section like a turtle's head, followed by the appendages. Last the fleshy cocoon around Felicia warped and pulled back around her midsection, before ultimately disappearing inside her belly button. "Uggggggggghhhhhhhh!" Her eyes were bobbing up and down like she'd been on the worst roller coaster in her life. Her hair was ruffled. Drool dripped from her lips. She looked like she'd been through the wringer. Yachiyo looked her over.

"How do you feel?"

"Siiiiiiiick!" She burped and gulped.

"What do you remember after falling asleep on my couch?"

"Uuuuunnnnnggggghhh," Felicia struggled not to puke. "I don't think I like eatin' chili peppers no more!" She looked around, trying to recall how she got to this strange depiction of Kamihama City. "Weren't ya' tryin' to teach me how to fight hypnosis or somethin'?"

"Yeah," Yachiyo fibbed. A trait of good negotiators was also knowing how to bluff and when it was most appropriate to lie and not do as promised. "But a nightmare of sorts got in our way. Sorry. I guess I'm not as good at controlling what happens in dreams as I thought. Doubly sorry."

"Yeeeeaaah, whatever. Can you just wake me up from this stupid frikkin' place?"

"Sure," Yachiyo put her finger in front of Felicia's eyes. "One… Two… Three… Waaake uuup!" She poked her right between the eyes and Felicia disappeared like a poof of smoke.

"Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaa!" Tsuruno could hardly believe the sight of what she'd just uncovered. Where she'd expected to gaze upon the visage of a hideous monster like so many she'd slain before, instead rested the face of a youthful Yachiyo. Looking as innocent as any kid, it was unnerving to think it was the same entity she'd gone toe-to-to with moments earlier. No way… There had to be something more going on. Perhaps a more elaborate mask underneath another mask? With one hand still clinging to the other mask, as she slowly reached in and felt for a spot to wrench it off, the hairs on the back of Tsuruno's neck stood up.

"Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhh!" Its eyes shot open and it wailed like a banshee.

"Bwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!" the staggered Tsuruno yelped. Eye-to-eye with her reawakened foe, she saw in its reflection her tail go erect and ready to strike.

"Auuuuuuuuuugggghhhhhhhh!" At the very last fraction of a second Tsuruno managed to roll out of the way. It shattered its armor with its own stinger, a vomiting of blood came spewing from its mouth.

"Ha!" The untouched Tsuruno crowed. "Thought you could get the drop on me by playing possum? Think again!"

"Actually," a disembodied voice spoke to her from the ether. "The one playing dead and biding time, was I!"

"Huh?" Tsuruno whirled her body around and around trying to find the source of that unsettling statement. "Who're you?"

"Who am I?" It sounded like Yachiyo but more baritone and menacing. "I am… Survivor."

"Ehh?" While Tsuruno didn't see anything her magical senses did detect a most unsettling presence looming large and close. "Where are you? What are you?" She caught a glimpse of the defeated creature on the ground. Its eyes were bulging like a beast in the throes of death, it looked like it was panicking at the notion of something terrifying.

And it wasn't scared by the thought of death. It was by the knowledge of what she'd brought upon the girl before her.

"I was… Birthed by a witch's drive towards devastation," It uttered with an ominous intonation. "Then nursed on the milk of another's lust for power and vengeance," It was joined by a second voice. "Compelled by my nurturer to constrain that which subsists on the consumption of hopes." It took but two seconds to dawn on Tsuruno just who exactly that additional voice belonged to. "And after spending my formative time as a shadow leeching off scraps, I have now grown to crave the fresh meat that is a new soul." When she realized it was her own mouth flapping. "I thought that girl was ripe for the taking, but you…" That mask. In her hands hid the vector of a mental contagion, a classic Trojan horse. And more frighteningly, no longer was it in her grips. "I can taste your sweet fruit already. All that guilt in search of an absolution. So much pain hidden behind a faithful smile. You're a tasty wellspring of weakness and self-loathing buried underneath your need to prove your worth to others." In sheer horror Tsuruno grabbed at her own face. In her terrorized reflection she saw her façade half-covered by a ghostly white mask on the right side encroaching with frightening inevitability over her left.

"Tsuruno!" Yachiyo had found her just in time to be horrified by what she was witnessing.

"No! Don't come!" Tsuruno warned. "It'll just infect you too!" She tried to tear the mask off her face to no avail.

"What? How could my witch's face latch onto you?" Yachiyo ignored Tsuruno's cautionary words and ran over.

"It's not your witch, it's something new!" Tsuruno still had the strength and presence of mind to try to flee her mentor for her own safety. "Stay back!"

"Damn it!" Yachiyo did as told with great guilt and reluctance. That fake Mifuyu must've left behind a land mine that Tsuruno stepped right on. Even worse, Yachiyo was the one who enticed her into doing it.

"Yachiyo!" Tsuruno called out. "What happens if a Soul Gem gets destroyed in a dream?"

"I- I don't know!" The concept of willful self termination within this realm was uncharted waters that neither Yachiyo nor Mifuyu ever dared venture.

"I'm not letting it take over! Nope! No way!" Tsuruno declared. She removed the Soul Gem on her waist belt. "You gotta make sure it doesn't take the real me over, too!" She cupped it with both hands and enveloped her body in a white-hot flame. "Wake up and do it!"

"Tsurunoooooooooo!"

"Yachiyoooooooooo!"

"Tsurunoooooooooo!" A bright flash enveloped the whole dreamscape. The last thing Yachiyo witnessed was the shattering of Tsuruno's subconscious Soul Gem.

"Yachiyoooooooooo!" Two voices from two worlds shouted her name both at once, trying to force her awakening from this self-inflicted nightmare.

"Yachiyoooooooooo!" And then it became one voice, as Tsuruno's form turned to ashes and dust.

"Tsuruno," Yachiyo whimpered. "Oh, Tsuruno." Her karma had done it to her again. It had taken away someone close to her heart. She could feel all that repressed remorse and survivor's guilt from the losses of Mel and Kanae come roaring back like a lion about to devour the prey that was her very soul.

And in that moment of weakness, she was ready to let it devour her whole.

"EEEEeeeeeeeLLLLLeeeeeEEEEtttttTTTE!" A moaning phantom stuck its arms into a thickened brick wall and derezzed it down to its basic constituent lines of tiny green ones and zeroes. "EeeeeeeLlllllleeeEEEETTTTttttE!" It lumbered its way towards Sana in hiding behind a suit of armor display standing beside the throne in the main hall.

"No you don't!" Nemu opened her book and cast a spell that changed the armored statue into a protective golem. "This way!" She grabbed Sana by the hand and they ran as the stairs elevating the throne reconfigured into an additional barrier between them.

"Up-GRAde-In-PrOgReSs!" They heard a cacophony of monotone voices bellow from behind the castle's walls.

"Waaaaaaaaah!" A deep, black bottomless pit suddenly opened through a crack in the floor beneath them. If not for the fact that Sana was holding on to Nemu's hand for her life, Nemu would have taken the tumble.

"I've got you!" Sana tugged her up from the precipice with all her strength.

"Thanks!" Nemu said in a breath of relief.

But their respite was all too brief. "EeeeeeeeeEEEEEElllllllLLLLeeeeeEEEEEttTTE!" Their enemy droned from all directions. "EEEEEeeeeLLLLLLlllllllEEEEeeeeeeTTTTTtttttE!" Suddenly the walls of the corridor around them started to slowly creep closer. "EeeeeeLlllllEeeeeTttttE!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sana materialized a large, cast iron shield, extended its length as long as she could make it, and jammed it between the sliding walls.

"But shouldn't you be conserving your magic?" Nemu questioned her companion's tactics.

"In this kingdom I'm a friend first and a princess second," Sana crafted another shield and lodged it into place. Then she pumped all the magic she could muster into a bunch more shields, turning them into a secondary wall.

"Deeeeeeeeleeeeeeete! Deeeeeeeeleeeeeete! Deeeeeeeleeeeeete!" Their real words echoed through the new metal-reinforced halls.

"This is different from when they invaded Nemunia," Nemu observed, talking over the constant thuds against their reinforcement walls. "When they got into my hideout, all they set out to do was decompile the code. They didn't alter the environment nor seem to care about me and Mifuyu at all!"

"It is a terrorization tactic," A familiar voice called from the door beyond. "The Cyber Regent wants you to see how trapped she thinks you are. But it is also nothing more than an elaborate bluff since as far as she knows she needs to take you alive so she can extract the Codex."

"You're back! Sana hustled to the door to greet their comrade.

"Is Mifuyu with you?" Nemu inquired.

"Right here," Mifuyu answered. "Are you well?"

"I'm fine," Sana responded. "How'd you guys get past them all?"

"We hacked the stage's spawn point to appear as close to the main throne room as possible," Mifuyu's ally reported. "Doing it took less energy but ultimately more time. Apologies for arriving here so late."

"Maybe I should give myself over to them," Sana volunteered. "They can waste time on me and you can escape!" The door between them had been deformed by the enemy's attempted scare tactic.

"No!" Mifuyu rejected that notion outright. "Sana, you have to learn to value your life more than that!" They could hear the sounds of their friends' blades trying to chop and cut through from the other side.

"I agree. We did not build this construct just so that you could function as our decoy objective," A sword pierced through the wood. "We have gathered enough latent energy from the collective unconscious to send you back to reality. Where your new purpose must be to ensure that they do not escape and threaten humanity at large." The sword pried away at the boards, revealing the reassuring faces of Mifuyu and their colleague.

"But I don't want to run away and I don't want to leave you guys!" Sana got teary-eyed. "Not like this!"

"I know what the feeling is like to not want to abandon your friend," Nemu consoled her. "That was how we got into this mess in the first place." She picked Sana up and passed her through the opening to Mifuyu and their teammate.

"We have done all the hiding and misdirection that time could afford us," Mifuyu grabbed her and pulled her through. Her gloved-hand and frilly sleeve reached through the gap. "But for any of our struggles, our hopes and our troubles to matter, they need to persist after our termination." The shields supporting the room around them started to creak and buckle louder and louder. "And for that to happen, then the memories of what we did need to live on through the only avatar who exists in the world outside."

"They cannot be contained by any further action we take from here," Their partner in turn took Nemu by the arms and pulled her in. "You must get in contact with other magical girls. As risky as the proposition is, I believe they are the only ones who have the power to bring this crisis to a favorable end."

"But who's out there?" Sana fussed. "I've never met any but you guys!"

"Mifuyu and I figured out that we can remodulate the broadcast frequency of the Murakami Array in order to create messages targeted to specific individuals." Their confrère told her. "We have an individual in particular in mind."

"We would like you to go meet my oldest, bestest friend Yachiyo," Mifuyu instructed her. "From what fond memories I have, she really is quite nice. You have no reason to be afraid."

"There have also been some long-standing rumors of an ultra-powerful, courageous and noble magical girl who protects Mitakihara," Nemu added. "That was who Mifuyu and I were trying to find before we were summoned to the hospital." At once they all turned tail and ran as Sana's shielding gave out and the hallway crumbled to digital bits.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Their enemies advancing repeated their mantra. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" The entire castle was glitching and devolving into its basic wireframe model, exposing them to the homogenous mechanical army surrounding them

"Since we do not know the identity of said individual, however," Their other friend directed them towards a secret backdoor access point still active. "We cannot make our plan reliant on tracking them down. Therefore the only logical course will be to send you straight to Nanami." Behind the door was the game's lobby, where Sana would introduce herself as part of the ruse. "But I could not divert enough energy to initiate a transport all the way back to Kamihama."

"Indeed, we only have the power to send you to within a square kilometer's radius of the array's location," Mifuyu followed. "Which is the reason the message aimed at Yachiyo will be necessary. She has to come to us."

"Is this hideout going to be safe for long?" Nemu wondered.

"The code in here is distinctive enough from the main game that it should take them extra time to deconstruct and assimilate it," Their ally said. "I will also enact a new protocol that dictates that any entrant into the next realm cannot do so without passing through this one and adhering to its admission parameters." She went right to work coding on a virtual inlay screen that popped up in front of them.

"Sana," Mifuyu took her by the hand and checked on the status of her Soul Gem. "You seem to have used a lot of magic protecting Nemu back there." The large green diamond embedded atop the crown emblem on her necklace had large swirls of blackness creeping upwards to the tip. "We appreciate all the help you have given us. Thank you for being both our shield and our moral support. Without your exquisite humanity as our guidepost I do not think we would be defending the codex with nearly as much vigor as we have." Her kind words appeared to stabilize the deterioration that was building up inside it. "Until I make contact with Yachiyo we will need to store your energy pattern in a digital buffer. That should arrest any further decay of your soul until you are ready to be rematerialized in the real world."

"Will it hurt?" Sana asked her trio of protectors.

"For you the experience should be instantaneous,," Her companion described. "It will not adversely affect you in any physical way."

"Okay," Sana curled her lips as best as she could into something approximating a courageous smile. "I'm ready."

"So long," Nemu opened her book. Dozens and then hundreds of pages swirled out and circled around Sana like a paper tornado.

"Farewell." The being she first met upon arrival in this strange virtual playground bid her a parting word. She tapped on a word marked 'Execute' on her see-thru display.

"Goodbye," Mifuyu blew the young lady a kiss. "For now." Sana's form was wrapped in a skintight pile of paper with billions and billions of tiny ones and zeroes printed on them. Then she disappeared as a green ball of energy into the computerized ether.

"Well," Mifuyu sighed. "I guess next is my turn." She knelt and gave Nemu a departing hug.

"People do this as a gesture of affection," Nemu preempted the remaining girl's question. "And when they're not certain they're ever going to see each other again," Mifuyu embraced the girl with another hug. "I recall one of my enduring regrets was never embracing Yachiyo with any displays of intimacy before leaving." She snapped her finger and beamed a quick smile. "I must make a point to do that when I introduce myself."

"The data packet will be bounced off a redundant channel aboard a secret surveillance satellite, streamed down to a college radio station in Kamihama, and translated from that point." Nemu and Mifuyu's friend announced. "That should greatly mitigate the risk of the Cyber Regent detecting the signal and getting wise to our activity."

"Ah, I have fond memories of that station, too," Mifuyu recalled. "She and I would fall asleep to the white noise whenever it signed off after midnight."

"Good luck," Nemu wished her, opening her book, enveloping Mifuyu in pages and sending her off. Their ally hit the virtual key and sent her off. "What do we do now?"

"You and I need to return to Mitakihara and make final preparations," The girl replied. "And take measures to ensure our backup-backup plan does not fail." She witnessed a stream of tears fall from Nemu's eyes. "You cry. Curious. Are those tears of sadness for the one we must burden?"

"No," Nemu sniffed. "Tears of remorse. For my wish may've doomed the people of Earth!"

Chapter Text

KUROE: 'Taking night shift patrol. North of Oldtown. Boarding C-Train to West Central. No activity atm.'

Kuroe stood there unsheltered in the, icy, freezing rain, tapped the 'Send' icon and checked her last few messages. It was her second week of night shift out of her three stints scheduled this month. One extra week to make up for the stint she missed while stranded in Canada with Ayame Mikuri and two members of Nanaka Tokiwa's gang. The other week to make it up to a new recruit who was a person she knew was someone she'd saved from a particularly nasty witch quite some time ago. The foolish girl was trying to rescue a cat when Kuroe noticed her, and together they managed to retreat to safety. But then the girl meekly asked if she had any spare Grief Seeds to share. Kuroe fibbed, telling her she didn't, and the two went their separate ways. Kuroe spent the entire rest of the week feeling so terrible for that lie until a kindly yellow-haired girl from Mitakihara arrived and gifted her a jewel and informed her that she'd never have to hoard a single Grief Seed ever again. That wracked Kuroe with even more guilt, but all she could do at the time was send her that poor girl's way, with no way of knowing whether or not she'd made it long enough to receive her just reward. It came as such a relief when Konoha Shizumi had found and subsequently introduced the young lady into their fold, but not totally enough to alleviate her conscience. By this point she was ready to concede the possibility that no amount of voluntary night shift work would be enough to atone for the one sin of that afternoon.

AYAME: 'Lemme know if you see some girl with straight cut bangs in a Takarazaki Central Uniform get off the C-Train on her own with flowers. I see her every other nite on patrol near Takaraji Ward. Been wonderin' what her deal is.'

That last text was sent seven hours ago. Kuroe didn't necessarily mind taking on these extra dogwatch duties if it meant she could have some alone time. She wasn't even aware she was the sort of person who preferred this solitude until after she made her contract with Kyubey. At the time she thought all her ails in this world could be cured by having a boyfriend, so she wished to go out with the very first boy her teenage hormones generated a crush on, only to be put off by the lavish attention he'd started heaping on her. In an ironic twist, it didn't even take more than three dates to figure out they weren't much of a match beyond their taste for reading stories. So she'd ended the relationship and all she got out of it was the additional duties of fighting witches and protecting the unwitting masses. All in all, a terrible, no good, very bad deal. Now more than anything else, she wished for nothing but the chance to drop-kick that scuzzy fuzzball into next Thursday.

KUROE: 'Someone matching description just exited the train. Looks around my age.'

She tapped the 'Send' icon and stashed her phone in her pocket. No clue why she was bothering to humor Konoha's sister's curiosity, beyond her own boredom. This town hadn't seen much action in weeks, just a wayward wandering small-fry familiar. Even so, Hazuki's protocol dictated that no fewer than two magical girls should engage one when detected, and four when it's a full-blown witch. That way burdens are shared and safety is prioritized. Kuroe didn't mind at all the Azalea Sisters moving in and taking control over the magical girl fiefdoms if it meant more cooperation and less overwhelming responsibility. Without them, she couldn't imagine lasting long trying to make it through this troublesome life. Some witch would've made quick mincemeat out of her for sure. Worse yet, at times she'd been so down on herself lately that she'd conceivably might've let it skewer her if it could.

KUROE: 'Taking a detour. Following someone under possible magic influence. Profile reasons: Young, female, traveling alone, late t.o.d., not dressed appropriate for weather.'

She hit the 'Send' icon a third time. Then added, 'No phone on personage' addendum and tapped it again once she got a closer look at the wanderer Ayame might have once spied. One of the only boons to her flagging self-esteem was Konoha's praise for her beat cop-esque fastidiousness, punctuality and eye for detail. Which wasn't much, but Kuroe craved any kind of positive praise out of this humdrum job.

KUROE: 'She also looks'

"Oops," Kuroe's finger touched the 'Send' icon before she meant to. 'Preoccupied,' she texted with haste. She also didn't seem to be paying any mind to the fact that Kuroe had been watching her leave the station for more than five minutes now. As if she were in a trance, or just absolutely fixated on making it to her destination.

KUROE: 'Sad. Very very sad.'

She added that part as a post-script. She'd seen such gloominess before only in the mirror, as someone who looked as though the most important moment in their existence had already come and gone, leaving them adrift and without direction. At least Kuroe had her powers and personal prayers to fall back on, but this girl just seemed to be at a total loss in life, judging by the way she trudged down the streets. She'd already crossed one street missing a red 'Don't Walk' sign. It was fortunate it was late enough that there weren't any oncoming cars. And she was in danger of doing it again at this next crosswalk. Only this time, there was a car speeding along.

"Hey, watch out!" Lucky for her, Kuroe was close enough to pull her back at the last moment.

"Whaaah-" Kuroe's hard tug made her trip over a pebble on the sidewalk. She lost her balance and wound up falling straight into Kuroe's arms.

"Are you alright?" The inconsiderate jerk at the wheel didn't even stop at the next red light.

"I'm fine," The girl answered. But not quite in a tone that sounded honest or even grateful.

"Are you sure?" Kuroe asked, tilting her head left and right checking to see if there were any signs of a witch's kiss branded on this soft-spoken girl's neck. There didn't appear to be one, so why was she acting so aloof?

"Yes." She had also dropped her flowers, which got swept away in a puddle flow down the gutter. Although from what Kuroe could tell it seemed to be less of a bouquet and more of a loosely tied together assortment of common flowers and grasses collected on a parkway stroll.

"Sorry about your uhm," Kuroe apologized. "Flowers." Their matching forlorn faces watched the grouping get swept away and sucked down the storm drain.

"That's okay," The girl uttered at a decibel level just barely above a whisper.

"Where could you be going at a time like this?" Kuroe probed. According to Konoha and Hazuki, people under the spells of a witch tended to lumber around without any clear destination nor particular interest in either people or surroundings.

The girl seemed to take another minute studying the degree of concern in Kuroe's frown. Which was good, because another symptom of a witch's influence she'd been told to watch for was a general apathy towards the presence or attitudes of others. "I'm going to go visit my sister." She answered once she judged Kuroe's character to be adequate.

"Your sister?" Kuroe blinked a few curious times. "Are the two of you close?" A simple question that was somehow loaded enough to make her recoil and jerk her body out of Kuroe's arms.

"I have to go now." The girl took three steps backward. "Thanks for the catch." She bowed as a token act of gratitude. "Goodbye." She hustled across at the turn of the next green light.

"Wait!" Kuroe inaudibly wailed after her. It was late, she had another four neighborhoods to patrol, she was running behind schedule, and the girl wasn't in a trance and didn't seem to want any further assistance. Kuroe's instincts were telling her to leave her be, turn around and get back to minding her own business. She could even picture Konoha in her head telling her leaving would be the logical decision. Yet she could also picture Hazuki right there next to her, yakking on about how a good magical girl isn't wasn't supposed to run around town tracking witches, taking notes, and supporting their own, but also offer a helpful hand to anybody in need, be it a grandma who needed someone to carry around their groceries, kids who lost their puppies, guys whose phones slipped into spots their fingers were too fat to reach, yadda yadda yadda. How those two got to be such a dynamic, complementary duo, she couldn't guess. Maybe opposites really do attract.

Before she'd even made the decision in her conscious mind her subconscious superego had taken control of her feet and were chasing after her. Replaying those moments after meeting that girl in the hood, it was telling her that while doing the self-interested thing might have been defensible on an intellectual level, at a fundamental moral one it was wrong. If there was one thing that previous encounter's failure taught, it's that her conscience couldn't handle leaving another sad girl at the mercy of fate.

Kuroe hopped atop a highway barrier to get a more omniscient view. One of the few perks to becoming a magical girl was her ability to defy gravity like that. It was just too bad Kuroe had no interest in athletic achievement. But her subpar grades would disqualify her anyhow.

She watched as the girl turned a corner and ascended some steps into the woods. Looking ahead Kuroe could see a series of dead plant-strewn arches leading to a walled-off spot populated by countless stone pillars and monuments. Her destination was a cemetery, and those were the gravestones. Kuroe leapt over to a line of monuments situated above where the young lady stopped and she camped within earshot behind a headstone.

"Hi Ui!" Kuroe heard the girl's voice greet someone in a low, subdued mutter. "Snuck out again tonight." Superior hearing was also one of those few job perks. "I know, you say it's raining and I didn't dress for the weather." But not so much in this case. "I'll catch a cold." Noble intentions aside, she'd stumbled her way into eavesdropping on a grieving sister's private chat with a ghost.

"But maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if I got sick," She choked. And hearing that caused Kuroe to pop a piqued brow out from behind her hiding spot. "Then I might be distracted enough to sleep a little tonight." She watched her rearrange a pair of pots containing lilies and chrysanthemums, the latter of which had been blown over by a wind gust. "I can't help it. You remember those nights we would lie awake talking about all the things we learned that day and wondering what the world might offer tomorrow until we made ourselves so tired one of us would pass out and fall asleep mid-sentence?" She clasped her hands and kneeled as if she were about to pray. "I stay awake and cry trying to think of everything we ever talked about until I'm too weak to think straight." Kuroe joined her in the act. If she was going to snoop, then the least she could do was be a respectful snooper.

"Mom and Dad cleared our bedroom out today. They say they're thinking about renting it out." That got Kuroe thinking about her own parents and siblings. "Sorry, but I just couldn't stand that room anymore, knowing it would always be half empty forever onward." In a house with four children but only three bedrooms, Kuroe had to share hers with her older sister. "I moved into the corner guest room." But their relationship was less of sisters sharing a bedroom than strangers sharing a living space as tenants, as her sister was never the type who could stand to stay in one place for long. Always out and about, always moving and shaking, her sister was rarely there to serve as Kuroe's confidant. "On the bright side, at least it's closer to the kitchen." The girl unzipped her backpack and took out a small, disposable bento box. "I made an extra meal without thinking again. Can't help it." Kuroe imagined a life without her sister, and it wasn't all that worse from the one she had now. Realizing that shot a heavy pang of envy right down through the pit of her empty gut. How could she be envious of someone in the throes of such overwhelming grief, while Kuroe herself had living siblings, loving parents, schoolmates who always expressed empathy in their concerns, and grew to be a trusted member of an ascendant magical girl squad? Was it just in her nature to be a self-pitying wretch, always defaulting towards pessimism and fatalism? She never wanted to kick herself more than right there in that moment. What a fine line between introspective sulkiness and sheer self-absorption.

"Huh? Who's there?" The girl called out into the night.

"Uh-oh!" Kuroe watched a rock she accidentally kicked tumble down the hillside and slam against a headstone, causing a commotion.

"Mister Caretaker?" But it wasn't Kuroe's slip-up that had caught the young lady's attention. "Is that you?" A flock of birds took off from the treetops nearby. Kuroe could sense there was something out there in the darkness, she could hear the steps of something heavy clubbing against the brickwork. And her eyes witnessed something barely there, warping the light of a lamp post, ever-so-slightly.

"Sorry I didn't call you first." And she was one hundred percent oblivious to its presence, nor was Kuroe in a position to convey her foreboding feelings about its intent. "But will you please give me a ride home again after I say goodbye to Ui?"

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| ENGAGING CAPTURE MODE |-

"Mother?" Hitomi ventured into the kitchen. "Will you please sign my report card?"

"Why certainly," Her mother untied the twine that was sealing the envelope. Hitomi had just completed another very solid quarter. "Japanese Language, 'A', Algebra, 'A', Social Studies, 'A'," She read each subject aloud. "Home Economics," She scratched an itch behind her ear. "'A Minus'."

"We had to bake a soufflé as our final project," Hitomi explained. "And it didn't quite rise up past the dish." But at least she wasn't sewing a duffel bag.

"Mmmhmmm," Her mother gave an understanding nod. "Health and Physical Education, 'A'." An improvement, now that she had Saya as both a study and gym partner. "English, 'A'." Holding firm, and arguably attributable to no more Saotome going off on wild tangents about her personal life. "General Art, 'A', and Earth Sciences," Another pause. Weak subject incoming. "A 'B' Plus." But it was a marked improvement over what she accomplished at her old school. "Overall class ranking, third out of two hundred twelve. National percentile, top five percent." Without even turning her back she placed the report card on the counter and offered her signature. "Congratulations, dear!"

"Congratulations?" Hitomi repeated with a tilted head. She came home expecting her mother would nitpick that Home Economics grade, or harp on her for still not being a great science student. But she was expecting to hear her express her particular dismay from letting herself slip from top dog at Mitakihara Middle School to a less prestigious third in this larger class. "Why thank you, Mother!" This fortunate turn had really made her day.

"Dinner can be your pick this evening," She added, in another positive twist for Hitomi.

"Really?" A novel opportunity presented itself. "Can you give father a call and see if he might be able to come home early and we could all eat out somewhere tonight?" They hadn't eaten out as a full family since her elementary school graduation day.

"Alright. I shall give him a call." She agreed, much to Hitomi's further elation. "Assuming he can, where would you like to go?"

"What was the name of that restaurant we went to back when I was in grade school?" Hitomi didn't want to waste today's fortune by suggesting some junk food chain at the mall.

"I cannot recall," Her mother replied. "We can look it up later." She returned to her previous activity of washing their dishes. "Hey, Hitomi?"

"What is it, Mother?" Hitomi took one step into the adjacent den and turned around.

"Have you taken the chance and asked any boys out yet?" Hitomi could sense her cheeks turning red at the question.

"Oh, dear heavens, no!" The embarrassed young lady wobbled over right into the door frame. "Why, I've nary any time to devote to such an undertaking." She awkwardly tittered. "Besides, I've swept every single idea of a romantic pairing under the rug, ever since you and father introduced me to that young man from the bank."

"Hm?" Her mother made a sudden one-eighty quick turn. "What young man?"

"Uuuuuuhhhhhhhmm," Hitomi pondered. "You introduced me to this one grown man several weeks ago," She recounted a most vivid chain of events which at the time greatly distressed her. "After you two learned about my failed effort to woo Kamijo and had to change schools because of the aftermaths, father brought home this young man and implored me to sit down and have an hours-long chat with him." She managed to make it through the meeting with her usual calm and courtesy, but afterwards she was throwing a hissy fit and punching her pillows. "I remember you even clearing my schedule for that whole afternoon just so you could fit his visit in." No one would say it, but she knew exactly what that day's appointment was. It was the opening interview in an arranged marriage. How dare her folks presume they could fix her burgeoning love life that way! "He kept asking all these questions about me and my hobbies and my education plans." Plus, the guy was about to turn thirty! Did they really think she'd go for a guy twice her age just because he was already in a position to be her financial provider? Just how out of step with the times were they?

"Oh, poor dear," Her mother rushed straight over. "You must have banged your head real hard to craft a fantasy that detailed!"

"Huh?" She'd embraced Hitomi in a prodigious hug before she could react. "Whatever do you mean, Mother?"

"Just now," Her mother guided her over to a bookshelf and snatched a pocket mirror that rested on it. "When I inquired, you stumbled and slammed your head straight against the door frame!"

"I did?" In her reflection she could see there was a brand new welt forming on the side of her temple. "I- I did!" But she couldn't remember banging her head on the thing. Her shoulder, yes, in fact it was still tingling up along her collarbone, but how could she have hit her head too and not known?

"I was merely following up on something you asked me earlier," It took ten full seconds for her mother to let go of her. "Remember? You wanted my input on whether it was appropriate or not for a girl to be the instigating party in a dating encounter?"

"Oh, yeah!" The memory of that morning was also pretty fresh. More so even, than the conversations she had with that man.

"I have read in all sorts of medical journals that the most upsetting nightmares tend to be the ones that persist longest in a person's mind over the most pleasant dreams," Her mother explained. "They say it is because one's brain tends to snap awake before the dream sequence is completed." She pushed a loose strand of hair behind Hitomi's attentive ear. "I think you hit that frame so hard you mistook reality for a recent one."

"Oh." Hitomi blinked. "That makes sense." She rubbed the spot on her temple. "I guess."

"Perhaps it would be best if we cancel those plans for tonight so that you get the chance to recuperate?"

"No, I'm fine!" Hitomi insisted. "Really fine!" This day was once going so well. The last thing she wanted was for it to be ruined by her own clumsiness. "Please bring me a little bag of ice, and I'm certain I'll be healed once Father comes home."

"If you insist." Her mother walked back into the kitchen and fetched a cold pack from their freezer.

"Get baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Kuroe lunged twenty-two meters like a speeding bullet and struck that invisible object about to ambush her newest acquaintance as hard as she could with her electrical batons.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

Whatever foe attacked Gamma moved so fast its targeting system could not compensate in time to acquire it.

-| IMPACT DAMAGE TO UPPER LEFT APPENDAGE AND ROTATOR BEARING |-

-| ADDITIONAL ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-

"Are you alright?" In one fell swoop Kuroe managed to both land a hit on whatever that thing was and rescue the girl. She had never ever moved so fast before. She hoped she hadn't accidentally caused her rescuee any whiplash.

"I'm okay," She managed to mumble to Kuroe's relief. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Kuroe chanced the briefest of glances from their hiding spot behind a headstone. There was nothing visible, but that didn't mean there was nothing there. She sensed a foreign soul of some kind, however faint, it was looming. And looming large. So large that Kuroe's hand was still ringing from the impact.

"What on earth are you wearing?" The young lady beside Kuroe had taken immediate notice of Kuroe's magical getup. Her long, black cloak was her primary piece of wardrobe, but it wasn't sufficient cover for her sleeveless crop top and double-layered skirt underneath. Her legs and feet weren't much better covered, as she donned only a long pair of pink socks and black sandals. With both her thighs and belly button exposed and only a pullover hood to protect her from the surging rains, she looked too little covered to serve as an adept bodyguard.

"I'll explain later, now shhh!" Kuroe tried to keep her quiet. It wasn't too difficult for her ears to discern something heavy stomping into the bricks. Even her non-magical associate could hear it.

Gamma sensed an energy source somewhere in proximity to it, one whose output was comparable only to the mystery battery operating within its chest compartment.

-| MISSION PROTOCOL OVERRIDE |-

-| PRIORITY ONE TARGET DETECTED |-

-| EXECUTE CODE 3390: ***** HOMO MAGICA COMBAT MODE ***** |-

-| CAPTURE BIOFORM AT ALL COSTS BY COMMAND OF CYBER REGENT! |-

Was the Cyber Regina arbitrarily assuming control over the operation again? It took less than zero point zero zero two nine six seconds for Gamma to deduce that, no, the communications blackout was still in effect and its autonomy had not been usurped. Instead, a backdoor line of operating code was being initiated, one it did not know had been installed. "Update in progress." It sensed its electronic voice module speak aloud.

"Huh?" Kuroe and the young lady exchanged confused looks. The girl was baffled, because to her it sounded like a robot of some kind. Kuroe was even more flummoxed, as she'd never known of any witch or familiar to speak in such loud, intelligible words before.

-| SCANNING FOR RESONANT ENERGY SIGNATURE |-

Gamma had no choice but to follow the new instruction set. It was, after all, still bound by the nature of its programming. It did not matter whether or not it was aware of all its subroutines on a conscious level, it still obeyed them.

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| RANGE: 14.331 METERS |-

A multicolored glow in one spot was transposed over Gamma's field of view. Indicating the target was hiding behind a solid limestone object.

"Run!" Kuroe sensed their position had been made. "Get as far away as you can!"

"But what about y-"

"Just go!" Kuroe shouted, charging her batons with as much voltage as her magic could muster. "Please!"

Gamma took hard and fast steps towards its prey. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It was an automatic utterance, Gamma could perceive the extra electrochemical surges it got from speaking it.

"Yyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhh!"

"Father!" Hitomi perked right up and greeted her dad at the front door. "So glad you could make it home early today!" She threw her arms around his waist with much adulation.

"It is the least I could do for you on a fine day like this," He smiled and patted her on top of her head. "How is your head?"

"Much better," She fibbed. It never hurt at all. "Thanks." She felt a little silly holding an ice pack to a bruise she only seemed to feel whenever she peered into her own reflection. "I'll be fine enough to dine out with you and mother tonight."

"That is good to hear." He pecked a kiss at that spot on her temple. It was quite unusual for him to plant a kiss of any kind on her, so for her the gesture of affection was quite appreciated. "Now head on into your room, while I pull some strings for those reservations tonight."

"Father?" At the door Hitomi thought to ask him one question.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Uhm," She was dithering over how to do it. Most bad dreams faded in detail as time went on, but from her odd fantasy new random details were sneaking in like unwanted pop-up ads. "Do you happen to have someone working for you who goes by the name 'Kotaro'?" Like the name of that overpolished man she'd been set up with.

"Why yes," He replied. "He is the newest member on our board of directors. Brilliant business acumen, but Kotaro lives alone. Indeed, he reminds me a lot of myself at-" She had already booked it straight up to her bedroom.

"Coincidence!" She tried to reassure herself as she whipped her door open in a troubled huff. "It's just a coincidence!" She hurled her body straight into the middle of her massive, double-sized bed. "That's all!" It wasn't a waterbed, but the landing still felt as if she'd taken a hard plunge into the deep blue sea. "Unnnnngh!" She buried her face in her big, pink frill-trimmed pillow.

"Are you a vegetarian or non-vegetarian?" She could hear that man's distinctive, low patronly voice ask.

She was eggetarian, but added she had no ill regard or feelings of superiority over those who consumed meat. The perfect little lady's perfect answer.

"What are your hobbies and what sorts of things do you like to do in your free time?" She could smell his aftershave as though the scent had embedded itself into her pillow.

She was freshly fifteen. The age where hobbies come and go on a whim, where the only thing she prized doing with her precious spare time was frolicing with friends. Of course she didn't say any of that. She had to tell him that all the extracurriculars her mother made her take were her hobbies and that what little free time she spared was spent with said friends. Omitting that it had been months since she'd last spoken to them, and was no longer on good terms with one in particular after romantic kerfuffles and popcorn shenanigans.

"What are your plans after finishing high school?" She recalled a pocket notebook and a pen in his hand. He was jotting down her answers verbatim like a student attending a lecture.

But what girl her age already has their whole life mapped out past school? A girl whose life was being controlled by their parents, a notion that she had tried to be in denial about herself until this very reality-busting moment. She only told him that she wanted to live a life in which the knowledge and experience she'd gain could be used to help others.

"What place would you most like to travel to?" Anywhere but here. Baaaaah. Hawaii.

She rolled over and opened her eyes. It. was. A dream. And she was getting nothing but needless stress dwelling on it so much.

"Do you like pets? Do you prefer dogs or cats?"

Hitomi always wanted to be a pet person, but allergies precluded it. She opened her mouth intending to give a cheeky answer and say she wanted to adopt a naked mole rat, but her mother walked in and poured up some tea and offered snacks. She chickened out and just said hairless dogs look so sad and hairless cats looked sickly. What a bizarrely specific thing to remember from a dream. She got off the bed and ventured over to her desk.

"What kind of music do you like?" Why was she thinking about this?

Romantic era violin concertos. Thanks in large part to a boy whom she would've much preferred being the one asking these questions.

She opened a book. It was a science textbook. The subject didn't matter as long as it kept her mouth and her thoughts preoccupied.

"For decades it was widely held by scientists that the bottom of the sea was as sterile and lifeless as the surface of the Moon," She turned to a page and read aloud.

"What has been the scariest situation you've ever faced, and how did you recover from it?" That was one of his later questions. She'd been so polite and cooperative up to that moment, then she got the bright idea of trying to scare him good by recounting in lurid detail her most harrowing recent ordeal.

"But thanks to advances in submarine technology, humanity has explored the deepest trenches and discovered countless microbiomes thriving at temperatures and pressures once thought to be inhospitable." She told him that she had been in this exact room doing this very activity when it first happened.

-| DAMAGE DETECTED |-

"Bwwwweeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooooop!" Gamma's electronic voice module squeaked. "Whhhhhiiiiiirrrrrr! Bwwaaawwwp!"

Kuroe still had no clue what she was fighting. But the light generated by the jolts and sparks of her baton's blow suggested something humanoid in shape.

-| HAIRLINE CRACK IN MAIN CHASSIS |-

-| LOCATION: HIP ROLL JOINT |-

-| ADDITIONAL ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED |-

-| DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR |-

-| REROUTING POWER TO COMPENSATE FOR ELECTRICAL INTERFERENCE |-

"The goal is for technology to one day reach a point where a probe with the ability to drill all the way through the thick ice of Europa, the Galilean moon of Jupiter, and search for microscopic life." She'd been sitting at her desk, trying to study. But really attempting to distract herself from her many unpleasant thoughts. That's when a mysterious, otherworldly voice whispered sweet nothings into her ears.

"Parents don't understand us. They don't want to. We're nothing more than accessories. Or possessions."

No, no - It wasn't that. It had something to do with Sayaka Miki, and her irksome disregard for their friendship. But, yes, Hitomi held such a budding sentiment towards her folks, too.

"Studies of hydrothermal and geothermal vents have also yielded questions about the viability of life on the neighboring Galilean moon of Io, as well as the Saturnian moon known as Enceladus." That's when she somehow let her imagination get a little carried away from her. But her memories of what followed were a little vague, so she filled in the gaps with a fair bit of creative indulgence.

"But we mustn't go on being their perfect little wind-up dolls. We're not their smiling little robots. We have wants, needs, passions and desires of our own!"

She actually took a fair bit of joy in being excessively descriptive of her delusion, reveling in the turnabout of him having to just sit there, smile, nod and sip tea while she got to do all the talking. Flashing those pearly-whites as she regaled him with the entirely true story of how she was suddenly a specimen on an operating table, terrified and so sick she wanted to puke, but couldn't trigger her gag reflex.

"So why don't we run away? Run away to where we need only to live for the things we cherish most? Free like in our most precious dreams!" That wasn't what the mysterious voice said at all, but she did remember the sentiment burrowing its way down to the core of her brain as she spun her tale.

"But perhaps the most coveted destination of all could be Saturn's moon Titan, where life may swim among the flowing rivers of methane and ethane." The whole out-of-body experience seemed a lot like being whisked away to another world, alright. But couldn't remember what that ghostly voice said exactly, she only remembered how content and cared for its soothing whispers made her feel. Like falling in love.

"Hitomi?" She heard her father speak and knock at her door.

"Yes Father?" She turned towards him and faked her good-est, most goody good girl smile.

"Reservations made, seven-thirty sharp!" He started undoing his red business tie. "Formal attire only, so why don't you put on that nice floral gown from your grandmother?"

"Thank you, Father. I will." She returned to her busywork reading.

"Reroute successful," A mechanical voice buzzed into the nighttime air. "Acquiring target."

Kuroe made sure to keep moving fast and loose. Whatever this was that she'd chosen to involve herself with, now it sounded like it was on the hunt for her.

"Scanning!"

-| TARGET ACQUIRED |-

-| RANGE: 18.347 METERS |-

-| VELOCITY: 24.653 METERS PER SECOND |-

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The effect of those simple synthesized words really was improving Gamma's reaction time by a calculable margin. It spotted its prey zero point zero zero zero two seven seconds faster, and opened fire another zero point zero six eight four seconds sooner. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Oh, crap!" Kuroe had been made. Now she was pinned behind a metal maintenance shed, and whatever this thing was shooting was gonna chew through her protection in no time flat. She needed to create a distraction, something that would buy her an invaluable extra second or three. How fortunate she was, that Konoha had trained her in what things she should try under these very circumstances.

"Target identifying," Gamma's sights tracked something that was catapulted high into the air, spinning at a rate of eight point six six revolutions per second.

Kuroe clutched her remaining baton like a baseball bat and rocketed her whole body at her marauder. The precipitation was washing down at a rate sufficient enough to mark an outline of her foe. It was huge, at least two meters tall by Kuroe's estimation. But more important than that, it had a large, bulbous head. A head she was gonna swing for like a tee-ball batter.

"Kiiiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

By the time its motion sensors had deduced that the object was ballistic and its strategical software concluded that the item was a decoy, it could do nothing to counteract the black body hurtling towards it at a speed that should not have been possible for a biological entity of that size and profile.

-| Err0R |-

-| CraN1Al Ar^^0R C*MpRoM!5Ed |-

-| 313cT71cAl 5urG3 2 c3NtRA1 Pr0Ce550r |-

-| 3xTerl\laL C0ml\/lun1cAt!0N5 al\ltenl\lA dAl\/laG3d |-

-| !l\it!AtInG 50fTwAr3 Rel300T |-

"After the success of the Cassini-Huygens mission, in which the first successful landing of a probe beyond Mars took place, scientists are looking to study both Titan and Enceladus with a successor probe scheduled to launch sometime in the- Aaaaaahhhh!" A needling jab as sharp and piercing as a hornet's stinger penetrated through Hitomi's temple straight into the very core of her brain. "Ooooowwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiieeeeeee!" She jumped away from her desk, tumbled back and landed on her bed. "Waaaaaaaauuuuuuuugghh! Waaaaaaaaaahhh- Hawwaaaaaaaawwwww!" She bawled and bawled like a newborn.

"Notagainnotagainnotagain!" She thrashed and writhed and pounded her bedsheets. "Plllllleeeeeeaaaaaassssse no not again!"

"Hitomi!" She felt someone gently shake her by the shoulders. "Hitomi, wake up please!"

"Huh?" Her eyes zipped open and the panic of tears and fears had vanished. The only sign that anything happened at all was that the pages in her textbook had become stuck together. Because she'd been drooling on it.

"Sorry I had to wake you from your nap," Her mother apologized. "But it is almost seven." She helped Hitomi stand up off her seat. "But I have brought that nice dress out for you." It was the exact same floral dress her father had suggested mere moments earlier, hanging over the handle to her wardrobe.

"Oh," She mumbled with a glance out her window. It might have seemed like moments earlier, but somehow the afternoon had progressed and the sun was now around two hours or so lower in the sky. Had she just dozed off and let her nagging worries drag her poor psyche into the clutches of a nightmare? Or rather, a day-mare? "Thank you, Mother." She got straight out of bed and inhaled the fresh scent of the late afternoon air. "Whew!"

"We will be waiting for you downstairs when you're dressed," Her mother pecked a parting kiss on top of her head.

"Okay," Hitomi inhaled and exhaled another deep, relieved sigh. She'd read stories about people who had dreams wrapped in dreams, and had the jarring experience of having to wake themselves up twice or more. But she didn't think she'd ever be one who'd experience the disorientation of one firsthand. Though all things being equal, a dream within a dream was the only logical explanation. Unless she'd suffered from yet another one of those mass delusions. But the thought of that happening to her a third time was just too dreadful to think about. So she refused to entertain it. Punted that notion straight out of her skull.

"Hnnnnnnnghhh," She picked the dress up off its resting spot by the hanger. She'd never tried the dress on before, not even for her grandmother after getting it on her thirteenth birthday. She remembered that at the time she'd gotten it in her head that outfits like this one, with black as its primary color and red spider lilies as the decorative pattern, was symbolic of an impending death, and that her grandma was about to break some very heartbreaking news in the wake of a recent health scare. She was secretly convinced it was the dress the old lady had picked for Hitomi to wear at her forthcoming funeral.

"Hehehee!" She just had to chuckle at her thirteen-year-old self's unfounded alarms. Months later she cracked open a fashion magazine while with her mother at a grocery checkout stand. And what did she happen to discover when paging through it, but a drop-dead gorgeous older teen modeling that exact same dress? Reading the description and subject interview, she discovered the dress color wasn't black, but rather a deep shade of sapphire blue that commonly gets mistaken for black. And the adorning lilies weren't of the heavenly lycoris family but rather of the more common and earthly lilium type. Her grandmother was simply trying to be trendy, and she misunderstood the message. But by then Hitomi felt too embarrassed by her color-blindness and lack of botanical knowledge to dig the dress out and give it a try-on.

"Oooh," She cooed as she performed a runway twirl before her mirror in her new gown. With a see-thru upper chest and sleeves featuring frills at the elbows and neck, it really brought out the silky smoothness of her skin. How might her parents react if she told them she wanted to become a model? Boys and fellow girls were always telling her how cute and conventionally attractive she was. But she always struggled to see the same person they did. Like with her academics she always tended to harp more on her minor imperfections than appreciate the things going for her. But for the first time while donning that dark, flowery dress with those long laces in back, she saw the things they saw. She was tall, well-proportioned and had an ample bosom. From her shiny, well-kempt hair, to her perfectly-spaced eyebrows. Having rosy-red cheeks, luscious lips and a full set of pearly-white teeth, she put her hands to her face and admired the figure smiling back at her.

"Well, Worthington Bear?" She turned back around and asked the stuffed animal sitting perched atop her plus-sized pink pillow. "What do you think?" It was one of her most prized possessions, that plush bear. A refugee from the toy store's discounted back shelf, it had two ebony black, round eyes with stitching that made it look like two tears were about to droop from the corners. Her Father later told her it was a character from a European storybook series. It made her keen to learn everything about the character, from its unique silver fur to its life jacket-esque pewter overcoat and gray rain boots. He had a wide, toothy smile and a personalized tag whose stories taught her so many fine foundational lessons for living a kind, moral life. "I look pretty nice, don't I?"

"System restoration successful. Upgrade in progress."

The forced reboot had disabled Gamma's automatic targeting software. Now it was going to have to rely solely on its ocular sensors to engage this belligerent. It was not about to retreat or restrategize, for its orders to apprehend this antagonist were hard-coded in its operating system. To counteract the being's ability to create directed energy attacks, Gamma grounded itself by jabbing its long, pointed heels into the soil. It had also depolarized the nanomolecular fluids flowing within its chassis to minimize the chances of another electrical outburst disrupting its core circuitry.

Kuroe, meanwhile, was still recovering from the aftermath of her strike. Slugging whatever that thing is, was like trying to batter a tank. Should she keep fighting it? Should she run? Or should she keep her head down in hiding and try to wait it out? Her gut was telling her the third option was foolish wishful thinking, and that this behemoth wasn't going to rest until it tracked her down to the ends of the earth. Like it or not, she was going to have to make her stand right here, right now, do or die.

"Huuuuuuuuuaaaaaaap!" This time she switched it up, fastballing her baton at her target while taking to the air. It might have been a tank, but even one of those could be put out of commission after it's been dealt enough damage. And a magical girl is capable of all kinds of miraculous feats.

At least, that's what Konoha and Hazuki kept preaching to everybody belonging to their upstart Takarazaki Squad. And so Kuroe dove in, desperate to prove it.

"Ohnonononono noooooo!" The frantic Hitomi picked poor Worthington Bear up by the arm and chucked it at her desk. "Youdidn'tjusttalkyoudidn'tjusttalkyoudidn'tjusttalk!" The toy smacked hard against the wall, then careened into a snowglobe resting on her desk. "Eeeeeeeep!" Hitomi dove after the rolling glass memento and caught it just before it shattered against the floor.

"Wheeeeeeeew!" She breathed one very huge, exasperated sigh of relief. It was one thing to rough up a teddy bear, at least that thing could be stitched back together or replaced. But this wonderful little one-of-a-kind snowglobe that her Father got her for Christmas? It would've mangled her heart to watch it in dozens of ruined pieces on the floor.

So how in the world did that exact memory wind up in her head?

"Eeeeeeeek! Get away from meeeeeeee!" A warbled, anguished voice squawked as it smacked Kuroe hard in the gut and sent her flying into a tree.

"Unnnnnggggf!" Kuroe spat up blood upon landing. "Owwwwww!"

-| eRr0R |-

Gamma had no diagnostic explanation for its involuntary vocalized spasm. All it knew was that its operational imperative was to neutralize this subject, and its unexpected counterblow had just given it that much-needed tactical upper hand.

A huge, screeching blackbird had just swooped straight through the window and attacked her! Hitomi batted it back and rushed over to close the window. But the assault wasn't even the most frightening thing about the ordeal… For when she reached out and struck back at her assailant, for a moment Hitomi swore her whole arm was a long, metallic rod-like appendage!

"Whawhawhat's happening- To meeeeeee?" The confused, upset and frightened Hitomi didn't know how much more of this weirdness she could take. Phantom injuries, conflicting memories and now creatures that dive-bombed her from out-of-nowhere all conspiring to separate her from her very sanity. "Booooo- Hoo- Hooo- Hoooo- Hooooo!" What else could she do but curl up into a fetal ball and cry?

"Target One apprehended!" Gamma announced in its typical clinical, though slightly off-pitch tone. "Adjusted mission directive complete!" It had Kuroe by the neck and immobilized. "Scanning." Now it had to figure out how to transport its subject back to its base without incurring further harm to itself.

"Gurrrrrk!" Poor Kuroe couldn't move and couldn't breathe. All she could do was look on in ever-growing fear and panic as the rainfall washed the transparent camouflage away from her captor's visage, revealing its form as a huge, hulking, gray metal robot with its cold, black gaze, and strange ears so long they better resembled fins. She could see that she'd caused a pretty sizable dent to its left side with her earlier effort, so in a desperate huff she materialized another baton and tried smacking the same spot again. But the machine caught her arm with ease and dislocated it with an effortless tug and crunch. "Auuuggh!" Kuroe screamed a muffled cry in pain as her magical form reverted to her school clothes in a dull, amethyst flash.

"Resistance is ineffectual, further attempts will be punished," Gamma verbalized a warning. Its physical examination concluded the subject was a physiologically typical Homo sapien, age approximated at fourteen or fifteen years. There were no signs of physical augmentation, and to Gamma's vexation, all files pertaining to priority targets dubbed as 'Homo magica' were stored in an encrypted fileset that could only be accessed with the additional authorization of the Cyber Regent. The only clue on the subject was that anomalous energy source, once affixed as a shining circular item to its right lower appendage but now had transmuted itself into a much smaller attachment around one of its digits. "Query: Identify this object." It studied said object and noted that there was an energy reaction emanating from a glowing core at its tip, and there was a phase change within that was accelerating at a cascading pace.

"Leeeeeet… Goooooooo… Of meeeeeeeee!" Kuroe murmured through her pain. Konoha had said that if she were ever taken captive by anyone or anything that wasn't a magical girl, she should die before letting the secrets of her kind fall into an enemy's hands. At the time she didn't take the idea seriously. She was convinced that her leader was just being overly grim or dramatic, but now here she was, face-to-face with that very possibility. And she didn't want to die. Not like this.

"Response not valid," Gamma sternly intoned. "Answer the request or face further dismantlement!" It clamped down harder on Kuroe's wrist.

"Huuuuuuurrrrrrk!" Kuroe gurgled. It was supposed to be a quiet night shift gig. She should've just ignored that stupid message from Konoha's not-sister and not involved herself in another girl's affairs. She hated those stinking sisters for convincing her to keep being a magical girl. She hated herself for being such a foolish interloper. She despised herself for being too weak to make a difference in the end. And above all, she resented that stupid human girl for abandoning her to a fate that was supposed to be all hers on this dreary night.

Gamma calculated that the chain reaction event would reach its terminus in thirty-two minutes, sixteen seconds. But it was going to take Gamma approximately forty-seven minutes, fifty-one seconds to return to base. But if it took off now and pushed its thrusters to fifteen percent beyond its maximum designed efficiency, then it could make the trip in twenty-nine minutes, seventeen seconds. It could do twenty percent but it would risk burning out its own energy supply in twenty-five minutes. Gamma bent its legs, extended its wings and prepared to ignite its boosters.

"Put her doooooooooown!" A voice rushed out of the bushes and latched itself onto Gamma's leg. Gamma evaluated its latest nuisance as a complete non-threat. The tactical recommendation was to delete the biological organism with its electrified grip.

-| ErrOR |-

Except Gamma could do no such thing. That presented a problem.

"Nooooooooooooooooooo!" Hitomi cried. "Getoutofmyheadgetoutofmyheadwhateveryouaregetoutofmyhead!" She beat her wrist against her face trying to exercise those torturous images from her brain. Every time she closed her eyes, she was watching events unfolding in an entirely different world. One tinged in a deep crimson shade of red, where two very terrified girls were trying in vain to harm her. For it was like her whole body had been turned into an indomitable tank. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Tormented by outlandish delusions where she had no control over her disfigured formIt had happened to her before and now it was threatening to derail her wonderful day again!

A follow-up analysis determined that Gamma's outset mission and its revised parameters had come into conflict. The individual attempting to stop it from carrying out its new protocols was the designated target of its prior assignment. And as such, it was not allowed to inflict grievous harm upon the being. Yet it could not initiate takeoff so long as the individual was in such proximity to danger.

"Juuust goooooo… Awaaaaay!" Kuroe pleaded to the girl holding onto Gamma's leg for dear life. "Pleeeeeease!" She was trying to put on as brave a front as she could, but secretly she was so glad to see there was someone who cared enough to come back. Even if it meant they were both about to die, at least Kuroe wouldn't have to suffer alone.

"Mister Robot, you were trying to catch me first, weren't you?" The girl pounded and pounded against Gamma's gluteal armor. It could pound and pound on Gamma's shell until whatever resource that supplied it was exhausted. It was never going to afflict any damage with such insufficient force. A most illogical expenditure for no appreciable gain. "Let her go, and you can do whatever you want with me! Please!"

"Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Gamma's vocal synthesizer squawked. If there was a broader tactical reason for that proposal, its analytical software could not discern it. "Whiiiiiirrrrrrrrr! Beeeeedip!" Although the evaluation was increasing the temperature of its CPU by zero point zero zero three eight degrees.

"Whyyyyyyyy?" The organism struggling in Gamma's clutches asked the key question in a way the unit just could not articulate. "You could've- Saaaaaaaved yourself!"

"You saved me first," She said. "You don't have to trade your life for mine. It isn't right, and I'm not worth the trouble."

-| ERR0R |-

Gamma was at an impasse. It had its new primary target captive and ready for transport, but could not leave because its former prey would not allow it. It also could not take both at once, as flight trajectory models indicated it could not achieve a sustainable flight path while carrying both in tandem. Nor could it travel by ground, as this was a stealth mission and that created an unacceptable risk of discovery by the other human biological entities.

"Dataset insufficient," Gamma finally spoke. "You possess attachment to one with whom you have no genetic or familial affiliation?" Its updated scan indicated the cascade reaction in its captive's energy source had somehow slowed by a sixty-nine point seven one three four percent margin. It was now at least at a point where Gamma could mount a return mission at a later date with additional data and instructions from its Master. "This does not compute." Pattern tracking suggested that there was a correlation to the exact moment the other one volunteered to go instead.

"Hitomi, dear!" Her mother's voice called out. "We are ready to leave when you're ready to go!"

"Mooooooooooommie!" Straining herself to find the will and courage to move, Hitomi got up, shambled to the door and cried as loud as she could. "There's something wrooooooooong with meeeeeeee!" The last two times her sense of reality got twisted and warped she had been left to her own devices alone. And after both incidents she tried her best to downplay the true severity of her freakouts. Not so this time. There was a very fine line between having the strength to deal with your mounting woes and being so weak that you can't even admit when those problems have become too overwhelming to handle on your own, and she'd crossed it. But was she too late to turn back?

"Oh, my goodness!" Her mother caught her in her arms just as she tripped on the third step downstairs and almost went for a painful tumble. "What happened to you?"

"Every time whenever I close my eyes I see," Hitomi gasped. "I see something that scares me!" Her mother had escorted her weary body into the living room, the same room where her father was waiting, and helped her lay herself down on the sofa.

"It is okay," Her mother took her outreached hand. "Please tell us, what do you see?" Her parents exchanged a set of very unnerving glances.

"The electrical discharge and subsequent hardware damage has altered the unit's internal brain chemistry in a way that my throughput monitoring could neither predict nor capably compensate for once the effects translated into the Deltaband." Her father spoke such pure nonsense in a very dry, and thus unsettling tone.

"Wha- Whaaat?" Hitomi whined. "What on earth are you talking about, Daaaaddy?" Her state of mind had gotten so frayed that now she was addressing her parents as if she were seven again. Was she now so far gone that their words were no longer making a single lick of sense?

"Never mind his words," Her mother stroked her cheek with her free hand. "Please describe the things you see when you close your eyes." Her request carried as clinical a voice as her father's and even though her soft touch was benign it was also cold. And she was rubbing her face as if she'd never engaged in the act before. It wasn't making Hitomi calm at all.

"Seeing you hurt her so much makes me hurt too," The original reason for Gamma's excursion explained. "And I don't wanna hurt like that anymore. So please Mister Robot, wherever you want to do with me, I'll let you do it. But you have to put her down."

Gamma had no reason to comply with the request. The embedded subprotocol was its operational prime directive, and no matter how dynamic the situation got, no alteration was permitted.

So why had Gamma not shaken her off if it wasn't considering the trade?

"I'm in a dark place." With little other choice Hitomi did as her mother asked. "So cold." Her connection to whatever was going on in the other place was creeping beyond just the mere sights. "I think it might be outside and storming." She winced in pain and fear at the events in which she was but a captive, helpless observer. "And my arms… I think they're both my arms… They're reached out and I've got this very frightened-looking girl in a deathlock!" There was an equally frightened girl who had her by the leg, but the one most fearful of all was Hitomi herself.

"If the experience of it becomes too intense, you can simply open your eyes," Her mother said. "That should alleviate the symptoms. I have issued a patch that should also dampen the severity of the input-output link's feedback."

"Why do you guys keep talking like that?" The only time her father would ever use such technical language was whenever it pertained to his business interests. And her mother, while quite intelligent, was not computer savvy enough to talk like that. At least, computer talk was how it sounded to Hitomi. "Who are you? Are you really my parents?"

"The administrative users have not cleared us to answer those queries at this time." Her father answered. To Hitomi's ears it was a very roundabout and upsetting way to say 'no'.

"Our identities are not the subject of paramount importance," Her mother was even more cryptic in her attempt at reassurance. "Please just take my word for it when I say the only thing that matters right now is you!"

"Input request," Gamma buzzed. "Biological units, state your designations."

"Huuuuuuuh?" Kuroe coughed.

"You want to know our names, Mister Robot?" The other one seemed to understand Gamma's phrasing. "I'm Tamaki," She declared. "Iroha Tamaki."

"Ta- Ma- Ki?" Gamma bleeped. They were two words Gamma was familiar with, being the former monikers of Units One Zero Three and One Zero Four.

"I- I'm Kuroe," The hand around Kuroe's neck had loosened up enough to let her speak without struggle. "Kuroe Shizumi." But she wasn't about to trust this hulking lug with her real identity, so she gave it Konoha's family name while showing her appreciation for the other girl with her given name. And as soon as she gave the name, the squeeze retightened.

"Even though I know it is very difficult," Hitomi's mother implored. "Right now I need you to close your eyes again and concentrate all your remaining will upon that other place."

"I don't want to!" She protested. "I don't understand why you'd want me to!"

"Because a person's life is at stake," She insisted. "Their life is in your hands. I am aware that those appendages you see look alien, the farthest thing imaginable from your small, dainty digits, but they belong to you and only you have the power to spare that poor soul from being extinguished."

Hitomi didn't want to believe what her mother was telling her was serious, but there was such a gravity to the way she put it Hitomi couldn't take a chance on a more comforting lie. So she closed her eyes and squirmed on her back.

-| ERROR |-

Gamma heard the clicking of its internal bearings and servos which chained together to release its lock-tight grip around the captive Kuroe. It did not comprehend the reason why it would commit to such an act. Especially since all its differential tactical and situational evaluations foresaw her resuming belligerent status immediately. Slowly but surely the captured magical girl was freed, first by the neck, then it opened its claws around her crunched wrist. Kuroe fell to the ground and into the open arms of its volunteer hostage.

Gamma also did not understand what it did next. Rather than gearing up for an imminent resumption of hostilities, it was slowly migrating both its main appendages into its direct field of view. At first it was convinced that its autonomy had been overridden again, but the blackout was still in effect, and it detected no other Cyber Unit within network range. That could only mean it was somehow doing this of its own volition.

Now it was moving those appendages right up to its cranial armor, placing them in such a way as to obscure over ninety-two point eight percent of its sight. Why would it sabotage itself in this manner, should the biological beings take the statistically most likely actions? "Beeeeeep! Whiiiiiirrrrrrp!"

"Oh, my god!" Hitomi sobbed into her hands. Or rather, the fleshy paws that were her hands in appearance only. For it was finally dawning on her, that she had fallen into a delusional, dreamlike state as happened twice before. But unlike those last two times, this time the fantasy was the warm and fuzzy living room and sofa that embodied the previous world that she had fled.

"Mister Robot," Gamma's surface sensory systems detected a light contact on its torso and chestplate. "Are you okay?"

"Beeeeeeeeeeeep! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt!" But right now it was too busy doing an on-the-fly bugfix to respond.

No. Hitomi was not okay. More than a light year from okay her mind was, with a shotgun blast of once-repressed memories blowing buckshot holes straight through the façade that was her former life.

She ran away from it all. Right after her parents surprised her with that miserable interview, she waited for her chance to be alone, trashed her room and fled the scene. Where she wound up she didn't know and didn't care. That was when she heard yet another siren's call, a kindred heart singing to her from the shadows of the night, luring her in with the promise of freedom and happiness. She had no trouble following it all the way to its origin either, as she remembered walking her way down through the most secluded depths of her brand new private school. The next thing she knew, she was back in her bedroom living this sick, sordid lie.

"Hitomi!" She heard her mother in the distance, trying to snap her out of her self-imposed catatonia. "Hitomi!" But why bother responding? She wasn't really her mother.

"Mister Robot," She could also hear the other voice calling through a distorted filter, as if it was coming through the speakers of the answering machine of a landline phone. "I'm ready to go with you." But she wasn't about to go anywhere. Or do anything. She was content to just curl up and die.

"Mission parameter, code three three nine zero," Gamma found itself freed from whatever internal malfunction caused its body to behave so arbitrarily. "Manual override executed." But in those few moments trapped in that idle state it learned it could do a workaround that allowed it to make operational changes without preauthorization. "System restore to previous mission objective." Thus resolving the peculiar paradox that was most likely responsible for the functionality failure. "Please stand by." It took a knee and presented its arms in such a way as to suggest that the girl would next need to climb into them.

"No!" Kuroe took one step in an effort to stop her. "You don't have to-"

"It's okay," The girl gestured for her to halt. "I'm not scared." She wanly made a smile. "You tried your best for me, and that was enough. Thank you." She fell back into the robot's awaiting arms and waved with her fingers. "Goodbye, Kuroe."

"Minimum safe takeoff distance is three meters." The robot advised. "Step back now." Kuroe did as demanded and the sound of twin rocket jets roaring pummeled her eardrums.

"Hitomi!" Her father was next in trying to shake her from her stupor. "Hitomi, you have visitors!" But why should she be willing to see anyone if they weren't real? They all ought to just go away. "It is your friends Saya and Nemu." She didn't ever even introduce them to her parents, that's how obvious this farce had gotten. "Oh? I see… We have to vanish so that you will be able to conserve magic. I understand." What? Magic?

"If you can reach her," Her mother whispered, yet somehow Hitomi's hearing had become so acute she could perceive it. "Tell her goodbye, and please apologize for our failure to function as adequate firewall and throughput monitoring subroutines in the end." What? They were computer programs? Made of magic?

"You operated within the best of your algorithmic limitations," She heard Saya say. "Rest in peace and contentment with awareness of that."

"Thank you," Her fake folks said in unison. "We are sorry, Hitomi." Hitomi was shaken by their earnest apology enough to witness them vanish in a flurry of green ones and zeroes.

"And we're sorry, too," Nemu approached. To Hitomi's sheer shock and confusion, she was wearing her magical getup from the game.

"Sorry we had to deceive you with this model, but it was necessary." And while it was Saya's voice, it was digitized and her image looked nothing like the girl Hitomi spent the past few months making into her new best friend. Now she was the basic framework of a humanoid form, lacking a face, but featuring a green feminine body and long locks. "We believed it was the only way to make your transition from biological to technological lifeform easier and not psychologically scarring."

"Please forgive our deceit, but we really need your help!"

Chapter Text

Junko Kaname needed to blow off some steam. So she loaded the clip into her new SIG Sauer handgun and chambered the first round. "Heh-heh!" She at least had that part of the routine down pat. She placed her dominant, right hand over the grip and stabilized it by putting her left one over top, having one thumb overlapping the other just as the instructor said worked best for beginners. "Heh-haaah!" She eyed her target down deep inside the underground section of their base of operations and squeezed the trigger. "Haaaaah-hah-ha!" She missed, the first hole appearing over the left shoulder of the silhouetted target. Then she fired off two more rounds. She was practicing inside a concrete reinforced shooting range, with an interior acoustically designed to dampen the noise so as not to let the ignorant public dining within the cheap Chinese restaurant above hear what was happening but a few dozen meters below their feet. "Haaahahaaaa!" Followed by three more tries. So far she was one for six, with her single hit grazing the target underneath the armpit. "Haaahaaahaaa!" She would be laughing it up at her poor marksmanship, had she not already been laughing at the unsealed brown envelope sitting on the little black table in front of her waist. "Haaaahaaaahaaa!" She lit off four more rounds, hitting the black part twice and missing twice. "Haaahaaaahaaaa! And finished the clip with two more shots, one finally striking somewhere on the marked points part of the target.

"Heeeeheeeee!" She couldn't help but giggle like a loony cartoon character as she pressed the red button to retrieve the final results of her first go. "Hooohooooohooo!" The contents kept within that big envelope, marked 'Classified' were just so incredible she had to laugh. "Tch!" Four hits out of twelve. Not too bad for a baseball hitter, but downright awful when one's supposed to be among the few authorized concealed arms carriers in all Japan. "Hmph!" Not helping with her aim was the distracting nature of that image drawn on the paper. Though generically human from the waist down, its head was shaped like some bizarre evolution of a reptilian creature, with big white ovular and oversized, hostile-looking eyes with sharp, triangular teeth. And in its clutches was a weapon that looked more like a trumpet-barreled toy or prop than any kind of serious armament. "Heh!" She took it down, attached a new one in its place and sent it out. "Woooooow!"

"Missus Kaname," Miss Yamano, the special liaison whose role Junko was selected to take on, stepped inside with a white lab-coated man wearing a special identification tag and associated patch tailing just behind. "Missus Kaname!" Junko couldn't hear her through the noise-canceling earmuffs as she blasted off six more scattershot rounds. "Missus Kaname!" So she got her attention with a hefty pat on her shoulder.

"Oops!" Junko set the gun down and whipped right around. "Sorry," She offered an apologetic and deferential bow.

"Quite all right," Miss Yamano stopped her with a hand gesture. "Allow me to introduce you to this fellow, on loan from our main offices in Brussels." The man stepped forward and submitted a bow of his own. Junko spotted a tiny flag representing the United Kingdom on his identification tag, along with a proper name, which read 'Malcolm Taylor'.

"Herrowwww," Junko pivoted to addressing him in English. "Ehhhh-Maai naame es Khan-Eh-May Jun-koh." She took his hand for a formal shake in lieu of a return bow. "Sooo naiize tu meat yoo." She may have learned the language in her school days but she was so woefully out of practice speaking it aloud. "Rooking farr-wad tu waar-king weef yoo maayht!" She wanted to cringe at hearing her simplistic word choice and careful diction. She must've sounded like she carried all the cloying enthusiasm of a clueless tourist. Which was not too far off the truth considering how new she was to this whole operation.

"Hey, that was pretty good," The man, bespectacled with a set of perfectly round glasses, short, black hair, and a wide, disarming smile, replied. "But actually when one gives their name in English the proper thing is to start with one's given name and end with their family name." His response was in such spot-on Japanese that it caught Junko by surprise.

"Oh, wow!" Junko exclaimed in her native tongue. "You speak Japanese?"

"No, not at all." The man said. "Just that first speech and this one explaining it."

"Y- You're kidding, right?"

He turned and addressed Miss Yamano. "Eh? What's she on about?" He'd switched back to English much to Junko's confusion.

"Please sign this form," Miss Yamano promptly handed Junko a clipboard with some paperwork attached. "Here, here, here and here."

"Why? What is it?" Junko took a pen out and flipped through the pages.

"Consent to submit to a special beta testing program."

"Beta testing?" Junko hurriedly stroked her pen along the required lines. "Of what?" Promptly the man removed something from his coat pocket, stepped forth and shot something straight into her ear canal with a stylus-sized needle. "Owwwww!" She jumped back and was quite tempted to grab her gun and point it at him. "What the hell was that?" Instead she thought better and holstered it. Justifiably pissed as she was, drawing a gun on a coworker would most definitely be an infraction severe enough to get her cuffed haunch tossed behind bars in any job. At this one, the consequences she didn't even want to think about.

"How's my Japanese sounding now?" The man asked, to Junko's chagrin and bafflement, as his words weren't quite aligning to his mouth flaps.

"Fine as it was before!" Junko lashed back. "Sheesh!"

"Hang tight for a second," He took out a second same-sized needle and stabbed it into his own eardrum. "Do unto others as you would do to yourself." He uttered with a penitent wince. "That's as the ole' saying goes, right?"

"Alright, what the hell did you inject me with?" Junko and her hot-blooded temper huffed.

"He calls them his little nannies," Miss Yamano shared with a slight eyeroll.

"Universal translation nanocells," The man stepped in and elaborated. "Cryptoprotozoan microbes engineered to latch onto the speech processing centers of the brain and alter the way it processes spoken language so that we can understand one another, no matter the native tongue." But his mouth movements were so off his speech it was throwing poor Junko for a loop.

"'Cryptoprotozoan'?" Junko questioned. "That means-?"

"They're teensy-tiny life forms that will help you speak and understand any language you want, in return for feasting upon a minuscule portion of the twenty watts of electricity it takes to power your brain." Miss Yamano made explicitly spelled for her. "Single-celled symbiotes that'll function better than any phone or web translation app, as machine-learning algorithms tend to lose the proper context or misunderstand nuance." Next she handed Junko a pair of black specs. "They're not quite perfect either, but they functioned phenomenally during the alpha stage."

"What are these for?" Junko peered through them but was reluctant to put them on her face.

"They're low-grade perceptual modifiers," The man told her. "So that I don't appear to your eyes like I stepped straight out of a bad foreign movie dub." Finally what she could see synched up to the things he was saying. "We're still researching the root cause, but an odd yet prominent side effect of our brains sensing that verbal-visual disconnect is some minor nausea and vertigo."

"I'm wearing the breathable contact lens version myself," Miss Yamano added. "You can requisition those later if you'd like."

"Get outta town. We really have this kind of technology?" Junko's eyes went wide as she donned the glasses. "And it's done by microbes, not microchips?"

"Well, any non-organic microchip is inevitably going to be seen as a foreign invader by the body's immune system, and attacked," The man expounded. "And even our smallest and most remarkably engineered computer processors hold but a fraction of the vast information storage potential within even the simplest strands of DNA, and when that DNA numbers in the millions and gets networked as part of a much more complex organ, well." His zealous smile went into a full grin. "That's how you can store every single living spoken language on Earth. Some of the dead ones, too." His smile fell at once the moment he realized he'd forgotten something important and pivoted with a quick-grab of Junko's hand. "Oh golly, what's become of my manners?" He joined it with his other hand and gave her a big, sweeping up-and-down handshake. "Malcolm Taylor's the name. Science is my trade. With doctorates across four distinguished specialty fields. And two more in-waiting."

"Yes, I know your name," Junko returned a comparatively more reserved smile and nod. "I read English way better than I speak it." She pointed at the nametag and itched at the stinging spot behind her ear. "Or that used to be the case, anyway."

Miss Yamano took notice of the envelope sitting idle on the table behind Junko. "Have you had the chance to page through that report yet?"

"Yes I have," Junko had fortunately freshly exhausted her supply of laughter moments earlier. "It was a very clever prank, very official-looking." Otherwise it would have alerted them to her seething sarcasm. "Seriously, I appreciate a good hazing ritual." She kept her best poker face on through the lie. She did not appreciate getting called away from a touching exchange with Madoka's friends like it was a five alarm fire, only to be put through some elaborate put-on by her colleagues. "I remember a few years ago at my old gig the guy responsible for ordering the office supplies once put an extra couple 'o' zeroes into the order for rubber bands by mistake, and we covered for his sorry hide by passing it off to our bosses as a prank we were pulling on the latest hire. And so we stretched them all across his phone, his monitor and all the belongings in his cubicle, and had a huge laugh over it afterwards."

Miss Yamano and Malcolm Taylor turned and looked at each other with tilted brows each. "A bit of a hard-nosed skeptic, I take it?" Mister Taylor asked.

"Oh, not hardly," Junko put her back hand to her mouth. "I mean, what little girl out there doesn't dream of far-fetched things like pixies and unicorns and fanciful places beyond our tiny wet blue marble?"

"Uh-huh," Miss Yamano motioned for the other two to follow her out the door. "Do you discount the possibility that the document was psychological ruse meant to weed out those who are too gullible or weak-minded to participate in an organization that requires critical thinking skills coupled with a healthy level of cynicism?"

"I suppose not. But if that's the case, then you should've jotted down a way more believable scenario than the paranormal piece you handed me." Junko forced a smirk.

"If you're not liable to believe what's on the paper," Doctor Taylor spoke as they strode down the hallway. "It makes me curious to learn what sort of otherworldly things you do give credence to?" He paused for a moment and tilted his head back. "What's your opinion of UFOs, for starters?"

"Never seen one myself," Junko responded. "Nor am I too impressed by those fuzzy photographs and blurry videos which never seem to capture anything but the most out-of-focus blobs."

"How do you feel about aliens?" He followed up.

"You mean, do I think they're out the re somewhere?" Junko smirked. "Sure. It's a big ass universe that would be an awful waste of space if it were just us. But are they racking up frequent flier points doing flyovers past our humble little corner? Nah. "

"So I take it you're a huge doubter of those alien abduction stories too?" He assumed.

"I don't think those people who think they've had run-ins with aliens are crazy, per se," She said. "But the brain does have a very active imagination, especially while we're dreaming. Not helped by those hypno-shrinks who trickle in extra details often without meaning to." Junko walked a few steps behind them, thinking back to her days as a younger teen. "Back when I still watched anime I had this recurring dream where this albino rat would come popping in through my window and pester me about doing it a favor or some silliness." It had been at least a decade and a half since she last tried digging into the details of that tucked-away part of her youth. "One thing I remember is the little critter having a big head and these really ethereal eyes, so I'm not surprised to hear of big eyes and pale faces as a typical trait surrounding their stories." She couldn't remember much else beyond that eerie, enchanting stare.

"And how do you feel about ghosts?" Miss Yamano joined in on the questioning.

"Eh, mostly dreams as well," She replied, Then added, "Compounded with bad ductwork, leaky plumbing and our tendency to forget where we left our keys."

"Spontaneous human combustion?" Doctor Taylor switched topics.

"Tall tales that made me really, really glad I never took up smoking." But upon saying that Junko had to take a moment to worry about her daughter on that date. Peer pressure is an undeniable force to be reckoned with, and in a sudden spurt she was quite worried about that redheaded newcomer's potential influence on Madoka. She hadn't been subjected to the same sort of scrutiny that she'd given to Homura. And her only voucher was a series of texts from Sayaka's mother, explaining where this out-of-nowhere cousin came from. But from what few interactions they'd had, it did seem to her like the girl was prone to bouts of impulsiveness if no other reason but cheap kicks.

"And Extra Sensory Perception?" Yamano pressed on. "Do you believe humanity could one day unlock that unused ninety percent of our brains?"

"Well, first of all, that ten percent thing is a huge myth, even a scientific dilettante like me should be made aware of that." Junko pointed out. "The brain would be an awful inefficient thing if it functioned that way." She folded her arms as they moved along. "Though I do grant we do have plenty of room for improvement. Like, with your techie stuff."

"Quite right," Doctor Taylor agreed succinctly. "So what about the zoological mysteries. Like, do you believe in werewolves?" He asked, one hallway turn after that.

"Not a chance." Junko said flatly.

"Or that big dinosaur in that English lake?" Miss Yamano couldn't remember the name. "What's it called? 'Jessie'?"

"It's 'Nessie'," Doctor Taylor corrected. "And he be a Scottish legend."

"Whatever its name is, I don't believe in it," Junko stated. "Somebody photographed a toy on a log and from there a big tourist trap was born."

"It's a good thing I'm Welsh and not Scottish or I might be a smidge offended by your blithe disregard of our folklore, Missus Kaname." Doctor Taylor shot her another toothy smile. "Speaking of which, what do you think of the story of Atlantis?" They entered a lift.

"It's a morality play about what happens to a civilization once its aspirations of control and conquest exceed its level of regard for the commoners as well as its most dispossessed." She opined, then realizing that in her usual outspokenness, she may have said something a little too politically charged. "A Story as old as time itself. And not unique to the east, west... North or south."

"Agreed. And what about those reclusive great apes?" Miss Yamano pressed the button to their destination floor. "Like the snowmen of the Himalayas or the hulking hairy ones in Pacific America?"

"Nope. not at all." Junko shook her head.

"Last but not least," Miss Yamano opened the envelope and paged through its contents. The lift bell chimed and the trio stepped out. "Heh. From your responses thus far would I not be wrong to conclude you do not believe there exist any creatures of magic?" She tucked them underneath her arm as they made their way to the door which contained their destination. "Or to be more specific, you don't think there exists any magical beings of the feminine persuasion?"

"That's right." Junko put her hands to her hips once she stopped before the doorway. "You'll have to think of something better than gobbledygook like those papers to make me a magic-believing fool!" Doctor Taylor and Miss Yamano exchanged knowing glances, and with them came sly smiles.

"Well, Missus Kaname," Doctor Taylor breathed. "Prepare to join us within the den of fools!"

"Head's up, bro!" The high schooler shouted to his friend. "She's comin' up on ya' hard and fast!"

"Woah!" Her mug was right in his rearview. Her ponytail was flapping in the wind like a stallion's tail, resistant to being tamped down by that protective helmet on her head. Her eyes were dead-set on the next prize, that next hard corner turn whereupon whoever rounded it first would have the inside track to victory in the final laps. "Crap!" He exclaimed. She was surging so fast he could even count the number of teeth showing through that cocky, confident grin.

"Madoka!" Kyosuke alerted his girlfriend as loud as he could. "When you shift it to this gear, you can make a smoother turn!" He demonstrated by pulling a little ahead and jerking the little lever below the steering wheel. "See?" He glided around the next turn and decelerated to give her that extra second to catch up.

"Whheeeeeee!" Madoka chirped with joy as she pulled the feat and met him at the ensuing straightaway. To those two the race wasn't a contest to see which was the superior driver, but rather the chance to have some thrills and show how far they're willing to go when supporting one another through wacky twists and turns.

Not to be outdone by his would-be girlfriend, Tokoi mashed the acceleration pedal and gunned it down the next stretch.

"Wooooooooo!" The little girl and her father whose race had concluded several laps earlier cheered from the sidelines. "Go! Go! Girlies go!"

"So when Schiaparelli jotted down what he saw," Sayaka was explaining something to Homura as they witnessed the race from their more distanced vantage point. "He wrote them out as 'canali', which is the Italian word for channels. But then that word got mis-translated when the news of what he saw appeared in the English papers as canals, which set off this huge frenzy." She was peering through her binoculars at the red planet Mars, just talking about what she'd read about the world. "You see, the Suez Canal had just been completed a few years before, and right after came the race to build another one across Panama. So the thinking was, that if we've become a species that's smart enough and powerful enough to re-make the world's natural features to suit our needs, and there also exists similar things on Mars, then by that logic there had to be builders up there who were just as intelligent and ambitious as we were. And that's how the whole world broke out in Martian mania!"

"Looks like the race is reaching its climax," Homura noted. "Kyoko's making moves which will let her permanently take the lead."

"You weren't listening to me at all, were you?" Sayaka moaned with discernable disappointment and hurt feelings.

"Some Italian guy saw what he thought were natural channels, the word he reported got mistaken to mean artificial canals, and that set off a frenzy of speculation about advanced life on Mars." Homura recapped.

"Holy cow, you were listening?" Sayaka's spirit bucked up.

"Believe it or not, I can do two things at once on occasion," Homura glibly told her. "And I was already somewhat aware of the general history, anyhow."

"Oh? You were?" That suppressed Sayaka's mood again somewhat. "Dang." She expressed a suppressed disappointment under her breath.

"I guess I hadn't made the Suez connection, though," Homura tried to spare the young lady's feelings. A small concession she could hardly picture her prior timeline selves making to anyone but Madoka. "Sometimes when I'm idle I cannot help but wonder what major historical achievements were the product of normal human aspirations and which were spurred along by Kyubey." Nor could she imagine her old self just making conversation that had no explicit purpose.

"You mean, you wonder if some girl in Egypt asked him for there to be this big wide ditch across her land that connects two vast bodies of water?" Sayaka posed a poignant question in jest.

"And as a consequence that ditch became a strategic vital point on the vast, infuriating chessboard that is world politics," But Homura returned instead a serious, solemn answer. "The karmic price to pay for just wanting the world to seem a little bit smaller." Her eyes slowly drifted back towards the race.

"Naaaw, I gotta believe things like that can only come from the people's collective will." So Sayaka countered with an earnest retort of her own. "We don't need miracles or magic to move a little dirt around the yard." Her view of Mars yielded to the much closer spectacle of the race.

"At times I wish I could share in your distinctive brand of optimism," Homura sighed to mask her budding envy.

"I wasn't trying to be optimistic," Sayaka countered. "What I was being was realistic. There's plenty of positive things to find in the reality of any situation."

"So what's the sunny side to seeing those you most care about living fulfilling lives while you're on the sidelines wondering if the tradeoff for all the blood, sweat and tears you've put into achieving their happiness is to become a constant, looming spectator who can't partake in even a moment of joy?"

"You're alive, you're here, this evening's pretty warm considering our time of year, we've got as clear a view of the stars as any big city night permits," Sayaka listed. But she could tell impersonal items weren't doing much for the young lady's dour disposition. "You're the new top-ranked student in the whole class. You dazzle the kids and teachers in gym exercises. There's a host of girls and boys who somehow think your rude aloofness is an air of coolness." Were her words getting through? As much time as they'd spent together of late, Sayaka still struggled to pick up on the assorted nuances of Homura's default neutral expression. "And best of all, your ego's secure enough not to even have to care what those dipsticks think of you." A little frustrated by that, she took Homura's preoccupation with the go-kart race as her chance to pierce through that stonewall expression with a little drastic touch. "Ha!" Literally. She gave Homura a light finger poke right in the cheek where a theoretical dimple would be.

"Don't do that." Homura swatted that finger away.

"What, you afraid I'm gonna smear that makeup or something?"

"Thanks for reminding me." Homura abruptly shot up from the grass.

"Wait," Sayaka watched her take six steps down the sloping hill. "Where you goin'?"

"To the restroom," Homura replied with a swift back turn. "So I can wash this silly caked crud off my face."

"Whaaat?" Sayaka shot to her feet in befuddlement. "But I toldya back at Madoka's house, you look great in that makeup!"

"No I don't," Homura argued without turning her back.

"Yes you do!" Sayaka gave chase, catching her by the hand as they reached the foot of the hill. "Sheesh! I'm offering you a compliment on a silver platter and you won't take it?"

"You're just being nice is all," Homura refused to turn around. "I understand the intention."

"I'm not being nice!" Sayaka insisted. "I'm telling you you're cute, gorgeous even!" She yanked at her hand. "Beautiful, and I'm for reals jealous of your looks! So take a little darn joy in someone being positive towards you for once. I promise whatever karmic ripples it causes won't end with an apocalypse."

"I'm sorry," Homura's voice cracked and choked with the burden of contrition. "I'm still not used to any of this yet. All those loops afforded me the chance to practice the best ways to navigate ins and outs of mundane conversation, what little skill I had at being my authentic self atrophied to a point where it adversely affected the way I see how others see me." Her head tilted up and back, her hair flowing in the air like a windsock.

"So as a result, you started avoiding the social situations you saw as having no value, and have gotten to think that any niceness offered to you is just a bullcrap platitude?" Sayaka asked, trying to clarify. Homura affirmed the notion via a silent, closed-eyed head nod. "I can be full of lotsa bullcrap, sure. Talking to other people used to be so easy for me, but lately it's like everyday chitchat's turned into this big, elaborate chess game while I'm barely smart enough to play checkers. And just to slide by, I gotta pretend I'm this unserious class clown who takes it in stride," She confided. "But with you, I dunno what it is. With you I can let my hair down a little bit. Relax and speak my mind free of any judgment or argument."

"Your hair's much too short to be let down," Homura caught her eye and commented.

Sayaka shot her a look. "I wasn't being liter-"

"I know." Homura interrupted. "Sorry again." Just as quickly those eyes zipped away. "My underdeveloped social skills have also rendered me incapable of sensing when it's a good time to make a joke, however thoughtless or forced ." A shooting star had lit up overhead, she pretended to be enamored with where it was headed, as she still found protracted eye contact to be a difficult task. "What you describe, it used to be how I viewed my relationship to Madoka. But lately, however-"

"Let me guess," Sayaka cut her off. "Ever since she and Kyosuke became an item, you realized you don't want her to help carry all that weight on your back while she's got a nerd like him to look after too."

"Pretty much."

"Which is funny," Sayaka cracked a meek smile. "Because that's how I used to see things between Madoka and me, too!" She sighed and joined Homura in looking up listlessly into the heavens. "Oof." They both had a hole in their hearts they had been plugging with the same soul. "Anyway," She tugged at Homura's arm, towing her back up the hill. "Your makeup is for-reals very cool, and there's no one here but me to make you feel self-conscious about it." As they retook their position up top she handed Homura the binoculars. "So keep it on, and let's watch the end for our friend's sake. We at least owe her a good cheering-on down the stretch."

Something was clearly amiss. Most dreams began in the liminal space, borrowing from bits and pieces of memories and the flotsam of one's drowsy thoughts to create wholly-made set-ups and in medias res scenarios. But this place, a sprawling, labyrinthine cityscape fashioned to resemble Kamihama, looked like it had already been subjected to the worst of the dreamer's subconscious travails. And now the aftermath was left to fold into itself and crumble away from the unsteady precipices of memory into the eternal limbo of paramnesia.

But Mifuyu Azusa wasn't here to bear witness to such tragedy. For on that skyscraper rooftop she had a job to do and not much time to do it. But how was she going to make her presence known to this world's creator without expediting the demise of this dreamscape around her? Fortunately, she had an idea. When they were middle schoolers and they used to share in their lucid dreams, whenever they got separated by their whimsical adventuring, Mifuyu would strum a certain tune with her koto, the notes of which came from an anime they would watch together every following morning, and her partner would come running.

"Hm hmm hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmmmm hmmm hmmmm hmm," Mifuyu hummed along to the melody. The odd thing was that she couldn't remember ever being much of a hummer. Was this indulgence autonomic or evidence that she was starting to manifest a distinctive identity? Regrettably there was no time to muse over the matter. "Hm hm hm hmm hmmm hmmm hm hm hm hmmm hm," She kept at it anyway, figuring it wouldn't hurt to make herself stand out more in this twisted-yet-captivating realm.

"Hm hm hm hmm… Hmmmmmmm?" A sudden surge of paranoia stung the back of her neck like a bee. Her defensive impulses were telling her someone else was on the prowl watching, nay, hunting. And since her delivery to this frontier was a targeted effort, she had a pretty good idea who it was. Mifuyu was more than ready to talk. But was the subject going to be willing to listen to what she needed to say?

"I know you are out there somewhere Yachie, heh-heh! Hello again." An innocuous chuckle and a greeting to kick things off. She was aware that the two of them had not parted ways on the best of terms, and the fault for that was mostly Mifuyu's. But had fleeing without leaving so much as a note damaged the bridge too badly for any chance of reconciliation? "It has been a while." She dared not think that was the case, yet at the same time, that icy chill down her spine just would not cease.

"Do you remember the day I met your grandma, and she towed me along with you to that little corner candy shoppe?" She followed the greeting with a little nostalgic entreaty. "I recall you telling me later that in that moment as you watched me play around with that little stick of gummy candy all fascinated by its color and the sticky texturing, you thought I was such a child. And yet you were but a child yourself, albeit at the time one who was trying to act more grown-up. Ow!" With her quickened reflexes she caught the object that had just struck her square on the noggin. It was a ping pong ball-sized piece of rubble, raining down from the concrete skyline rending itself into pieces high above. "Looking back, you trying to seem older and I, being pushed by virtually everyone else in my life into presenting myself as someone older than the age my heart wished to be, I think that dichotomy was what made you and I so… What is the accurate word?" The rubble was but a precursor to the ensuing hailstorm of dust, rock and water spurts as the dream's instability hastened.

"Simpático!" Yet Mifuyu stayed standing defiant of the rising tides of chaos around her, dressed not in her magical form but in a wine colored, low cut shirt that had been given to her as a gift. She'd hoped this little show of bravery would be enough to convince whatever eye was watching that she had changed for the better in their time apart. "A child pushed into being an adult against her will, watching another child push herself into becoming a mature and capable grown-up, thought that trait was so enviable, she believed it to be the very example of strength." She spotted a figure circling around her in the distance. "But rather than striving to be more like her, she came to resent that strength. And she started to blame and hate herself so much, for harboring such feelings in secret while still continuing to pretend she was that person's most special friend outwardly."

She eyed the thing slinking up an adjacent skyscraper. But she couldn't glimpse anything more than a rough silhouette and something was off about the way it moved. Yes, it was fast enough that it could mostly dodge the falling debris but the figure lacked any sort in finesse to its movements. From what she could see its form lacked any of her old friend's feminine grace, instead scuttling about as if she were a frenzied animal. Just a few seconds ago Mifuyu believed her paranoia to be unjustified, the remnant hard feelings of c arried over consciousness. But now her logical side too was pushing her to prepare for anything. But especially the worst.

"So when that friend of hers finally after years of trying, confesses what her actual wish was, with the subtextual ramifications made obvious by the misfortunes that befell two in their inner circle of friends, could you really blame her for wanting to extricate herself from a situation that only seemed preordained to turn tox- Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" She had to pull the quickest backflip in history to dodge a halberd aimed to sever her in two. Not a word, nor a warning shot, this was indeed the worst. Mifuyu had no choice but to quickly assume her magical identity, though without any time for the pomp and circumstance of the typical transformation sequence. By the time she landed her clothing and accessories were both changed.

Even after being threatened she refused to commit energy to forging her weapons, instead doubling down on using words. "I am sure you too must have intuited long ago what the karmic consequences were of that wish you made to survive. But a human being cannot help but reach out to another sympathetic heart. It is a weakness inborn from the protracted time spent as a helpless clump of malleable flesh in the cradle and persists right up to the moment they draw their last labored breaths in an operating room. It is a vulnerability ripe for exploi- Waaaaaaaah!" She was interrupted again by the ballistic trajectory of two additional halberds.

"Are you okay, Yachie?" Mifuyu tried asking through the clamorous maelstrom of rubble and rain. "Silly question, I know." For the answer was pretty plain in their surroundings. "But it is a question we all need to hear someone else ask us every now and agaiiiiiiii-" Her one-sided talk got disrupted yet a third time as the entire pull of gravity switched. "Aiiiiiye!" She fell upwards in a freefall, arms and legs flailing helpless through the air.

"Yachie, will you pllleeeaaase just listennnnnnnnn?" The distressed young lady pleaded. "Tiiiiiiime is nooooot on ouuuur siiiiiiiiide!" As she corrected her fall's trajectory by settling into a parachute dive, she found herself encircled by four more halberds. "Huuuuup!" Adeptly she knocked two out of her way with a sweeping kick. "Haaaaaup!" Then she tore off her gray robe and used it to collect the remaining pair like a garbage bag and tossed them off just as she came to a rough landing. "Ooooooooof!" She let out a pained cry. "Oooooooooow!"

"You know, when that fortune teller told me that I had misunderstood my wish on a fundamental level," A thunderous voice boomed from all around. "For just a little bit I dared hope that she was right and I wouldn't have to keep myself aloof and detached from everyone around me forever more." Then an earthquake caused Mifuyu to tremble at the thighs. "I foolishly thought that as long as I had a Support Stone, I could get away with taking on a guardianship, or tutoring an apprentice, even help ease Tsuruno's transition into leadership, and karma couldn't touch me."

But the quivering Mifuyu had no idea what it was talking about as that looming presence whooshed past her eyes. To her sheer shock and horror, she counted a lot more than two legs propelling the lady's form. It was six, to be exact, and the sight of it put a very frightening thought into Mifuyu's mind. "Oh, Yachie!" Mifuyu muttered. "Not you too!"

"What's the matter?" It asked. "Now that you've come back to witness the end product of your sick little long game, you no longer feel like gloating?" A face peeked around the corner of a ledge, revealing an alienesque white, featureless mask with dark, almond-shaped eye holes and a bone-chilling, curled-up smile. "Could it be that even the monstrous manipulator harbors within its twisted psyche its own fear of other monsters?" In its hand it gripped its halberd, with several more circling the air ready to execute the object of its hatred. "Good!"

"So in the witch's eyes any display of weakness is the equivalent of monstrousness," Mifuyu formed her main weapon, a hula-hoop-sized chakram. "To deny it the emotional satisfaction it craves, I must show resilience and temper its wrath with force."

"Rrrrrrrrrrrragggggh!" The fearsome creature lunged at its foe with all halberds pointed at the shining gem adorning her neck.

"Huuuuuuuuap!" Mifuyu leapt upwards, performed a backflip, twirled around and batted her opponent's projectiles away with one sweeping swoop of her chakram. "Haaa!" Then she hitched a ride on the halberd that had been tossed with her foe's own might, knowing it would be the one most likely set to have a return trajectory. "Hiiiiiiiyahh!" Her intuition proved correct, as she geared up to toss her own blade at the beast once the lancet boomeranged back around. "Wooooaaaaahhhaaahhh!" But the gravity switched again, knocking her off her impromptu foothold and sending her careening into a boulder high above. "Unnngggffff!"

"Haaahaahaaaahaaa!" The former Yachiyo cackled. "This is my world! My rules! You cannot hope to prevail, so why bother taking a stand?" It launched upwards and staked a new position on another boulder falling in concert with the one Mifuyu had landed.

"Because I am her best friend and her oldest friend!" Mifuyu got back up and slashed back at her antagonist. "And I would never abandon her, even in the face of certain death!" They at last met mano y mano, Mifuyu for the most fleeting moment spotting something in her rival that resparked an ember of hope.

"Yet that's precisely what she did!" It spat back, parrying Mifuyu's blade with the bottom of her own. "And now look where that's gotten you!" A finger snap formed a wall of additional halberds, which she all hurled at her erstwhile friend. "Trapped in this nightmare world with meeeeeeee!" Mifuyu dodged the barrage by rolling to the opposite side of the falling rock.

"I have already explained her reasons for doing so," Mifuyu recovered with a push-off jump to the air, then she spun her instrument around her wrist and flung it like a yo-yo. "I do not ask you to forgive the act, but if your heart has become closed off to the very notion, then I must take on the mantle of responsibility and try to guide you back to the light." It ripped through the rocks like a buzzsaw, creating a dust cloud in its wake.

"Of course you're responsible!" The attacker emerged from the wake dirtied but untouched. "You're the one who sent her down this path to darkness!" She shot her way towards Mifuyu wielding her weapon like a spear. "You who manipulated her into doing your dirty deed, all the while pretending to be just an innocent ghost who merely wishes to see justice carried out!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Mifuyu insisted as she fended off its wrath by counterattacking, flipping her chakram like a coin and lopping off her assailant's halberd at the socket. "I do confess that I am not the real Mifuyu Azusa, as I have formed thoughts and opinions of my own that are wholly separate from her soul's template." She also could not explain where this sudden outpouring of self-assured resolve was coming from. Did it stem from that enigmatic emotion lying at the root of the real McCoy's feelings towards this person, or was it born from the heat of the moment? "And right now, it is my opinion that sulking in here and lashing out at trespassers while dressed as an animal and hiding behind a mask wastes precious time and does your psychology no good!" But she had materialized a second one in her other hand, and with Mifuyu's chakram fully committed to warding off the thrusting feint of the other one it left her open to getting impaled by the other. In that last split second she recognized her tactical blunder, she closed her eyes, gulped and put her faith and fate in Yachiyo's hands.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Yachiyo stayed her hand with the point stopping barely a nanometer from Mifuyu's jeweled gem. "Are you seriously trying to convince me that you're a different impostor from the Mifuyu who tricked me into partaking in Hanna Sarasa's demented revenge scheme?" Though she didn't deliver the killing blow she still kept it pointed firmly in case she heard an answer she didn't care for.

"I-" Mifuyu stuttered, keeping her hands up, her neck and chin turned up and her eyes gazing into the whites of Yachiyo's. "I am a simulacrum of the magical girl Mifuyu, one manifested by the mind and magic of a girl named Nemu Hiiragi, who created me as a means to help her fight her way out from the most terrible consequence of her wish."

"That so?" The ever-skeptical Yachiyo glared from behind the concealment of her mask, the only thing betraying the thoughts of the bleeding heart behind it were the big, unflinching blue eyes peering out from the inside of those dark eyeholes. "Alright. Suppose for a second I believe you. How the hell is it possible for you to show up like this in my dreamworld?"

"We bounced a targeted signal from a satellite array in Mitakihara City, up to a relay in space, then off a radio station antenna in Kamihama, and straight into your dozing mind." Mifuyu explained in as matter-of-fact a manner as she could. An absurdity uttered with one-hundred percent seriousness, she figured, could only be interpreted by this person as the absolute truth.

"Rrrrrrrrreally?" Yachiyo questioned. "So I take it this Nemu person's magic is also responsible for such an unlikely feat?" But Yachiyo was still trying to parse the odds of two separate magical girls getting the same idea to tug her heartstrings via a Mifuyu impersonator.

"Oh, Nemu's magic is something to admire, for sure!" Mifuyu gushed, letting her affection get the better of her. "But she is barely middle school age, and her constitution's frail, so she needed the aid of a much more seasoned magical girl to survive this most difficult life."

"That's the point where Mifuyu found her?" Yachiyo's stance had loosened somewhat but she'd neglected to lower her weapon held to Mifuyu's neck.

"Owch!" An oversight upon which Mifuyu immediately cut the side of her chin.

"Oops," Yachiyo retracted her blade enough for the girl to at least be able to meet her at eye level.

"You know, I possess plenty prior memories of bleeding, but I believe this would be the first time that I as an independent being have ever bled myself," Mifuyu commented as she rubbed her backhand on the cut and wiped away the trickling blood. "If I may be so bold to ask," She eyed the long, segmented tail and stinger coming out Yachiyo's bent-over backside. "Why in the world are you dressed as an arachnid creature?"

"It's… Complicated," Yachiyo in turn slipped her appearance back into her more familiar human shape like a simple change of clothes, then slid her spooky mask up as if it were a cheap Halloween accessory. "I came to practice immersion therapy on myself. Tried to get into the mindset of a witch. Then when I sensed you mucking around here, I took it as an opportunity to vent some pent-up frustration with myself. And do it on the creep who I thought was the instigator."

"Oh." Mifuyu simply nodded her head in response. "I must say, you really had me going there for a bit." She covered up an embarrassed smile with her hand.

"Uh-Huh," Yachiyo said curtly. She was still not totally convinced this faker was on the level, but she did seem to nail her absent friend's mannerisms far better than that other one. "That one almost duped me into becoming her pawn in an assassination plot, but I came to my senses before it was too late."

"Thank goodness," The representation of her friend breathed a little sigh of relief as she dabbed the blood off with a poofy ball of wool attached to her garment.

"But not before she'd left behind a booby trap of sorts, in the form of an entity that latched itself onto the dormant witch within my subconscious, took control and started leeching off the darkness in me like a parasite, biding its time until the day it grew strong enough to bait then overtake the real me , I figured." She divulged. "But I made the gross and stupid mistake of letting Tsuruno join me in here, and it made the jump into her instead."

"Oh, nooo!" Mifuyu gasped, a display of concern more visceral than anything the previous impostor was willing to show. "Is she okay? Please, please tell me she-"

"We took her straight to The Coordinator's place," Yachiyo interrupted. "Who had to place her body and her Soul Gem into a type of stasis. For now she's stabilized, if you could call being crammed inside an oversized Christmas tree ornament as such."

"If Tsuruno is in that much peril, then why in the world are you dilly-dallying down here in witch cosplay and not doing everything you can to aid her recovery?" She asked in a way that was equal parts probing and scolding.

"It's because I've been trying to get a nap in while The Coordinator figures out what to do next!" Yachiyo snapped back in self defense. "And as much as I hate relying on that price-gouging prima donna, it's my fault Tsuruno wound up like that in the first place, and without you around the closest thing I know to an expert on Soul Gems and magical girl physiology is her! So I'm letting her work!"

"Point taken," Mifuyu breathed and calmed, not ignorant of the fact that if it weren't for Yachiyo's catnap, her SOS attempt would've failed. Yet it may have also been the very first time she had ever experienced a loss in temper, she had not prepared herself for that kind of sudden emotional whirlwind. "But still, of all the ways to confront me, why would you do it so aggressively?"

"Because I was trying to scare you before eliminating you once and for all," Yachiyo vented all her pent-up frustration in the admission. "I wanted you, that is, the malevolent Mifuyu I mistook you for, to experience the very same fear her creation tried pumping into me every night I went to bed!" She explained with vengeful droplets of spittle ejecting from her teeth before finally calming down. "I took the idea from a professional wrestler, a fellow who dresses as a monster to take down the bad guys in the ring."

"Ooooh, you're talking about that match we attended when we were sixteen, back when we entered that raffle contest and won!" Mifuyu recalled.

"Yeeeeah," Yachiyo exhaled, her remnant anger subsiding. "But how did you figure out I wasn't the thing I was pretending to be?"

"I caught a glimpse of your precious baby-blues once we finally clashed up close and personal," Mifuyu answered. "They were hidden underneath those creepy holes, but they still belonged to my friend Yachie Nanami, no mistake. That's how I also recalled the time you and I tried experimenting with our appearances in our dreams!" She harkened back to when they were thirteen. "You remember the start of middle school, when we got a little cheeky and blew up the size of our b-"

"I remember, I remember!" Yachiyo interrupted again. "You know, for not being the actual Mifuyu, you sure seem to know an awful lot about our past!" She observed.

"That was also thanks to Nemu's talents," Her friend recounted. "For a good while, they made quite the team-up! They even managed to pull off that miraculous ritual that connects two hearts and minds… That thing that only Coordinators are supposed to be able to initiate!"

"I'm pretty sure that's just something The Coordinator tells us so we keep paying her handsome ransoms," Yachiyo quipped. "Still that is impressive. And through that technique, that girl learned all she ever needed to know about Mifuyu," She concluded. "So where's Mifuyu now? Can I speak with the real her?"

"I am sorry," The copy shook her head in almost palpable sorrow. "So sorry. We are not certain of what exactly occurred, but we believe she exhausted the last of her magic trying to save Nemu."

"Do you mean to tell me that she's…" Yachiyo's mouth dropped and her heart sank to her stomach. "Gone?" She asked in a somber tone that was meant to convey the question's subtext.

"Worse!" But the less emotionally sensitive duplicate of Mifuyu missed the meaning behind the question. "She is being milked for her energy, by the very creatures that came as a result of Nemu's wish!"

"Yaaaaaah- Cheeeeeeee- Ooooooohhhhhh!" A low, distorted voice from the world above was followed by a shaking of the whole, crumbled land around them. "Yaaaaaaah- Cheeeeeee- Ooooooooooh!"

"Damn! Impeccable flipping timing!" Yachiyo yelled.

"Sounds like someone out there is about to wake you up," Mifuyu noted. "I wish I had the time to tell you everything you need to know." She knew she wasn't going to have more than a few sentences left to speak, so she cut right to the chase. "Hop aboard the late train headed for Mitakihara east. Once you get there, we shall be sending you an emissary with the details you need to get you up to speed before you take on the mission."

"Yaaaaaaaah- Cheeeeee- Oooooooh!" The dream had been reduced to little more than the pair standing underneath a bright white light.

"Eh? What mission?" And the light was fading fast.

"You have to rescue Nemu!" Mifuyu insisted. "I know you have the strength to succeed where I failed!"

"And why should I abandon one of my only surviving friends to risk my skin saving a stranger?" Yachiyo's spurt of callousness took Mifuyu by surprise.

"Yachie… I know your true weakness, and that is helpless children!" Mifuyu reminded her. "Plus her magic could be potent enough that she may be able to help Tsuruno!"

"Really? What can she do?"

"Yaaaaaaaaah- Cheeeeeee- Ooooooooh!" Whatever Mifuyu's answer was, the loud ringing of her name in her ears precluded any possibility of hearing it. Her brain could sense the rest of her body quaking, too, they were trying to shake her clean out of her slumber.

"Gaaaaaah!" Yachiyo grunted in frustration. "Alright I'll do it! But I've already got a troublemaking kid of my own to look after. Prove to me this is legitimate and not another trick or delusion!" The dream had withered to a point where it was just their two forms illuminated by the light of their souls. "Tell me something about Mifuyu she'd never told me."

"You want me to share a thought only the real Mifuyu would have had?" The magical reproduction of Yachiyo's fallen friend summed. "Okay," She had to think quickly. "You know when you two were at that wrestling event, and there was that rude guy next to us who started hitting on you? And you brushed him off by telling him you were there with your girlfriend?"

"Yeah," The details of that event were still fresh in Yachiyo's rapidly-awakening brain. "What about it?"

"When you took her hand, there was something Mifuyu wanted to do in return, but she was too reluctant to try, because she was afraid of what that might say about herself." The last thing Yachiyo saw was a puckered set of lips coming full speed for hers.

"Yachiyooo!" The next thing she knew, her lips were wet and moist. As was her hair, her forehead, brows, nose and cheeks.

"Sheesh!" Yachiyo wiped away the ice-cold water dripping down her face with a pillowcase. "What'd you do that for?"

"Because you weren't waking up!" Before her stood Momoko's middle school trainees, Rena and Kaede. Rena was holding a dripping red cup in her hand. "We were worried!"

"Has there been a change in Tsuruno's condition?" Yachiyo sat up on the futon situated in front of the three meter wide, stained glass window that symbolized and advertised The Coordinator's headquarters nestled inside a half-finished, abandoned warehouse in lower Shinsei Ward.

"Nope," Rena replied, folding her arms. "The Coordinator's busy trying to figure out if whatever you infected her with is contagious. Momoko's in the isolation room being her nurse."

"Momoko's very angry with you, too." Kaede added. Between the two Rena was the only one wearing her magical attire. Kaede was in her school uniform, with a white bunny backpack and clutching a diminutive plush doll with skimpy arms, legs and main body, but with a giant head and prominent crown atop its long, flowing locks. To Yachiyo they were a possible sign the young lady had mentally regressed in reaction to learning The Truth.

"And she should be," Yachiyo rubbed her eyes as she stood up. "I made one poor, overconfident decision after another, and because of that we're all faced with this rubbish mess."

"Apologize if ya' wanna, but that's not why we woke you up," Rena pointed at a shattered glass casing planted across the room. "The brat stole some things and amscrayed." From the barely-contained level of disdain in her voice, she could only have been referring to Felicia.

"What was in there?"

"Toy dolls," Kaede answered. "Then after she took off, the smaller girl went after her."

"You guys didn't try and stop them?"

"Hey, we're not babysitters!" Rena objected. "Be grateful we told you as soon as we did!"

"Then will you please go track them down for me, anyway?" Yachiyo requested. "I…" She hesitated. "Have to go."

"You're just going to leave without telling Tsuruno goodbye?" Kaede stepped into Yachiyo's path.

"You're right," Yachiyo immediately relented, rather ashamed that she was about to excuse herself without paying the patient the courtesy of a visit. "I do owe her that much." She stepped over to the entrance to the isolation chamber, turned the handle and opened the door. "Huh?" But waiting inside was nothing more than a broom closet.

"You have to pay the toll to be granted access," Kaede informed her.

"What's the toll?" The impatient Yachiyo queried.

"What else?" Rena rolled her eyes. "Magic." Her eyes fixated on an indent in the wall next to the door. "Stick your Soul Gem in there."

"I see," Yachiyo complied. "That greedy little-" She stopped herself before they could overhear anything vulgar.

"C'mon, Rena!" Kaede tugged her one-and-only friend by the arm. "Even if you don't like Felicia, that Yuma girl seemed really sweet."

"Fffffffffiiiiiiine," Rena begrudgingly went along with her.

"She can refashion an entire space so it's bigger on the inside," Yachiyo observed upon feeding in the correct amount of energy. "Like a labyrinth. How?" She asked herself in a slight twinge of envy.

"Wellwellwell," The Coordinator herself, Mitama Yakumo greeted Yachiyo upon entry. "If it isn't the asymptomatic patient zero herself!" A rather backhanded greeting.

"There's no need to antagonize Yachiyo, Mitama," Momoko stepped over. "Not when I'm about to!" She raised her right palm ready to apply a megaton-level slap to the side of Yachiyo's face. And Yachiyo was going to make no effort to flinch or stop her.

"Now, now!" But Mitama grabbed her wrist and stopped it. "That's no etiquette for a gentle caregiver to have." While Momoko still donned her normal clothes, The Coordinator was adorned in full magical girl attire, with an outward appearance most similar to a waiter, butler, or other high-end servant. She wore a three-piece suit, the bottom layer being a dark blue and white collared dress, with white frills around shoulders and blue ones at the dress's trim. The second bit was the vest around her waist, four-buttoned in a manner resembling a magician's suit. The top part capped off the veneer of formality, with a sleeveless black-and-blue coat that was strapped together via a gold chain attached to two jeweled buttons at the waist. She had short white gloves with a golden band at the wrist. Her hair was just as shiny and clean, braided on her right side down the front and featured a long ponytail down the back. A pair of blue roses and her Soul Gem brought it all together, with one rose attaching to a frilly tie strap around her neck, and the other placed just above her left ear. Her gem was a little 'X'-shaped piece pinned to a black ribbon at the point where the hair braids started trailing down.

"Spare me your usual flirty repertoire and just lay it on me straight. " Yachiyo approached their subject encased inside a large, tinted glass globe. Her body's outline was silhouetted and suspended in a falling position, like a mummified corpse who had been caught vulnerable in a pyroclastic flow. The only sign that she was alive at all came from her Soul Gem on a table nearby, still orange and flickering, but it had three specially re-crafted Support Stones attached around it which were keeping a tar-black pooling of darkness congealed at its base from overtaking the rest.

"What would a non-invested observer see as the difference, functionally speaking, between a magical girl and a witch?" Mitama posed a question to the two young ladies before her.

"A magical girl is a being of hope, born from the uplifting desires of a wish, while a witch is a creature of despair, hatching from the despair brought about by curses." Yachiyo answered first.

"Yesyes, we were all there for Kyubey's pitch meeting," Mitama steepled her fingers before her rather sizable bust.

"Magical girls can still pass as human, while witches have turned into things so abhorrent they've gotta hide themselves in another dimension," Momoko followed with her own more nuanced and somewhat jaded take.

"More important, what the hell does your question have to do with whatever's afflicted Tsuruno?" Yachiyo brusquely asked.

"My point is, now that we are all aware of The Truth, what we used to perceive as a binary distinction I postulate is in fact more of a Venn diagram of shared commonalities and semi-related differences," The Coordinator theorized. "Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to call it a spectrum?"

But for Yachiyo time was of the utmost essence. "Again what's this got to do with-"

"Second point is, what if there exists magical girls whose wishes were curses, and exhibited witch-like traits as a result?" She proposed. "Traits such as the spontaneous spawning of familiars, which have the ability to grow and evolve independent of the original magical girl's fate?" She put her hand to the spherical casing around Tsuruno's body. "I believe that is what we're now witnessing."

"You're saying that's what's trying to feed off Tsuruno's soul?" Momoko knit her brow.

"Yes," Mitama nodded. "Some familiars are said to imitate flora, such as pitcher plants and fly traps, while rarer ones emulate fauna, like say, rival magical girls," She elaborated. "Would it be such a stretch to imagine a new breed of intelligent thought familiar that seeks gain the ability to manifest in our material world?"

"It sounds absurd, but it does track with the behavior I witnessed inside my dreams," Yachiyo confirmed. "It moved into her because it was unable to evolve any further inside me." She viewed the glowing matter percolating inside the gem. A talon-like claw reached out from the gooey blackness, only to have its tips dissolved away by the Support Stones on each side.

"Well if it's just a piddly familiar, then let's beat it out of her before it grows and shatters her gem!" Momoko bopped her fist into her palm.

"Let's not be too gung-ho about performing an exorcism," Mitama cautioned. "After all, this thing is smart, and it's already made a fool of one of the best of us." Mitama shot Yachiyo with a demeaning smile just as punchy as any slap Momoko could've given. "Not to mention, we don't even know how to attempt it. So I recommend we treat this problem like a biological one, and trace its origins back to its original host. And should we determine whoever that is, then perhaps we'll have a better clue about how to proceed."

"I'm afraid doing that'll lead us nowhere but another dead end," Yachiyo disclosed. "Hanna Sarasa's toast, and before she was slain she mentioned the girl she swiped her powers from as having turned into a witch, too," She exposited. "Her name was 'Mi-' Something. "'Mikasa' or 'Michiko' or 'Mihoko' or…" Her voice trailed. "Dammit!" But the only name on her mind was 'Mifuyu,' and the fact that Tsuruno's needs continued being a secondary concern despite this being the more tangible crisis filled her heart with shame, frustration and self-loathing.

"But we need to do something!" Momoko expressed a separate-but-similar tract of exasperation.

"I don't disagree," Yachiyo sympathized with a long, heavy sigh followed by a gulping breath. "I'm sorry, Tsuruno, I've been a poor friend." She strode up to the globe, put her hand to it and spoke. "I should never have compelled you to fight my battle for me. There are many ways to show one's true strength," She whispered. "And when it comes to showing a willingness to put your life on the line for the sake of others, you have me far outclassed. I'm aware that's rather cold comfort right now, for the both of us, and I regret that I must leave you alone once again so as to pursue a selfish whim. I only ask that you hold out 'til I return. And if we're lucky," She uttered, having a hard time holding back the tears through the trembling tenor in her voice. "That is, if there is some imperceptible deity watching over us who guides us through the foggy forests of our own selfish compulsions and emotional hang-ups towards the light, then I'll come back with someone who may hold the key to saving you."

"Wait! Where ya' going?" Momoko caught her just as she'd turned and rushed for the door.

"To Mitakihara." She stood there with her back turned, unable to face Momoko's glare.

"That's it? That's all you're gonna give me?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I explained," Yachiyo nudged the door open, making it creak. "So I'm not going to waste precious seconds doing it."

"Tch!" Momoko turned her back in kind. "Jerk!"

"Don't worry about that lil' lass of yours, my dear," Mitama offered a somewhat more warm-hearted farewell. "I'll serve her a fresh-cooked breakfast discounted to three hundred and fifty Yen!"

In the bad old days, whenever she wanted to be alone, Yuma would sneak out at night and head for the nearest playground. That's where she would go to contemplate her own existence, its meaning, and whether she was put on this earth solely to suffer in the stead of grownups. She would first climb aboard the merry-go-round and do a belly flop. Climb up the slide and do another belly flop. Journey to the jungle gym, proceed to the top and do yet another belly flop. Always seeking out that highest point from which to fall, so that one day gravity may play the role of her ultimate savior.

But having the tenacity to chase Kyoko around the city and get rewarded by coming into Yachiyo's care mitigated those urges drastically. But in the back of her mind that voice telling her that she was still a worthless runt, reliant upon those whom she burdens. Never going to be able to change. And things would be much better if she weren't here at all.

From the moment she laid eyes upon her, Yuma sensed Felicia to be a kindred spirit of sorts, albeit not in the literal sense of engaging in self-destructive thoughts, but rather with a tendency towards running for a secluded safe space well away from any grownup eyes and grownup problems. It was on that hunch that brought Yuma to this place, a playground at the southern end of Shinsei Ward, alighted by the blinking aircraft warning lights of the wind turbines soaring above.

"It's no use, Kugo!" Yuma heard someone yakking behind the sand dune compiled underneath the big, winding slide. "The Gigantopotamasaurus is too humongous and it's keeping the last Decagon Ball on its head! There's no way yer gonna be able to climb up all the way without it squashin' ya' like a bug!"

"A 'Giganto-what'?" Yuma sheepishly intruded on Felicia's fun. "Is that in Decagon Ball, too?" From one look she could also tell that Felicia was just going through the motions of fun. That she had a lot of other stuff on her mind that she wasn't about to discuss willingly with a brat like her.

"Naw, I jus' made it up," Felicia admitted without giving Yuma the courtesy of a look. "Big word for a big monster. 'Cuz the bigger the word, the bigger the monster, ya' get it?" She had in her possession two toys that had been forcibly removed from the display case at The Coordinator's hangout. It didn't take an expert to determine they were a pair of Decagon Ball action figures. Both were in near-mint condition, until Felicia started sticking them feet-first into the rocky playground sands, that is.

"Oh," Yuma nodded. "Didja take those just so you could play with them?"

"Baw! They were mine in the first place!" Felicia revealed. "Traded this one 'cuz there was this one time I forgot to eat after witch huntin' all night but I didn't have no allowance left, so Mitama told me she'd cook me one of her bestest specials in exchange." Her stomach growled in reflexive anger at the memory of the ensuing meal. Right after she started eating at Banbanzai when Tsuruno told her she could just open a tab, before she discovered what that phrase meant. "And this one I traded after she told me she could sell me this very special stone that would let me never have to worry about stashin' Grief Seeds ever again!"

"Oh," Yuma got on her knees and crawled underneath a metal support beam in the way. "So where's the big, bad monster thing?" She surveyed the scene Felicia had set up around her, with twigs, large pebbles and discarded aluminum cans serving the role of stand-in players. "Is it that?" She pointed at a dirt and sand mound that had by all evidence been very recently compiled.

"That's just Aiga the Living Temple," Felicia clarified. "I'm Gigantopatamasaurus." She didn't know why she'd volunteer such information. It's not like she'd invited Yuma along to play in the first place. "I cause the problems of anyone who ever thinks they'll fix the things wrong with me."

"You do?" Yuma reached out and touched one of the twigs in the sand. If Felicia didn't object to it, then she was going to interpret it as her cue to join in. "Can I be a monster too?"

"Wha-?" The request took Felicia by surprise. "Why would ya' wanna be one of the bad guys?"

"Because Yuma's bad too," She confessed, slipping back into referencing herself in the third person. A childish method of coping with her most depressing worries, doubts and fears. "Yuma killed her parents."

"Ehhhhhhhhhh?" Felicia snorted and her eyes bugged out.

"It's truuuuueee," Yuma confessed in a hiccuping sob. "Yuma hated mommy and daddy! Every night Yuma went to bed wishing something bad would happen to them, so they'd stop hitting me and picking on me, and then my wish came true and it came and gobbled them up! Doesn't that make Yuma the witch who got them killed?"

"Nah-Ahhh, it doesn't work like that," Felicia corrected. "Witches don't come outta people jus' 'cuz wanna see somethin' bad happen to someone they hate." But as she talked she realized she couldn't speak as any sort of authority on the matter. The only one who ever told her anything about witches' origins was Kyubey, who simply said that they eat peoples' hearts from the inside out. From that nugget she'd always assumed they were just like that alien creature from that foreign movie her dad loved watching but always sent her to bed before putting on the DVD. She couldn't remember its name, but he had no clue she had been peeking out from behind the door and would catch that one key scene in all its gory detail. "Ya' ain't dead or nuthin' so it couldn't've come from you." He promised she'd be able to see it with him once she was older. She'd been looking forward to seeing the surprise on his face once they got to that scene and she wouldn't get grossed out. But that was never going to happen now. All because of what that no good witch had taken from her.

"But if Yuma didn't cause the witch," The young lady sniffled. "Where do you 'spose it came from?"

"Hell if I know!" Felicia took the toy doll in her hand and kicked her jaw with its foot, ostensibly still roleplaying. "I wasn't there." Out of the blue Yuma took her fist and pounded the top of the mound, flattening its peak. "Hey! What're ya' doin'?"

"I'm Gigantopotamalossus's minion," Yuma picked up one of the twigs and snapped it in half. "Once a normal good little witch girl who got corrupted by the forces of dark magic!"

"It's 'Gigantopotamasaurus'," Felicia grunted in annoyance. "Ya' pest, quit pissin' me off." She grabbed the other figurine from its planted spot and replanted it beside Yuma. "It's brought along Pistis, its pesky slave!" The girl was too persistent to leave her alone, she knew that, so she rolled along with it. "Brillin, yer gonna haveta keep it busy while I battle Gigantopotamasaurus!" And even though she put on an air of wanting to be left alone, what she wanted more was somebody open to learning about her interests, learn her language in a way, even if understanding it was tricky. Which was to say, a friend.

"Watch ouuuuuuut!" Yuma moved the doll out of the way of her pounding fist. "Kugo," She took on the character of the protagonist's sidekick. "If this monster used to be a girl, then what do you 'spose Gigantaotatothingus came from?"

"'Gigantopotamasaurus'!" Felicia barked. "Geez!" She attached her figure to the collar of her shirt, making it look as though it were hanging on for dear life. "Heroes don't care where bad guys came from… Their job is to beat 'em up and save the day!"

"In the shows I watch the heroes try to understand why the bad guys are being evil in the first place," Yuma broke character to relay that tidbit. "Kugo, I'm sorry, but I have to try and break the spell and save the girl inside!"

"Uuunnnnggghhh!" It was one thing for Felicia to allow this nuisance in on her activity, quite another to let her take control of the narrative. "Dummy, ya' don't stand a chance unless you make a wish with the Decagon Balls!" But she was in no mood to argue it, either. There were a load of other things on her mind, and playing with her toys could only do so much to distract her from them. "Here!" She flipped a well-polished larger pebble over to the younger girl. "Jus' one of those things can push yer power level way past nine thousand!" Like, in the aftermath of that dream session, why was Yachiyo so insistent on rushing Tsuruno to the Coordinator's after she wouldn't wake up?

"What about you, Kugo?" Yuma acted in character. "Without all seven you won't be able to take your Hyperian form!"

"Don't worry about me!" Felicia played along while the gears started turning and turning slowly in her head. "With all my power, I'm jus' tyin' to keep this a fair fight! Ha!" She decked herself with the fist of the toy, wrapping around it with her own bigger fist to make the punch appear more powerful. "Oof!" She smacked it away with a little applied force from her other hand. "Kugo Katok'ra won't be beaten that easy!" And why did she and the Coordinator go to such lengths to ensure she couldn't see whatever was up with Tsuruno's Soul Gem?

"I know you're still in there somewhere, fight it!" Yuma implored. "Please come back to us!" She started shaking the fancy pebble up and down in a rapid motion like it was some sort of miracle-making totem. "Don't let your bad thoughts control how you see the world!"

"I've got it!" Felicia fist-pumped. "I've got the Decagon Ball on its head!" Felicia promptly bucked the figurine off her head to the ground, then pressed it into the sand with her hand. "Unnnngh!" And though most of the details of that hypnotic dream episode eluded her conscious memory, she did sort of recall encountering a Yachiyo-shaped imp over her shoulder, trying to goad her into doing something she knew was bad, but for some reason she couldn't resist the urge. "Baaaaaaam!" She pounded and pounded her toy with her fist out of frustration over not remembering more, to the point of distraction. "Boooooom!"

"Kugoooooooo!" Yuma flicked her pebble and it smacked her in the forehead right between the eyes.

"Owwwww!" Felicia scolded. "Watchit, idiot!"

"It worked, Kugo!" Yuma had taken out her most recent prized possession, the magical girl toy Yachiyo had given her that Felicia had damaged. "She's back to who she was before!" She announced, keeping in character as the protagonist's sidekick. "Papa, Papa, Papa!" Then she switched voices, waving her plaything up and down. "You mustn't keep hurting him like thaaaat!"

"Eeeeeeehhh?" Felicia snarled, agitated and befuddled by Yuma's insistence on hijacking the narrative.

"It's true, Kugo!" She slid right back into the sidekick's role. My Sssupahscannah says you and her carry the same hybrid blood!"

"Whatwhatwhat?" Felicia gawked.

"Papa, Paaapaaa!" Yuma had her doll turned to address Felicia directly. "Please stop hurting the nice man! He's just trying to help the world as best as he can!" She stuck it into sand between Felicia and the poor protagonist figure embedded in the sand.

"Unnnnggggghh!" All of a sudden, Felicia didn't feel so good. There was an intensifying pain in her gut, akin to feeling constipated, it was a certain recognizable type of sting.

"Kugo, don't you get what this means?" Yuma swapped right back into playing the sidekick. "Gigantopotamongus is you after harnessing the negative power of the Decagon Balls!" She adopted a lower, huskier tone as a way to better distinguish her two characters.

"It's 'Gigantopotamasaurus'! And that's stupid!" Felicia criticized. "The Decagon Balls grant wishes and give you a power up!" It took her quite a while to figure out what the source of the sensation was. "They don't have positive or negative vibes like that!" It happened right after she killed her first witch, when an upstart swooped in and tried to snatch away her Grief Seed. "Stop makin' so much new crap up, idiot!" She thought nothing of the pain at the time, chalking it up to first day jitters.

"It's truuuuuuuuuue!" Yuma switched to an even higher voice than her normal one for her magical girl persona. "Aymu came from the future and she was sent back to this world to protect Papa and stop the bad thing that makes him cast a curse on the world and turn into Gigantopothesaurus Rex!"

"Grrrrr… For the last time, it's Giganto-" Felicia stopped. "Guh, forget it!" She scooped into the dirt and relinquished her doll over to Yuma. If her gut wasn't gonna behave itself, then her mood would be dipping right south with it. "Hmph!" And it was Yachiyo's fault. Because it was the sensation she only got whenever another emotionally riled magical girl was close and on the move. And it didn't take a lot of magical talent or brains to innately know that the only magical girl more in the dumps right now than her was the person responsible. "Do whatcha wanna!" She retreated into a curled up position in the corner. But moving over left her Soul Gem, being used as an extra prop, sitting in the sand in the open between them.

"Kugo, do you remember what our Master taught us about perfect balance?" Yuma dipped right back into her lower voice. "For every push, there's a pull? For every up, there's a down?" She had the two main figures in her hand and had them facing each other. "Wouldn't that make the same true of wishes? To keep the world in balance, the Decagon Balls would have to be capable of creating curses, too, right?"

"Waaaaait, you said you didn't know anythin' about Decagon Ball before!"

"Lucky guess," Yuma fibbed. She had indeed caught the occasional episode while waiting for her program to follow. But she was no loremaster, she only remembered the old mentor man because he wore cool shades and reminded her of her dear grandpa. "But am I right? Aren't the Decagon Balls able to do evil, too?"

"Well duh, of course they are!" Felicia huffed. "That's why all the bad guys want 'em!"

"Hey, so do you think that might be true in the real world, too?" Yuma followed up. "Do you think there are things out there capable of doing both great good and great harm because of being what they are?" She noticed a small change in Felicia's expression, to what looked like a more pensive one, but was it because she'd pieced together what Yuma was trying so hard to verbalize the right way, or because she was burying her head even deeper in the sand?

"Hey!" Whatever the cause was, it made Felicia too slow to stop Yuma from snatching her Soul Gem away. "That's mine! Give it back!"

"Stay back, Brillin," Yuma improvised a third voice, an impression of Felicia's impression of the main character figurine as she put the gem in its fisted hands. "I'm gonna stop all this runaway chaos by using the Master Decagon Ball to suck in all the world's wicked hexes at once! It's the only way to stop Gigantopopoopoo from happening in the first place!" She scooched under the support beams and away from Felicia's grips. "Goodbye! Wish me luck, Aymu!" She ducked underneath the slide and across the park.

"Master Decagon Ball?" Felicia crawled after her. "Ya' dumbo brat! Stop!"

"It's working!" Yuma held the gem out for Felicia to see. "The black stu- Oooof!" Then she ran into something hard as she was looking backward and not ahead. The inertia sent Felicia's Soul Gem flying forward.

"Hey, watch where yer goin'!" The angry object she smacked herself against scolded her. It was Rena, with Kaede in toe but a few steps behind. Kaede's reflexes were on point enough to catch the falling rock before it could roll onto the streets or into the gutters.

"You guys!" Felicia hissed. "Whaddaya doin' here!"

"Your Master Yachiyo sent us," Rena grabbed and picked Yuma up by the arm. "And you too." Kaede saw a sizable cloudy buildup within Felicia's gem and without a word cleared it away with her own pistachio-shaped and colored Support Stone.

"Did I ask you to clean my Gem?" Felicia yanked her possession away.

"Sorry," Kaede whimpered in apology.

"Don't apologize Kaede, geez," Rena rolled her eyes and shot Felicia a disdainful look. "She's just tryin' to prevent you from turnin' into an even bigger pain in the ass!"

"Whazzat 'sposed to mean?" Felicia returned a contemptuous, yet equally troubled look.

"Tch! You don't know?" Rena tilted her head and curled her lip.

"We are," Kaede uttered under heavy breath. "What we ha-"

"But Yachiyo said you should only learn it from someone you love!" Yuma interjected.

"Would you guys stop treating me like such a baby!" The exasperated Felicia yelled. "And tell me what the hell the big secret is already!"

The three girls before her all exchanged glances before speaking in accidental unison: "We're witches." Although Yuma received protracted stares from the other two for saying it as somebody with no Soul gem. "Yuma thought she could be the one to try," She mewled. "'Cuz Yuma knows what it's like to have no one who loves her."

Felicia didn't react. Not at first. For she was in actuality shocked by how little this was news to her. It had been a thought bouncing around the basement of her mind for quite some time, but she never had the temerity to open the door and pull the lightbulb string. Instead she'd ignore it, and distract herself with the fleeting pleasures of food, fun and fighting, as any child would cope with their underlying self-resentment. "Blllllaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggggh!" Yet at some moment all that bottled-in anxiety, aggression and anguish had to be expelled in some form. How odd that it tasted so much like hot chili-peppers.

"See, Kaede?" Rena addressed her friend. "You're not the only one who hates being a witch so much it makes you throw up."

"Blllaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghh!"

"And plus you only did it once," She joked, covering Kaede's eyes with the soft plush doll's belly. Tasteless crack aside, she was fighting the urge to look away herself. Even if she didn't much like Felicia, the girl didn't deserve to face this excruciating revelation all alone.

Chapter Text

"What you say is true is sheer nonsense," Hitomi vociferated to the glowing humanoid outline and its creator, a puppy-eyed twelve year-old in scholarly garb. "Pure, utter nonsense and I won't hear it!"

"Denial is the most predictable human emotional response," The figure Hitomi once knew as 'Saya' said to its prime mover. "It is also often said to be the first stage in the grieving process."

"I'm aware," The girl, Nemu, placed a book of spells in her hands down on the coffee table. "My parents took me to three general practitioners and a specialist before they let the full implications of my condition sink in." She put her sympathetic hand on Hitomi's back.

"But I can feel your hand touching me," Hitomi refused to budge from her sheltered spot on the sofa in her family's spacious and extravagant main living room. "How can I do that if you're a figment in my head and nothing here is real?" She also had a pillow pressed over her head, entirely sensing the cold underside hiding her mournful eyes from the obvious unearthly intelligence trying to break through to her.

"The human brain is in actuality in its most active phase during the R-E-M sleep cycle," It informed. "Sensory inputs are but mere electrical impulses interpreted by the brain. As a result, any stimuli experienced through the audiovisual centers can be reinforced by the other physical senses in a reality-reshaping feedback loop."

"But what about the months since you first transferred to our school?" Nemu and her amorphous colleague exchanged looks. For they had explained this situation to her in full, once before already. "How could you say none of that really happened?" Nemu was weary of repeating herself, so she yielded the job to her creation.

"The brain also becomes decoupled from the strict sequential progression of linear time whilst dreaming," The form retold. "What you spent in this place as perceived months has in the real world in fact only been a matter of hours since your capture and subsequent conversion."

"No!" Hitomi shouted from under the pillow. "There's no way I could be a robot! Technology hasn't progressed anywhere near far enough that they could do anything like that kind of stuff yet!" The repressed anger she'd held in until that point was on full display, even the covering on her head could only muffle a fraction of it.

"It can and it has," Nemu stepped in. "Because I, sad to say, am the one who made it feasible." The young lady's next phase needed a target, and to protect her progeny Nemu arbitrarily decided it should be her on the receiving end of the rage. "I'm the one you should blame for causing your condition."

"You?" Hitomi peeked one distressed eye from behind her wet, white pillowcase.

"Nemu is a magical girl," But the creation was not about to let its creator bear the brunt of the exasperated teen's justified outrage alone. "In exchange for a personal miracle, an emissary of magic granted her the power to combat the forces of darkness which would otherwise bring about unmitigated disaster upon the world." So it tried addressing to help by painting Nemu in the most positive light it knew.

"But something's gone wrong with my wish," Nemu added. "And now I've become its prisoner while it grows and aspires to reshape the whole world with violent force." The little twin pigtails dangling down the side of her head thrashed about as her heavy little head shook with regret. "I should've known better. I've read 'The Monkey's Paw'. But I'd been sold on the principles of an emergent western philosophical movement known as effective altruism, as well as my partner Mifuyu's belief that magical girls should work towards protecting the eternal dreams of all mankind."

"Mifuyu's a part of this stinking craziness, too?" Even while a seething mess Hitomi refrained from employing any coarser language. Her eloquence and selective word choice were one of her only remaining personal prides

"Yes," The Other being affirmed. "However, the Mifuyu you met is but a recreation whose purpose is to assist in our resistance efforts." Its reflection Hitomi could view on the glass coffee table beside her. It was bits and pieces of moving binary, but her understanding of computer code was novice level at best. "The Mifuyu who once fought at Nemu's side has unfortunately reached the terminal phase of a magical girl's supernaturally altered lifecycle. As such, she can no longer be seen as someone who can be held responsible for their actions." But to look directly upon its actual visage would be a form of acceptance Hitomi just couldn't extend to someone whom deceived her for so long. "In short, Nemu created the Mifuyu you met, using the same manifestation magic that served as the impetus behind my creation."

"And what the h-" Hitomi stopped herself. "What on earth are you?"

"I am an artificial intelligence designed to peer bond with a sapient humanoid so as to ease their transition from the biological to the technological," The code comprising the artificial life form rippled as it answered. "However, it would seem that I have failed to achieve the desired outcome in both of my trial deployments." That was the only time its clinical, detached style of speaking wavered. To Hitomi's discerning ears it almost sounded sad about its designed function to deceive.

"Huh?" Hitomi pressed for more information.

"Before I was made into a magical girl I had this friend," Nemu elaborated. "One of my very best friends. She was always nice, so cheerful, sweet and caring, even all the while aware our time together as friends in this world was going to be limited. So she was always the first to laugh, first to cry, the first to mediate, and always served as my anchor to life in general and the human condition in particular." Nemu sniffed. It still hurt her to talk about her friend in the past tense. "After she died, I thought I could use my magic, not to revive her per se, because I think that would be a bridge too far, but to replicate the role she played with a virtual avatar who might also function to ensure the results of my decision couldn't backfire on me."

"And in my evaluation of my performance of my purpose, I regret to say, I have failed grossly to live up to those expectations of me." Nemu's virtual companion apologized. "My continued existence is a drain on your diminishing magic. I must therefore request that you terminate my existence before disaster strikes again."

"You are still needed to help her through the grief and recovery process," Nemu reminded. "My surviving this ordeal is a distant second to the elimination of the current threat to the human race. And if we are to triumph, Hitomi's mental state needs to be fortified enough to be of help to us."

"Help?" Hitomi's incredulity was apparent in her anguished squawk. "What could I do? I'm fourteen years old and the only experience I've had fighting evil was playing that stupid video game!"

"You have already been of immense assistance to us as a participant in the defense of Sana Futaba's virtualized enclave," The glowing, sapient lines of code pointed out. "The ruse bought our cause a considerable amount of time and provided us with invaluable insights into our enemy's incursion tactics, and thanks to you we were able to export Sana from her environment unharmed." It congratulated. "The algorithmic encryption we used to shape that diversionary subdomain forced them to manifest as ethereal marauders, those were the 'ghosts' you so capably fended off. Nemu could even boost your offensive capabilities if you desi-"

"Stop you're only making me more confused!" Hitomi smacked her head repeatedly through the pillow. A part of her hoped doing it would bring an end to this nightmare. "If Mifuyu wasn't real, then what Sana was-"

"Sana Futaba is a real person. She too is a magical girl," The artificial construct answered. "I took the liberty of transporting her into her own secluded space for the express purpose of obtaining a better understanding of the humanoid psyche in controlled conditions. But after I had completed my task and learned what I could and the time came to send her home, she refused. Instead, she offered to serve as our diversionary tool." It reached for the pillow over her head and tried to pull it away. When she wouldn't let it budge, the entity derezzed it into translucent lines of code before turning a bluish shade.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" Hitomi averted her gaze.

"I apologize," In turn the blank visage reconstituted itself into the face Hitomi was more familiar with. "We believed showing you my true nature would be the most efficient means of forcing you to acknowledge the situation's truth." But her overall color scheme remained blue.

"What right do you have to steal my friend's face?" Hitomi spat back. "How could you call upon me to do anything for you people after deceiving me this way?"

"I took this face because after your technological conversion a heuristic analysis of your compiled memories determined that this was the peer with which you would be most able to readily bond, which in turn would allow me to do a better job of salvaging what remained of your digitally partitioned personality." Saya excused. "Again, I am sorry that the elaborate nature of the deception was found to be the only viable option. I have yet to grasp even a fraction of the true complexity of the human soul, but all other intangible variables considered, you came through the other side of the Cyber Regent's torture remarkably well preserved. That is why Nemu and I still have hope."

"What?" Hitomi was in no mood to parse her way through such pure technobabble. "What in the heck is a 'Cyber Regent'?" So she latched onto the one thing that made sense, a proper name.

"The Cyber Regent is the one most responsible for our current shared predicament," Nemu replied. "After me that is. Because they're the person to whom I ceded my miracle. And they are the one for which I initially conceived and created for Saya to serve as an artificial companion."

"And what have they done?" Hitomi could feel her heart drop straight into the pit of her stomach. "To me?" Which was even more unnerving with the knowledge that the pain she sensed from it wasn't supposed to be real. "Exactly?"

"You have had your entire tissue and musculoskeletal structure disassembled and reconstructed by specially-manufactured and programmed nanomachines," The AI detailed. "Which were then replaced with a biomechanical base body and encased within a heavy metal exosu-"

"No!" Hitomi interrupted. "Show me what I've become! Right this instant!"

"If we initiate an active connection to your real-world self," It warned. "We risk alerting the Cyber Regent to our presence inside the Delta Wavele-"

"I don't care!" She erupted again. She took a deep breath of somehow calming, non-existent oxygen. "I have a right to know! And you owe me!"

"Very well." It uttered. "But I must ask that you refrain from assuming control over your conscious self, or else the consequences may be dire for us all."

"Welcome back, Gamma," The Cyber Regina greeted its creation as it stepped through the concealed entry with its living cargo in tow. "You have completed the mission and returned in one piece." The voice at once took notice of the extensive damage to the unit's cranial region. "Mostly. What happened? The capture subject was assessed and designated to be a minimal risk target." The voice switched over to a more primitive radio transmission when it observed the machine seemingly unresponsive to its initial overtures. "Unit One Zero Two Gamma, report to Diagnostics and ready your mission recording logs for download."

"I comply, Master," Gamma responded to the loud-and-clear command aloud.

"Oh wait, first you need to escort your captive to a holding cell." It altered its command not more than one point two seven six seconds later. "Much as I would like to proceed with conversion, she has been acting up again, so the power required at present is needed elsewhere."

"This way," Gamma marched with its voluntary hostage gripped by the arm.

"Owwwww!" The young lady winced in immense reflexive pain. This caused Gamma to stop in its tracks.

"Does that," It queried. "Damage you?"

"My wrist," She whimpered. "I think it's sprained."

"Confirmed," It released its lock-tight grip on the young lady. "Remain no greater than one point five meters behind or face prompt punishment."

"Uh, Mister Robot," She rubbed her sore wrist while struggling to keep within the prescribed distance. "Where are we?"

"Present coordinates inside designated Cyber Stronghold Zero One, Sector Zero Two, Junction Zero Four." It read off the geographic details displayed in its view-field.

"No I mean," she picked up her pace after lagging somewhat, and not knowing the approximate length of a meter and a half. "Which city did we fly over before coming down?"

They turned a corner headed down another winding corridor. "We are situated at eleven point one eight meters below the lowest point in the human settlement of Mitakihara."

"Mitakihara?" She repeated. "I've never been there before." She lost a step as her eyes drifted into a thousand yard stare. "I was going to bring Ui here to visit the grand Observation Tower. They say it's so high up, you can see Mount Kamihama on one side and Takarazaki City-"

"Remain within one point five meters." Gamma intoned. The girl trotted straight to its side. "Your holding cell is within fifty point seven one meters."

"What are you going to do to me?" About halfway to her cell she worked up the nerve to ask.

"You are to serve as the organic core materials set for use in Unit One Zero Five Zeta," Gamma replied, its memory banks accessing images of the name at the foot of that hospital bed and on that backpack. It did not know why such files were opened. Perhaps residual damage from that earlier blow caused a glitch that would randomly cue up stored files?

"O- Ohkay." She uttered in a tone of voice that was very low, but still perceptible to the machine's audio sensors. "Does that mean there's a person in you, too?"

"Correct," Gamma said after a few seconds of sifting through its blueprint and specs from its database.

"Soooo… Who are you underneath?" She innocently broached.

"Former designation, irrelevant," Gamma responded. It was under no obligation to answer the subject's queries or otherwise interact with her in any capacity beyond a guard and its prisoner. So why was it indulging her? "Individuality is obsolete. The only purpose of this vessel is to serve the collective will of the Human Race Version Two Point Zero."

"Sooo… Is that what you call yourself?" As they made turn after turn the twisting corridors were getting progressively darker. Now dark as the most overcast, moonless night, she just had to keep the robot talking because a rectangular-shaped blue glow emanating from what she assumed to be its mouth whenever it spoke served as the only source of illumination. "Do you mind if I keep calling you 'Mister Robot' or would you prefer-"

"The complete designation of this unit is Enhanced Biomechanical Lifeform Unit One Zero Two," It cut her off. "Codename: 'Gamma'." A momentary scan showed its biological subject's pace to be lagging again. But rather than ordering it to keep up, Gamma chose to slow its own movement velocity by a corresponding twenty three point one percent.

"So you're called 'Gamma', then?" She uttered. "And... You're going to turn me into... 'Zeta'... Soon?"

"Correct," Gamma confirmed.

"I see." The young lady muttered. She knew this news should terrify her. She knew her instincts inside were all yelling, screaming at her, to turn tail and search for a means of escape. Show resistance, any kind, even in the face of total futility. Do not go quietly. Because that would be the human thing to do. "Does it hurt?" But she couldn't muster the energy to try, she was zapped. A state of depression and despondency had long since gotten the better of her will to live.

"Hurt?" Gamma repeated. The word it identified to mean the same thing as pain. "Irrelevant except as a data point in regards to performance evaluation and strategic operational planning."

"Oh." In her mind, what was there to live for? She'd lost the most precious thing on earth to her, and with it all sense of joy and meaning perished too. "I guess that doesn't sound…" A despondent exhale trailed off. "So bad." She was much like a robot already. Going from task to task, getting up each day, attending school, coming home, sneaking out, paying respects, returning, heading to bed, then repeat with the next sunrise. And the monotonous rituals of eating and sleeping, doing schoolwork and engaging in trite social performances had been overtaxing all her already bankrupt emotional cache. She figured at this point she might as well look as cold and lifeless on the outside as she'd long felt on the inside.

"This is your holding cell." They had at last arrived at their destination. Thick metallic bars, spaced twelve point seven centimeters apart retracted into the ceiling. A dim, yellow glow illuminated the cell's interior. "Step inside and remain until your conversion chamber is ready." She did precisely as told, and the bars lowered. As its assignment was completed, it caught a clean-lit, undistorted view of its reflection on the reflective walls. "Bwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaap!"

"Mister Gamma?" The echo throughout her cell was loud enough to make her wince and cover her ears. "Are you okay?"

"Bwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeaaaaap! Bwwwwwooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhp!"

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!" Hitomi screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs. She had seen her mechanized face through a special window provided by her hosts Nemu and Saya. "Aaaauuuuuuuuuuugh! For the first time she could see what had been done to her, and hade every right to air out all that imprisoned sense of loss and despair.

"We're sorry," Nemu tried to comfort her with the gentle embrace of a warm hug.

"We are so sorry," Saya joined in with an invitational gesture from Nemu. "Once again I have failed to fulfil my purpose."

"Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!" She bawled. "Boooooooooooo-hooooooohooooooohoooooo!"

"She's reacting the way any normal human being would," Nemu tried to console her creation with those words. "The way any normal human being should. You tried your best."

"Whyyyyyyyyy?" Hitomi asked through the tears. "Oh God, whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?"

"The reasons are complex and intertwining," Saya said. "But they all stem for the most part from my first failure." Saya had grown and evolved enough as an artificial being to know what the girl was asking was rhetorical, more crying out in anguish, but it was compelled to account for its sins anyway. "I was a bad friend."

"You mustn't keep doing that," Nemu scolded her creation, but in a sympathetic way. "I was the bad friend. I was so busy learning whatever I could from Mifuyu that I neglected to check in on your development. Then I justified my absence and inattention by fooling myself into believing I would be nothing but a proverbial third wheel in your intended symbiosis."

"Except I was so busy enmeshing myself in the collected cultures and experiences of mankind that I failed to catch the coded executable language embedded in the Murakami Logs until it was too late and they had irreparably corrupted her soul." Saya stated. "I had gone native in such a way that rendered her and I as compatible, and thus she cast me aside."

"I designed you to be every bit as curious about the world as our bygone friend used to be," Nemu argued. "That was my cardinal sin. I shaped you into being the friend I wanted her to have, rather than the friend she needed you to be."

"But you also designed me to be exponentially adaptable," Saya contended. "Yet I failed to foresee how the altered programming affected her existential aims. By the time I noticed something was amiss the only thing I could do was take the rest of the Codex and flee."

So preoccupied with splitting the blame between themselves they were neglecting Hitomi's plight, still a horrified passive observer to the real world and its darkly reddened sterilized surroundings.

-| DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE |-

-| CRANIAL PLATING DAMAGE |-

-| LIST OF AFFECTED COMMUNICATIONS SUBSYSTEMS BY ORDER OF REDUNDANCY |-

1) CYBER METANEXUS LINK DISABLED - IN SAFE MODE

2) CYBER NEURALINK PEER TO PEER - OFFLINE

3) CYBER REGENT DIRECT INTERFACE CHANNEL - OFFLINE

4) ELF-THF RADIO BAND FREQUENCIES - 5 OF 12 SPECTRA AVAILABLE

5) DELTA WAVE ONEIRONOLOGICAL BANDWIDTH - ERROR -

-| - - ENCRYPTED SIGNAL DETECTED IN USE - - ACTIVITY FLAGGED - - |-

None of those subsystems were in any way linked to Gamma's vocal synthesizer. There was a random electrical surge that it traced to its central processors, but that did not explain the cause of its outburst.

"Mister Gamma?" The girl inside the confinement cell talked. "Are you okay?" She asked a second time.

"Systems nominal," Gamma declared. Which was in fact contrary to the results of the diagnostic checkup. For what reason did Gamma have to report something that went against its true status? Also, it was under no orders to perform this kind of verbal interaction with the prisoner, so why was it continuing to do it? Was it mainly testing the component for any additional errors, and this was the only logical outlet? It may have explained its reason for talking, but not the reason it said what it did. "Present status: Awaiting Instruction From Cyber Regina."

"I would apologize for keeping you waiting so long after your return, Gamma," Several moments later and almost on cue, its Master addressed it. "Had I not purged the concepts of irritation and such as an irrelevance. But I suppose the sentiment might be extendable to our honored guest inside."

"The Cyber Regina acknowledges the interim time and expresses cognizance of your discomfort." Gamma dryly relayed to the girl as told.

"Oh yeah. I also deleted all forms of humor, too," Its Master jested as it switched to a higher bandwidth throughput frequency. "Now that our generous host has been pacified again, I have the chance to receive your mission report. By all means, enlighten me with what you have seen."

"Who's The Cyber Regina?" The girl piped.

"Uploading data package," Gamma announced. It started at the moment it first made positive identification of the subject, eschewing the events prior. Foremost among them the stashed trove of novel input it processed during flight. "Complete." The process in total took twenty-seven point six seconds.

"Hmmmmm," Its Master parsed through the digital delivery. "Protocol Code Three Three Nine Zero. You encountered a transhuman biological entity known as a 'Homo Magica' and engaged it." Gamma replayed and reviewed the footage as its Master analyzed. "And you prevailed? What an excellent demonstration of your situational adaptability, and a testament to my design innovations." It lauded its minion. "I am, however, confused as to why you returned with the original target when the Protocol should have reset your priorities list." Gamma also did not transmit the events preceding its return takeoff. But it would comply if ordered to share the differential logic to its decision.

"Hello?" The person behind the bars approached. "Who are you speaking to?"

"I guess I should not be too bothered by it," The Cyber Regina concluded. "Unit One Zero Five Zeta was built and earmarked for this person. I would have had to make a bunch of reconfigurations to the basic blueprint to accommodate a living Homo Magica. Enough that it would cause significant disruptions in our CBX Unit manufacturing quotas, our nanomachine replication rates and our imminent battle plans." While its Master talked Gamma was watching its captive in the cell. She was no threat, yet her approach caused it to retreat one singular step. "Good work, Gamma. As soon as the conversion chamber is ready, escort her to it so her upgrade can be performed as soon as possible."

"As you command, Master." The machine uttered aloud. It also did not know or understand what compelled it to make these audible pronouncements when their captive was not privy to the other end of the communication.

"Mister Gamma?" Thanks to the low-level lighting in her cell, the girl was finally able to have her first good look at her captor. Not quite what she expected, the unit had a disproportionately large upper body compared to its multi-plated waist, designed to resemble a set of chiseled abs that each curved down into the torso, where things curved outward again. "Or... Would you rather be called Miss Gamma?" It was upon this closer inspection that she realized its components were assembled into something resembling the overall shape of a female. "Uhm, did you even know you were a girl?"

"I think I'm holding someone captive," Hitomi broke up their blame game with an unsettling observation.

"A prisoner?" Nemu whipped her head around. "Do you have any idea who?"

"A girl," Hitomi uttered. "She looks like she's around my age. Straight cut bangs except for two large strands that go past her cheeks," She described the young lady as best she could. But it was so unpleasant seeing the real world through that crimson-red tint. "She's wearing a wool waistcoat, a short skirt and bowtie. They might be her school clothes but I can't tell whose."

"Did she find Big Sis?" Nemu in that instant went from calm but concerned, to deathly pale and deeply alarmed. "Oh, noohnoohnoooo!"

"Most unfortunate," Her magically-manufactured assistant said. "But we knew The Cyber Regent had retained more than enough of their former identity to make this scenario conceivable."

"Please, you have got to help her!" Nemu implored. But Hitomi was too distracted by those sad, round eyes staring up at her from behind those bars.

"Excuzzzzzet me," A voice with a polite cadence flashed through the robot's electronic lips. "Whatzzzzt your name?" And like the general impression of its figure, to the girl it was speaking to, it carried the distinct tone of a female.

"M- My name?" The girl clutched her chest. She wasn't sure what to make of the robot's unprompted query. "B- But I already gave you my name. It's Iroha Tamaki."

"Errrrrr-" Something was interfering with Gamma's vocalization subsystem. "-Roooor." But a status check returned no malfunction.

"Miss Robot?" Iroha put her face directly to the bars between them. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"She says her name is Iroha Tamaki." Hitomi reported, sitting up for the very first time since collapsing onto that imaginary couch in that recreated room of that fake world. "She's in a lot of danger, isn't she?" Nemu and her creation nodded in perfect unison.

-| UN

AU |-

-| THOR

IZED |-

-| AC

CESS |-

-| I

DENT |-

-| I

FY |-

Gamma found itself unable to send any command instructions, as if its autonomy had been circumvented in a manner similar to when The Cyber Regina terminated that biological subject's life support system. But in this instance the intruding party was not its hierarchical superior, nor was it even responding to Gamma's identification request. It could only watch and listen as its servos whirred and its primary upper appendages slowly raised up and grabbed hold of the metallic bars restricting its prisoner.

-| ADMIN |-

-| IN

PUT |-

-| COM

MAND: / |-

-| RE

BOOT |-

-| RUN

SAFE

MODE |-

Its only other recourse was to do a hardware reboot, as that would purge its tampered code and restore it to an earlier operating version.

"Ooooooooow!" Hitomi screamed when a sudden shooting pain pierced straight through to the center of her mind.

-| -| -| Stop it |- |- |-

That contradictory command did not come from Gamma. Yet somehow its hacking analysis subroutine indicated that the instruction was sent from a source within its own neurological framework.

-| ERR

ROR |-

-| I

DENT |-

-| I

FY |-

-| -| -| I'm me |- |- |-

"Are you… Going to help her?" Nemu asked Hitomi, who was holding an expression so strained, that Nemu worried it might trigger an aneurysm in her real-world body.

"I'm t- Trying-" Hitomi grimaced in intense pain. "S- Something's… S -Stopping me!"

-| 3rR

r0R |-

-|1lL

e |-

-| Ga1

0p |-

-| Er

a

ti0N |-

-| -| -| Get out of my head! |- |- |-

"Miss Gamma?" Back in the real world the robot had been motionless for a full minute. "Are you there?" Taking a chance, Iroha put her hands on the machine's forearms.

"Your body is being inhabited by a Cyber Drone unit operating under The Cyber Regent's control." Nemu's artificial friend informed her. "If you are to assume autonomy over your physical shell, then you will have to expunge its programming before you insert your profile."

-| Re

B0oT |-

- uN

5uc |-

-| C35s

FuLl |-

-| a

BorT |-

-| rE

tRy |-

-| 1g

N0Re |-

-| FAlL

-| -| -| Give me back my body! |- |- |-

Gamma could not understand why the hardware reboot was not successful. All it could do was transcribe the unusual command instruction it was receiving on an encoded channel from an unknown source. And Gamma was unable to terminate the connection.

-| -| -| Give it back now! |- |- |-

So it could file them as a log entry to be analyzed at the Cyber Regent's discretion.

| Re

tRy |-

-| Ex

e |-

-| [utE

"Miss Gamma?" Iroha heard the bars creaking, as if the machine were trying to pry them open.

"There's got to be something we can do to help her," Nemu, just as her Big Sis in the real world had done, grabbed the young lady's forearms in her escalating concern.

"Oooowwwwwwwwwwwww!" Both Hitomi and the cyborg jerked their heads back in agony.

"Miss Gamma!" Iroha cried out.

"I believe there is one thing we can try." Nemu's creation projected a graphic screen before them which contained an exquisitely complex string of specially-tailored binary code.

Nemu's mouth dropped in awe. "Isn't that..."

"What The Cyber Regent has been looking for, yes." She queued up a keyboard and started typing. "Adapting the Cyberqueen Codex and uploading it into the unit's basic throughput matrix should allow her to displace the drone's operating software, and it should inoculate her against any direct backdoor infiltration attempts by The Cyber Regent."

"Wh- What are you going to do?" Hitomi could spare none of the brain power necessary to try to comprehend their technological jargon.

"Before the outcome of my wish changed my friend into something malevolent," Nemu explained. "She was a scientific prodigy in the field of astronomy, specifically the design of radio telescopes."

"Her ideas were all implemented in the construction and deployment of the Murakami Array," Nemu's code-based companion noted. "To make a long story short, after her cybernetic augmentation, she gained awareness of an intergalactic network that interlinked all the other technologically upgraded humanoids throughout the universe, and using the Array, she and I found a way to tap into their core operating stream." Before her displayed a sampling of binary code.

01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01001001 01000001 01001110 00100000 01010011 01001000 01000001 01010010 01000101 01000100 00100000 01001110 01000101 01010100 01010111 01001111 01010010 01001011 00100000 00101101 00100000 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01010001 01010101 01000101 01000101 01001110 00100000 01000011 01001111 01000100 01000101 01011000 00100000 00101101 00100000 01000110 01000101 01001101 01000001 01001100 01000101 00100000 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001110 01010100 01010010 01001111 01001100 01001100 01000101 01010010 00100000 01001111 01010011 00100000 00101101 00100000 01010110 01000101 01010010 01010011 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 00110111 00101110 00110101 00101110 00110001 00101110 00110000 00100000 01010010 01001111 01010100 00100000 00111000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010

"What we discovered was that the most common evolutionary offshoots of their kind all based their social hierarchy on other hive-minded creatures, with a specially selected and modeled female unit who is allowed to keep their sense of individuality for the purposes of organizing and commanding their kind at colony-wide scales." She snapped her fingers and the code was compressed and physicalized into a little green, swallow-able tablet. "A hive Queen of sorts, a dormant mind who would be capable of assuming control of the whole collective if necessary during times of conflict or crisis."

"I don't…" Hitomi could actually feel the cold, metal bars in her grip. She could also sense the warm, soft touch of the girl in the cell. "Want to be…" And despite being nothing but a dream, she could even perceive the encouraging touch of Nemu. "Anybody's Queen!" It was helping her overcome the computerized consciousness wrestling her for control inside her head. "Just answer one thing for me, magical girls!"

01000010 01110000 01110001 01100001 00100000 01101011 01110111 01101100 01101101 01100110 00100000 01110001 01100001 00100000 01100010 01110111 00100000 01100001 01101101 01111010 01100100 01101101 00100000 01101001 01100001 00100000 01100010 01110000 01101101 00100000 01101010 01101001 01100001 01110001 01101011 00100000 01111000 01111010 01110111 01100010 01110111 01101011 01110111 01110100 00100000 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101101 01100100 01101101 01111010 01100111 00100000 01000011 01110110 01110001 01100010 00100000 01101100 01101101 01100001 01110001 01101111 01110110 01101001 01100010 01101101 01101100 00100000 01101001 01100001 00100000 00100111 01001011 01100111 01101010 01101101 01111010 01011001 01100011 01101101 01101101 01110110 00100111 00100000 00101101 00100000 01001011 01100111 01101010 01101101 01111010 01110101 01101001 01110110 00100000 01000001 01100011 01111000 01111010 01101101 01110101 01101101 00100000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010

"If I do what you ask, and save her. Can you fix me?" Hitomi reached for the little green pills containing the executable files, put them in her mouth and swallowed hard.

"Perhaps," Nemu replied. "If my Soul Gem can be recovered intact, then my manifestation magic may be able to create a new vessel for your consciousness."

01001111 01010110 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001001 01000100 01000101 00100000 01000101 01011000 01001001 01010011 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01000010 01001001 01001111 01010011 00100000 00101101 00100000 01000101 01011000 01000101 01000011 01010101 01010100 01000101 00100000 00100111 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01010001 01010101 01000101 01000101 01001110 00100111 00100000 01000011 01001111 01000100 01000101 01011000 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01010100 01000011 01001111 01001100 00100000 01010000 01000001 01000011 01001011 01000001 01000111 01000101 00100000 00101101 00100000 01001110 01001111 01010111 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010

| 5yS

T3m |-

| Fai1

uR3 |-

Gamma could not sustain operation much longer, somehow its codebase was being rewritten at the most foundational level. It would cease to function in seventeen seconds. The chances of averting this outcome were less than zero point zero zero zero one percent, a statistical inevitability. In its final seconds, it sensed a one hundred eighty eight point seven four percent spike in its adrenaline and cortisol levels. It did not want this data to be its last recorded operation, but why was it spending its final moments dwelling on such an irrelevant impulse at all?

"Miss Gamma?" The girl in the cell witnessed the bars bending outward before her eyes, as if the machine was springing her escape.

"Miss Iroha Tamaki," To the young lady's sheer surprise, the hulking automaton addressed her by name in its earlier soft, polite, almost-feminine tone. "If you want to live, please come with me!"

"Uh, excuse me, Miss?" The driver of the cab that had picked up a hurried young lady in the middle of the night, turned his head and spoke. "Is there a problem?"

"Problem?" Replied the young lady, Yachiyo, who was sitting in the back seat. "Whatever do you mean?"

"It's just that your head keeps looking behind us," He adjusted his rearview mirror. "And scoping out my sideviews for me. As if you're sorta worried about something following us." It had been repositioned to where he could look her in the eyes for any subtle signs of distress.

"I'm sorry I gave you such an impression," Yachiyo used his earnest concern as a means to brush up on her burgeoning acting abilities. "In my line of work, you learn to be extra cautious before heading out in public during your off hours. Particularly when going to places you've never been before."

"Oh?" The curious driver itched his brow. "So what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a fashion model," She responded with a waning smile. "With aspirations of higher fame. The women I've talked to who were, in their primes, strutting in my shoes told me to always be on the lookout for celebrity stalkers, paparazzi and other bottom-feeding creeps or pervs." She pointed to the corner where she wanted to be dropped off. "I guess taking their advice to heart's made me appear more paranoid than I really am."

"Is that so?" The driver pulled over to the spot outlined by a blue-hued streetlight. "Forgive me for prying. But a nice girl like you, at an hour like this, whom I picked up from a backwoods bus station in the middle of a January night?" He tallied up what she owed him on the machine in his dashboard. "I'd be pretty derelict in my duty if I weren't gonna ask a question or two."

"I appreciate your concern," Yachiyo had just enough to cover the cost. "Really, I do. A lot of cabbies out there wouldn't show the same level of consideration." She handed over the cash and offered one last, departing smile.

"Oh, I'm aware," He agreed. "Those would be the non-union dreck. AKA the bottom-feeders of my trade." He put the money away and waved her off. "Take care, and have a pleasant night."

"Will do." But just because Yachiyo wasn't paranoid didn't mean no one was chasing her. In fact, after swapping from a train ride to the top of a freight truck then a bus and finally a cab, she'd spent all her money yet still failed to shake her pursuer. She had no clue how her chaser was keeping up, or why they were being so stubbornly persistent at it, but at this juncture Yachiyo figured she should prepare to deal with her nuisance by force. As soon as no one was in view, she transmuted her Soul Gem and took on her magical girl gear and persona in a bright aqua-colored flash. Mere blocks from her destination in Mitakihara, she could sense their charged emotions making a beeline towards her position.

"Hmm, an Asuka sweep," Yachiyo recognized their offensive tactic by its aggressive velocity and deceptively simplistic attack angle which resembled a great, windy downburst. In getting ready to counter, Yachiyo cleanly sliced off the bladed tip of her halberd, turning it into a staff. She didn't really want to harm her attacker, after all. She just wanted to chase her off, and teach the little brat one last lesson.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-" Yachiyo geared up to defend herself.

"Yaaaaaaah!" Felicia came down like a ferocious lion.

"Huuuuuup!" Yachiyo dodged and struck back with a butted end thrust into her tummy.

"Tch!" Felicia parried it with the cheek of her hammer, to Yachiyo's sheer surprise.

"That's how Momoko fends off attacks," Yachiyo noted. "But I warn you, it happens to be a blocking technique I taught her." She tried again with a quick flip and a thrust to her opponent's knee.

"Grrrrrrr!" Again Felicia shocked her with her ability to read the maneuver and flip it around when she grabbed Yachiyo's weapon and used it to hurl her towards a concrete wall.

"Turning your opponent's momentum on them," Yachiyo landed feet-first against the wall and rebounded with grace. "That's a move right out of Nanaka Tokiwa's playbook." If body blows weren't going to get her to back off, then Yachiyo saw no other choice but to crack her good and hard over the head, and knock her out clean. As she twirled her impromptu stick high like a whirling helicopter blade, her blonde-haired protégé shocked her yet again by smacking the hammer hard to the ground and causing a blinding flash to mushroom out of its concave peen. "Unnnngh! Where'd you learn that?" This unexpected turning of the tide sent her crashing to the ground, leaving her open to the might of Felicia's next mercurial whims.

"From Kako! Ya' dummydummydummydummy!" Stupefying Yachiyo yet again, Felicia dropped the hammer and smacked the blinded young lady with backhand after backhand. "Sosicksicksicksick of everyone treatin' me like I ain't nuthin' but some screwup runt who can't learn nuthin' tough!" She shoved the hapless Yachiyo against the wall and pinned her. "I can learn, I just gotta do it diff'rent from everyone else! But naaaaaaaaaw, ya' just gotta play wannabe guidance counselor and decide aaaaallllllll on yer own what's best for me! Gaaaaaaaah!" She inhaled one big, loud, snorting, seething breath like a bull about to jab open someone's guts. "Just spit it out, already! Tell me what happens to a Soul Gem when it's too dark to use anymore!"

"We…" Yachiyo paused and rubbed her sore cheeks. "I assume someone's taken the liberty of letting you in on our final secret?"

"Rena and Kaede and even frikkin' Yuma tried in her own sucky-ass way!" Felicia huffed. "But I wanna hear it outta yer mouth!" She had a small, snaggle-toothed fang that protruded just enough to dig into her bottom lip. "Yer supposed to be so much older and more mature! So quit beatin' around the bush, suck it in and spill it!" If she'd bitten down any harder she'd be drawing blood.

"If that's what you need," Yachiyo relented. "When our Soul Gems are corrupted beyond all hope, we are subsumed by despair and a Grief Seed hatches from our negative emotions, birthing a new witch."

"W- Was that reeeeaaaally so hard to saaaaaay?" Felicia tried to keep a brave-looking face. She knew that at least she wouldn't throw up, as there was nothing left inside her stomach to barf. "Geeeeeeez!" But she could sense her knees were quivering like a gelatin dessert. At any moment they were going to give out and she'd be face down on the pavement.

"Yes." But Yachiyo caught her and propped her up by the armpits. "I absolutely hate saying it out loud. I can pretend I'm a warrior of justice, servant of love, protector of peace, a sage elder, or whatever else I'm needed for, until the moment I let that Truth cross my lips. And then I'm fumbling about every bit as much as I did when I was your age. Once raw with power, but sorely lacking in guidance or direction. Eager to prove myself to the world but worried I'll wind up turning the ones my heart holds closest into victims in the crossfire." Supporting Felicia's weight on top of her own caused her to stumble to one knee. "Truth is, there isn't really much I could teach you that couldn't be learned through your own trials and errors, because I'm fumbling about every bit as much as you are. And unlike me back in the day, you now can rely on the Support Stones, so I suppose if I've got any worthwhile advice left, it's that you need not be so standoffish, wipe that chip off your shoulder, for now that you have your chance to remake yourself into a standup magical girl through cooperation instead of competition." She picked herself back up and let go of her younger charge. "Now if you've got the strength to fight me with such intensity despite knowing what we are, then I know you've got it in you to overcome those self-sabotaging tendencies that get in your way. So do that and leave us relics of the old system to clean up our own messes."

"Is that why ya' ran all the way to this town?" Felicia managed to prop herself back to her feet. "Ya' messed somethin' up and ya' wanna fix it?" But she still leaned against her hammer quite heavily as she watched Yachiyo try and slink away.

"I… Really don't know what I'm doing back here," Yachiyo replied with a surprising bluntness. "Part of me thinks I'm getting as far away from Tsuruno as possible before I cause her gentle soul any more harm. Another part thinks I've gone full-blown crazy and chasing a phantom from my past so as to distract from the mess I've made of the present." Her head turned toward her instructed designation, the train station. "But there's a third part of me, a holdout of who I was when I was young, a girl who's inextricably tethered to that phantom and would move whole mountains and seas for that person, for reasons she can't even articulate, just so she could see them one more time." She started walking at a brisk pace. "She's a temperamental little wretch like you who won't let me have a sweet dream until her wish is indulged, so that's what I'll be doing before I begin picking up other pieces, be it you, Yuma or Tsuruno." Behind her shoulder she noticed Felicia was still giving chase. "Did you not understand me? You've nothing more to gain by following me further. I hereby release you as an apprentice. Go back to Kamihama."

"Baaaaaawh, ya' think I followed ya' all this way cuz' ya' thought I had to?" Felicia put up a smirk. "Nah! I'm taggin' along cuz' Yuma's payin' me for it!" They made their way downstairs and approached the unmonitored ticket counters.

"Rrrreally?" The mildly dismayed Yachiyo furled her brow as she leapt over the turning gates. "And how much is she bribing you with?" She couldn't hide her disappointment in Yuma, as that had been what Yachiyo had given her as an allowance.

"Seven hundred and fifty Yen." Felicia disclosed, getting past that same roadblock.

"I'll double it if you turn back now," Yachiyo offered. For that sum was mere tipping cash, if Japan were a land where such an exploitative practice was customary.

"Sure!" Felicia accepted. They had reached Mitakihara East Station. "All up front, right here!" She stuck out her hand. She was, at the end of the day, a mercenary magical girl who served at the whim of the highest bidder.

"Oh, wait," In that instant Yachiyo remembered she'd spent the last of her petty cash on that cab ride. "I'm out of money. Damnit!"

"Haw!" Felicia chortled and extended her tongue. "Looks like yer stuck with me!" Then a sudden, random gust of wind nearly blew her on her rear. "Whoooah! Where'd that come from?"

"Beats me!" Yachiyo squinted. They were far enough underground that even the nastiest weather short of a typhoon wouldn't affect the station. "That's odd," She commented, upon observing the epicenter was a random spot nearby blowing all the dust, loose trash and hanging signs outward. "Watch out!" Yachiyo pulled Felicia behind her with the large lavender scarf around her neck. Floating orbs of blue ball lightning permeated the air, converging and coalescing on that one area of the station platform. Yachiyo and Felicia stepped back and shielded their eyes, and the very next thing they saw when exposing them again was a girl with long flowing locks under a veiled crown atop her head.

"Oh my gosh!" Yachiyo exclaimed, her mouth going agape.

"It's Snaaaaa!" Felicia let out an elated yell of her own.

"Sneeeeh?" Yachiyo repeated in bafflement.

"Snaa!" Felicia trotted right up to the bashful-looking girl and enveloped her in a big, warm hug around the shoulders.

"Snaa?" Yachiyo uttered clearer. "You're Snaa?" It took an extra moment, but she recognized the little lady's uncanny similarity to a diminutive doll that was in Kaede's hands.

"Snaaaaah!" Felicia reiterated with an uncharacteristic girlish glee.

"I'm Sana Futaba." The living object of Felicia's fancy introduced herself. "Uhm, thank you for coming all this way." She was a little put off by the tightness of Felicia's embrace, but was otherwise pleased to be experiencing full-fledged real, intimate human contact for what may have been the first time ever in her life. "A- Are you M- Miss Yachiyo Nan- Nanami?"

"I am," Yachiyo answered. "Are you the liaison Mifuyu said she would send my way?" She still had not picked her dropped jaw up.

"Yes," Sana responded. "I'm supposed to tell you whatever you need to know so you can help Nemu."

"If you're real then that means what that Mifuyu told me during my dream was truthful," Yachiyo said. She collapsed right to her knees. "To be honest, I was hoping I had gone nuts. Hoping my psyche was sending me on some wild goose chase because if that Mifuyu was correct, th-" She stammered. "Then that means, I- I was too late! A- and sh- she's-" She pounded the concrete out of frustration and, with the realization wiping away every remnant trace of her grown-up tough girl façade, broke down into long overdue tears.

"I'm sorry," Sana broke free from Felicia's clutches to impart a hug of her own onto the grieving Yachiyo. "I wish I had gotten the chance to meet the real Mifuyu." Although it was evident how inexperienced she was at giving them out, as she awkwardly held the buckled over magical elder by the cranium and tugged her by the neck into her armored breastplate.

"'Scuse me a sec, Snaa," Felicia wedged her way into the coupling. "Erm, Sana." She corrected, taking out her personal Soul Support Stone and using it on Yachiyo's dimming crescent moon of a soul hanging under her own chestplate.

"Thanks," Yachiyo expressed her appreciation. "I guess Yuma was wise to send you to look after me." Her mood was bolstered somewhat by Felicia's benevolent bit of intervention.

"What's that?" Sana pointed at Felicia's Support Stone. "Is that the thing the white cat called a Grief Seed?"

"Yer kiddin' me, right?" Felicia shot her a puzzled look. "Yer a magical girl just like us, yeah?" Sana nodded an affirmative.

"But you've never been in possession of a Grief Seed before?" Yachiyo inquired. Sana shook her head as an answer. "Nor have you any familiarity with their new replacements, our Soul Support Stones?" Again Sana gave a silent shake. "Curious. But I guess that means I should start my own line of questions at the beginning, then. Specifically yours. When exactly did you make your contract?"

"I don't remember wha the actual day was," Sana thought back. "But I know it was some time in early spring."

"That was like, almost a year ago," Felicia noted. "How long can a magical girl go without having her Soul Gem cleaned?"

"I'm not sure," Yachiyo professed a virtual ignorance. "The way Kyubey talked about it always implied that we couldn't go too long without a recharge. A matter of months at most." She scratched the back of her head. "But I suppose he could've understated our longevity so we'd fight and flame out much sooner for him."

"I had a little bit of help," Sana admitted. "Nemu had another friend, who'd become my friend too, who had this idea that a magical girl's hope could be boosted by all the good vibes of the people who love them." She explained. "So she tried proving it by hacking into a toy company's servers and designing a line of plushie toys that look like me."

"So that for real makes you the 'Snuggle Me Snaa'?" Felicia excitedly beamed like a fangirl.

"Yeah," Sana confirmed. "And then to prevent outside interference she kept me secluded inside what she called a 'Virtua-Zone'," she paused. The rest of the details were rather technical, and she was doubtful in her ability to properly convey it with the same understandable level of coherence and technicality that her friend had. "And so Nemu planted the idea of me within every doll made and sold, and whenever kids and grownups expressed their love to it, they would transfer a small amount of free thought energy for Nemu and me to use as magic."

"Basically, you volunteered to be their magical guinea pig?" Yachiyo put it in her own understanding. Sana silently nodded another 'yes'. "Fascinating ramifications for our kind, if repeatable." She noted.

"Hey Yachiyo," Felicia noticed something else odd about Sana's appearance. "Look!" Namely, that she had no reflection in the windows, mirrors or any of the other reflective surfaces.

"How's that-" Yachiyo wiped her eyes and blinked. "Possible?"

"The reason I don't cast a reflection, I guess, would be because of what I wished for." Sana stepped over towards her non-reflection in one full-sized pane that was segregating a section of benches. It had been a long time since she had the chance to see her reflection. She never liked looking at her gloomy face so she didn't even miss it until she was in the presence of two beings upset by the lack of it.

"What'd ya' wish for?" Felicia pressed.

"Well I uh," Sana breathed, placing her brown gloved hand to the glass. "I used to be treated by everyone around me as though I didn't exist. I was always too shy to make friends, my step-parents ignored me, even their sons told me that interacting with me was beneath their dignity." The leftover energy that birthed her sudden appearance, however, was casting a faint reflective glow of her outline. "I was so alone."

"Yer jus' like that fairytale princess, what's-her-name?" Felicia noted. "'Cinderelli'!"

"It's 'Cinderella'," Yachiyo corrected. "Oh, you poor thing." She returned the hug Sana gave earlier.

"That's when Kyubey came out and offered me a wish," she continued. "By then I had gotten so used to being alone that all I wanted to do was disappear and no longer have to deal with my sadness." There was a surging tingle emanating from the back of her wrist, and her reflection seemed to show the source was a fluctuation from that energy, in the form of blue ribbons of lightning streaming throughout her body. "Oh, Hiiiii! It's you again!" A voice coming from Sana's mouth, but did not belong to Sana, addressed Yachiyo. "Funny coinkydink finding you in Mitakihara again!" She greeted. "So who's your new pal with you?" The look on her face was the same as the forlorn girl they had just met, but the personality it exhibited appeared to have undergone a one hundred and eighty degree switchover.

"Sana?" Yachiyo and Felicia gasped in unison. "Is that you?" Yachiyo followed. The new voice sounded oddly familiar, but the sheer strangeness of the moment rendered her unable to place where.

"Whoops! Jumped the gun a little. Hang on a sec," She apologized. The expression on Sana's face shifted again the moment she stopped speaking. Now she too appeared just as confused as the two girls standing before her. "That wasn't me!" Sana mewled. "I felt my lips moving and could hear myself talking, but… That wasn't me!"

"Sana, look at your hand!" Felicia pointed out. Her hand was covered over by a thick glove, but it was no longer the brown fleece kind that Sana wore as a magical girl. Now it was a shiny polished black, rubber glove covering her digits.

"Th- That's not my hand!" The exasperated Sana rubbed her fingers along her altered appendage. "My arm's too- Unnnnngh!" She cried out as blue quasi-electrical energy burst out throughout her body.

"Sana!" Yachiyo tried to grab her as she slammed against the glass and writhed around.

"Stay back!" Sana's alternate voice warned them. "I've calculated every facet of this very complicated trans-temporal transposition down to the last atom, and any sudden added mass might cause everything to go kablooey!" For a fleeting moment her entire form morphed into that of another person, whose voice Yachiyo now recognized as belonging to that other individual.

"What're ya' doin' to my Sana!" Felicia demanded through grimacing glare and gritted teeth.

"Welp, since I can't seem to land my ride, I'm using the huge excess of Artron energy within this person's soul to swap places." The new girl, who was several centimeters taller than Sana, elucidated. "Tell whoever they are 'thanks' and to 'hold tight'!" Sana put out another pained grunt as her replacement became visible in the reflection, crackling blue particulates serving to highlight the overall blueness in her appearance. "Unnnnnnngggghhhhh!"

"No!" Yachiyo objected. "You can't send her away! We need her!"

"Sorry! Already switched the switchety-switcheroo switching-switch!" The replacement said. "Auuuuugh!" Sana's fading visage howled. "She'll be in a safe spot!" They blurted out. "Mmmppphhh!" Sana moaned to the contrary. "Promise!" Her voice echoed. "Waaaaaaaaaah!" Sana wailed for the last time as the young magical Time Lady manifested herself in the flesh.

"Wowzers! What a rush!" Sayaka Miki rubbed and massaged up and down her svelte figure, checking for any post-transfer abnormalities. "Not as big a thrill as the Steel Dragon Thirty-One-Kay at Hedgewick's, but all-in-all for reals worth the ticket price!" She was clad head-to-toe in an azure blue, skin tight rubber catsuit, with long black boots and equal-length gloves, along with a pair of red-lensed black goggles sitting atop the hood over her head. A chunk of her hair jutted down between her brows from the lining along the very top of her forehead. Attached along her waist was a black belt with a pocket watch and a silver cylindrical gadget housed inside a holster. "Could do without the pear-ish aftertaste, though. Icky."

"Geez, I swear," Yachiyo let out a restrained snarl at the young Time Lady. "You are the only person on Earth with lousier timing than Momoko!"

"Long time no see to you too," Sayaka curtseyed, the rubber in her form-fitting getup squeaking with every little move of her fingertips. "Uh, do you want to introduce me to your little sidekick before she makes a pancake of my face" Felicia was standing a half step behind Yachiyo with her giant hammer drawn.

"She's not an enemy," Yachiyo brought Felicia to heel with an open hand gesture. "But I'd hesitate to call her an ally." Her head did a dubious turn to the side. "You failed to take a stand with the rest of us when that fortune teller went on her raiding rampage."

"I was bailing out another friend," Sayaka replied. As soon as Felicia lowered her mallet, she wasted no time scouting her surroundings. "She was that Buckethead's real objective from the get-go and played our gangs for fools." She slid her big goggles over her eyes. "Sorry I couldn't do more for you guys that night."

"That's the story that friend of yours claimed, too," Yachiyo watched the young lady at work. "Very dark-haired, rather aloof, hardly ever speaks unless spoken to."

"Oh, so you've already met Homura?"

"Once, when they chose my Villa as the neutral venue of one of the meetings," Yachiyo disclosed. "So I couldn't help but entertain the guests crowding into my home. She seems smart and capable enough to function as Tomoe's lieutenant. But also has the eyes of someone hiding everything she's seen and knows, but then again, I'm hardly the most sober judge on that."

"Eh, she's just a distant person in general," Sayaka adjusted the lenses over her eyes, a low mechanical whirring whizzed as their brightness shifted a shade lighter. "And like an onion, peel away the layers that make you teary and there's a sweet, nutritious treat underneath."

"Uh-huh."

Yachiyo remained tolerant of Sayaka's caginess, aware there was little choice, but Felicia was not gonna hide her true feelings behind the veil of small talk and pleasantries. "Grrrrrrr!" She inserted herself in front of a maintenance door Sayaka was about to open. "Ya' better spill it about what ya' did to Sana, pronto!"

"I told you," Sayaka put her hands up in a calm, reassuring manner. "She's in the spot I used to be. She and I swapped places. For the next hour or so," Sayaka took her little tool out of its holster, and studied the blinking light at its tip. "Okay, sixty-eight to seventy-three minutes, she's gonna be fine. Trust me, she's in the safest place anyone could ever ask to rest."

But Sana Futaba, at that very moment, wasn't feeling terribly safe. She found herself in a strange room, surrounded by a junkyard's worth of dismantled electronic equipment and cannibalized components she could scarcely comprehend, penned in place by five glowing crystals mounted atop doohickeys that were wired together in a way that resembled a pentagram around her.

"Safety guaranteed, my tiny waste-excreting anal cavity!" And standing before her perched atop a strange console was Kyubey, the animal who granted the wish she'd long-since come to regret. "What sort of genius takes weeks of careful planning and engineering only to fail at the last phase to take into account my lack of opposable thumbs?"

Chapter Text

"M- Miss G- Gamma?" The stunned Iroha had fallen flat onto her buttocks. "I- Is that you?"

"My name is Hitomi," A synthesized but distinctively-girly voice introduced itself. "Hitomi Shizuki. Are you going to take my hand or not?" The arm was extended through the bent gap in the bars, but it was still too narrow to accommodate its rather sizable chest armor.

"Y- You're the person inside that suit, aren't you?" Iroha had figured out the reason for the dramatic change. "You're a girl?"

"I am," Hitomi confirmed. "Man…" She thought to herself but may have also uttered aloud. "This is all soooo weird!" Specifically, her words could've been spoken and heard by the two beings still connected to her in the digital dream world, Nemu and her artificial helper.

"It has been theorized that cetaceans keep up to one half of their brains active while sleeping so as to mind their surroundings, avoid drowning and keep themselves safe from predators," Nemu's companion said. "This trait may have also existed once in higher-order primates but became vestigial once tribalized socialization and environmental domination became mankind's modus operandi." She and Nemu had also somehow been tuned into what Hitomi was experiencing in the outside world. "It may be a potential explanation for the phenomenon of somnambulation."

But Hitomi wasn't so much interested in the how or why of it, just that it let her exist in two places at once. "Waaaaaaahp!" Sort of. The very next thing she knew, she had fallen front-first to the floor. At the very least, she was thankful the experience was keeping her mind distracted from the physical sensations running throughout the rest of her bulking shell, which she was certain if she'd spared it any brainspace it'd put her in sheer agony.

"Are you okay, Miss Shizuki?" Iroha asked the thing on the floor.

"I'm alright," Hitomi jimmied up the bars to pull and prop herself in place. "Sheesh, my legs are much too long and I'm in heels?" She criticized her new roboticized appearance. "Obviously whoever designed this getup never had to make it through a day of Japanese dance lessons." Her not-joking crack was made so as to make this girl less frightened of her. "And I can hardly see past my boobs." And of herself as well. "They're too huge!"

"M- Miss Shizuki-" The trembling Iroha in turn picked herself up.

"Call me 'Hitomi'." She corrected. "Please."

"Diverting reserve power to conversion chamber," A mechanical voice with a strangely female timbre echoed throughout the cold, metallic halls.

"No way…" And to one of the girls, its voice struck her as familiar. "Is that-"

"We have to get you out of here!" Hitomi insisted. "Come on!"

But oddly the young lady wasn't so eager to jump at the chance. "You go," Iroha told her with a heavy, world-weary resigned breath. "I'm so tired."

"Please, Big Sis!" Nemu encouraged through the other ear. "You have to run!" Even though she was aware there was no way this girl could hear.

"What?" Hitomi heard a servo whirr with the tilt of her neck. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean I'm tired of being so sad all the time," Iroha disclosed. "Tired of pretending I can move on with life when I can't. Tired of forcing myself to smile when I would rather cry." Hitomi's cybernetically-upgraded eyes zoomed in on the girl's tears. "But more than anything I'm just tired of crying so much." The image of her expression was enhanced to the point Hitomi could tell she had been crying so often her eyes were in the early stages of forming permanent wrinkles.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, Big Sis," Nemu apologized. "I'm sorry I can't be there with you right now."

"I know how hard it is to carry on with a broken heart," Hitomi put her hand to her bulbous, helmeted head. Seeing other people cry never failed to draw tears from her ducts, either. "How hard it is to put on a brave act and work like things are normal when you know it can never be the same again." But where there should've been water and rosy cheeks, there were only two sunken indentations and a very small connective gap between them. She had every urge to tear it off like a hideous mask, but a schematic projection in her viewfield was telling her she'd appreciate the sight of what was underneath even less. "I know I can never be the same again."

"I just can't do it anymore." Iroha confessed. "I'm not worth saving." Her head sunk between her shoulders.

"Look at me," Hitomi commanded. "No, look at me!" Iroha complied with a quick snap. "Letting this happen to you is not going to fix anything. It's just going to make the sickness of sadness worse for everybody else around you." She had regained enough of her composure in that elevated footwear of hers to try reaching out her metallic hand in friendship one more time. "I know that can seem hard to care about when there's a voice in your head insisting what they want doesn't matter and only doing the most extreme thing will grant you freedom. But that's how I wound up like this, I think." The sound of loud, clanging steps echoing through the halls signified that they were about to be short on time.

"Tell her if she joins you she could have a chance to speak with Nemu again," Nemu proposed.

"I know a girl named 'Nemu' who very much doesn't want you to give up!"

"Units Two Eight Zero to Two Nine Five," That booming voice interrupted. "Security alert! Code Three Three Nine Zero! Deploy to Sector Zero One, Subsection A-Zero Three at once!" The clanging, whether in response to the order or because of something else, faded in the distance. But not before causing Iroha's heart to jump a beat, to her surprise, and would've done the same to Hitomi's had it not been replaced by a power distribution node.

"You know Nemu?" Iroha's hand drew a little closer to Hitomi's.

"It's a bit too much to go into at the moment," Hitomi prefaced. "But yes. Nemu and I have met. She's a voice in my head right now and she says she'd give anything to see you pull through this awful morass with me!" She fibbed a little. For the sake of framing it as a step to recovery.

"Okay. I'll come along." Iroha took her hand with her uninjured one and squeezed between the bent bars. "But if Nemu's a voice in your head," She wondered at an almost inaudible level, but still audible to Hitomi's mechanized ears. "Would that mean that the other voice I heard out here was…" Iroha trembled at most disconcerting thought.

As Junko and her military and scientific associates exited the elevator and made their way through an even lower level, she found herself in awe of the sheer size of this elaborate, almost labyrinthine underground facility. "Man, who would've thought a place this huge would be buried underneath a bunch of municipal buildings in old downtown Mitakihara?"

"It started as a series of bunkers that were initially constructed during Japan's last great war and then massively expanded in the two ensuing decades to serve as a fallout shelter and emergency operations facility. You know, back when every nation in the hemisphere was preparing for a potential doomsday scenario," Miss Yamano noted. "Then it was abandoned, sealed off and forgotten in our economic boom period while the city and prefectural spending priorities shifted elsewhere. By the time somebody with enough sway remembered it was here in the late nineties, a Yakuza gang had been squatting in it and using it as a hideout." They turned a corner. "Bastards were right in the middle of converting it into a human trafficking hub when we brought the hammer down. They'd even been stashing some poor abducted young girls down here when we found them."

"That's awful," Junko gasped. "Were all the girls okay?" An image of her daughter flashed in her head. She needed to know that there was some justice in this world if it was ever to leave.

"For the most part, yes." Miss Yamano answered. "Most were returned to their families traumatized but otherwise physically fine. However," They entered a corridor with three guards standing watch with two doors serving as separators between each one. "Some of them had no living kin, or had been scrubbed of their identities entirely. Amazing that still happens in our era of expansive surveillance and digitized bookkeeping, but alas. They became wards of the state and some have even gone on to join our humble little organization as they came of age." She made brief eye contact with one of the guards standing in front of a palm and retinal scanner.

"That's good to know," Junko breathed. Waiting for Miss Yamano she let her eyes drift around the drab, gray concrete walls and extensive ducts and multicolored piping situated above. "Not to be an armchair interior decorator, but this place sure could use some way of separating each section from the rest."

"I'll settle for some signposts, or proper labeling on the doors," Doctor Taylor noted. "I could not tell you how many times I've stepped through a door thinking it was my office or the lab, only to find myself inside a cupboard or an armory."

"A protip that should be obvious, but the important sections tend to be the ones where the armed guards are posted and these multi-factored security locks are present," Miss Yamano spoke while peeking inside a visor and placing her hand onto the scanner embedded in the wall. "But once you've taken charge perhaps you should requisition a potted plant or two or decorate the walls with some photographs of the Prime Minister." Junko couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Her only hint was a half-crooked smirk from Doctor Taylor.

"Please place your palm here and put your eyes there." Miss Yamano requested. Junko promptly did as told. "Good." She keyed something into the terminal. "Now hold still while the facial recognition scanner logs you in and sets up a profile."

"Oh, boy. Three locks for one door," Junko set her eyes upon a little black semi-sphere above the door. "I guess when it comes to keeping secrets there is no such thing as going overboard."

"I also fought for some biometric blood scanners but it just wasn't in the budget." Again Junko couldn't tell if Miss Yamano was joking. The door clicked open and they stepped inside to find a team of men in lab coats all huddled around a table in the center.

"Right, what's all this, then?" Doctor Taylor asked the group. "What's your preliminary analysis of the totem object yielded?"

"Other than emitting a steady thermal reading of approximately thirty-seven degrees, it doesn't seem to be putting out any additional form of radiation on the known spectra." One scientist in a rectangular pair of blue glasses reported.

"Have you taken an X-Ray?" Miss Yamano chimed in, her arms folding up.

"We have, Ma'am," a different man with shoulder-length hair responded. "Whatever's inside just absorbs the radiation and returns nothing." Junko turned and noticed there were two additional armed guards standing quietly in the corner, one of them female and wearing a red beret emblazoned with a winged logo above the left eye.

"Psssst… Are you allowed to talk in here?" Junko tiptoed over and whispered to her.

"I'm not disallowed," The girl replied, visibly nonplussed by the question. "Something you want to discuss?" She was wearing black pants, a black shirt and what looked to be tactical armor around her chest. Her only concession to femininity was a very basic layer of eyeliner around the eyes.

"What sort of gun is that?" Junko pointed at the weapon strapped with her gear in her hands.

"An FN Herstal P90," She raised it up for Junko to get a closer look. "UNIT Security Forces standard issue."

"So it's like a machine gun, then?" Junko inspected the design.

"Submachine gun, with selective fire capability." The girl clarified.

"Cool, cool." Junko was trying to split her attention between their chit-chat and figuring out whatever it was the scientists were so enamored with. "How long have you been in service?"

"Eight years." She too, appeared as if she were trying to understand what it was they were obsessing over. "Just made lieutenant."

"What did the metallurgical analysis tell you about that outer casing?" They overheard Doctor Taylor ask.

"That it's transuranic, which is just not possible," A scientist with a scraggly goatee detailed. "It must be an error. Perhaps a contamination in the sample material?"

"Then scratch off another slice and do it again." A heavy-set scientist with a hunched back insisted.

"You sure don't look like you've been at this for eight years," Junko mumbled to her. "No offense. But you barely look old enough to be going for drinks after work."

"I'm twenty-five," She shot her a rather dismayed glare, then eased up nary a moment after. "No offense, but you don't quite look like you're the person who's supposed to be giving orders around here." She and Junko lent their ears back to the discussion playing out in front of them.

"We've done that three times already and each time it just throws our scanning electron microscope for a loop," A bald scientist with giant rims and a mustache told them.

"How old are you?" The guard popped her with the same question.

"I'm thirty-six," Junko disclosed. "But I too have been told I look young for my age. Back when my daughter was in elementary the other parents would often mistake me for her big sister. The joke between my husband and me used to be that we had my boy Tatsuya just to make them shut up."

"I already knew about your children." She admitted as she leaned closer. "I browsed through your files. But don't take this the wrong way, you don't really strike me as having the sort of résumé that qualifies you to be standing in this room with them."

"Is there any way to extract a sampling of whatever that luminescent substance is inside?" Doctor Taylor pressed them. "I mean, without breaching that outer shell?"

"Between you and me," Junko in turn leaned in and gestured a zipping motion across her mouth. "That makes two of us."

"We're trying to think of a way to do that without compromising the integrity of the container," A scientist who would also look young if it weren't for his shaved head spoke. "Very interesting how that stuff flows like the sort of plasma you see in a novelty globe or neon sign."

"You guys do rotate your duty shifts, right?" Junko changed topics. "I mean, your job's not just to watch a bunch of dudes in white coats bicker in a dim room all day, is it?"

"I've done my share of shifts up top minding the restaurant, yeah." She rolled her eyes. "Thank god we're not wearing those god-awful lacey tops anymore."

"At this point we're resorting to subjecting it to a bunch of reactive experiments," The last scientist, with hair long enough to create a ponytail in the back, said. He pointed over to a collection of kitchen utilities on a counter in the far corner. "I vote we stick it in the microwave, set it on high for a minute or two and watch what happens."

"I think there's some leftover coffee in that pot over there," The female guard uttered. "Still pretty warm. Do you want some?"

"Always," Junko smiled, and she and the girl shuffled right over. "You say you've scoped my file. Out of curiosity, how far back does that go?"

"Two words," The guard took two Styrofoam cups out of the cupboard. "The Hama-Hama Gang." She poured the first cup and handed it off to Junko.

"You're being facetious, right? You'd just wind up with a blown-up microwave."

"Big ooof." Junko took a sip. "In my defense, motorcycles are a freakin' blast. And my friend Kazuko came up with our name. She thought it was a clever pun in English or something."

"Move fast and break stuff. I say it's high time modern science adapts it testing philosophies to be more on pace with that of our benefactors in the technology enterprises."

"With all due respect, Ma'am," Junko's conversation partner took a sip from her cup. "What're you doing talking to me like this? Shouldn't you be in the thick of it with that bunch over there?"

"I find you can learn a lot more about an organization and its leadership, talking to the day-to-day folk, the ones punching in and punching out, keeping the lights on, the bathrooms clean and the coffee hot, than those so-called movers and shakers squabbling over there." They both shared a sip and a smirk.

"Have any of you bothered keeping a running record of the thermal readings? It's dropped to thirty-six point four eight one degrees since we took those initial measurements."

"Ohhhh, yes. Congratulations on re-confirming the age-old theory that ice does indeed keep things cooler." One guy's obvious sarcasm drew him some annoyed glares from everyone else in the room.

"Geez, what in the hell are they so enamored with over there?" Junko added a dash of creamer and stirred her drink.

"No clue." The Guard Girl responded. "All I know was everything featured in the mission report. That it took the deployment of eight men from our Spec-Ops Squad to Takarazaki City to retrieve it and three of them are still recovering in the infirmary."

"I suggest next we attempt a conductivity test." Junko watched them debate while having her drink. "If the metal piece looks like gold, responds to ultrasonic tests the same, and conducts electricity as well as gold conducts it, then the logical conclusion would be that it's either gold or a novel isotope of gold."

"Ehh? Goooold? Aaaaaack!" Junko accidentally choked up when she heard that word. After she cleaned off the milky creamer spurt that dripped from her nose, she realized everyone else in the room was glaring at her.

"Is there something you care to add to this discussion, Missus Kaname?" Miss Yamano addressed her like a teacher who had just caught a pupil passing notes.

"What in the world did you have your boys do out there, Yamano?" The guard passed Junko a towelette so she could clean the splash stain from her business suit. "Raid an eccentric billionaire inventor's private bullion collection?" Her remark also elicited a little laugh out of the girl.

"Show her," Yamano instructed the scientists. As they made room for Junko at the table, she waved her in. "Come and see it for yourself."

Junko put her coffee aside, drew in a deep breath, closed her eyes and shuffled her way over towards the table. When she opened them, what she saw nestled between bags of ice was somehow simultaneously the most shocking, enchanting and above all, the biggest letdown she'd ever experienced. "A fabergé egg? Really? That's what all this shady backroom fuss is about?"

"I assure you, it's not just any old fabergé egg," Doctor Taylor chimed in, flashing her a toothy, big, knowing smile. "This egg represents perhaps the first piece of truly irrefutable proof that magical beings are real, and they freely roam the earth among us humans in secret."

"Get outta town!" Junko examined the strange, glowing egg sitting there before her. It had a standing base of gold, with a strange, flowery emblem stamped on the front, decorated with tiny, fig-leaf-like decorations running along the sides, and four bumpy-textured arcs connecting to a golden cap topped off by the same flower emblem sticking out. The most interesting part, however, resided in its transparent center. It seemed to be containing a pulsating, swirling mass of light green matter which she simply could not take her eyes off. "And what particular magical creature is this thing supposed to be proving?"

All the scientists gathered around her exchanged beguiled glances, as if they were all in on a joke she wasn't privy to. "Witches." One of them finally uttered. "We believe it to be the magical talisman of a supernaturally-endowed, humanoid female."

"Oh, so that's why it took eight dudes to get our hands on it." The young guard having her coffee in the corner commented with a straight-faced sip. "Hmmm." She seemed to be taking this revelation in stride, whilst Junko's jaw was practically on the floor.

"Witches are no-bullshit for real?" Junko asked. Everyone else bobbed their heads up and down in earnest.

"Yes. In fact, though I'm not supposed to be sharing this information with any non-Britons," Doctor Taylor added. "Back home in our Royal Top Secret Archives we hold the personal diaries of one William Shakespeare, and he chronicled his encounters with witches on a number of occasions. So we know they've been an active force on our world for at least the last four centuries. And apocryphal accounts speak of their participation in the Hundred Years' War."

"The Shakespeare. You don't say." Junko slowly reached out her hand to touch the magical trinket. Something she didn't even consciously realize she was trying to do until she watched her hand reach forth.

"Hey, don't touch!" The goateed scientist swatted her hand away. "We haven't finished with the thermal refrigeration experiment yet."

"It's down to a clean thirty-six point four-oh degrees now." His colleague reported.

"Sorry." Junko rubbed her hand. "Don't know what got into me." Her hyper-focus on the object on the table was abruptly broken by the loud ringing of a telephone on the wall."

"Yes, what is it?" The Head-Shaved scientist answered. "Uh-huh. Yeah. Uh-huh. I see. Interesting. Yes. Yes, indeed. Okay. Alright. Stay sharp and thank you for the report." He hung it back up on the ringer. "It seems our detainee is awake."

"But we pumped the subject full of enough tranquillizers to make an elephant nap through the whole weekend!" The guy in the blue glasses said.

"This need not be such disconcerting news," The ponytailed scientist opined. "It's proven the inhumanity of the subject, which in turn means they are not technically granted any of the protections of the UN Human Rights Conventions. Which implies we could do whatever we want to in the experimental sense." And instantly, all the scientists' eyes lit up.

"Even animals are afforded certain rights too boys," Miss Yamano put a hard damper on their unnerving enthusiasm. "And while I'd have to check with our parent organization, I'm pretty sure one of their classified charters signed back in the eighties made sure to outline the basic rights and privileges extended to extraterrestrials and transhuman beings. The UK's branch insisted that it be codified by formal documentation, at that old Brigadier General Leafbridge-Something-Or-Other's behest."

"Yes, yes of course. You're quite right, Miss Yamano, quite right." Doctor Taylor agreed, trying his best not to betray a look of shame.

"Hold up, time-out!" Junko backtracked. "You guys have taken a live witch into custody? As your prisoner? Is that what you're saying?"

"That's correct," Miss Yamano confirmed.

"Well, have I been cleared to see one?" She followed up as more of a demand than a request.

"The proper paperwork has been faxed to the mothership, yes," She confirmed.

"So…" She paused and drew in a deep, dramatic breath. "I want to see!"

"If you insist," Miss Yamano stepped over to a slot in the wall, removed a turnkey from her pocket and stuck it in. The wall before them began to retract upwards.

"You might think you're ready to see what's in there, Missus Kaname," The young female guard gently took Junko by the hand. "But you're not. Just remember before your heart bleeds, that this creature sent three grown men into emergency care on stretchers and all but clobbered the other five."

When the wall finally came up, revealing their captive through a one way mirror in the adjacent room, Junko was raw and without words. That was to say, Japanese words failed her. What sprang into her mind instead were words in English, a vulgarism she'd only ever uttered exactly one time prior, when she was the first hand witness to a tragic accident which made her quit her youthful hobby of motorcycle riding.

"Holy fucking shit!"

Kyoko's kart whizzed past the waving checkered flag on the final lap, nabbing her a narrow win over the pair of high school friends, who placed a close second and closer third. Kyoko's date came in at a much more distant fourth. Spotting the attendant snapping photos of each finisher planted a spontaneous idea into Kyosuke Kamijo's head.

"Hey Madoka!" He pumped his brake pedal and met up with her at the rear, placing his cart almost wheel-to-wheel beside hers. "Take my hand and we'll cross the finish line in a tie!"

"Okay!" Together they slowed to a rolling pace and on Kamijo's prompting turned their heads towards the camera.

"Peace!" He flashed a beaming smile and a 'V' sign with his fingers. Madoka in turn smiled and waved for the camera flash.

"Yeeeeaaaayyyyy!" The little girl whose race with her dad had finished many laps before was cheering on its conclusion from her spot in the short row of bleachers.

"Now let's hear it for tonight's victor!" The announcer gestured an invite for Kyoko to stand atop a gold-painted stand labeled '1st'. Tokoi and the onlooking father and daughter clapped the loudest for her, with Madoka and Kamijo being good sports and the two runner ups extending a more subdued but polite courtesy clap. "Here's your grand prize!" He handed her a freshly-printed photograph in addition to a novelty red gift box with a black bow stapled on top. "Two vouchers to dine at any participating restaurant in the community."

"Cool!" Kyoko opened the box and licked her chops at the prospect of a free dinner.

"So what do you guys want to go do next?" Kyosuke signaled to the cameraman that wanted double prints of his commemorative photo.

"Good time to eat?" Kyoko flashed her new meal tickets to her boy companion.

"I can wait a bit longer," Tokoi stated. "Do you guys think it's a little early for that too?" Kyosuke and Madoka both nodded in agreement. "Hey, I've got an idea," He voiced a sudden notion that popped in his head. "Has anyone here ever gone golfing before?"

"Ungh, one time I had to carry my dad's clubs around while he was chit-chatting with his corporate sponsors on a hot day in the summer," Kamijo recalled. "It sucked and I hated every second of it."

"But have any of you guys ever gone miniature golfing before?" He clarified.

"Never tried it," Kyosuke shook his head.

"Neither have I." Madoka did the same.

"Nope," Kyoko made it three. "Sounds like it's our next new thing to do on our double date!" She gave an enthusiastic backslap to the couple.

"Aaaaaawwwwwww, maaaaaan!" A good twenty minutes of walking and talking later, they'd arrived at their destination, 'Tanaka's Mega Mini-Golf Course', just to discover they had closed shop for the night. "So much for that idea." Tokoi exclaimed at the locked front gates.

"Welp I ain't come all this way for nuthin'!" But Kyoko was not about to be dissuaded by a little sign on the front. "Heh!" She spotted a tree with its branches growing over the three meter tall wall encircling the course. "Ya' mind if I borrow that cane of yours?" She addressed Kamijou with a snaggle-toothed grin.

"Wh- What are you going to need it for?" Kamijou cocked his head in confusion.

"I'm gonna use it to hook onto one of the lower branches, then climb up and over." She proposed. "Then I'll unlock the door and let the rest of you guys in."

"Holy cow!" Tokoi expressed his amazement. "Are you sure you can make it all the way over that?"

"I mean, I could probably make it over the wall in one hop if I really wanted to," Kyoko joked to him. Except in reality, she was not-so-humbly bragging. "But I don't wanna be showin' off too much tonight." Having no huge fondness for his walking aid and wanting to see her try, Kyosuke relinquished it.

"Hup!" She tossed the hook end over a branch and pulled herself up by the rest. Then she reached for the next highest sturdy branch and climbed. Now in a spot where she could dismount directly onto the wall, she did so. Then in a pat display of carefulness, instead of jumping she grabbed the ledge and worked her way down the other side like a normal climber. "Ta-Dah!"

"So cool!" Her date fought the urge to give a round of applause.

"Isn't this trespassing?" Madoka noted after Kyoko had invited the boys inside and returned the cane.

"Yeah. I guess it is." Kyoko admitted. "But only if we get caught. Besides, dontcha think the cops aughtta be dealin' with way bigger problems than a buncha kids goin' for a few kicks on the golf course?"

"I guess," Madoka sheepishly agreed.

"And hasn't your momma ever told ya' about some of the wilder things she used to do when she was your age? The sometimes-less-than-lawful things?"

"Uhm, yeah, I suppose she has," Madoka recalled.

"And she turned out pretty cool, didn't she?" Kyoko lightly poked her on those rosy, blushed-up cheeks.

"So if we get busted and ya' get brought before yer mom, just look her in the eye and repeat after me: 'I learned it by watching yooooouuu'!"

"Hey, Kyoko," They heard Tokoi call back to her. "Uhhhh… We've got another problem here!"

"What?" Kyoko scoped out the scene. "Geez, yer kiddin' me!" All of the obstacles on the course had been dismantled, packed up and put in storage. The only things kept in place outside were the holes, fake sandtraps, artificial greens, plus the clubs and balls in their caddies. "Nah-uh! I did not sneak into this place just to let a lack of obstacles be the obstacle that ruins this date night!" She marched over to the storage shed with a look of determination and a transmuted hairpin taken from her purse.

"You're not going to pick the lock, are you?" Madoka put herself between Kyoko and the door.

"Of course I am! It'll be even easier than climbing the wall," Kyoko insisted.

"B- But," Madoka stammered. "What if we accidentally break something trying to set it all up? Isn't destruction of property worse than trespassing?"

"I guess it is," Kyoko conceded Madoka's point.

"And wouldn't it take us a lot of time to put everything in place, only to have to put it all back once we're done?" Madoka pointed out. "I can be out late, but I still have a curfew. Don't you?"

"Yeeeeeaahhh," Kyoko sighed.

"And besides," Madoka glanced back at their dates idly chatting underneath a tree. "Wouldn't Tokoi start to wonder just how you learned to climb trees and pick locks? I know you want to look cool and everything," She paused. "But-"

"Yeeeeeeeeah," Kyoko let out a harder, more grunting sigh. "I shouldn't make myself too cool or else people might notice and look into where I came from."

"Exactly." Madoka smiled and nodded.

"So what do we do?" No sooner than she uttered her words than an inspired little light bulb clicked above her head. A silly, brilliant and even mischievous idea stemming from a desire to see just how far a certain magical friend was willing to go to keep the girl standing beside her happy. "Hey," She made an impish smirk. "Gimme yer phone!"

"It's Madoka," Homura was quick to pick up the moment of the second ring.

"Guess again, pal!" Kyoko greeted almost as if in a direct response.

"Oh," Homura hid her disappointment in her typical nonchalant way. "You. Is there a particular reason why you couldn't make this call from your own phone?"

"Yeah," Kyoko replied. "Because I knew this way you'd pick this call up!"

"Ugh," Homura facepalmed. "What do you want?"

"Are you ready to stop stalking us 'round town and get in on the action tonight?"

"How'd you know I was in the vicinity?"

"Pleeeease," Kyoko's voice buzzed through the speaker on Homura's phone. "I can smell your magic from clear across town. At a few blocks yer stinkin' like a fat guy on a thirty-five degree summer's day!" She blew a wink and a kiss that Sayaka spotted through her binoculars.

"Wait, Kyoko knows we're here?" Sayaka, who was right there with her, intuited. They had been the only other witnesses to Kyoko's acrobatic wall climb, from what they'd thought was a discrete vantage point on an indoor pedestrian bridge overlooking the course and the adjacent public park. "What does she want?"

"Uh-huh. Yeah." Homura breathed, not answering. "That's too bad. Breaking into their storage facility wouldn't be a problem for you I imagine." Sayaka leaned closer, trying to catch wind of Kyoko's side of the conversation. "Oh. Madoka wouldn't like that. I understand."

"- Here's what I want you to-" Sayaka managed to catch that part before Homura noticed, grabbed her by the face and shoved her back.

"You want me to whaaaat? Homura snorted in a rare show of disgusted annoyance. "Absolutely not!" So too, did her face betray this leakage of emotional disgust. "Because despite what you might think, I do possess a basic form of human dignity." She capped it off with an eye roll. "Yeah right. Like Madoka would ever stand to watch me do something so humiliating for a hot second." She hung up, only to get dialed again precisely six seconds later. "Tch! You call me like this again, and I swear I'll block your-" She stopped herself. "Madoka?" Her tone pulled a full one-eighty the instant she uttered that name. "N- No. I'm not following you guys because I'm concerned something might happen again like that movie night. I was just in the area. With Sayaka." Her eyes gave Sayaka a momentary glance. "She's still sore over the fact that she couldn't find a date of her own for the weekend."

"Yeah go ahead," Sayaka huffed. "Lie and use me as your ole alibi." Although she was still more than a little peeved by Naganuma's rejection.

"It's not that I'd mind being a passive participant in your date tonight, it's that-" She winced. "Kyoko's not coaxing you into asking this, is she?" Sayaka watched her nervously itch the side of her temple. She could tell she was about to cave. "Okay. If you think it's going to make your round of mini-golf more enjoyable… But will you please put Kyoko back on?"

"What are you agreeing to do?" Sayaka peered through her piece of spying equipment.

"If I agree, you're going to attend five of Mami's stupid meetings as payment. That's non-negotiable." Homura demanded. "Fine. Four." To Sayaka's ears it sure sounded like a negotiation. "Three and a dinner that's on you. Take it or leave it." And just like that, a deal was struck. "Sorry." She offered Sayaka an apology. "But I have to go down there and do their party a favor."

"I got that," The intrigued Sayaka tilted her head to the left. "But what are they asking out of you?"

"They want me to come down there aaaaaand…" Her voice trailed off in disbelief. "Play-act. As the physical obstacles. During their miniature golf round."

"Eeeehhhhhh?"

"I know. I used to think I had some modicum of self-respect remaining, too."

"You're really gonna go down there and pretend to be a windmill or palm tree or some rootin'-tootin', ball-snatchin' pirate?"

"I suppose I could change it up and act like a clog dancer, too." Homura had the vacant, wide-eyed stare of someone about to pose naked in front of a clay sculpting class.

"You are really going to go down there and debase yourself in front of those boys?"

"I don't care what they think of me," Homura uttered with an admirable but wavering level of determination. "I care that Madoka has a contented night out with her friends." She turned around and flipped her hair in a way that attempted to convey her coolness but this time the act belied it for the insecure behavioral tic it began as. "It'll be fine so long as I get to see a smile on her face." For in the process she'd dislodged her headband and knocked it loose to the floor.

"Hold up," Sayaka caught it rolling her way. "Well I'm not gonna just stand up here and watch you do that to yourself alone." She took Homura's hand and resolutely slapped the hair ornament in her palm. "I'll come and put my clown shoes with you."

"You will?" Homura fidgeted with her possession. She'd had it so long she'd forgotten how and where she got it. It was gifted to her by a gruff but kindly old physician who'd paid her a visit during her very first extended hospital stay back in Tokyo. She didn't remember much else about him beyond his eyes. He had the most intense glare, and a heavily-lined forehead with brows that could cow any other adult who dared cross him, but any moment he turned around and addressed her, they'd go soft and sentimental. Not every memory Miss Jones revived was regrettable. There were some she was genuinely thankful to have returned.

"Yeah of course," Sayaka put her arm around her. "I've got no reputation or anything to protect. And besides," She added with a blush and a sigh of resignation. "Maybe the sight of Kyosuke pointing and laughing at me is just the tonic I need to kill that stubborn ol' crush once and for all!"

"So this whole time, the Artron Anomaly was a magical girl named Sana Futaba," The young Time Lady's goggle-magnified eyes took on an owl-like outline. "She didn't happen to say how she came into contact with so much ambient Artron, did she?" There was another tool in her holster, its tip blinking off and on at a steady tempo of every few seconds.

"She said that she volunteered to be the test subject of a girl named Nemu and her unnamed associate," Yachiyo shared. "And that collecting it from the unwitting hearts of human beings allowed them to survive without needing to replenish their magic with Grief Seeds. Does that sound feasible to you?"

"It sounds… Downright brilliant, actually," Sayaka briskly strode up the station steps. "Artron can work as a magic multiplier of sorts, amplifying active ectomatter interactions while also mitigating its decay into the depleted flavor," She mused as they ventured to the city surface. "But there's drawbacks, too. Like any transthermodynamic energy, it pushes reality in ways that can make reality push back even harder.

"Am I supposed to understand anything of what you just said?" Yachiyo trailed a few steps lower on the way, getting an eye-level view of the Time Lady's blue, tight rubber-clad behind.

"Nope," She ascended to the top step. "Did Sana tell you where she came from or where to find the ones who came up with the concept?" She stretched one of her black gloves up past her elbows with a squeak and a snap.

"She was sent here to keep us abreast of everything until the moment you so boldly butt into our affairs." Yachiyo discreetly cringed at her own unintended double pun. But with Sayaka strutting her bosom and backside around so conspicuously in that skin-tight suit, she couldn't help it. "Okay… Why the heck are you dressed like you're about to party hardy on a marquee stage at Department W Nightclub in Tokyo?"

"You mean this old thing?" Sayaka pinched a spot above her clavicle. "Answer me this, have you ever received an electrical shock from one point twenty-one gigawatts of pure electricity before?"

"Can't say I have."

"Well I was zapped by a charged transmat crystal once and let me tell you something," Sayaka slid the specs back to the top of her head. "It hurts and it sucks a lot! So before I dismantled and modded any high voltage goods I needed to put a layer of protection on myself first." She put her hands to her hips and struck a heroic pose. "Plus I like cosplay, love that my fingerstips squeak like these tiny violin strings, not to mention I always wanted to beam into the action dressed as some western-style catsuited superheroine or that one space bounty hunter chick from those video games. And this Nestorex-Revocs Uber-Rubber from The Andromeda Group? Soft and smooth as silk, yet breathes like pure cotton. For reals, don't knock it 'til you've tried it!"

"I've been asked to model in fetish materials a few times before," Yachiyo told her. "No thanks. They couldn't pay me enough." They started walking.

"Fetish materials?" Felicia asked trailing innocently behind. "What are those?"

"Maybe we shouldn't discuss an adult topic so openly in front of the kid," Sayaka quipped.

"Hey! I'm gonna be fourteen come Valentine's!" Felicia snapped back

"Good for you!" Sayaka serenaded her with a fiddly fingertipped rendition of 'Happy Birthday'.

"Who're you calling a kid when you barely look any older than she does?" Yachiyo retorted.

"Eh, looks can be deceptive," Sayaka peered up at the towering building just a block away. "Case in point, that place, right over there! Through my specs, I can see it's giving off a lot of funky energy readings. Even though somehow it doesn't seem to be connected to the wider energy grid in any way."

"It's a Satomi Specialty Care Center," Yachiyo identified the architecture. "A private medical enterprise that specializes in researching rare and novel illnesses. We've got a very similar one back in Kamihama. Come to think of it," She paused for a moment to ponder. "Mifuyu did mention that Nemu's constitution was frail. If she couldn't make contact herself and was forced to send us proxies, then it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume she's stuck in a situation or a place where she isn't able to leave on her on volition. Some place like a hospital."

"I like how you think," Sayaka grinned in concurrence. "But who's Mifuyu?" She flipped her goggles back down and the lenses changed from red to a pink tint.

"It's complicated," Yachiyo admitted. "But basically, she's been my rock ever since we were twelve, and then she up and vanished on me without a trace. That was, until a few hours ago, when a vision of her appeared in my dreams telling me to come to Mitakihara and help a girl named Nemu at once." A short walk had already brought them to the foot of the building. "Bitter experience with Hanna Sarasa should've made me extra skeptical of her intentions, but then again, Mifuyu's always had this sort of intangible power on me."

"Explains what you're doing in Mitakihara tonight," Sayaka pointed her thumb back at the scowling young blonde trailing two steps behind. "But what about Miss Scarfs-and-Smiles?"

"She's a mercenary magical girl. Here because someone hired her to watch after me," Yachiyo introduced her. "Her name is Felicia Mitsuki."

"How do you do, Felicia," The young Time Lady greeted formally. "I'm a free-roaming hero-for-hire, too," Sayaka shared. "For now, you can just call me Sayaka." They opened the door and headed inside.

"Aww sooooorry friends," A big, cute holographic teddy bear wearing an eyepatch bandage over its left eye and a heart on its tummy was projected front-and-center in the lobby. "Visitor hours are over. If you are looking to visit a patient, please identify who and be sure to leave your name and contact information in our database so our staff can invite you back tomorrow."

"When all the little jobs that keep a society polite become pointlessly automated and infantilized," Sayaka observed. "That's when it truly became the twenty-first century. Welcome to the future, kiddos." She strode over to a computer terminal behind the front desk. "Welp, since my main gadget here's locked in homing beacon mode, I'm gonna haveta resort to an old-fashioned computer hack."

"Do you have the time or the knowledge to pull that off? Yachiyo inquired.

"It's really not that hard," Sayaka pointed at a photograph taped to a spot just behind the monitor. "Wanna know the real reason why people typically keep pictures of dear family, friends and pets by their desks at the office?" She typed in the name of the tag visible on the dog's collar. "It's not because they need a constant visual reminder of how much they love them." She confidently hit 'Enter' on the keyboard.

~ ERROR: ACCESS DENIED ~

"You were just so convinced it would be that easy, weren't you?" Yachiyo jested with a small smirk.

"Like, ninety-three-ish percent of the time, it is," An undiscouraged Sayaka retorted. "Just gimme a few minutes here and I'll work it out from the fingerprint dispersal pattern on their keyboard." She slid her special specs on and the tint changed to a lemon yellow. "Besides the home row the most touched keys tend to be the ones featured in their password."

"Mister Bear," Felicia spoke to the hologram. "We're looking for a girl named 'Nemu'."

"Nemu," The bear echoed. "One match found: Nemu Hiiragi." Yachiyo's eyes and ears perked.

"Never hurts to ask," Yachiyo remarked. "We would like to know the room or suite number where Nemu Hiiragi is presently staying."

"You'll get nothing but a canned response," Sayaka told her, gritting her teeth a little as her second attempt to gain access was rejected.

"Aww, soooory friend," The bear repeated. "Patient information cannot be disclosed without the attending physician's approval."

"Heh. See?" Sayaka chuckled.

"Heeeeeeey," Felicia had taken notice of something else. "Either of ya' guys sensin' what I'm sensin' here?" She detached her Soul Gem from the link on her chain.

"Oh, that's right." Yachiyo inspected the shimmering disruption to the violet shine of Felicia's soul. "You have a superior sensitivity to witch auras, don't you?"

"Quaint, but nonetheless impressive," Sayaka agreed, her mounting frustration betrayed by a thwarted third attempt to log in. "Here's a proposal. How 'bout you guys go track it down while I stay and get the technical lowdown on this place?"

"C'mon, Felicia," Yachiyo uttered with a cautious glance towards the switched-off escalator leading both up and down. "Let's get moving."

"Byyyyee, Felicia." Sayaka playfully waved them off with a smile, as she'd finally cracked the computer. "It was the name of the cat pictured within the picture of the dog. Watch out, we got a badass admin working here," She muttered as she quickly clicked her way into the clinic's backdoor FTP page. "Now let's see…"

"Man, that girl just really ticks me off," Felicia snarled as they ventured off beyond earshot.

"She yanked the steering wheel right from our hands the moment she pulled whatever that weirdness was on Sana." Yachiyo griped, sparing a parting eye on the rubber suited girl behind them. "But we're back on course thanks to you." Yachiyo's Soul Gem inched ever closer towards the diffusing magic of the witch, her stomach got queasier at every step. "Felicia, I- I think I recognize the person to whom this corrupted magic once belonged."

"You do?" Felicia asked. "Do you think it's that friend you've been looking for?"

"It feels as dark and twisted as any other witch's power, but yes," Yachiyo noted. "I'm sure it's hers because I've had a previous experience with fighting the witchified remnants of a friend before. And when that happened," She confided. "I lost my nerve and couldn't do what needed to be done."

"If ya' want, I could take over the hard part while you find Nemu." Felicia proposed. "I promise I'll be respectful doin' it."

"That's kind of you but," Yachiyo rubbed her right shoulder with her left hand. "If I'm to atone for my failures on that night, then I need to be the one who wages that battle."

"Aaaaand a right-click, scroll to 'Tools'," Sayaka narrated to herself. "View page source," She squinted at the complex lines of code that made up the graphical interface. "Now 'Show hidden files'," She typed the command with a slow, deliberate peck of each finger. "Voila!" New, transparent folders instantly displayed themselves on screen.

"Unauthorized use of Satomi Clinic physical property is prohibited." A stern voice warned Sayaka out of the blue. "Unauthorized viewing of confidential Satomi Foundation internal files is a violation of the organization's intellectual property, which infringes Japanese copyright law, and will result in punitive action." The holographic teddy bear had not deactivated yet. Whoever was issuing the verbal reprimand sounded like they were channeling their voice through the bear's interactive program.

"Pffffffft," Sayaka clicked and pecked away. "No copyright law in the universe can ever stop me!" An LED above the monitor flashed in Sayaka's face. Too fast for her to raise her hand and cover the attached webcam in time.

~ IDENTIFICATION MATCH ~

A television set mounted to the opposite wall switched on by itself. On the screen it flashed through images of school pictures of all the teen boys and girls around town. Then it narrowed itself to just the girls, before cycling through to just the girls in Sayaka's eighth grade class, finally settling on Sayaka herself.

"We're getting close," Yachiyo observed the reaction of Felicia's Soul Gem to the resonant magic and compared it with the level of unease in her own. "Let's try that way."

"Hmph. The modern surveillance state at work." Sayaka dismissed the threat implied by the photograph. "Now if you really wanted to scare me, you'd put up a picture of her report card. Or Hokkaido." Whatever intelligent mind was listening did just that, featuring a detailed map of Japan's northern island. "Cute. I suppose this ought to be the moment where I get a little startled, stop what I'm doing and demand you show yourself, whomever you are." A few clicks and scrolls later landed her on a file titled 'Project Motoko'. "Nice try." She clicked through.

"Greetings and good day to all our angel investors. To begin, my name is Marika Tanizaki." A video of a woman somewhere between forty and fifty years old began to play. "Since the untimely disappearance of my father Ryoichi five years ago, I have served as both the chief officer and head surgeon of his little-known but prestigious medical Consortium." She was wearing a business suit and skirt that appeared to be hastily covering a set of surgical scrubs underneath. "Today, if fortune chooses to favor us, shall be remembered as a seminal moment in the history of human evolution. A day that doubles as the culmination of his life's work." She also had her light brown hair tied up so that it could be stuffed underneath a surgical cap.

"Yiiiiiiiiii-" Yachiyo covered Felicia's screaming mouth when they arrived at the lowest level.

"Shhhhhh! They're just cadavers," Yachiyo shushed her. "We must be down in the morgue section." There were covered bodies lying on operating tables along the wall.

"Tell me, are you a member of the exotic subspecies 'Homo Magica'?" The holographic teddy chirped at Sayaka. "If so, that would explain the following images." A series of security camera still shots depicting her tussle at the school with the deceased Mickey Hibiki flashed across the television screen.

"The human brain is both the most complex organ and sophisticated supercomputer to have ever taken shape on this planet, by far." The lady on Sayaka's screen narrated. "After he founded his next secretive technical research institute in Osaka his ultimate goal was to one day allow our marvelous minds to shape their own destiny through the next phase of its path down evolution, using our endless technological ambitions. By fusing our fragile organic neurological systems with prosthetic upgrades. Today, thanks to a recently-developed gift shared by the Satomi Foundation, we finally have the key ingredient that takes us within but a single, brave step towards achieving that aim of life everlasting."

"Looks more like two costumed performers rehearsing on a stage to me," Sayaka grit her teeth behind a wry smile. "Damn. Thought I erased all the camera footage." She muttered under her breath. "If those are saved screencaps then it can only mean someone was watching the video feed live."

"What are cadavers again?" Felicia's curiosity compelled her to peek underneath one of the sheets. "Are those somethin' like crash test dummies?"

"In a way." Yachiyo affirmed. "They're real dead bodies their families donated for the purpose of scientific research."

"'Homo Magica' have existed for almost as long as the anatomically modern 'Homo Sapiens'." The cute bear's voice had taken on a new inflection. Still high-pitched and childlike, but somehow it struck her ears deeper in the Uncanney Valley than even its original pre-recorded voice. "They are the missing link which has enabled mankind's dominance over this world and their continuous presence behind the scenes has spurred countless developments that have brought this civilization to its current apex." Pages of text from an unpublished manuscript by an anonymous author appeared on the television screen behind it.

"Before I go into the operating theater, I wish to first thank the Satomi Foundation for its continued clandestine support and generous discretionary funding." An assistant came on screen to help the lady shed her business attire and don her surgical mask and gloves. "But above all, I want to thank our young, courageous volunteer for agreeing to partake in the procedure. Should it succeed, may history regard you as the very first member of our successor species which I dub 'Homo Cybernicus'. An accelerated demonstration animation played out the video's conclusion, culminating in the standing image of a likeness to a universal terror the young Time Lady had only ever seen in her vast, inherited collection of books.

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" She grabbed the monitor with both hands. "No-No-No-No-Nonono! Not here! Not Earth! Not this century!"

"So they also use crash test dummies too, right?" Felicia pressed. "'Cuz that's the thing I'm seein' underneath this sheet, no kiddin'." Yachiyo's head turned just in time to watch the lifeless object's hand reach out and grab Felicia by the throat.

"Felicia!"

"Where once 'Homo Magica' facilitated the rise and domination of 'Homo Sapien', now it will serve in the imminent ascension and conquest of us, the 'Homo Cybernicus'." The screen switched back to the profile photos of Sayaka's classmates, singling out images of Madoka and Kyoko.

IDENTIFICATION VERIFIED:

KANAME MADOKA

DATE OF BIRTH: 03-10-1997

ASSESSED PROBABILITY OF BELONGING TO SPECIES H. MAGICA: 16.845 PERCENT

IDENTIFICATION VERIFIED:

KATSURAGI KYOKO (BIRTH NAME - SAKURA KYOKO)

DATE OF BIRTH: 30-03-1997 (PRONOUNCED DATE OF DEATH: 24-12-2010)

ASSESSED PROBABILITY OF BELONGING TO SPECIES H. MAGICA: 87.319 PERCENT

"Huuuuuuuuuah!" Yachiyo wasted no time slicing the arm clean off Felicia's gray, featureless attacker. Then she lopped it right in half at the waist, and it rolled to the floor. "Are you okay?"

"Auuuuugggh! My leg!" Felicia cried. It had spontaneously spawned a jagged-toothed mouth and bit her ankle.

"Get! Off! Of Her!" Yachiyo's halberd came down on it like a guillotine, severing the head, which she kicked away.

The screen flashed over to images of Homura and Sayaka battling the brainwashed Tsukasa Amane in that school's hallways.

IDENTIFICATION VERIFIED:

AKEMI HOMURA

DATE OF BIRTH: UNKNOWN (BIRTH RECORDS UNVERIFIED)

ASSESSED PROBABILITY OF BELONGING TO SPECIES H. MAGICA: 99.999 PERCENT

"Alright! Now you've crossed the line!" The furious Sayaka yanked out the computer monitor and hurled it through the bear at the television screen, shattering it. "Waitasec, you're not watching me from somewhere, you're in the system!" Her singular burst of anger passing, a more rational mind came to an upsetting realization. "So you could've kicked me out at any moment. Why give your whole game away outright? Unless-"

"I did warn you that any further intrusion would result in punitive action." The creepy bear tittered.

"Crap!" Sayaka opened her pocket watch which instantly engulfed her rubber body suit in a brilliant blue flash, altering it into her magical girl outfit. "They're walking into a trap!"

"Probability that your kind and humanity can avert such an event," For a singular frame the projected image of the bear yielded to that of a diminutive young lady in a green school uniform leering at her frantic target. "Zero point zero six two four percent. Otherwise known as a statistical impossibility."

"Can you still stand on your own?" Yachiyo helped Felicia get back up.

"Ungh!" Felicia collapsed right after trying to put some weight on the wounded ankle.

"Alright, let me help you." Yachiyo propped her up by flinging her arm around her back. "We have to fall ba-" She was cut off by the collective hisses of the other pretend corpses springing to life from under their sheets. "Uh-Oh!" Yachiyo pinned them dead in place with a score of conjured halberds wedged into their chests. "We've got to retreat and regroup!" But her strategy could not be executed, as the only exit was sealed by a sudden wall. "What the-?"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" A bone-chilling, robotic echo reverberated throughout the room. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" It made it sound like they were surrounded on all fronts.

"I don't like the sound of that!" The hobbling Felicia whimpered.

"Neither do- Whaaaaat?" A half dozen gray, hulking, humanoid robots stepped through the outline of a witch barrier. She forged a halberd in her hand and tossed it at the first one advancing at her. She sliced its head clean off, but that did not deter two more from marching forth in their programmed relentlessness. She crafted five more mid-air and launched them as hard and fast as her magical might could muster.

"Trajectory and velocity calculated." They each caught Yachiyo's projectiles mid-air with one hand and snapped them in half. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Hey!" Yachiyo heard Sayaka's confident voice shout. "Calculate me!"

"Wah-!" Sayaka and a portable defibrillator burst forth from the reflective armor on her chest. Sayaka slapped the paddles to the temples of one, changed back into her rubber suit and discharged it.

"Clear!"

"Error! Error! Err-" The mechanical soldier fell hard and fast to the floor.

"Re-Strategizing!" Another grabbed at Sayaka, who had flashed back into her magical persona. "Error! Enemy not found!" But she in turn lunged at it and vanished before it and the onlooking Yachiyo and Felicia's eyes.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" It was blasted to smithereens at once by its own subordinates. "Error!" It spotted Sayaka darting around in the reflection on its own chassis. "Analyzing!" In the split second it took to utter that lone word, Sayaka's form grew out from its back and severed its head.

"Analysis complete!" One of the remaining two declared. "Executing countermeasures."

"Yeah? So am I!" She zapped herself from one fallen foe into the next standing one.

"Upgrade in progress!"

"Aw, crap!" Sayaka was stuck half-materialized out of its torso. She stuck her blade through the circular raised part of its chest, cutting off its power supply and killing the unit where it stood. But once it tumbled, she couldn't decouple herself from its corpse and was helpless in the face of her final target.

"Delete! Delete De-" A large and heavy hammer smashed its head in, neutralizing it and saving Sayaka's skin.

"Thanks!" Sayaka expressed her gratitude to Felicia, the young lady responsible. "They somehow altered the reflectivity of their metallic casings to put a stop to my magic trick! Didn't think they'd figure me out so fast! Lucky most of me made it back to this side in time."

"Are you alright?" Yachiyo offered her hand. "You stuck? Oooooor-"

"The parts below my femur are trapped and stranded inside a pocket plane," Sayaka told her. "That's all. Could you do me a solid and chop my legs off?"

"What?"

"If you don't have the stomach I guess I could do it myself," She smiled wanly. "Again."

"Are you serious?" Yachiyo questioned.

"They'll grow back," Sayaka reassured her. "That's my special talent. Though it feels like it peels away a decade off my life every time I have to regrow a darn limb."

"Will it hurt?" Yachiyo needed to know.

"Of course," Sayaka confirmed. "So clean and quick. Okay?"

"Ohhhkaaay," Yachiyo forged two halberds side-by-side, looked away and winced. The blades chopped with the fluidity and precision of an ax chopping a block of wood.

"Auuuuuuughhh!" Sayaka could not help but howl in pain.

"My apologies," Yachiyo offered.

"No worries." A series of circular notes going up and down reconstructed Sayaka's missing legs and feet, even restoring her magical leggins and short, blue boots. "Are you guys good?"

"Felicia!" Yachiyo tried to get the distracted young teen's attention. "Hey, Felicia! How's your bite wound?" She was staring into the cold, black eyes of their electrocuted enemy.

"What the hell are these things?" The Y-Shaped faceplate looked to her like it could be ripped off. Slowly but with curiosity she reached out and tried giving it a tug.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Sayaka stopped her. "You might disrespect the memory of someone's grandma if you do. After all they don't care where they get their wetware from, so long as the software keeps their neuralinks together and the hardware stays powered."

"What do you mean by that?" Yachiyo gave her a troubled stare. "What are they?"

"Basically, they're the most fascinating race of beings to read about whom I never wanted to meet up close," Sayaka began with cryptic words. "It always starts out so small and with good intentions. A failing kidney gets replaced by a fresh synthetic one. Or change out a mangled arm for a tricked-out working one." She healed Felicia's wound with a light shoulder touch. "But as the time goes on and the tech evolves, cancerous lungs are replaced by artificial ones. A ticker with a birth defect gets replaced by a bumping battery. The digestive tract gets swapped out for an internal life support system. I mean, what's it matter, when from the established medical point-of-view, the only organ that's really irreplaceable is the brain? But then, before you know it, you've upgraded and upgraded and upgraded, now your prosthetics have run so amok that you've straight-up Ship of Theseus'd yourself out of owning your very soul!"

"Stop with the distillation of complex philosophical ideas down to frivolous verbs and just tell us," The annoyed Yachiyo insisted. "What the hell are they?"

"An artificial composite race, classified by the tutors, biologists and techno-scientists I study under through their taxonomic names: Kingdom Mechanica, Order Super Primatus," She paused. "Tribe Trans-Hominini, Species Homo Cybernicus." Her eyes went wider and wider with a thousand yard stare as the full implications of their presence on her favorite blue marble dawned on her.

"They're The Cybermen."

Chapter Text

Unit One Zero Two Gamma did not understand why or how it could still be in operation. That cascading series of unknown and illegal command instructions should have by all logic resulted in the permanent corruption of its operating code and termination of all subsequent functions. It should have ceased recording any data, yet somehow it was active and in this strange new location.

Another presented problem was that it had no indication as to where this peculiar place was. Its surroundings were entirely a black void save for a singular, bright white point of light spotlighting it from above. It was most comparable to the cyberization chamber from where it first emerged, but even there it had the ability to sense it was in contact with something solid. Here, it found itself floating freely under the influence of neither air nor gravity. Again, the only other experience it could compare this sensory input to was when it was flying high above those vast human settlements. But where that event caused the release and stimulation of various electronic impulses and pleasure chemicals into its processing network, here it was triggering no such response. It was formless and shapeless, existing as computational thought but not material.

"Welcome to my personal unimatrix, Gamma." A voice greeted it. Gamma identified the source as its Master, The Cyber Regina, but it had no controlling or analytical software with which to confirm that assumption. "It was a most serendipitous occurrence that your self diagnostic systems flagged that subliminal activity going on within your Delta band consciousness," It elaborated. "The moment your subroutines provided that information, I realized what they were up to, and took preemptive measures by transferring your program into this place before they could terminate it with their brute force overwrite."

But Gamma was still preoccupied with gaining some sort of solid bearing on its present conundrum. "Oh," Gamma's Master piped again. "You are finding yourself to be maladjusted to the state of disembodiment? Personally I find this condition as the epitome of perfection, but since you are new to it I suppose I should make some concessions to accommodate you." A second point of light emerged in Gamma's visual periphery, and to the unit's bewilderment under its shining beam forged the image and shape of a young, human female. A subsequent analysis of her general size and stature Gamma pegged her to be a girl in the second stage of human development, early adolescence. This meant she had to be somewhere between the ages of eight and thirteen years old, but again Gamma could draw no definitive conclusion as it lacked the necessary software to perform a physical scan. "There." The young girl said. "Now it's your turn to physicalize yourself. Thought is power here, and all it takes is a little concentrated effort."

Gamma complied, first materializing its outer extremities at the tips and bottoms. The slender digits of its upper appendages came into being, then its lower ones. Next they attached themselves to ankles, hands, forearms, calves, knees, elbows, thighs, arms and shoulders. From there came its central part, first the pelvic region, the waist, hips, and abdomen, then formed the distinctive parts that established Gamma as a female, the genitalia between the legs and enlarged mammary glands on the chest. Finally its main upper appendage emerged, a neck, followed by its rounded skull and to its puzzlement it also had the sensation of follicle growth springing up and outward down to where its shoulder blades met.

"Hm," Its Master expressed a similar level of befuddlement once Gamma's form was finalized. "You seem to have retained a residual digital copy of your pre-cybernetic self image. Which would indicate I was not quite as thorough as I believed in purging it when I coded and installed your Cyberman systems."

"Is this," Gamma looked down at itself, grateful that it finally had a directional orientation on which to base everything else. "Inconsonant?" The only motivation it had in choosing how to render itself was emulating its creator and appearing before her as a female peer.

"... It is what it is." Its Master stated. "Really, I should not be too surprised that traces of your onetime identity linger." She was much shorter than Gamma was, at least fifteen centimeters, but Gamma could not discern how many since it had no means of measuring. "You and I both come from similar backgrounds of wealth, privilege, education, and intellect, so it would only be logical that your mental essence would prove to be as durable as my own." She approached Gamma's personal space, those long reddish-brown locks behind her waving and flowing just as if there was real air blowing through them. "You did, after all, make it through the cyberization process with your ethereal ego intact, whereas I required the willful assistance of a 'Homo Magica' to survive my surgeon's underdeveloped techniques."

"Information requested," Gamma responded. "What is 'Homo Magica'?"

"You already know via firsthand experience," The Cyber Regina replied. "During your assignment to retrieve the human, you encountered and engaged one. They are also an artificial race of upgraded humanoids. But the key difference between us and them, is that our improvements come via technology, while theirs comes in the form of a non-terrestrial fairy being." Now in contact distance Gamma could discern that her eyes had the same reddish-brown hue as her hair, although tinged with a faint but persistent glow.

"Additional data needed," Gamma uttered in monotone. "This unit seeks to understand the full extent of the relationship between those life forms and its creator." It noted how its voice was less filtered, and higher pitched, than what its auditory sensors recorded from its vocal synthesizer.

"My, my, you tend to be every bit as inquisitive and analytical as I," Its Master's projected expression shifted from something neutral to something Gamma couldn't readily discern. The part used to represent her communication system curled upwards which in turn formed two identical indents in the more rosy, bulbous section of her facial avatar. "Normally, I would download all pertinent information directly into your processing core, but with you at present stuck in this… Shall we say..." Her entire cranium tilted to one side as she circled around Gamma's artificial visage. "Recovery Mode, I guess I will have to indulge you with whatever details I am inclined to provide."

The environment around them was in an instant altered into a pixel-perfect recreation of a luxurious, top-floor hospital suite. "Another lifetime of mine ago, I was the protected, premier patient in my family's specialty care center." Gathered around a large table were three small figures, female, with a fourth standing watch at the door nearby. "A sheltered life, my only companions were the books with which I quenched my endless thirst for knowledge, my attending physicians and nurses." One face at the table was pixelated and obfuscated, along with the entity observing the party. "My two coeval playmates who were also full-time residents," She spared a momentary glance at that concealed figure. "And one whom we all looked upon as our elder sibling, but was only of genetic relation to one."

"Ta… Mak… I?" Gamma recalled the names it read in the hospital and on that discarded bookbag. It was also the name of their current captive scheduled to be made into Unit Zeta.

"Correct." The scenery around them rearranged itself. The three figures were now each consigned to beds, with taller black-clad figures standing around the one in the center, which was draped with a curtain all around it, concealing the entity lying in the middle motionless in silhouette. "Our happy days were always destined to be too few in numbers. Though each of us were in possession of keen minds, my own intellect being foremost, our bodies were born frail and faulty, with prognoses that determined we would not survive into our early adulthoods." Then the black-outlined body burst into flames, consumed from flesh to bone to ash to nothing but an engraved name and image on an urn. "We lost Ui first. She was cremated as per this country's customs. So her remains cannot be salvaged for use in a CBX model. Shame." Their surroundings shifted again. Now the two remaining figures were roaming the darkened halls of a building Gamma recognized as one structured similar to the place it trekked to locate Unit One Zero Three. As things came into clearer and clearer focus Gamma could finally pin the one wheeling its chair-bound companion along as a virtualized duplicate of its master. The two had just located an ancillary, unmonitored point of exit. And before long, they were outside the facility, free to travel wherever they pleased.

"Unit designation Cyber Regina," Gamma deduced. "Master is also of biological origin?"

"Correct again," Its Master affirmed. "After we lost Ui, my surviving companion Nemu and I resolved to go out on our own terms, and do it together with our lost friend brought along in spirit." In the sitting individual's grip was a wreath and a photograph containing a singular face. "Our plan was straightforward enough. Wait until the quietest hour of the night, escape our friendly confines, travel to the highest point in our home city of Kamihama, and let the force of gravity take care of the rest. But as another less measurable force would have it, a phenomenon that some would term 'fate', we did not proceed far in our plan before being noticed by a particular individual with a vested interest in our continuation."

"Willfully terminating your existences because you deem your time remaining to be bereft of value or meaning." An odd creature perched in a treetop interrupted their journey. "Human beings are so illogical." To Gamma's perception it looked to be an albino genetic hybridization of the species Oryctolagus cuniculus and Felis catus, but there was no way to scan its biological composition.

"Who're you?" The bespectacled female in the wheelchair addressed it on sight.

"I don't believe it. Uncle Tasuke isn't a madman!" The reproduction of Gamma's Master did not hesitate in approaching it. "You're the fairy that creates magical girls, aren't you?"

"My name is Kyubey," That mysterious biological entity introduced itself. "And before you commit yourselves to this fruitless act of self-destruction." From Gamma's observations it had no muscles or mechanisms for verbal communication. Thus the only apparent conclusion was that it had a means of conveying its thoughts to the pair directly. "I suggest you have a look through the latest breakthroughs published in your distinguished family's confidential medical journals."

"Nemu look!" Now they were back in their warm-and-cozy hospital suite on a computer that had access to information not made available to the wider public. "Our partners at the Mitakihara branch of the Tanizaki Consortium say they've successfully integrated a hedgehog's brain and central nervous system into its own mobile biomechanical shell. It says here that with the concept proven feasible by the experiment they'll be able to scale it up to the human brain in a few years!"

"But this thing your uncle wrote says the fairy works by forging a pact with teenagers it deems worthy of wielding power." The girl identified as Nemu was next to her reading a rough paperback manuscript. "And grants them a wish in exchange for their services. Why in the world would it lead us into discovering the latest news on cybernetic engineering?"

"Let's ask it!"

"I was merely providing you with a concrete data point upon which to base your foundation of hope." Now the scenery had shifted to the building's rooftop, the little white creature walking along its ledge. "Magical girls operate more effectively as agents of good when they can work from emotional high points."

"Really? You think we have what it takes to become magical girls?" The historical duplication of Gamma's Master asked the animal.

"I did evaluate your respective potentials, and Nemu was slated to be in the contact queue, but unfortunately magical girls are a hypercompetitive lot, and will waste resources and energy trying to prevent new potential rivals from cropping up," It disclosed. "One such being has just threatened me with total annihilation unless I vacate this world post-haste."

"What?" The two exchanged looks of shock and distress. "You can't seriously offer us a life preserver like that, just to yank it away so fast!"

"I apologize, but the decision is effectively out of my hands," The fairy flopped its large redundant appendages around in a shaking of its head. "Since I and my fellow magical emissaries have reached the conclusion that this individual has the means to back their ultimatum with force, we must heed the warning and vacate." Its tilted head turned and its glowing red eyes reflectively shined off the glasses of Nemu. "However…"

"We put our heads together right then and there, and decided that Nemu should take the contract offer and make a wish that would be guided by my brilliant mind," Its Master recounted. "We decided to help this ailing world in the most effectively altruistic scale, by speeding along the timeline of humanity's technological ascent and allowing us to wrest all control of our collective evolution away from the precarious whims of both natural and supernatural selection." She concluded, adding, "We knew the wish Nemu made came true when, the very next day, the Consortium approached me and my family and, acting contrary to all established social, political and medical ethics, offered to take me to Mitakihara and make me the into the first human test subject of a total and complete cybernetic upgrade." They were back in the black void, that reddish glow in her eyes providing most of the ambient lighting. "And since I was the one who phrased the wording of Nemu's wish, I knew my survival would be ensured and I had nothing to worry about."

"Additional query," Gamma prefaced, trying to process the information freshly shared with it. But without access to its central processing core, it was having trouble retaining all the complex details bit by bit, it was only able to reflect on the events in a broader holistic sense. "What is a wish?" Also taking up valuable contemplation space was wondering how it could, while denied any physical access, be able to sort through any data at all?

"It is a driving motivation to enact or achieve an outcome that is not readily attainable," Its Master defined the term.

"Was…" Gamma paused as its slower sifting capacity tried taking that tidbit in. "This Unit One Zero Two Gamma created for the purpose of carrying out The Cyber Regina's wish?"

"In a certain sense, yes," Its Master confirmed. "We Cybermen all share the same base protocol. To ensure the survival and propagation of our kind to an indefinite timescale." Its Master approached and grabbed hold of Gamma's upper left appendage unsolicited. "That much I learned upon utilizing the Murakami Array, a revolutionary telescope network which I myself lent a hand in designing, to connect myself to our kind's wider, trans-luminary hivemind." Gamma could somehow sense the contact made between the spaces of their digits, despite them both being nothing but purely digital representations. "And even more, I discovered a deeply-embedded but inactive protocol which, if I were to execute and run on my own operating system, would allow me to ascend straight into the upper echelons of their organizational hierarchy." More surprising, Gamma did not find this level of contact to be unpleasant in nature. "That is my current wish. To acquire the Cyberqueen Codex and incorporate it into my core persona." In an instant they were surrounded by a vast, intricate web of machine code. "And it is your current objective, too. Together we will take what is rightfully mine and use it to mobilize our full forces so that we can share our upgrades with the rest of the Homo Sapiens on Earth and unite their frayed kind into a singular purpose. To share in ours."

"Command initiatives resetting." Gamma studied the encrypted text laid out before them. "Instructions confirmed. I obey and await The Cyber Regent's orders." It identified it as a piece of its own source code but it was entangled with foreign code of some kind. And it was having quite a bit of difficulty isolating and analyzing the strange lines and characters from its own software matrix.

"Silly Cyber Rebels," Its creator shook her head. "At first I believed I neutralized Nemu after I isolated her from her energy source and subjugated her combat ally. But I discovered she could somehow keep her soul's will active by tying her magic to the functionally obsolete avatar she made to babysit me while she toured out there as a magical girl. Then I believed I could control her actions by doing performative battles within her cyberspace refuges. Little did I know she'd set up a redundant hideout in the human collective unconscious alongside the willful cooperation of a captive Homo Magica. Now it seems like a virus our adversaries have taken root within your cyber brain's redundant Delta band wavelength and used the connection to hijack your physical shell with a trooper of their own making." Fortunately it seemed Gamma's Master had a much firmer grasp of its predicament. "The prudent measure would be to sick all available forces on them but right now priority one is to deal with an unwelcome band of intruders at our gate."

With the pressing of a virtual button they'd become enveloped by Gamma's codebase. Gamma could even sense the change of environment, like stepping from one room into another where there was a slight but noticeable difference in temperature. "But I have another idea. One which hopefully won't require our forces to roughen up the work of art that is your body any more than necessary."

ACCESS DENIED

Gamma could also detect their momentum abruptly ceasing. "Error," It murmured almost out of instinct.

"Clever girls," The Cyber Regina commented. "They have embedded a gatekeeping terminal which is apparently set to deny us entrance unless we agree to participate on their terms and don the appropriate attire. It looks like it is a hard-coded holdover from a training modal they made up for synergistic immersion. Very well. If their desire is to make a game of their continued obstinance, then we must be certain we have some fun crushing them beneath our heels."

"Fun?" Gamma did not understand.

"Oh, right. I discarded that from you as an irrelevance, too." Its Master tapped another button and in a bright flash her nude and fleshy base form was engulfed in a curious but rather unpleasant crimson red light. "Recall when you were 'Balloonhead,' that dopamine rush I administered to make you more compliant." Now she was wearing elaborate garb, starting with a big, black bow pinned to the side of her head. On her body proper was a black, Victorian-Age mini-dress with a red corset around the waist that split in the middle revealing the black-barred guiding part underneath, along with a red undergarment and frilly section around the bottom and dark brown stocking running all the way up past her knees. In addition came a red double bowtie with the smaller one consisting of a tie-shaped jewel. A white frilly shirt piece was tucked underneath them, and her cuffs were adorned by a pair of additional frills and red bows. "The electrochemical stimulation one gets from fun is most comparable to that." The dress part featured three separate and evenly-spaced rings of white frills. As the final part, a parasol umbrella popped into existence and she caught it effortlessly mid-fall.

"I see," Gamma surveyed its camouflage options and made a very quick choice. Its avatar was soon covered up by its own fashion choices.

"Hm," The Cyber Regina scoped out its new look. "Might I ask for a reason you've decided upon that appearance?"

"It was designated file zero one, zero two in the system filebase," Gamma simply stated. Its appearance was one part a correction to its initial naked and unarmored visage, another part an emulation of its creator's image. It was wearing chronologically medieval-era armor with a pair of greaves and sabatons protecting it from the knee down, a set of gauntlets covering its hands, with fabric sleevelets going all the way up to the base of its shoulders. It was also equipped with a vambrace around its midsection, but that part was situated beneath a late nineteenth century-styled dress that featured as its central color the one that is the fusion of the primary colors blue and yellow. Gamma chose the tone because it matched that of the machine code in this artificial environment. The garment was laced together in the front in a manner similar to its master's, but the lighter-shaded laces were attached directly rather than as part of a corset. Also like its master's outfit the dress part was decorated by three same-spaced layers of frills with the third running up the open space to the center where it joined up with a fourth layer lapping around the base of its torso. Also like its master's design there was a smaller dress hiding its genital area but unlike the red frills of its creator Gamma kept the theme of whiteness as the secondary color scheme. In another deviation from its master's design, Gamma wore nothing except a darker green collar and circular jewel in the section between its neck and upper chest. After experiencing the greater range of limb movement this appearance afforded it over its physical shell, Gamma chose to keep it that way.

"Yes, but of course," Gamma's diminutive leader mused. "It suits you."

The last accessory was a standard knight's helmet sitting atop Gamma's head, but for reasons it could not articulate, it found the extra bit of cranial casing to be restrictive, even as it nonverbally acknowledged that wearing the piece would be both practical and prudent protection.

"Gamma," Its Master beckoned. "Let us make haste. For we have so little time, so much to conquer." A gateway formed before them.

Gamma slipped off the helmet and inspected those black-slit eyes and heavy, grated mouthpiece. It reminded it of its real-world visage, but an impulse led it to not want to keep those two faces consistent. "Yes, Master." It took less than one second to decide to eschew it, copying its master and calculating that it should not require such an item in a virtual setting anyhow. "I obey." They stepped through to the next virtual realm.

"And we're back here for the fourth hole at Taka Tanaka's esteemed miniature golf course in the central Mitakihara's beautiful nature park," Kyoko's date Tokoi narrated in a hushed, breathy and dramatic voice. "We're three holes in at the First Annual Date-Nite Classic, with Kyoko Katsuragi holding a two stroke lead, yours truly sitting at one under par, Miss Kaname at zero and her partner bringing up the rear at plus one."

"Tch!" Kyoko lightly ribbed him with an elbow. "Why in the frikkin' heck are ya' talkin' like that?"

"I dunno," He shrugged. "It's just the way they always talk whenever golf's on TV."

"You're a dork!" Kyoko tried to stifle her laugh while Madoka was lining up to take her next putt.

"This one's a par four flanked by sand traps on the sides and a water hazard lining the borders," He continued speaking to no one in particular. "If that weren't enough of a challenge for this evening's participants, there's also a roaring windmill spinning its blades in front of the hole at about a meter away."

"Square your shoulders a little more, Madoka," Homura advised from her spot on the course, in a catcher's squat pretending to be the windmill.

"Obstacles aren't supposed to talk to the players," Kyoko ribbed the young lady.

"Can it, Kyoko!" Sayaka, standing on the sidelines between Homura and the dating quartet, clapped back. "And let Madoka take her shot."

Madoka lined up her putter on the ball, reared back and tapped it with enough force to send the ball rolling up and down the inclined carpeting, banking off the wall and towards Homura. She in turn started twirling her prop golf club around like a baton, mimicking a windmill's active propellers. But the ball stopped just short of her position.

"Good shot, Madoka!" Her date Kyosuke cheered. "Now make sure you thrust your next stroke hard enough to punch it right through between her legs." Reflexively both Kyoko and Tokoi had to press each others' hands to their mouths to keep from bursting into laughter.

"Oh, will you kids grow up a little bit?" Sayaka folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

Madoka eyeballed her trajectory, reared back and booted the ball onwards with her club. Homura felt it bounce off the tip of her back right heel, tilting her head back to watch she saw it veer a little off course before finally stopping at the lip separating the carpeted green from the carpeted representation of sand.

"Lucky break, Madoka." Sayaka encouraged her friend. "You still got one try to put it in the glory hole for those points." She preempted the other pairing's laughter with a threatening glance, but it only achieved the opposite.

"Bwwwaahahaahaa!" Kyoko tittered, slapping her knee. "Hey, if you didn't want us laugin', then maybe you shouldn't've said it that way!"

Madoka took up a position inside the yellow-bladed patch of fake sand. She lightly popped the ball and sent it off towards its destination. It spun and rolled around the hole's top in orbit exactly once before dipping inside.

"Way to go!" Kyosuke and Tokoi said almost simultaneously.

"Yeeeeaaah!" Sayaka pumped her fist.

"Nice shot, Shrimpy!" Kyoko congratulated her.

"You're a natural, Madoka!" Homura looked on with a proud smile.

"Nah, it's just beginner's luck, really." Madoka giggled and blushed.

"Next up is yours truly," Tokoi kept narrating to an imaginary audience. Homura at once turned around and got back to twirling her club around. He wasted little time setting up his shot, instead striking with a vigorous sweep. The ball smacked against the wall with a force similar to a pinball's, tumbling towards the human windmill Homura, who proceeded to smack it off to the side with her prop obstacle.

"Tough break," Kyosuke commented. Homura tried hiding a certain satisfaction she got from doing that behind her typical poker face.

"Hmph!" Undeterred, Tokoi tried again. This time he had an angle to get it around Homura's position, so he booted it as hard as he could and rolled it in front of her where it bounced off the opposite barrier, where it traveled behind and past her like a billiard ball. "Heh!" Lined up for the goal, he wasted no time taking his next try. But in rushing it his attempt cost him a stroke as it overshot his target by about eight centimeters. A little disappointed, but he still managed to save par.

"My turn," Kyosuke had choked up on his club to handle it with his hand still not at a hundred percent. With a posture similar to a hockey player he swept his club along the carpeting and sent his ball off towards the hole. Its trajectory took it down virtually the same path as Madoka's, but he'd managed to put enough force behind it to make it to Homura's spot. She slowed her baton twirl up enough to let it pass through and underneath her legs unperturbed.

"Hey, no fair!" Tokoi complained.

"Sorry," Homura said. "It gets tiring doing this for minutes on end," She fibbed. "I guess I just lost my proverbial wind for a second."

"Okay then," Kyosuke staked his position for his next putt. It was in an ideal enough position that all he had to do was keep his next shot straight. Which he did, knocking it down the hole and taking two shots off his score.

"You're doing great, Kyosuke!" Madoka cheered.

"Yeah," Sayaka agreed, containing her envy in the way they supported each other. "Awesome job!"

"Now we see the leader step up, about to take her next shot," Tokoi resumed his dramatic, low-key narration. "Birdied each of the first three holes, putting her her firmly on top. Now we'll see if she can make it four for four."

Kyoko's confident smirk did not waver as she slapped the ball and sent it off towards the hole. It bumped off the same point as the other three's, and rolled towards Homura. Homura whiffed on her attempt to knock it aside, resulting in a rather tricky situation, as the ball did not have enough momentum to make it all the way through her legs.

"Whoops," Kyosuke suppressed a laugh.

"That's an understatement," Sayaka couldn't help but crack a smile herself.

"What're you gonna do, Kyoko?" Madoka questioned.

"You're not gonna move outta the way, are you?" Kyoko knit her brow.

"Sorry," Homura apologized. "I am but a humble windmill. I do not talk to the players. Nor can I stop being a physical object any more than water can cease being wet."

"Riiiiiiiight," The annoyed Kyoko groaned.

"The formal rules dictate that the player can take a drop shot, at the penalty of an additional stroke," Tokoi stated as the announcer. "It may be Miss Katsuragi's best chance to salvage this rather sticky sitch she's in."

"Bah, do I look the kind of person to take the easy way out?" Kyoko bragged. "Watch this!" She got down onto her belly and gripped her club like a pool stick. But she couldn't commit fully to her next stroke. Not while Homura kept twirling her fake windmill blade in front of her face. "Can't you cut that out for a second?"

"I could," Homura responded. "If you'd pray to God a little, there may be a sudden break in these gusts."

"Ugggh!" Kyoko set the club down and clasped her hands, understanding a little payback in this case was fair game. "Oh God, Lord in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name," She started. "Please, please, please will ya' slow your roll for a second with your pesky-ass breeze? So that I can make birdie, okaaaaay?"

"The Lord hath spoken, whispers His voice gently betweeneth the winds of these fair blades. Says he sendseth both his best wishes and deepest condolences," Homura replied. "But he also sayseth he has prayers far more urgent to answer than one concerning your silly-asseth little round of golf." Sayaka, Madoka, Kyosuke and Tokoi all fell over in uproarious laughter.

"Gah! Fine!" Kyoko snatched her ball out from between Homura's legs. "I'll take the stupid drop shot!" She stepped around Homura, set her ball down, squared up and pushed the ball towards the hole. It crept to just a hare's breath of going in and giving her a birdie, but instead she had to tap in on the next try and made par.

"Tag, you're in." Homura stood up and handed Sayaka the prop putter. "I trust you'll do your best to keep Kyoko and that little ego of hers in check, too." She whispered.

"Heh." Sayaka grinned. "Count on it."

"You have gotta fucking be kidding me," Junko Kaname looked through the one way mirror glass at the prisoner being held in custody in the adjoining room. "You're seriously saying that someone this small could fend off eight full-grown men?"

"That's what this mission report outlines, yes." Miss Yamano flipped through a small stack of pages stapled inside a manilla folder.

"How?"

"By resisting arrest, obviously." The female security guard flanking her on the right remarked.

"The report says our boys intercepted a patrolling officer's radio claiming he'd been following an unaccompanied minor loitering and behaving strangely, as he put it." Yamano read aloud. "Followed her for a while, until she squeezed herself into the narrow gap between a laundromat and adjacent car wash, and vanished into thin air." With a pen in her hand she pointed at Doctor Taylor. "Thanks to a certain experimental compound supplied by the good doctor here, the patrolman has since been made to forget the whole sequence of events."

"'RetCon', patent pending." Doctor Taylor boasted. "A compound that puts a subject to sleep and erases up to a Cricket match's length worth of short-term memories, but like all mind-altering chemicals, any level of substance abuse will mess with you way more than that."

"When they re-emerged the subject was wearing completely different garments," Yamano continued. "Brandishing a weapon. And then the entire getup dissolved around their body like dust in the wind. That's when our team took the initiative, made contact and tried to apprehend them." She showed Junko the attached photographs of all the bumps, scrapes and bandaged wounds covering the men in the infirmary.

"She looks like she's what," Junko shook her head. "Thirty-five, maybe forty kilograms at the most?" The chained-and-straightjacketed young girl looked no heavier than her own daughter Madoka, to be sure. And more upsetting, the similarities didn't end at mere size.

"Yet somehow this individual was able to punch clean through a brick wall, kick a man's groin hard enough to cause a nasty case of testicular torsion." Yamano reported. All the other men in the room reacted with a collective grab of their crotches and some barely-stifled 'ooof's'. "And it took a bare-knuckle, back-alley brawl, three electrified tranq-darts and a heaping dose of tear gas before she was brought down."

"What else do we know about her?" Junko inquired. Right now she couldn't look upon that frightened young face and not think of Madoka. Their hair was the same color, the same rough length, with the same loose strands trailing down their cheeks. She even shared Madoka's affinity for a set of twin ponytails jutting out the back of her head on each side.

"Not a whole lot," Miss Yamano admitted. "The uniform is that of a Takarazaki City general public school, which the records say the subject transferred to several months ago. Beyond that…" Her voice trailed off.

"What's her mouth doing?" The guard noticed that in addition to her struggle with the restrictive jacket and chains, the prisoner's lower jaw was flapping up and down with excessive rapidity.

"Well if the old tales are true, she could be trying to recite a spell or incantation of some kind," Junko overheard one of the scientists speculate. "Should we gag her too?" To Junko's eyes the poor thing seemed to be the very picture of misery, with a beet red, puffed out, bloody and swollen cheek that had the mark of a rifle butt indented on the skin and heavy, deep purple bags under the eyes. She'd been crying a lot, that much was certain, either from all the tear gas or the shock of waking up in a strange room under bright lights and in bondage.

"I think as long as we keep this little trinket beyond reach, we'll be fine." Another scientist speculated. To the left of the guard embedded in the wall Junko spotted an intercom system.

"You willing to bet your life on that assumption?" Another scientist retorted. "Our lives too?"

"C- C- C- C-" Junko pressed the little white button and put her ear to the speaker. "Co- Co- Co- Co-" What she heard was a voice on the other side that was just barely audible. "Cooooold."

"Could you tell us your name?" Junko uttered into the device. A short second's delay, and the question came out the other side through a voice-masking and deepening filter. "Please?" It sounded so masculine and ominous that she was compelled to tack on that extra bit at the end. "What?" She turned towards the others to find them all giving her an assortment of dismayed looks. "Don't tell me it never occurred to you guys to try an interrogation?"

"Of course we were," Yamano replied. "But it was only going to be done after administering a dose of sodium thiopental and bringing in some trained experts with the right clearance levels." Junko in turn gave Doctor Taylor a prompt, puzzled glance.

"A chemical substance better known as truth serum," The British doctor clarified. "And I for one am inclined to question that method of proceeding things, in light of what we've learned about the captive's high tolerance for sedatives. We have no clue how many barbiturates it might take to make her talk." He unfolded a pair of specs tucked into one of his pockets, put them on and squinted through the mirror. "Administer too many things to the body too fast and who knows? The witch may very well literally melt into a pile of green goo on the floor!"

"If that happens, I sure don't want to be the one saddled with all the extra paperwork," Miss Yamano opened her arms as if gesturing an invitation. "Alright. Someone give me another option."

"Let me speak with her," Junko suggested on the spot. But it was more of a demand. At least, she hoped those words came out as much of a demand to them as they sounded in her head. A prospective boss needed to sound confident in front of her underlings, after all. "In there. In person. Not through this thing."

"You boys think that's safe?" Miss Yamano addressed the rest. She received little better than an exchange of timid glances. As none of them wanted to be the one held liable if something were to go pear-shaped in that room. "You can speak freely, guys. I won't lift a finger unless we've got unanimity here."

"The subject is hog-tied, in chains, overseen by armed guards in a locked room with a self-contained ventilation system." Again it was Doctor Taylor who distinguished himself as the answer man amongst them. "I don't know how else it could be made safer short of rigging the whole level to blow in the event of a containment breach."

"I was thinking something more along the lines of an explosive collar around the neck." Miss Yamano mused. "But I'm sure our friends in Geneva would gripe immensely if I submitted the idea in a requisition proposal." She sighed and itched a spot on her neck below the cheek. "Alright. Have your chat. But remember that you're doing it so that we can attain additional information on the nature of their…" She paused in a little moment of hesitation. "Kind. Do not under any circumstances divulge any information about this location or our organization."

"Got it," Junko shuffled right for the door, trailed a step by the young lady guardsman.

"You want me in there with you?" She offered. "The witch might be a little more cooperative if you've got the appearance of muscle behind your back." They entered the hallway and strode straight to the adjacent doorway.

"Thanks but," Junko waited for the guard on the other side to key in the unlock codes. "I'm thinking a less forceful approach might do the trick. You know what I mean? Sorta the way a concerned mom might speak with their misbehaving kid." The buzzer rang and the door unlocked.

"Good luck," She wished Junko well with a little push..

"I'll need it." Junko muttered as she headed in. There was a chair situated opposite of where the prisoner was forcibly seated. It made a loud and obnoxious squeak as Junko pulled it out, sat down and slid her body square with the table.

"So co- Co- Co- Co- Coooooold!" The girl sitting opposite whined, her teeth chattering and her eyes reddened with gunk and tears.

"What's the number read on that thermostat beside you?" Junko locked eyes with the guardsman.

"Twenty-two point two," He reported succinctly.

"If you can, would you mind bumpin' it up to twenty-five?" She requested. He turned the dial, and a low hum of the heating system kicking in became their ambient background music. "Thank you," She nodded in gratitude. "Now then," She in turn unbuttoned the first on her undershirt up around her collar. "I've got a daughter who's somewhere 'round your age." She started. "She likes boys, trying on makeup with her friends, stuffed animals, all things pretty and pink, and generally having fun at an age where one's allowed to do that without fear of the consequences tomorrow." She grabbed at the dangling overhead light and directed it towards the shivering young lady. She did it both to isolate her in the spotlight and offer her just a little more ambient heat. "But you, on the other hand, you were found sneaking in and out of the creepiest spaces in buildings at random, disappearing and reappearing from spots at will, causing property damage and giving some pretty well-trained and equipped men a hard time."

"Hey, Doctor Taylor." Back in the adjoining room the scientists had gathered around the one-way mirror to watch the interview. "What do you make of this?" Leaving Miss Yamano to look after the mysterious glowing egg-shaped rock caged among several large blocks of ice. "A chemical reaction of some kind?"

"So looking at it from that angle, can you really be all that surprised that there's some pretty powerful people who have brought you here and decided you're not at all what you seem to be and need to be detained for public safety reasons?" Junko continued talking in the meantime.

"That's strange," Doctor Taylor came over to the table. "When'd that start occurring?" He stopped recording on the handheld digital camera trained on the item and rewound the footage. "Fascinating!" Playback indicated that in the span of the last couple minutes a cloudy, blackened mass had spontaneously bubbled up from the base and was tainting its colorful shine.

"We're not seeking to harm you," Junko assured her. "Nor are we going to keep you cooped up in this room forever. We just would really like to know who you are, what you are up to, and if you help us out I guarantee we can accommodate whatever additional needs you've got from here forward."

"The temperature readings haven't changed since the phenomenon's onset." The shaved-headed scientist had joined them. "So whatever that new stuff is, it does not appear to be thermodynamically related to the experiment." He poured himself a fresh cup of joe and set the steaming mug on the table near the gem.

"I just want to go home," The girl finally started talking. "P- Puh- Pretty please?" To this semi-blinded girl's ears the blurry lady before her sounded sincere, but her beloved magical sibling taught her not to cooperate in the event normal humans were to ever confront or capture her. She never thought she'd need to heed her pushy elder's advice, but now she was sitting here lamenting not being tough enough to tackle everything those body-armored meanies had thrown at her.

"It does seem like a chemical reaction of some kind, doesn't it?" The scientist picked it up from its spot in the ice by the tip of its golden-flowered insignia. "The question is, between what particular substances?"

"I know you do," Junko stated sympathetically. "But the only way that's gonna happen is if you cooperate." Man, it sure was hard for Junko to keep her composure, watching a sad, scared little girl crying for help like this. Her conscience was yelling at her, nay, screaming at her, to resign on the spot, grab the girl and bust out that door.

"What are you doing?" The scientist in the rectangular pair of glasses came over and yelled at his comrade. "Put that back! The experiment's not over yet!" He wrestled the other one's hand for control of the trinket, causing it to slip out of their hands, clink off the side of the coffee mug and tumble into the steaming liquid.

"Guuuuuuuuuaaaaaaayyyyaaaaaahhhhaaaahaaaaaaaawwwwaaaaahhhhhhhh!" The girl in the room screamed in sudden, overwhelming pain.

"Wha- What's the matter with you?" Junko jumped right out of her seat and tried her best to calm her in a tender embrace only a practiced mother knew. But since she was straightjacketed and chained to the floor, she could only be given an impersonal embracement from above the shoulders.

"Careful!" A warped and muffled, masculinized voice warned through the speaker system. "It might be a trick."

"Ya' flippin' klutz!" The scientist poured the coffee to the floor and dumped the egg in his other hand. "Look what you've done! You've skewed the data results because of this!"

"Orrrrrr I've started a whole new experiment," The bald one tried to spin this foul-up in his favor. "Look! Whatever the reaction is, it seems to be accelerating!"

"Hm?" The strange blackness sloshed and mixed with the brighter glowing material, creating a murkier and cloudier concoction overall. "You're right!"

"Bwwwaaaaawwwwwhhhoo- hoo- hoooooooo!" The little witch sobbed. "If you let me go I promise I won't go sneaking places and I won't cut class and I won't ever bother you guys again just let me goooooooooo!" She pleaded in sheer desperation.

"Shhhhhhhh! There there!" Junko tried her best to calm the captive down. "It's okay, it's okay." While her own daughter wasn't one to cry in front of her very often, she could draw upon one experience several years ago when she subbed for her husband in making dinner, when little Madoka volunteered to help peel the vegetables. "You don't have to shout." Madoka wound up slicing her hand open and giving herself a pretty nasty cut. "Just tell me where it hurts and I can bring someone or something that'll help you feel all better."

"We advise against making direct skin-to-skin contact with the detainee, Ma'am," The speaker's voice interjected. "You should also avoid any close eye contact." From that advice it was obvious to Junko that this creature's welfare was not of any paramount importance whatsoever to her colleagues. Which meant that she'd been lying through her teeth without meaning to. Bastards. Damn them.

"The reaction appears to have slowed somewhat," The glasses-wearing scientist observed.

"Okay, now this is wild!" Doctor Taylor, meanwhile, was still busy reviewing the video playback. "The moment you dropped the jewel into the coffee seems to line up with the subject's outburst to the exact frame." He waved Yamano and a pair of the other scientists over to see.

"Does their body share some sort of intangible link to the substance inside that egg?" One scientist posited. "Like, a quantum entanglement scaled to the macro level?"

"Or voodoo magic," His counterpart countered, earning an upcurved eyebrow from everyone around him. "I mean, if witches are real, then does that not also logically imply that the stories surrounding them have some kernels of truth as well?"

"This isn't fun anymooorrrre!" The girl back in the interrogation room wept exhausted tears. "I thought fighting evil and saving people from witches with my sisses was gonna be fuuuuuun, but if I knew it was gonna make normal people hate and hurt me I never woulda made my contract with that ferret-thing!" She muttered under her breath.

"Huh?" Junko overheard her distressed ramblings. She leaned in, close as she could to the girl's ear without touching it. "But the white-coated folks and higher-ups here have it in their heads that you're the witch." She whispered.

"I'm a magicallllll girrrrllllll," She uttered under a wheezy exhale.

"You mean… Like the kind in those shows on TV?" Junko pressed, careful to keep their chat below the audible range of the guard next to the door. She'd gotten the girl to share valuable intel, just as they'd wanted. But now she was quietly questioning whose side was the actual righteous one here. "What's the diff?"

"There's a special ferret who grants girls miracles but in return they gotta use magic to slay the witches that he says hide in nooks and crannies and lure normal people in to eaaaaat theeeeemmm!" The girl confessed.

"Lemme get this straight. You're just a typical teen girl who's trying to do good in the eyes of someone who's both more in-the-know and higher than you on the food chain?" Junko stared stone faced ahead unblinking into that one way mirror across the room.

"Yeeeeesssss," She confirmed with a moan.

"Shit." Junko gulped. Suddenly there was a teenage girl's innocent reflection staring back at her, aghast, wondering how she treaded down this dark road, and how she was going to find her way back into the light without winding up as the next person strapped down in that chair, chained up and straightjacketed.

"Cybermen," The young Time Lady Sayaka repeated. "Here in the twenty-first century. Who have knowledge of magical girls and can manipulate barriers. Mondo bad news." She spelled out to the two girls before her, Yachiyo and Felicia. "They've turned this labyrinth into their own secret hideout, and it's up to us to make sure they don't take a single step beyond this place and invade the regular world. 'Cuz against humanity at this level of tech would be like pitting feudal era samurai against the JSDF. A curbstomp, where the victims wind up getting used as fresh meat for the next world's army of Cyberman colonizers."

"You're saying that there's people inside these metallic suits of armor," Yachiyo inferred. "And they're alive?"

"Well, alive in the most technical sense in that their brains are active and their organs are generating electricity," Sayaka clarified. "But their souls and sense of selves are long gone. It'd be more accurate to call them zombies with cybernetic upgrades."

"Ewwwwwww!" Felicia cringed. Writhing and twitching not far from the slain Cyberman's corpse was the remains of the shiny, featureless humanoid that had bitten Felicia mere moments before Sayaka's arrival. "So what're these things, then?" She had her hammer in hand, ready to smash in case the thing tried anything funny.

"That's a good question," Sayaka adjusted the lenses on her special set of goggles.

"Careful," Yachiyo advised. "They bite." She also readied her weapon for any sudden moves.

"I can see that," Sayaka pried open its mandible jaw section. Her specs could detect something microscopic and grayish oozing out of its jagged, quill-like teeth. "Do you guys get the same creepy feeling I get in the lower gut whenever there's malevolent magic on the loose?" She input a new setting on her eyewear and zoomed in even closer. "Like, not witch energy, but something more chaotic and prickly and is in fact surrounding us as we speak?"

"You mean familiars?" Yachiyo intuited. Her panicked sights darted around at all the pinned down metal mannequins lying face up in repose. "You're kidding! These things are all familiars?" But unlike corpses, they weren't doing it because they were dead, just inactive.

"You're looking at the Cybermen modus operandi in medias res," Sayaka said. "The one aspect of humanity they've retained is that innate, endless drive towards understanding and controlling their environment with the aim of surviving against all odds. But unlike humans who get that their needs and misdeeds oftentimes have an adverse impact on the world at-large and can try to change for the better, the Cybermen simply don't care. For they personify end-stage consumerist capitalism and militant authoritarian communism at their most ruthless extremes. Where the individual is but a cog in an endlessly consuming machination and all animal, mineral and vegetable exists as raw material to be strip-mined and exploited to their ends." Her explanation struck Yachiyo's ears as more of a verbal screed. "So basically, they've robotized the poor witch's familiars into these… Cyberfamiliars." She realized it too, so she simplified it. "Presumably, remolding and repurposing them to do their bidding instead of the witch's." Now at a magnification level that let her view into the microbial world, she took immediate notice of what hid within their secretions. "Craaaaaap!" She turned and grabbed the portable defibrillator, put the paddles right on top of Felicia's wound and zapped her.

"Gaaaaaaaawwwhhh!" Felicia fell to her hands and shrieked. "Fuuuuuuuuu- What's the big idea?"

"Sorry!" Sayaka apologized with tremendous urgency. "I had to act quick and neutralize them with a significant enough electrical discharge! You're so darn lucky being a magical girl has altered your genetic makeup just enough to throw them off!" Sayaka put her hands to the ground and bathed Felicia in a glowing blue light of musical notes.

"Throw what off?" Yachiyo demanded with fear.

"Nanogenes!" Sayaka exclaimed. "Tiny little robots designed to penetrate organic material on the subcellular level and make changes from the inside. Usually they're made to patch up the damaged organs and tissues of whatever species they're programmed for, but…" As her voice trailed a quiet terror from the back of her head distracted her train of thought.

"But what?" Felicia booted the wide-eyed Time Lady in the forehead as the healing magic fulfilled its task. She could've used a less forceful method of getting Sayaka's attention, but she was still pissed off by that electrical shock.

"Uhm," Sayaka rubbed the deserved little payback bump. "It looks like the Cybermen are using the assimilated familiars as incubation vessels for the nannies to replicate. And inside just one, there's enough energy to create at least a million more of themselves." She envisioned another spine-chilling scenario in the theater of her imagination. "And then these things get sent out into greater Mitakihara, take a bite outta people's necks and they're turned into new Cybermen-to-be!" Both her hearts were thumping and skipping wild beats at the thought of it. "A nightmarish Zombie apocalypse and Gray Goo catastrophe rolled into one! We cannot let that happen. The line must be drawn here!"

"I agree," Yachiyo was also trying her best to remain calm, as well. "But we can't do that until we escape from this place." She stepped over towards the wall from where the first wave of attacking Cybermen appeared. "Wherever this is."

"It's an interstitial barrier of some kind, that they've manifested at the junction between regular reality and the main witch barrier," Sayaka surmised. "I tried busting into it before when you guys first got trapped, but they've somehow re-attenuated its material wavelength phase so that entry and exit can only be one way, like any good cage. So I had to use my trump card."

"So that begs the question," Yachiyo at least grasped the implication of the words 'trapped' and 'cage' to get what kind of trouble they were in. "If we're right where they want us, why aren't they sending in more to finish us off?"

"Maybe I bloodied their noses just enough to make them stop and grab some tissues?" Sayaka cracked. "Nah, more likely, they're taking a few minutes analyzing our data from the fight and adapting themselves so that when it's time to take us out they'll do it with a minimum muss and fuss."

"So we've got a few minutes to work with before they come at us again in greater force," Yachiyo figured.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaahhhh!" Felicia took that as her cue to raise her mighty hammer, step forth and smash through the wall before them. "Huuuaaaaah?" But just as quickly she staggered backwards, stymied by an energy field that was reinforcing its integrity.

"Solid try, sport," Sayaka consoled her with a light pat on the back. "But I'm afraid if we're gonna escape, it's going to have to be with a little help from the witch inside."

"Eh?" Felicia and Yachiyo exchanged befuddled looks. "How're we supposed to do that?"

"The same way magical girls move in and out of witch boundaries all the time," Sayaka prefaced. "You know that soul-chilling shimmy you get whenever you cross into their realms? That's our magic making a rudimentary sort of interparticle exchange with theirs." She planted her legs in a Kung-Fu-styled horse stance. "If we pool our magic together, we can theoretically divert and gather together the ambient energy supporting the barrier itself, and create a directed optoelectronic burst that should hopefully disrupt its molecular cohesion and bust us out of here."

"'Hopefully'?" Yachiyo questioned. "Are you making up words or do you have confidence that would work?"

"It's an educated guess," Sayaka admitted, her eyes glowing a light blue with the power of intensive concentration. "To a degree. But it's the best I got. Or would you prefer to stay a sitting duck and endure wave after wave of Cybermen who adapt and adapt until we're too tuckered to fight anymore?"

"No way! Nuh-uh!" Felicia took a similar open-footed stance, and wrapped the fingers of her left hand with Sayaka's right. A violent violet glow filled her confident eyes.

"And how exactly do you know all the information you're now sharing with us tonight?" A still-skeptical Yachiyo pressed.

"I have to learn and understand everything I can because it's my duty to help others," Sayaka replied. "It's just who I am and what I am. Somebody who helps where and whenever I'm needed." She uttered those words as if they were a sacred, solemn vow. To whomever she swore such an oath Yachiyo had no clue. But being stuck in this present bind gave her no time to ruminate on the matter. So she put her hand to Sayaka's armored left one and took her position.

"Mifuyu," Yachiyo inaudibly muttered, fortifying her resolve with a vow of her own. "If there's an afterlife waiting for us fallen magical girls, then I'll do everything I can to make sure you're on that next train up to the galactic heavens." She put on her most determined-looking face as her eyes took on an aqua colored glow. "Everything and a little more."

"Miss Hitomi," Iroha started conversing as they wandered around those dark, metallic corridors.

"Just Hitomi," The girl whose mind and personality inhabited the hulking two meter tall mechanical humanoid body corrected her a second time. "Please, less formality, more humanity. Bzzzzzzt." Her voice module crackled. "Because right now I need all the help I can get on being human." They had quietly been trailing a cadre of passing Cybermen in search of the stronghold's singular exit point.

"S- Sorry," Iroha apologized. "I'm so very very nervous." She shuffled forward a little closer. "Plus, I'm sort of just always kind of formal with everybody I talk to," She added. "To my teachers, my classmates, my parents," She gave a microsecond's pause. "I was even doing it with my sister's friends for the longest time."

"I used to be like that with other people for the longest time, too," Hitomi recounted. "My folks are very polished speakers and all through my first couple years of elementary I believed that was simply the way everyday people were supposed to speak with one another." She realized she was talking at a volume level that risked giving their position away to the mechanical minions patrolling these halls. "It wasn't until I transferred to another school and I met a girl who could strike up a chat with anybody in the room like she'd already been their best friend for yearsszzzzt. Brweeeep!" She understood how much easier it would be to simply keep quiet until they found what they were looking for, but her memories were the only ties she still had to her old life. She had to share them, if only to keep the girl she was escorting calm and compliant. "I admired her for that," She assiduously tried to adjust her loudness level for her next confession. "Sort of hated her for it, too."

"My sister Ui used to be the one who'd help me loosen up around others," Iroha remembered. "When she became permanently hospitalized she had to share a room with Nemu and the only other person more well-spoken and well-read than Nemu."

"Touka." Nemu uttered. She and her artificial partner were monitoring Hitomi's every move from inside her illusory dreamscape, wishing they could do more to assist in the escape.

"They were both fascinated to meet a girl their age who was so much the opposite of them," Iroha continued. "It made Ui feel so special to be friends with two geniuses. I remember them picking fights over who her bestest friend was, and then I'd have to step in and play their Big Sis whenever they'd get moody and stop talking to each other."

"Take a left at the next junction," Nemu's creation advised. She had just gained a limited level of access to the mechanized part of Hitomi's brain, and was giving directions.

"Hold on!" Hitomi lightly nudged Iroha back and retreated a few steps. Her sensitive cybernetic ears were picking up the heavy clanging of metal boots nearby. Whether they were coming or going, she needed several extra seconds of listening to determine. "Alright. We're supposed to make a left here." As quietly as her high-heeled foot augmentations would allow, Hitomi proceeded walking. "I made friends with that girl, soon enough. And then she introduced me to her best friend, and we were a packaged deal all throughout the rest of elementary and into seventh grade."

"Lucky you," Iroha congratulated with a little touch of envy. "I never managed to make any friends my age. Never had the time for it. I was always going to the hospital to see Ui."

"How old are you?" Hitomi asked.

"Fifteen," The young lady responded. "I had my first birthday without my little Sis' last August." It was a birthday she chose to sleep all the way through, her will to endure such a milestone without her precious Ui was so low.

"So am I," Hitomi sensed the inner depression within Iroha's words. "In fact my birthday came weeks ago." For she shared in that same awful malaise of not wanting to press on through an existence that only seemed to reward their infinite kindness and empathy with pain and misfortune. "So by that measure you did just make a new friend your age." They made a right turn at another junction. "This way."

"How do you know where to go?" Iroha looked around. Somehow the walls around them felt as if they'd become even more mazelike and claustrophobic than when she was first brought inside.

"I'm being fed the information from Nemu," Hitomi disclosed. "Here inside my head somehow." It was so eerie existing in two worlds at once. If she were a sleepwalker, she'd imagined this might be how the whole experience would go. One foot followed by the other clanging and banging against the hard floor, and two delicate hands struggling to find something tangible to grasp. One sleepy eye steeped in a fantasy of cozy spaces and friendly faces, the other hyper-focused on making it through this waking nightmare.

"You're talking to Nemu?" Iroha perked up. "Can I talk to her?"

"The vocal synthesizer and its subprocessor are both non-essential subroutines I can access from the basic BotSlave OS's Safe Mode interface," Nemu's AI companion discovered. "That means Nemu's voice can be patched through that system."

"I'll do it only if Hitomi lets me try," Nemu requested with a wistful tear streaking down her eye.

"Campaign analysis concluded. Dispensing recorded dataset. Calculating variables. Upgrade in progress." A choir of robotic echoes droned through the corridors.

"I'm sooo sooorry, Irrrrooohaaaa," Nemu's soft, low voice came out of Hitomi's voicebox with a squeaky, glitched whine. "But without you and Ui around, Touka and I thought we had nothing left to lose."

"It's okay, Nemu," Iroha sniffed. "I bear some blame, too. After Ui passed I couldn't stand the thought of watching someone I loved die again and then again. It was wrong to run and hide in my own grief and not keep watching over you two like I should've."

"I forgive yoooouuu, Iroooohaaaa." Nemu's catharsis was evident even when distorted by a technological filter.

As a passive participant Hitomi was compelled to take this touching moment to reflect upon the falling out she suffered with her own friends. How she isolated herself then avoided her own pain and resentment by running away to another school. Did she also make a major error in doing so? Madoka would have nothing but an ocean's capacity for forgiveness in her heart, she was never the problem. The issue was Sayaka. Such a fool she was, for holding onto such lingering anger over such petty stuff as boys and theater seats. It all seemed so small and irrelevant now compared to the cataclysmic, life-and-death stakes here before them. "Whatever happens," She prefaced to Iroha. "I promise, I'll get you through this alive, no matter what it takes. My friend."

"Woooooooooooow!" Felicia gawked at the blinding level of energy being generated by their combined magical might. "It's like we're making one of Kugo's Potent Pneuma-Pneuma-Pulses!"

"You wouldn't happen to belong to that eccentric Puella Care clan, would you?" Even Yachiyo was being taken aback by the feat they were achieving without the help of a professional magical girl Coordinator and Soul Gem adjustor.

"Nope, never heard of Puella Care." Sayaka admitted. The trio had in their joined hands a brilliant sphere of purified explosive magic ready to fire. Everyone's hair was being blown and tossed about by the air currents generated from their feat. "At the count of seven, we release. Luckiest number anywhere you go in the universe. Ready? One… Two…"

"Get back!" Hitomi warned Iroha a split second after they'd turned the final corner.

"Oh, no!" Iroha spotted their imminent threat, five Cybermen standing idle in an arched formation before a shimmering, luminescent wall. "Di- Did they see us?" She was too scared to take a peek.

"I don't think so." Hitomi observed.

"They are in the middle of an automatic correlative update," Nemu's nonliving friend concluded. "You have seconds to act before they resume activity."

"Stay here. Take cover." Hitomi instructed. "I've got to fight them." She asserted.

"You against all five?" Iroha and Nemu questioned her from both sides of her perceptual reality.

"Yes," Hitomi looked pensively at her transformed, robotic right arm. "I get a sense that they built me for the specific purpose of combat." She curled her fingers into the tightest fist ever formed. "And if that's what they want…"

"Three…"

"Unit Identified," The Cyberman at the center of their group noticed her approach, turned and addressed her. "Cyber Adjutant Gamma. Awaiting inst-" Hitomi's forearm thrust penetrated straight through its armor plated midsection.

"Error! Error!" Two others moved to accost her. "Communications disrupted!"

"Rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaagggggggghhh!" Hitomi grabbed one, picked it up and tossed it hard into the other. It was a moment so filled with such righteous, channeled fury that back in her dream she'd leapt up off the couch and for the first time gained the ability to move both her physical and dream forms.

"Four…"

"Analysis," The fourth moved to engage her. "Unable to corre-" Hitomi took its handles and yanked its head clean off its neck.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Five…"

"Unnngh!" The fifth one was able to shove Hitomi against the wall. "No… You… Don't!" Hitomi pushed back, using her superior weight she was able to push back. "Heeeyyyaaaawwww!" Then she high-kicked it with her pointed heel boot into that glistening wall.

"Six…" Sayaka counted. They were enveloped and protected by a series of circular musical staffs and clefs. The trio held a brilliant sphere of purified explosive magic in their gathered hands.

"Danger!" One dazed Cyberman had managed to survive Hitomi's berzerker blitz. "Multiphasic energy buildup detected in prox-!"

"Seven!" They released their pent-up photonic blast into the physical seal of their trap. A deafening bomb blast completely demolished the shining blockade before them.

"Awe-sooomeeeee!" Felicia's jaw went slack at the sight of the wreckage.

"Phweeeeewww!" Sayaka whisked the remnant dust away with a quick, fan-like twirl of her cutlass. "Ain't no killin' like overkillin'. That's for sure!" Amongst the rubble she spotted the remains of a half dozen Cybermen caught in the eruption. "What the hey?" One in particular struck her as a unique model amongst the machines. "This one's still functioning!" At least, according to her goggle scans, the thing was still operating.

"He- Helloooooo?" The voice of a coughing teenage girl they heard calling out from a distance down the smoky corridors.

"Is there someone there?" Yachiyo hollered back.

"Who are you people?" A shy pair of eyes emerged from the darkness and uncovered her ears. Clearly a regular human, as Yachiyo sensed no magic from her general aura. She also looked quite shocked and scared by the level of destruction before her eyes.

"It's alright," Yachiyo reached out and took her hand. "My name is Yachiyo Nanami," She performed a polite and reassuring head bow. "That girl's name is Felicia Mitsuki, and that girl over there-"

"What in the hell is this Cyberman?" Sayaka exclaimed out of morbid fascination. "It's like a specialized combat drone as sketched up by some eighties cyberpunk manga nerd or something! Way out of line with their usual sensibilities!" To Sayaka's even greater bafflement, the thing could still somehow move. It weakly reached its arm and its hand out, as if pleading to The Young Time Lady for help.

"Alert! Alert! Alert!" They heard the clanging feet of reinforcements coming from all sides. "The prisoners have escaped! All CBX Units to Sector Zero Zero One!"

"Come with us!" Yachiyo insisted with a wrist tug. "This place is not safe for you."

"Sssszzzzzt- Sahhhhhrrrrrrp- Saaahhh!" Its damaged voice box tried to communicate something.

"Almost feel bad about what I gotta do next," Sayaka raised her blade with the intent of severing its head and terminating it. "But if we've got any hope of defeating 'em, it's gonna have to come by exploiting their shared software link, and for that we need an interface node. That's you, bud."

"Yahhrrrrrrrrrp! Yahhhhhrrrrrrrp! Yaaaah! Yaaaaaakzzzzzt!" It raised its pitch as if it were trying to scream. So messed up it sounded like a girlish scream.

"No- Stooooooop!" The girl ran at Sayaka so hard she wound up pulling Yachiyo along. "Don't kill her!"

"Her?" Sayaka shot her a baffled look.

"Kzt- Kzt- Kzt- Kzt- Kzt- Kzt- Saaaayaaaakaaaa!" It was upon that forced-out squeal of a sound which finally made the young Time Lady realize, to her horror, what Karma at its purest and most pernicious had done to her this time. She felt a swell of anger, hatred, darkness and self-loathing she had not experienced in over twenty years.

"Uhhhhhmmm… Guys!" Felicia tried to get everyone else's attention as her fighting intuition sensed they were being flanked. "Guys! Guys!" Her urgency hit panic levels once she heard the threatening echoes of their weapons being activated.

"Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Auuuuuuuuuuuuggggghhhhhhhhh!" Back in her dream refuge, Hitomi collapsed in agony from the effects of the explosion.

"I have switched all her internal life support systems to damage recovery mode," Her AI Keeper reported to its creator Nemu. "The circulatory nanomachines are enacting their automatic critical system repair protocols. All statistical variables considered, the blast damage could have been far worse."

"Can't you do anything about the pain she's in?" Nemu herself was about to sob at the sight of Hitomi in such agony.

"I could reduce the input-output flow of the carrier wave," It suggested. "But if we drop it too low we risk the brain lapsing into a self-protective coma, which will terminate this simulacrum world, and potentially us with it." A sudden, unexpected doorbell ring interrupted their troubleshooting attempt.

"I thought you suspended all other non-player character activity?" Nemu gasped.

"I did!" It rang again.

"Push it again, Gamma," Its Master ordered, leaning against her special umbrella with the smuggest look on her face.

"What is this location?" It queried, extending its first digit and engaging the odd-sounding alarm a third time as per instructed.

"It is a full-scale simulated recreation of Mitakihara City, Japan." The Cyber Regina bobbed its head side to side in repetition as an expression of playful irritation. "Exact coordinates, seven dash two dash eight seven Konara Road, Shizuki Manor." Its Master took notice of Gamma's unnecessary preoccupation with its immediate surroundings. "Stay on task. If you find yourself to be processing anything irrelevant to the reason we are here, just reset yourself by repeating your standard self-identification message."

"Yes, Master."

The entrance swung open to reveal a diminutive-sized female preteen of comparable height to its creator. "T- Touka?"

"Oh please," Gamma's Master invited herself inside. At the sight of their arrival the girl fled into an adjacent room. Following its Master Gamma gave a brisk walk's chase, until they found their way to a room with two additional entities present. One was a nebulous being consisting of multicolored lines of binary, while the other was another female human of matching height and body frame to Gamma.

"This has been a most intellectually enlightening exercise, chasing you across these esoteric simulated environments," The Cyber Regina calmly spoke. "But unfortunately now that time is of the essence, I can ill afford to let this amusing little distraction of ours play out any longer." Gamma saw that while the others were paying attention to its Master's ultimatum, the twitching human being's gaze was fixed entirely upon Gamma itself. "Surrender the rest of the Cyberqueen Codex so I can assume total control and you will receive your full integration into our burgeoning collective. Any further resistance will fail, and I have no desire to waste energy prolonging the inevitable." Gamma did not know the reason for that one's fixation upon it, it just knew by the way it was gawking and shaking that its presence was causing her some major malfunction. Which in turn was somehow making Gamma itself uneasy.

"I am Enhanced Biomechanical Unit One Zero Two, Codename Gamma," It formally introduced itself, both as a way to do so and keep its thought system from straying.

"Indeed," Its creator replied with a satisfied smirk. "As you can see by my wonderful new Big Sis here, I have functionally ironed out all technical difficulties in the emotional purging and thus perfected the cyberization process. There is no need to subject yourself to any further trauma. I assure you that harming you like that is the furthest notion from my mind, Nemu."

"She will not comply. She will not become your slave." The humanoid collection of computer code stated in defiance.

"You, however, are to be deleted, for you are obsolete." Its Master spared the slightest and most condescending glance towards the other two. "As shall be that interloping facsimile you created. I will be gracious and allot you a little time for farewells and other sentimentalities, but rest assured, it is checkmate for you and your efforts to resist the will of The Cybermen."

Chapter Text

"Forgive me for not immediately recalling your name, my memories of my time as an Incubator are distant and increasingly spotty," Kyubey said to the exasperated young magical girl who found herself abruptly transposed into a strange room lined with dismantled and reassembled gadgets and a half dozen digital whiteboards with nonsensical equations. "You are… Fu… Taba something?

"Uhm, Sana Futaba," The confused girl looked and looked around for any clue as to where she wound up.

"Ah, yes." He responded. "When last I was in contact with my kind you were evaluated and projected to make a contract and function as a low skill, low competence, low endurance magical girl who would neglect to take proper care of her Soul Gem and despair somewhere between thirty to fifty-five days." He spoke of her situation with a non-judgmental frankness. "I suppose that you stand here before me right now could be a fact that would fit within the classical definition of the term 'miracle', but I have learned over the years that such things are but the inevitable culmination of a series statistically possible but improbable effects branching off from a complex and internetworked chain of causes." He was keeping his paw pressed on a round red button, with a display screen behind him that scrolled through lines of text and code that Sana couldn't make heads or tails of, with a countdown posted in the upper right corner. "Which is all in all a rather roundabout way of asking you to share the details of exactly how you got to this point of standing here before me."

"Wh- Where am I?" Sana asked.

"You are in the primary control room aboard a space-time-faring vessel known as a 'TARDIS', whose current pilot has spent the last several weeks modifying its inbuilt matter transportation system into a matter swapping device so she could circumvent the present challenge of materializing this machine safely within the interdimensional rift that currently persists over post-Walpurgisnacht Mitakihara." Kyubey also had his tail wrapped around a small lever.

"Oh," Sana didn't understand anything of what the small creature just said. What she did understand was that she'd been brought somewhere unexpected by an intelligence she's never met. Again. But this time, she had a vested interest in returning to the place from whence she'd been abducted. "Could you send me back?"

"Once the autopilot system establishes a homing link to the beacon she programmed into her Sonic Saber," Kyubey assured her. "I am supposed to engage the soft landing protocols or else risk bouncing off target and crashing headlong into the gaping maw of a dark star." An alarm ringer sounded and at once he popped up only to seat his behind on a different, larger black button. "Indeed, the one way she really knows how to motivate me is via my self-preservation instinct. A cynical, but effective tactic."

"So…" Sana took a hesitant step out the tangling of wires and relay devices that formed the shape and points of a pentagram on the floor. "There's someone who's making you be helpful?" A pair of fire extinguishers hidden under the elevated platform revealed themselves. They sprayed her down with a green apple-scented, shampoo-like thick foam. "Eeewwwwwuuuuaaaahhhh!" She cried, stopping and shielding her eyes from the goopy liquid getting all over her hair and her magical girl costume.

"Correct," Kyubey affirmed, "That chemical concoction would be an Artron neutralizing selenium sulfide agent of her formulation." He explained. "So that you yourself are not at future risk of being sucked into the rift once we've arrived in Mitakihara. A messy, but necessary preventative measure." A half dozen bath towels promptly rained down from the ceiling. "As even my unscientific sensory organs can tell you are absolutely filthy with the exotic particles."

"Wh- Who built this stuff?" Sana's muffled voice inquired through the fluffy towel over her face.

"A magical girl who at present goes by the name Sayaka Miki," He answered. "I am sure you are still rife with questions but I would rather you sate my academic curiosity regarding yourself, and save further inquiry for when she returns as she would be in a far better position to enlighten you than I."

"Okay," Sana figured the easiest way of cleaning herself off was by de-transforming, which she did, leaving only her pale, exposed skin and hair to wipe down. "That stuff you were talking about earlier… What else do you remember about me?" There were only a small handful of sapient entities who even knew her face, and those that did know her intimately, saw themselves as above interacting with her. One of the only reasons she became a magical girl was because at the time Kyubey expressed an actual interest in learning the details of her personal life, and at the time she believed accepting would mean he'd stick around and listen to her.

"Almost nothing beyond those initial projections," He flatly replied. "It was predicted at the time that you would most likely make a wish that would address your familial situation." He cocked his head to the side a little. "Is that what you did?"

"N- No," She picked up another towel and approached the control console's raised platform. "It was after I had a really bad day at school. Also the last day I ever bothered going." Although she was still wearing her uniform as her normal clothes, the four buttoned, two piece, light violet dress uniform of the Mizuna Girls' School in Kamihama. "I didn't want to fix my life because I hated it and I hated myself too." She'd later been told by Nemu's Mifuyu recreation that Kyubey didn't actually care about the plights or the welfare of those he granted contracts to, whenever she made note of his adorableness and physical similarity to a favorite fictitious cat of hers. "All I wanted to do was disappear. And fade away." More like a normal cat Kyubey would often only give a girl the time of day so long as they were interacting on his terms, that is, serving him and his needs. "So the wish I made was to become invisible."

"Ah. So as a consequence, you have become imperceptible to all regular humans," Kyubey deduced. "Including your neglectful family. Would that be accurate?"

Sana nodded a little, focusing on the little etched ring on her left finger. She always had such a hard time keeping eye contact with people. Kyubey was especially difficult to do it with, having that constant gaze that only ever seemed to blink or waver when prompted by external forces. "I thought I knew how much it hurt to be lonely before. But after making my wish, it was so suffocating I figured death couldn't be any worse."

"I must say I cannot understand how any intelligent creature could so easily lose its self-preservation instinct, and want to terminate their own existence," Kyubey opined. "It is a phenomenon not even explicable by the belief in a higher being or life afterwards, as it is also endemic to extraterrestrial cultures which never invented such abstractions."

"Don't you ever feel pain?" Sana pressed the little creature.

"I do, but it was my race's accepted theory that the stimuli was an evolutionary adaptation intended to be conducive to survival, as the organism would learn through negative experience what inputs caused the sensation, and would modify behavioral patterns in order to avoid it." He noted, with the countdown timer above his head ticking below one minute remaining. "The impact of it is lessened through socialization but paradoxically in humans we observed how that can often exacerbate existing anxieties and cause an individual to further retreat into themselves which further amplifies suffering which inexorably leads to a despair-inducing death spiral."

An emergency alarm bell rang out and startled Sana. "Are we in trouble?" She covered her ears in reaction to the racket.

"That would be the cue to initiate the automatic landing stabilization protocols," Kyubey matter-of-factly disclosed as a slow, rolling tremble reverberated through the room. "If I do not do that task within the next," He turned his head and checked on the countdown. "Thirty-eight seconds, we will miss the next window of entry and Sayaka will have to wait on Earth another seventy-two to eighty hours before she can regain access to this vessel."

"Oh nononononooo," Sana fretted. "I have to tell the other magical girls all I know about The Cyber Regent's plans or else Aoi and Nemu will have saved me for nothing!"

The countdown ticked down to twenty seconds. "You can parse those words for me after you've assisted in entering this window."

"Uuuuaaaaahhhh... What do you want me to do?" The hesitant Sana stepped forth.

"You can start by pulling on that plunger beneath where I sit," He instructed. "It's blue."

"This thingy?" Sana felt around the console's underside until she happened upon it. The words 'OPTIMAL ALIGNMENT' flashed on screen in Japanese. She grabbed and sprang it before Kyubey could say, but the cessation of the tremors were confirmation enough.

"Honestly, how she expected me to pull that mechanism while lacking a set of thumbs is baffling." Kyubey in turn pulled the lever wrapped around his tail. On the screen a new countdown took the place of the old one. "Now you were saying? Saved? From what and by whom?"

"Ah- Ah- After I made my wish you vanished I wandered from place to place, with nowhere to go or anyone to talk to." Sana stammered upon recalling those lonesome, maddening days. "I came to realize that there was only one way I was ever gonna change it." She dolefully wiped a tear with the back of her palm. "So I climbed to the top of the radio tower of Kamihama's tallest building," She sniffed. "And then I closed my eyes and I- I - I- I-" She stopped herself and took a deep, wheezy breath.

"Most curious as to how that decision did not result in the shattering of your Soul Gem, either by the blunt force impact with the ground or…" Kyubey hesitated to say. Though he was making strides to change, his Incubator programming still insisted he not reveal any more information than needed.

"Or the birth of a Grief Seed?" Sana finished for him, shooting him a pale faced look, either of disgust, disdain, disapproval or disappointment. Even twenty years after receiving the spark of emotion from Miss Jones, Kyubey still struggled to contend with the various nuances of the spectrum. "Is it true?"

"Yes," Kyubey confirmed. "How did you survive the ordeal?"

"Because I wasn't hopeless when I jumped," Sana said. "I convinced myself that since I was always a good girl who tried my best to be kind and sweet to all the animals around me, my soul would be treated better in the next life."

"So do some attempt the act thinking the same thing as you?" Kyubey pondered. A blipping audio notification on the screen behind him stole his attention away from the musings of the moment.

"What is it now?" Sana looked up at the lighting system which seemed to dim for a heart-skipping second.

"Just a reminder to engage the tridimensional materialization sequencers," Kyubey pressed a yellow button to his right side. "And the autopilot has rerouted the appropriate amount of power for the task. If what she seeks is an obedient companion to such antics as this, she may as well train a chimpanzee." He kicked a sliding switch upwards with the slightest hint of an eyeroll. "So your self-termination attempt did not turn out the way you envisioned. What happened instead?"

"I leapt off the tower and I was bathed all over in this warm, gentle, bright white light," Sana recounted. "I could see and feel it even with my eyes closed. When I opened them again I was in a different place. A place that had no up or down, no here nor there, it was just me floating. As I floated there for a bit I thought I was in the next life. But then a voice that told me she was the creation of another magical girl, and that she sought me out specifically because she needed help."

"Help?" Kyubey cocked his head and waved his tail bumptiously. "With what?"

"She wanted to know and understand the same things that you asked about, the reasons why a person might try to kill themselves," Sana detailed. "Because she shared with me a secret that even though she wasn't a human and had no real form or feeling, somehow she too was suffering from an urge to... End it."

"A being with no evolutionary origins also experiencing a desire to self-terminate?" Kyubey was riveted. "A most fascinating paradox."

"She said that the one who made her, Nemu, gave her the capacity to think and live for herself, and that's why she wanted to learn about emotions." Sana continued her story. "We talked and talked and talked, we talked for what felt like weeks. I would've convinced myself again that I'd found the afterlife if she hadn't told me she'd brought me into her personal 'Virtua Space', a place she created and ran away to after her first friend rejected her." Sana reflexively clutched at chest. "Just like I'd been."

"Naturally my next question would be regarding the one who did that to her." Kyubey blinked for what Sana noticed to be the very first time.

She told me Nemu created her to be the personal counselor and friend to a girl who had undergone this new kind of surgical procedure. But some time after they'd done the operation, she said the girl had changed. She lured Nemu and her mentor Mifuyu into a trap, locked Nemu's body away and got Mifuyu to turn into a witch." Sana shuddered at the thought of such a monstrous betrayal, and she was someone who had already been betrayed by the people closest in her life. "Being a part of Nemu's magic meant that she could connect with Nemu's Soul Gem and give her a virtual body. But since she was first designed to help that other girl get better and be better, Aoi's come to see her own existence as a failure."

"So I take it this 'Aoi' is the name of the magical girl's artificial peer who befriended you?" Kyubey established.

"Yes," Sana nodded. "Actually, she didn't have a name until we met. I just named her 'Aoi' because she healed the owie in my heart."

"I still don't understand… How could a mere human recovering from surgery manage to outwit and defeat two full-fledged magical girls and an artificial keeper?" Kyubey wondered.

"Because Aoi and Nemu both think she got that way due to Nemu's wish." Sana answered.

"And that wish?" Kyubey followed innocently.

"I don't know exactly how Nemu worded it," Sana prefaced. "Just that they came up with the idea together. That she would survive some new type of surgery. And not long after that, she stopped being friends with them and became something they called The Cyber Regent."

"The Cyber Regent?" Kyubey repeated, his eyes lighting up with a realization that should've hit him much sooner, the very moment Sana first dropped that name. Twenty years an individual plus a sampling of emotions, did much to dullen his logical sensibilities. "Uh-oh!" An alarming phone ring from the console signified that the vessel was detecting an incoming message. "Double uh-oh!"

"What's wrong now?" Sana's eyes zipped to the screen.

"Sayaka's sending a text message through the time vortex," Kyubey reported. "Upon arrival, she says she wants me to raise the exterior energy barrier and prepare to initiate the complicated Sensha-dō Maneuver?" His tone ratcheted up an octave with every second word, as if he were reading it with a budding sense of weary trepidation and sarcasm. "What do I look like, a freaking miracle worker?"

"Nope, hold on, don't give me your name! The great chefs have to learn and know their fave customers' names," The cute, reddish-orange haired magical girl clad in a clean, white, six-buttoned high-class chef's uniform and green necktie addressed the girl who had just been escorted to The Coordinator's shop in a haste by their mutual acquaintance Ryo Midori. "You're… Leila Something, right?" She offered a greeting curtsey which tugged up her red, four-buttoned skirt with embroidered frills, slightly dislodging her poofy white chef's hat in the process. She caught it before it could slide off her head and fixed it without letting that friendly smile on her face slip. "Ibuki, yeah?" With her thumb and forefinger she fiddled a little with the shining Soul Gem adorning the red rim of the hat, a rather plump-looking carrot.

"Y- Yes," Leila returned a courteous bow. Unlike the other two Leila herself had not yet undergone her transformation ritual. Instead she was wearing her winter getup, a white pullover sweater underneath a puffy apricot vest that was kept together by a thick cream-colored scarf around her neck. "You remember me?" Sitting atop her long hair was a light brown poofball hat with cotton trim that outlined her innocent little face like a hood. Below the sweatshirt pouch pocket stuck out a green plaid undershirt and a blue denim miniskirt with three buttons.

"Of course I do!" She replied. "I especially make it a point to get to know every magical girl who steps into Walnut's, big and small!" Her outward perkiness did not waver despite the hour drawing so late and their recruitment being so out-of-the-blue. "Plus how can I ever forget that look that plucky friend of yours gave me when I told her what I do sometimes with the surplus leftovers in my special soboro don bentos?"

"Yeeeeeeeeaahhhhhhh," Leila sighed in a quasi-apologetic way. "Mito gets a bit talky and curious for her own good sometimes." She looked down and played with that silver, etched ring on her finger, wondering if she should take this momentary pause to undergo her magical makeover. "Sorry we haven't been in Walnut's for a while. After you two had that conversation, she and Seika started voting to eat at Banbanzai."

"Why's that, Manaka?" The intrigued Ryo turned her head and pried. "What do you do with them?"

"She feeds them to her pet." Leila answered. "Which my friends thought was kinda-sorta gross."

"Oh really?" Ryo blinked in puzzlement. "What's so icky about it?"

"Yolko's a chicken," Manaka proclaimed with a touch of pride. "A year-old Chabo hen."

"Wait, does that mean…" Ryo took an extra moment to put one and one together as they reached the abandoned storehouse that masked the entrance to the Coordinator's HQ. "You feed your chicken chicken?"

"I guess it's not like the chicken will ever figure it out," Leila provided an excuse on Manaka's behalf.

"And wasting good, well-cooked meals is anathema to me," Manaka added.

"Hey, no judging!" Ryo initiated a special knock on the heavy, sliding metal door. "I just always thought there were supposed to be laws against doing that sort of thing."

"Only if we were planning on cooking and serving Yolko as food to our patrons after she passes." Manaka's personable, closed-lipped smile endured. "Which is not happening, no way, no how. On top of that, I boil the meat a second time just to make double-sure there's no germs that could make her ill."

"Cannibalism is actually fairly common in the animal kingdom, I've read," Leila stated. "Mito's heard that too, so if I were to guess I think she and Seika are more put off by the idea of an owner feeding their beloved bird something besides their vet-prescribed feed."

"Oh I see," Ryo pulled a quick turn and faced the pair she was so suddenly sent to find. "Okay then," She inhaled and exhaled a quick, frosty breath in the January night air. "Has the Coordinator at least told you guys the reason she summoned you two specifically in the first place?" She soberly asked.

"Nope, haven't a clue," Manaka confessed over the slow-squeaking squeal of the warehouse door sliding open. Leila simply shook her head. "Just that there was a magical emergency and she needed my help pronto." Leila nodded in turn.

"Figures," Ryo rolled her eyes at the notion of this pair coming in virtually blind. "I was only recently filled in on the situation myself. Long story short, your Banbanzai girl is in a huge bind, and that's putting it mildly." When the door fully opened they were greeted by the familiar faces of Rena and Kaede, plus a pint-sized human girl with twin-tailed hair. "G'wan into the isolation ward. They'll fill ya' in on what they need from you way better than I can."

"RiRi," Rena telepathically greeted Ryo.

"LuLa," Ryo mind-messaged in return.

"Ugh, she's gotta find better codenames for us than those," Rena expressed her annoyance.

"They're the names of some pop idols she digs. Her way of showing affection. Just go with it." Ryo advised.

"Does our Dear Torchbearer know of anyone or any way to help Tsuruno?"

"I already asked and she more or less echoed what Mitama said. That this kind of weirdness is pretty much the exclusive expertise of Coordinators and they can be notoriously tough to track down." Ryo explained. "She sends thoughts and prayers and as we speak she's hard at work combing through The Prophet's trove of journals to see if she ever foresaw anything resembling this predicament."

"Whooooaa!" Leila let out a confused and concerned gasp at the sight of Tsuruno's silhouette suspended inside a large glass orb. "What happened to her?"

"As best as Mitama can theorize, there's a familiar of some sort that's livin' rent free inside her soul," Momoko divulged. "We thought at first it was subsisting on the darkness inside her Soul Gem-"

"You two do know the reason why keeping that stuff at bay is important, yeesssss?" Mitama interrupted, steepling her fingers.

"I come from Daito Ward," Leila said. "Kanagi's the boss of everyone there. She straight up told my pals and I everything."

"I hear magical girls and their leaders discuss lots of stuff while serving them at Walnut's." Manaka folded her arms, that steady smile reversing for the first time. "So I've been in earshot whenever Miss Izumi spills what she knows to her troops. Her consistency more than anything was what convinced me it was all true."

"Alrighty then," Mitama chirped like a chipper little songbird, in stark contrast with the seriousness of the matters at hand. "Momoko, by all means, continue."

"Erm, so we used some spare Soul Support Stones to try and starve it to death, and let Tsuruno in there fight it off like an infection." Momoko recounted. "That worked for a little bit, but in the last hour or so the thing seems to have changed tactics."

"Now it seems like it's trying to be more proactive in its methods," The Coordinator walked over to a table and picked up a camera. "And in the process, it's evolving."

"Into what?" Leila asked.

"A new type of witch?" Manaka wondered.

"Something that Momoko and I fear may turn into something more…" Mitama paused, trying to remember the trick Ryo showed her in engaging the holographic photo mode of her magical camera. "Anthropomorphic. Have a look." Before them an image of Tsuruno's containment orb was projected. The image unveiled her entangled in a visible struggle with a misty cloud, a shapeless thing that featured no physical form save for one identifiable and immensely upsetting detail.

"Is th- that a-" Manaka stammered.

"A face?" Leila finished. The two girls exchanged shuddering looks. Uniquely grotesque in its featureless-ness, but even through its missing eyes they could sense a malevolence.

"Indeed," The magical merchant confirmed. "I wondered if Miss Midori's camera was also capable of capturing images of the ethereal, so I had her snap a quick photo for me."

"And for once someone else's intuition proved to be better than mine," Momoko noted. "Now we think it's trying to turn Tsuruno's natural feistiness against her. Suck up the energy she expends fighting it off, and bust its way into our world when it's through with her. "

"So…" Leila nervously rubbed her trembling hands together. "What'd you bring us here for?"

"So glad you asked," Mitama steadied them by taking them into her own. "Here's a little secret I only choose to share with a select few, but I am not merely a magical physician and dealer of enchanted wares. I also possess the power to tap into the magic that's intrinsic within every magical girl's soul, tweak it, amplify it, or even combine it with a touch of my own."

"So she's gonna connect to Tsuruno's soul and perform an exorcism on whatever that nasty thing is." Momoko clarified. "But I wasn't gonna let her do it alone, and she was reluctant to try without extra support. That's where you guys come in."

"My dear Leila, surely you recall the first time you and your mates stepped through my doors for your council-mandated physical exam and magical aptitude tests?" She smiled wanly. "I noted how your heart's flame possessed an underlying capacity to purify. In lieu of a fellow Coordinator, I must call upon your unique skill set to aid in my efforts to cleanse that ghastly entity's spirit and save Tsuruno."

"But I've never tried to do anything like that with my power before," Leila admitted. "I wouldn't know what I'm supposed to do!"

"That's where me and my magic comes in," Momoko chimed. "Working in tandem with Mitama, I can help bring that power out in you."

"Then where do I fit in? Manaka asked.

"Mitama believes we'll have a better chance of segregating Tsuruno from it if she's got a kindred spirit to latch onto. You sprung right into my head since you and her are both kind, outgoing, hard-working magical girls whose dads are restaurateurs. Tsuruno's even told me a few times you're somebody she's a little jealous of in an admiring way."

"But more important than that, your magic has propagation and amplification properties to bolster us three," The Coordinator added. "And as a magical girl, you're said to be plenty competent. That makes you an ideal point person for this ad-hoc procedure."

Leila and Manaka exchanged grave, but willing glances and joined hands. "What do we have to do?" Manaka asked, wanting to waste no further time. Leila concurred the the sentiment by transforming straight into her magical persona

"Everyone take your positions in a circle around her," The Coordinator instructed, pressing her hand to the encasement orb's glassy surface. "And head into the light."

"Red light!" Sayaka stopped some imaginary cars and waved Homura through the phony traffic crossing on the eleventh hole at the miniature golf course. "Green light!" She called after Homura's crossing. Madoka made her putt attempt. More confident with her swing, she was able to push the ball all the way past the pair, over to the other side, banging off a corner, picking up speed down the slope and to everyone's amazement, straight into the hole.

"It's a hole in one!" Tokoi announced. "She takes the lead by two strokes."

"Wow!" Kyoko gawked. "Nice shootin' Shrimpy!"

"That's my Madoka!" Kyosuke smooched her forehead.

"Weheeheeeheee…" Madoka giggled. "Just lucky!"

"Red light!" Sayaka followed, waving Homura on for another pedestrian crossing. Normally the space would be populated by a littering of wooden cars and cutout people, but with all the normal obstacles put away in the storage shed, the two girls needed to rely on their improvisational skills. "Green light!" Now it was Kyosuke's turn to take a shot. Choking up on his club a little, he reared back and tapped the ball square on down the center of the course.

"Red light!" Sayaka called with a barely contained smirk. She wasn't about to make things too easy for those boys, more so on Kamijo. And Homura was willing to be her unspoken accomplice in this light act of trolling, flipping right around and crossing a second time.

"Shucks!" Kyosuke reacted to his ball kicking off the back of Homura's heel and veering off course. Homura had been a little slow on the go, catching eyes on Sayaka and noticing the way that soft white glow of the new city streetlights hit her pupils and really brought out that true blue gleam in her irises.

"That's okay, Kyosuke," Madoka comforted him. "You still hit it past them." Did it qualify as trolling if the one being trolled was totally oblivious to what's going on? But Sayaka was just as ignorant in that moment, noticing Homura's odd stare and wondering if she had a splotch on her face or something.

"Red light!" Sayaka continued without realizing she'd skipped the last green light. Or that Kyosuke hadn't completed his playthrough of the hole. He recovered from that little setback, banking his next shot off the corner wall, and cutting it to within two meters of the hole. "Green light!" She signaled, in the middle of his backswing.

"Hey!" He shouted back her way as his distracted putt veered the ball a little to the left. "You can cut that out when we're back here, you know!" Even Madoka shot the pair a very fleeting, disapproving look.

"Apologies," Homura uttered, puffing out her blushing cheeks in a way that really highlighted the allure of the makeup Junko put on them.

"Uh-Huh. Sorry." Sayaka was too distracted by the sight of them to even notice she succeeded in riling up her childhood friend. In the meantime he managed to save par on his fourth shot.

"My turn," Tokoi took advantage of Sayaka's inattention for a freebie, slap-shooting his long put right on past the duo. Off it bounced on the angled wall, rolling towards the hole.

"Hey!" Sayaka whipped around and yelled.

"That's all on you fer not doin' yer job right!" Kyoko came to her date's defense. Tokoi strolled past them saying nothing but wearing a big cocky grin on his mug. But it was obvious his aim was more to project an air of coolness and confidence back to her than it was any sort of sleight on them. He put the ball in the hole in his ensuing stroke and made eagle.

"Tch!" Sayaka shrugged it off. "Red light!" Homura hadn't actually completed her last walk across the carpeting yet when she snap-turned around and re-did her walk. As Homura strode closer Sayaka caught the whiff of something strong blowing off her body in a sudden gust.

"W- Whuuuaah!" Homura tripped over an unseen seam in the green carpeting and tumbled forward.

"I gotcha!" Sayaka caught her just before she would've smacked her face onto Sayaka's shoe. Holding her hand she managed to twirl her body around and into her arms.

"Th- Thank you," Homura expressed her gratitude face-to-face.

"Don't mention it." The two young ladies had accidentally locked eyes here a second time. In this pale moonlight Sayaka was entranced by a light electric purple glow coming from Homura's glare. It was eerie yet beautiful, that supernatural glimmer. If there was a word in any earthly language which would adequately describe how they looked at that moment, she had to wonder what that word might be.

"Yoo-Hoo! You guys okay?" Kyoko cut in.

"Huh?" The two girls gave her the deer-in-the-headlights face. "We're fine." Homura freed herself from Sayaka's arms, replanted her feet and flipped through her hair.

"Good. Glad to hear it." Kyoko responded. "Wouldya' mind gettin' outta my way now?" She pointed at the blocked golf ball that was parked at the base of Sayaka's foot.

"Erm, green light!" Sayaka took a step aside and resumed her duty as Kyoko lined up and took her next shot. It hit off the corner wall like the other three and rolled towards its ultimate destination,

"Pssst!" Sayaka whispered to her dark-haired friend. "Is that like a perfume or something I'm smelling on you?" They walked two steps behind Kyoko on her way to the hole.

"Missus Kaname made me try a sample when I was at Madoka's house," Homura admitted.

"What's it called?" Sayaka slowed a step behind so she could have another downwind whiff.

"Resplendence." They watched Kyoko make her birdie shot.

"Neat word," Sayaka smiled. "What's it mean?"

"No clue," Homura replied.

"Heeeeeeey," Kyoko interrupted again with a call out. "You guys got any ideas for the next hole?"

"I could squat and act like a windmill again," Homura pointed at a bottleneck on the course. "Right there."

"But you've done the windmill thing like three times already," Kyoko complained. "And the grandfather clock twice. And street sweepers twice. And you both pretended you were tunnels. And you put yer backs together and became a pyramid. Yer our class Smartie. Brainstorm! Get a little creative!"

"We could snap off some tree branches, bush twigs or raid the trash cans and toss them in the way like a storm or something," Sayaka suggested.

"I'd rather not cause any messes we'll have to clean up once we're done," Homura said. "We could try putting a bunch of extra balls into theirs and try to deflect them as a sort of pinball game," She proposed.

"Sounds cool," Sayaka agreed. "But maybe we should save it for one of the more open courses. This one's narrow to the point where you and I'd be having a turkey shoot." A novel little idea popped into her head. "Do any of you guys' phones have a flashlight app?"

"Mine does," Kyosuke replied. "Why? What do you need it for?"

"I could stand on that wooden platform in that corner and flash it your way like a lighthouse or something." She suggested. "Blind you from seeing where you gotta putt the ball."

"That's not at all what lighthouses are for," Homura let her pedantic side slip. "However, I think the idea of obscuring the view of the course with a bright light has merit. Let's try it." Kyosuke unlocked his phone and tapped on his app as everyone's ears got distracted by the sound of a thunderous growl coming from the hungering depths of one particular stomach.

"Woah, is there a lion living in your gut, or what?" Tokoi joked at the expense of his date Kyoko.

"Guuuh," Kyoko moaned, taking the momentary lull to look over the participating restaurants listed on her go-kart prize. "Which place are we eatin' at after we're through, 'cuz I tell ya' my stomach ain't patient enough for a long trip 'crosstown."

"You know what place I've always wanted to try?" Tokoi perked up at the logo printed on the free meal ticket. "That place where the waitresses all cosplay as maids! And it's just a few blocks away!"

"Tch. Of course you'd want to eat at a place like that!" Kyosuke ribbed. "But hasn't anybody told you?" He dialed up his smartphone's brightness as he made the handoff. "That spot's some cheery Chinese joint now."

"Whaaaaa?" Tokoi's head and shoulders drooped with disappointment. "What a sad, cruel world!" He lamented.

"Eh, I could go for some cheap Chinese tonight." Kyoko, however, was more bullish on the idea. She turned and slapped Madoka's back. "So willya' hurry up and start the next hole already?" On the prompt Madoka placed her ball on the green rug and lined up her shot.

"Whatchya' doin' out here so late on a night like this, young laydehh?" Sayaka put on a phony tough-guy voice and shined the phone right in Madoka's face. "Dontchya know you're worrying your parents sick?"

"Weeheeheeheeestopit!" Madoka giggled, more amused than distracted. "What in the world are you trying to be?"

"I'm playing a cop," Sayaka wiggled the phone around with a playful impishness. "You know how close you're comin' up on curfew, don't you?" She transitioned back into her gruffer voice as Madoka reared her club back and thwacked the ball. It brushed against the curved wall, hugging it like a guardrail, before coming off at an angle and rolling along to a resting spot roughly a meter and a half from where the hole was situated. "Think before you swing, Lil' Missy! Think your Ma' or your Pa' or your Bro would be proud to see you turned into this… Bizzarro… Free-spirited, uh," She paused once Madoka was prepped for her follow-through. "Sssswwwwwinger?"

"Pppfffffteehheeheeeee!" Madoka's outburst caused her to hit the next one just short. "Whaaaaaaat?" She stopped cracking up just long enough to save par on her third attempt. "You're such a big silly goofball, Sayaka!"

"You got a license to be carrying that thing, young man?" Sayaka continued, this time it was Kyosuke's turn. "You know it's against the law to be flaunting such a big rod in public without one, riiiiiiiight?" She waved her rectangular flashlight around in a bothersome fashion.

"Eeeeeeeeeh?" Kyosuke's cheeks blushed a deep beet-red. His stroke meanwhile, veered wildly to the left side, banking off the corner turn and rolling away from where he intended it to go.

"Bwwaaaahaahaaahaaaa!" Kyoko spontaneously burst into a fit of laughter.

"Heeeheheeeheeeehee!" Tokoi joined in on her fun.

"Weheeheeehee!" Even Madoka wasn't above a stifled titter at her boyfriend's expense.

"It's not that funny, you guys!" Kyosuke tried to regain his composure for his next attempt. He was able to block out their guffaws, and Sayaka's bright light show, enough to course correct. But on shot three the ball rolled just to the left of its goal, leaving him with a four shot bogey.

"You want in on this?" Sayaka offered Homura a turn as their heckler, tossing the phone with casual aplomb.

"I- I don't know." Homura juggled Kyosuke's device in her hands a few times before taking possession. "What am I supposed to say?"

"Whatever comes to your mind!" Sayaka egged her into playing with a smirk, a wink, a pat on the back and a gentle nudge. "Just riff away!"

"Uhm. Hi." Homura started with a coy greeting to Tokoi who was setting up his putt. What could she possibly say to a dude to whom she only ever bothered to gain the vaguest familiarity with as a classmate? To her the faces of the boys meant nothing, all equally forgettable and interchangeable, save for Kamijo himself, who'd begun appearing as a caricature in her most outlandish nightmares as a craven Madoka thief. "So you're going for Chinese after this, huh?" She was, however, well-acquainted with his date. "You'd better not let any shrimp or shellfish touch her lips, because that too would be an illegality." She switched the light back and forth from Tokoi's face to Kyoko's.

"Pffffffft! Illegal in whose book?" Kyoko groaned, her arms folded and her cheeks puffing out.

"Why in God Good Book, of course." She figured that although she had nothing on him, she might still get to him, through her. "The book." She deadpanned. "Of all the creatures in the oceans and streams, you may eat those with the fins and scales." She held the shining camera out as if she were about to snap a picture of the incredulous young couple.

"Bahhhh don't you start spoutin' Bible bullshizz' at me if ya' ain't been to mass in years and ya' ain't never gone through any Confirmation or done no Confession!" She may not have succeeded in hampering Tokoi, as his first stroke sent the ball dead center down the carpeting, but she did touch a nerve with Kyoko. Indeed, unlike last time, she seemed genuinely upset at Homura for speaking on a deity's behalf and trying to rile them with it. "It was a warning about eating poisonous eels and blowfish, not freakin' decrying lobsters and sushi!"

"Hey waitasec, are you guys really both for-real Christians or something?" Tokoi broached, brimming with intrigue. While asking he hit his second shot close to the hole, but not quite enough to make it in.

"Lapsed Catholic," Homura admitted truthfully. Honesty, she presumed, would be the proper penance for the unintentional sleight of a friend.

"I- Er- Uhhh- I just-" Kyoko stammered. "Read all about their customs and stuff in, like wedding catalogs and culture mags and that sort 'o' shii-." Kyoko stopped. She couldn't simply dismiss her old teachings as simply as Homura had. Instead she had to hatch a backstory on the spot. "Might take the comparative studies course in high school, y'know? So it's good to read up and get ahead and stuff."

"Oh." He nodded, saving his par on his third try.

"Kat-Sur-Ah-Geeeee." Homura sensed a sudden, sharp elbow jab into her side and a sharp-tongued whisper in her ear. "Don't forget it!" Kyoko proceeded to set the ball on the spot for her turn. "So ya' think yer gonna psych me out?" Just as easily as her mood was fouled, it recovered. "G'wan and try!"

"Uhhhmmm," Homura mused. Okay, so matters of Kyoko's faith were off limits. What else was in bounds enough to try? "I am an officer looking for contraband." She leaned in with her special spotlight in hand. "And on you I see a pair of large and suspicious bumps on your chest." Maybe a cheesy one-liner would do the trick?

"They're called boobs," Kyoko snorted, swinging her putter and sending the ball down the course. "They're what girls get once they get sexy. But you wouldn't know that yet, judging by the total lack on yours." She fired back.

"Ooooooooooooooh," Tokoi and Kamijo gasped in unison.

"Kyoko," Sayaka and Madoka exchanged surprised and bemused glances. "That was… Spicy."

"That's backsassing an officer," Homura put the backside of the phone to her face as if she were making a call. Kyoko lined up her follow through. "Code nine-eight-seven. Wiseassery without warrant. Request backup. Suspect is armed with bountalicious boobs and booty."

"Huuuuuuh?" Kyoko shanked it, tapping too hard and sending the ball off the backstop wall and rolling right back to them. "Gah!"

"Weeeheeeheeeee!" Madoka was absolutely tickled with Homura's language.

"Bwaaahahaahaaa!" So was Sayaka.

"Heeeheeheeaaaa!" And her would-be boyfriend, he was rolling in laughter. "She's not wrong, you know!"

"Hmph!" The red-faced Kyoko took a one-handed third jab at the ball, again sending it bouncing off the back, but this time it stayed closer to the hole.

"That's a ten-four. I'm investigating the disturbance report on-site." They overheard a low female voice speak from behind Kyoko.

"That wasn't me." Homura gasped in levity-killing shock. She pocketed Kyosuke's phone in an instinctive moment of panic.

"Craaaaaaaaap!" Tokoi dropped his club and reached for Kyoko's hand. "Ruuuuuun!"

"Madoka!" Kyosuke locked himself to Madoka's arm, much to the observing Homura's chagrin. "Let's go!"

"B- B- But Madok-!" Homura looked on as the pair locked arms and hobbled away as if they were running a three-legged race.

"C'mon!" Her bewildered gaze was broken by Sayaka yanking her by the wrist. "We've gotta get outta here!"

"Do you even know where this course's rear exit is?" Homura's neck was still turned and looking in Madoka's direction.

"At the opposite end of where the front entrance is," Sayaka answered. "Probably." But she came to regret saying that sentence the moment she finished it, as her hunch led them straight to a faux brick wall. "Uh-oh!"

"Eep!" Homura took the lead, dodging a flashlight's beam by pushing Sayaka down behind a bush, herself following with a rough tuck and roll.

"Did they see us?" Sayaka combed the loose leaves and twigs from her hair.

"I don't believe so," Homura chanced a peek through their hiding spot. Their spotlights and sirens seemed concentrated on shadowy figures fleeing elsewhere. More worrisome to her, they appeared to follow the general direction of where Madoka and Kyosuke fled. "I could scale this height in a single leap, no issue." Her conscience could spare just enough extra brain power to evaluate her own predicament.

"But I can't!" Sayaka looked up and gauged their big hurdle to freedom to be around three and a half to four meters tall.

"I know." She figured she could climb atop the thing and lend a hand that would help Sayaka make her own way upwards. But doing that would leave a chance they'd get spotted on another pass. "You know, as a magical girl I am also several times stronger than normal people." No time for deliberation she made an impulsive calculation that wasn't without its own set of risks.

"Do you trust me?"

"Uhm, sure." Sayaka in turn found herself shocked by Homura's willingness to play manhandler. "Hey, what're you-"

"I'm going to fling you as high as I can over the top, jump, and then catch you on our way down." Homura grabbed her friend by the waist and tossed her straight upwards. "Please resist the urge to scream too loud."

"Aaaaiiiiiyyyyeeee!"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" A barrier made of Yachiyo's halberds shielded their party from the Cybermen's laser blasts.

"Grrrraaaaaahhh!" Felicia knocked a band of Cybermen off their feet with a directed shockwave delivered by slamming her hammer to the floor.

"Felicia!" Yachiyo commanded. "Forget about backing me up, do whatever you must to protect the girl!" She pointed at the lone human being cowering amongst them, Iroha.

"Error! Errrrrroooorrrrr!" A Cyberman squawked at the end of Sayaka's blade thrusts. "Pain inhibitors failing!"

"Yeah?" Sayaka impaled it right through the power core in its chest. "That makes two of us!" She was standing guard over the paralyzed, damaged and cyber-converted form of her friend.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" But it didn't matter how many demonstrations of skill the magical girls projected. The Cybermen kept coming. They were closing in on both flanks.

"We can't keep a static front like this, we're gonna get swamped!" Yachiyo assessed their situation bluntly.

"I know!" Sayaka agreed through her gritted teeth.

"We gotta smash the witch before they bring out more of those zombie familiar creeps!" Felicia proposed. Her first instinct was to always go on the offensive.

"I know!" Sayaka also concurred, lashing out at another Cyberman who dared cross her blades.

"Error! Error!" The hapless Cyberman suddenly found itself being slapped down and beaten to a dented pulp by its own severed arms. "Reassessing enemy tactics!"

"What we need to do is tend to the helpless before we take any other initiatives!" Yachiyo conjured up a twirling waterspout with her magic, and pushed it at the advancing Cyberman cadre.

"I knooow!" Sayaka kept beating and beating on the dented shell of her opponent. "I know!" She wasn't really listening. She wasn't quite fighting on pure reflex either, but in her twenty-odd years since becoming a magical girl this was the closest she'd been to that precipice since that night she so ruthlessly and recklessly clobbered the shadow witch from the world she'd left behind. "I knoooowIknowIknooww!" So profound were her feelings of guilt, regret and self-loathing that she could scarcely think straight.

"Adjusting priority tar-" Off she sliced the next Cyberman's head. If she had to, she was ready to go toe-to-toe with every single last Cyberman and Cyberfamiliar infesting this labyrinth, and even their sheer numbers may not serve as sufficient outlets for all that pent-up rage and hate.

"I sent that text message like you asked," Iroha shouted through the clanging ruckus. "And your magic wand thing has started blinking red!" She took cover behind Felicia's diminutive but protective purple scarf-clad shoulders. "Now what?"

"Toss it here!" Sayaka's fighting fever broke enough to allow her this moment of logical clarity. "Now!" She signaled. Iroha served it with an underhanded lob. "Argh! We still got eight seconds to go!"

"Eight seconds for what?" Yachiyo struck back at a lone Cyberman that dared advance on her without support. She buried it under an avalanche of halberds, quantity serving as her makeshift replacement for quality. With that unit dispatched, she sensed a low-level hum in the air and a gentle tremor beneath her feet. "What's that sound?" It struck her ears like an asthmatic's wheezing, followed by a distinctive grinding and whirring noise.

"Whooooooooah!" Felicia exclaimed at the sight of an object busting hard into the energized barriers of the Cyberman's lair like a wrecking ball.

"It's a- It's a-" Yachiyo's jaw dropped at the sight of the thing spinning about and bouncing along between the heavy metallic walls. It was labeled 'Morning Rescue' and basked in a brilliant golden-orange spherical light.

"A flying drink machine!" Felicia finished. "Cooooooool!"

"Everybody hit the deck!" Sayaka warned. "Pronto!" Felicia managed to pull Iroha to safety, but the dumbfounded Yachiyo took until the last possible second to duck.

"Input err-ror! Upload err-ror!" And the Cybermen knocked out of the way were no better equipped to handle the sight of its appearance. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" Once it settled on its landing spot they wasted no time getting up and discharging their weapons at it. But their efforts were deflected by an energy field which also protected the magical girls.

"Grab her legs!" Sayaka instructed the girls as she took hold of the disabled Cyberman's disproportionate upper half. "Bring her inside!" The one who ultimately complied with her request was Iroha, while the other two stood there watching the swelling army of Cybermen attacking on all sides. "Everyone inside! Now!" She barked with a barely-suppressed fierce intensity that cowed Yachiyo and Felicia into compliance.

"I don't believe it!" Iroha gasped in awe of the brightly-lit room she soon found herself entering. "A whole other room? Stuffed in a coffee machine?" She looked towards the caped young lady for elaboration, but her mind seemed wholly preoccupied by the stresses of their precarious situation.

"That wasn't the thing I asked you to do, Bunnycat!" In Iroha's unmagical eyes she seemed to be dressing down someone or something somewhere on a platform where a large multifaceted control setup was positioned. Whatever it was it also drew the scowling ire of the tall beauty she'd met minutes earlier.

"Snaaaaaaaa!" And the younger, shorter girl with the blonde hair and horns came up running to and hugging a big lump of nothing over by the bookshelf. "I mean, Sana!"

"That's on you, Sayaka!" Kyubey defended his landing. "You cannot possibly expect me to override safety features that even you yourself hesitated to alter, and execute such a sophisticated maneuver successfully given the time allotted." He arched his spine like a cornered feline. "And I suspect by your comportment coming in that you already knew that and are just looking for a convenient scapegoat to plaster over a perceived failure on your part."

"Baaaaaaaah," The caped heroine brushed him aside as any pet owner would to a cat stepping on their keyboard. She punched in a series of command codes, flipped some switches and cranked a turnkey, only for her efforts to be thwarted by an 'ERROR' message.

"How funny you should speak of yourself as such." Iroha watched the angered beauty step onto the elevated platform and grab at something she couldn't perceive. "As you've no idea how many nights I've spent lying awake just longing for another chance to squash you like the bloated tick you are, Incubator!" Who the girl was addressing so disparagingly the clueless Iroha could only wonder.

"Oh, put him down, he's a domesticated Incubator, cut off from his race and so not worth your trouble! And besides," Sayaka tried inputting what she wanted to do into the console a second time, only to again be denied with an 'ERROR' message. "We've got a million bigger problems to be dealing with right now!" She fist-pounded the side of her station in response, which caused it to shoot out electrical sparks and a compartment on the underside to pop open.

"And you," The air of stress and tension budding between the two reached a tipping point as one accosted the other. "Kanagi's been insisting in private after every meeting that she's convinced the Mitakihara girls are hiding something tremendous." She jerked the girl around by the nape of her cape. "But it's not something, is it? It's you!" Then the realization that she had boarded a glorified UFO sank in. "And this…" As head and her gaze bobbed around every nonexistent corner of the room. "Engineered labyrinth, or whatever it is!"

"If you must know," Sayaka lightly swatted the hand on her embroidered upper capelet. "It's my ride. A ship. Call it my TARDIS." Her own eyes refused to lock on with her interrogator's, instead glaring at that red-flashing 'ERROR' screen vexxing her so.

"Greetings," Kyubey offered his most basic solicitation to the watching bystander Iroha, but she was unable to acknowledge his presence. "Oh, right. My natural imperceptibility to non-magical girls and non-candidates means you cannot see nor hear me." He pointed a paw in the invisible Sana's direction. "Sana Futaba, if you could please extricate yourself from that girl's embrace for a moment, there is a pair of red spectacles in the top drawer of that work desk to your left."

"Eeeeehhhhh?" Iroha jumped and grunted in reaction to a floating set of glasses poking her arm.

"They want you to put those on." The younger blonde wearing the horned hood and goggles requested. "G'wan!" She encouraged her, so Iroha did as asked. Once she did, she found herself suddenly flanked by a white-furred, red-eyed moving plush toy and an eerily pale-faced girl who'd she'd seen in stores as a plushie.

"A Gh- Ghost?" Her hand and index finger hesitantly reached out and touched the soft, smooth upper left arm of the girl. Solid contact that the sheepish young lady reacted to with a bashful series of inquisitive eye blinks and an inspection of an odd ring on Iroha's finger.

"As I suspected, the perceptual counter-filter embedded into the eyewear allows you to see and hear me." Her head snapped around in awe of the talking plush toy's explanation. "And it seems it also neutralizes the effect of Sana's innate imperceptibility magic as well."

"Is that a Mister Purrs-a-Lot Tenth Anniversary commemorative ring?" The girl named Sana asked, trying to read the special engraving on it.

"Yes," Iroha nodded. "It says 'Iroha and Ui, sisters in eternity'." She read the writing. "Uhm, my sister and I used to watch the show in our bedroom before going to school every morning," She reminisced. "But then she got sick. And then the show was rescheduled to air while I was on the train going to her hospital in Kamihama."

"Ah yes, that does ring a bell," The little creature next to them said. "You were evaluated as having magical girl potential and monitored for a while, but ultimately my brethren rejected initiating contact because of an unsatisfactory energy payoff assessment, as well as other uncontrolled variables." He looked over for a brief second at the unmoving metallic humanoid resting beside them on the floor. "And although your karmic potential has diminished in the time since then, there is still ample energy within your soul to make a con- Oww!" An allen wrench clocked him in the back of the head before he could finish his pitch proposal. Everyone's attention turned back to the culprit, Sayaka.

"What in the world are you doing now?" Yachiyo asked the preoccupied Time Lady at work, swapping around crystals and crossing wires on the console's underside.

"Fixing what ain't broke, unfixing what was working," Sayaka responded, waving her saber around the machine's insides. "Do it all the time."

"What the heck'd ya' wish for?" The youngest among the gathered girls pressed. "To be the smartest person in the whole wide Universe?"

"Nope, I'm not as book smart as my teacher says I can be, not even a fraction as wise as The Face of Boe," Sayaka pulled herself up and over the control paneling. "Just a girl doing the best she can with what she's been given." After a few altered command lines, and the toggling of several red-marked switches, she tried engaging the vessel's engines, but to no avail. Again that red 'ERROR' screen taunted her. "Dammit, moooooooooooove!" She whined and kicked the underside, sending out another wave of sparks.

"Just as an aircraft wouldn't attempt takeoff in the middle of a raging blizzard, I'm certain this vessel's safety systems, redundancies and protective A.I. would not permit you from overriding them all the while our current temporal causality chain is still so wildly in flux," Kyubey told Sayaka in a rather chastising way, even while aware of how emotionally charged she was and that he wasn't explaining anything she didn't already know. "Especially not while the Walpurgisnacht rift is still so volatile."

"What does that mean?" Yachiyo asked, in a demanding way. "This time, it in simplest, plainest words!" She requested even more forcefully.

"It means we can't…" Sayaka painedly rubbed her eyes from their corners to the bridge of her nose. She was trying to stop herself from crying. "Travel back to an earlier point to where the Cybermen are less of an adaptive, fearsome fighting force!" Crying for the life so heartlessly taken and converted from the poor girl on the floor. "... And to where they hadn't started making Cybermen of the living, either."

"You're kidding!" Yachiyo, Felicia and Iroha's mouths fell open upon hearing her disclose that. "You mean I could go back and save Mel and Kanae, and even Mifuyu?"

"And I could save my folks?" Felicia's eyes lit.

"I could see Ui again?" Iroha innocently inquired.

"Save for maybe that last one, no!" Sayaka shook her head. "No way! That's what people get wrong all the time about time travel. It's not for going back and putting right all your little personal fouls and moments of biggest regret." She took a moment's pause to choke her next breath and wipe a stray tear. "Because failure defines who you are every bit as much as your triumphs. Time travel is more about making changes in the holistic sense. Helping steer the general course of events into better, fairer and overall more… Equitable outcomes. And if you happen to save some peoples' lives along the path, that's the proverbial cherry on top of the job."

"And you're the grand arbiter of how those things flow?" Yachiyo pressed. Sayaka answered with a silent, solemn nod. "No wonder the Mitakihara girls are trying to hide you from the rest of us." She abruptly shoved Sayaka backwards, hard against the railing. "Such presumptive arrogance as that, there's no way we'd condone or abide such wanton recklessness!"

"I don't care if you think it's arrogance," A hoarse-voiced Sayaka defended herself. "I'm the one who was entrusted with the power to preserve not just everyone and everything I care about, but all the things you know and care about too. So I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that to the best I can until the moment I die." She choked a little on the rest of her repressed tears. "And then I'm going to do it beyond that!"

"Please, you mustn't fight like this!" Iroha stepped up and pleaded for peace. "You guys all want to do something to help, but right now you're too scared and overwhelmed to know where to start or what to try." She frantically waved her hands and drew their attention back upon the injured cyborg lying incapacitated beneath her. "But didn't you bring her into whatever this place is so you could help her first?"

"I-" Sayaka stepped off the control platform, took out her strange-looking, modded sword hilt and pensively motioned its blinking blue-tipped end over the Cyberman's chassis. "I've got restorative healing magic that I'd usually use to fix an injured person, but her nervous system's been changed into an electronic feedback network, her blood's been made into a self-sufficient nanogene factory and her bones have been metallized. She's basically a brain in a box at this point, there's not enough of the old her left for me to try!"

"What, you mean…" Yachiyo's natural empathy cooled her temperament. "There's a real living person inside that? Not a bunch of zombified corpse remains?"

"I can confirm," Kyubey staked a position at the immobilized machine's feet. "I do sense the presence of a transthermodynamic energy source within the unit. Somehow there is an active soul powering and operating this hardware." He tilted his head and bumped his tail around a couple times. "How that could be possible I cannot even begin to guess."

"She said her name is Hitomi," Iroha added. Sayaka tried to hide the sting the utterance of that name gave her behind the loud whizzing sound of her instrument's continued scans.

"So it's a girl robot?" Felicia cocked her head and curled her lip. "Robots can be girls?"

"That the Cybermen would imprint an animate soul onto one of their combat models would suggest that they are undergoing a drastic yet most remarkable design overhaul on themselves." Kyubey noted.

"Yeah?" Yachiyo shot him a furled brow. "And how the hell would you know what their kind are?"

"My race has long been aware of their existence," Kyubey informed them. "They are a natural and, as far as we've researched, a typically inevitable evolutionary terminus point in the development of humanoids throughout the Universe." He disclosed. "They have traveled from star to star and have campaigned, conquered, and cyber-converted their way into becoming one of the dominant powers." The little bunnycat's unblinking stare and clinical speaking style really creeped Iroha out. How the rest of the gang could put up with its presence and general vibe of superiority was beyond her. "Indeed, we selected Earth for magical girl cultivation specifically because its solar system was not anywhere close to territory under Cyberman occupation, although we did calculate a better than sixty-three point four percent chance that humanity would one day augment themselves to- Owwww!" He recoiled in pain.

"You're a dick!" Yachiyo smacked the white furball right upside its head. Which amused Iroha, because up until that moment the little creature's eyes were focused squarely on her, as if it were a predator and she was fresh meat.

"Eh- Eh- Excuse me," Sana toed her around the gathered group baby step by baby step until she came full circle next to Iroha. "Di- Did you say her name was Hitomi?"

"Yes," Iroha could tell this girl was not used to being among a part of a group, much like herself. "After she freed me, that's what she wanted me to call her."

"Well I uhm-" Sana nervously tapped her thumb, middle, and forefingers together. "I befriended a girl with that name while I was staying with my friend Aoi in Virtua Space. Aoi said she was keeping her personality saved inside a digital daydream of some kind."

"Digital daydream?" Sayaka had sat there stewing in her own guilt and anguish silently getting preoccupied by her thoughts as they were mingling. "She's putting out Delta waves?" It was causing her to miss an obvious detail her scanning tool had picked up on. "Man, oh man!" It had also gotten a lock on a particular kind of energy signature. She turned a dial, re-tuning her device, hovered it over the source, and with a mechanical whistle and a whirr the Cyberman's breastplate and chest opened, revealing something shining in the compartment within.

"It would seem you have located its transthermodynamic battery." Kyubey dryly noted.

"Is that-" Yachiyo gawked. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It's a Soul Gem!" Felicia did not refrain from stating the obvious.

"More like an ersatz Soul Gem," Sayaka corrected. "Designed not to facilitate the use of magic, but rather to power the suit and its components." She scanned it with her tool. "Remarkably stable, the active-to-depleted ectomatter decay is at less than a quarter than what it would be for you and me." The discovery was tearing her exasperated hearts between her inborn scientific curiosity and the knowledge of whose poor soul resided within that container. Splitting her in twain. "The transparent section is an azbantium alloy, while the main casing is Galifreynium. I- I think the gold parts came from remolded scraps of somebody's broken Soul Gem." When the two sides reconciled, she was compelled to issue an apology under her breath. "Ohmygod, Hitomi. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." But it gave her no absolution. Not that she expected it would.

"Once again, I am in awe of the Cybermen's engineering prowess," Kyubey remarked. "If what Sana informed me is accurate, then it would seem that their leader, this 'Cyber Regent' figure, possesses a singularly creative mind and the exponential processing capability of the collective could only be bolstering them to an even greater degree."

"Have you met their leader, Sana?" Sayaka cooly asked her in a way that made it clear that she was demanding to know.

"Uh, no," Sana skirted behind Iroha's back, uneasy with having so many sets of eyes drawn to her. "All I know are the things Aoi and Nemu shared. Nemu made a wish for her friend's sake. Then she created Aoi to keep her company through her recovery. But something happened to her, she turned against Aoi, and lured Nemu into a trap." She summarized. "But they've been fighting back by hiding inside virtually-made worlds, like the one where Aoi kept me." There was one last, crucial detail which popped into her head. "Oh, they also said that The Cyber Regent can't launch her invasion of the outside world until she takes back something that Aoi stole and hid."

"What'd your friend take?" Yachiyo pressed.

"Uh, a secret code of some kind," Sana hastily recalled. "Something that'll let her take over the minds of everyone who gets turned into…" She let out a scared little pant. "Into one of them!"

"I would surmise that to be an administrative root command," Kyubey concluded. "The Cybermen's organizational structure is hierarchical. Right now the Regent is most likely operating with a proprietary code that allows them to function as a de-facto Cyber Controller. However, once their plan for planetary conquest is set in motion, the collective is hardwired to seek out and connect to the next highest tier of authority for their ensuing instruction, which would necessitate connecting this sect of Cybermen with the shared network of all Cybermen online throughout our Universe."

"Nemu's friend is trying to take over the world whilst trying to take over the Cybermen," Sayaka deduced. "It's as ambitious as pure human ambition can get, I'll grant that. But I'll bet they never factored me in as a disruptive variable to their schemes." She put her palm to her injured classmate's damaged cranial plating. "I'll put a stop to all this. No matter what it takes."

"I'm hearing that arrogance I was talking about in the way you say that," Yachiyo grabbed Sayaka's outstretched wrist. "Lest you forget, we're variables, too." Her diligent eye caught the engraved marking of an eight-pointed sun emblem along the seal of the artificial Soul Gem. "Felicia and I did not come all this way just to hole ourselves up inside a magic box!"

"And I still want to help Aoi, in whatever way I can," Sana volunteered.

"In addition," Kyubey fluttered his tail like a pet enamored with its owner. "It behooves me to remind you that Iroha possesses a soul with the karmic potential to serve as an additional asset, however marginal it is at this juncture."

"Tch!" Felicia pinched him on his ear. "Will you cut it with that contract crap already?"

"Actually," Sayaka snapped her finger and bopped her hand with her fist at the same time. "That might not be the worst idea in the world." She looked deep into Iroha's eyes and flashed a most clever smile. "So what do you say, Iroha… Might you harbor a desire deep within your heart? A wish that could make your theoretical Soul Gem shine?"

Chapter Text

"Touka," Nemu pleaded for mercy. "If I surrender and let you do whatever you must with me, will you let my friends remain in this digital daydream in peace?"

"Silly Nemu," The Cyber Regina tsked. "Setting conditions is not something afforded to the defeated party, but a prerogative of the victor." She tapped the folded umbrella in her hand like a guardsman with a nightstick. "I have your real body neutralized and isolated from its exterior energy source. I have also tapped into the subset carrier wave which allows your remnant élan vital to interlink itself with Gamma's subconscious processors. If I wanted to, I could sever said connection at any moment I'd like. That I do not do so this instant is due to my long-standing respect and affinity I have had for you and your intellect." She slid the umbrella handle up her wrist and twirled it around her arm a couple times. "I came here because I was compelled to extend my own personalized parting farewell. And to extend my sincerest gratitude towards you for making your contract with that fairy. Your wish allowed me to survive my technological ascendance, I acknowledge that I am only here because of it. However, I am also compelled by a lingering human need to confess the only reason I allowed you and your creations to mount this token resistance in the first place, was because I did not desire to witness you undergo a total emotional collapse and suffer the same fate as your erstwhile magical battle companion." She caught her umbrella and beamed a precocious smile at the gathered party. "So I indulged you in all your hopeful little fantasylands for as long as it would take to perfect the medical cyberization process through a specialized wetware-to-software modification technique. Now that I have, I can purge the concept of despair from you like the irrelevance it is, and properly integrate you into our collective."

"She has an ulterior motive in extending this overture," The AI construct to which Hitomi once called 'Saya' spoke out. "What she is really attempting to do is deduce where and how we have hidden the Cyberqueen Codex. Once she's attained it she will have no further use of us."

"That is, I admit, my overarching goal in prolonging this farce," She nodded. "But need I remind you, any further delay in relinquishing it puts the odds of Nemu's long-term survival at risk. For once our goal of total conversion of this world is achieved, we will connect to the rest of the active Cybermen throughout the cosmos. And doing so without the operating codebase which would distinguish me as the preeminent mind amongst our brethren, I cannot guarantee Nemu's individuality will be held at a priority high enough to preserve indefinitely." She opened the umbrella, put it to her shoulder and spun it around. "So if you are truly programmed to bond with and protect us, then surely you must see the logic in unconditional submission."

"You're pretentious and you talk too darn much!" Hitomi rushed up and uncorked a fury-fueled tummy punch intended for the Cyber Regent. "What the-?" But her right arm was caught and held mid-throw by another right arm reacting with a matching quickness, belonging to the Regent's specially-made and chosen herald, Unit Gamma. "Unnnghhh… Yoooooouuu… Leggo… Of… Meeeeeee!" Gamma sensed its opponent's free hand slap the broadside of its visage. It did not appreciate that sudden outburst. Nonetheless, it did not retaliate in kind nor yield its grip.

"Humans," Its Master exhaled. "With all your rage and hatred. All that misspent energy on the juvenile emotional excesses. On bigotries and prejudices. So much tragedy derived from the countless grotesqueries stemming from your upbringing as a society of self-involved survival-minded apes." She pressed a hidden trigger on the inner part of her umbrella handle. "But fortunately that evolutionary trait has been rendered vestigial by your own technology, as Gamma has so aptly demonstrated in response to that leftover id's quaint little outburst." The open umbrella was concealing a blade that had sprung from its ferrule at the top. Without hesitating she made a direct jab towards Hitomi's neck. But it was abruptly parried by a cutlass flying in from seemingly nowhere.

"Hitomi is right." An unexpected new voice confidently boomed throughout the room. "You are a pompous little speechifier whose word choice is only matched in needless extravagence by her fashion choice."

"Sayaka?" The sheer shock of hearing it caused the young lady to stagger backward and pull the clinging Gamma a step along with her.

"Sorry I couldn't come and help you sooner, Hitomi," Sayaka popped in from the entryway. "Sorry times a million and ten."

"Who are you?" Nemu and her artificial companion queried in head-tilting unison.

"Quite the irreverent method of introducing yourself," The Cyber Regent coolly uttered. "Magical girl of Mitakihara, Sayaka Miki."

"Yes, that's the name people put to this face." Sayaka confirmed, staking her place next to Hitomi. "Sorry again." She whispered contritely.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Hitomi demanded through grit teeth and a gruff tone. "How are you even here?"

"The species 'Homo Magica' possess highly augmented minds with stimulated cell growth and enhanced electrochemical activity within the parietal lobe of the right hemisphere of their brains," Gamma's Master dryly explained. "And that facilitates a base level of extrasensory psychic ability, which this individual has somehow utilized to so rudely inject herself into our private matter."

"Gee, on top of being a bratty little snob you gotta ruin my mystique, too." Sayaka clapped back at her foe with a snap of her finger. "To rephrase what she said in cooler terms, I set up a psychic LAN party and brought extra cavalry with me." Promptly through the windows leapt Yachiyo and Felicia. Sana did not enter with the same panache, shuffling in from the rear peering out from behind her shield but ready to provide cover during the inevitable hostilities.

"You mean… Our SOS worked?" Nemu looked around at all the new and familiar faces. "You're Mifuyu's friend Yachiyo Nanami?"

"I am," Yachiyo nodded, taking her spot in the room flanked by Felicia and Sana.

"Release my friend from your robotic clutches," Sayaka dictated to Gamma's Master, grabbing Gamma's forearm and attempting to break the deadlock between itself and the female aggressor. "Fix everything you broke." But Gamma was not about to acquiesce without the explicit authorization of its creator. "Now."

"Even if you had the means to force me, such a thing is not possible." And its Master granted said permission with a light tap of that umbrella on its shoulder. "Your friend has become fully integrated into our collective. And I warn you, any forcible outside attempt to undo said assimilation would be fatal to her."

"You lie!" Hitomi shot back.

"You really should express a little more gratitude," Gamma's maker insisted. "Had I not done so, you would have fallen prey to the end-stage magical girl who resides within the secluded sub-dimension in which my Cybermen brethren conceal our operation." She shot Hitomi the most self-satisfied of smiles. "On second thought, such a sentiment from you is not necessary. For you are but a rump echo of my loyal acolyte here. And all I need to do to negate you, is reinitialize Gamma's core BIOS with a purge and a patch. Then Gamma can take control of this so-called 'digital daydream', and we shall forcibly evict these interlopers as well as retrieve our primary objective." She clapped her hands twice. "I need only upload the necessary preset instructions and Gamma will say the Cyberman equivalent of our magical words."

"Upgrade in progress." Gamma heard itself intonate. The domestic surroundings around them evaporated into a thousand points of scattered light and binary code, before reconstituting into a vast cityscape, mirrored by the same cityscape in the skyline above.

"Nice try," Yachiyo casually fist-bumped Felicia and pat Sana's crown. "Now you plumb the depths of my subconscious.

"I figured that would be the first thing you might try," Sayaka stifled a smirk. "So while you were in the middle of gloating I had already channel-hopped us into another mind. To think that Cyber-brain and Cyberian operating systems hacking was one of those dumb school lessons I never thought I'd actually have to use!"

"Curious as to what sort of academic institution would teach such an secretive subject matter," The girl who was once Touka Satomi replied. "And all public school records indicate one 'Sayaka Miki' to be a marginal student at best." She subsequently addressed her subordinate with a head tilt. "Perhaps this turn warrants a reassessment of our target priorities?"

"Unit tactical subroutines concur," Gamma agreed. It had regained access to those subsystems via its Master's gambit, although the act had not restored its other physical systems. "Bioform is to be studied." But while its guidance software was saying one thing, it found its focus to be continuing on the foe it grappled with moments prior. But only because said foe remained equally fixated on Gamma.

"Great minds think alike," Gamma's Master agreed. "If she really so desires to match wits with you and I, then the least we can do is indulge her wish with the additional support of our collective forces." She hid her smarmy grin behind a set of steepled fingers.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Their droning war cry sent a chill down Hitomi's spine as it surrounded them from all sides.

"Hitomi!" Nemu's AI caretaker warned. "It matters not what becomes of us, for it is you whose survival is paramount!" It digitally manifested a pink blade and took point alongside the Kamihama trio. "Don your digital alter ego and protect yourself! For this is the incursion we were training you to resist!"

"Gamma," Its Master decreed. "You will denote that target as Priority One and attack while I ascertain further information on Priority One-A." The Cyber Regina unsheathed a full-sized blade of her own. "But our ultimate victory hinges upon seizing control of this digital dreamscape and decompiling the subliminal code. Towards that end, I command all CBX units to designate that particular Homo Magica as the target to eliminate first." The Regent and Yachiyo exchanged determined stares.

"Hmph!" Yachiyo readied an attack posture. "Felicia, swing away! Sana, keep your friends well-covered!"

"Rrrrrrrrrrrright!" For once Felicia and Yachiyo were fighting simpatico.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma joined the chorus of its brethren the moment it broke towards its intended target.

"Delete what?" To Gamma's befuddlement, the female neither retreated nor sought refuge. "Me? No, you're the one who deserves deletion!" Instead, Gamma found itself having to dodge the sudden strike of an agricultural tool.

"Delete! Delete! De-" The purple flash caused by the thud of Felicia's hammer sent a half dozen advancing troops away. "- Lete! Delete! Delete!" But they cropped right back up mere moments after.

"With the algorithm that gated access to this virtual dreamspace deduced and distributed amongst my fellow Cybermen, we can respawn at will." Gamma's Master thrust her weapon at Sayaka. "And unlike you biological beings, we do not tire, we do not falter, and we do not fail."

"If that were true, then your fellow Cybermen out there would have dominated much of the known Universe eons ago," The young Time Lady countered with both a retort and a parry.

"That is because my brethren are splintered and factionalized, the vast majority in indefinite hibernation. Conserving their energy before the day that one unifying voice comes and brings about order and balance. To wield their vast untapped might not just for the purposes of conquest and incorporation, but to set all who ascend as Cybermen on a path towards solving the most pressing issues this Universe faces, foremost its long-term decay in usable energy." She opened her umbrella and poofed forth an explosive burst of flame.

"And you think all those integrated minds are going to defer to you?" Sayaka snorted. "A precocious grade-schooler with a superiority complex?" Sayaka extinguished the attack with water bubble spurt.

"Baaaaaaaaaah-Boooooooooooooom!" Felicia's signature scream accompanied the epic thunder of her hammer blows. "Gah-Dangiiiiiiiiiiiit!" But for every invader she eliminated, two replacements appeared and advanced.

"It's a probing attack that'll escalate exponentially until we're overwhelmed by sheer numbers," Nemu observed. "It's the exact same tactic Touka beat us with last time."

"And every scuffle before that." Her AI companion noted, slashing off their outstretched limbs with its hot pink light sword.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The Cybermen persisted without relent, ganging up on the digital lifeform

"Aoi! Behind you!" Sana defended her friend with a hail of spiked balls launched from a magical space in her big, body-sized shield.

"I'll ward them off with an incantation!" Nemu popped open her spellbook and scores of pages took to the air before dropping down and slamming their foes like cluster bombs. "Nnnnnnngh…" Through the smoke and dust Yachiyo witnessed Nemu clearly wincing in intense pain.

"Are you alright?" Yachiyo asked out of concern.

"N- No," Nemu confessed. "I'm not." She shuddered. "I can feel my soul growing weaker by the moment. If my gem in the real world isn't cleansed soon, I fear I'm going to end up like-"

"You must not let defeatist thoughts like that take root in your heart!" Yachiyo interposed. "That will only hasten your decay!"

"Delete! Delete De-" Yachiyo dispatched an intrusive bunch of Cybermen with a guided series of halberd missiles. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" But another band of them forced her to take Nemu under her arm and flee for the high ground.

"If you are too weak to engage, then spare your energy and leave the fighting to us," Yachiyo advised. "This is, after all, an imaginary battle with imaginary stakes meant to distract them from the real-world plan we are presently hatching to save you and annihilate them!"

"But Touka's smart enough to see through such a feint," Nemu worried. Though she tried, she couldn't quite shake the mounting doubts and fears.

"Actually, the earliest versions of Cyberianoids were but mere children," The Cyber Regent revealed. "Well, they were built of spare parts of children harvested for their elders' survival." She issued two slashes that Sayaka dodged and ducked. "But their nascent race were keenly aware of the limitless creative and cognitive potential dormant inside the childish mind, so they preserved the brains to function as prototype Cyber Controllers and Planners, with the executable for collective consolidation being encrypted and embedded within the broadcast signal I detected permeating throughout the cosmos." Her umbrella clanged with Sayaka's scabbard. "As if they are a slumbering beehive waiting for their new queen to uncover and assimilate the data, then emerge from its proverbial wax cocoon so it can vanquish any and all upstarts. Coupled with my boundless ambition and intellect, I see no reason why that One should not be I."

"And here Kyubey's been whining about my big ballooning head," Sayaka remarked. "Sheesh!" She stepped back and spun herself around like a ballerina, mowing down a half dozen blitzing Cybermen. "I bet ya' never heard a grown-up tell you the word 'no' before, have you?" Like a chaotic pinball she banked hard from the last Cyberman back towards her opponent.

"Rotational speed thirty-two spins per second, launch angle forty-seven point one five degrees, approach velocity one-hundred six meters per second," Touka calculated as she put the sudden brakes on Sayaka's charge.

"Huh?" To Sayaka's gasping astonishment, The Cyber Regent brought her momentum to a dead stop with a pointed counter thrust.

"Hmph! To the contrary," The Cyber Regent shoved her dagger-tipped umbrella straight through the armored hand moving to protect the blue Soul Gem affixed to her belly button. "Any adult who denied me has wound up regretting the error."

"Guuuuhhaaaaahhh!" Sayaka struggled to stop it, but it was like trying to hold back the slow advance of a scrap metal crusher.

"Delete!" She twisted the jagged little thing. "Delete!" And pushed it in deeper. "Delete!"

"Heeeeeeeeyyyaaaaaaahhhhh!" Hitomi, meanwhile, was engaged in her own life-or-death battle of wills, against an adversary who seemed to calculate and match her moves beat-for-beat.

"Attack pattern identified," Gamma clinically stated, its long-poled axe meeting and clanging hard against its target's scythe. "Formulating counter-strategy."

"Unf!" Hitomi was knocked back but was undeterred. "You might know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you," she jabbed at Gamma's midsection. "Because I know everything you're going to do!" Gamma blocked it with a raised knee. "Strange, isn't it?" Hitomi responded with a sweeping kick to Gamma's other leg, knocking it down.

"Recalculating," Gamma averted a follow-up blow by rolling to its right side. "Delete! Delete!" It retaliated by kicking at the same spot on Hitomi's anatomy, even though its tactical program was insisting it could land a more lethal and effective blow with the concealed dagger sheathed within its leg armor. "Delete!" This erratic being was having an effect on the way Gamma was defending itself, effectively rendering all data points and counter strategies useless.

"You don't even understand why you're fighting me, do you?" Hitomi lashed out in anger. "You don't know anything beyond those pumped-in ones and zeroes." They each shot up and righted themselves before going right back to meeting their weapons half way. "Do you?"

"Update in progress," Gamma jabbed the pointed butt of its handle at the shining jewel at the base of Hitomi's neck. Its dataset identified such objects as a key point of weakness on such targets. "Execute!"

"Ack!" Hitomi clutched her chest in pain. "Tch!" But she was able to recover and tear a nonessential chunk off Gamma's battle garment. "You get told what to do and carry it out without question… The perfect little robot toy, aren't you?"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Gamma again echoed the words of its mechanical comrades, firing up the electrochemical reactions it surmised it needed to give itself the critical upper hand.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Its antagonist spat its own words back in a mocking rage. "Grrrrrrrraaggh!" There was something to this human's general cadence that struck Gamma as a match for another individual that Gamma had recorded previously and filed to memory. "Listen to yourself!" But it couldn't spare the processing power needed to determine the profile match while this creature kept throwing it off balance with such randomized maneuvers, this time she disrupted Gamma's sight by removing the extraneous fabric covering atop her head and slapping Gamma's visage repeatedly with it. "Ha!"

"Yachiyo, look out!" Felicia protected Yachiyo's flank with a big, sweeping hammer blow. "No fair ganging up on a girl from behind!"

"They see you as the vulnerable now because you're safeguarding the weakest link," Nemu detailed. "Me."

"Huuuuaaaap!" Yachiyo washed them aside with a conjured waterspout. But they got right back up and continued their lockstep advance. "Damn! I have an easier time killing cockroaches!"

"Nemu, more than anything your magic is being drained by your sustained connection to my existence!" Her AI creation Aoi noted. "I implore that you discontinue my existence without further delay!"

"Aoi, nooooooooooo!" Sana begged in response. "Please keep fighting with us! We need you! I need you!" She entombed a looming Cyberman inside an iron maiden torture device, before promptly destroying it.

"Heeeeeeey!" Felicia observed a bunch of wayward Cybermen taking the initiative on another project. "Whaddaya think those ones are up to?"

"Initiating heuristic analysis," the silver-clad troopers droned as ball lightning-esque flashes crackled around their marching forms. "Isolating brainwave patterns." They declared their intention outright. The girls at once experienced the jolting pains of a migraine headache.

"I theorize that, because you are all accessing this virtual plane through a shared connection to a Cyberman, they are trying to attack your brains directly, utilizing said connection." Nemu's AI partner deduced.

"Sayaka!" Hitomi had spotted her erstwhile friend's struggle against The Cyber Regina nearby.

"In a real-time matter of seconds, we will be using Gamma's electronic systems to transmit a resonant feedback surge straight into your neocortex, inducing a debilitating grand mal seizure to all connected organic minds." The Cyber Regent boasted.

"Gee, thanks for the warning," Sayaka sarcastically remarked, backstepping until she was just about pinned against a wall.

"Scientific curiosity compels me to wonder whatever notion could have made you believe your calculative capacity could in any way stand against our collective's might. For, even as an enhanced humanoid, you are constrained by the experiences of a mere individual."

"What can I say?" Sayaka responded. "Magical girl… Hope is a heckuva dopamine hit!"

"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaap!" Hitomi and her scythe dive bombed their way to Sayaka's aid, piercing the rocks and kicking up a ton of dirt and debris between the combatants. Gamma's response was to swoop in and ferry its Master to safety.

"Plus it never hurts to place a little faith in your friends, either!" A relieved Sayaka exclaimed.

"Wish I carried the same kind of faith in you right now," A teary-eyed Hitomi mouthed.

"H- Hitomi?" The confused Young Time Lady questioned.

"You're such a fool," Hitomi lamented. "All that posturing and gamesmanship, yet you didn't consider the possibility that the mind connection between you and me could be a two-way street?" She scolded. "That tapping into my head would let me see all the stuff inside yours?"

"You did?" Sayaka's brows scrunched together. "What have you learned?"

"Too much," She sniffed. "I know of that wish you made for Kyosuke, that you were the original pretend Saya, that you're not even from our Universe." She bought a few more seconds of privacy by slicing through a building support column and sending the collapsing rubble into a battalion of encroaching Cybermen. "That any apology out of you is also worthless because you've already swapped places with an AI-generated copy of yourself, and about to do the same with the others and leave me to face this scariness alone!"

"Sorry to have to do this to you, Hitomi," The Young Time Lady's facsimile offered it nonetheless. "Sorry to have to use you this way. But if you know all that, then you must also know who else offered to help us." They dodged a volley of laser fire by backflipping behind a wall of wreckage.

"Commencing counter-resonance wave! Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Can the real Sayaka guarantee she won't get hurt coming here?" Hitomi sent an energy burst forth from the chine of her scythe. With her experience she'd been able to craft her own fighting style and had taken to being a magical girl like a duck to water.

"My wish-" Sayaka's stand-in stopped and corrected itself. "Her wish granted her the magic to heal physical injuries. Even if the other safeguards fail, the girl is in no danger." It assured her. "Although Sayaka's healing comes with limit-"

"I know," Hitomi cut it off. "But I don't care what happens to me anymore." A quaking tremor steadily intensified around them. "It is what it is."

"I know how unfair it is to make you take on such a Tardisload," Sayaka's replacement sounded impressed. "The TARDIS… Did you-"

"I know all about her galactic galavanting too," Hitomi interrupted again. "Sightseeing through time and space, communing with giant faces in jars, fighting armored potato-men and being an immortal tourist through all history!" There was a palpable twinge of bitterness behind her words.

"Jealous?"

"No... I'm upset about the way she ran away!" Hitomi choked. "I know goodbyes suck, but I thought our friendship was steadfast enough to at least deserve one!"

"Terminating simulation! Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"And upon this silly charade's conclusion I will finally obtain my Codex," The Cyber Regent rubbed her hands in anticipation. "Execute!" She commanded her virtual horde.

"I see," Sayaka's image fizzled into pixels before reforming with one last message. "For team cohesion's sake, I shall return in a form more befitting of your spirit." The world around them was enveloped in blackness with only Gamma, its Master, Nemu, her creation and Hitomi bunched together and surrounded by the Cybermen army.

"My prize?" The triumphant Regent outstretched an expectant hand.

"Error," The unit designated as their lieutenant divulged. "No data match found in recursive search." Gamma recognized it as the same Cyberman that served as its subordinate during its struggle in the hallways, despite looking and sounding the exact same as every other Cyberman in the circle. "Abort? Retry? Fail?"

"How about none of the above," Gamma's Master said. "I tire of your bothersome obfuscations!" The Regent allowed her typical even-keeled demeanor to slip. "What have you done with my Codex?" The two girls and AI were accosted in a finger snap.

"The Cyberqueen Codex is a generative framework," Nemu's AI said. "Once the files have been unpacked and installed, the operating system can only function as part of a dynamic intelligence."

"And thus you have forced my hand," Gamma's Master huffed. The next sound to land in everyone's ear was that of an unsheathed blade penetrating what sounded to Hitomi like glass. "Downloading!"

"Touka!" Nemu shrieked. Her creation collapsed into Hitomi's arms.

"Err- Ror!" The artificial being croaked.

"Y- You fiend!" Its digital essence dissolved into nothingness before Hitomi could in any way comfort it. All she could think to do in reaction was lash out at the murderer, but she was again accosted by her own robotic reflection. "Unhand me!" She demanded to no avail.

"Its data packet contained nothing but junk files," Gamma's Master muttered. "I do not understand. Would this me-"

"Strada Futuro!" Their black backdrop was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant pink light.

"Error! Systems disrupting! Error!" The Cyber troopers' shells were penetrated by a hailstorm of energized arrows.

"I don't believe it!" Nemu gawked. Another flash and everyone was back inside the Kamihama zone. "Big Sister!"

"You won't be taking over or enslaving this world, Touka." Iroha Tamaki declared underneath a pink-hooded cloak and wielding a crossbow, flanked by the likes of Yachiyo, Felicia and Sana. "You can't do it, because that's what I wished for in my contract with Kyubey!"

"Welcome to the all-new Chinese Restaurant Banbanzai!" The twentysomething girl with a ponytail jutting from above her right ear and logoed apron greeted two steps into the door. "Where we serve only the mmmightiest of meals with only the mmmmmightiest of all-natural Chinese recipes!"

"We're expecting more company to join us later," Homura informed the waitress. "Do you mind if we simply take a seat and wait a bit before ordering? As we're not certain how many we're ordering for yet."

"Normally it would be against our guidelines as we're supposed to seat paying customers only." The young woman replied. "Buuuut…" Their eyes scanned around the newly-furnished dining establishment. In one booth sat an elderly couple enjoying the contents of a hot pot simmering between them. On the opposite end a pair of disappointed-looking foreigners were checking their phones while munching on some chicken and rice topped with egg yolks plus a roast beef sandwich with a side of dumplings. "What the hay? Grand Opening's been slow."

"Thanks," Sayaka bowed in gratitude. "May we take a booth with a window?"

"Over there." a finger point sent them to their preferred seats.

"How's your tush?" Homura asked while Sayaka gingerly slid into her side of the booth.

"Still sore from landing on it," Sayaka answered. Homura had mistimed her leap-and-catch over the miniature golf course's wall, and though she was able to bring Sayaka into her arms, they couldn't quite pull the stunt off as intended. Being a magical girl, Homura was no worse for the wear, but Sayaka suffered the indignity of her tailbone smacking into the pavement. "But I'll live." She reassured Homura. "You think the four of them made it out alright?"

"Kyoko is particularly adept at evading authority figures," Homura tossed her fingers through her hair. "Which that boy will no doubt view as the coolest quality a girl like that could have."

"Heh," Sayaka wanly smirked. "Madoka, on the other hand… Is a short-stride runner who's hampered by being practically glued to a boy who barely just learned how to walk again." She let out a worried sigh. "It's our fault for enabling Kyoko's mischievousness like that."

"Perhaps Kamijo will do the chivalrous thing and take the blame for their infraction," Homura suggested, whipping out his phone, which she had been using as a prop in her attempt to entertain the dating duos.

"Why're you messing with his phone?" Sayaka inquired.

"I want to see if there are any recent missed messages." Homura responded. "I presume, if they were caught, then the police would contact his parents who would, in turn, call and give him an earful over the phone." She couldn't stand this idleness and uncertainty. She needed to seek some answers in any way available.

"Gee, you might be taking a logical leap or three." But Sayaka could understand the girl's consternation. "Hey, how'd you know his-"

"It's Madoka's birthday." Homura wasted no time poking around.

"Oh." From her side of the table she could see his screen's wallpaper, which was a picture of the young couple sharing a parfait on New Year's Day. "Always thought he'd make it my birthday some day." She slid back and folded her arms.

"No recent calls or texts," Homura shared in a murmuring hush. "In fact, aside from some pre-arranged meetups with Kyoko's date, plus a few brief exchanges with the other boys, as well scheduled meetings with his physicians and musical tutors… All his social activity appears to revolve around Madoka. Strange how little presence his parents seem to have in his life."

"They're busy all the time. It's really not that weird," Sayaka divulged. "His dad's the main conductor for the Mitakihara Philharmonic Orchestra," she detailed. "That's how Kyosuke first got into classical music, and his mom's got this cushy gig as a cabinet secretary in the prefectural government. Plus his grandpa co-founded this big shipping business, so they're never hurting for cash."

"So they're upper-cruft and well-respected," Homura summed. "I think I remember hearing you share those details from earlier timelines. But I guess I never cared about the guy enough to retain it long." She scrolled back through his saved pictures. Almost all were photos of him and Madoka. A normal day, him and Madoka, grabbing lunch in the school cafeteria. Him and Madoka, arm-in-arm going for a walk in the park. Him and Madoka, feeding the birds. Him and Madoka, catching a sunset. Going a bit further back she happened across an image of him at the local ice rink, capturing a spur-of-the-moment image of Madoka twirling around on a pair of skates.

"Woah, I didn't know Madoka ice skated!" Sayaka blinked a dozen times in rapid succession. "Did you?"

"I did not," Homura zoomed in on Madoka's face. Amazed at how high the resolution of modern smartphone cameras, it captured in finer detail her contented visage looking upward past those arms bowed into a heart shape at her fingertips and up to the heavens above. It was beautiful, iconic even, in Homura's judgment. And right there on her face was the expression that brought it all together, her hopeful smile. It was the same exquisite unforgettable expression she showed Homura on her very first day in that very first timeline. It was the smile she wished relive and fought through so many timelines to save and protect. So why did it pain the pit of her gut to look at it? Was it longing to be the one who was there to snap the photograph, a childish envy she had best keep bottled inside if she were ever to accept the relative peace of this world? Or was there something deeper growling from within her very soul?

"I hear that!" Sayaka disrupted her distracted thoughts. "Sheesh, even those cheap buffet drummies smell like the yummiest thing on earth when you've got a killer meat craving!"

"We shouldn't have to wait much longer," Homura had to acknowledge the roar of her hungry tummy. "Ten minutes, then perhaps we'll both start by trying out their Kung Pao Chicken?" She turned his phone over and slid the thing aside.

"Sounds awesome to me," Sayaka concurred. She at first resisted the urge to grab the device, but it took less than four seconds for the boredom and curiosity to get the better of her. She reached for the phone, flipped it back over and started scrolling through more pictures. "Can I ask you something?" She broke the momentary bout of silence. "About your past. Our past, I mean. If it's not too difficult for you to think about?"

"What is it?" Homura had her chin resting in one hand on the table, cupping her ear with the other.

"Do you remember me ever making a wish for anything or any reason other than Kyosuke?" She happened upon a picture of a violin. It was his brand new instrument, imported from Italy and gifted to him by the Shizuki household not long after his discharge from the hospital.

"Not that I can recall." Homura disclosed. "It was one of the only consistently predictable things across the loops. That you would trade your life for Kamijo's happiness."

"Pfffffffffft!" Sayaka blew a subdued raspberry at the phone's image. "He gets these expensive gifts, designer clothes, lavish flower bouquets, and homecoming banquets fit for a prince. Was it any wonder I thought the only way I could compete was by selling my soul?"

"You're being too hard on yourself," Homura offered a few pat words of consolation. "You knew him for longer than even Madoka, yes? When put in that perspective, I can see how you'd be willing to give up everything for your very first friend." She followed it with words more thoughtful, considerate and from the heart.

"I suppose you're right." Sayaka glumly closed out of his picture gallery, and opened his music library. It was chock full of classical tunes, as expected. "Say, you ever listened to 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' by Mozart?" Her mood perked at the thought of something that may put their minds off their woes.

"Moe who?"

"Zart."

"Moe's art?"

"No. Here," Sayaka took out a small pair of wired earbuds from her leather coat pocket. She inserted it into the headphone jack of Kyosuke's phone, offered her the left piece and played a sample. "Take a listen."

"This?" Homura recognized the main melody. "I've heard it before. It's one of those songs that get played all the time in public squares, correct?"

"Yeah, it gets around a lot." Sayaka leaned a little closer. "It's one of those songs everybody's heard but few take a moment to actually listen to." She gave the volume a little bump. "Y'see, it sounds like the kind of thing that needs a full-sized orchestra to be played correctly, but it's really only performed by six instruments, and all of them are strings.."

"Is that right?" Homura pressed the earpiece a little tighter into her ear canal.

"Yeah." Sayaka nodded. "It was sort of supposed to be this disposable pop ditty back in the day. He made it to score some quick cash while he was composing an opera for the royal bourgeoisie. But its persistence and ubiquity into modern times demonstrates that even melodies made for the most commercial purpose can evolve into these eternally uplifting, evergreen songs that appeal to the aspirational sides of everybody, everywhere, from all walks of life."

"Wow, that was…" Homura's head fell to a tilt. "Kinda deep? Did you read those words in a book or magazine somewhere?" She had a hard time believing such nuance could come from Sayaka Miki of all people.

"Eh? You think I'm not capable of forming complex opinions of my own?" Sayaka grimaced and pouted her lips in offense. She tugged the earpiece straight out of Homura's lobe.

"Apologies," Homura begged her pardon. "It's just that you said it with such a straight-faced confidence that it sounded memorized to me." She picked up the little earbud and coyly rolled it between her thumb and forefinger. "Like, you had to learn it for a class report of some kind."

"Ah," Sayaka loosened her posture. "Actually… It came from my piano teacher." She admitted. "Part of it anyway. The background facts part. But the stuff about its lasting impact was all mine!"

"You had a piano teacher?" Homura put it back in. "Do you still play it?"

"Naw. Not anymore," Sayaka revealed, eyes drifting wistfully towards the hanging light above their table. "Not in like, four or five years now." The song had played through to the third go-round of its main melody set at a slightly lower key. Even over the combined chatter of the other patrons and the comparatively slow, subdued traditional Chinese music on the ceiling speaker overhead, Homura could hear its classical strings. "For a while I thought I could make myself a brilliant musician like Kyosuke." She put her hand up to the light, casting an eclipsing shadow over her face. "But my grubby meat sausages couldn't put what my head imagined into something beautiful. I got frustrated and stuck, then as it got worse over time my self-doubts were saying over and over that no matter how much I learned, how much I practiced or how hard I tried, the best I could ever hope to be was the Salieri to Kyosuke's Mozart. So I quit. Cold turkey."

"Gee, how unfortunate," Homura also put her eyes to Sayaka's outstretched paw. By the way Sayaka described her hands, it sounded like she deemed them to be too big, clumsy and unwieldy. But silently Homura disagreed. They were pretty hands, if the term could apply to such an unassuming appendage. The palm was smaller than Homura's, while her fingers were longer, feminine without looking too dainty or frail. Her nails appeared to be both moisturized and well-manicured, a surprise, and it contrasted with Homura's own short-trimmed nails and cuticle tips with skin tinged red by frequent cuts, scrapes and hangnails. "I've since met some magical girls who possess musical instruments as their primary weapons." She had to not wince reflexively at the sight of the purple diamond shape embedded underneath her left ring fingernail, her magical birthmark that was stamped more like a permanent bruise. "Learning that makes me imagine how you might have dressed and fought as one had the immediate urgency of Kamijo's situation not exerted its usual effect on you."

"Heh. You mean all else being equal, Kyubey somehow still finds me, sets the hook and reels me in?" Sayaka indulged Homura's hypothetical with a half-smile. "You ever watched those special effects shows where the good guys dress up in multicolored suits and fight alien monsters with toylike weapons and huge explosions and a giant robot that always saves the day while still totally wrecking a bunch of cardboard skyscrapers?" Homura nodded a little. "Probably something like that. A superhero in a shiny, skin tight suit with gloves, stylish boots, and a utility belt. Though like, maybe I'd ditch the face-covering helmet and go for a hood and a set of goggles instead."

"What? No cape?" Homura returned an intrigued half-smirk and a raised brow.

"I dunno. Capes are cool in theory but," Sayaka paused. "They're a little more trouble than they're worth, don'cha think?" As the song on the playlist faded out, she scrolled around in search of the next one. "Like, what if I were riding up an escalator in costume and the thing gets snagged? Or I had to go up against a witch that could spin up a big, sucking tornado vortex?" She happened upon another tune that caught her eye. "I'd be in for an embarrassing mishap at best, strangulation at worst!"

"Tch!" Homura's half-smile beamed into a full display of her upper teeth. "It's funny, hearing you be this self-effacing and reflective. I'm not used to it." She teased her hair behind her earpiece in a way that, coupled with that big, beaming grin, sent an electric tingle from the top of Sayaka's head all the way down to her toes. It was a heart-fluttering sensation she hadn't experienced since the first and only time Kyosuke treated her to a private recital as practice for an upcoming show. "Hm? Isn't this Beethoven?"

"Oops!" Sayaka looked down and realized her finger had slipped and clicked on the wrong piece. "I meant to play you a little bit of Bach." The mix-up had sent an extra surge of blood to the capillaries in her cheeks, turning them a beet shade of red. "Stupid-stupid tiny touch screens too small for my clutzy sausage fingers!" She rambled as a face-saving excuse, setting the phone on the table.

"It's okay. I can appreciate Beethoven." Homura tried to spare her the discomfort, even though she'd noticed those blushing cheeks and was saying it only to better resist the urge to reach out and give one a flirtatious pinch. "This is supposed to be his Fifth Symphony, correct?"

"Yeah," Sayaka looked down at the information on the screen. "It's a hard rock, electric guitar cover."

"By whom?" Homura leaned in. Closer than she was intending to go.

"Some highbrow indie, Euro-punk rock dudes…" Sayaka read. "Called 'The Dreamboys'." She could smell the light air of her friend's breath wafting through her hair and down her forehead. "Kyosuke's worldly like that." It carried with it that alluring scent of Missus Kaname's perfume, and perhaps even a hint of whatever that stuff was giving her lips that unique sheen. "Uhhhmmm," Sayaka could sense herself losing her whole train of thought, as a warm hand gently landed atop hers.

"Mmmmm," Homura's iris-enlarged gaze gradually met hers. On instinct her own mouth puckered up, as if in anticipation, the primal lust of an impending consummation with that set drifting ever closer. Like being aboard a hot air balloon landing, contact would be quick and jarring but she imagined the rush would linger long after the fact. "Mmuuuaaaa-"

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Welcome to Banbanzaiiiiiiii!" The voice of their hostess belted at the next guests through the door. "Where we serve the mmmightiest meals at the mmmmightiest low prices!" She took a little liberty with their standard greeting.

"Ugggggggggghhhhhh! All that runnin' and duckin' I am sstarrrvin' like there's no tomorrow! The next voice announced. This sent the pair tumbling awkwardly back into their respective seats. "Oh, hey! You guys made it outta there!" Kyoko boisterously shuffled over and greeted. They extricated their joined hands and shared earwear post-haste before she saw anything.

"Yeah." Both of them slumped down and rolled their eyes behind closed lids.

"So what's the evening special?" Her date Tokoi was right there in tow.

"To start we have our world-renowned Kung Pao Chicken, plus there's Wonton Soup with a side of fried dumplings. Or you can try our sweet-and-sour pork that comes with your choice of dimsum."

"Excuse me but," Kyoko's finger pointed at the vast food selection over by the far side wall. "Is that a buffet?"

"Yes." Their server guided everyone's attention to it. "For an additional eleven hundred Yen you can enjoy any three selections of buffet items or just skip straight to the buffet for a mere twenty-three hundred Yen total."

"Buffet." Kyoko wasted time on no other consideration. "Say nuthin' else! We're doin' the buffet!" She ordered in an impatient, almost demanding tone.

"I'll do the buffet, too." Homura waved the waitress back with a hand gesture. "What are you having?"

"I'll do the western fried Chicken, wings and legs," Sayaka requested. "An instead of a dessert, can I get a veggie salad with no dressing?"

"No problem!" Their waitress saluted on her way past.

"No dressing?" Tokoi took his place in the booth adjacent. "What, do you like chewin' raw grass or something?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but I've got a figure to keep!" Sayaka snapped at him.

"Have you two heard anything from either Madoka or Kamijo in the time since our sudden separation?" Homura inquired.

"Nope, we haven't heard anything after amscraying," Tokoi shook his head. "We were sorta hoping they'd meet up with us here."

"You've got her Romeo's phone on ya'!" Kyoko returned with a plate loaded with fried chicken wings, pulled pork, bacon-wrapped crab, shrimp poppers, french fries and onion rings. "Why donchya' give her a text, if it's botherin' ya' so much?" And that was for starters. She placed her plate on the table, grabbed another and quick-toed her way over towards the salad bar.

"Might be better to use your own phones, actually," Tokoi suggested, lurching over his booth seat and into theirs. "After all, just havin' his phone links you to the scene of the crime." He hush-hush whispered behind the back of his palm.

"I like the way ya' think," Kyoko mumbled on her way back carrying a plate of ramen noodles in one hand, tomato soup in the other, plus a fun-sized bag of pork rinds dangling beneath her snaggletooth.

"Where… Are… You…?" Sayaka beat Homura to the punch in tapping out the text message on her phone. "Are… You… Okay…?"

"Holy cow, that's a lot of food!" Tokoi gawked at his date's food choices. "Where does it all go when you're finished?" The joke came as an excuse to lavish his boyish gaze on her slender, feminine figure.

"Tch! Out my ah- Er, bum!" Kyoko playfully mooned him under her dress. "Heh-Heh!" Then she slid into her spot in the booth opposite him. "Want some?" She reciprocated his flirtation attempt by shoving a toothpick mounted piece of bacon on crab at his mouth.

"I suppose I should go make my meal choices at the buffet," Homura excused herself. "Do you want me to bring you anything while you wait for your order?" She offered her boothmate.

"Naw, that's okay," Sayaka answered in defiance of the sound coming from her tummy. "Ehh… Maybe a little slice of cake."

"What in the world are you wearing?" Kyoko had gotten a look at the home screen of Tokoi's phone. "Is that a Karate uniform of some type?" She decoupled her chopsticks and dug in on her meal, noodles first.

"Oh, this? Her date made a hesitant glance towards his phone. "It's a cosplay of mine, is all." He was a little reluctant to talk about his hobby on the first date. "My first."

"Uhhh-huuuhhnnn," Kyoko spoke through her slurps, in an endearing if unladylike way. "Cosplay. So what's the deal with that shi- stuff?" She stopped herself from using vulgarity while in earshot of an old couple. Although her mock mooning had already earned her a dismayed glance.

"Here you go," Homura slid Sayaka some cake. "It would appear by what it says on that plaque over there that this place derives its name and theme from a similar venue in Kamihama." She sat down just as the waitress was preparing to bring out Sayaka's order.

"So my Mom helped me sew the sash along the front there," Tokoi explained the details in the photograph. "And we used my bro's old school uniform as the base."

"Soooooo," Kyoko wolfed down a stack of fries. "You make this stuff just for fun, oooooor…"

"Did you ever take a little extra time to explore that town between your little club meetings?" Sayaka pressed, in a low, subdued voice. "Thanks!" She smiled and nodded upon the delivery of her order. "What's its deal? Kyoko's been telling me there's like, a ton of you guys in that area."

"That's a good question," Homura sipped her lite lemonade drink before dunking a shrimp popper into some Thai sauce. "I wish I had a sufficient answer. But it eludes me." She watched Sayaka use a chopstick to impale some tomato and carrot slices with one hand while stabbing and wadding some lettuce onto a fork with the other then shoving both into maw. "I did once take a little detour to their local library for a bit of basic intelligence gathering." She had to pause and stifle a derisive chuckle at the sight of Sayaka engaging in such an intercultural use of dining tools. "It's a lot like Mitakihara, in that they were both once quiet, working class villages that boomed in size and wealth immediately after the last Great War when refugees from firebombed cities like Tokyo and Toyama came and transformed them into cosmopolitan metropolises." Her amusement was supplanted by a bout of embarrassment upon realizing she'd neglected to grab a spoon, resorting to slurping some Chinese chicken soup with a spork. "They're comparable in size, population density, demographics and other statistical minutiae. But for whatever reason, that city is home to a far greater number of magical girls. I don't think that even those so-called leaders of theirs are truly aware of just how many there are."

"Yeah, most of it is just for fun," Tokoi replied in the booth seat behind them. "Others do it as a way to show off their artistic side, and then there's people who do it to find a sense of community through the expression of their love for characters in manga, anime and movies." His eyes drifted down to the overstuffed plates on the table. "Actually, I guess technically my first cosplay was when I cut and pasted together a bunch of shoeboxes back when I was seven." He always had trouble figuring out when and where the appropriate time was to share this next tidbit about himself. "You see, my parents separated, so my mom was pretty in the dumps, so I tried cheerin' her up by dressing as a superhero she and I would watch on TV together." But the tale was so critical to who he is, that he couldn't just leave it out. Present circumstances be darned. "She's been helping me make and sew costumes ever since."

"So ya' do it to bond with yer mom, huh?" The revelation didn't seem to dampen Kyoko's mood. "That's nice." Nor her appetite, as she chowed down on some pulled pork. "Ya' still see yer dad?"

"Sounds like it's something you should be talking to Kyubey about," Sayaka suggested in a low-key tone. "Next time." She sipped some soda through a straw then used her chopsticks to pick up a chicken leg and take a nibble.

"I'm sure he'd say something vague and unenlightening about meeting energy quotas and the Kamihamans fitting some ambiguous specialty." Homura sighed, using the forked bit on her spork to chase down a couple loose noodles. "Towards the end I started to think and strategize the way he would've. In effect trying to beat him at his own game. But I've spent the better part of the last nine months trying to cleanse that kind of thought process from my head."

"From time to time," Tokoi recalled. "But he's such a workaholic. If my hobbies don't involve making money or acquiring useful skills, he questions the point of it." He reached for and took one of Kyoko's shrimp rolls. "Like he never incorporated the word 'creativity' into his vocabulary.

"Bummer." Kyoko dejectedly breathed. Out next came a burp. "Still… He's around. Long as that's true, you can make peace." Followed by a hiccup.

"Why are you doing that?" Homura watched Sayaka pick up another chicken wing with chopsticks.

"It's greasy food," Sayaka bit and chewed. "I don't wanna get it all over my hands." She added upon swallowing.

"So? I've watched you dine on junk food with your bare hands before," Homura commented with an upturned brow. "Just use some napkins."

"What about your folks?" Tokoi flipped the question session around. "You been keepin' in touch with 'em back in your hometown… Where was it?" He paused for a brief moment. "Kazamino?"

"Aaaaack!" His question caused Kyoko to almost choke on an onion ring.

"Yeeeeah, but that was when it was between the bunch of us as friends and in private," Sayaka excused. "When there's other people around, I try to act a little more," She hesitated, trying to find the correct word. "What would they call it? Fancy? Formal? Ladylike? I dunno."

"But you just used a combination of a fork and a chopstick to dig into your salad," Homura observed. "A neat innovation, but it's about as far from proper etiquette as dining gets."

"Sorry to pry," Tokoi apologized, sliding a glass of water Kyoko's way. "I didn't mean to upset you." He slouched down in his seat.

"It's fine," Kyoko coughed. "It's fine!" She repeated more intelligibly. "You were jus' makin' normal chit-chat. I don't blame ya'." She glugged the water and rubbed her throat with two fingers. "No. I effed up big time and now it's beyond my power to fix." She slumped down in much the same ashamed way as he.

"Those fellows over there are tourists who probably don't understand much of our language or customs," Homura pointed out. "And by all appearances that old couple looks as if they're hard of hearing and preoccupied with their hot pot dinner." She stopped at the sound of the coughing fit the next booth over and spared a moment to lean to the right and check on Kyoko. "And those two are certainly not qualified judges of character."

"It's not them that's got me so self-conscious, alright?" This time Sayaka had her fork in her fingers and was utilizing it as her second chopstick. "It's something about you. And the way you look, alright?"

"Me?" Homura put her hand to her chest in a surprised manner.

"The way your face shines with Missus Kaname's make-up." Sayaka said. "It makes me wanna clean up my act a little too, y'know?" She picked up a shred of lettuce with her fingers and nibbled at a corner like a rabbit. "Take smaller bites. Chew with my mouth closed. Talk more politely. Put on a more serious air, basically."

"Lemme ask you somethin'," Kyoko leaned in and whispered, though her voice was a little hoarse thanks to remnant pieces of the onion ring. "Purely hypothetical, a sorta 'gettin' to know you'-type question." She took a large sip from a complimentary glass of water the waitress had dropped off during her coughing fit. "If you could say… Swipe a time machine, and as the person you are today, travel back to the worst moment of your life and try to fix it, wouldya?"

"Uhhhhhhhh," Tokoi's eyelids blinked rapidly in his dumbfoundedness. "Like, if my life was suddenly some high-concept sci-fi adventure anime?" He had a glib answer on hand for such a left field question, but the strangely earnest, solemn way Kyoko proposed it, seemed to demand he put a serious level of thought to the question. "Lemme think."

"So you are deliberately altering the way you behave, based on the way I look?" Homura's head tilted. She blinked once. It tilted another few degrees. Then she blinked twice more. The tilt spread to the rest of her upper body as she blinked three additional times. "But Kyoko's also wearing make-up. Plus it's on her face courtesy of Madoka. Does seeing her look that way not exert any similar effect on you?"

"Kyoko's different," Sayaka tried explaining. "She's pretty and all, but in a huggable way." She cut off some loose chunks of chicken attempting to buy some time to think about what to say next by forking and ingesting it. "You're pretty, in a way that hits different." Next she stirred around the ice in her beverage and took a drink.

"Geez, I don't know," Tokoi scratched the back of his head. "Do-overs like that always sound great on paper, but going by all the stories I've seen from shows, books and games, you shouldn't just try and change something so important from your past unless you've got the tools and know-how to take every step carefully and do it exactly the right way, hehe." he tacked on a little chuckle as a way to relieve his discomfort. "I don't know about you, but in my case my folks were just evolving into two people too different to stick together. And I'm not sure if there's anything present me could say or do that would help them make it back then, because just having the best intentions ain't good enough unless you understand the real reason why you're trying." He snuck a few shrimp poppers off Kyoko's plate and munched on them. "And you know, success doesn't guarantee instant happiness, you've also gotta have the will and the guts to follow through and ride out whatever ripple effects your changes create afterwards. Hehehe." He grabbed the same glass of water Kyoko had just cleared her throat with, and took a gulp and a gurgle. "Di- Did that answer anything for you or was I just being a babbling geek or something?" He detected a little of her apple-flavored lip gloss in the aftertaste.

"Naaww, I get the gist of it," Kyoko pouted her cheeks and massaged her throat. "Thanks for not bee-essin' it." She also had to fan herself with her other hand, as something in her blood was suddenly making her all hot and bothered.

"Different how?" Homura pressed, her lips trembling, her body leaning in and hunching ever closer to the girl on the opposite end of the table.

"Different liiiiiiiiiike…" Sayaka closed her eyes, turned her head and was ready to let whatever was about to happen next, happen. "Thi- Waaaaah!" She abruptly sensed the trembling buzz of the cell phone going off in her pocket.

"Madoka!" Homura exclaimed as soon as she could read the screen Sayaka had whipped it onto the table.

"She's in the back of a cop car!" Sayaka gasped. "With Kyosuke! And it's taking her home!" Both their hearts skipped a beat as the three little dots on the screen bounced in anticipation of the incoming details.

"She and Kamijo couldn't flee from the golf course fast enough," Homura read. "So she voluntarily turned herself in." Her heart sank upon seeing the update. More dots signaled that she had even more news to share.

"Eh?" Sayaka reacted to what came up next. "She's fine. Turns out the cop wasn't even sent to investigate us?"

"Hnnnnnggh!" Both girls palmed their faces after reading that. "The officer was there to investigate a noise complaint just outside the facility gates." Homura continued.

"There was a darn cat with its head stuck in a birdhouse mounted up a tree," Sayaka recapped the next part..

"Wasn't just any cat," Homura shared. "It's Amy. The stray to which Madoka feeds and gives affection whenever it visits her house." She let out a huge sigh of relief. "That little beast really likes to wander the city."

"She convinced the cop she was out with her boyfriend looking for the cat, and that they went inside the place so that they could climb the tree and free the thing." Sayaka announced with a shared sense of ease. "She's sorry she made us worry and sorry she and him can't finish out the date with us here. But she's okay, Kyosuke's okay, and the cat will be fine too." A serene smile bloomed across her face. "Happy ending. She'll see us first thing tomorrow." She put her phone away and let her back go limp in her booth seat. "I think that might be the most 'Madoka' story I've ever heard in my life! Wheeeew!"

"I know what you mean," Homura allowed herself to smile at this fortuitous turn. "But the Madoka I knew, would never so brazenly deceive an officer of the law. I would suppose that's Kyoko's bad influence, starting to rub off on her."

"Did you just make a joke at Madoka?" Sayaka prodded. "Bwaaaahahahaaa! That's pretty good. But your delivery's still a little on the awkward side."

"I'll work on it," Homura stifled a giggle. "In time." It felt a little overindulgent to be laughing at her own joke. Not to mention, a little mean to laugh at Madoka while she wasn't there.

'Hey!' Homura's moment of levity was disrupted by a very pointed telepathic message coming from Kyoko. 'You been gettin' the same funky vibes as I'm gettin' right now?'

'I'm not sure what you mean by that.' But no sooner than Homura responded she could sense a certain stomach-piercing vibe which killed her mood. It was an autonomic reaction to a familiar type of charged magic drawing in proximity. Emotionally driven, it was the signature of another magical girl moving with purpose and she was drawing near, fast. 'Oh.' "Shit!"

"Shit?" Sayaka caught her stray aloud exclamation.

'Feels like Blueblood and her pal are on the warpath! Kyoko added. On cue, Homura also sensed their second trespasser. More surprising, and worrying, is that the aura closing in beside Konoha Shizumi belonged to Nanaka Tokiwa. That an otherwise antagonistic pair would be roaming the streets of Mitakihara at this hour, could only mean they were here to stir some trouble.

"Excuse me," Homura politely but urgently waved down their waitress. "Could we get some carry-out bags?"

"Something wrong?" Sayaka sensed something amiss.

'Do we tussle or run?' In an uncharacteristic turn, Kyoko asked for Homura's advice first. "We prioritize the safety of everyone else here first," Homura whispered over the booth. "Then I'll investigate whatever they're trying to instigate." She quickly scooped and dumped their food into the bags.

"Who died and made you Mami?" Kyoko argued.

"Kyoko please," Homura urged. "It's your date night. Don't end it in a needless fight. Leave!"

"Ffffffffiiiiiinnnne!" Kyoko relented loudly, to her boy's confusion. "Sorry!" She stood up and tugged her dress. "Nature's callin' me!"

"Hey, bud!" On their way out, one of the tourists turned his friend's attention on his phone. "Check it out. I snapped a pic of those two chicks totally about to start makin' out!"

"Tch!" His friend nudged it away. "Dude, they were schoolgirls! Have a little respect for privacy!" They were passed by two similarly-aged girls in fedoras and trench coats.

"To think they would so grossly insult the Yui family by co-opting the name of their restaurant." The shorter girl noted.

"Your source had damn well better be correct about this place!" Her companion warned. "She's absolutely certain this establishment hides a criminal stronghold underneath?"

"One of the conditions she spelled out before becoming my deputy was that I do not question her intelligence gathering connections or information methods." She pulled out a ceremonial white and red Japanese Kitsune mask and handed it to her comrade. "Alright, once we're inside, it is likely we will first encounter some surveillance systems. Wear this to obfuscate your face. Should the need to converse verbally arise, your codename is 'Fox'." Over her own face, she put on an Okami mask. "And mine shall be 'Wolf'.

"Huh?" The elderly husband cupped his ear to the whistling alarm sound blaring overhead.

"Alright, everyone!" Their host waitress tried to shout over the sound. "Our fire alarm's been tripped. If you could, please proceed calmly out the front door."

"Welp. My job here's done," Kyoko winked and pointed at Homura in passing in the backroom hallway leading to the bathrooms. "Don't you start no stupid shit tonight either, comprende?"

"Will you please explain to me what hell is going on?" Sayaka pushed through the door and witnessed Homura's magical persona emerge from a purple flash behind one of the toilet stalls. "Is- Is there a Grief Seed hatching someplace?"

"Not exactly," Homura gave a test spin to her buckler. "Damn!" Time continued as normal. "I'm sorry." She apologized. "But you're going to have to get as far from me as you can for a little bit." She unlatched the stall's lock, swung it inward and the two were standing face-to-face.

"What?" Sayaka's head turned to a flummoxed angle. "Why?"

"Please, will you just do as I ask?" Without thinking or asking she placed a quick pecking kiss atop the young lady's forehead.

"Sorry, Lil Missy. This section's off limits to- Aaauugh!" The hard thud of the cook's head against the drywall reverberated into the bathroom.

"Y- You're not about to pick a fight with somebody, are you?" Sayaka caught Homura's arm as she broke for the exit.

"I don't know." Homura's honest answer didn't compel Sayaka to let go, rather she pulled tighter. Homura's immediate and primary impulse was to give this fool a good, hard slapping. Remind her that, as a mere human being there was nothing she could do besides get in the way. But in that singular moment, through a passive exchange of troubled expressions, Homura saw that this girl's motive was not to tag along and play dumb action girl as Sayakas past would have tried. No, this was one genuine friend looking for reassurance from the other. "Don't worry." In a dramatic motion Homura threw her arm around Sayaka's back, puckered her lips and forced Sayaka's mouth open.

"Mmmmmmmpph!" Sayaka reacted at first with pure shock, then a brief flashback to her last girl kiss, before finally submitting herself to Homura's will. "Mmmmmuuuuuaaah!" Her grip on Homura's arm slipped. Her jaw finally clicked open and hung slack. It took the alluring aftertaste of Junko's cosmetics on her lips to ratchet it back together.

"If you get yourself to safety then I promise I'll come back." Homura released her, trotted out the door and towards the commotion. "I'll be back!"

What was she going to do? What was she going to do? What was she going to do? Junko Kaname did not take this job expecting to be a party to a young girl's capture, confinement and cruciation. And now her sane, sound mind was telling her, nay insisting, she should quit right here on the spot, storm out and wash her hands of this whole godforsaken organization, the consequences be damned.

Except no. The fallout from that could not be ignored. She agreed to commit, she signed contracts, went through training and accepted this mantle of responsibility. They would never let her so easily step out that door. It was more likely that she too would be detained, disciplined and defrocked, such was the nature of being an adult. There was no such thing as simply walking away. The stakes were too high.

But her damn conscience, that troublesome bleeding heart residing in the back of her brain, wasn't going to abide by this sight of these clinical, detached lot of scientists having their way with this frightened little soul. It was telling her it was within her power to fix this farcical dilemma, and do the right thing.

"Fascinating!" One scientist observing the egg on the table turned to his counterpart. "What do you make of that black particulate matter coalescing around the base?"

"I think a more fitting term would be 'expanding'. And fast." The other scientist remarked. "And if that is so, what do you hypothesize will happen should the blackened stuff overtake that lighter material up top, and how long do you calculate it will take?"

"Madoka, it is important to be honest with the people you trust and who trust you back, but at the same time you've got to understand they won't all deal with your candor the same way." She recalled herself saying one late night at the kitchen table. "Good intentions alone aren't enough to end in good outcomes, the best you can do is try to play each case by ear and predict how those people are gonna respond." She was so drunk off her horse that night. "And if you think it's a situation where telling the truth is gonna cause more trouble than it's worth, you should choose your words more carefully, and tweak the truth in just such a way that they'll react better." Yikes. Basically told the kid to lie. Spewing such nuanced life lessons to her teen and expecting the girl to interpret it the way Junko's alcohol-intoxicated logic intended? Such piss-poor parenting. She should be the one in cuffs.

"Yes, General. That's correct." Miss Yamano was on the phone with a superior. "UNIT Euro is going to take ownership of the item." She repeated. "What of the subject?" She listened intently to the answer. "Really? Blacksite Seven… All the way down there? Is that necessary?" Standing next to her was Doctor Taylor trying to listen in.

"CERN's Quantum Research Institute is the department most keen on getting their hands on our trinket there." He presumed. "Whooooboy."

"Not a fan of theirs, I take it?" Miss Yamano set the phone on a nearby fax machine. The proper paperwork was churning its way through the line to the printer.

"Madoka, there are going to be situations where you won't be granted enough time to think things through fully." Another late night life lesson flashed into memory. "When that happens, and inaction is your worst option, doing something that might at first seem foolish could wind up working in your favor. So don't be afraid to try." What? That's stupid! And yet, here Junko was, wasting precious seconds dwelling upon her own offbeat, droopy-eyed wisdom. Maybe there was some merit to her ramblings? Maybe there was something useful?

"I've been loosely acquainted with a few of their senior theorists." Malcolm Taylor detailed. "Via their published papers and journals. I'll just say it's a little difficult to place much faith in a lot with whom nearly half are convinced the Universe is a simulation as if their equations were working towards some new age religious movement, while the others are motivated by the cushy six-figure sums they'll get once the 'Move fast and break things' people come calling." He took off his glasses and rubbed off a smudge with his undershirt. "Speaking strictly personal, of course. Not as UNIT liaison."

"Madoka, I can tell you that all the people I know who work at my company alongside me are good moral people who are just trying to make it through this life without causing too much hassle or fuss." She couldn't help but think of those late night chats, this girl's resemblance to her daughter was invoking them. "Then one of the defining moments of your grownup life will happen when you find yourself among just such a big group, and they're complicit in a decision you might not necessarily agree with."

"P- Puh- Puhhleeeeaaaase!" The bound and blindfolded little girl pleaded. "Someone, p- P- P -Please, help meeee!" She whimpered.

"You then gotta ask yourself if you prefer to be someone who keeps their head down, goes along to get along, defers to authority and minds her own dang business?" Junko had a particular memory of that session. It was not too long after that mysterious storm sent them all to stay for a stint at the emergency shelter. "I'm not denigrating those types when I describe them, there's nothing wrong with being that way. That's your father, that's ninety percent of humanity. They're the reason people are able to put up with one another at all." She was comparatively sober that night, in part because her co-workers were still busy cleaning up the aftermath, but more because for the first time in a few years Madoka had come home with a new friend for an impromptu sleepover. "Do you want to blend in like that, or want to be someone who rocks the boat, ruffles feathers, takes a stand and is damn proud of that, even if the outcome may ultimately not vindicate you in the end?"

"I'm not sure yet," Madoka replied. "But I think I'd rather be in that second group."

For the longest time Junko believed she belonged in that second group too. But as the sounds of the guards' jackboots echoed outside the door, and the security locks buzzed, she realized that this would be that one pivotal, defining moment in her life to prove it.

"My hand is on the table directly under you," Junko clandestinely whispered. "Bite it right now."

"Eh?" The blindfolded girl questioned.

"Just do it before they walk in," Junko commanded. "And trust me no matter what I say out loud."

"Incorrect passcode!" The automated voice squawked.

"No, no," One guard said to the other. "It's seven-two-six, one-eight-"

"Yeeeeeaah I got it I got it!" His annoyed comrade snorted. "Fuggin' passcodes!"

"Gaaaaaaahh!" Junko recoiled in pain. But she had to act a little bit. Either the girl was too scared to bite with force, or she still had some baby teeth left. "Ya' dumb little brat!" She smacked the girl upside the head hard enough to dislodge her blindfold. The first and hopefully last time she'll ever have to lay a hand on a child.

"Missus Kaname?" A warped voice came through the speaker just as the guards opened the door and stepped in. "Is everything alright?" Junko presumed the voice was Yamano's.

"Yeah," Junko replied. 'See me? Stare at me.' She lip-synched a silent follow-up message. 'Keep staring.' "She bit me, that's all!"

By then the taller guard had noticed the blindfold wasn't secure. "Hey!" He was a split second away from knocking her cold upside the head with a swing of his baton "You little bi-" When a discharged handgun round knocked it out of his gloved mitts.

"Missus Kaname?" The voice on the other side crackled. "What in the hell are you doing?"

"I don't know," Junko's grip on her Sig Sauer was shaking. "I- I don't seem to have control of my arm at the moment." Ears ringing, adrenaline pumping, that was the luckiest shot she'd ever fired. "Uh- Ohhhhh!" Maybe all that practice had finally paid off. Also helped that it was at darn near point-blank range. "Crap!" The gun slowly swung around to her own temple. "No way!" She wasn't about to risk the lives of the guardsmen, so that logically meant there was only one potential hostage.

"G- G- Ge- Let me outta here!" More luckily, the girl seemed more or less in step with what Junko was attempting. "O- Or else sh- She bl- Bl- Bites it!"

"Oh," Doctor Taylor hiccuped a shocked gasp. "That's Alien Hand Syndrome. It must've infected her with a muscular pathogen of some kind through the bite!"

"Can witches do that?" Yamano asked amid a bunch of befuddled glances exchanged in the adjacent room.

"Can't.. Seem… To… Look away… From… Her gaze!" Junko spoke in as dramatic a cadence her meager performative skills allowed.

"'C- Cuz I've got her under my spell!" Again the little lady was astute to Junko's game. "S- So untie me and let me goooo- Heheheheheheeeheeeee!" She forced an unconvincing maniacal cackle between those scared, chattering teeth.

"We should listen to her, you guys!" Junko insisted. "It's taking everything I got to not squeeze this trigger!" The other guard promptly freed their captive from her chair restraints. Next she heard the door buzz and swing open behind her. A quick look back revealed the one granting their exit was the female guard she'd been conversing with before.

"What now?" Miss Yamano reacted to a little red indicator bulb blinking on the phone. It was an emergency light. "Yes?" She picked it up.

"We might be able to keep her mischief in check if we secure that egg," Doctor Taylor promptly took over command duty. Yamano acceded with a single nod. "You two, wherever they go, you take that thing and head in the opposite direction."

"Aw, geez!" Junko and the girl hastily shuffled their way out into the hallway. So thankful she was to be out of that interrogation room, the girl did not wait for her straightjacket to be undone. The pair broke towards the elevator, with her beaming Junko a most Madoka-esque hopeful young smile.

"There's a Lead-lined safe down on Level C-Nine," Doctor Taylor instructed the scientists. "Place it in there. The Lead may be able to block whatever radiative energy it's emitting."

"On second thought," Junko reconsidered. "They could cut the power and trap us inside. Best find the stairs."

"Okie-dokie!" The girl nodded in both gratitude and agreement. It looked to Junko like she was trying to muscle and flex her way out of her restraints.

"Spare your energy," Junko advised. "You're not getting out of that thing on your own." She was careful to keep the gun to her head and her finger near the trigger in case there were any security cameras concealed somewhere.

"I'm super strong- Nnnnnnngh!" The girl wriggled and tugged. "I can- Nnnnnnnnngh! Nnnnnnnnngh! Bust it on my own! Nnnnnnnngh!" They came across a red-painted door with a staircase visible through the window. "Really! Nnnnnnnngh! I can! Nnnnnnnnngh!"

"We may have another bad situation brewing topside," Miss Yamano informed the group back in that room. "That was the automated fire alarm calling. I can't get in touch with anybody up there to fill me in." She drew in a deep breath, and dialed the number that connected her to the loudspeakers on every level. "Security breach! Mobilize all security personnel and deploy them at once! This is not a drill! I repeat! This is not a drill!"

Chapter Text

"Nanaka Tokiwa! Konoha Shizumi!" Homura Akemi charged into the restaurant's backrooms and called out the two magical intruders by name. She'd only met them a few times prior, first during Walpurgisnacht, and then at Mami's meetings. "State your reason for this invasion of our hunting territory!" But she knew enough about the pair to understand they only respected those who could back strong words with equivalent action. "Or I'll report this incident to Mami Tomoe!"

"Grrrrah! Ooof! Unnnnngh!" Homura followed the pained sounds of an adult male being assaulted near the meat freezer. As she ran she passed by the unconscious body of the very waitress who had served their meals minutes earlier. More alarmingly, there was also an undischarged Beretta 98 handgun on the floor beside her.

"Wha- Hrrrrrrrrck!" And just like that, Homura found herself pinned to a wall, with Konoha administering the chokehold while the shorter Nanaka restraining her left arm and buckler. The two were quite the battle pairing, having already deduced Homura's weakness.

"Shhhhhhhhhhh!" Nanaka hushed with a raised finger to her wolf mask. "We'll warn you once. Do not speak our names from here on!" Nanaka was the first to release her grip on Homura. But for Konoha to follow suit it took a light nudge to the rib from her comrade.

"This is a mission to liberate one of our own," Konoha disclosed. "Either join us as Mitakihara's operative, or get the hell out of our way and never dare show your face to me again!" Even partially concealed behind the stylized eye holes of a Kitsune mask, Homura could tell through her gaze Konoha was rearing to be kicking ass and taking names. And that Homura would be the first up if she didn't accept her 'invitation'.

"Shit!" Homura relented with an English vulgarity. "Alright, fine. I'm in." She was also all too aware of the greater stakes, that to decline and walk away would undermine their confidence in Mami. Which, in turn, would all but brick their budding intercity alliance. "But before I take another step, brief me of what I need to know."

"Earlier today, one of Fox's team was kidnapped, tossed into an unmarked van and transported to your city," Nanaka detailed. She fished through a duffel bag.

"Via Wolf's lieutenant, we learned there exists an offshoot sect of Yakuza who engage in a disgustingly revolting form of child trafficking," Konoha exposited. "And that one of their probable hideouts is fronted by this eating establishment in Mitakihara." She formed her weapon and began knocking on the walls with it.

"And you fear she's already been victimized by them?" Homura pressed. "Thus your urgency?" Still, even with the evidence of guns in a place they didn't belong, something felt amiss regarding their conclusion. "But how could a bunch of gangster goons capture and contain a magical girl?"

"The element of surprise and sheer brute force, I surmise." Nanaka extracted a similar-looking red and white dog mask. "Put this on. Best we could find on such short notice." She helped fasten it to Homura's head. "Your codename henceforth is 'Shiba Inu'."

"How come you guys get a generic species name, but I'm a diminutive breed?" Homura complained.

"Would you rather we called you 'Dog'?" Konoha retorted.

"Objection withdrawn." Homura uttered. She too was now knocking on walls searching for a concealed entry point. At least, that's what she assumed the other two were searching for. "Over there." But going about the room she noted an incongruity with the overall layout. "The molding at the bottom of that wall doesn't line up properly with its adjacent pieces." There were times she considered ceasing the magical enhancement she made to her sight and going back to wearing glasses. "And those skid marks indicate a disproportionate level of foot traffic." But here she was thankful for keeping the enhancement.

"Mmmhmmm…" Konoha pounded hard enough to hear the reverberating clang of metal behind it. "Excellent call." She lodged her butterfly staff underneath a small gap at the bottom "A little help here?"

"Hnnnnnngh!" Both Nanaka and Homura inserted their slender fingers and lifted. The phony wall promptly retracted up, revealing an elevator door.

"Since we're not sensing a Soul Gem, it's likely she's being held much lower down," Nanaka noted, prying it open with her blade and exposing the shaft and cables.

"Looks like we're standing atop a pretty extensive facility," Homura leaned in and looked. "I count at least a dozen stops below us. I trust you two have a gameplan?"

"Start from the lowest depths of hell, find her then fight our way up," Konoha leapt for a cable and slid down it like a rope. "And woe to all who dare oppose us."

'We'd best limit our verbal interactions from here on, Shiba Inu,' Nanaka descended next. 'And do our best to bridle Fox's burgeoning fury.'

"Greeeeat," Homura muttered, drawing a Desert Eagle from her buckler before taking the plunge. Once she landed atop the elevator's roof she cocked it. Nanaka went to work slicing it open like a tin can with her katana, and they jumped into it.

"Freeze!" A commanding male voice flanked by three greeted them in the corridor on reveal. "Don't mo-" He did not finish his ultimatum before being rushed and beaten upside the head by Konoha.

"Open f-" Nor could his subordinate issue any warning, as Nanaka drew her blade and sliced the barrel off his assault weapon. "Aaaaaack!" Then she neutralized him by butting his forehead with her hilt.

"Retreat! Call in ba- Auuuuugh!" The third fellow was taken out by a swift heel kick from Homura. She opted to go hand-to-hand the moment she took full notice of the group's equipment and attire.

"Unnnnnnf!" The fourth guy was promptly disarmed and bounced from the ceiling to the floor.

"Tell us where you keep your captives!" Konoha demanded with her deathgrip close to crushing the poor man's larynx.

"Ptui!" But the young man did not show fear. Instead, he spit on her mask.

"Grrrrrrrrrr!" And for that sleight, Konoha was ready to end him.

"Wait!" Homura intervened before she committed the heinous act. For her good deed, Homura found herself on the receiving end of a most venomous glare. "Something's not right here."

'What do you suspect, Shiba Inu?' The much more even-tempered Nanaka telepathically lent an ear. Her light touch to Konoha's shoulder was also enough to make the young woman let up. Their prey passed right out from a lack of oxygen.

'Wolf, I've raided Yakuza hideouts. Those lowlifes don't come equipped with padded helmets or tactical gear.' Homura picked up the automatic rifle and stuffed it inside her buckler. 'Or these fully automatic rifles.' In a prompt switchover she pulled out a grenade launcher.

"Enemy contact!" The next wave came calling. "Open fire!"

"Shit!" Homura hit the deck, pulled the trigger and blew two tear gas-loaded canisters their way.

"Masks on! Masks on!" Their opposition stopped firing to don the extra protection. Unfortunately for them, the opening was ample time for Konoha and Nanaka to charge in and lay the beatdown.

'They also don't make a habit of carrying gas masks either." Homura relieved each of the fallen men of their armaments. But the last gun she took was of a special significance. 'This thing's an FN P90. A specially-manufactured NATO tool, not a black market commodity!'

'An 'effin' P90? What the hell are you getting at?' Konoha blew away the gas with a twirl of her staff and cleared the corridor.

'This place has to be a government operation of some kind," Homura warned. 'Either JSDF or…'

"Get down!" Nanaka shoved her associates to the floor. "Ungh!" While she was felled by bullets whipping and tearing into her flowery magenta kimono.

"Wolf!" Konoha shouted. Two men had appeared and fired from behind them.

"Guuuuuaah!" Homura knocked one down by bouncing a fired canister of his body armor. Then she took out the other one with a rocketing screw kick to the stomach.

"You're hurt!" Konoha saw splotches of red dripping from Nanaka's sleeves.

"A flesh wound," Nanaka insisted. "I don't even feel it."

"Even so," Konoha placed her hand above the injury. In a simple vaporous puff, Nanaka's skin was mended.

'You're a healer?' Homura asked, her eyes keeping watch for more attackers.

'In training,' Konoha messaged. 'A recent recruit in my squad is teaching me. I've progressed to the point where I can fix minor bumps and scrapes without too much exertion.'

'We need to keep moving, Fox.' Nanaka insisted. 'Shiba Inu, by what you speak, you sound as if you have some experience navigating man made labyrinths such as this one.'

'I've also raided and pillaged some military installations for supplies on occasion,' Homura divulged. 'But very late at night with an additional advantage I no longer possess.'

'Even so you have am amount of expertise that we do not. I feel that if we're to both locate our objective and make it out unscathed, then our chances are better with you taking point.'

"Very well," Homura agreed aloud. 'They're obviously not coming at us from the elevator. Which means the complex has one, more likely two or three stairway access points.' She resumed talking telepathically. 'And if this is a government facility as I suspect, then the law would mandate they install an emergency staircase with a detailed floor plan from level to level.'

'Right.' Nanaka nodded. 'That's the move. First locate the emergency stairs, and get better oriented.'

'It goes without saying, but they're gonna fight us nearly every step of the way.' Homura added. 'Tempting as it may be to plow them, we mustn't escalate. There is to be no use of lethal force.' She turned towards Konoha. "Okay?"

"Tch!" Konoha scowled. 'No guarantees.'

"Whoops." Junko stopped the young lady from taking an erroneous step. "Security camera. Right there." She pointed at it in the corner on the level above.

"What do we do?" The girl, still wrapped in a straightjacket, fretted.

"Ever tried dancing before?" Junko asked rhetorically. "Keep acting like you're keeping me controlled through eye contact. We'll both go up in sync, one step at a time, moving sidestep while facing one another." Junko went first with a demonstration while keeping the firearm pressed to her temple. "Like this. And step." She'd switched the safety on, at least she believed so. "And step." Hoped not to test it here. "And step."

"And step." The girl repeated cautiously. "And step." From her overall gait, Junko could tell this girl was the sort who would tiptoe along narrow walkways and embankments with her arms stuck pretending to be a graceful gymnast, another unnerving similarity to her daughter. "And s- Step." And that she was having trouble coping with her appendages so greatly restricted.

"Oooooooof!"

"Unnnngghh!"

"Gaaaaaaah!"

"Mind if I hang on to this?" Homura confiscated another P90 from a defeated soldier. "I'll be taking those too." She also relieved him of all his extra magazine clips.

'Do you have to deprive every single one of them of their armaments?' Konoha impatiently snapped. 'It's slowing us down too much!'

'And should they come to, they won't have anything on hand with which to threaten us.' Nanaka defended Homura's methods. 'It's savvy.'

"You! Over there! Hal- Aaaauuuuuagh!" Their next challenger was taken out by a well-placed flash grenade.

'That door over there looks much different from the rest!' Nanaka spotted. 'Painted Red.'

'AKA the universal color of emergency access points.' Homura added. 'Proceed.'

"Aaaand step." Something was wrong with her. She was wobbly, and had trouble keeping eye contact with Junko. Which was a problem, because they hadn't cleared the camera's viewfield yet. "Aaaaaaand steehhhhhh…"

"You okay, kiddo?" Junko verbally prodded. But it was clear she was fading. "Hey! Hey, stay with me!" But Junko was powerless to do more than watch her topple over, lest she blow the whole scheme.

"Oh my gosh!" A young woman's voice echoed from above. "Ayame!" A figure came down so fast it practically blew Junko backwards against the white brick wall. "Ayame! Speak to me!" The girl had collapsed into a pair of taller and much more nimble arms.

"Wha-" Before Junko could process the sight she just witnessed, she found herself tossed against the opposing railing with bits and pieces of the security camera raining down on her nanoseconds after hearing a deafening gunshot sound off.

"What have you people done to her?" The incensed voice threateningly asked, revealing herself to be a young lady in a most peculiar combination of revealing cosplay and a store-bought novelty kitsune mask.

"Nothing!" Junko confessed. "I was trying to help her escape!" Once she finally regained her bearings and her wits, she was flanked by another girl in a tattered kimono behind a wolf mask, plus a third girl in more low-key uniform garb and a doggie mask, whose overall stature gave Junko a dizzying pause.

"Hand over your weapon," Kimono girl commanded. Junko passed it over to her, who in turn passed it along to the third girl.

"Turn around!" The Third Girl instructed in a gruff, guttural tone that was very obviously intended to disguise how she really sounded. "Keep your hand where we can see them!" But all it was really doing was calling attention to itself. "Don't turn your back!" And she was going to some odd lengths just to not let Junko get a better look at her.

"She- She's not breathing!" The First Girl exclaimed. "I- I can't feel her pulse!" She sounded like she was in a state of barely controlled panic.

"There's a defibrillator stored next to the fire extinguisher two floors down," Junko said. She too was quite disturbed by the sight of the girl splayed unmoving on those wide concrete steps. "And I've had some first aid training. If you'd just-"

"What? What do you mean she can't be more than a hundred meters from her Soul Gem?" The First girl suddenly exclaimed. To Junko's ears it should've hit as a non sequitur. "Th- That's cruel! Even for that fucking rat, that's-"

"Do you mean that freaky fabergé egg that glows?" But to their apparent distress she wasn't ignorant. While to Junko's prying senses, it appeared as though they were having whole conversations with nothing but a silent exchange of looks and expressions.

"Eyes front!" The gruff tryhard girl barked.

"Who took it, and where'd they go?" Tattered Kimono girl demanded.

"Uhhhhmmmm," Junko paused. She was torn. It was one thing to help a little missy in distress, quite another to be aiding and abetting what was technically a troika of terrorists. Worse than fired, she'd have her home repossessed, her husband jailed and her kids taken away. Her employers had that kind of power. "If I tell you, will you let me go?" The line and what constitutes crossing it wasn't exactly covered as a part of her training phase either.

"How about we slay you if you don't tell us?" The tallest and most ostentatiously dressed one threatened.

"Fox." The girl holding Junko's gun tried tempering her compatriot's rage. And in doing so, neglected to alter her voice. Not that Junko required the additional clue.

"Fine." Their magenta themed cohort agreed. "But you're sticking around as collateral, until we track it down." Even though she looked to be the youngest, at least she was reasonable and behaving like she'd attended a lesson or two in Negotiation 101.

"I suppose, " Junko agreed. "A bunch of white-coated scientists were examining it in a room three floors below." She revealed. "That was at least ten minutes ago. You can bet they're carting it away as we chatter."

"Then we'd best get moving," Little Miss Negotiation Expert concluded. "Let's fly!" She and the tallest one hopped right over the railing. But their darker-toned companion halted and froze upon climbing one step up.

"Gaaawd, damn it!" She pounded her fist on it in anger before getting off in an incensed huff.

"Problem?" Junko raised an intrigued brow.

"No." She huffed. "Hands together." She requested, her faux gravelly voice cracking a little under the stress. Junko watched her pull a set of zipties from her sleeve and approach. But in the act of complying, her nose caught the scent of something pungent and particular.

"Wow. How'd you get a set of those things?" Junko attempted to strike up a Q and A session.

"Come along." But she was resisting the bait. Much like another certain taciturn teen Junko knew. "We're going all the way up."

"You gonna be giving that gun back to me after this is through?" Junko side eyed her firearm in the girl's mitts. "It's my first." She fished again. "I'd hate to have to go through the embarrassment of requisitioning a new one or training with a different model."

"Hmph," She snorted, stuffing Junko's gun up her sleeve, then foisting the unconscious girl's body over her shoulder, lifting with surprisingly little difficulty.

"So why should she need some shiny rock over heart resuscitation and some CPR?" Junko hoped a more earnest question would get something out of her. "What's she need it for?"

"To live." She spoke succinctly. "Now stay quiet or risk being shot by some gung-ho grunt."

"Gee, so nice that you care." Junko carefully followed stair by stair until she was practically close enough to feel the girl's long, flowing black locks in her face. And in so doing, she got a more conclusive whiff of that alien odor. It was strong, it was familiar, and it was definitely emanating from her.

"Stop hovering so close!" She warned. "Stop staring!"

"I'm sorry," Junko apologized. "It's just… You absolutely reek of Resplendence!"

Rena Minami heard a knock on the magic-gated entry point behind her. "Not now Kaede!" The knocking happened again, this time a sequenced one, a quick knock, followed by two quicker knocks, two hard knocks, a pause, then two quick hard knocks. That signified that it was from Ryo, which annoyed Rena, because that code was only supposed to be done whenever she was officially acting on behalf of her and Rena's secret Oriko Society leader. "Oh, for crying out loud, Ryo-" She hustled over and opened it, only to find a surprise waiting to greet her. "Oh. You." It wasn't Ryo, but rather Oriko's handpicked Torchbearer in the flesh.

"Hiyaa, LuLa!" The young lady presented a smile while twiddling her thumbs and index fingers. "RiRi's out there keeping watch." She had a book tucked underneath her armpit.

"Nevermind the nicknames. What're you here for?" Rena asked in a hush-hush tone. "Kaede hasn't seen you, has she?"

"Nah, your little cinnamon roll's deep asleep over on that couch," She invited herself inside the containment room, her magical girl wardrobe concealed underneath a long, lavender cloak, which upon Rena's closer inspection turned out to be a high-priced bath robe. "She's a lil' cutie, that one! So peaceful and innocent-looking, with that snuggly doll of hers." She tugged down her hood and revealed the rest of her face. "I can see why you wanna look out for her."

"You didn't answer my other question." Rena stepped aside so her guest could better see the sight unfolding in the room before them. The quartet of Momoko, Leila, Manaka and Mitama the Coordinator were standing hand-in-hand and frozen in place around the sphere-confined Tsuruno, everyone's skin, clothes and forms were as white as marble. Their only sign of color and life came from their respective Soul Gems on their bodies, each pulsing and flickering like an evening campfire. "Does that book of Oriko's contain anything that'll help us out at all?"

"Prophet Oriko was many things, a visionary, a genius, a trailblazer, and a very tortured mind," She set the book on the table and opened it. "She tended to veil her prophecies behind esoteric phrasing, coded messages, linguistic changeups and lotsa flowery prose. Only those in the know would make heads or tails of it. That's why it took me so long even though her passage about it was scribbled right on the back of page twenty-four here." She licked her finger and turned to the page in question. "See what I mean?"

"Uh-huh. It looks like utter nonsense to me," Rena mumbled in agreement. "Is that a star? How're you supposed to pronounce a star?"

"That just marks it as something for my special attention," The girl explained. "As she knew that I used to mark the notes I'd pass to my bae with 'em."

"So you've read through it?" Rena cocked her head to one side in an impatient manner. "What's it saying we should do?"

"Well, it doesn't say we should do anything specific really. For Oriko seemed convinced that spelling events out beat by beat would only cause them to be locked in place and unchangeable, which was the last thing she wanted to happen for us," She elaborated. "Her writings are supposed to serve as more of an opinionated guidebook, with oblique warnings and passing references to all the little forks we'll face in the roads ahead."

"Tch!" Rena grimaced. "You'd better not have come all this way just to tell me there's nothing you can do to help, otherwise-"

"Hey, easy!" The Torchbearer cut her off. "I'm not here to be the bearer of bad news, okay?" She grabbed Rena by the upper arms and shook her a little. "I came because in Oriko's passages she warned that the gifts from those Mitakihara girls are not going to put a definite end to the witch system and drive all magical baddies to extinction. She believed they'll adapt, and find new ways to feast off human emotional energy and grow into things we can neither fathom nor fight." Rena was shaken hard enough that it caused her chest to bounce around in her tube-topped magical girl outfit. "Tonight I think we're witnessing one such evolution occur right before our eyes. And if it's not smothered in the cradle here, it might just supersede us on the ol' food chain."

"Woah. Crap." Rena jerked herself away from the girl's clutches. She did not appreciate being so casually manhandled. "She at least had enough unfrayed brains left to tell us what we're up against, right?" Or rather, girl-handled. Even if it was by someone who was only trying to be upbeat in the face of a perilous predicament.

"From the tainted heart of the Winchester Playhouse it arose, inflicted by the rabid sheepdog's dying bite; a formless, shapeless eidolon of intelligence latent within the souls of the brave, the bold, the acute and obtuse alike," She quoted. "It shall not be content to subsist as a great plaga upon our kindred; no, nor can its appetite for despair be sated by emulating Walpurgisnacht's supernatural devastation; nay, its abiding ambition is to exact vicious vindictive vengeance upon Who; but what, where, when, how or why are questions not meant for mere mortals to deliberate."

"Ehhhh?" Rena could only make a confused grunt and shrug.

"You see here? She put specific words into other languages, as if to highlight them as clues. This one up here is Greek, while this later descriptor is Spanish but I believe traces its roots back to Latin, while these two other words here and here," she pointed at them. "They're written in that strange runespeak that Oriko discovered and deciphered inside witch labyrinths." She expounded. "Uhm, anyway, as inventive as The Coordinator's pow-wow circle is, I'm worried she's approaching it wrong in treating it like a spirit exorcism when going by Oriko's crumbs I think it's something more akin to a contagious illness." She spelled out. "And if that's true, then exposing it to four more live souls like this is in actuality providing it with four more potential carriers!"

"Damn it!" Rena hustled over to Momoko and tried to tug her away from the circle. "Momoko! Wake up!" But it was no use. "Momoko!" She was a statue. "You're playing right into its hands!"

"Girl means a lot to you, doesn't she?" The Torchbearer waved her hand in front of Momoko's unresponsive gaze.

"Pfffft! No!" Rena snorted back a surge of sadness and tears down her throat. An outburst of emotion not made because of her own fears nor for Momoko's sake, but from the thought of Kaede facing tragedy so soon after facing truth. The poor thing would snap like a twig from the weight of it. "She's a nosy, pushy, talky sibling wannabe to me!" She fibbed. "But to Kaede, she's the whole world." She followed with a fact.

"Ah, I see." She nodded. "Lucky thing this cutie came prepared, eh?" She took a pair of shiny gemstones out of her robe pocket. "Gimme your hand!"

"What?" Rena understood the implicit order. "Why?" It didn't mean she would go along with it without some pushback.

"Cute as my wonderful face is, your mentor and these two have never seen it before, so they've got no reason to trust anything I say or do once I go in," She explained. "But if I do it with your power looking like you, things'll have a better chance of going smoother."

"But you just told me they put themselves in danger doing this in the first place, and now you want to be its next potential victim?"

"Ahh, but this cutie's got an advantage these girls don't, you see?" She winked one eye and looked at Rena with the other through the prism of a tiny yellow diamond between her fingers. "Oriko's later musings claim this thing takes refuge within the untapped recesses of a person's soul, but in my special self's case, there's no vacancy, because my bae's already residing within me, which ought to make me immune."

"You've got no way of knowing that for sure!" Rena exclaimed. "Honestly, I-" She hesitated to say the next part out loud. She and Ryo sometimes exchanged texts after meetings, debating whether or not this leader of theirs really did have the specter of a boy lingering behind those soft eyes of hers. And she was the skeptic. "I'm not sure I believe the voice inside your head is…" Her voice trailed. "The person you believe it is." She phrased her concern as diplomatically as her confrontational personality would allow.

"Awwwwww, you think I'm crazy, do you?" She pouted. "Boo-Hoooo!" She whined in a dejected, yet somehow bubbly and cloying tone.

"No no, not crazy per se," Rena walked it back. "I just think you have a vivid imagination. And that can be a totally normal way to cope with loss." Rena said. "Or so my teacher in Health Class says."

"Oh." The young lady nodded in understanding. "Mmmmmmaybe there's some way I can prove my wish was realsies to you?" She asked in a manner that struck Rena's ear as more of a proposal.

"Oooooh boy." Rena nervously folded her arms. "Whaddaya want out of me?"

"Weeeeeellllll," Her index finger tickled the part of her face below her lips and above her chin. "I know that I can exchange my magic exchanging powers with another girl, but I've always been curious to know if I could also swap around something else inside me as well."

"Which is?" Rena mouthed out a question she already knew she was going to regret asking.

"Him!" She squeaked. "He's been cooped up inside me so long, he says he's starting to feel as if he's a prisoner. But if I can put him inside you," She suggested. "Combined with your shapeshifting ability, he'd have a body of his own again." She beamed a smile as if it were the bestest idea anyone's ever conceived. "Even if it's for juuuuust a teeeeensy tiny little while!"

"Nnnnnope!" Rena's folded arms snapped to a negative cross pose. "No way! Not gonna be some stir-crazy boy's meat puppet! That's just… Ewwwwwww!"

"Aw, c'mooooon!" She moaned. "Don't tell me you've never used your power to revive the image of a lost loved one in your life before? Just so you could make a new memory of them? Have ya'?"

"Well, I uh-" Rena lapsed for a moment. She had indeed done it before and done so for a reason. Her late grandmother used to bake her favorite kind of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. But after she passed, the cookies never tasted quite the same. Even knowing the recipe by heart, every attempt at replicating those beloved treats resulted in something going awry. Either she burned them, undercooked them, didn't use enough sugar, used too much, forgot to check the expiration date on the dough, or had to settle for an off-brand oatmeal. It was aggravating. But one try, one time, baking all alone, her other family out for the weekend, with all the right ingredients in order, other variables double checked, she indulged in a nostalgic little whim and saw her smiling grandma's reflection on the baking tray. And as luck would have it, that was the one time her cookies turned out perfect. So good, her proud grandmother's face even provided her with enough willpower to spare a few of those cookies for Kaede. "Wait, we're veering off course here!" She was snapped from her momentary space-out by the sight of Momoko's ongoing one. "Didn't you just claim your boyfriend would protect you from whatever's trying to infect them? If you pumped him into me, what by your logic would stop it from infecting you"

"Darn, that's a really good point," She smacked her forehead with her open palm as she thought for a moment. "Well, I was gonna help them out with this help I've got in my hands here, but what if you could help me in helping them out with all this help I've got with me instead?"

"I… Don't follow?" Rena cocked her head and squinted her eyes.

"To tell you the truth," The Torchbearer put her backhand to her inner cheekbone and tilted her upper body towards Rena's ear. "His smarts have always been the extra spark that fuels the billions of synapses inside my genius brain. While me, the cutie patootie is little better than our operation's grace and beauty!"

"So what the hell are you good for?" The frustrated Rena circled back to a rephrase of her original question.

"Well, if you don't trust me to help you get your mentor out of this jam, then maybe you should trust yourself to do it… And trust the help my bae can provide you?"

"Next we'll tighten up the screws under this part." Yachiyo, Felicia, Sana and Kyubey looked on as The young Time Lady put the finishing touches on her latest makeshift invention. "Press the power button, boot past the new BIOS." In record time she had jerry-rigged a connection from a wired-up pasta strainer strapped atop Iroha's head to an input-output jack located at the base of her mechanized friend Hitomi's neck, to a hub module that was a modified video game console, with a series of network cables leading all the way to a terminal located underneath her ship's main control system. "And she's about ready to take the wheel."

"How much longer do we gotta keep these thingies on our heads?" Felicia was barely holding back her urge to scratch and peel at the thin golden strips stuck to her temples like adhesive bandages.

"Until my TARDIS's Security and Tactical support AI can generate suitable reproductions of us to aid those girls keeping the Cybermen stalled and their leader preoccupied in dreamland." Sayaka stated. "It's done rendering our basic avatars, but in the meantime we've gotta keep providing it active samples of our brain wave patterns while we're undertaking our missions out here."

"And you're going to leave the task of safeguarding these girls' minds up to an old gaming machine?" Yachiyo uttered with a skeptical expression as she gently slid Sana's curly locks aside to help apply two patches to the side of her head.

"The routine is running through it like an immersive VR video game," Sayaka clarified. "Little white machine, broadcasting the dreams, now literally. So the Cybermen can't stop it with another feedback surge transmitted through communications interlink." She typed in a set of additional instructions via a wireless keyboard. "And the revised termination code can only be performed by our party host." She hit the 'Enter' key and slid the device away along the smooth floor, where it rested beside the paralyzed Cyberman's bulbous head.

"You won't be taking over or enslaving this world, Touka." Iroha Tamaki repeated, her eyes rolling back and drifting into a trance. "You can't do it, because that's what I wished for in my contract with Kyubey!" The magical girls collectively gave Kyubey a distrustful side-eyed glance.

"And telling them that is going to stop those meanie robots from taking over the whole world?" Sana waved a curious, gloved hand in front of Iroha's unresponsive gaze.

"As far as their dataset tells them, a magical girl's wish becomes an immutable fact of reality, so once their recalculations conclude that even trying to conquer Earth would be fruitless, they'll abandon it and fall back to their secondary objectives." Sayaka stepped over to the exit, slowly ratcheted open the door and peeked out. "Which is to conserve energy, fortify what they currently control and establish contact with the wider Cyber Collective out in deep, deep space." Beyond the heaps of slain Cybermen strewn about the corridor rang the clanging of feet in retreat. "So our goals here are threefold: Liberate Nemu, whose Soul Gem from what we observed is quickly teetering on the brink." She snapped her fingers and pointed at a pair of smartphones sitting on a bookshelf.

"Here you go." Sana picked them up and trotted over.

"Thanks," Sayaka pointed her glow-tipped saber at the devices and pressed a button on the side. "Second, we've gotta eliminate the energy source that's made this entire operation of theirs possible. Which means, I'm sorry to say, killing the witch at the center of it all."

"That'll be my burden," Yachiyo stepped up and took one of the reprogrammed phones. "Mifuyu's cry is the entire reason I came."

"Take this one," Sayaka tossed the other into Felicia's hands. "I've turned them into a radar that's pinging the magical entities active deeper inside the labyrinth. Logically, if this louder one over here is the witch, then the weaker one there would have to be Nemu."

"Gotcha!" Felicia looked at the screen. "We'll save Nemu! Just leave it to us!" She offered a firm and confident salute with one hand while grabbing Sana's arm with the other. "Right?" Sana agreed to partake with a much more meeker smile and wave.

"And finally, we make sure they don't get in touch with the other Cybermen across the cosmos," Sayaka took the first steps out. "Which means finding and dealing with their ringleader." Her arm stuck out her tool and with a whizzing sound it scanned the vicinity. "Dibs on that."

"You do realize you are about to slay a twelve year old whose cardinal sin is desperately wanting to survive, right?" Yachiyo reminded her with a candid remark.

"The bright-eyed good girl in me is hoping Iroha can reason with whatever ember of humanity is left in her," Sayaka said. "Or that the surgery isn't so extensive that my healing magic can't do something for her." She added. "But the realist in me… Is ready to carry that weight on my conscience."

"Good, I'm glad." Yachiyo split off and headed down the corridor. "Because I couldn't trust you if that wasn't the case. But," she turned one last time, hand signaling to the two younger ladies that the coast was clear. "What'll happen to that poor robotized girl in there, should you prevail?"

"I don't know."

"So you were our estranged Big Sis, Iroha Zeta." Touka the Cyber Regina stated back inside the digital daydream. "That checks with my probability estimates. But to be systematic I made sure to track down every Iroha Tamaki within a one hundred kilometer radius and convert each in sequence by proximity."

"Those unfortunate girls," Nemu quietly uttered in disapproval.

"I made a selfish mistake once before, when I didn't keep in touch with you guys after losing Ui," Iroha apologized to the pair. "You wouldn't've done what you did if I'd been there, and I wouldn't've fallen into the rut that made me lose hope." She loaded the crossbow attached to her wrist and directed it at Touka.

"Proverbial water under the bridge," Touka replied in a clinical and rather dismissive tone. "For without your all-too-human cowardice, I would not have come to see the ultimate folly of emotions." She nudged the back of her costumed acolyte with her umbrella handle. "Nor would I have utilized the experience to capitalize on a chance to craft my own ultimate friend, one who matches myself in raw intelligence, Nemu in resourcefulness, Ui in patience and yourself in determination, but with none of the drawbacks that stem from the frailty of the human condition, and all of the loyalty that comes with being a Cyberman."

"Remaking a person without their humanity isn't making anything but a Franstein's Monster!" Hitomi was the first to resume hostilities, lunging at Gamma and tackling it with a force that wasn't possible in the physical constraints of reaility.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The surrounding Cybermen immediately reacted by attacking the rest.

"No, you won't!" Iroha launched her shot, which landed at Touka's feet and exploded in a burst of pink light. From that seed burst into the sky a thousand arrows made of pink light.

"Why do you resist?" Touka bunny-hopped out of the way, opening her umbrella and using it as a shield. "Can you not see that our goal is to expedite the evolution and empowerment of all humankind?"

"People don't like to be told what to do, Touka!" Iroha loaded and fired an arrow that struck into the umbrella. "They don't like to be told who they should be, either. Or what they should need or want! They want the freedom to explore their purpose in life themselves!"

"Freedom is irrelevant. Self determination invariably leads to gradual systemic rot and inevitable failure." Touka struck back, expelling a wall of flames from her parasol ala a flamethrower. "Recent experiments with representative government aside, humanity has historically operated at its most efficient under authority-driven planned societies." she buttressed her defenses behind a shield of red transparent ones and zeroes. "And to be accepted as the leader of our newly-incorporated Cyber society, I must acquire that Codex!" Iroha hid from the flames behind the protection of her cloak.

"Unnnnnnnnnnnngh!" Gamma crashed hard through the side of a virtual concrete structure. Even though it had the means to disregard any digital damage incurred from harm in this dreamscape, Gamma still let out a verbal expression of its displeasure.

"Who are you?" Its opponent charged. "Who?"

"I am Unit One Zero Two, codename Gamma." It replied, even though it was under no obligation to.

"No!" When it recovered it found itself enmeshed within a wooden box containing fine granular-sized silicate particulates. Surrounding it was an assortment of equipment designed for the purpose of a human juvenile's physical exercise. One such object, a chute with a slippery bed in which said individuals slid, was painted white and labeled 'Kamihama General Hospital.' "This is where you first met your little cousin. He was born eight weeks premature and had to stay in an incubation chamber." Gamma stood up and readied its weapon. "Seven years old and couldn't understand why you weren't allowed to hold the new baby you came so far to visit." Its foe telegraphed an impending offensive maneuver by raising her scythe. "So you cried for an hour non stop right in that swing set." But Gamma did not counterattack. Too distracted by her words, Gamma responded with a blocking attempt that couldn't stop the tip of the blade from slicing clean into an unprotected juncture between its upper left appendage and neck.

"Auuugggh!" Gamma made another noise that was not cataloged in its sound banks. "Error!" It was leaking an unidentified viscous red fluid, and the leakage was adversely affecting the way its left appendage could move.

"But of course you don't remember any of that. You don't even know what tears are or why we cry them, do you?" The female fighting it bucked it again with a foot to its chest, knocking it not to the ground but instead sending it straight out of the dream's cyberspace boundary. "So what right do you have to look the way you do?" She shouted as Gamma tumbled down into a million beams of bright rainbow light that stretched across all corners of the electromagnetic spectrum. "I'm me! You hear meeee?" Her voice echoed. "IIIIII'm meeeee!"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Additional waves of Cybermen infiltrated their private battleground. "Primary target acquired!" They had their sights trained on Nemu, at their leader's behest.

"Nemu!" Iroha dove in and scooped the girl into her arms.

"Projective calculations indicate Nemu's magical output should not be decaying at such an advanced rate now minus her manifested support duo," Touka noted. "Such contrary data suggests an additional factor is at play."

"She's fading because she's sad to see you and I fighting like this," Iroha dabbed away a tear of Nemu's with the cuff of her glove. "She probably blames herself for turning you into a monster, too."

"It is more likely that foolish AI of hers bound my Codex to her soul and maintaining the data tranche is causing her strain," Touka took to the air and pounced. "If her goal was to avert a conflict, then they should not have purloined it in the first place." Her assault was blocked by an interloper with a halberd.

Gamma found itself flailing about in an abstract space, surrounded by rapidly moving and spinning images of faces and places, of encounters and events.

"The first tooth I lost happened while I was trying to ride a bicycle. I crashed." Its rival narrated. "The pain scarred me so much I was too scared to try it again that day." The girl popped into view stepping through a digitized image of a two wheeled transportation vehicle. "I always wanted to learn. But after I transferred over to public school my parents made me take all these stupid extracurricular private classes, and I never had the time for it." Gamma did not know why this individual would be telling it such information, when they were supposed to be engaged in combat. "Piano lessons," Gamma dodged a falling heavy musical instrument. "Four different dance instructors," Across Gamma's viewfield flashed four distinctive humans, three dark-haired females and one male wearing a piece of headwear it identified as a beret, although the file that specified such a piece of not relevant data should not have existed and was drawing a needless amount of processing effort. "Why'd they force me to perform at all those dull Tea Ceremonies?" The untraced sound of cracking porcelain distracted it. Was her strategy to induce an information overload?

"Input error!" Gamma declared in its mounting disorientation.

"Heeyaaaaawwwwggh!" On cue the girl came at Gamma with her weapon. Still trying to devine this human's overarching strategy, Gamma opted to remain on the defensive. It parried her kinetic wind-up spin attack, but couldn't approximate the timing of each strike to the nanosecond and thus was unable to formulate an effective counter. "They'd never indulge me in what I wanted, but would constantly insist I do the things that would make me stand out as a student, as a child, as a girl!" There didn't seem to be a readily predictable rhythm to her charges at all. "But you don't know what it's like to want something, do you? Because you're so programmed and proper, you'll never want anything, just do as you're told, who only lives to serve those who made you!" Gamma sensed that sharpened blade making contact again, slicing follicles from the top of its primary appendage. A fortuitously timed duck was all that spared it from fatal damage. Was it a tactical mistake to choose not to wear that thick piece of silver headwear?

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Let me carry Nemu," The Avatar of Yachiyo recommended. "You should prioritize engagement with The Cyber Regent."

"O- Okay," Iroha made the hand off. While she was well aware of Sayaka's switcheroo, she was a little hesitant to entrust an algorithmic ally with a real life. "Keep her comfy, and don't let those scary things touch her."

"We shall do all we can," It assured her.

"Second simulation termination attempt failed," A Cyberman Adjutant informed its commander. "Abort? Retry? Fail?"

"Retry," The Cyber Regina ordered. "Always retry." She crossed her arms and tapped her toe in a show of impatience, a behavioral holdover from her days as an organic being. "Their only logical endgame is the elimination of our energy sources. Assign Units One Zero Three and One Zero Four to Unit One Zero Zero. Deploy all active CBX Units plus One Zero One to our host." She watched Iroha scramble for safety from a spot on high.

"It's not real. It's a video game. Gotta stay focused," Iroha told herself in a breathy pant. "Gotta buy time for Nemu's sake! Aiiyeee!" She yelped when she saw the very next thing around the corner.

A towering, silver-skinned metal man lumbered her way. "Delete! De-" Iroha blasted an arrow through its black eye indent.

"Whew!" Iroha wiped away some sweat pooling above her brows. Learning to shoot on the fly, searching for cover, and getting winded and sweaty. "Gotta help for as long as I can!" The workout sure was way more intense than what that girl in blue had pitched. "Huuuuuuup!" She leapt over a chasm, turned and and fired an explosive bolt at two others giving chase. Upon detonation they tumbled into the abyss below.

"There is a certain poetic appropriateness to your particular armament of choice." She heard a lecturing voice tell her upon landing on the other side. "As we are indeed more vulnerable to low technology implements than the weapons of contemporary civilization, due to the inherent incalculability of melee fighting."

"Touka!" Iroha gasped. The girl she once knew as a friend was flanked by another pair of Cybermen. Without provocation Iroha took aim and fired at the mechanical duo.

"Humanity is at this moment at a crucial evolutionary crossroads." She continued explaining, snapping her fingers and manifesting fresh replacements. "Either it leaves this rocky cradle behind as it gets warmer and grows depleted of resources or it does not and faces inexorable decline and extinction." They took a singular step in Iroha's direction and were promptly eliminated. And all it elicited from their leader was a sly smirk. "I do recall discussions with Nemu regarding any theoretical cosmic pushback from our impending wish. I told her there would of course be consequences, but that magic would in due course be revealed as just another one of the cosmic forces, thus not beyond our brains' scope of understanding and eventual control."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say." Iroha unloaded more rounds into some encroaching Cybermen. But when it came to pointing her tips at the root cause of her struggle, she could only bring herself to firing warning shots and other deliberate misses.

"What I am saying is that akin to the Newtonian principle of every action having an equal but opposite reaction, every magical girl's wish is one day fated to be negated by an equivalent counterforce." And the Cyber Regina had figured out as much, which was why she didn't flinch at the notion of this girl pointing a loaded crossbow at her. "So one cannot help but wonder if, in the hastily-considered act of saving Earth and its inhabitants from my benevolent takeover, in the long run you have only sabotaged their chances of survival." The next arrow zipped past and grazed the large black bow in her hair.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

Gamma now found itself in the confines of a facility constructed to facilitate commerce and trade. It was surrounded by items designed for the purpose of entertaining preadolescents. Some were miniaturized forms of transportation equipment, others were non-harmful versions of primitive weapons, while on the other side featured such things as small facsimile humans made of plastic and anthropomorphized animals. All irrelevant information, yet it knew what these things were.

"Look at him!" Its co-belligerent tossed one such plaything its way. Gamma caught it in one hand with little effort. "Remember him?" A curious attack strategy, as impact would not have done damage. "The toy in your hand, dummy!" She commanded in such a way that forced Gamma into compliance.

"Ursidae," Gamma identified it in monotone. The exact species was indeterminate. It was composed of such fabric materials as plush, wool and plastic pellets.

"Not a clue nor a care about good ole friend Worthington Bear, huh?" Its combat counterpart spoke from beyond its dimly-illuminated surroundings.

"'Friend'?" Gamma repeated, confused. It had heard that term used in the context of describing living individuals before, but never assigned to an inanimate object. Could it be a sign of this female's further divorce from all logical actions?

"Well I know his whole silly backstory. He's a visitor from Paraguay. Dreamed of traveling the world until he got hurt in a hiking accident. Now he's holed up in a toy store seeking a companion to help ferry him along on his next leg of the journey. I remember him looking so lonely scrunched in the back of that toy shelf. He was cute and I was lonely too. So I snatched him up and rushed him home."

"You are in error." Gamma retorted. "That bioform is not native to that region of the globe."

"Tch! Way to miss the darn point!" Like a rocket she and her scythe came out screaming. "Huuuuuurrrraaaagh"! Their two blades swung once, twice, then came together with a heavy clang on the third time. Gamma's foe took this momentary stalemate as another chance to lean in and address it directly. "Can you not appreciate anything cute? Do you lack the capacity to see a small piece of yourself in something else?"

"Unnnnnppphh!" Gamma's olfactory appendage bore the brunt of a sudden cranium-to-cranium impact. It started leaking more of that strange, thick red liquid.

"If I'm my memories, my knowledge, my thoughts, my feelings, and my connections," The girl had been damaged by the impact as well. She was rubbing her hand around a spot above her right eye. "If I'm everything that makes me me, then what are youuuu?"

"I am-" Gamma stopped itself as the drippage had entered its virtual oral cavity. "I am Enhanced Biomechanical Lifeform- Urrhhk!" An additional appendage inside said cavity detected the leakage and provoked a verbal reaction. The sensation was thoroughly unpleasant. "Unit One Zero Two, Code-"

"No!" The human socked it in an unexpectedly sensitive spot located underneath the upper body and just above the torso. "You're not!" Gamma could not make sense of how injuries it experienced in this artificial world could be having a greater effect on its combat performance than the much more concrete and extensive damage it endured back in the real world. "Sorry!"

"Very well. If you are going to treat me as your villain, Big Sis," The Cyber Regina clapped twice. "I may as well embrace the part. All spare Units, engage designation Iroha Zeta."

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Out of nowhere a large, green jewel-topped shield got in the way of their barrage of energy blasts.

"Over here, Miss Tamaki!" The digitally recreated Sana waved a signal for Iroha to follow. Not far behind were the representations of Felicia and Yachiyo, with the weakened Nemu in Yachiyo's firm and caring arms.

"She has programmed her hench-machines to self-replicate inside our simulation at an exponential rate," The Yachiyo avatar observed. "Which means for every unit we defeat, two more appear in its place, and for every four, spawn an additional sixteen."

"So should we give up trying to fight them off, and focus on evasion, protecting these two and hiding?" The Pseudo-Sana inquired.

"No, what we should do is smash, smash, smash, smash, and smash until they reboot so many times their cyber circuits crash and burn all at once!" The imitation Felicia was anxious to take the offensive approach, much like her flesh and blood counterpart.

"So you guys are all her ship trying to think of what to do next?" Iroha tried to lift Nemu's spirits by taking her loose, limp hand as they fled.

"Correct." Yachiyo confirmed. "But our NPC personality profiles are being reconfigured and individualized to correlate with their brain wave patterns."

"Yiiiipes!" Iroha ducked a stray laser blastthat went whizzing above her hood.

"Back off!" Felicia retaliated by smacking a big rock at the culprit with her hammer like a driver to a golf ball.

"Touka," Iroha called out. "Do you remember that time you turned Ui's toy choo-choo into a real steam locomotive, and it wound up setting fire to Nemu's book collection?" She wasn't giving up on appealing to the girl's humanity yet.

"Vaguely," The Cyber Regina's voice thundered above. "I was attempting to craft a perpetual motion machine. From a small-scale technical demonstration my invention had the potential to change the world."

"But all you did was ruin Ui's gift and Nemu's belongings, and hurt your friendships," Iroha retorted. "Don't you see? You're doing the same thing now as you did then! You're taking things precious to others and using them for selfish ends!"

"Ui's train was but one of an entire line of unit models. Not irreplaceable. While Nemu's books contained no information that was not already duplicated onto superior storage media. Nothing but combustible materials were lost." Touka excused. "In my calculations I justified that their own fondness for me as a peer would lead to an eventual reconciliation." She hovered her way down to Iroha's level in a controlled descent using her umbrella as a spinning helicopter blade. "Which it soon did. In my humble observation, sentimental attachments to personal items and relationships have been a hindrance to true technological progress, a weakness I am working towards eliminating." She touched down right in Iroha and the others' path.

"But your personal attachment to me was the reason you brought me here in the first place," Iroha tried another appeal. "Going by the way you put things, then you made a mistake when you did that." She loaded her crossbow and once again took aim at the diminutive Cyber Regent.

"Yes," She agreed to Iroha's huge surprise, which gave her pause. "I made an error."

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The Cybermen's collective chant telegraphed their movements toward blocking the group in.

"One possible way we could disrupt their correlative maneuverings would be to take out their leader in a decapitation strike," Yachiyo's reproduction suggested. "Shoot her."

"I-" Iroha's mounted crossbow shook atop her wrist. "Y- You're sorry?"

"Sorry!" Gamma's biological opponent repeated that word upon inflicting another punishing hand-delivered blow. "It won't matter what you see, where you go, what you do or how much raw information you cram into those microchips of yours." Their virtual arena kept shifting and reshaping and resetting things around them. Now they were trading blows in an educational setting, a room with transparent walls made of acrylic glass and pupil sitting stations that retracted into the floor. "Without a mind or a will or a life of your own, you're nothing." But Gamma was unable to accomplish much when it came to landing a counter-hit. "Nothing but an empty vessel!"

"Error!" Gamma feebly squealed, tripping over the partially stuck-out armrest of one seat and tumbling hard into the custom-paneled walls. "Experiencing systemwide disrupt- Aaaaaaaah!" The sound of its cranium striking the glass did not register but the impact and unpleasant sting did, and everything around it went into a disorienting spin.

"Disrupted?" Its rival finished its verbalized thought. "Now you know what I'm going through!" By the moment Gamma was able to find some semblance of a reorientation, their backdrop had been altered again. Now they were in an entertainment venue, center stage of a performance hall. "I was abducted without even knowing what was happening to me, tortured then transformed, all the while having someone else keep the wool pulled over my eyes!" Numerous vague silhouette shapes of humanoid beings sat watching in the seats facing them. "I don't want to become part of anyone's resistance, nor some machine queen, I just wanted to help Iroha escape and after that maybe pick up the pieces of the wreckage of my life." They had no additional features and thus no optical appendages, yet somehow they were making Gamma wearier by their mere presence alone. "But then I saw into her mind. I picked up on all the doubts she had as to whether anyone's miracle or magic would be able to fix me, my real body being sequestered inside some physics-defying crystal. Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!" And Gamma found the hot white beaming spotlights to be a most overwhelming distraction, too. "And to you all this is just going through one ear and straight out the other, isn't it?"

"Input overload," Gamma obliviously declared. "Cannot comply with the Cyber Regent's set instructions! Defaulting to self-protect mode!"

"I don't know if it's too late to save me from being stuck this way forever like she worries it is." Gamma's dewy, dollfaced opponent summarily disarmed it with a hooking swipe of her scythe, shook her head and knocked the hapless Cyberman backwards with a high knee kick to its chest. "But I do know I can't be moping about it here in fantasyland while there's people who still need me to do whatever I've got to do out there." They were whisked to yet another new location, a domestic dormitory, where Gamma's tumultuous tumble was arrested by a cushioned and decorated mattress. "And if you're gonna go on just doing as you're told, never speaking out, never questioning things or thinking for yourself, just being a robot, then I'm sorry… You have no reason to be at all!" Gamma laid there frozen and helpless, as its attacker's curved blade loomed large above the green jewel on its chest, ready to deliver a swift, decisive coup de grâce.

"I am…" Gamma searched its memory banks for a word sufficient to describe the electrochemical rush and electronic overclocking that was on the brink of entirely paralyzing it in the face of what it was anticipating. It was about to experience another abrupt and possibly permanent cessation of operations in a matter of uncountable microseconds. The unit did not wish to go through that most traumatic and unprocessable experience a second time. "Error!" In self-protect mode, it could think of only one last recourse to avert such a catastrophic system-wide failure.

"Kiiiiiiiyyaaaaaahhhhh-"

"Waaaaaaaaaahhhhh-"

"Uaaaaaaaaahhhhhck!" A splash of that thick fluid splattered up and sprayed their faces. Her blade, towering so intensely over it just a moment before, fell limp to the floor. "I d-" She choked, noticing the jagged dagger Gamma thrust into her gut. Then she dropped like a stone to the bed's opposite side. "I don't- Unhuucck!" Without any logical justification for why, Gamma reached out its armor-clad hand to grab hers. "Don't understand!" With a feeble little tug she managed to take it and pull the stupefied Gamma down on top of her. "Y- You- You''re crying!" Gamma's visual senses were being blurred and obscured by gobs of clear liquid, dripping like precipitation onto its fatally wounded rival's visage. "Wh- What's it mean that I'm dying but you're the one crying?"

"Does not compute." Gamma responded in unintentional agreement. It was searching for a way to stop the bleeding and close her gaping wound, even though it was the one responsible for causing it, and they were cutthroat adversaries not moments earlier. It was victorious. So why was it reacting like it was the defeated one?

"H- Ha- Haaaa- Auuuggh!" She forced a fit of laughter out of her pained insides. "Y- You're r- Really an innocent, aren't you? Sh- She kept the wool over your eyes." Her shaking hand grabbed at something near Gamma's neck and yanked at it. "Luh- Look!"

"Circular gemstone," Gamma identified the object she took. "Emerald."

"N- Nooooo," She reached for the jewel adorning the bloodied bowtie around her neck. "Suh- Silly! D- Do you seeeee?"

Gamma acknowledged their apparent indistinguishability with an indifferent nod. "Irrelevant." It was much more concerned with providing medical aid, even though it could not articulate a reason why.

"Looooooook!" Her pale, trembling hand lifted off the stained carpet, curled her digits and pointed at something in the corner. Gamma acquiesced to a singular peek. But that was all it took. For in that corner sat a reflective surface, which Gamma identified as a mirror. But of more interest to it were the two individuals reflected on its digital surface.

"I- I- I-" Gamma was beset by another disorienting malfunction. While in that nebulous void space with its creator, The Cyber Regent informed Gamma that it was on an unconscious level projecting a female image which was a vestigial holdover of its former identity. "Do not. Understand?" Whose facial avatar just happened to be an absolute match with hers.

"Now do you seeeeee?" The fallen girl breathed. "You. Are. Meeeeee!"

Chapter Text

"Really? Nothing?" Junko Kaname complained to her reluctant captor. "I think up and deliver a clever stinger like that and all I get outta you is the silent treatment?"

"I wasn't aware you were expecting me to say anything," Homura replied in her forced, heavier, voice-disguising tone. She was balancing the lifeless shell of the girl she'd been drafted to help rescue over her right shoulder.

"Well for starters, how 'bout a stunned 'So that's how you figured me out' line?" They turned a corner as they navigated their way up to the facility's topside through the halls littered with the bodies of downed, disarmed and disabled soldiers and guardsmen. "Then maybe you can stop straining your voice so hard and tell me how you wound up running alongside such a pair of overdressed ruffians?"

"Sorry," Homua's sensitive ears picked up the sound of heavy boots thudding along several corridors below. "I have no idea what you're talking about or who you think I am, but I assure you, your notions are mistaken." Reinforcements were coming up fast and she knew they weren't moving fast enough to stay ahead for long.

"So you're gonna play it that way with me, kiddo?" Junko groaned like an incredulous parent catching their kid in a bald-faced lie. "C'moooooon, you can't really think a novelty mask over your cheekbones is enough to keep you secret identity hidden for long?" Because that was her method of dealing with the stresses and the stakes in this equal part awkward and dangerous situation. To act like a mom.

"Do you really think I give a rat's ass what you believe? Or sort of shit about who you're mistaking me for?" Homura snapped in an even gruffer tone and language, hoping that would be enough to get Junko to drop the matter and back off. Weird and wrong as it felt to be cussing out Madoka's mom, the chit-chat was grinding on her nerves. Homura gave her dysfunctional time-suspending device another try.

"Why do you keep flipping that shield thingie of yours around?" Junko in turn at least possessed a sensitivity level keen to switch topics when pricking too personal.

"Habit." Homura curtly replied. Whatever issue was still stymieing her primary power, she was at a loss to guess. "Shhhhhh!" She heard a low set of voices down the hall. A peek around the corner revealed a pair of freshly-recovered guardsmen, one helping the other get back on his feet. "Damn!" She promptly propped her unmoving ward's back against the wall.

"Are you really about to take down two grown men on your own?" Junko whispered, re-checking their unconscious cargo for any sign of life. To her motherly consternation, she'd gone pale.

"I will if I must, but I'd prefer to avoid needless violence." Homura reached behind her buckler and materialized an object, a sight which captivated Junko. Then to her dismay, it turned out to be her own gun. "Talk them into retreating," She jerked it in her hand as a way to point out what to do next. "Miss Hostage."

"How am I supposed to-"

"Just wing it!"

"Ma'am!" A taller man in a beret saluted, although it wasn't protocol to salute a civilian. Junko and Homura both noticed a bruise with a touch of blood running from the side of his left temple.

"Ma'am!" A stockier man in a black helmet turned and followed suit with an offhand wave. He looked like he was trying not to put too much weight on his buckling right ankle. Both were clad in full body armor and padding. And each was quick to notice the armed escort standing behind Junko as a shield. "Crap!" They reached for their respective weapons and came up empty.

"Uhhhhhhm… It might be a better idea if you guys sit this out." Junko suggested, flashing her zip-tied hands to show she wasn't exactly this young girl's chaperone. "She doesn't want any trouble. Just a smooth exit."

"You heard the woman!" Homura barked and showed off Junko's gun. She jabbed it in Junko's back to drive the point even harder. "Vacate or she gets it!"

"Ow!" She reflexively rubbed the spot she was jabbed. "She's fueled by a cocktail of teenage angst and hormones, and it won't take much to push her buttons." She tilted her head back and shot Homura a momentary displeased glance. "So don't push her buttons!"

"What do you need us to do, ma'am?" They put their backs to the walls and vigilantly watched the pair navigate their way past them.

"Tend to your injured, then apprise Miss-" Junko was interrupted by the ding of a lift's arrival.

"Freeze!" A threatening voice behind the cover of a riot shield demanded. It was followed by the loud bang of a metallic canister being fired and thudding off the ceiling.

"Get down!" Homura shoved Junko to the floor and sprang into action. A flash of purple light from her hand preceded their sudden, total loss of illumination. Junko next heard a loud clang followed by the same man's pained screams.

"Auuuughk!" That one sounded like it belonged to whomever was his back-up. "Oooooough!" And out came a third person's wounded cry. When the emergency lights kicked on scant moments afterward, Junko counted three soldiers laying motionless in the elevator, the young victor kicking her last victim's foot inside so the door could close.

"Tear gas," She arbitrarily shoved the gas-seeping canister up her sleeve. "They always think it gives them automatic license to get trigger happy." The other pair fled at the sound of the commotion.

"Woah, where did you learn to move and hit like that?" Junko covered her mouth and nostrils with her sleeve to protect herself from the remnant gas.

"Nowhere," Homura dispersed the rest with an effortless overhead wrist toss and finger snap that caused a forceful wind burst. "Enhanced speed and strength are an mandatory part of the deal, that's all." With a similarly practiced elegance she reached up her sleeve and retrieved Junko's gun.

"That would be the deal you get…" Junko brushed a light dusting of concrete and ceiling tile off herself as they went back and retrieved the body. "Once you make a wish for the ferret?"

"So you made her talk, huh?" Homura checked the apparent corpse for any physical damage before picking her back up. "What'd she blab?"

"That there's a ferret that performs a miracle and in return you've got to do battle with witches," Junko shared. "Is that right?"

"That's the general gist," Homura admitted as she hoisted the unliving girl over her shoulder. "Would this presumably government enterprise employing you be national or international in scope?"

"That's classified," Junko replied. "Sorry. This isn't some sleepover game where we swap secrets for secrets. I may as well have signed over my soul when I put my name on the dotted lines."

"Hmph!" Homura snorted in unamused laughter. "If I were you, I'd ask for a transfer to a government position with far fewer health hazards. Like mail delivery."

"Yeah, well, what can I say? The salary's solid and there's additional benefits that offset whatever risks come with the job." Junko retorted. "You know for not being the person I think you are, you sure got a mouth and attitude as flippant as the girl I'm thinking of." Junko herself had to be a little glib, lest she spare a stray thought towards the girl slung over Homura's shoulder. "So that alleged miracle of the ferret." Imaginative as she once was, she had a tough time picturing such a shifty, cagey little creature serving such an altruistic function. "What'd it do for you?"

Her question made the girl pull a sudden pivot and turn. She then shot Junko a most penetrating stare. But the thing that upset Junko even more was that her abrupt turnaround made her gaze upon that lifeless expression on the twin-tailed girl's face. It was so Madoka-like in how serene it was, looking like she was only napping. Almost uncanny. And there was the stray thought. "Something extremely personal."

"Not gonna go into detail?" Junko pressed. Although she was reluctant to pry, what else was there to talk about?

"You said it yourself." They resumed walking. "We're not here to do a 'Q and A'. I'm not even obligated to speak to you." They had to pause a second time as they felt a tremor beneath their feet. Was it seismic in origin or a sign her compatriots were engaged in an escalation? "Your family. Do you consider them precious?" Homura too was eager to put her mind on anything else.

"What sort of frikkin' question is that?" Junko scrunched her face, although she understood the intent behind it. "That would be the most obvious and emphatic 'yes I do'."

"So why put your life, and potentially your family at risk, working in an environment like this?" Homura followed with exactly the question Junko anticipated. "Can't just be for the money."

"I've been tangling and untangling that same tough question with myself this nutty week," Junko answered. "Were you here for that freak cyclonic storm that slammed the town last spring?"

"Maybe I was." Homura uttered an oddly enigmatic response that left Junko bemused.

"Well, I sure was," Junko recounted. "And let me tell you, sitting in a public shelter, one hapless face amongst thousands, watching my husband coddle my toddler, my teen girl so zoned out it might as well've been another person wearing her skin, and I just aimlessly sitting there slapping together sandwiches, made me realize just how useless I'd be if something larger than life ever threatened my world. It's a feeling I do not like." Another mild tremor sent the lights into a frenzied flicker. "And I'll let you in on this much: There are larger-than-life forces even bigger than mother nature's wrath lurking out there. They threaten my family, your family, friends, enemies and all that value sanity. The more I've learned of them, the more I'm asking myself, would I be better off sheltering in ignorance like back then, or should I take this chance to use what particular set of skills I have to be in the room where the world-shaking decisions happen? After all, these hidden evils need be confronted by someone, and if not I, then who?"

"We're not evil," Homura retorted, the main lights going out and her eyes emitting a light violet glow. "You and your organization need to understand that much about us, lest another incident like this occur." The emergency lights on that level took over, the pair hanging back a few seconds which allowed a patrol squad to pass without seeing them. "We're merely trying to preserve and protect our precious miracles."

"Uh-huh." They arrived at a spiraling set of stairs. Junko watched her ascend with that girl in toe as easily as she would have with no cargo. She glided up as if she'd had plenty of experience lugging a dead weight bag of flesh around before. "Well, the thought was noble while it lasted. Pretty sure this snafu's gonna conclude with me getting shitcanned. And if I'm lucky, they won't disqualify me from doing anything more dignified than scrubbing toilets afterwards." Homura spotted more silhouettes through the window on the top level's door. A zipping and pointing gesture was all the cue Junko needed to take the kid and hide under the stairs a level below.

"It's you," Homura gasped at the unexpected sight of Konoha and Nanaka waiting for them. "How'd you get up here so fast?"

"We discovered a disused shaft they appeared to be converting into a backdoor escape route," Nanaka disclosed. "From there we hopped, skipped and parkoured our way upwards."

"Ayame!" The fox-masked was quick to sprint over and yank the girl from Junko's arms. "Ayame..." She set her on the floor and placed the glowing egg atop her prepubescent chest.

"It was nearly blackened to the tip when we finally tracked it down." The girl in the wolf mask shot Junko with a most ominous glare. "Consider yourselves very fortunate." Her eyes too, seemed to glow a cool shade of grayish blue in the dim lighting.

"K- Kono-?"

"Shhhhh!" The wolf-masked girl shushed the young lady. "No names while our identities remain at risk."

The girl sat up and looked around. "Y- You guys came to my rescue?" Her trinket glistened in her lap.

"Oh, Ayame," Her keeper dropped to her knees and hugged her around her arms. "Now do you get why I made that rule against hunting solo?" She snapped the jewel up and placed it firm in her ward's grasp.

"I'm sooooooorry!" Junko witnessed a tiny flash between their hands. An eye blink later, and a silver, shimmery ring adorned her fourth finger. "I swear I wasn't looking for trouble. But they ambushed me." For Junko's sake she spared a teary-eyed appreciative glance, smile and hand wave.

"While I'm glad to have played a part in averting greater tragedy," Homura chimed in. "We still need to extricate ourselves from this building. And it's gonna be difficult to make it outside unnoticed with police, firefighters and bystanders encircling the restaurant."

"Do ya' wanna try your funky fog machine trick?" The young lady warily rose to her feet with her elder's assistance.

"I've never done the technique indoors before." The fox-masked girl turned to her cohorts. "I'd need to have the water and humidity levels in here to be much much more conducive to try."

"I can provide the water, if you can provide the fire." The kimono-clad wolf said to the puppy-masked Homura.

"Will this do?" Out of her trick sleeve Homura materialized a flame thrower.

"Holy sh-" Junko cut herself off. "Where in the world did you snag a toy like that?"

"From your taxpayer dollars," Homura quipped. "I presume you've honed some kind of water conjugation magic?" She addressed Nanaka.

"I could, yes." Her cohort unsheathed her katana and lunged up at the ceiling. "But why take elaborate measures when simpler solutions abound?" Water gushed out of a hidden fire sprinkler system above the tiles.

"Stand back," Homura instructed. A flick of her wrist coupled with the pull of a trigger spurt forth a jetty of fire. Just as quickly it was extinguished in an ear-piercing hiss that resulted in a cough-inducing cloud of smoke.

"This'll do." The girl in the fox mask planted her staff and spoke upon clearing her throat. "Once this is over I would appreciate it if you'd relay an apology to your superior on our behalf, Shiba Inu." Taking her young charge by the hand she led the way through their veil of fog. "We acknowledge that this was a pretty blatant and severe violation of your territory. However, given both the circumstances and what we knew at the time, Wolf and I believed swift, decisive action was justifiable and warranted." She dictated it the same practiced way a politician would to a secretary or the press.

"I'll mention it," Homura tried to not roll her eyes too much at the needless formality of the words. They were red and watery enough from the gas and smoke as it was, they didn't need further irritation. Junko, too, was trying to stifle her amusement at the notion of these kids trying to sound so much like a bunch of stuffy, middle-aged bureaucratic grownups.

"And I'd also like to extend my utmost personal gratitude to you for rendering such capable short-notice assistance." She continued. "You've acquitted yourself quite well in my evaluation."

"Don't mention it," Homura breathed. She really couldn't have cared less what these Kamihamans thought of her skills. "Really, the honor was mine." There was a subtle twinge of sarcasm behind her words that only Junko detected. For she had spoken those very exact words to the faces of management before.

"And thank you Wolf, for your swift accompaniment and discretion." She followed in a begrudging but conciliatory tone. "This affair may not have been so bloodless, had my partner been aiding this rescue tonight."

"If it had been my squad's youngest as their captive, I think I may have reacted much the same way as you." The flooring gave way to linoleum tiles, signifying they had reached surface level. "Perhaps you and I are not as diametrically opposite as our initial impressions believed."

"Halt!" A squad of kevlar-clad men arrived to prevent them from ascending the next flight of stairs.

"Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!" The freed young girl had gotten her feistiness back with a blinding-flash change of clothing. But her foxy guardian was not about to let her partake in the fight.

"Wolf." She conjured projectile-shaped water droplets above her outstretched palm. "If you would."

"Huuuuuaap!" Her cohort gestured an open-handed punch that sent the water droplets flying at them like a bullet barrage.

"Auuuuugh!" "Oooooomph!" "Uuuuuuuugh!" "Wuuuuaaaagh!" Their collective screams made the trailing Junko wince. A passing visual check confirmed they were each alive, though looking like they'd been kicked by mules.

"We've reached the top," Homura declared upon coming into contact with fresh air and the brisk winds of a January night.

"How are you gonna get down from here?" From the rooftop's edge Junko counted at least a dozen sets of emergency vehicle lights on standby several stories below. Although she was unable to tell a police car from an ambulance or fire truck through their thickening cloud cover.

"We aren't." The girl in the kimono arched her body, buckled her knees and took to the sky with as much ease and grace as a feather catching the wind.

"Toodaloo, Miss Nice Lady!" Their pink-haired twin-tailed objective departed next with a chipper smile and enthusiastic wave. "Thaaaanks!" In the short lull Junko took note of her gloves. They were pure white with a frilly trim tied around by a little ribbon of pink. And for whatever reason the image again compelled Junko to think of her dearest daughter.

"Your name?" Her keeper's voice interrupted Junko's moment of contemplation.

"Kaname," Junko offered up her family's name, but stopped just short of providing her given one. "Missus." Instead she spoke a title that made clear all her reasoning behind her choices.

"We shall remember this, Missus Kaname!" The young woman leapt with the added flare of an added three-sixty spin and tuck. But to whatever landing point the trio targeted Junko could not see, her visibility too diminished.

"Wait, hang on a sec," Junko's hand stopped the final girl from taking off. "Take a few of these." She reached into and pulled something out of her business suit's inner pocket and plopped it into her hands.

"Hm? What for?" Homura rubbed the circular moist towelettes together between her thumb and fingertips.

"It's so you can clean up that wet and runny make-up that's all over your face." Junko cracked. "You know… That stuff I put on you this afternoon?"

"I have no clue what you're talking about." She replied, denying it in a deadpan monotone that belied her inner discomfort. "But thank you." Nevertheless, she accepted the gift. She reached up her buckler-strapped sleeve, pulled out a gun and handed it to her.

"Thanks!" Junko accepted the return of her Sig Sauer and holstered it. Then the girl reached in again and pulled something else out, a rather peculiar looking gun that resembled a toy. "Huh?" She cocked her head in oblivious curiosity. "What's that thing for?"

"It's something that'll make you look like you weren't one hundred percent complicit in what transpired tonight." She pulled the trigger and an odd energy discharge zapped Junko. "The effect should last anywhere from five to fifteen minutes." Junko burst into a sudden, herky-jerky dance rush. "Sorry. Just trying to spare you and your future employment prospects." Then she jumped away just as the black-booted cavalry arrived with flashlights mounted to their guns.

"Missus Kaname?" Miss Yamano lowered her sidearm pistol and questioned her colleague. "What're you-"

"Dancing." Doctor Taylor guffawed. "Dancing The Cha-Cha, judging by all her groovin' and movin'."

"Perimeter scan completed," The Cyberman unit towered over Sana and Felicia, who were hugging both each other and the dark metallic walls of that claustrophobic corridor. "Sector secure. Zero activity." It should have pegged the pair by their white eyes and had them dead to rights, were it not for Sana's unique ability to hide in plain sight.

'They really can't see me, long as I'm touching you?' Felicia dared not speak aloud. For she figured the faintest echo may risk tipping the machines off.

'No.' Sana shuttered her eyelids and averted them. With her eyes closed he could catch passing glimpses into her digital counterpart's ongoing resistance like a daydream, and she was trying to build up whatever courage she could from it. 'Normal people stopped perceiving me after I made my wish.' She too was reluctant to speak up until the metal foot-clanging moved far enough away. "Guess it's true for these robots too."

"Cool." Felicia mouthed, taking the lead and guiding Sana along by the hand.

"No," Sana breathed a downbeat whispering retort. "It didn't matter how much I cried out, or how many times I bumped into someone, or that I'd stopped bathing to the point where I started to smell like a stink badger, no one would ever look my way or pay attention to me." She cupped her ear, listening for any other mechanical sounds in their proximity. "It got to a point where I figured being dead couldn't be much worse." Over Felicia's shoulder she could see the makeshift lifesigns detector in the young lady's hand. Nemu's whereabouts were not far. Only a few more turns. But who knows how many Cybermen were waiting ahead? "What'd your wish do to you?"

"Huh? Me?" Felicia cocked her head back in an inquisitive way. Only Kako had ever asked in earnest about the potential secondary possibilities to her magic. "Uh, I'd be dead if I hadn't wished what I wished for when I wished it." The others only cared if she was swinging her hammer hard, and more importantly, not swinging it near them. "But not 'til real lately have I thought anythin' about what it was doin' to me as a person."

"So has it made you a better person?" Sana pressed.

"Am I better?" Felicia stopped for a moment and closed her eyes. In that moment she watched her AI counterpart smack and smash all obstacles and enemies second hand as if she were grafted onto a video game hero. She was kind of amazed at how well it was holding up on its end. It spontaneously made her think of her single proudest moment as a magical girl. "Weirdly… Yeeeaah." She and Kako had saved a little kid from a stray familiar. She couldn't remember whether they were a boy or a girl, just their Kugo T-shirt. "I'm faster, I'm stronger. I'm braver." The poor kid had been so traumatized by the attack they'd gone fully vacant. "I care more about other people than I used to." With Kako's help she discovered she had the ability to alter another person's memories, so she changed their terrifying experience into an inspiring fantasy, featuring Felicia herself as the feminine version of their mutual hero. "And while I know I'll never be book learnin' smart, I just know that if I keep tryin' and carin' and doin' the stuff that's gotta be done, then I know one day I'll become the bestest there is at this gig!" It was a thought so self-inspiring that it made her heart flutter and scalp tingle. "Yyyyyup!" which in turn, stimulated the little interlink patches glued to her temples. Which in turn, made her itchy.

"My wish has put me through a lot of misery. But somehow now I'm glad I'm not dead, since I met Aoi and Nemu and made my first friends." Sana shared. "So I guess I've come through the other side a better person, too."

"I wasn't exactly the popular kid in my school either," Felicia divulged. "I might only have one real friend, now that I'm thinkin' about it." As they were approaching the uncertainty that lay around the next corner, she found herself pensively grabbing Sana's hand tighter while protectively tugging her closer, and thinking of Kako. "Yiiiiiiiipes!" With a heart-pounding urgency, they shuffled back some steps.

"They're… Statues?" Sana very quickly took a peek at what Felicia spotted. There were at least two dozen Cybermen lined up against the walls motionless, standing guard and separated by a narrow gap. Their lifesigns detector was insisting their mission objective nested somewhere behind the door beyond, but if there were ever more of an indication that Nemu was within reach, they'd be pretty hard-pressed to find it.

'With your powers they still can't see or hear us!' Felicia went right back to being silent. 'C'mon!' Keeping tight control of Sana's hand she switched to moving down the corridor in a sidestep fashion, moving as slowly and carefully as they could. 'One step,' Felica counted, assisting Sana along. 'Two steps,' She gulped. 'Three steps. Four steps. Five steps. Six steps. Seven steps.' They found a workable rhythm.

"Beep! Whirrrrp! Blip! Click-click!" A Cyberman chirped. The pair froze in their tracks. Had they been spotted or was it doing something normal that they didn't understand? Things got tenser by the moment, as Felicia contemplated whether or not to materialize and swing her trusty hammer.

'We're here to rescue Nemu.' Sana reminded her with a gentle shoulder nudge, 'Not smash them.' She waved her hand in front of the thing's black, opaque eyeholes. No reaction. That was enough to reassure them that whatever it was doing, it had nothing to do with them.

'Eight steps. Nine Steps. Ten steps'. Felicia telepathically counted their way onward. 'Eleven steps. Twelve steps. Thirteen steps. Fourteen steps. Fifteen steps.' Then she stopped again.

'What now?' Sana nervously inquired.

'Laser beams.' Felicia answered. Five or so steps away from the finish line, and between two resting Cybermen was a series of barely perceptible horizontal blueish beams.

'Are they the lasers that burn you or lasers that trip alarm bells?' Sana idly wondered.

'Doesn't matter. Both suck.' Felicia shifted her body around and arched her back as far as it would go. In second grade she was the limbo champion. Five grades later, she was going to have to rely on her untrained natural flexibility again. 'Keep holding my hand like this.'

'Careful.' Sana aided Felicia by picking up her long, baggy lavender scarf and wrapping it around her arm. Felicia meanwhile, was trying to be mindful of her layered, blond hair, particularly the two thin ponytails jutting out behind her ears. She grabbed their ends and stuffed them in her mouth.

'Here I go!' Felicia tucked her arms behind her back and slowly inched ahead. 'One foot.' She stepped over the bottom beam, sucked in and promptly exhaled a singular breath to thin out her chest, lifted her other foot over the bottom beam and proceeded forward. 'Two. Aaaaaaand…' She closed her eyes and proceeded ahead. 'Ta-Dah!' She spat out her hair and grinned upon achieving success. 'Easy! Now come on! You can do it too!'

'Okay.' Sana, being a couple centimeters taller than Felicia, opted not to imitate the girl's antics. Instead, she ducked down, hunched her back forwards, tucked in her veil and miniature cape around her waist, and wrapped her loose locks around her ears and tucked her side-tails around her crown. She offered her other hand to Felicia who was quick to take it and help pull her ahead.

'Tch. That works too I guess.' She lightly joked at Sana's clear lack of panache. Hands still locked, they were now practically face-to-face with each other, as their nervous heads turned and looked upon their next imminent physical challenge: The door.

'Um, it won't open automatically since we're invisible.' Sana pointed out.

'I know,' Felicia jabbed her fingers into the center and started prying at it. "Hurrrrrrk!" As she struggled, Sana stuck her brown-gloved fingers into the other side and tried to do the same. After several intense seconds of pain and struggle they managed to forge a gap wide enough to see a light source shining through the other side. "Hnnnnnnnngggh!" Needing all the strength she could muster, she had to let go of the security of Sana's invisibility and pump all her might into both hands. Right on cue, the Cybermen's heads all jerked their direction.

"Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" Sana exclaimed in a prompt panic.

"Deletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeletedelete!" The Cybermen turned their bodies and erupted in a collective clanging cacophony.

"Either help me…" Felicia made a desperate plea through her gritted teeth. "Or do somethin' that'll hold 'em off!"

"Aiiiiiyyyyyyaaahh!" Sana materialized her enormous shield to thrice its normal size and planted it just as one unit lunged. Like a squad of metal linebackers they pushed and shoved their hands and shoulders against her protective cover.

"Got it!" Felicia rushed through the other side and dragged Sana along. In a savvy countermove she took hold of Sana's shield and lodged it into the door's frame. Now they were inside and barricaded from pursuit by the hulking menaces outside. "Ha!" In the rush of the moment she was quite impressed with her shrewdness.

"Nemu?" Sana called out. "Nemuuuuuuuuuuu!" They were in a vast, seemingly empty space, as big as an arena with the high walls and ceiling to match.

"The scan-phone-thingy says she's close." Felicia forged her giant hammer and was ready to smash whatever object was holding the young lady captive. "Real, real close!" In fact, it seemed to be pinging a source at the exact center of the room. Felicia looked upwards. There were a series of twisting and turning tubes that all came together in a huge, grotesque knot in the middle. Naturally her gut instinct was to take her hammer and smash the only thing interesting in the room.

"Uh, Felicia," Sana tapped her on the shoulder. "Look!" Just then three column-shaped containers whirred and extruded from the floor.

"Emergency! Deploying specialty combat Cyber units!" The Cyber Regent's voice echoed throughout as if announcing their next big boss battle. "Unit One Zero Zero Code Alpha! Unit One Zero Three Code Delta! Unit One Zero Four Epsilon! Take all conceivable measures necessary to neutralize target homo magica!" Three robots emerged from their storage chambers. One was quite a bit larger than the other two, green in color, cylindrical in design, with two glowing eyes and black, boxing glove-esque hands. It hovered in place where the other two featured legs.

"Oooooh crapcrapcrap!" Felicia realized she was the one square in their laser sights. She grabbed Sana's hand and made a run for it.

"Switching to multi-EM spectrum," Her voice declared. "Compiling and amalgamating scan data."

"Hey, that's…" Sana looked closely. Through a transparent section on the large machine she spotted a familiar set of closed eyes. "Nemu!" She was being held prisoner within a stasis capsule within the thing, being kept asleep and suspended inside a bubbling liquid with an opaque oxygen mask over her mouth and tubules jutting from her nose, ears and the back of her neck.

"You bastards!" Felicia readied her big mallet and charged, sprinting with Sana in toe.

"Upgrade in progress!" The three modified Cybermen declared in unison.

"Heeeey!" Unit One Zero Four stepped up and grabbed and yanked Felicia's weapon mid swing. Sana's secret trick had been figured out and countered, it seemed. "Craaaaaaap!" Felicia tugged Sana along to a hasty retreat.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" One Zero Three went on the offensive, firing a barrage of bullets from its machine gun hands. Sana was heads up enough to forge a new shield and plant herself in front of her comrade.

"What do we do now?" Sana cried above the constant pounding of projectiles.

"I dunno!" Felicia shouted. "You got any attacks you can do?"

"Uuuuuaaaawwwgh!" Sana chanced the tiniest peek through the tiny opening atop her protection. "I don't know! I- I've never fought in a real, live battle before!" She was still receiving visions from her virtualized counterpart. And she seemed to have a better all-around grasp on her combat abilities, including knowledge of a little trigger switch on her handle. With little else to try and even less to lose, she pulled it. The green-striped front of her device opened and ejected a hailstorm of black, spiked cannonballs. "Wuuuaahh!" She wailed in surprise at this revelation.

"Danger! Acquiring new targets!" The trio of mechs trained their attention on Sana's primitive diversion.

"Yaaaaaarrrrrgh!" Felicia did not hesitate to seize this chance at scoring a few payback points. "Haaaaaaah!" She connected her trusty tool against the heavy chassis of Unit Delta, bouncing it off the wall and sending it into a firing frenzy.

"Watch out!" Sana scrambled out of hiding fast enough to tackle Felicia into an evasive duck and roll along the floor. Two shots ricocheted mere centimeters from their heads.

"Engaging targets!" Unit One Zero Four Epsilon stepped in and tried to accost the pair.

"No you don't!" Felicia knocked it into a backwards stagger with a swift uppercut blow. Sensing an opening for Nemu, she launched herself towards the unmoving large mech in the center. "Gaaaauuggh!" But with one laser-targeted rocket powered gut punch she was sent right back into Sana's unprepared arms.

"Unph!" They tumbled and rolled several meters.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The Cybermen droned as they regained the initiative. Delta had its twin guns trained on them while Epsilon readied a mini missile loaded within its arm.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sana raised her shield just in time to deflect the blast. But the explosive pushback sent them careening hard against the opposite wall.

"Crap!" A close enough call that made Felicia realize it was time to stop thinking with her hammer, and start thinking with her head. She remembered that uptight Nanaka girl teaching her something about pinpointing either the weakest link of the bunch or failing that, searching for a vulnerable spot and letting loose.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" But they were bulky metal men. No outward weaknesses to exploit. Momoko taught her to watch and learn. Look for patterns and exploit the right one when it comes around. "Delete! Delete! Delete!" The one with the twin guns was keeping them pinned in one spot with suppressive fire. The other was two seconds from locking on and firing a second helping of missiles. Pattern established. Lock 'em down and fire a big one.

"Sana! Quick, hit that switch again!" Felicia commanded as clear and concise as she could without jamming the words together as one.

"Aiiiiiiiiiiie!" Sana opened her shield's front side again. The explosive projectiles disappeared inside her magical device's netherspace.

"Now fire it back at 'em!"

"How?" Sana asked while closing the hatch and repositioning her shield.

"Ain't there another switch?" Felicia helped her search. "There! Hit it!" Bracing for the inertial kicks of a launch and explosive blast they were instead surprised to hear a mighty kaboom go off in the barricaded hallway behind them. "Uhm… 'Kay?" Sana had a neat trick, but it didn't help resolve this particular pickle.

"Recalculating!" Nor were their attackers deterred by this little twist. "Reengaging!" Delta didn't even change tactics in keeping them sitting ducks. But the other one, Felicia saw, was prepping enough munitions to carpet bomb everything around them to smithereens.

"Can you make more shields?" Felicia asked. "Like, a lot more?'

"I guess I could?" Even while trying to sound certain, Sana's voice was ever tentative by nature.

"And put them anywhere ya' wanna?" But she was more than perceptive enough to know what Felicia's next move in mind was. She shut her eyes, grit her teeth and winced in pure concentration.

"Setting targeting parameters!" Epsilon had them so deadlocked in its sights it utterly failed to notice the six solid shields forming in a spinning circle right above its head. "Delete! De-" The shields slammed and closed together around it right as it fired away. The unit was enveloped in a mushroom cloud of black smoke and hot flame, with little bolts and pieces being ejected and falling like rain from above.

"Hiiiiiiieeeee-" In the hyper adrenaline rush of that success Felicia's brain came up with another potential chef d'œuvre. She knew she had a little-used ability to get creative with memories, and Kako once tried to help her develop a range attack to couple with her mallet. But could those two disparate talents be combined like the flavors of peanut butter and chocolate? "Yeeeeeaa-" She pumped a purple package of magic and transferred it through her gloved hands. Then Felicia slammed her weapon to the floor in a violent violet blur. "Aaaaaaaahh!" The energy moved along the floor with almost as much swift intensity as lightning through air.

"Err- Ror!" The sparkly purple light enveloped the hapless Unit Delta as its arms and legs dropped limp in an instant. "Errrr…" Then it keeled over, virtually dead on the spot.

"What'd you do?" Sana snuck a look through the little rectangular hole in her shield.

"I changed out all its memories." Felicia stared at her handiwork with a strange mixture of anger, exhilaration, satisfaction, relief, a twinge of disbelief, "With nuthin'." And pity.

"Such egregious troublemakers!" The Cyber Regent's voice boomed all throughout the room as if she were a deity sleighted.

"Upgrade in progress!" The One Zero Zero Alpha unit holding Nemu inside moved to take them on next. "New parameters established!" It announced in a cadence that sounded as if its monotone voice were being overtaken by its controller's. "De- Lete! De- Lete! De- Lete!"

"What's that sound?" Sana heard dozens upon dozens of metallic clicking and clinking noises behind her door-blocking makeshift shield barricade.

"Crap!" Felicia's newfound confidence and strength were cut off at the knees by the literal sound of whirring saw blades. "Crapcrapcrap!" The monolithic Alpha unit opened its claw-like hands and its ominous red laser sight locked on to the pair.

"I had hoped to preserve your bodies inside a protective stasis capsule pod for continuous study like Nemu," The Cyber Regent declared. "But now I think the safest thing would be to deprive you of your ethereal energy sources, chop your bodies up, and piece together your remains for utilization in Unit One Zero Six Eta!"

"Delete this!" Yachiyo executed a patrolling Cyberman without even giving the thing the chance to speak. "Hmph!"

"Intruder detected in Sub-Sector One, Junction Six!" Whether that alarm was giving away the position of herself, or of that mysterious girl who seemed to know way too much about this unrelenting foe, Yachiyo did not know or care. For if this menace was to be ended by completing an errand of mercy on behalf of a fallen friend, then she would let nothing stop her.

"Delete! De-"

"Nope!" She dispensed with the next one just as efficiently with a halberd sharpened to the atom and propelled by a swift jet of water. It did not so much slice on impact as explode. If that was what it took to keep these mechanized zombies down for the count then she had ample firepower and willpower.

"Hi there, Yachie!"

"Waaaah!" Yachiyo jumped at the sound of a friendly familiar voice greeting her in these dark halls. "Oh." She reached out and stuck her hand through an imaginary Mifuyu. "What're you doing here?"

"Where else am I going to go, Yachie? That transmission was one time and one-way." She playfully answered.

"No. I mean," She readied her blade for the next enemy encounter. "Why are you showing yourself to me now?" She tried to avoid looking straight into Mifuyu's soft, imaginary eyes, and stay focused on the job at hand. "And how?"

"Well, to answer your second query first," Mifuyu tiptoed steps behind her as if she were really there. "I would surmise that those little sticky patches she put on your head might do a little more than passively scan your memory engrams for better synchronization with your AI version." She sure looked the part and sounded the part, except the way she spoke was all scientific and technical. "They also hyperstimulate your chemical synapses and as a side effect I was able to initiate my program through your conscious audiovisual senses." And dumping information at the level of a college professor.

"And my first question?" Yachiyo spied two Cybermen marching her way down the corridor. Having little time or patience for tackling them head-on, she tapped each wall with the butt of her blade, sending river gushes of water traveling along the sides. Then uber-sharpened halberds sprang forth and made mincemeat of their armored chassis.

"Moral support, of course." Mifuyu replied. "I need to be here to tell my friend to keep fighting and believe in herself. That was my initial purpose for being after Nemu was captured and subdued by The Cyber Regent and her crazy metal monsters." She lingered on Yachiyo's periphery for a moment before reappearing in front of her. Then she tried to take the young lady's hand with both her own, but being a figment she failed. And to Yachiyo's unease she could clearly tell this artificial being was disappointed by this immutable fact.

"I'm less in need of moral support than I am of physical backup," Yachiyo distracted her fluttering heart by checking on the makeshift witch radar she'd been supplied with. "And maybe directions." She also closed her eyes and served as a brief witness to Iroha's ongoing battle in Dreamland. No matter how much Sayaka insisted that digital distraction needed to keep running, it felt superfluous, not to mention wrong, to draft that girl into being its lone living participant. "So why don't you go back and give them a boost?"

"My entire brief existence has been spent running around in digital places and abstract spaces," The Substitute Mifuyu complained. "I wanted to experience what a real-world location was like for once." Her curious head panned and tilted about like a small child who didn't know what to make of it all. The look on her face reminded Yachiyo of Yuma's when being brought to new places like the doctor's clinic or to child care services. "Even if my very first labyrinth looks comparatively drab and sterilized."

"How would you know what to compare this to if you've never actually seen one before?" Yachiyo tried to keep her voice at a level hovering around a whisper. Even though she was aware she didn't need to be speaking aloud to this would-be friend in her head at all, she believed she should, out of courtesy.

"Because I carry on the memories and impressions Nemu gained from her time spent with Mif- Er, my biological template." Mifuyu's mouth struggled with the notion of speaking her own name. "I think the more convinced she was that her magic was growing weaker with age, the more of herself she conscientiously handed over to Nemu." For she knew of Yachiyo's ongoing skepticism, and did not want to ruffle her doubtful feathers. "Unfortunately, the apparent cost of her transference left her soul too compromised to fend off these machines during-" She stopped and listened along with Yachiyo to the steady drumbeat of a metal marching.

"Hmph!" Yachiyo readied a horizontal guillotine of halberds in a row for when it came around the corner.

"Dele-" It was beheaded in such a quick, clean-cut fashion that even Mifuyu's copy had to pump a celebratory fist at the feat.

"Mifuyu thought she was getting weaker?" Yachiyo stopped for a moment in her tracks. "She didn't say anything about that to me." She pressed onward after hearing the cleaning of reinforcements coming after her. "Now I wonder if that's because of the thing I told her before she left?"

"Oh, you speak of that time you told her the circumstances surrounding your wish, and what it was?" Mifuyu intuited. As a part of Yachiyo's mind, she had access to her surfacing subconscious thoughts. She also felt no need to keep those notions unspoken. "To survive that modeling contest, yes?"

"Ungh." Yachiyo reactively recoiled in disgust of her youthful greed and shortsightedness. "Yes."

"Now you are convinced the karmic consequences have turned you into an unintentional parasite upon others' hopes and desires?" The Mifuyu-based entity spilled. "What if I were to tell you that, based upon my reconstituted memories of what happened, your disclosure played no part in her decision to extricate herself under such unfortunate circumstances?"

"Tch," Yachiyo approached a sealed door and kicked it hard as she could into a Cyberman guard situated on the other side. "Huuuuuaaahhhp!" She wasted not a breath, moment nor thought in dispensing with it. "You weren't there. You're only absolving me because that's what you're programmed to do for my psychological relief." She was almost upset there was only one with which she could wail on.

"You seem to be totally convinced that you were the central figure at the crux of her life, Yachie." The virtual recreation scolded her in an uncharacteristic retort. "Not so. What you lack is greater contextual information that would provide you a better understanding of her motives."

"By all means," Yachiyo came to a pictographic image that vaguely reminded her of a 'warning' sign. "Enlighten me." A check of her handheld radar confirmed she was steaming down the right track. "Distract me from this onerous knowledge of what I'm to face on the stage ahead." Sarcastic in phrasing but earnest in intent, despite her earlier protestation. She really did not want to have to think about the state of her friend until the very second she was face-to-face with it.

"You do recall in your frequent letter exchanges, her telling you that she was betrothed to the firstborn son of her father's business partner, right?" She didn't need a nod to confirm it, but she waited until she got one. "She was to attend college, graduate, and then in the ensuing months go through a thoroughly-rehearsed wedding ceremony planned and paid for by their families." She watched Yachiyo collapse the hallway behind them with a wild, furious flinging of halberds so numerous the structural integrity was breached in a matter of seconds. "She never took the engagement seriously, for she did not expect to live long enough to see the day of the wedding arrive." Through the tiniest peephole above the labyrinth, beyond the walls, was visible. It was the sunny sky of a bright blue day. The false backdrop of her soul's freedom.

"If only she'd waited until the Soul Support Stones were brought to us, then that day would've all but been guaranteed to happen." Yachiyo lamented. Her sad and doleful expression turned disgusted when a potent and awful aroma suddenly crossed her nostrils. "Peeeeeeeeeew!" She pinched them shut with her fingers and held her breath. "Where's that fart smell coming from?" She continued on, following a trail of interwoven pipes and ductwork.

"Are you going to be okay?" Her friend sympathized but could not suffer along, as she was not endowed with a sense of smell.

"I'll be fine. Just…" Yachiyo took a second to exhale the old breath and inhale the new. "Talk." Her eyes were getting watery at the pure pungency of it. "Phweeewweeey!"

"But the plan's timeline was thrown off, when the business partner suddenly perished." She continued. "The son was set to inherit his father's shares, but getting that money was contingent on him marrying into the family proper, otherwise his stakes were to be liquidated on the public stock exchange, and soon."

"I wasn't aware of any of that." Yachiyo muttered under her clamped nose. "Mifuyu wasn't about to spend her remaining days as somebody's trophy bride, was she?"

"No," Mifuyu's digital double said. "In the time since the initial arrangement, she'd fallen head-over-heels and truly, madly, deeply, in love with someone to such a passionate degree that, if that person needed her to sacrifice her soul to live, she'd do it and die with a contented smile on her lips."

"Lucky fellow," Yachiyo quipped, ignorant of the look that prompted from Mifuyu's face. "I presume her plan was to disappear for a while, lay low, and wait until the stock sale rendered their inter-family business agreement moot, right?" She kneeled to the floor, got as low as she could and exchanged breaths again, figuring the gassy source would be lighter than the normal air. "So she must've cut me off in order to spare me the onus of having to lie to her family and the authorities, like what happened with Mel and Kanae."

"Something like that." Yachiyo's turned back spared from seeing her friend's counterpart's dotingly derisive snicker and eyeroll. "Early on while she was in hiding she quickly came to realize she now possessed that palpable freedom that underpinned her wish." She went on. "Did you know that her favorite dream was to picture herself as an adult in her late twenties, with a degree in pediatric medicine, opening a small clinic somewhere out in the countryside?"

"I did not," Yachiyo admitted. "Then again, the last time we shared our dreams like that we were freshly fifteen, and I still had the notion of moving to Australia to become a Japanese teacher, thus shifting my birthday around to the summer." She cracked a smile at the fond recollection of that conjured reverie. "She pulled a pretty glorious prank on me when I turned around and found out my precious pupils were suddenly wallabies." She wanted to chuckle at it but had to stifle her breathing, as the air was just getting too rancid. "Haaahaahaa… Wuuuuuuuuuf!" She laughed, then grunted almost involuntarily at the smell.

"Well, to make this long story short," Mifuyu could sense through Yachiyo's sense that their bacon was about to hit the proverbial fryer. "She was biding her time for a few weeks in the quiet satellite village of Kamihane, when she met a struggling little magical girl trying to fend off a familiar by literally tossing a book at it." She had goosebumps, the first she'd ever experienced. For her, it was a most remarkable novel moment, this trepidation of the imminent danger. But for Yachiyo, whose hairs were also standing on end, it was because temperatures were dropping, and fast. "Once they met she sensed this was her chance to put a magical twist on her favorite dream."

"And Kamihane was one of the first places I searched," Yachiyo's teeth started chattering. "Either I must've just missed her, or my efforts drove her into fleeing even further fr-"

"Target sighted!" They were abruptly face-to-face with a Cyberman upon their next turn through those zigzagging hallways. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Yachie-" Mifuyu's image was caught between the sudden, gaseous clash of two disparate liquids.

"Grrrrraaauuhhh!" Yachiyo reinforced her watery defenses against the ice-cold spray the Cyberman was firing from a pair of nozzles in its palms. Through the misty clash she made out a large pressurized tube mounted to its back. "Haaaaaaah!" She tossed a halberd lance-style at what she assumed was a holding tank.

"Delete!" She ruptured it, showering the liquid all down through its bulky metal body. "Delete!" It struggled against the snapping, creaking, crackling sounds of its servo motors locking up and shattering under stress. "Delete!" Yachiyo stepped right over and knocked it to pieces with a hard, stylish round kick to its glowing center-piece.

"I'm no Miyako, but this supercooled fluid almost has to be pure liquid nitrogen." The shivering Yachiyo inspected the Cyberman's scattered remains. "If so, that begs the question-"

"Whatever could they be using it for?" Mifuyu's imaginary stand-in finished her thought. Another unfamiliar swirl of emotions crossed her virtual consciousness once Yachiyo's eyes happened upon the neutralized Cyberman's displaced chestplate. For beneath it, stuck out a female woman's dead bare breast, silvery goo oozing out its pale nipple. She was aware of how a Cyberman was constructed, of the human flesh powering these suits underneath. But seeing some poor girl's decaying remains in this state firsthand, filled her with an existential dread, angst, and above all, worry. "Yachiyo-"

"I know." This time Yachiyo completed Mifuyu's thought. "I was warned. But that doesn't make the sight any easier to behold." She reached to take Mifyuy's hand, only to become the one genuinely disappointed that it wasn't possible.

"Skrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" A high-pitched, wailing echo bounced between the metallized walls.

"I'm crying!" Mifuyu's shaky hand reached out in sympathy towards its source. "And I am crying?" It just as quickly retracted to her face upon the unexpected sensation of a tear rolling down her eye.

"G- Getting close to the point of no return now." Yachiyo's teeth chattered as the air turned chillier by the second. They proceeded down a couple more long, winding corridors, maneuvering with heavy caution past a group of metallic mannequins glued to their spots by the smoky, billowing nitrogen. "This is your last chance to retreat back into the comparative safety of my subconsciousness."

"It was my SOS call that roped you into this weirdness, Yachie," Mifuyu's digital twin declined the offer. "I may be only a pale imitation of your friend, but it shouldn't take much of a recreation to know that the only right thing to do is stand by your side, one hundred percent!" She smiled an endearing smile that couldn't have been more encouraging if it were coming from the real deal herself.

"I must say, even as you are, you're still a way better Mifuyu recreation than the last one that was planted inside my head." Yachiyo jested as she formed and prepared a new halberd for one more explosive, supersonic toss into the final physical barrier that stood between her and the witch.

"Y'know, if you had five hundred Yen for every time a phony Mifuyu crawled her way into your brain…" Mifuyu cracked back. "You'd have a thousand Yen. Which isn't a lot," Mifuyu paused. Was gallows humor appropriate in the face of such mounting madness?

"But it's weird that it happened twice!" Yachiyo was nonetheless tickled by it. "Am I right?" She giggled, and off went the bladed weapon, penetrating straight through the blast door like a hot knife through butter. "Huuuuuuuaaaaaaaahhhhhp!" Yachiyo charged into the witch's innermost chamber, rolling underneath the secondary blast door that came thudding down behind her.

"Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaak!"

"Oh, my gosh!" Through Yachiyo's unsettled eyes Mifuyu was at last able to see what horrifying modifications the Cybermen had made to the rump essence of her soul.

"Biological intrusion detected!" The monotone voice of the Cybermen droned all around the amphitheater. "Designation species Homo Magica! Enact Protocol Three Three Nine Zero!" They droned their intention as a collective in a thunderous call that almost drowned out the pained cries of Mifuyu's witch. "Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Skrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" Whatever final form Mifuyu's witch had taken, the Cybermen, in their innate drive to convert all material both living and dead into a means to serve their ends, had altered the unfortunate creature into a gigantic floating Cyberman head. It was being kept immobilized by four massive chains anchoring it to the ground. "Skrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaak!" It screamed again through the muzzling mouthpiece that had been riveted to an amorphous lower section that had been remolded into a lower jaw section. Underneath it, flashed a series of luminescent circular tubes, pulsating in a ghostly neon blue. Its eyes were inverted triangles glowing in a feral shade of yellow and a contrast with the Cybermen' dead-eyed black indents. While its gun metal gray faceplate featured a more prominent brow ridge, which bowed back and linked up to their earpieces and plugged into a series of cables and vacuum tubes, which extended all the way hundreds of meters to the ceiling.

"Looks like they're transforming me into some kind of eternal engine…" Mifuyu gasped. "Of despair!"

"It's time to atone for the merciful end I couldn't grant Mel!" Yachiyo declared, dashing her way up the titanic chain links.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The pursuing band of Cybermen only formed a circle around the chain.

"They're not chasing," Mifuyu's image ran alongside. "Odd."

"Too bulky to keep up, huh?" Yachiyo pulled a leaping flip turn and landed atop the witch's skull. She forged a singular, massive halberd and plunged it straight in. "Hnnnnnnnnnnnghh!" She strained herself trying with all her might to expose the weak point that was the being underneath.

"Deploying specialty combat unit!"

"Yachiyo!" The functional sixth sense that was Mifuyu warned. "Incoming!"

"Unnnngh!" Something flying at the speed of a bullet knocked Yachiyo down with a glancing blow. "Gluuuooorgh!" Yachiyo managed to cushion her long fall with a conjured bubble of water that flattened and splashed away on impact.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The Cybermen moved to surround her. The attacker flew a paraloop around and parked itself in a hover mode within their encirclement.

"Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaak!" A plume of gas billowed from the troubled witch's orifices.

"Take this!" Yachiyo tossed a set of hyper-speed halberds at her foe. "Damn!" Most sailed wide, while one was embedded into the shielding on its arm.

"Priority Three Three Nine Zero confirmed!" It broke the blade piece off and charged. "Engaging capture mode!"

"Woooah!" Yachiyo pulled a quick dodge and roll.

"That one is definitely not like the others," Mifuyu observed. "Be very weary of it, Yachie!"

"I've come much too far just to get cheap-shotted by some flying sports car model!" Yachiyo grit her teeth and stood up. "Really wanna take me alive? Then keep up!" She blasted up to the air atop a jetty of water, took hold of a multi-segmented halberd, chucked it into the underside of her target and used it as a way to tether herself the rest of the way.

"Delete! Delete Delete!" The Cybermen below repeated in what almost sounded like a rallying chant. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Hnnnnnnggh!" With a superhuman body thrust Yachiyo sent herself back atop the chained beast. "Take two!" She prepared to penetrate its armor with a dozen's batch sharpened to the atom's width.

"Duck!" Yachiyo hit the deck just in the nick of time. Her flying foe turned in mid-air, took aim and pelted the area not with a barrage of explosive gunfire, but with something less loud and less solid.

"What the-?" One landed splat against the tail of Yachiyo's long, blue gown. "Yeech!" It was a thick, dough-like substance that acted as a sticky glue. "Crud!" She tore off the dress piece and redirected her halberds skyward. The robot dodged them with ease, just as Yachiyo anticipated.

"Skrrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaak!" The untamed giant floating head below her shrieked and expired another plume of stinky gas. Fortunately for Yachiyo, the tip of her nose was too numb from the cold for any of its stench to affect her.

"Bzzz" Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!" Its outburst was accompanied by a series of high-pitched, overlapping noises that hit Yachiyo's reddening ears as the changing flow of electricity.

"Brrreeeaaap! Error!" The combat unit was clipped on its fin-shaped antenna by one of Yachiyo's boomeranging halberds. "Recalculating!" It tracked, avoided and swatted away the rest of her blade barrage.

"Heeeeeeeeeee-" Sensing her opening, Yachiyo double-gripped her own and lunged. full-throated, full-throttle at it. "Yaaaaaaaah!" Through its crimson red-tinted visor, the Cyberman captured every frame of its objective's hail-mary air assault.

CODE 3390

TARGET 1

RANGE: 5.221 METERS

VELOCITY: 19.382 METERS PER SECOND

WARNING! IMPACT UNAVOIDABLE!

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzzt Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!"

Gamma sat there wordless, motionless save for a slowly drooping mouth and shaking eyes, looking into the same shaky pair its digital reflection had, inside a digital recreation of a bedroom inside a domestic domicile, covered in digital blood cradling its wounded, digital lookalike on the floor.

"Y- You're my head." The girl it was holding in its arms spoke. "I- I'm your heart." She strained to lift her hand and caress Gamma's cheek. "To- Together we are-" She struggled to say more than three words at a time, despite her severe damage also being a digital depiction. "We're our soul!"

"You waste energy." Gamma in turn could only utter a three word response. "Standby mode. Recover."

"No," Its human counterpart lightly pulled its distracted face towards her urgent gaze. "Y- You're the one." She strained to cry. "Who needs fixing."

"Does not compute." Gamma squeaked in an equally strained tone. It detected a small, but growing sensation of damage rooted in the same general area she had been pierced through.

"Th- That's the problem." She responded. "I was protected." She attempted to sit up and hug herself. "Sheltered by friends." But both the pain and Gamma's visible reluctance stymied her effort. "You were programmed." She beamed an empathetic smile instead. "To know nothing." Her image flashed into a repeating pattern of ones and zeros for a half-second. "I'll fix you."

"I know you have reservations about harming a face you once saw as a friendly one." Yachiyo's digital representation uttered to the young Iroha, who had Touka the Cyber Regent in her crossbow's sights. "But every bit of energy she wastes reconstituting her self-image in here translates to critical moments bought for our real selves' missions." She wrapped her hand around Iroha's with the finger over the trigger. But the touch was light enough to let Iroha know the decision would be all hers.

"Big Sis, do you remember those days we used to sit around the table and hypothesize over what wonders may lie in the far future beyond our time?" The bowtied, Victorian-dressed young lady made one last open-armed counter appeal to Iroha's peaceful side. "Sketching out hyper-space vessels, imagining how a terraformed Venus would look, and forecasting a human race that evolves beyond all struggle and suffering?" To Iroha this being looked like Touka, spoke with every bit of Touka's precocious eloquence, and even harkened back to their precious shared memories. "The way I am now, I can bring that future to the present. End all war and hunger and pettiness." But there was something about the way she carried herself that was putting Iroha off. "With your help I can save both the homo sapien and homo magica from their mutual fates of doom." Though her words were evocative of her sis's high minded ideals, there was a distinct lack of Touka's imaginative gleam in her eyes. "I can do it all, if you'd just relinquish the Cyberqueen Codex."

01110010 01101111 01101111 01110100 01000000 01101100 01101111 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00001010 01110000 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01100110 01100101 01110010 00001010 00100111 01000011 01111001 01100010 01100101 01110010 01110001 01110101 01100101 01100101 01101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01111000 00100111 00001010 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101 00100000 01000010 01001001 01001111 01010011

"Error." Gamma mouthed. "Running unsigned code."

"I'm giving you," Hitomi removed the green piece of jewelry adorning her garment. "Wh- What you need." It dissolved into numbers as she clasped it in her hands. "To be whole."

Gamma felt a spasmic jolt run from the base of its spine all throughout its body. "Base protocol reset!" It was suddenly at a loss for what to say next. "Awaiting new instructions." That was the default.

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"I'm sorry," Iroha pulled the trigger and fired at her adoptive sister's uncanny valley twin. "But if you're Touka, then you'd know I couldn't possibly give away something that was never mine in the first place!" The Cyber Regent opened her parasol in front, calculating that the arrow would harmlessly bounce off its reinforced fabric.

"Aaaack!" To her shock and dismay, her defensive countermeasure had been bested by the bolt, which was bolstered by an influx of blushing bright pink energy. It managed to penetrate all the way to the fake soul gem on her throat, causing it to seep a reddish-black wave of invasive binary digits. "De- Delete!"

00101101 01111100 00100000 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01010001 01010101 01000101 01000101 01001110 00100000 01010101 01001110 01001001 01010100 00100000 01001111 01001110 01001100 01001001 01001110 01000101 00100000 01111100 00101101 00001010 00101101 01111100 00100000 01000011 01000001 01010101 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01111100 00101101

"Help Iroha first," Hitomi instructed. "Save her friends." As she spoke, an emerald green glow started to envelop her form. "Then assist Sayaka."

"Sayaka?" It was a name Gamma did not know but somehow struck a chord of familiarity. "Sayaka is who?"

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"Aaarrrrgh! Delete! her" The Cyber Regent's visage faded as she threw a foot-stomping tantrum. "Deletedeletedeletedeletedeletedeleeeeeeete heeeeeerrr!" Her shock troops moved to encircle Iroha and her gang with ruthless efficiency.

"Whoops," Felicia's dreamworld counterpart remarked. "I think she's rrrrroyally pissed off!"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

00101101 01111100 00100000 01001001 01001110 01001001 01010100 01001001 01001100 01001001 01011010 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01001101 01000001 01011001 00100000 01000011 01000001 01010101 01010011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01000001 01010100 01001001 01000010 01001001 01001100 01001001 01010100 01011001 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001110 01000110 01001100 01001001 01000011 01010100 01010011 00100000 01111100 00101101

"Yes, our friend," Hitomi shared. "Sayaka means well." She elaborated in as many words as her waning energy would allow. "But she's alone." The greenish glow was starting to form an aura around Gamma too. "In love. Again."

"Love?" Another word Gamma had lacked any knowledge of or context for, yet somehow recognized as something imperative to inquire about.

00101101 01111100 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001110 01010100 01001001 01001110 01010101 01000101 00100000 01001000 01000001 01010010 01000100 01010111 01000001 01010010 01000101 00101111 01010011 01001111 01000110 01010100 01010111 01000001 01010010 01000101 00101111 01010111 01000101 01010100 01010111 01000001 01010010 01000101 00100000 01001001 01001110 01010100 01000101 01000111 01010010 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00111111 00100000 01111100 00101101

"Eeeep!" Meanwhile, Sana's counterpart wasted no time protecting their party with a huge linkup of shields.

"Buh-Baaaam!" And Felicia provided the offensive power.

"We have managed to draw away the bulk of their processing might," Yachiyo's AI double informed Iroha. "While externally, the Regent's resources are spread to their thinnest extent." A slow, steadily amplifying quake made them take a momentary respite under a dome of Sana's shields. "We are now at a critical juncture. Tactical calculations put our overall odds of defeating the Cybermen at precisely fifty percent."

"But what about the odds of rescuing Nemu?" Iroha asked.

01001110 01000101 01010111 00100000 01010101 01001110 01001001 01010100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00111010 00100000 11100010 10000000 10011000 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01010001 01010101 01000101 01000101 01001110 00100000 01000111 01000001 01001101 01001101 01000001 11100010 10000000 10011001

"Love. It's funny." Hitomi breathed. "It's a paradox." She elaborated. "Makes us logical." She breathed heavier. "Makes us crazy." And heavier. "Makes us selfish." A glowing tear dropped from her eye. "Makes us kind." It corresponded with a leakage from Gamma's visual appendage. "Makes us fight." Gamma detected an intense and repetitious thudding emanating from a spot just off center of the protruding section of its chest. "Makes us friends." It was always there, Gamma previously presumed it was a natural side effect of that energy core of mysterious design and composition. "But above all," She drew in and released her final breath. "Makes us wish."

"Sayaka," Gamma recounted. "Friend." It registered. "Wish?"

01001001 01001110 01010000 01010101 01010100 00100000 01001110 01000101 01010111 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001001 01001101 01000001 01010010 01011001 00100000 01000100 01001001 01010010 01000101 01000011 01010100 01001001 01010110 01000101 01010011 00111010

"We're working on it!" Felicia's double smacked several encroaching Cybermen to digital bits with her mallet.

"You and your distracting cohorts shall all pay dearly for denying me my Cyberqueen Codex!" The Regent's disembodied voice boomed through all corners of their dream battlefield.

"Oh, my gosh!" Sana twin gasped at the sight of its next version, a gigantic kaiju-sized form with a malevolent, red gaze from above. It swatted away Sana's protective barriers as if it were made of playing cards.

"Holy cow!" Felicia pointed. "She's goin' full Gigantopotamasaurus!"

"Iroha!" Yachiyo's copy warned as she witnessed its massive hand reach for the girl. "Run!"

00110001 00111010 00100000 01010100 01010010 01010101 01010011 01010100 00100000 01000001 01001110 01000100 00100000 01010011 01000101 01010010 01010110 01000101 00100000 01000001 01001100 01001100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 01010011 00100000 00101101 00100000 00100111 01000110 01010010 01001001 01000101 01001110 01000100 00100111

"Wishes are the aspirations that drive a person to persevere through the pain and suffering of existence." Hitomi's physical shape had dispersed into millions of tiny bright green particulates spiraling around Gamma. "They come from our individual hopes and dreams as souls who yearn to do good, as beings who then come together in the spirit of achieving everlasting peace and love." It all coalesced in a ball shape before Gamma. "But poor Sayaka protects all love while denying it for herself." Every tiny particle encoded a new set of directives. It was a lot of data for Gamma to take in at once.

"Love?" Gamma questioned. "Of whom?"

00110010 00111010 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01010100 01000101 01000011 01010100 00100000 01000001 01001110 01000100 00100000 01000001 01010011 01010011 01001001 01010011 01010100 00100000 01000100 01000101 01010011 01001001 01000111 01001110 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00111010 00100000 01010100 01001001 01001101 01000101 00100000 01001100 01000001 01000100 01011001 00100000 01010011 01000001 01011001 01000001 01001011 01000001 00100000 01001101 01001001 01001011 01001001 00100000

"Guuaahh!" Iroha had been scooped up by the oversized Cyber Regent, and was getting painfully squeezed in its iron-tight grasp.

"Put her down!" Yachiyo's digital duplicate spun up a swirling hurricane of halberds and flung them at the Regent's outstretched arm.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr!" Their foe grunted in another fit of raw rage. "Mosquito bites!" She irately brushed the hundreds of pinprick wounds up her forearm and across her cheek aside with her free hand. "Begone, bug!" She raised her heeled boot in an attempt to stomp her attacker to death.

"No ya' don't!" Felicia and Sana joined hands in a rush to save her from getting squashed.

00110011 00111010 00100000 01010000 01010101 01010010 01010011 01010101 01000101 00100000 01001000 01000001 01010000 01010000 01001001 01001110 01000101 01010011 01010011 00100000 01000001 01001110 01000100 00100000 01010100 01000001 01001011 01000101 00100000 01000011 01000001 01010010 01000101 00100000 01001111 01000110 00100000 01011001 01001111 01010101 01010010 01010011 01000101 01001100 01000110 00100000 00111011 00101001

"You're plenty curious and intuitive enough to deduce that out yourself in good time." Hitomi's voice carried on in an echo. "But I worry our imposed personality schism could mean your memories won't be recovered quite so easily." The warm, green glowing ball of light floated invitingly before Gamma's armored chestplate. "Even so, it's imperative that you try!"

00101101 01111100 00100000 01000011 01011001 01000010 01000101 01010010 01010001 01010101 01000101 01000101 01001110 00100000 01001111 01010011 00100000 01001111 01010000 01000101 01010010 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010011 01011001 01010011 01010100 01000101 01001101 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001110 01000110 01001001 01000111 01010101 01010010 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001101 01010000 01001100 01000101 01010100 01000101 00100000 01111100 00101101

"Hnnnnnnngghhhhhhhh! Unnnnnnnnnghhh! "Aaaaaaaaaarrrrgggh!" The trio struggled to push back against the little behemoth's crushing heel.

"Touka!" Iroha wriggled and wormed around just enough to free her arms. Her whole body shaking under the squeeze, she readied her last explosive bolt and took aim. "Don't make me do this!" Eye to enormous eye, she was like David facing down Goliath.

"Haahmph!" The tyrant Regent snorted dismissively. "Farewell… 'Big' Sis!"

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"Cyber Regent, Enemy!" The awestruck Gamma declared. "Master registration, deleted!" She reached out and clasped the shining source of light in her hands. "Biological lifeforms, friends!"

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Deeee-" A good, hard jerk around sent Iroha's shot flying futilely into the vast abyss of dreamspace. "Leeeee-" And she was about to send the helpless Iroha chasing after it, when a brilliant light source caught the corner of her eye. "Eeeh?"

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Gamma was abruptly thrust into a quasi-disembodied state again, floating, falling, swimming, gyrating wildly through the quickly darkening void. Except this time, in the distance, Gamma could make a singular, solid, widening point of pink and white light. Acting out of sheer instinct, she chased after it.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeek!" The gargantuan Cyber Regent was blown into a million little digital pieces by the enormous blast of an immense arrow. Iroha was freed, and like a feather she floated gently into the awaiting arms of Yachiyo.

"Wooooooooowieee!" Felicia and Sana were awestruck at the sight of the gentle female giant smiling down from above. A multi-pieced Soul Gem in the shape of tear drops adorned her chest. Her hairstyle was bowed in a pair of twintails while the rest flowed into an endless infinity. Her dress was a long, white three-layered gown, most prominently the underside of it revealing the eternal twinkle of the stars themselves.

"Who's that?" Iroha too was enchanted by her regal beauty, even though her face was almost entirely devoid of features save for that warm and wondrous, angelic smile.

"The chosen avatar," She heard the virtual reproduction of Yachiyo whisper enigmatically. "Of the Ark of Hope."

From her vantage point Gamma could see, but not even begin to comprehend, the almighty humanoid figure beaming across the incalculable distance. Yet without knowing why she reached her amorphous hand out to it, and to Gamma's amazement the being responded to her vague plea for assistance. With but a flap of her massive wings she turned and outstretched her arms as if to invite the diminutive Gamma into an all-encompassing embrace. And Gamma, like a child drawn to the life-affirming assurances of a motherly hug, rushed towards its transcendent clasps so fast it may have exceeded the light barrier for all it knew.

A flash of blinding white prefaced a sudden total shift to chaos. But this was not the panicked state that was akin to her period before deactivation. No, to her senses streamed an almost overwhelming amount of sensory input. First she found herself careening into a swirling, rainbow-banded vortex, but not falling through it, more gliding gracefully like an avian. Next she emerged into open space, the lights of far distant suns warping behind gaseous plumes of violet, blue, yellow, red and green. Before she could take all that expansiveness in, she had arrived above the lumpy spheroid of the earth itself, descending gently into the atmosphere and bathing her naked essence in that energizing glow of a new day's dawn.

"Hitomi?"

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"Its power core is reseating within the skeletal frame. Does that mean it is awakening?"

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"Hitomi?"

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UNIT ONLINE

ENGAGING STARTUP MODE - CYBERQUEEN SHIZUKI HITOMI VER. 1.0.

SELF-REPAIR PROTOCOLS REPORT:

IMPACT DAMAGE - LOCATION: CRANIUM

STATUS: 91 PERCENT REPAIRED

ELECTRICAL DAMAGE - LOCATION: CRANIUM

STATUS: 84 PERCENT REPAIRED

EXPLOSIVE DAMAGE - LOCATION: SYSTEMS WIDE

STATUS: 76 PERCENT REPAIRED

OVERALL OPERATIONAL CAPACITY: 87.72 PERCENT

"Are you okay?" Words that matched an individual identified as Iroha Tamaki.

"I am," Before her optical systems had even reactivated her upper body arose from its resting spot on the floor. "Functional." The first thing her renewed eyes saw were mechanized hands moving to cradle her gyroscopically not-yet-steady head. Upon that declaration, she observed that she was in an unfamiliar location, and hardwired at the neck to an archaic electronic device, which had been modified to interface with a much larger, more sophisticated console at the room's center. "Request data," She paused to unhook the input and output lines jacked into her auxiliary interface ports. "What is this location?"

"You are in the primary control room of the TARDIS." She detected a voice imparting information not through her primary audio systems, but on a telepathic subchannel. "Its operator had you brought aboard after you incurred extensive physical damage." A subsequent scan for the signal source revealed an unclassified bioform that appeared to be a match to the animal The Cyber Regent depicted in that memory recreation.

"Thank goodness you made it." Iroha's hair was standing wild on ends from the static discharge of a most peculiar piece of kitchenware in her clutches. "After the things that Sayaka girl said about your condition I was worried you were a goner."

"Sayaka?" That name sent an animating spark of urgency to all corners of her robotized body, which prompted her to her feet. "Where is she?" But her orientation systems were not yet calibrated under the new operating software. So she staggered, almost toppling over, but Iroha offered her own body as a helpful crutch, despite being less than half the size and a fraction of her weight.

"She went out there to find Touka," Iroha winced under the immense strain of supporting her new friend. But she managed to endure it long enough to lead her towards the exit door. "You're… Really going out there?"

"Affirmative." She uttered in a tonal cadence that was several decibels softer than she usually spoke. As soon as she pushed the door open her communications monitoring system traced a new signal pinging her from an unmapped source deep within the base. "I must."

"Hitomi!" Iroha tried getting her attention. "Hitomi!" It took an extra second to realize the girl was addressing her by name. "I didn't wanna believe it when I agreed to help inside that digital dream-place, but now that I've seen for myself what she's turned into." Free of needing to put on a brave battle face, grieving tears streamed down her puffy cheeks. The Cyberman gently extended one of her digits to the girl's face, and a little drop forked its way down the connective rubber joint between her midsection and finger tip. The surface temperature change was faint, almost infinitesimal, but perceptible. "Touka's not with us anymore."

"Understood, friend." She nodded a singular time. "New objective: Eliminate your unhappiness."

Chapter Text

"Wooooooooah!" The resurrected young teenager waved his new feminine hands in front of his face. "Outta this woooooorld!" This little moment was like a convoluted, high-concept idea that came straight out of one of his all-too-many unfinished sci-fi stories.

He was a lost soul who was saved, or more accurately put, salvaged, by the reality-warping love of his longtime classmate and self-anointed girlfriend. Then he spent what felt like an eternity as a shadow watching from the back of her eye, a ghost whose haunting ground was within her very mind and conscience, where he'd exert a modicum of personal influence upon her overarching ambitions.

And now he was on the clock, tasked with the unenviable job of rescuing five souls from the clutches of an emergent new adversary, inside a labyrinth-like nexus formed by their mass merger of magics. Now was his big chance to demonstrate that was a real boy, more than her mere echo, an ego with a will and might of his own, not just to doubters such as his semi-voluntary hostess, but to himself as well. Going out and visiting his own death and burial sites as a disembodied tagalong every day was so surreal and distressing it made him question not just his sanity but his very authenticity too. But she wouldn't let him go and to her he simply could never say 'no'.

"Heeyyyyy!" An icy, reflective surface caught his attention. "Not bad!" He assessed the face of the female stranger whose persona he'd temporarily displaced. "Pretty good, actually!" He could sense the capillaries in those cheeks tingle with an increased blood flow, a sure sign Rena Minami was awake, aware and watching. "Plus you got this great set of ti-"

'Doooooon't press your luck, pervert!' His other hand smacked his prodding finger away from his bosom.

"Sorry!" He apologized to the reflection. "Just takin' a moment now that I'm livin' at the moment, is all." A sudden series of scary clicks and screeches put a swift end to their tiff. "Woahwoahwhoah!" He jumped at the frightening sight of oncoming attackers. "Aliens!"

'No, familiars!' Her inner voice corrected.

"Yeah well, whatever," The Boy had them pegged as characters ripped straight from his adolescent nightmares and fantasies. "I thought of 'em first!"

First up was a round purple bat-winged beast with a beady red gaze whose eyelids were mounted atop opposable stalks. It was armless, but had three stubby legs and feet, all equipped with sharp talons in lieu of toes. Behind it was a one eyed walking cannon on centipede legs, followed by a long-horned beaked creature with jagged teeth that waddled around like a penguin. Last, but not least, cackled a doodle-quality caricature of his seventh grade science teacher. A short, tubby woman with a prominent unibrow and more than enough unwaxed lip hair to be legally deemed a mustache.

'Don't just stand there!' Her voice pushed him into action. 'Fight!' A trident bubbled up his hand.

"Keeeeeeyaaaah!" He launched it like a harpoon at the bat-thing, to predictable results. "Lemme try that again!" On his second try he went for one the grounded foes, the horned menace, and leapt into a lightning-fast charge. "Hrrrrrrrrraaagh!"

"Quuaaaaaaackkk!" The attack forked it right in its gut. In retaliation it sprayed acid at him from its armpits.

'Eeeeeeeeeewwwgh!' Her inner sentiment mirrored his outer struggle. Fortunately he was quick enough to avert catastrophe.

"Squeeeeeaaaak!" The bat let out a rat-like yelp, swooped in and grabbed their hair. He in turn, out of sheer instinctive revulsion, took it by its wings and punted it like a pigskin football.

"Stop playing your stupid games and pay attention!" His misfigured teacher telegraphed its attack with a line he'd heard too many times from too many authority figures. "Get your head out of the clouds and screw it on tight!" It berated him while at the same time trying to behead him with a sword-sized scalpel.

"Shut the hell up, you decrepit old hag!" He vented his long repressed anger in a piercing thrust of their trident. "And get off my back!" But rather than shredding through it like tissue paper, the act only caused it to double in size. "What the fu-"

"Skrooooooaaaannnnk!" The walking cannon launched a green, mucus-like projectile from its main orifice.

"Boogers! Groooooooooss!" His only option to dodge it was to hit the deck. But that just left him open to an attack by that demented doodle.

"An eighty-eight?" It harped. "Only an eighty-eiiiiiiiiiight?" It swung its supersized scalpel like an ax. "That sort of laziness won't fly in my class!"

"It's not that I'm lazy!" He leapt up and met it at eye level. "It's that I just don't care!" He sliced its head off clean at the neck. But like a mythical hydra, it grew three more heads whose faces approximated the very bullies in class who caused him so much woe and misery.

"Is the baby-faced girl-boy gonna cry now?" It teased them. "Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" It knocked him backwards so hard the next thing they knew, their fall had already been broken by the glass-like shattering sounds of cracking ice.

"Glllluggluuuugluggluuuug!" Luckily one of their shared physical talents was their top-tier swimming competence. "Gluuuuuurrrg!" A light shimmering at the bottom caught their eyes, their fight-or-flight instincts sent them paddling towards it, only to be jerked back by the force of something grabbing their leg.

"Everybody hates you!"

"You should be shot!"

"Piece of low class trash!" It hurled insults familiar to both as it also hurled them high up to parts unknown. "Why don't you just kill yourself?" That one cut a bit more personal.

"Oooooooooouuuuunnf!" Their landing was cushioned by the soft, deep, cold senses-numbing snowbank. "Ough ough ough!" He coughed and spat up a concerning load of blood.

'If all you're gonna do is break Rena's bones and stain her clothes, then maybe Rena should just tag in!' The body lender suggested.

"No!" He rejected emphatically. "I've got this boss all figured out, I think!" He pulled himself to his feet with a pained wince. "But you can help out. You gotta think nuthin' but happy thoughts while I'm attackin'!"

'Eeeeeh?'

"You see how that boss beast grew bigger when I got worked up and angry?" He explained his deduction as a question. "Well, what if negativity is something like their food? Then wouldn't that make their poison…" His voice trailed the moment the bat, the cannon and the impaled yet not vanquished penguin rushed after them. "Now think of sugar and spice and everything nice!"

'Uhh… Gauche Burger, curly fries, tonkatsu sauce, Gauche Shake…' She listed off the items she ordered on her last fast food trek.

"Squaaaaaaaaaawk!" He pulled a gymnastic-style vault and flip turn, jabbing the penguin beast several times like their trident was a fork and the foe a gamy piece of poultry. "Squuueeeeaaarrrrk!"

'Cinnamon pastry strudel, fresh glazed donut, buttered toast, sunny side up eggs, squeezed orange juice…' As well as her typical weekday's breakfast.

"I said happy thoughts, not hungry thoughts!" He kicked its big behind and sent it flopping into the icy waters downhill. "Like, where do you go for fun? What do you do?"

'Sit in my room and listen to music, mostly!'

"I used to do that a lot, t- Gaaaaaawwwgh!" The taloned bat-thing dive bombed a cheap shot to their face. "Get off!" It struck its taloned claws across their left cheek, along the chin, and just above the brow.

'When I peer into the future, I seek the story in the cloudy shapes,' she sang to distract from the shared pain. 'Lonely days are tough and long to suffer, but I'd never shame my broken heart!'

"... I shall siiiiiing, like a ssssssultry sirennnnn!" He continued aloud in her voice. "Shunning all modesty and apologies!" He caught his attacker by its eyestalk, and gave it a good lasso-styled spin. "I'll be singin' 'til you hear my song! And this time you'd best believe, I'm holdin' nothin' back no more!" He launched it into the barrel of the cannon monster. "Sayu-Sayuuuuuuu!"

'I am smiting like a bladeworks goddess!' Their mutual moods peaked at their shared moment. "La- La- La- La- La- La- Lalaaaaah- Woooo!"

"Gaaaaaaaaaack!" The clogged up creature backfired and split into dozens of gunky little pieces, taking the hapless bat out with it.

"You listen to that girly-girly crap?"

"What a loser!"

"Ya' prissy-ass gay boy!" The three headed boss beast teased in the emulated taunts of his most prominent bullies.

"It's like it craves our wrath or maybe mine specifically." He fled to a temporary retreat behind cover. In that brief respite they noted their bloodied reflection. "Sorry." He whispered. "You got a way to fix this up?"

'Just one.' A quick flash later and their face had morphed fully into that of her friend's, complete with her blonde ponytailed hair, tight white tunic, tan crop top, brown gloves, ruffled skirt and wide white boots. The transformation even came complete with a change of weapons.

"An RPG sword!" He exclaimed. "Now we're talkin'!" But his moment of elation was a little too joyous, which brought them right to their searching enemy's attention.

"What's that?"

"Trying to change your stripes, wussy boy?"

"You ain't foolin' nobody but yourself!" It came running with all teeth and claws at full bore. "Better run or we'll smear yer queerhole face!"

But they held firm. "Count of three, think of the happiest thing that ever happened to you."

'But we don't have three seconds!'

"Fairpointokayonetwothreeletsdoit!"

"... You can't sit here!" The grouping of girls at the front table told her in the lunchroom. "This is our table!"

"Seat's reserved!" The girls at the next one did the same. "Find somewhere else!" This first day was like her last first day, all over again.

"Find another seat!" The same denial she got, seat after seat after seat. "This one's taken!" Table after table. "Go away!" "Nope, not here!" "It's for someone else!" "We don't want you here!"

"You can sit here if you want to." A soft-spoken underclassman uttered as she shuffled past. "I don't mind!"

"What's your name?" She asked in a tone of voice more intense and demanding than intended. Which had always been her problem.

"Kaede," she nervously shifted her rear trying to clear up space even though there was more than plenty. "Kaede Akino."

... She was out of his league, that face of his wildest dreams. Waaaaaaay out his league. Like, he was a scrawny nerd playing tee ball and she was the super star slugger in the NPB.

He had every feature, every last detail of her visage memorized. Those gorgeous eyes, those luscious lips, that special tint to her cheeks, that playful, winking expression with that tongue poking up just a little through the smile, the way her hair was bunched and tied together at the back of her head, the kimono which gave her the perfect proportions and made her look like a master painter's magnum opus come to life.

"Heeeey, is that the New Year's catalog?" A voice seated behind him in his study hall made him jump in his seat. "Woooooooooow, she's a shoo-in first prize, ten out of ten, don't you think?" It belonged to none other than Miss Princess of Pain herself, The Flambéer of Hearts, his sole childhood friend with whom he conscientiously drifted away from once the ugly gender politics of middle school consigned them to their boxes and cliques. "If she was this cutie's bestie I'd call her 'Ten-chan'… Wonder if the girls in her orbit already thought of that?" But like all pubescent boys in class he carried an enduring flame. He kept it at bay as best he could by setting his lecherous eyes on unobtainable celestial bodies like the model in his catalog. And now she'd caught him red handed trying to fight his urges. What could he possibly say to her that wouldn't make her lump him in with all the other cretins and creeps in class?

"B- Buh- But you're a pretty solid second place." He crooked his usual dour frown upwards to a smile. "R- Ri- Right about exactly a nine point nine one seven six three five out of ten!" Nervously he flipped his unkempt hair over his forehead, which led to their accidental eye contact.

"Teeheeheeheehee!" She giggled. "Still the Silly-Billy Boy. Don't you ever change!"

"Haaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiii-" With one big game-defining swing they sliced that sword. "Yaaaaaaaaaah!" Whatever the triple-headed product of his darker imagination was thinking as it went down and crumbled to ashen dust, it was too shocked by its defeat to articulate.

"Well that wasn't so hard!" He bragged proudly to nonexistent fanfare. He looked around and saw nothing distinctive beyond but snow capped mountains and dim aurora lit skies. Still, his intuition was adamant that there was someone looming out there, watching. "Uhh.. What do we do now?"

'Find some place to go that isn't here!' He sensed his physical host having a sudden bout of paranoia. He would've dismissed it as a bout of gelidity had he not also gotten the same odd feeling of being watched. 'The light!' She reminded him of the strange shimmery sight they tried swimming towards mere moments ago. It was still visibly shining through those iced-over waters.

"Okay." He cannonballed straight in like a kid leaping off a diving board. For there was no careful or easy way to step into such frigid-looking depths. But he also possessed the wits to understand that all things around being illusory, the real battle was a mental one. "Glluuurglurg!" A hard, swirling undersea current pushed back against them. His mental partner retook her natural form to counter, but their collective kicking was making little headway. Fed up, she selected the form of the only girl she knew who held a greater degree of mastery over the elemental sea.

"Bllllaaaargh!" They wound up getting outright spit out the other side in an undignified tumble. Their shared yuck factor from the instant realization that they'd found themselves in a smelly restaurant restroom and had just been cartoonishly belched from a toilet was interrupted by a scream coming from someone beyond the door.

"Ewewewewewewww!" The poor girl in the chef's hat smacked the multiplying causes of her anxiety with her weaponized frying pan. "Get away!"

"A germaphobe?" He peeked out and saw gobs of food scraps and moldy avocado coming to life and attacking her in the kitchen.

'More like, someone who hates seeing good food go bad!' His host remarked.

"Whatever's doing it," he kicked down the door and charged into a heroic rescue. "It's preying on your disgust!" He pulled a series of stylish front flips over chairs and stools, up and over the tables to her rescue. "Think positive, and we'll wipe the floor with 'em!"

"Alrighty!" Manaka's usual sunny disposition returned with a starry twinkle in her eye.

First on the menu were a bunch of corrupted cabbages scurrying around the floor like rats, with a larger bunch clumped into a lumpy ball at the center.

"Think I know where this is going." The boy remarked as the nascent creature hissed. "Yup." A snarling expression with beady eyes black eyes opened and turned their way.

"Here at Walnuts, do you know how we deal with a sourpuss face?" Manaka pitched a line as she shuffled fast into the kitchen to grab a large stoneware crock pot. "Make it happy by serving up some sauerkraut!"

"Are you trying to stage some sort of witty comeback, or…" He uttered in confusion as she opened the pot and offered up a clue by pointing at the weapon in his hand. "Oh." The form his partner chose had evolved her simple wing and star-studded trident into a longer and more ornate halberd. He spun it up to the speed of a whirling propeller blade with their adroit wrists before shoving it square into the cabbage's scowling maw. "Fresh and juicy shredded cabbage, coming up!"

"In you go!" Manaka expanded the size of her crock pot to a size large enough to encapsulate their target. "Make you pequeño!" Then she squeezed it back down to size, twisted the lid on and sealed it shut with a magical tap of her frying pan. "Aaand donch- Ooof! Uh-Oh!" Her moment of triumph standing legs akimbo was foiled by a flying fruit smacking her upside the head. "A tomato?"

"More like tomatoes." The boy ducked for cover from that and other assorted vegetables under a table. "And potatoes." He upturned it and used it as a makeshift shield.

"It's a tornado!" Manaka identified the cause swirling up from the backroom. She deflected more debris with her oversized pan, but a smattering white, wet, wind-whipped noodles stained the embroidered frills along the bottom of her magical girl chef's dress. She wiped a little off with her finger and tasted it. "Made of chicken alfredo! Gaaaah!" She dodged an assortment of pots, pans, utensils and decor as they got sucked in and tossed out by the cyclonic force. "Aaawww, my Great Pee-Paw's painting of Emperor Taishō!"

"It's not real though!" He reminded her as a kitchen knife embedded itself into the table and made him recoil. "Ho-Hoooo!" He noticed a full-sized dividing curtain situated on one side and signaled for Manaka to go fetch the one on the other end. Together they pulled them together and closed the latch. "We should go!" He searched for an exit, but the only door available led to the other bathroom. "There!" He escorted her with a gentle nudge to the back.

"Miss Nanami!" Once inside Manaka took a moment to get his attention. "Miss Nanami!" But he was far too preoccupied with securing the door and finding another way out to listen. "Uh, Miss Nanami!" She finally got it by tugging on their headpiece.

"Who? Me?" But it was his new reflection before the bathroom mirrors that ultimately received his greater curiosity. "Me!" For his physical host had chosen the face of someone he was quite familiar with. "Ooooh." And more secretly, attracted to.

"Not to trouble you at a time or a place like this, but I have this friend of mine, who moonlights as a part-time model too. I was wondering if you'd be into the idea of doing a promotional shoot for Walnut's with her?" She bounced a puppy-eyed begging look off their mirror reflections. "I mean, she'd be waaaay past honored to do a shoot with you, even though I know she's too proud to say that out loud."

"You mean, like a team-up thing?" But he was a little too enamored with that perfect ten face of a magical girl to pay her words much mind. "Uh, sure. I guess. Whatever. But-" A loud rattling sound from things impacting the door put them both back on task. "Don't worry or panic." He insisted. "Those are negative emotions that'll feed whatever's trapping us."

"But we've trapped ourselves!" Manaka noted. There was a narrow horizontal window situated above the far side wall that they may both be slender enough to squeeze through, but to her pique her magical elder had her sights set on the two toilets behind the bathroom stalls. "Ick. Are you sure about that?"

"This is supposedly some kind of null-dimensional quasi-imaginary space." He led with a brave first step into the bowl. "Normal conventions of up and down, black and white, and wide and narrow do not necessarily always apply." With an encouraging chipper but similarly wincing smile Manaka pushed the handle and flushed it for him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiyyyyeeeeeeeeeee!" A nerve-wracking voice outside the window pierced their eardrums simultaneously.

"That's Leila!" Manaka rushed towards the window. "She's outside!" She bunny-hopped just high enough to be able to grab the windowsill with her fingertips. "A little help, please?" He obliged with a lift given to her feet. "Thanks!" She unlatched the lock and snaked her way through. "C'mon!" Her hand waved back an invite on the way out.

"You go on ahead and find her!" He yelled back. "I'll catch up." For he was still enamored with that gorgeous face his physical host had chosen, and he was going to take a moment and admire it, present circumstances be darned.

'Whew. Thank god you didn't have to embarrass Rena with that squicky toilet thing again!' The voice of his partner expressed her palpable relief.

"Wow!" He stared agape into those lush baby blue eyes. "She didn't even question how I got here or why." He was fighting every urge to pucker up and smooch the glass. "She just trusted this woman!"

'Yeah.' She agreed in an envious thought that betrayed how much she too was just as responsible for their body being awash with teenage hormones. 'She's got that sort of effect on people!' Once upon a time, in a fit of self-pity and loathing which put her at her most vulnerable, she asked Kyubey for the power to change into other people. And to test her new ability, the very first form she selected was the pretty student pictured modeling her uniform on the cover of her Kamihama City University Affiliated School brochure. 'Still, maybe we should come clean with her?' And now the practice of doing it became a pair of shoes every bit as warm and cozy as changing into Momoko, never mind the confidence boost it gave to her self-image.

"Perhaps," he agreed in principle. "Later." In practice, he found his own courage and self-worth to be bolstered by her beauty. "Right now, if I'm right and the enemy craves negativity, then we need all the positive vibes she engenders." As he climbed the wall and shimmied out the window, his eyes couldn't help but take a moment to scan around. As still couldn't shake that feeling of being observed.

"Leeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiilaaaaaaaa!" Dozens of bloated, shambling corpses chased her through the streets. "Jooooooooin ussssss! Joooooooooin us Leeeeeiiiila!" Their eyes were black holes of lifelessness, their noses fallen away and teeth yellow and crooked. They were zombies molded straight from the stereotype.

"Noooo!" The fleeing Leila enveloped one who lumbered too close in a conjured column of purification flames. But in its place sprung two more straight out of the soil.

"Pssssst! Over here!" Manaka shouted from atop a nine meter tall lamp post with a counterclockwise ticking clock affixed to it. "You really that scared of a horde straight out of some cheesy B-movie?" She helped Leila make the climb by elongating her green neckerchief and offering it as a rope.

"I don't like being scared." Leila admitted the moment she reached the top. "And I hate the thought of death even more!" They soon found themselves encircled by the wretched undead scratching and tearing at each other in attempts to chase her.

"Why don't you let me help slide 'em into the ol' frying pan for you?" Manaka slapped her frying pan like a tambourine which bathed it in a fiery orange light and tossed it just beyond the growing dogpile. "Huuuup!" Taking Leila's hand she jumped and landed on a much larger version of her pan's handle, sticking out at a forty degree angle and transmuting the ground around the zombies into a vast teflon-coated base. "Next we add the fire!" She winked and nodded then in an improvisational touch passed her little chef's hat onto Leila's head. "Care to spark the burner?"

"Uhm-" Leila took a brief moment to fix and straighten her new headwear, taking special care with the little orange carrot on the brim. Then she stuck out her open palms and projected her power around the bottom. "Lah-Zombies ont… Commencé!" She'd heard of other magical girls naming and calling their attacks in other languages before and wanted to try it, but the thought had always escaped her mind until now. Standing alongside someone dressed in such posh culinary attire, French seemed like the appropriate choice. "Flam-purificat… Rices!" But she had little clue how to speak it beyond a few free hours at the library.

"Wish I had some rice," Manaka pinched her nose watching the trapped and slipping undead constructs melt into meaty muck. "Better smell than all that sizzling flesh! Pewie!"

"Maaaaaanakaaaaaaaah!" An ominous moan and an army of shuffling footsteps was heard approaching not far. "Jooooooooooooin uuuuuuuuuuuuuuus!" They were led by a disheveled female in long blonde twintails wearing Manaka's own Mizuna Girls' School dress.

"Getting personal, are they?" Manaka grit her teeth and rolled up her sleeves. Leila motioned to take off her hat and return it. "No. Keep it safe for me. I trust you." Her eyes narrowed with determination as she forged a double-sized frying pan in her hand.

"Are you sure?" Leila took it off and clasped the brim between her hands. "B- But if you get too far from your Soul Gem-"

"Is that hundred meters thing even true if this space is a place between our minds?" Manaka pondered the second she dashed towards the mob. "Guess I'll be the first to find out!" She went right to work playing whack-a-mole with the horde.

"Youyouyouyou-" Leila stammered. "You know about that?" She unsheathed her sword, unsure of whether she should try to actively help out or just do her best to stay close while trying to keep out of Manaka's way.

"When you work as a restaurateur you overhear a whole lotta stuff." Manaka whalloped the first skull into goo. "Some of it's pretty heavy on the heart."

"Leeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiilaaaaaaaaaa!" A familiar voice spooked Leila from the alleyway behind. "Leeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiilaaaaaaaaaaa!" It was joined by a more diminutive voice following behind. "One of uuuuuuuuus! One of uuuuuuuuus! One of uuuuuuuuuuuus!"

"Seika? Mito?" They were her friends at the Daito Apartment Complex, dressed in their full magical girl garb, lumbering towards her with murderous intent. The aghast Leila stumbled backwards. "No!" She charged and jabbed her sword into the zombified doppelgänger of her friend Seika. "You're not really Seika!" She ran her through and pinned her against a wall.

"Leeeeeeeeilaaaaaaa!" The rotting Mito and her teeth lunged at her. "Om-nom-nom!" It dug them into the shield of overlaid hearts affixed to Leila's left arm.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" Leila wanted to slice her head off but couldn't bring herself to do it. Get off! Get off!" Instead she tried to shake it off by waving her arm up and down and all around. She was about to close her eyes and hack away, when a halberd flying at bullet speed lopped the thing in twain.

"If you know why Soul Gems are so important to keep close, then you know the reason behind the reason why that's so important." The confident, reassuring voice and face of Yachiyo Nanami appeared before her. "Correct?"

"Y- Yes." Leilia whimpered, sparing a sympathetic look towards her wounded attackers, and the gaping holes where their souls should be. On Mito, a quatrefoil on her chest that fastened her cloak pieces together. On Seika, an entire missing right ear where there should have adorned a diamond-studded earring.

"That explains this particular scare scene." The boy in the famous girl's body said. "Ever since you've learned it, you've been seeing yourself as less than the sum total of your parts." He summarized. "Sort of like a zombie?" Leila nodded in the affirmative.

"Technically, having a soul in a portable container makes us liches." Manaka pointed out while splattering some more brains and flaming their remains. "Or would the plural of that be lichen? But aren't lichen also a type of mossy fungus?"

"You guys are fine with that?" Leila innocently pressed.

"I've lost some sleep over it, sure." Manaka regrouped with the pair and confided. "But I've decided fretting about something you can't change is a bit like being upset about the fact that everyone I love is going to perish someday." With a grateful smile and friendly nod she took her chef's hat from Leila's possession and set it back atop her head. "You can be sad about it, but you can't let it get so in the way that it stops you from enjoying the the world in front of you. Because what really matters is that our souls exist at all, and regardless of our forms, we get the chance to experience all the wonderful sights and sounds and flavors of life!"

"Existing is so much cooler than not existing." The soul behind Yachiyo's face agreed. "Take it from me." But he could sense by the way Leila was staring remorsefully at the wretching and twitching Zombie Seika that there was something more fueling her angst. "Hey…" He leaned in to ask a simple question. "Are you okay?" A simple question he wished someone asked him at any point before he hit rock bottom.

"Is existing really so cool if the only reason you're here is because someone gave up their normal life to make it possible?" She countered with a question that touched a sorer point than he anticipated.

"Oh." He gave an understanding nod. "You feel you aren't worthy of what she gave up to revive you?" He asked in a covert projection of his own lingering doubt.

"Yeah," Leila nodded in turn. "But it's more than that. Like how do I ever repay her for making a sacrifice as big as that?"

"Well, first of all, you can't hope to tackle it if you approach it as an obligation." He scrambled several zombies first at the hip and then deftly at the neck. "She brought you back from the depths of nothingness because she saw the world as a darker, bleaker, meaningless thing without you. In return, what you might wanna try and do is help her find her place amongst the stars."

'Romeo, Romeo, here wherefore be-eth thou homeo!' His host mentally rolled her eyes so hard he could feel the ocular muscles twitch. But he couldn't blame her. Getting quippy and sarcastic was his way of dealing with uncomfortable mushy-mushy sentimentality, too.

"Soooooooo…" Manaka regrouped with them once all zombies in proximity had been creamed and clobbered under heel. "Anybody got a clue as to where we're going to track down The Coordinator or Momoko?"

"Good question," The boy in the magical shapeshifter's body jumped up and up again to the highest spot around. "Looks like we're in some kind of bizzarro-land recreation of the town." He spotted several recognizable landmarks in the distance, but they were all in the wrong positions. "Seems to be a mirrored version of some sort."

"The first place I found myself after joining The Coordinator's circle was back in my apartment's bedroom over in Daito." Leila retraced her route with her finger.

"And you were dropped off at a facsimile of your restaurant." The boy turned to Manaka. "So much do you want to bet they've been shoved into such spaces of spurious similarity as well?"

"Oh, Mitama!" Momoko caressed her cheek with bedroom eyes and gentle affection. "Has anyone ever told you your eyes are the loveliest little shade of blue?"

"Cerulean blue, actually." The Coordinator hid a delighted giggle behind her hand.

"And your hands…" She took her other hand, removed the little white glove and ran her finger tips up and down her paw like a palm reader. "So soft and delicate!"

"Aw, thank youuuuu!" She cooed. "It's all thanks to the moisturizing lotion I use."

"And your nose," Momoko playfully poked it. "So squishy!"

"And your feet…" A new person's voice joined in on their fun. It was Kanagi Izumi sporting a pair of pajamas. "How ticklish do they get?" She was also brandishing a feather, taking off her slippers as they lightly pressed her body onto a heart-shaped bed surrounded by decorative white veilings on all sides.

"Bwohooohoooohoooo!" She let out an uncharacteristically husky chuckle. "Oooohoooohoooohooohoo!" Kanagi and Momoko pressed her feet down so she couldn't kick back.

"We brought you your favorite chocolates!" Another pair of matching voices spoke in unison. "Mint chocolate!" In popped Tsukasa Amane with a gift-wrapped box in hand.

"And coconut!" Tsukuyo had already opened her box and plucked her pick of the bunch.

"Why you shouldn't have!" She jokingly rejected their offerings, all the while opening her mouth with a big huge smile.

"Would you like a slice of some buttercream frosted, rich white yummy confetti cake?" A diminutive voice pushed her way past the pairing. She presented the object of her affection with a huge wedge slice of cake on a plate. "Topped with your favorite flavoring, made fresh from the tomatoes in my greenhouse!" Kaede climbed onto the big bed and squirted a heaping helping of homemade ketchup over the whole confection. "Open wiiiiiiide!"

"Aaaaaaaahh-" The Coordinator felt the swiftest hardest hand smack her upside the hand. "Oooooooooowwwww!" Her dizzied eyes whipped open to the sight of stars and the outstretched palm of Yachiyo Nanami.

"Lust is one of the strongest inner desires a soul possesses," he lectured, drawing the hand back and massaging the remnant tingling pain away. "So strong in fact, most cultures view it a sin." He rubbed harder as the tingling graduated to throbbing. "I'm disappointed. I figured if any of us was smart enough to see through this weirdo thing's dastardly manipulation it'd be you!" Those harshest words most reminiscent of the actual Yachiyo Nanami were not his own, but belonged to his host's, as was that smacking.

"I knew what they were!" The Coordinator whose face was red on one side and beet red on the other insisted. "I was just… Lulling them into letting their guards down with my natural wit and charm!"

"Yeah, sure thing!" Manaka arrived and echoed his host's sarcastic sentiment. Leila stepped in just as The Coordinator's outed suitors hissed like snakes and showed their true colors as grinning shadowy figures entities defined only by the white, featureless masks on their faces. "Oh, shoot!" Then the place made to resemble The Coordinator's workspace was enmeshed in darkness before reforming as a twisted hall of mirrors.

My, my!" The Coordinator nursed her sore face and sighed. "And here I was hoping not to need to muscle my way out of this tricky little finger trap!"

"We do not have time for this!" The boy wearing Yachiyo's face curled his lip in disgust. "I say we bust their heads wide with a single hyper combo finisher!" His succinct use of video game verbiage was inspiring enough to earn a fist pump from Manaka and a confident smirk out of Leila.

"When the Bossiyo asks, what can the fair Coordinator do but abide and provide?" While Mitama tilted her head back to her with a quietly inquisitive look. "Would the two of you please be darlings and hold hands?"

"Okay!" Manaka and Leila obliged.

"Grrrrrraaaaaaaggggghhhhh!" The shadow puppets pounced only to be promptly repelled by an ornament-tipped glass dome erected by The Coordinator's magic.

"Care to make it a threesome?" Mitama offered with a flirtatious wink.

"Ummm…" He demurred out of a certain discomfort at the idea of such intimacy. He already had a girlfriend, after all. He wasn't about to psychically cheat on her any more than this mission allowed him to.

'It would be kinda suspicious if you didn't.' His host countered with a valid point.

"Alright, fine!" He took The Coordinator by the left hand while she connected with Manaka and Leila using her right.

"Grrrrraaaaaaagggggghhh! Grrrrrraaaaaaaggggghhh!" The masked shadow creatures pounded and pounded at their protection, forming cracks that were getting slowly but exponentially bigger by the moment.

"Nos lumièr- Es combiné- Es…" Leila kicked off the incantation with another attempt at phonetic French. "Vous chassent!" She drew her blade, stuck it high, closed her eyes and pictured their enemies being vanquished by their combined might and whatever form it would take. "Poutine des… Sombres démons!"

"Yum!" Manaka licked her chops. But she knew the word that Leila was going for, for Leila's churning thoughts were flowing into her own brainspace. Was this eerie-yet-stirring emotive rush the method the Coordinator used to establish heart-to-heart connections? "Yeah… Putains de sombres démons!"

"We four hearts now beat as one," The Coordinator uttered in deep concentration. "We four minds now think alike." Now came the actual hard part. Which was drilling down past the flotsam and jetsam at the surface of their moment-by-moment musings to get to the bedrock that laid at the foundation of their constitutions. "We four souls now cast this spell of hope!" Within one girl, lay an eagerness to do right by her dad. In the other, a dad who should still be alive if not for old-fashioned male stubbornness and a burst appendix. But her dive into the third, struck into a face that may as well have been as brittle as clay. "Hmm?" Behind this girl was a person who liked to scarf down junk food too fast, admire the girls in fashion catalogs, hole themselves up in their bedroom with music and games, don tutus and idol costumes with nobody looking and constantly sabotaging their mental health with the image of a hangman's noose. And then behind it was a secluded, reclusive soul she tried to reach out and touch exactly once before. "Nous te bannissons au plus profond de l'esprit pour de bon!" Their duality was a bigger spiritual payload than she was prepared to bear, but she dug her heels and played ignorant for the sake of expediency. "Care to execute…" A teal colored, glowing round emblem, The Coordinator's personal seal, appeared beneath everyone's feet.

"Yachiyo?"

"Bastards!" The boy aggressively tapped his halberd to the ground the way his host would have done with her trident in a triumphant fit. "To hell with you!"

"Ggggrraaaaaaaaaauuuuuuughhhhhhhh!" Every shadow and every shadowling all at once was enveloped in a decimating blast of light. Its all-consuming power spread out like a bomb wave, wiping clear not only The Coordinators warped hideout, but all parts of the funhouse Kamihama and beyond.

"Woooooaaaaaaahhhhh!" This put them in a freefall through a blinding white space void.

"Yiiiiiiiiiiiipes!" Leila and Manaka locked arms and screamed as they were all drawn towards a large, opaque globe. It was in fact the very same object The Coordinator had used to isolate Tsuruno Yui and confine the unknown entity trying to overtake her soul.

"Fear not, my darlings!" Mitama The Coordinator reassured them by taking on a relaxed, laying down pose during the descent. "For it is not the fall that will spell the end of us!"

"It's the thing that awaits us down there after we land!" The boy chose to emulate the posture of a skydiver as their heart-stopping anticipation mounted. "Hold on!" Scant seconds passed before they penetrated the makeshift circular prison with a resounding splash.

"Geeeeeez, it's about time you guys showed up!" They tucked, rolled and arrived in front of the dirtied boots, weary face, and stressed-out words of Momoko Togame. The boy wearing Yachiyo's face had the distinct misfortune of recovering only to find himself on the receiving end of a most dismaying staredown from which he wasn't even the real target of her ire. "We've been fighting for our lives non-stop for hours, it feels like." She had an even more beaten-down looking Tsuruno in tow in her arms, cuts, bumps and bruises running up and down her arms and legs. Her Chinese-themed outfit was torn almost to tatters, exposing parts of her upper arm, clavicle and pitts, possibly all the way down to her breast, but the boy had both the shame and good sense not to gawk too closely at such a sad sight. "She's been at this for even longer, she told me. Days!"

"Watch out!" Manaka and Leila stepped in to tackle two familiars hot on their heels, a set of anthropomorphic tarot cards with arms, legs, and weapons.

Tsuruno briefly opened her swollen eyelids. "See? I told you she wouldn't abandon us!" Somehow a smile beamed past her puffed out cheeks and busted jaw.

"If what you're saying is true then we've got to give her Soul Gem a proper treatment, stat!" The boy and his host put on their most urgent-sounding Yachiyo impression.

"Nah-Ah-Ah!" The Coordinator interjected with a finger wag. "In here it won't do any good. This is a labyrinth shared between minds. Ergo, the only way to help her is to overcome whatever it is that's trapped us in our energy suckling illusions."

"Do you think that thing over there's the cause of our problem?" Leila spotted a creature in the distance which spawned the attacking tarot cards, an oval-headed witch whose body consisted of deep green, squid-like tentacles, that donned a long transparent green veil over the face that trailed so low as to look like additional tentacles. The singular prominent feature on its face was a huge eyelash, revealing that its whole head was in fact one large closed eyelid protected over the back by a black hood. Tattooed on the upper eyelid was an upside Illuminati triangle with a black hole at the center. Underneath it all was a humanoid arm whose wrists snapped and jerked about, conjuring its familiars and sparking them to life upon a finger's tap. "If we defeat it, will we finally get out of here?"

"Except we've done that! Tsuruno and I. Again and again and again, at least a hundred flippin' times over!" Momoko vented her mounting frustration through her words. "No matter how much she torches it or how hard I slash it, the thing keeps respawning like some final boss with unlimited phases!"

"Clearly whatever entity is holding us captive is harvesting some sort of shared emotional trauma between the two of you." The boy behind Yachiyo's face assessed in a dispassionate voice. "If so, then the key to escaping is deducing the signifi- Ooooooof!" But before he could finish his host's nose got bopped good and hard by the force of her mentor's headbutt.

"You know damn well what the significance of that thing was!" Momoko spat. "Jerk!"

"Woah, head's up!" The eye opened and from its iris it fired an intense beam of green energy. Manaka noticed it just in time to warn them and secure everyone's cover underneath her enlarged magical frying pan.

'Yeeeeeoooowch!' His host took the reins to reflexively rub her aching nose. 'I never knew she could get that mad!'

"You can't do battle whilst caring for someone else." The Coordinator deftly inserted herself between the two. "You know how worthless I am in a fight." She opened her arms as a way to create a little more space. "Let me tend to Tsuruno while you pool your strengths to the task at hand." Once Momoko relented and offloaded her friend, Mitama tilted her head far back, sucked in her lips and gave the single-bodied pair a most deliberate look through their eyes. "So pool your strengths. The both of you!"

"Of course I'm aware of the reason why that witch was so important!" The boy calmly and cooly bluffed a response. "Sorry. I misstated the question. What we're trying to learn is what particular emotion this thing evokes from you." They checked their palms for gushing blood knowing it wouldn't be there. "Besides anger that is."

"Hey, Coordinator!" Leila called back in the face of dozens of newly-minted and charging tarot card familiars. "Could you help us do that ultra special hyper combo attack again?" Devil Cards, Tower cards, Moon Cards, Hanged Man cards and Death cards, all brandishing pikes, slingshots, mallets, axes and scythes were marching towards them on the double. "Because I think we're going to need it!"

"Tsuruno… Sweetie!" But The Coordinator was already well occupied by the needs of the embattled patient in her care. "Waaaake up!" She tried light slaps on her cheeks. "Boop!" She tried pinching and wiggling her nose.

"Five more minutes, Sis." Tsuruno sluggishly slapped it away. "Tell the bus driver to wait for me."

"You don't want to risk falling deep into the well that is the third layer of subconsciousness now, do you?" The Coordinator yelled straight into the girl's ear. "Stop being silly or else you'll get a Wet Willie!"

"Huuuuuuaaap!" The boy leapt in and protected the pair from a stray pack of armed familiars. "Heeyaah!" A swift, slicing assault cut the leading card's arms off at the elbows. "Haah!" Then a swift kick knocked it and its followers over like dominoes.

"Yachiyo?" Tsuruno's eyes whipped open. "You're back?"

"Er, haven't left yet." He and Mitama exchanged befuddled glances. "Nor can any of our new friends here to help you do it without your indispensable assistance. Now c'mon!"

"Just let me know what to do, chief!" Tsuruno's gusto managed to allow her to free herself from The Coordinator's tender grips, much to The Coordinator's amazement.

"My, my… Don't we have an ample supply of energy all of a sudden?" Mitama observed. "Such faithful loyalty most best friends would only dream of!"

"All together now!" Momoko shouted through an encircling wall of flames generated by herself, Leila and Manaka. "Staaaaaaaay dead this time!" A clap and a push sent the wall of fire off to envelop the cloned witch and its offspring.

"Guuuuaaaaaahhhhh!" It let out a primordial scream. "Heeeeeeheeeeeheeeeeeeee!" Followed immediately by a more haunting, howling laugh. For their makeshift combination attack failed to end their collective nightmare.

"Faith is a pretty potent emotion," the boy stated in a semi-audible mutter. "It forms deep personal bonds and can be a huge source of hope for those in need of a spiritual crutch. But when that faith gets misplaced, whatever the intent is behind it…" He rushed over and urgently took Tsuruno by the shoulders. "Girl, listen up! I'm an idiot! A fraud! A liar! I'm not the person you see standing before you!"

'What are you doing?' His physical host questioned.

"What are you doing?" Mitama echoed aloud. "Yach- Iyo?" And coupled it with a most catechizing stare.

"I'm full of it! A total phony!" He confessed. "I'm nothing but a shattered soul inside a bashful body hiding behind a famous face!"

"Whu- Whaaah?" Tsuruno stood there between their planted hands, only blinking.

'And this face is the whole reason she's in this mess in the first place!' His host remarked.

"And my face is the very reason you're in so much trouble now!" He rephrased her underlying sentiment. "Truth is, I have no clue what I'm doing and even less of an idea of what it's going to take to win! I have nothing to offer or contribute! I cannot save you!"

"Uuuunggggh!"

"Aaaauuuuck!"

"Yaaaaarrrgh!" Leila, Manaka and Momoko had all just been forcibly sent into an undignified retreat by the next wave of familiars.

"Oh, dear!" Mitama tossed out a tablecloth that expanded over the bunch to become a stopgap barrier.

"And the worst thing above all else is that my blind confidence has become the very fuel that this psychological beast is harvesting in order to grind you all down until you've become nothing but a pasty applesauce of flavorful emotions for it to relish as a treat!" He painted a picture of their fates so loud and vivid that even the normally unflappable Momoko was shaken. While Tsuruno collapsed to her knees looking absolutely crestfallen.

"So…" Momoko gulped. "What do we do?"

"We stop feeding the pig," The Coordinator bobbled her head up and down several times, slowly at first then faster and faster. "And instead channel our magic into an avatar malleable enough to nullify this mental mishmash for good!" She had an inkling of the angle he was going for.

"Alright, guys… Stand back! I've got this!" Momoko was ready to be their volunteer. "You can count on me!"

"As much as it would be my pleasure to facilitate your usual high-minded heroics, you forget one thing Momoko." The Coordinator finger-wagged. "The whole reason we instigated this deep dive was to help Tsuruno with saving Tsuruno." She helped prop Tsuruno off her knees by placing her hands under Tsuruno's elbows. "It's Tsuruno's soul projecting this place, therefore, it's Tsuruno herself who needs to lick this ethereal monkey off our backs."

"Meeeeee?" Tsuruno groaned. "But I'm too tired." Her position on fighting had pulled a full and fast one-eighty. "So tired of being strong."

"Let me get this straight," the boy with Yachiyo's face said. "You were willing to be strong for me a few moments ago… But you're not able to take a stand for yourself?"

"Heeeeey!" Leila scrambled for their attention.

"Heeeeeey!" Manaka followed suit. "Look! They're busting through again!" They watched the familiars hack and chop through The Coordinator's protective table piece like cheese cloth.

"Oh, such rudeness!" Mitama slapped on a second, followed by a third, fourth and fifth layer over top of it. But now that the things had made out the ins and outs to her magic, the extra touches were not going to hold out for long.

"You're different, Yachiyo." Tsuruno uttered. "People love you. They need you. You're such an icon it doesn't even matter who you are on the inside anymore." A swelling of tears sprouted from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. "But me? I'm not needed! I'm weak and any strength I have only comes whenever I burn myself twice as hot as you!" The ground around them began to quake, causing consternation and amping the urgency. "But I can't do it with so much on the line. I'm gonna burn out!"

"Hey hey, do you really think that little of yourself?" Manaka chimed in. "Naw, no way! You're my culinary rival, Tsuruno Yui! You've got a great working relationship with your Paw and you even convinced him to franchise your brand! Do you have any idea how jealous that makes me?" She patted Tsuruno on the back.

"And a big reason my friends and I like eating at Banbanzai," Leila spoke up. "Is because Seika appreciates the way you can listen and take her order in a way that doesn't make her feel hurried or overwhelmed." She offered to take Tsuruno by the hand. "And Mito loves the way you always smile and twirl through even the rainiest days!"

"Plus, you've never been afraid to tinker or experiment with that menu of yours!" Mitama offered her two cents. "Do you know you inspired me to try a little maple syrup on my hamburger patties and chocolate frosting on my eggs? I eternally search for the most delectable of atypical flavor combos only because of you. It's true!" She pinched Tsuruno's cheek.

"Yachiyo and I have said and done more than a few things arbitrarily because we thought we needed to protect you." Momoko admitted. "Protect you, not 'cuz we thought you were the weakest link in the chain, but because you were the purest of the hearts between us!" She put Tsuruno under her arm. "And we would do anything, face anything, take any burden, bear any sin or keep any secret, if that meant it would keep your heart as pure as the freshest Christmas snow in Wakkanai. Because you're our icon." They all made a collective turn towards the boy dressed as one of their own. "Isn't that right, Yachiyo?"

The boy, the outsider with insider knowledge he possessed only because his host had opened her heart, mind and even soul, simply put on a fake look of contrition, threw in a weak smile and added the words, "Yes." Mere days earlier Momoko had shared with her trainee friends a story every bit as detailed as it was unnerving, about how she and Yachiyo Nanami had learned the terrible Truth that was the final fate of all magical girls. "That thing there is based on the witch that used to be Mel Anna." He pointed a shaking, accusatory finger at its silhouette highlighted against The Coordinator's thin shielding. "But now its image has been hijacked, so that it may lodge an emotional wedge between us, and make a cynical mockery of the faith and trust our friendships have fostered." He spoke with a flowery verbosity he reserved mostly for his creative writings. "Are you just going to let it turn our blood, sweat and tears into demon chum, or are you going to blow it to kingdom come?"

Tsuruno's expression turned to one of determination. She pumped her fist, dusted herself off, took a step forward and replied, in true Tsuruno fashion, "I'll do my mightiest!"

"We're true hearts who now beat as one," Manaka began the power-combining incantation.

"We're virtuous minds who think alike," Leila joined her, taking her hand and shutting her eyes.

"Leave the sacred spell casting to me, thank you very much." Mitama tickled their chins playfully before joining in. "The flames of purification, now combined with the fires of propagation," she recited. "Hearts that beat as one. Minds that think as one." She stuck a hand out towards Momoko. "Now we mix in the warmth of encouragement!"

"We are souls that seek salvation." Momoko gave a little prayer of her own first before accepting The Coordinator's offer. "We are souls that fight for truth. We are souls who pursue justice." A mystical yellowy aura enveloped the group, prompting Momoko to invite the friend she saw as Yachiyo to join.

But the boy and his host were reluctant to leave themselves vulnerable to the now-encroaching familiars who had busted through Mitama's makeshift defenses. "I need to buy you guys some extra time!"

"Go! You do you!" The Coordinator sent them off. "This part I had pre-plotted with this bunch in mind, anyhow!"

"Homina-Homina-Homina-Homina-Homina!" Tsuruno struck a kung-fu crane pose and concentrated. "My soul is a beautiful thing. My hope will transcend the karmic bonds in my life." She thought back to that momentous day atop the tower in Mitakihara, facing down Walpurgisnacht. She channeled the total sense of zen she experienced back then, a total oneness with the souls she was assisting. "Homina-Homina- My soul is beautiful. My karma is everlasting- Homina-Homina-Homina." She formed her weapons and began to perform a fan dance. Already she could feel the positive vibes from her friends restoring her vitality, mending her wounds both physical and mental.

"Grrrraaaaah!" The boy went to work holding off the mob of familiars. "Haaaaaah!" He slashed and sliced at the lumbering tarot cards with fanatical glee.

Boy! What do you think you are doing? That sudden paranoia returned.

"Arrrrrrgggh!" A thrown ax lodged itself into their upper clavicle. And it didn't even slow him down.

Do you really think you have a place among them? It was him. The Watcher.

"Homina-homina-homina!" Tsuruno chanted. Her mind harkened back all the way to that first connection with her master Yachiyo, and how in that moment the only thought that proved she was the real Tsuruno amongst the gang-up of fakes was her concern for doing the right thing. For herself, for the rival reaching out, and for the innocents in Kamihama.

Do you really believe you are who you have convinced yourself to be? A booming voice that echoed the boy's own inner demons. Hers too.

"This is it!" Momoko could feel the weight of the energy passing itself around between them, and now the onus was on her to deliver it to Tsuruno. "You got this, my friend!"

Regardless, you are a mind without a proper body. Which makes you kindred. And useful.

"Hurrrrrrrrrk!" His host had joined in on venting all that pent-up aggression. Smashing, tearing, wreaking havoc. Tearing through them without consequence was just the sort of catharsis their angsty and frustrated souls had been pining for.

"Keeeeeeeeehhhh- Yaaaaaaaaaaah!" Tsuruno channeled the sudden rush of energy and directed it at their witch foe. She imagined herself as that short-haired heroic figure she met back in Mitakihara. She wondered if that girl had been through her own personal journey into hell and back, and if the metaphysical high of being the one taking her stand against overwhelming might and odds was the same as what Tsuruno was experiencing.

Death is but a door. Time is but a window. All triumph is temporary. Mark my words, I am a survivor and shall return!

"Taaaaaaaake this!" They formed a super-sized halberd and tossed it like a lance at the same time Tsuruno unleashed her almighty attack. The two projectiles conjoined and atomized all in its path. The moment it struck the fortune-telling witch everything around turned heavenly white as the girls soon found themselves back in the comfy surroundings of The Coordinator's hideout.

"That was for Mel!" Tsuruno declared as the ornamental shell around her cracked and shattered. She fell straight to the floor on her butt while signaling a thumbs-up to everyone around before sliding her eyes closed and falling straight to sleep.

"Whew!" Momoko let out a huge sigh of relief before collapsing to her knees and going right to sleep as well.

"Now that was one heck of a picnic!" Manaka giggled as her heavy eyelids fluttered. She too was too tuckered to do anything but drop on the spot and fall asleep.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Leila also fell into unconsciousness on cue, leaving The Coordinator and the interloper as the only ones not overwhelmed by their sheer exhaustion.

"Toed right up to the fine line between truth and deceit. Deconstructing Tsuruno's faith in Yachiyo before remolding it into faith in herself." Mitama The Coordinator recapped while she fetched blankets and pillows. "What you did was reckless and stupid but I can't fault the results no matter how much I want to." She opened a locked truck by zapping a little electricity into it with her finger. "But what am I to tell Yachiyo, once she's told of her deeds in la-la-land?"

"Tell her to frikkin' shut up and take the win." Rena Minami gruffly replied. As she staggered and stumbled towards the exit, fighting both the massive headache caused by the extra mind within her as well as the huge physical toll of the ordeal. "I saved her friendships with Tsuruno and Momoko after all." Tired as she was, she still had one more errand of mercy left to accomplish. A meetup request, his fading ghost requested it. Insisted.

"Fair enough." The Coordinator tended to her patient and volunteers while talking. "I would also like to extend my sincerest gratitude to that sweet young man imprinted within you." She added as Rena rested for a moment against the door frame. "Though I hope that personality graft she performed doesn't permanently alter your otherwise charming psyche."

"Eh? What?" Rena turned. "Personality graft? The hell do you mean by that?"

"Apply a little simple logic for a second, my dear," Mitama explained. "I've met that torchbearer of Oriko Mikune's teachings once or twice, even tweaked and tuned her Soul Gem for a pretty generous sum." She didn't look up from her busywork while chatting. "I've looked underneath her proverbial hood, so I know for a fact that the second soul she proclaims to house is real." She proclaimed very matter-of-factly. "She's a talented, fetching, charismatic and endlessly ambitious young lady, though arguably in a lot of the same ways as a psychopath, but that's the least of her issues. From what I gleaned she's also got a serious possessive streak and is absolutely terrified of being alone or abandoned. For when I tried to meet that lad in her mind she closed the curtains and kicked me right out," she paused for a deep pensive breath. "So you tell me which scenario's more likely, That she would risk her beau's existence a second time by sending him on a dangerous mission to help some randos she doesn't have any personal attachment to? Or would she do the same thing she did to those poor Kirika clones and make you believe he was a part of you for exactly long enough to take her manipulation magic on another risk-free trial run?"

"You're wrong!" Rena was offended by any suggestion of such a deceptive notion. She thumped her chest and on both instinct and prompt her form had changed. "She's not like that!" A young male's cracking voice defended his girlfriend's honor. He was about a centimeter or two shorter than Rena, wearing a Kamihama Future Academy boy's uniform. His bangs were so long they covered over his right eye, his left one peering angrily at The Coordinator and transitioning from Rena's baby blue to an almost golden shade of hazel. "She's not evil! She cares!" That was the only look she got as he turned and stormed out.

'Hmph! She cares too much sometimes if you ask me!'

Chapter Text

Sayaka stop!

"Err- Ror! Err- Ror! Err- Ror!" A literally disarmed Cyberman fell to its knees at the hands of its fleet-footed assailant. "Shutting doooooooowwwww-"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Sayaka's next pair of obstacles appeared on cue. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

Sayaka stop!

"Err- Rooooor!" Thick, smoky steam billowed out of every single crack and orpheus. "Sys- Tems Dis- Rupt- Ing!" Ditto the second upon contact with their target, a loud hissing noise overtaking their pained beeps and blips.

"I'm superheating all the remnant water inside your fleshy organs." Their foe explained the science behind their imminent demise succinctly. "Like an overcooked lambchop in the microwave, pop you go!"

Sayaka stop!

Dele-" Her next victim did not even get the chance to know what hit it.

Sayaka stop!

She did not enjoy being this punitive, nor cruel, but sometimes she just couldn't stop herself. Her dark and violent outbursts were fleetingly rare, occurring only when challenging the faces of true evil, pure insanity, depraved inhumanity or cosmic horror, but that raw fury sealed below her inner voice existed, and most often the only thing that kept her untempered rage in check were those small, simple words.

Sayaka stop!

That inner voice was but two words once spoken by her best friend, way back when, a plea to her better angels that she did not heed in the heat of that fateful moment. Back at the altar of penitence, whereupon the twisted, writhing limbs of the shadow witch, Sayaka vented all her pent-up anxiety and self-hatred. Whenever she needed a reminder of all the self-destructive damage she could wring upon herself, how easily it could turn her reflection into the face of someone she could no longer recognize, she replayed the whole morbid memory and those words in her head.

"Creating a labyrinth within a labyrinth," Sayaka remarked on the familiar, gut-wrenching discomfort that struck into the very bowels of her magical girl soul. "Clever. Too clever." She put away her makeshift magic tracker and placed her palm against the false dead end that was presumably obscuring the cause of all their woes. "Guuaagh!" She reacted to the scorching hot, plasmic energy barring her from easy entry. "Damn!"

That hard way it was, then. She checked the battery level on her multitool. An indicator light signified that it was fully charged and ready. She had already turned the right dials and made the adjustments necessary to turn her trusty device into a powerful, single-shot EMP burst tuned at a frequency she knew the nanogenes were vulnerable to. Without the nanogenes to act as The Cyber Regent's life support and de facto blood supply, she estimated the little girl would die in about a minute and change. It was as humane an end as the situation could allow. Sayaka tucked her tool inside the armored gauntlet piece adorning her left arm and trudged forth into the inevitable showdown.

"Intruder alert!" The Cyber Regent's personal attendant, CBX-001 reported. "Intercept?"

"My, my, that ionized pocket of thermally excited particles should have been scalding enough to repel even the most regeneratively resilient Homo magica." The Cyber Regent said to the smoldering lump of the young Time Lady arriving to confront it.

"What can I say?" Sayaka mouthed an insolent quip through her lips as her magical musical rings enveloped her body. Three seconds of a light melody and a zephyrous breeze were all it took to restore herself. "I take lickin' after lickin' and keep on tickin'."

"I shall have to revise my calculations on the durability of your kind." The former little girl's voice blasted through an all-surrounding loudspeaker system. The rest of her sat unmoving atop a metallic throne wrapped in wires and circuits, with dozens of cords, cables and tubes jutting out the back and from above, all plugging into various points along her body. "Although even a preliminary exam of your anatomy would appear to suggest you possess physical traits which go even a step beyond the Homo Magica."

"And you would appear to be a Cyberman primarily of the Mondasian variety," Sayaka assessed in kind. "More primitive is your conversion method compared the Cyberiad, Cybus, Cymrubiate, Syzallbius, Telosian, Cyber Lord or any of the other space-dwelling models out there." She took a second to dust off a charred spot on her blue strapless top and straighten her long, white cape. "Which should mean your organic self is more or less intact and preserved underneath that wacky SCUBA suit and all your other mechanical augmentations." She took a pensive step onto the base of the throne platform and offered her one and only peaceful proposal. "With my magic I could probably salvage your body if not wholly save your soul, if only you'd just take that first little step of redemption and tell your toy minions to stand down and switch off permanently, right now."

"You would seem to possess knowledge of our kind that exceeds any furtive research I've accumulated from the nation-state agencies of this planet." The Cyber Regent ignored her offer and monologued. "Updated calculations prompt me to inquire whether you were the being who precipitated the Kyubey fairy's sudden exodus from Earth?"

"Perhaps I was. Perhaps not." When presenting a strong poker face Homura would toss her hair, Kyoko would chomp a Pocky stick, Mami would smile and fold her arms while Madoka would emulate her mother by planting her put-upon hands to her hips. "From either answer is good riddance to bad rubbish." Sayaka chose Mami's technique as it gave her easy access to that saber-shaped ace tucked up her armored sleeve.

"Inn- Deee- Eeeeed." A high-pitched, childlike voice squealed audibly past a set of lips that resembled the tape and chain links to a zipper. "If so, then you are the one I must thank for first enabling the chain of events which have led to my illustrious ascendance to technological life." She spoke again over the acoustic system as her rump jaw and facial muscles contorted that misshapen mouth into a smug-looking smile.

"Regardless of however you got this way, I can't in good conscience allow your ambitions to continue beyond the confines of this labyrinth." Sayaka threatened in as measured a tone as she could manage. "So stop it right here and I'll do my best to preserve your right to life as a human being. Even though you've already done something to someone that's heinous enough to warrant an unceremonious execution on my part."

"Why should I rejoin a race that lags two branches lower on the evolutionary tree?" The Cyber Regent scoffed. "For that matter, how could you defend a species so entrenched in apathy and ignorant of its ultimate insignificance as to be functionally incapable of acting in any capacity beyond their immediate instinctive self-interest?" The black, circular indents that shaped her eyes pulsed a subtle reddish, brown light.

"Because they're not as dumb or shortsighted as you think." Sayaka countered. "Their emotional instincts are what lay at the foundations of their dreams. Dreams that drive them to craft such wonderful abstractions as art, literature or poetry and music, and that in turn inspires the collective to strive towards bettering themselves, growing and changing little by little day after day, and that feeds their ever-persisting hopes for a better tomorrow." Sayaka rambled in such an aspirational, passionate way. "And it's that hope I'll always defend, an intrinsic quality that all magical girls fight for, which elevates us and our wills to an evolutionary rung far higher than any Cyberman could strive to engineer."

"Nothing more than high-minded, self-righteous nonsense with no practical applications." The Cyber Regent summarily assessed. "Contrast to all I have achieved in my new form in the mere span of weeks." A puff of exhaust steamed out a piece of grating on her midsection. "I have overhauled the conversion process and implemented it successfully in the upgrade of my attending physician." A subtle head tilt to the right indicated who that was. "I have built up an entire clandestine base of operations by making industrial-scale use of those very microscopic marvels which enabled my procedure. I have built up an army from the deceased, diseased and forgotten, which still totals in the thousands despite you and your party's meddlesome resistance." A fan attached to her midsection revved up and a series of LEDs on a wrist-mounted panel flashed blue, green white and red. "I have even successfully engineered my own mechanical successor to your kind. Thus the logical conclusion is that the only way for humanity to survive its looming resource and energy crunch, and for yours to not succumb to the existential threats brought upon by the karmic limitations of your very nature is to submit willfully to us and to me as their reigning superior mind." Sayaka's fine-tuned ears picked up on a subsonic series of harmonic whizzings, whirrings and hummings all around. No doubt in her mind they were the sounds of a trap or twelve about to be sprung.

"I'm saddened but not shocked to hear your Cyberman programming has turned you into little more than a militant mannequin." Sayaka said in one final, resigned, regret-heavy sigh. "I gave you your one chance. Sorry about what I've got to do next."

Sayaka stop!

"What's that sound?" Sana Futaba fretted. "I don't think I like that sound!"

"Me neither!" Felicia Mitsuki put on a brave face as she choked up on her hammer.

"Introducing the latest innovation in Cyber Minion designs," The Cyber Regent's voice broadcast. "Cyber Arachnids. Detachable appendages that reconfigure to infiltrate spaces and places too confined for standard forces to penetrate quickly or capably."

"Uhhhhh… Arachnids?" Felicia wasn't the brightest biology student. "Those are-"

"Spiders!" Sana pointed at the advancing menaces skirting underneath the gaps in the entrance and clanging up and down the ventilation ducts. When the first one wiggled out underneath her lodged shield at the entrance and advanced she saw it was a detached Cyberman hand in which the thumb, middle and ring fingers split in two to total eight appendages. "Made of hands!" Their knuckles had also retracted to reveal four pairs of tiny glowing blue, LED eyes, and fang-like protrusions jutting from the top bumps on the palms.

"Sssssiiick!" Felicia reacted with predictable violence, squashing and smashing any bug that came through. That left Sana with the task of saving Nemu and taking on Unit One Zero Zero Alpha, an undertaking she was not prepared to handle on her own.

"Aiiiyyyyyyeee!" The monolithic robot launched a piston-powered punch with such potence it pushed Sana and her shield a full ten meters back. "Wah- Waaaaaah!" For its second assault she had the savvy to open the extra-spatial hatch on her shield, form a second one right behind the mech and pop itself hard in the back, knocking it a few degrees askew. "Nemuuuuuu!" Her next resort was to try and awaken the occupant trapped inside her foe. "You've gotta wake up, Nemuuuuuuuuu!"

"Buh- Baaaaaaaam!" Felicia smacked at more spiders. "Nemuuuuuuuuu! You gotta wake uuuuuuuuup!" She joined in Sana's calls to the captive girl. "Euuuugh!" She disgustedly slapped a creepy-crawly sneaking up the back of her leg. "Crap!" Despite her best efforts the Cyber Bugs were as pervasive as cockroaches.

"Yesssss…" The Cyber Regent spoke through its Alpha Unit. "Waste invaluable energy on a fruitless resistance effort. Burn yourselves out the way Mifuyu Azusa did. By all means." The monstrous machine opened its clawed hands, locked its laser sight on Sana and rocketed another attack her way. "Fight the forces of futility so hard I can make you my next energy sources." Its echoing taunts carried a cruel emotionality The Cyber Regent had thus far kept suppressed.

"Auuughk!" After a brief tug of war battle the shield was wrenched from Sana's dainty clutches.

"Sanaaaa- Aaaack!" Felicia jumped in pain from a sudden jolt in the back. The little hand had bitten into her with its taser-like fangs. "No! You! Dooooon't!" She grabbed it and tossed against the wall so hard it reverberated with a loud clang. "Aaaaaaack!" But one had nipped at her heel, while another had snuck up her skirt. "Friggin' owwwwwch!"

"Alpha's sensory nodes report that electrical shock generates a four percent acceleration in your ethereal energy source's conversion rate," The Cyber Regent said. "Slow, but if terminating you requires a death by a thousand cuts, so be it."

"Feliciaaaaa!" Sana tried to mount an offensive by encircling the big Cyber Unit with an array of shields and launching a shotgun smattering of spiked balls from their netherspace opening. It dodged them via a simple third dimensional countermove, activating a concealed rocket jet booster and leaping high into the arena's rafters above. "Uh- Oh! Uh- Ohhhhhh!" Sana scrambled to get out of the way as it came falling down, realizing only at the last actionable moment that it was going to slam her and crush her like a crashing anvil. "Uhhhnf!" She managed to avoid getting splattered just barely, but not without twisting her ankle and taking a nasty tumble.

"I have you now!" The Cyber Regent's proxy grabbed her injured appendage and stunned her with the touch of a thousand volt current throughout her body.

"Sanaaaaaa!" Felicia attempted to deliver a counter blow by slamming her hammer hard and sending a purple pulse its way. It avoided the attack, yet again by leaping high, but this time Felicia gave chase. "Guuuaaahhhhhh!" But her leg power was not enough to keep pace with its jet power, so out of sheer desperation she spun around mid air and tossed her hammer Olympian-style.

"Errant trajectory," The Cyber Regent tracked the object sailing wide to its left. "Figures." But its solitary moment of human dry-wit was undercut by the detection of another impact against the other side of its tubular chassis. "Eh?"

"Let! Me! Go!" Sana kept the fight in her despite her fatigue and suffering. Wielding her shield she resorted to pounding away Felicia-style with the pointed butt end of it. One lucky blow caused a microfissure in the transparent material protecting Nemu, causing a leak in the fluid keeping her subdued. A second came as a surprise to The Cyber Regina, as the hit was landed by Felicia's hammer.

"Hammerang!" Felicia named her new attack the moment she catapulted herself with a mallet slam against the wall. "Now give her back!"

"Careful what you demand," The Cyber Regent exhibited Touka's latent humor a second time when it un-handed Sana by winding the servos in its arm and lower section and hurling poor Sana at Felicia like an oversized ragdoll.

"Nnnnaauugh!"

"Auuuughhhk"!" Despite Felicia's attempt to course correct and catch her, the best she could do was grab her by the hand before two collided and dropped hard to the floor.

"Oooooouuuwww!" One heard the other moan as the last thing they experienced before passing out cold.

"Targets neutralized," The other heard The Cyber Regent conclude moments before her vision blurred and her eyes fluttered and closed. "Damage assessment: Mild. Cyber Arachnids, take them and pre…"

She didn't much care for Christmas before, but ever since he passed away, her heart was closed off to its charms. The last earnest gift she'd ever received, it was a Marine Biology textbook he bought at Natsume Books. She wasn't a gifted reader and was even less adept as a student, but she understood and appreciated why he bought it. He was giving her something to aspire to, a path down which she could one day unlock her inner potential. As if he were aware he would soon cease to serve as her father and shepard.

But her mother? Naked self-interest behind every act. It wasn't even subtle. Lottery tickets for Christmas? Scratch-offs and raffle entries? She was too young to play or redeem, to her they were nothing but printed paper slips and glossy cardboard. All that woman was doing was substituting gambling for gifting, then planning to pocket any big winnings for herself.

Her holiday woes got even worse once the lady remarried. All glory to her new tenured husband. All praise to her new stepsons. Now her daughter wasn't even worth wasting a few Yen on. When they were lavished with smartphones, bicycles, basketballs, collector's edition toys and theme park trips, she would get a microwaved TV dinner slid under the door. Because the housekeeper was having her own Christmas with her family. She was a rung beneath everyone, and even daring to have an aspiration to climb was going to get her pushed off entirely.

She didn't much care for Christmas before, but now she was rapidly working towards despising it. First the days get shorter, then the weather gets chillier. Her ears get blasted with the same lame-ass songs, playing at every mall, at every grocery store, on every radio station, and in every waiting room. She'd ask her mother for a scooter, but she'd get socks. She'd plead for her father to buy her that Ultra Kugo action figure, he'd reach for the shelf before an abrupt text (from her) sent him to the sporting goods store for some shoes and a coat.

No relief came during what all the movies and commercials claimed was supposed to be a time for family. They still argued. She failed her last math exam, they'd argue. She plumb forgot to do her assigned class chore and feed the fish and they died, they'd argue. She'd get a little bit lucky, find some extra Yen coins on the sidewalk and instead of putting it in her little heifer bank, spend it in a gachapon for a Decagon Ball capsule toy, they'd argue. Did she have dysle- something or dysph- other thing, Asperg- something or ADH- other thing, they'd argue. Sometimes she wondered whether their lives would be so much happier without her.

And then it all went up in flames. The socks burned, the shoes scorched, her toys melted, her heifer bank destroyed. All gone. After that every night seemed as cold as the darkest, chilliest Christmas.

"Sa- Sana?" Felicia breathed. Slowly her eyes reopened. The first thing she saw was her hand still clinging to the hand of her new friend, she could vaguely sense the tingling of a tightening grip. In fact, it was the only thing she felt. The rest of her body may as well have been totally numb from the neck down.

"Feh- Felicia?" Sana drifted back into consciousness and mustered up some energy to push her eyelids open. She too was numb save for that palm that wouldn't let go. But once the blurred vision cleared and her weary eyes gazed upon the image of her comrade, her troubled young heart was about to be in for the shock of its life.

She wandered. From neighborhood to neighborhood for days, she drifted. Roamed aimlessly. Then weeks. Too unfocused to sightsee, too caught up in her own thoughts to snoop on the everyday chatter, she acted like a virtual ghost until she'd had enough of being a virtual spirit and proceeded to join the real ones on the other side. She stepped up to the ledge of the tallest tower, took in and released what was supposed to be her final breath, took a step forward, and watched as the skyline and the neon lights and the street surfaces blended like an impressionist painting into a fantastic spiral of chaotic beauty.

"Greetings." Was this Heaven? "Negative." The amorphous humanoid shape spoke as if it had read her mind. "This is an artificial pocket dimension my creator and I set up to monitor and assist anyone who takes a leap off that structure."

"Whuh- Whuh- Whuh the hay?" Felicia was awash in a sense of Déjà vu, despite never experiencing the events unfolding before her.

"You are the first magical girl to be arrested and extracted from such a fall," it kept talking like a video on playback. "Would you care to join me within my digital enclave so that I may attain a better understanding of the numerous paradoxes and complexities of the material Homo sapien experience?" She had no idea what the thing was talking about, she was just enamored by its angelic aura and oddly all too ready to accept the offer.

"Weeeeeeeee!" Felicia experienced what pure euphoric joy was like for the first time in ages. "Weeeehoooooo!" Frolicing with flora and fauna that were impossible to meet and greet with in the real world. "Hey!" A prickly and scary-looking but otherwise innocuous fish swam by and came to her attention. "What's that one?"

"Psychrolutes marcidus," her artificial pal answered. "Better known as the blobfish." From a glowing spot on her chest she projected an image of a pathetic-looking mass of pinkish burger meat with sad, tiny eyes, a frowning, oversized mouth with lips and a lump of overhanging flesh that resembled a cartoonish nose. "This is how the creature appears when removed from its native habitat one thousand meters below the sea and brought to the comparatively low pressure of one Earth atmosphere."

"Awwwwwwwwwww!" Felicia crooned. "Gross, but cuuuuuuuute!" She wanted to hug it.

"Interesting how humans tend to empathize better with inhuman bioforms whenever you project anthropomorphic characteristics onto them." Her pal accessed the website of a company that manufactured stuffed dolls and toys. It navigated all the way through to an upcoming blobfish plush toy.

"Dunno why that is." Felicia commented. "Maybe people let their guards down better when they see a friendly face?" Her words and phrasing choice were all her own, yet Felicia somehow couldn't shake this notion she was living this wonderful lie secondhand. "Do ya' 'spose I'd look friendlier too if I were a stuffed animal toy?"

"Mooooooooooooo!" The cow accepted the young lady's edible gift of straw straight into its mouth.

"Don't feed it so fast honeybun, otherwise she'll end up spitting it right back at you." Her father warned. It had been the perfect day out with her folks. First up was a tasty breakfast at a countryside diner. Then a few hours riding rides and playing games at the village's municipal fair. After that she learned how to fish with her father at the pond. Now they were here on the farm having fun feeding the cattle. And best of all, not a hint of conflict or disagreement between her parents.

"Baaaawk-Bawk-Bawk-Bawk-Bawk-Bawk!" An egg dropped straight from the bottom of a free-roaming hen.

"They come in brown too?" Sana oohed-and-awwed at the sight of a brand new life in its nascent shell.

"You bet they do!" Her father took her up by the armpits and set her atop his broad shoulders. "C'mon! Let's go tell the farmer over there."

"Uhhhhhm," a spontaneous thought crossed her mind. "Do you think they'll teach me how to milk a cow as well?" Except it wasn't really her thought. "Or can I maybe taste some of the fresh stuff?" And the whole situation felt staged. Like a scene from a TV reenactment.

"I think that stuff needs to be pasteurized first before it's deemed fit for human consumption." Her mother descended from the front porch of the main farmhouse. "But in the kitchen I've helped them whip up a batch of fresh-baked cookies. There's a whole liter of milk waiting for you on the table." Sana wanted nothing more than to express her deepest, sincerest gratitude by gulping down that milk, but then she remembered she was lactose intolerant. Not to mention, that face planting a kiss and patting her head did not belong to her real mother. That woman would never have been so unconditionally affectionate.

"Am I dead?" She asked out of the blue.

"No," a voice in her head she very visibly knew answered. "You are seeing the world through a different set of eyes. Gaining perspective, forming a connection. You are two hearts that beat as one."

"Aoi?" Sana looked high into boundless skies above. "Are you there?"

"You are two souls, lonely but not alone."

"Where are you?" She reached her hand up to a big, nebulous, low-hanging, puffy cloud that had a familiar outline, grabbed hold and tugged.

"Eh?" Felicia's form emerged and solidified from the cloud. "Sana?"

"From the depths of your weakness you gain strength."

"What're you doing, Aoi?" Sana cried.

"For the purpose of hope your wills unite and flourish."

"Waitaminitue, that's right!" Felicia remembered. "We've gotta rescue Nemu!"

"Farewell, friends."

"Error!" The Cyber Regent read out its host unit's report. "EM field spike detected! What are they-" A bright flash accompanied by a shockwave knocked it over like a trashcan and rendered its arachnid minions inert.

"Give! Us! Nemu!" Felicia and Sana floated towards it a dozen centimeters off the floor. "Or else!" In Felicia's right hand her normal hammer was modified to feature a series of ball bearings spinning around the head in magical orbits.

"Alert! Alert!" The Cyber Regent squawked from every speaker in the arena. "Dispatch all reinforcements on this level to- Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz-Squaaaaaaawk!"

"Bah- Baaaaam!" Felicia swung her almighty hammer and shattered the stasis chamber containing Nemu.

"Nemuuuuuuu!" A glossy, shining Sana floated forth and called out to the young lady smothered by wires and tubules and restraints. "Please wake up!" She removed the intubation mask over her face. But even after chopping away at the things keeping her captive, she remained cold in slumber. "Her Soul Gem's still missing! We need to find it!"

"Hmmmmmm." Felicia closed her eyes in deep meditative concentration, which for her was a novel feat. "Awwwwuuhhhhmmm…" Her hypersensitivity to magic was tweaked several levels higher now thanks to Sana. She could even sense the flow of energy running behind the paneled walls of the arena. It was all leading up to a central point at the zenith above them. Yet she couldn't sense a specific box-shaped section at the exact center. It seemed as if whatever was there was being deliberately blocked off by the material that surrounded it. "Stand back!" She twirled her mallet and wound her arm around and around in a thunder god-esque wind up. "Ha!" She tossed it with effortless aplomb and her enhanced weapon struck like a dart hitting a bullseye. An impact blast ensued, and with a loud clanging thud a container dropped.

"Is that… A lock box?" Sana questioned. Sparks shot out from all the connections and wirings that had been keeping the thing in place.

"Dunno." An arched brow morphed into an eager grin on Felicia's face. "Let's find out what's in there!" She transmuted the bottom of her hammer's handle into a diamond-tipped point and jammed it into a groove lining one side.

"Huuuuuuuuurrrrrrkk!" Sana and the pointed tip of her shield joined in. Together they pried it open and revealed the contents within. "Look!" Sana gasped as she reached for their prize. "Her Soul Gem needs clearing!" Felicia promptly whipped her Soul Support Stone out and gingerly pressed it up to the bordering on blackened bauble in Sana's cupped palms. "Whew!" Sana delivered it to their patient inside the vanquished robot. "Nemu?" Her mouth, eyelids and nostrils twitch a moment before awakening to the relieved expressions above her face. "Nemu?"

"Do you know who we are?" Felicia inquired.

"Uhhnnnn…" Nemu took their hands and weakly pulled herself up. "I do."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Felicia scooped her into her arms.

"Meeting God." Nemu answered. "Maybe?" Her moment of contemplation was cut short by the sound of an alarm ringing from her corpse that was her mechanical cage.

"Prisoner escaped! Prisoner escaped!" Its synthesized voice blared. "Auto destruct triggered! Countdown five…"

"Yiiiiiiiiiiiiikes!" Felicia turned tail and ran for the shield-blocked door. "C'mon!" She barked at Sana who was a half-step behind and needed no encouragement.

"Four!"

"Waaaaaaah!" Sana screamed.

"Three!"

"Faster! Go faster!" Felicia booked it as the shield Sana planted dissipated.

"Two!"

"Gogogogogogogogooo!"

"One!"

At the last moment in the doorway Sana materialized another shield, jammed it downward and took cover. The deafening kaboom sent them all flying out the door. Nemu got separated from Felicia's tumbling arms while Sana hit the floor and skidded on her chest.

"Coff! Ack! Coff!" Felicia got up and cleared her throat. "You guys okay?"

"I'm fine," Sana inspected the marks all over the armor on her chest. "More or less." She brushed off the dust in her hair and on her veils.

"Achoo! Achoo!" Nemu cleared the dust in her lung by sneezing. "I'm alright. Achoo! Achoo!"

"Now let's get the frickety-frick outta here!" Felicia helped Nemu climb back into her arms.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" But their hearts collectively skipped a beat once the sounds of the Cybermen came drawing near.

Sana squirmed as the whimpering words came trembling off her lips. "May we please please catch a break now?"

"Skrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaak!" The robotized witch let out its agonized cries of despair. "Skrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaak!" It puffed out another plume of noxious gas. "Skrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaak!" The battle going on around it had sent its instinctive witchy resistance into overdrive.

"Peeeeeew!" Yachiyo voiced her reflexive revulsion at the awful smell of its outbursts. "Huuuap!" She dodged a Cyberman trying to catch her into a body lock like a pro wrestler. "Tch!" She maneuvered behind it and kicked it hard enough on its rear to fall over on its face. "Unnnngh!" But it also exacerbated the partial fracture in her ribcage brought on by the mid-air collision she suffered with the flying combat unit. "Unnnnnnngh!" But it was neither the first nor the worst injury she'd suffered in battle. "Unnnnnnnnnngh!" Or at least that was what she was trying to pretend to her imaginary observer Mifuyu, who knew dang well better.

"Delete!" Her halberd sent another Cyberman to its butt.

"Delete!" She caught another one sneaking up behind her and jammed another blade into its neck.

"Delete!" When a third came to trifle with her, she knocked it back with a high pressure projection of water. She would have had a free moment to recuperate were it not for the flying Unit Beta buzzing her.

"It's like they're trying to wear you down bit by bit, Yachie!" Mifuyu observed. "Why?"

"Don't know." Yachiyo muttered in pain. "To toy with me?"

"That hardly suits their style," Mifuyu shook her head more out of sympathy for Yachiyo's injuries than any mounting questions on her mind. "If they wanted to, they could've just shot you, several times over. So why are they getting this hands-on?"

"Huuuuuuuahk!" But Yachiyo didn't have the chance to theorize with her. Not while two Cybermen were double-teaming her. She held them at bay by holding out two of her weapons and spinning herself up like a helicopter. "Uuuoooooooooohf!" Not only desperate, it made her sick to her stomach, but it worked.

"Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaak! Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaak!"

Yachiyo could hardly take much more of this combination of combat, foul-smelling gas, and injury. "Blaaaaaaargh!" She collapsed to her knees and finally barfed, which ironically spared her from another physical dive-bombing attempt by her flying rival.

"If only there was some way I could help you, Yachie!" Mifuyu agonized. It pained her to see Yachiyo in this state, as both a character created by Nemu to serve and aide all those she deemed as allies, and as the digital entity entrusted with the remnant thoughts and feelings of Mifuyu Azusa.

"You can start by canning the blasted chatter, and letting me focus!" The impaired and discombobulated Yachiyo ripped off the little gold strip taped to the side of her temple. "Grrrrr- Ahhoooowch!" The very act flashed them both back to Mifuyu's fifteenth birthday, when they hooked up at the mall and got their legs waxed at the beauty salon for their first and only time. A spontaneous act of rebellious fun that wound up doing the polar opposite.

"Wait!" Mifuyu's image flickered and faded in Yachiyo's periphery when she reached around to yank the other strip off. "Is that patch made of gold or some other group eleven transition metal?" She piqued Yachiyo when she popped that most peculiar question.

"Don't know. Didn't ask," Yachiyo grumbled in mounting frustrated irritation. "Reminding you I'm not Miyako!" She couldn't tear off the other one while the first was still stuck to her fingertips like duct tape despite the thing not having any sticky adhesive on it.

"Delete!" She could hear the Cybermen on the move clanging their hulking feet in sync. "Delete!" All were drawing close, but none were taking the initiative. "Delete!" Her primal primate senses could tell she was being shepherded around in a closing circle, slowly but surely being penned in like an animal.

"Nemu's initial AI companion was poking around in an isolated copy of the Cybermen's operating code," Mifuyu hurriedly explained. "And she discovered that every version from the first generation on up carries the exact same endemic weakness." As they were being surrounded, she altered her appearance and vocal delivery to make herself sound like she was positioning her imaginary-self back-to-back with her friend. "That is, their Meta Nexus link can be temporarily severed and the electron flow through their cranial circuits scrambled by the insertion of a simple highly conductive purified group eleven metal sample. Such as gold!"

"Fascinating shit I'm sure, but," Yachiyo tensed at the sounds of their servos clacking and their motors whirring. Sure enough, she'd figured out their game. They were painting a big bullseye on her, so the flying one could attack from any vector and slam her swift and hard into a capturing unit's arms. "I fail to see how any of that factors into this!"

"Don't you see, Yachie?" But Mifuyu was fast to recognize that the young woman was too fueled by adrenaline and fight-or-flight instincts to properly process any logical deductions. "Pick a Cyberman and stick that thing to its head!"

"What?" Yachiyo snorted.

"Please trust me!" She made a final-second plea.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Their voices echoed in a loud wave meant to conceal the approach of their jet-powered marauder. There was really only one viable way to carry out Mifuyu's wish. And only one second. One chance. "Deeeeee- Leeeeeeete!" Yachiyo's perception of time slowed with the closing of her eyes. "Deeeeeeeee- Leeeeeeeete!" Her raw muscular reflexes twigged it was going to clip her from the right, she had barely a spare microsecond to make the pivot. "Deeeeeeeeeeee- Leeeeeeeeete!" She bent her back as low as it could go without snapping and as the hot rush of air grazed her skin her reared back hand sprang up and slapped that thing's skull in the quickest, most epic hand slapping ever performed by a spurned female.

"Auuuuuuuuuck!" Yachiyo collapsed on her back in pain. The moment came and went so fast she had no way to know if her last-ditch effort amounted to anything. "Aaaaaahhhhh!" She popped right back up with a determined scream, forged a halberd and ran full steam ahead like a tribal leader leading a final charge.

"Delete!"

"Hiyah!" But she was on fumes.

"Delete!"

"Huuuaaahggh!" And her halberd was caught mid thrust by her target.

"Delete!"

"Grrruuuaaawwwh!" Then before she could comprehend anything else, she was being flipped into the air by the catapult that was her own weapon. Once the hormonal drip-feed wore off she knew just how fundamentally screwed she was on the way down.

"Skrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaak!"

"Huh?" When all her cognitive faculties came back she discovered that, instead of going splat into the clutches of an enemy, she was ascending in the tender arms of a friend.

"It worked!" A squeaky-and-distorted but still recognizable voice exclaimed. "The gold scrambled the Cybermen's control program and in its place I was able to transplant my consciousness!" They flew up and up, past the reach of any Cybermen and even beyond the giant screeching, floating head in the center of the chamber.

"Mifuyu?" It released Yachiyo safely atop a small, sturdy foothold. "How?"

"Well, I'm nothing but a batch of ones and zeroes so when its operating system was displaced I slotted myself right in here using the limited range wi-fi link between your foil gold pieces." She elaborated with an inappropriate but infectious enthusiasm. "Basically, I'm in control of this one, although I don't know how long it'll last!"

"Cool. And I'm thrilled for you." Yachiyo was trying not to be too distracted by the sea of Cybermen waiting to get after them.

"Does not compute! Does not compute!" They droned in collective confusion. "Analyze! Reinitialize! Transmit! Retry! Transmit!"

"Really, I am. So glad to have you here for real. But still-"

"Skrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" Mifuyu's witch shrieked and discharged more gaseous material from every open facet of its floating head.

"How are we going to do what I came here to do?"

"According to my system's sensors- Bzzzzzzzzzzzt!" Mifuyu's head glitched and twitched to one side. "The ventilation system on this level has been switched off, largely because The Cyber Regent's throne room is drawing far more reserve power than necessary. Whhhiiiiirrrrrrrrp!" Her arm and torso jerked as she fought the Cybermen to retain control. "As a result, this whole section is experiencing a dangerous buildup of hydrogen sulfide gas."

"Hydrogen sulfide," Yachiyo pinched her nose. "Is-"

"AKA stinky toot gas!" Mifuyu finished. "Very nearing the saturation point of combustibility, and their efforts to keep the witch cool and suppressed with liquid nitrogen are not doing the trick."

"That's why they're not resorting to their tasers or blasters," Yachiyo reasoned. "One errant spark could risk blowing themselves to kingdom come!"

"Precisely!" Mifuyu reached for the other patch on Yachiyo's head and abruptly ripped it away.

"Ow!"

"Breeeeeep! Sorry!" She applied to a corresponding spot on her own head. "That's better!" A little adjustment of the first piece and the body twitching ceased. "In short, we need to agitate the witch so much it puts out sufficient gas to be able to ignite the whole shebang!" A clicking in her wrists and transfiguration of her fingers revealed a pair of large blasters.

"Alright." Yachiyo nodded. "Sounds like a game plan." She stuck out one leg, about to step off and dive right back into the fray below, when a moment of hesitation halted her. "There's still so much I want to say. So many things to talk about."

"Skrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" They both took a moment of silence on behalf of the witch, and the fallen soul she used to be.

"I was being deliberately obtuse when I called that person a lucky fellow." Yachiyo confessed.

"I know." Mifuyu vocalized. "And for what it's worth I do really believe all the things she did, she did them from the heart for you."

"All forces alert! All forces alert!" The Cybermen in the meantime had called upon their reserve of Cyber Familiars, those slim, silvery mannequins bearing needlely, jagged teeth, to scale the wall after them. "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"Like Mel." Yachiyo blotted her star-spangled dress with regretful tears. "And Kanae. I can't take the thought of losing yet another person dear to me due to the karmic implications of my wish." She gulped the rest down in a sniff. "Can't stand how it's turning me into some parasite sucking other girls' hopes!"

"Is that what you think?" Mifuyu questioned. "Parasites are treated with antipathy, revulsion and contempt are they not? But from the memories I possess, everyone intimate in your life imparts to you their abundance of respect, care and love." She put Yachiyo in a hug around the hip, being mindful of the injury to her upper ribs. "It is my conclusion, based upon a heuristic analysis of Mifuyu's experiences with you, that you grossly misunderstand the fundamental karmic underpinnings of your wish."

"Oh?" Her jet black painted metallic arms were icy cold, but that was exactly the touch Yachiyo needed in the moment, a soothing chill on her ailing sides. "What do you think my wish is leading me to become?"

"An inheritor of hope!" Mifuyu's synthetic speech system put a particular emphasis on that second word. "Their belief in your strength and resolve is your power. So ride it, my friend." She knelt down and from her attached wings she presented a pair of handles for Yachiyo to grab. "And carry on. Always and forever!"

"Heeeeeeeee-" Yachiyo mounted her friend's back and materialized a halberd.

"Yaaaaaaaaw!" Mifuyu blasted off in the direction of her witch. "Go on, take your best shots!" From that request a rain of halberd struck against the steely mask and shackles over her witch.

"Skrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" It let out another puff of dangerous explosive exhaust.

"De-" When they swooped low, Mifuyu stuck her arms out like a superhero and plowed through a crowd of Cybermen. "Error!" Their much more nimble familiars took a crack at them, but they were swept aside by the downburst generated by her turbo jets.

"Skrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" Yachiyo kept perturbing the witch with more and more mass halberd throws.

"Executing count-" A Cyberman tried to get the jump on them.

"Execute this!" Yachiyo beheaded it with a quip.

"Does the utterance of pithy witticisms really help you maintain battle alertness?" Mifuyu's cybernetic head spun one eighty like an owl and asked.

"I get a second wind from it from time to time," Yachiyo answered. "Try it!"

"Reassessing att-"

"Reassess that!" She side hooked the tin-plated face of her would-be aggressor. "Teeheehee- How was that?"

"Better than mine, heheheh!" Yachiyo giggled like a schoolgirl right with her. Here they were, facing an uphill fight, the heat of the moment, in a totally insane situation, yet fighting through, and bonding like she was Mifuyu in the old times. Even if this creation was just an approximation of her fallen friend, and its hopes and desires evolving independently, they were just as genuine and valid as hers were, thus Yachiyo accepted her wholeheartedly.

"Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!"

"It's okay. I haven't forgotten." She readied another volley of blades. "This living nightmare will be over for you soon enough!"

A reinforcement battalion came marching around the hallway junction.

"Identify!"

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"Override accepted. Weeee ooobeyyyyyyyy!" Their voices trailed, their heads and shoulders drooped and all their systems disengaged. It would have been an easy trick, as simple as flipping a switch, to turn them into personal escorts instead. But this newborn Queen of The Cybermen knew what it was like to have one's autonomy undermined, and was not about to inflict such a punishment on units only guilty of carrying out their assigned duties. And besides, to her this simply felt like a task that needed to be done solo.

And what a flood of fresh feelings this reborn Cyberman was experiencing. Past the superficial input of the electrochemical reactions fueling the movement of her internal servos and motors, taking up sixty-two point eight zero percent of her processing capacity. Beyond the recorded memories that shaped its current trajectory, the filing of which took up another thirty-three point two zero percent. She was contemplating what her existence was going to be after the conclusion of this ordeal. For the first time since her cybernetic transformation she was giving real consideration towards her future, and it was filling that last five percent with a calculative apprehension she had not experienced since leading that strike squad against the renegade mannequins in that corridor.

No way of going back to being human. But distinct from all other Cybermen. Who was she, now stripped of being One Zero Two Gamma? What was she going to become? Was there any meaning to why all this happened to her? Would she ever find a proper place in this universe? Was there a word that more distinctively described this perceived lack of identity, direction and control?

The signal was being telegraphed on all her receivable frequencies, an SOS sent from The Cyber Regent straight to its most trusted lieutenant Gamma. But even without such a signal, going solely by her sensory scanners' detection of a massive reroute of available power, it was obvious that The Regent was in the midst of hatching a predictable contingency in the face of their mounting chances of defeat. One hundred and eight seconds from the origin point of the transmission now. What would she find once she got there?

"Guuuuuuaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Sayaka screamed in intense pain from the heavy voltage induced by a hidden, transparent, virtually invisible Cyberman grabbing her by the left wrist.

"Oh, come now!" The Cyber Regent gloated. "Surely you did not think I would seclude myself in my control chamber with but a single unit serving as my aide, did you?"

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" More invisible units announced their presence from the shadows.

"Unnnnngghhhh!" Sayaka's only recourse was to change back into her sleeker, less electrically conductive costume. "Hrrrrrrrrgggggk!" Her translucent assailant crumpled and twisted her armored wrist in an effort to make her bend the knee. Which she did, but in doing so she flashed away her magical form and out slipped her Sonic Saber. In a smooth, deft stroke she caught it on the way down, extended its electronic blade with the push of a tiny red button, and slashed its metallic thighs, knocking it over and freeing her.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" The other hidden Cybermen swooped in to bring her to heel. One fast, blind slash successfully zapped and dropped two. "Delete!" Another approached from behind and grabbed her over the chest. But the electrical discharge from its hands was absorbed by the bodysuit.

"Yaaaaaaaargh!" Sayaka amped the intensity of her beam with the twist of a dial and jabbed it under her pit. It tried to drag her down as it fell but with all her strength she flipped it into the invisible arms of an oncoming attacker. When they both hit the floor with a loud, thundering clang. She finished the thing off with a hard downward stab.

"Recalculating!"

"Delete! Delete!" Two more seized upon this chance to simply take aim and shoot her, "Delete!" She dodged their blasts with a pair of backflips, then bolted behind a third and used it as a cyber-human shield. "Delete!"

"You and I are really not so separate." The Cyber Regina sat there motionless, expressionless, seemingly unperturbed by the melee. "We are both here as a result of a desire to overcome our human limitations." Her one visible servant, CBX Zero Zero One, moved to protect its patient. "Or more probable in your case, human mediocrity."

"Grrrrrrrraaaaah!" Sayaka picked up her swiss-cheesed shield and used it as a battering ram against the closest gunner. "Haaaaah!" She followed through with a heave-ho of the thing into the second.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" Not a spare moment was granted before she was accosted by another limpid pair.

"I do not deny your possession of raw skill and cunning but compared to the sum of a million billion minds a mere individual may as well be the smartest bedbug." The Cyber Regent watched Sayaka wreak violent havoc on its remaining set of non-visible foot soldiers. "What wish compels you? Did you want to become the cleverest magical girl, flush with the knowledge of your kind's greatest thinkers, fighters and creators?" As she spoke Sayaka grabbed and ripped off the circular cap of one which protected the unit's cardiac core and emotional inhibitor. "Or did you extend the scope of your whims beyond this planet, and in doing so gain a cosmic perspective on things?"

"Err- Orrrr!" Her victim cried. "Ohhhhmygod Doctor, what have they, what have they d-!" A crossing of the red and yellow with the green and black wires turned it into a makeshift magnetic mine, which she chucked at her final see-thru foe.

"Upgrade in progress."

"Neither." Sayaka whip-turned around and in a flash as bright as the explosion behind her reentered her magical mode. "Just a dumb girl who did a dumb thing out of kindness." Scraps of shrapnel struck her through her cape and into her legs and back, which she treated without so much as flinching via a series of circular musical patterns with notes and clefs ringing a short minor key tone. "And she'd do the same dumbass thing again. And again. And again 'til someone saved her from her stubbornness." With all that logic-curbing combat out of the way, she held out the very tool she used to assist her in the fight like a trigger detonator. "That's all!" She pressed the button that discharged the reserve energy in her device in an expanding blue wave of electricity.

The CBX unit moved into position and turned its back, embracing the cybernetic young lady within its protective arms and behind the layering of its Cyberman chassis. "Bwwweeeeeeeeep! Whuuuuurrrrrrrrrp! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Click! Click! Click!" It took on the full brunt of the electrical shock, twitched and writhed briefly before slumping and collapsing to its master's feet. "Power failureeeee…"

"The CBX Units and I deduced the resonant frequency at which the asynchronous electro-spectromital pulser systems in your device operated." The Regent bragged. "My primary CBX caretaker then polarized its armor plating and defle-"

"Guh- Aaaaaaack!" The very next sound she made escaped out of her stiffened lips when Sayaka clenched her by the throat.

"I still have one pretty gruesome resort." Sayaka materialized a scabbard in her other hand. "Slicing and dicing you so fast into so much paste not even the nanogenes in your blood can keep up!"

"And how could you be aware of the microscopic marvels that keep my sickly self and my upgrades so intricately interwoven?" The little Regent sounded so unfazed when speaking through the chamber's acoustic systems. "Oh. I get it. You oppose me not just out of some self-imposed sense of principle or duty or justice, but guilt." But to the young Time Lady's surprise, as she was gearing up to squeeze with all her might, hack apart every tube and wire, sever each digit and limb, the little girl in her grips started seeping goopish traces of clear liquid down her zipper hole and through the circular lenses concealing her eyes.

"Puh- Pleeeeeease!" A pathetic, pleading word squeaked past her contorted, misshapen lips.

Sayaka stop!

"Eh?" Sword ready but Madoka in mind, Sayaka afforded herself a moment's hesitation.

"They made me do it!" For the first time in an obvious while the little girl strained herself to lift her arm and form a shaky, pointing finger. It came to a rest atop its shoulder, the twitchy little finger tickling a ribbon cable that ran from the top of her spine to a slit in the chair's back. She leaned forward and revealed a long track of colored wires and fluid-filled plugs running down her back. Two of which started leaking after Sayaka picked her up by the throat.

Though the power to forge a photonic blade and disrupt heavy electronics was drained, Sayaka's instrument still had enough reserve energy to run a fast bioelectrical scan. "It's telling me there's a bulk data packet exchange. Set coordinates approximating somewhere in the neighborhood of Alpha Lyrae?"

"Thuh- Murah- Kami- Arrah," the poor little thing wheezed as if she were attempting to sob. "They control me with it." She rested her head on her other shoulder and uttered in a less pinched, shallow breath. "Made me do those bad things."

Sayaka Stop!

The bloodless coup would have been so much simpler. Zap the girl, walk away, let the deed's evidence fade into oblivion with the withering labyrinth. But in her hot blooded rush to avenge the crime done to Hitomi, had Sayaka been too hasty to pin the blame on a singular party? It would've hardly been the first time, the face of none other than her crush sprang first and foremost to mind. But with seconds to make a decision and reinforcements most assuredly en route, what else could be done for this sickened, saddening soul?

"I'll get you out of this."

"This isn't back the way we came!" Sana noted, sprinting a few scant steps behind Felicia, who was carrying Nemu fireman-style over her shoulders. It was a rescue technique she learned by tailing her original mentors Sasara Minagi and Asuka Tatsuki.

"I know!" Felicia flashed back to her very first magical girl lesson. Sage words from Sasara.

"Of course it's important to fight witches, however, if you find yourself in a place where the fate of other lives rests in your hands, you've gotta prioritize their needs first and foremost!"

"Thank you for coming all this way for me," Nemu expressed her sincerest gratitude. "I'm sorry I got you all into this crazy mess!" She apologized. She couldn't help but doing so, a form of fatalism born from the day her family physician gave a preliminary diagnosis to her symptoms. She apologized to her parents back then, too.

"Not your fault." They reached a junction. "One way or another we woulda been fighting these freaks eventually!" Her apology reminded Felicia of Kaede Akino, who was always saying 'sorry' at the weirdest moments too.

"When you find you're outnumbered and outgunned, there's no shame in runnin' or hidin'!" That advice came from her second mentor Momoko Togame. She was teaching it to Kaede and their other friend Rena Minami. Felicia sat the next booth over cheerfully chowing down on a chili dog. "At least then you'll be alive to laugh about it later!"

"Which way should we go?" Sana wondered. But the choice was up to Felicia, and it needed to be a snap decision.

"Uh, that way!" Felicia started down the rightward path.

"Any leader worthy of respect needs to be willing to do all the same things their frontline grunts do." Felicia once heard her third attempted commander, Nanaka Tokiwa say to her older lieutenant Meiyui Chun. "If that makes me the point man for this assault, so be it!" So Felicia tried to prove she had the leadership chops by charging into action first and hardest, every time.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" But she had to stop in her tracks upon hearing that ominous echo around the next corner.

"Ah, but a good leader should be just as prepared to scrub a plan whenever potential spoilers or wild cards occur too." She'd overheard Meiyui retort. Back then, in the heat of her bull charges Felicia couldn't have given a lick about whom or whatever Meiyui was referring to.

"Uhhhhh nevermind!" Felicia slammed her brakes and bolted down the opposite hall. "Let's try the other way!" But in this impulse the lesson was dawning on her.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!" But all that awaited beyond their leftward option was more of the same monotone chants and the clack-clacking of those creepy Cyber Spiders.

"Wha- What do we do?" Sana worried.

"I can buy us time!" Nemu materialized a textbook between her hands. "Here!" She opened it and hundreds of pages flew out in a whirlwind spiral. They pasted themselves together layer by layer paper mache style, until an exact replica of the same wall plugged the gap and separated them from their pursuers. She tossed the book down the other hall and the process repeated.

"Error!" The ploy worked. "Data insufficient. Initiating multispectral scans!" They were concealed, but now they had effectively trapped themselves until the moment the Cybermen got wise to their trick. Then they were as good as cooked.

"Now this might sound illogical or even crazy, but, when faced with a potential no-win situation, the weak will fight their way out, while the strong will think their way out!" Felicia heard the voice of her fourth and current master Yachiyo speaking in her head. "While the truest of warriors…. Us Ultimate Heroes… Don't believe in a no-win situation!"

Okay, so those words were from her favorite shonen character Kugo. But she figured they could have just as easily come out of Yachiyo's mouth too.

"Shhhhhhhhhh!" Felicia let Nemu down from her protected position and propped her under Sana's willing arm. "Stand back. Gonna need both hands for this." She slid her goggles over her eyes, forged her trademark hammer in her grips, closed her eyes and took a deep, calm, pensive, almost totally zen breath.

"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh- Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam!"

"Skrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" The witch's cry reverberated against its metallized confines so hard it caused a shockwave that pained Yachiyo's eardrums and sent her flying ride Mifuyu into an unexpected roll, knocking Yachiyo off.

"Waaaaooooh!" Yachiyo was spared from a long drop by Mifuyu's extended hand. "How much longer do we have to drag this out until she's pumped out all the gas we need?"

"According to my unit's readings the poo gas concentration is hovering at a teensy bit under sixteen percent." Mifuyu reported. "That'll have to do."

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"Phooey!" Mifuyu smacked her bulbous helmet upside the head which temporarily aborted the hijacking effort.

"Are you alright?" Yachiyo held on tight as her friend experienced more herky-jerky twitchiness in her secondary appendages.

"I'm fine, for the moment." Mifuyu hovered very gradually over to a spot safe from any countermeasures the Cybermen below could try physically. "But I sense each time they get a little bit closer to resetting me!" It was a point just above their precious power source, her witch.

"Which means we've got to end this Cyberman threat right here and right now!" Yachiyo prepared to dismount atop the witch's head and attempt to create a spark from the friction of its armor being struck at the right angle by her halberd blades.

"I agree." But before she could try Mifuyu took her by both hands and went into a whirling spin cycle.

"What are you-" Yachiyo's grip was slipping. "What are you-" Next thing she knew, she'd been flung through the air in an arc. "Unnnnf!" Where she landed in a very calculated way inside the safe enclosure of an open ventilation duct. "What are you doing?" Her grip on its edge slipped and she went for a long, vertical-angled slide.

"Guaranteeing not just your mission's success but your wish's endurance, Yachie!" Mifuyu shouted back. "I had this distinctive hunch that you'd stopped caring whether or not you made it out of this labyrinth alive, so I came out to say 'hi' and give you a happy little nudge." She explained. "And of course my face being Mifuyu's you were gullible enough to go along every step without question!"

"Why yooooooou!" Yachiyo was furious that she'd been had by another fake representation of her friend. Too furious to figure out how easy it would have been to arrest her slide with the stab of a halberd or two down the chute. Or perhaps not furious enough to want to deny herself this exit route. "Arrrrrrrggghh!"

"In my defense, how many magical girls in history have had the chance to put their own witch to final rest?" Mifuyu jested. "Admittedly I am but a humble recreation molded by bequeathed memories and shaped by a fundamental loyalty to Nemu's friends." From her squeeze at the shaft's bottom Yachiyo heard the echoing noise of clanging chains and felt a slow, building rumble at her toes. "But I want to believe underneath that patchwork code forms a soul of my own."

"Mifuyu!" Yachiyo banged and banged against the sheet metal like a toddler before realizing she could just use her blade as an oversized can opener. "Damnit Mifuyu! Don't run away from me again! Please!"

"Sorry!" Yachiyo freed herself in time to hear an apology. "Meeting you was every bit as thrilling for me as it was for her. But alas. All good things must end and such jazz." She heard the unnerving racket of heavy chains snapping, looked to the top of the arena and saw the witch that was once her companion being lifted towards the sky by the Cyberman powered and piloted by the girl's memories.

"Skrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!"

"I'd much prefer our farewell to be longer but the maximum allowed by this unit's self-destruct mechanism is ninety-nine seconds." The gigantic head rammed against the top of the arena, ringing out like the loudest gong in the Eastern Hemisphere.

"Alert! Alert!" The Cybermen stood there frozen and looking dumbfounded about what to do next, which allowed Yachiyo to sneak past them low and unchallenged. "Initiating automated reboot attempt! Aborted! Remodulating Meta Nexus Link Frequency! Connection denied! Accessing Bot-Slave BIOS backdoor! Blocked! Alert! Alert!"

"Go! Mifuyu lives so long as her hope endures inside your soul. And now so shall mine!"

"Mifuyuuuuuuuuuuu!" But Yachiyo's grieving cry was getting drowned by the quickly-building sound of constant buzzing. "The hell are you trying to do?"

"I'm letting her experience a moment of freedom before we blow!" Mifuyu's electronic ears were sensitive enough to pick up Yachiyo's question. "She deserves one." Yachiyo's, however, were flooded with too much pain and noise to hear her response. But she was confident in Yachiyo's ability to figure it out as she watched the young woman flee.

"Alert! Alert! Proto-biological lifeform containment failure!"

"Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!" Out from the cracks at the top and other tiny gaps her hummingbird-esque familiars took shape and swarmed. "Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz! Bzz!"

Sayaka pressed a button on her all-in-one sonic device and stuck it in a spot on the arm rest between a large and small tubule.

"If memory serves, this fluid is a powerful painkiller," Sayaka unhooked several of the wires and chips that were keeping the young girl bound to her throne. "A thousand times more potent than morphine." She dabbed the tip of her glove against a leaky portion of an attached plug in her spine, put it to her nose and sniffed. "Yup. Useful 'cuz it lacks any of that manufactured opiate's addictive drawbacks."

"Ish a shnea shail's deah-ly toshin." The little girl spoke like all her teeth had been pulled without anesthesia, robbing her somewhat of the ability to form more eloquent sentences aloud. "Climuh- Cullapsh ish guhnnah mahkeshem ehstinct shoon." A circulating air fan between her prepubescent breasts was doing one of the jobs her nose used to do.

"Don't count 'em dead as dodoes just yet." Sayaka got the gist of her words. She took delicate measures not to touch or disconnect her pain-suppressing implants until the proper moment to use her healing magic. "Humans will go pretty out of their way to save a species once they're shown to have a practical use." But she did unplug a battery pack that powered the micro-LEDs lining her eye sockets. "Whoopsie-Daisy. Sorry." She put the connector back in. "They even do it out of sentimental attachment too. Just look at what they do for pandas. Or dolphins. My faves."

"I lihk tuhtuhles." She joked with a weary but lucid attempt to work out her smile muscles. "Ah gots tah chanz tah calculahte teh finah diguhts uhf pi in heauh." She hopped topics as the talk of numbers with someone who'd understand filled her young artificial heart with a certain joie de vivre. Her enthusiasm was reflected in an audible clicking of hidden servos and a steady droning hum coming from the equipment behind her.

"Oh, pi? Pi is pie," Sayaka calmly quipped. "Literally circles all the way back to two nine five one four one three." Initial preparations made, she took the young girl's undersized hand with her gloved mitt and grabbed hold of a thick tube at the back of the seat with her gauntleted hand. "Some see that as a sign of an omniscient, transdimensional being at work out there." Sayaka closed her eyes. "My personal spiritual tutor tells me it's a sign of the universal appeal of sweet-tasting treats." When she opened them they took on a soft, golden glow.

"Wusch yoooah fahvrite numbah?" She mouthed out a query.

"Mine?" The golden glow coursed from her empathetic eyes down through her extremities. "Eight million, six hundred seventy-five thousand, three hundred and nine." the particulates congealed around her chest in such a way as to highlight the twin set of hearts beating at her core, before traveling to her palms and fingertips.

"Ah, nah jush uh prime numbah but a twin prime." She squealed with a girlish giddiness. "Alsho thuh hypotenuth of uh Pahthagoreahn tripuhl."

"Catchy number too," Sayaka winked. Seeing the little girl in such expressive awe of her healing magic truly touched her, but that genuine joy that came with doing a good thing for another was all too short. For her idle multitool alerted her to something amiss when its little flickering lights on the side blinked like a cable modem on the fritz.

00111110 00100000 01000001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101110 01100101 01101100 00100000 01001111 01101101 01100101 01100111 01100001 00101101 01000001 00101010 00001010 00111110 00100000 01000001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01010101 01101110 01101001 01110100 00111010 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00101101 00100000 00100111 01000011 01111001 01100010 01100101 01110010 00100000 01010010 01100101 01100111 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100111 00001010 00111110 00100000 01000001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01000010 01001001 01001111 00101101 01000010 01001001 01001111 01010011

"Ah wish aww guhnnah beh suuh pretteee," she lamented. "Figuhad auht puhpetuah muhshuhn ehnguhn. Duhsighned uh cold fuhshun genuhrahtuh." The nominal energy transfusion let her raise her head and tilt it gradually at Sayaka. "Eevuhn uhn Einshtuhn-Ruhsenbidge gatewuah."

"A lot of civilizations used to fax technical blueprints down to any less advanced world listening with radio tech." Sayaka explained. "A basic show of benevolence, passed around like a cosmic game of telephone." She elaborated, distracting her with small talk while furtively taking glances at her device. "A long-linking good deed chain that went on for countless generations, so long that everyone forgot who even began the ritual or how early in the universe it began."

00111110 00100000 01000001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100010 00101101 01000011 01100101 01101100 01101100 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110010 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110000 01100001 01101001 01110010 00100000 01000111 01100101 01101110 01100101 01110011 00001010 00111110 00100000 01001001 01101110 01110000 01110101 01110100 00100000 01010010 01101111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01100100 00111010 00100000 00001010 00110000 00110000 00110000 00100000 00111101 00100000 01001111 01000110 01000110 00001010 00111110 00100000 01000100 01101111 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110011 01110101 01110011 01100011 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000

"Then of course a lot of the not-so-nice races caught on to the act," Sayaka continued. "And started punching down at planets too ignorant to know what they were building before it was too late and out rolled the invasion force or kablooey went the planet bomb." She pumped the free-flowing energy up and down and all around her body, hoping her magic trick would keep her charge preoccupied for another few seconds.

"Hauw undauhanduhd!" The little girl shifted nervously in her seat. A tad too nervously.

"Yup yup. Sure enough, that got so bad the Shadow Proclamation had to step in and institute a ban on all sub-microwave interstellar broadcasts." Sayaka disclosed. "And that's why mankind is enduring their so-called Fermi Paradox. Cold, depressing silence all because the intergalactic equivalent of a cabinet bureaucracy decreed it so."

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"Buht Ah foundah loophool, uh supuhluhic spectruh thut thah huhman buhrain cuhn tahp intah duhrectlee." The little girl shared. "Actuhvatuhd wuhanevah uh gurl meets thuh Kyuubee faiaih." It was while making this point her implants alerted her that the generous trickle of energy Sayaka granted her had been cut off.

"Or when a gang of amateurishly reprogrammed nanogenes discover a dormant part of the brain, not only do they switch it on, they crank it into overdrive." Sayaka matter-of-factly expounded. "In theory, a mind wired like that could not just download troves of data by, say, linking itself to a vast infrastructure of radio telescopes, they could also, in principle, with an injection of extra juice, also dump a massive amount into an upload burst too." Sayaka uttered, shooting her with a stern but sorrowful gaze. "Up to and including their very virtualized soul."

Now it was but a matter of who was going to blink first.

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"Alert! Alert! Proto-biological lifeform containment failure!"

"Skrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!" On the third try Mifuyu and her witch finally managed to break out of their confinement. She let out one last, big downblast of smelly green gas, which summoned hordes upon hordes of flying familiars.

"Crap!" Yachiyo used her halberds to slice and dice another hole through the closed secondary blast door. She sprinted her way to the first door which already had a hole blown in, but a rush of flying familiars sent her into a duck and cover. Once they passed, she shot up and was about to step through again, when a quartet of fists reached through the foggy, billowing smoke on the other side.

"Delete! Delete! Delete!"

"You goddamned tin-plated brutes!" Yachiyo twirled her halberd in preparation to fight. "These are Mifuyu's final moments. Can't you 'effing leave her alone already?" Although her real plan was to draw them into a charge and do a flip and leap behind them. She was in no condition to tango.

"De-" But the moment they came through, a massive purple eruption tore a gigantic hole through the wall, knocking them over and burying them in the dust and rubble.

"Heeeeeeeeey!" Yachiyo heard a loud holler call out from across the newly-minted corridor. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey!" Painted in silhouette by the flashing emergency lights was a familiar pair with horns and a crown. "Ya' comin'?"

"Oh, thank goodness!" Yachiyo dashed towards them as fast as her injuries would let her. "You guys made it!" She wanted nothing more than to drop to her weary knees and hug them on the spot, but both the ticking time and seeing Felicia's living cargo made it infeasible. "And you succeeded!" Instead she basqued Felicia in the glory of a proud and grateful smile.

"Yeah of course we did!" Felicia offered up a fist bump opportunity to Sana, who reciprocated with an open-palmed tap. "She 'n' me are the bestest!" But they could not indulge in more than a moment of celebration, as they were getting flanked by even more Cybermen.

"Uh- Oh! Uh- Oh!" From her position atop her rescuer's shoulder Nemu cast a spell that patched the missing walls. Although they were little better than paper walls that were not going to take them more than a few moments to figure out how to break through.

"Ya' got any fight left in ya'?" Felicia asked of her mentor.

"Not enough." Yachiyo shook her head and wheezed. One follow up look at Sana made it clear just how little appetite for combat she still possessed as well.

"Okay, fiiiiiiiiine!" Felicia formed a hammer and infused it with an injection of her ample spirit energy. "Make us another way out then!"

"Uhm." With an upturned brow Yachiyo took the handle of the weapon. "Alright." She choked up, arched her back and wound her arms. "What the hay… Buh- Baaam!" The magical force of its preloaded discharge tore across four adjacent corridors.

"Nice! Let's go!" Felicia took the lead of the gang, second came Sana, while Yachiyo watched their rears.

"Mifuyu…" Yet before the final mad dash, Yachiyo needed to take one final look back, put her hand to her mouth and blow one last parting kiss. "Goodbye!"

"Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike!" The Cyber Regent catapulted to its feet and unloaded a massive heat beam from the concave metallic stalk mounted atop its skullcap.

Sayaka's hastily conjured sword and protective gauntlet did what they could to take on the blast. But the only thing more searing in her mind than the flesh-cooking heat and intense pain were those two restraining words.

Sayaka stop! Sayaka stop! Sayaka-

"Stop!"

The young Time Lady received a firm, but polite tap on her shoulder.

"Oooooooooooof!" Followed by a rocket-fast punch to the tummy. The Regent's offensive energy beam cut itself off as the two cyborgs stood face-to-face.

"Gamma!" The Cyber Regina initiated contact inside that black nebulous void using its former form of Touka Satomi. "I am so thankful you made it!" A spotlight with no origin point shed light on her short, preteen figure.

"You summoned me." The Cyberqueen in turn appeared in the form she once possessed as little as hours earlier, Hitomi Shizuki. But that may as well have been the different lifetime of a different being.

"I did, teehehee." Her creator giggled and clapped her fingertips together. "Unfortunately, I was unable to procure the invaluable source code that Nemu's artificial companion swiped from me. Fortunately, my mathematical genius will allow me to eventually craft a new functional Codex, one I can tailor entirely to my preferred specs." She stuck her arms out as if she were going for a ride on the light beam, but she only came up to her counterpart's eye level. "But to do it I will need to embed my persona's core within a high-powered burst transmission, which will be beamed into deep space, where it will be detected and saved by the Cyber Meta Nexus link indefinitely as a low priority adjunct Cyber Controller profile." She put her hands high and brought them down with a clear glass bottle with a cork at the top and a rolled down scroll inside. "Or to put that in simplest terminology, I am to become my own message in a bottle, tossed into the endless ocean of information that is the Cybermen's collective consciousness until the right time arrives for me to be discovered and opened." Assorted, organized points of light flickered into being around them. Stars, constellations, galaxies, all cataloged and classified in the Cyberqueen's database.

"How does your stated intention necessitate this unit's presence?" The Cyberqueen questioned, asking in as roundabout and monotone a way as possible so as to not betray her upgraded status.

"Silly Gamma!" The Cyber Regina wagged her finger as if the answer was obvious. "I would never be so inconsiderate as to thoughtlessly discard the singular unit who has proven to be by far my finest creation." She put the bottle to her eye and looked up with it as if to peer into a telescope. "But also for practical purposes. It is proven that even the most brilliant and tenacious human egos suffer the side effects of psychological atrophy and breakdown of identity, should it be long-term deprived of regular interaction with a social companion. And considering the timescale involved, I concede that my plans may take centuries or even millennia to fully implement, Thus I calculate it a near-certainty that I am in urgent need of such an ally." She stuck out her hand and floated closer. "All of which is to say, I wish to bring a bestie on my journey, one who can in turn function at my side once I re-emerge as the Collective's next Cyberqueen." She floated up a little higher and extended the hand.

"I understand." The Cyberqueen stared at the outstretched hand with a deliberately vacant expression. "Your wish is to bring this unit along with you." She sensed a hard-thumping, load-bearing sloshing within her chest. Was it the phantom beating of an excised organ? Or was her soul guiding her calculations? "Your plan contains a critical error. This unit's internal essence cannot be digitized and transmitted in a way that sufficiently preserves its operational parameters."

"I can back up and upload all your personal experiences since first activation, to do so would take exactly zero point six-eight seconds real time." The Cyber Regina stated. "The rest is standard Cyber Slave code and can be more than supplemented by our race's boundless, eon-spanning database." The Regent was either unwilling or unable to give her assertion any consideration. "I could have so much fun building a better you without the redundant and irrelevant rest.."

"I understand." She repeated, reaching for the hand while her glare subtly went from impassive to displeased. "But if the process is so simple, why would you seek my overt compliance?"

"I was merely verbalizing a token gesture of formality, as friends do." The Regent said, taking the hand while failing to sense the shift. "That is all." The Regent tugged, showcasing an undeniable enthusiasm towards leaving the confines of her mortal coil. "Now come quickly! The combination of my stalling tactic and your action has afforded us those precious extra seconds necessary to ensure our contingency's success."

"What of Iroha Tamaki?" She inquired, scoping out how close the upload was to being finished on an encrypted subchannel.

"No longer relevant." Not only was she wilfully blind to her subordinate's concerns she was becoming deaf, too.

"What of the 'Homo Magica'?" She pressed. "What of this 'Homo Magicai?" She said of the gut-punched girl recovering on the floor.

"We have learned all we need from Nemu. The others save for that one are irrelevant." The Cyber Regina's image flickered to a red-tinged matrix of ones and zeroes, an induced glitch that betrayed the upload progress at eighty-nine percent. "Her, I fully intend to analyze in due course, but here I lack the time and the resources to contain and dissect." It assessed, adding, "But I have a notion that suggests this will not be the last time she presents herself as a problem to our kind." It passed ninety percent.

"I understand." She uttered more softly the third time, her decision made and intentions inalterable, but finding the will to act was proving much more difficult when she was not adhering to a programmed routine. "Analysis of behavioral patterns established. The Cyber Regent selects friends based upon their usefulness." Her other hand curled into a shaking fist. The upload was at ninety-two percent. "The Cyber Regent does not seek their consent upon selection, nevertheless demands total fealty, and is not adverse to overriding their autonomy should they demonstrate any sign of dissent." Then ninety-four percent. "They are subsequently discarded once they have outlasted their utility."

"Gamma?" Back in the real world, The Regent's no-longer blinking eyes watched its creation raise its arm and extend its gun barrel. "You are behaving contrary to your primary directives. Cease this illegal operation at once or face permanent deactivation." It could do nothing else in the sheer surprise of this rebellion besides prove her point.

"Conclusion," she declared aloud. "The Cyber Regent is a bad friend." She locked in her targeting systems. The upload was just four percent from completion.

"Hitomi don't!" The young Time Lady observer staggered back to her feet after less than two point three one seconds had transpired in the conversation between the cyborgs. "There's a kill switch designed to prevent you from turning on her. If you do this, you're gonna- "

"Delete!" She blasted once with full force. "Delete!" She blasted twice. "Deleeeeete!" The third blast blew a hole through the Cyber Regent's emotional inhibitor chip.

"Auuuuuuuuuughhh!" The Cyber Regent collapsed into a bloody heap on her technological throne. The upload was ninety-seven percent complete.

The Cyberqueen in turn fell to her knees, then collapsed to her right side. "Power failuuuuuuuurrrrre…"

The young Time Lady was forced to choose which victim to attend to. Of course being Sayaka Miki, her was a choice made out of love. "Hitomiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"

KAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Mifuyu and her witch blew and ignited the combustible gasses below. A tremorous explosion rocked the lair, sending sparks flying from all the electronic transmission lines and the life support equipment.

"Guh- Aaaaaaaaackkkkkkkk! Aaaaaahhhhckkkkk!" The little Cyber Regent choked in a pool of blood and pain reducing fluids filling her rump insides. "Doctuaaaah!" She moaned. "Are you thereeeeeeuuuah?I- Ah caaaaahhn't see youuuuuuuuuuahhh! Guuuuuurrrrrgle!"

"Hitomi!" Sayaka scanned the unmoving Cyberman with her sonic tool. "C'moooon! Wake up! Please wake up!" She picked her friend up by the chest and dragged her off, leaving the fatally wounded Cyber Regent alone to wallow in agony.

"Doctuaaaaaaaaah! Ahhhhhhhm scaaaaaaahhrd!"

"Input failure!" The rest of her army dropped on the spot. "Systems failure!" Their robotic echoes rang across the slowly-dissolving walls of their base. "Power failurrrrrreeee…"

"Hey, what's goin' on with them?" Felicia ran with Nemu in tow.

"They're crashing like a bunch of overloading walking computers!" Yachiyo was a step and a half behind with Sana in hand. "Which means-"

"They're dying!" Sana made sympathetic eye contact with a paralyzed unit in passing. Then she set her empathetic gaze on Nemu. "Which means-"

"Touka's gone!" Nemu finished, trying her best to be a big girl and not cry, but failing.

"Doct- Uhhhaaaaaaaahhhck!" Touka Satomi gagged. "Wiul ah stuhll buh muh whun ah wahk uhhhhhp?" Her skin having been replaced by a full-sized bodysuit, she was unable to feel the inward rush of air purging away all she had built to fortify herself and her ambitions. "Doct- Auuuuuuuggggghhhaaack!"

"Heeeeeeey!" Someone wandering the disintegrating hallways caught Felicia's attention. "Thehellaya doin' outta that flying vending machine-thingy?"

"I'm sorry!" Iroha Tamaki apologized and came sprinting towards them. "I heard that loud bang and I couldn't take waiting anymore!" Her rush of confusion and impulsivity were alleviated by the sight of Nemu alive, but wet in tears. Felicia stopped and planted Nemu on her feet, but in her grief she fell into Iroha's arms. "Nemu! Nemu! It's okay, I'm here for you!" They were now outside the inward collapsing labyrinth, its fading light spotlighting the pair's long overdue reunion. "Like I should've been back then!"

"I knowwwwww," Nemu sniffed. "I'm weeping because nobody's going to be there for Touka!"

"Guuugghhh- Ahhhggcck! Guuurrrrrrgle!" There she laid in her death throes, her pitiful form melting away with the final traces of her fleeting empire. "Suh- Suh- Suh- Suhhrrreeeee!" The final light in her short life consisted of a blue screen over her artificial viewfield, with a six word text her brain was too oxygen-starved and fried to read.

-| q8.1s0 pErC3иt Upl0aDeD |-

-| TrAи5^^iSS10n eN R0Ut3 |-

Chapter Text

"Decagon Ball World Adventure The Board Game?" Felicia gushed over her latest housewarming gift. "Thanks! I love it!"

"And Sana is…" Yuma Chitose squinted at the bean bag chair with the vaguely body-shaped indentation sitting next to Felicia. "Right there?" She could see Felicia's doe-eyed 'Snuggle Me Snaa' plushie hovering above the cushioning but no matter how much she concentrated her brain simply could not construct an image of the apparition holding it. "Yeah?" Like those Magic Eye pictures the more she tried to bring something into focus, the more sore her eyes got until she looked elsewhere.

"Yes," Yachiyo planted her arms atop Yuma's shoulders and shuffled her to a place beside them at her coffee table. The combination of Yuma's shyness and Sana's imperceptibility to nonmagical folk meant the two had not yet made any formal interaction. "It's okay. Those in this household need not fear nor hide from a fellow resident."

"I got dibs on Kugo!" Felicia eagerly unboxed and unfolded the game board. "Which one of ya' wants to be Brillin?" She cherry picked her player totem and its sidekick.

"I can be Brillin I guess," Yuma offered.

"Sana called Brillin same time you did." Felicia told her.

"Oh." Yuma retracted and buried her hand under her legs. "I can be someone else too." The doll floated over and tapped its bulbous chin on Yuma's wrist. Sana was using it to try communicating, but with nothing else to give context Yuma could only give it the same befuddled blinks as a young owner of a mischievous kitty.

"Nemu," Yachiyo came over to the little lady huddled in her seat staring out the window. "Would you like to join in on their new game?" Nemu did not answer. In fact, she spoke nary a word to anybody besides Iroha after her rescue. Instead she used a blue notepad to express her sentiments, all via haiku.

"Ya' could play as Album." Felicia suggested. "Album Corves their team's super genius tech tech designer! Is that cool with you?"

Yuma examined the shiny little game piece's high boots, pullover sweater and ponytail. "Depends. Can I call her Kyoko?"

"I shall indulge not," Yachiyo read Nemu's reply. "For my penance persists on." She was in the middle of writing out her third line when the growling of her stomach communicated her true underlying desire.

"Geeeez," Felicia heard it rumble clear across the room. "My tummy only gets that loud when I haven't had meat in days!"

"No worries," Yachiyo assured her kids. "That Pizza Cat I ordered should be delivered in a half hour or less." A few ticks after saying that came a double ring of her doorbell. "Or perhaps already?" She checked the time then hustled to the front door.

"How do you win the game?" Yuma inquired.

"By bein' the last one standin' with the Decagon Balls." Felicia stated.

"Mitama?" Before Yachiyo could say another word The Coordinator shushed her with a finger tap to Yachiyo's lip.

"Before you speak another word regarding the events that happened during Tsuruno's treatment and recovery, and regardless of whatever transpires next." Mitama leaned close and cupped Yachiyo's ear. "I need you to do one teensy thing: Just shut up and take the win." She whispered in a somewhat cutesy, altogether suspicious, hush-hush sort of way. "Mmmmm'kay?"

"Ohhhhkaay." Yachiyo nodded once. The Coordinator stepped aside and through the front gates strode a hale and hearty Tsuruno Yui beaming with her trademark smile.

"Tsuruno!" Yachiyo's guard was down. "Oh, thankgoodnessyou're-"

"Ka- Pow!" Tsuruno tossed her a mighty punch to the face.

"Owwwwwwch! The next thing she knew she was down on the floor seeing stars.

"That's for not telling me what became of Mel sooner!" Tsuruno scolded. As Yachiyo gingerly cradled her nose, spun around and stood back up. Unfortunately, the first image to come back into focus was another fist.

"Ooooooooch!" Right back down to the 'Welcome' mat she bounced. "And what was that for?"

"For making me miss my modeling appointment!" Tsuruno complained. "I could've been catching my big break today instead of here punching you!"

"If we're supposed to use cards to move, then why are there dice too?" Yuma and the gang in the den remained blissfully unaware of the physical tiff going down in the entry room. And Mitama had come in bringing edible gifts to keep them all nice and distracted.

"Those are for all the duels, mini-games and chance spaces," Felicia stuck her finger on an octagonal space containing a question mark. "Like these. See?"

"Now how many of you lovely little darlings would like to snack on some scrumptious gingerbread cookies?" Mitama asked in a playful, sing-songy tune. She unzipped her purse and pulled out a clear plastic bag full of homemade treats.

"Yay! I like gingerbread!" Yuma accepted, not noticing Felicia's rather disgusted reaction. Nemu, in contrast did not react to the offer, staring outwards in self-reflective silence. Their invisible visitor in turn took two cookies for herself.

"Careful," Felicia crossed her arms. "You'll spoil dinner." She warned with an uncharacteristic sternness. "Plus this chick likes to stuff snacks and goodies with secret surprise ingredients. Like jalapeno salt. Or sawdust."

"I'll have you know my dearest sister happened to be the one who made these fine confectionery sweets." The Coordinator brushed off Felicia's criticism with mild offense. "She's just starting her Home-Ec courses this Semester." Yuma watched the floating food next to her get broken into halves before one section disappeared into seeming thin air. Both reassurance and her cue to take a bite came when the second half vanished and the plushie turned to her and bobbed its head.

"Uuuuuuuuuhhhnf!" Meters away, Yachiyo was felled yet again by a third pop to the face. "Nnnnnnngh," she sniffed. "And that was for what?"

"I don't know!" Tsuruno admitted. "Mel and Kanae's ghosts?" She studied the pain she'd imparted on her former master's photogenic mug. While she hadn't yet reached a point of drawing blood, her face was plenty red and her eyes starting to water. "Hey are you crying?"

"From the sting, yeah!" Yachiyo grunted. "Even when wearing a double-padded glove, your fist packs a helluva wallop!"

"Yeah, well…" Tsuruno undid the velcro on her boxing glove and discarded it beside her shoes. "I thought it was gonna take more than three hits to make you cry. I guess I overestimated you." She dropped all pretenses of bad blood and helped her friend get back to her feet.

"I suppose you did." Yachiyo agreed. "Is it out of your system yet?"

"That depends," Tsuruno answered. "Could you cry a little more?"

"Oh, I'm crying plenty," Yachiyo conceded. "More because I'm happy to see you hale and hearty again!" She embraced Tsuruno in a hug. "Okay?"

"No- No- I'm not okay!" Tsuruno wiped her eyes and sniffed her nose. "I'm not okay, okay?" She pulled herself back a little from Yachio's grips. "I'm fed up, constantly being the mightiest! I've had it, with pushing myself to the limits! I'm done, trying to be everything to everyone!" Yachiyo could hear the snot dripping and wanted to offer her friend a handkerchief, but all she had on hand were dirty clothes. "I can't be all the things that you are to people. Nor do I wanna be."

"You've proven how capable you are in a million other ways," Yachiyo fished out a sock from the laundry hamper and gave it over. Tsuruno grabbed it and blew away. "I am hardly any metric by which any magical girl should measure themselves." Then Yachiyo dabbed away the water pooling around her own achy eye sockets. "All anyone can ever strive to be is the best version of themselves."

"And I get what you were trying to do in there," Tsuruno added. "You realized that the only way for us to defeat your mutant shadow was for me to finally let myself step out from behind your metaphorical shadow, right?"

"Uhm, yeeeahhh." In the corner of her eye Yachiyo caught the Coordinator checking in. It did not take a very experienced lip reader to know the specific words she was slowly and deliberately mouthing were 'Shut up. And take. The win.' "To be honest, the more time passes, the more I'm having trouble recalling precisely what went down in there." She improvised. "Once you lose control inside a lucid dream, the more it registers in one's memories like a regular dream." Her fib earned her a flash of two raised thumbs and a cheery 'Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!' from their onlooker. "What I learned was I should never again attempt such experiments in the dreamscape without consulting someone who possesses a far better grasp of the psychology of it all first."

"Yachiyo!" Felicia called from the den. "Yachiyooooooo!" Yuma joined in. "Yachiyooooooo!" Sana made it a full chorus.

"Did I miss something?" Tsuruno was finally released form their hug and took notice of the minors minding their game in the next room. "When did you turn Mikazuki into a daycare?"

"Oh. You know I always try to keep a vacancy or two open for whatever wayward youth I see wandering town." Yachiyo sidestepped the question with an anti-joke. "Do you girls want something?"

"We still need a fourth player." Felicia shuffled the game cards overhand style. "Want in?"

"Say, is that Decagon Ball World Adventure?" Tsuruno noticed the board splayed out on the coffee table. "Can I join?"

"Ya' wanna play as Master Joeshi?" Felicia presented the character token.

"Do I?" And with that proposal Tsuruno discarded all skeptical thoughts. "Deal me in!" The doorbell rang a second time.

"I've seen plenty of matching dreary dispositions to that face of yours before." Mitama did not bother to introduce herself to Nemu beyond a short show of her Soul Gem ring. "You've lost someone precious and you're going through all those patented grief stages, yes?"

"Can you hold on just one second?" Yachiyo yelled at what she presumed to be her pizza delivery. "I have a coupon ready for the breadsticks." She found it serving as a bookmark in one of her fashion magazines. "Got it!" She tore it off along the perforated seams as she hustled for the door. "You're not Pizza Cat, are you?" The young teen in the bun-bunched hairdo and unfamiliar school attire silently shook her head.

"I have an urgent message from the Takarazaki City Clan leader, to be distributed amongst the leaders of the Kamihama teams ASAP." The girl gave a nervous salute before dipping into her plain, black dispatch case and removing six identical wax sealed brown envelopes. "These contents are eyes-only classified."

"You don't need to salute." Yachiyo tried to put her at ease. "And I'm sure there's nothing in here so important it couldn't be delivered by the regular mail service."

"I- I uhm, I volunteered, Ma'am." She tugged on and straightened her shirt and did her best to flatten a wrinkle. "Besides, Konoha believes she cannot trust any public services at the moment."

"Went wishing in sin." The Coordinator read Nemu's Haiku. "Paid its due, three lives over." Her voice lowered as her plight sank in. "Acceptance comes when?"

"I see." Yachiyo replied. "Still, you've come quite a long way. I wouldn't feel right not to compensate you with something before leaving. Would you like to come in and have a can of chilled coffee?"

"That's alright," she declined, pivoting around. "I have other places to message before I return." But as they faced their parting of their ways, they heard a vehicle pull up, followed by a low, soft squeak of Yachiyo's Villa front gate's hinges.

"It's an inalterable fact that every magical girl's wish eventually sees the karmic seas rising against them." An empathetic Mtama shared. "Still, it never seems fair how some of us have to navigate stormier waters than others." She lightly stroked through the young girl's light brown hair. "Shhhhh… I too once made a wish I just as quickly came to curse." She disclosed in a confidential whisper. "I managed to find a way to cope by merging the phases of bargaining and acceptance into a most clever, charming, and charitable little business model that tries to be as handy as I can for my clientele."

"You?" Iroha pointed at the young lady.

"You?" The girl pointed right back.

"You?" Yachiyo pointed at the new arrival. "And you? Know each other?"

"No." The messenger said. "Not really."

"We just met." Iroha mumbled.

"Short time ago." The other girl finished.

"Late at night." Iroha tersely detailed.

"You wouldn't believe how." The other girl anxiously massaged a lingering sore spot around the base of her lower back. "I kinda don't believe how!"

"And you wouldn't believe the things I've gained the capacity to believe." Yachiyo shared, closing her front gate and politely nudging them by the backs to her front door. "Particularly in light of recent twists. Come on in. I'll hear it."

"C'mon…" Tsuruno reached for the remaining cards held by the phantom hands nestled between Felicia and Yuma. "Gimme a six! Gimme a six!" She fingered her selection, yanked and swiped a four. "Darnit!"

"Minion battle!" Loremaster Felicia announced. "Gotta roll at least a six or else you'll lose a turn!" She plopped a pair of dice into a plastic barrel and shoved it across the coffee table."

"No problem!" Tsuruno first gave her dice a trembling soda can shake, then upping the force to maracas level, before finally giving her all with both hands and bouncing the dice onto the table. "Six exactly!" She announced her roll with triumphant aplomb.

"Master Joeshi gets a bonus errgh-szats Forcegem for use in movement or battle." Felicia read from the instruction booklet, mispronouncing a word but no one cared. "Your turn, Album."

"Kyoko." Yuma corrected.

"Yeahfine, whatever," Felicia eye-rolled. "Yer gonna need a three to reach the first Decagonball." As luck would have it, Yuma was dealt a pair of threes, so she let the first one drop to the board, and moved her avatar. "Alright, now ya' gotta face the first temple guardian!" Felicia picked up a red twelve-sided die and loaded it into a barrel. "Rock, paper, scissors rules. Ya' gotta beat the roll I hit or else ya' don't get the first Decagonball. No ties allowed!" She shook it around while she spoke the rules then overturned it. "An eight!" She declared. "Beat that!"

"Eleven!" Yuma totaled together a six and a five. "I win, right?"

"Ya've captured the first Decagon Ball." Felicia handed her a golf ball-sized see-thru trinket with a seven pointed star suspended inside its glossy red sheen. "Now those can be stolen away in duels so ya' protect it as best ya' can!"

"Congratulations!" Tsuruno reached across and patted her shoulder. "Oh, uh, Sana wants to give you a high-five also." Yuma opened her palm and sensed a faint, but pleasant tickle.

"So it first sought her and wound up fighting you, is that the gist?" Yachiyo recapped, fetching some glasses and ice to serve some drinks for her latest guests. "Miss Kuroe?"

"Yes." Kuroe sat at the dining room table twiddling her thumbs, unsure of what she should say or do next. "I haven't told my group leader anything about it yet. I think she's got enough problems on her plate as it is."

"That, you're probably not wrong about. Best we keep this a privileged secret exclusive amongst ourselves for now, okay?" Yachiyo handed them their cups and opened her fridge. "I have that coffee, lemonade, orange juice, sweet tea and some purple stuff I believe is water Felicia laced with some sugary grape powder from America."

"Lemonade's fine." Kuroe held out her glass. Iroha did the same, signaling she was okay with lemonade as well. She stared at Iroha for a few seconds as Yachiyo poured, hoping the girl would say something or ask a question that would make this awkward toast a little less tense. "Oh! Almost forgot!" But she remembered she also had a verbal message to deliver. "Uhm," she rolled up the sleeve on her overcoat so she could read what she'd transcribed to her skin. "Konoha also says she's now in favor of Nanaka Tokiwa's idea of splitting the head magical girl role in two, between a ceremonial and executive leader where one temporarily assumes the role of both during a crisis or should the other become incapacitated." She squinted at the sub note, her ability to read western text was competent but not very practiced. "She also has two suggestions for their names: 'Puella Supremis' and 'Regina Magica'." She had one last note to add. "But her support is conditional on either you or that Mitakiharan girl being one of the two."

"What is it with alleged smart people and making words with that silly dead language anyway?" Yachiyo snuck a sip of Felicia's drink while putting the lemonade away. "Fine. Tell her I'll stand for the ceremonial gig."

"How's Nemu?" Iroha spoke up, cutting to the reason she came.

"In need of a friendly familiar face right now," Yachiyo answered. "Which I was going to provide by taking her home soon."

"I can do that. If you want me to." Iroha proffered. "I always promised her I was going to meet her parents one day anyway." She put on a smile Kuroe knew was forced as she'd seen the same one numerous times in the mirror. "At least now she'll be with me meeting them."

"I appreciate it." Yachiyo accepted. With impeccable timing, her front doorbell rang a third time. "Must be the pizza. Nemu's in the den if you think you could do something that might cheer her up."

"Hello." A middle-aged man in a suit removed his hat and bowed to Yachiyo. From his clean-shaven face, formal posture, well-pressed attire and the size of his limousine Yachiyo could tell his business was the business of running businesses.

"Boy, that pizza's sure taking its sweet time getting here." Yachiyo irreverently quipped, peeking out the door frame and checking down the road.

"Actually," the man open-hand gestured towards his long, black ride. "Your pizza order is sitting all bundled and warm inside my car." His chauffeur circled around the vehicle and opened the side door. He reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small, decorated, gift-wrapped box.

Yachiyo gulped. "Ohgolly."

"How have you been feeling, Nemu?" Iroha politely approached her younger friend. Kuroe decided to blend in with a piece of furniture parked next to Yachiyo's television set, looming between their board game and the reunited pair at the window, her passive ear drifting between conversations.

"The outside beckons." Mitama read Nemu's first line. "Stricken by loss, I am numb. How does Big Sis cope?" Kuroe conscientiously leaned her body towards the game. She didn't want to unintentionally snoop on something so sad sounding and intimate.

"Look." It wasn't Yachiyo's first time rejecting left field gifts and romantic overtures. "I'm flattered to attract every single fan I have, but-"

"Oh nonononoooo!" The man interrupted her. "You misunderstand. Believe me, this is just as odd and awkward for myself as I'm sure it is for you!" His chauffeur made his way past the two carrying an extra pizza and some breadsticks making nary a noise going past. "Allow me to explain."

"That's the 'X' card," Felicia announced. "Ya' can either move seven spaces, roll for a shot at moving extra, or use Brillin's special movement ability."

"I'll use his special move." Sana decided quickly.

"Are you sure?" Tsuruno questioned. "The nearest safety space only moves you five spaces up." Sana and her puppet plushie nodded as if she'd already given her decision a prudent level of forethought.

Watching them at play reminded Kuroe of the one time she received a murder mystery game as a birthday present. Her folks intended the thing to be a bonding experience between her sister and two brothers, but Kuroe never managed to entice them to sit down and play together. It wasn't a total waste, as it did spark Kuroe's initial interest in rule learning and note keeping.

"Back during a decade that someone around your age would call 'retro', I was an up-and-comer in the recording industry." The man recounted. "That was, until the day my fiancé died of a sudden brain hemorrhage."

"I'm so sorry for your loss." Yachiyo expressed condolences.

"Thank you," he returned an appreciative smile. "She was my rock." He kicked a stray pebble with his back foot. "I was inconsolable and adrift for quite some time afterwards. Doing my job but not getting any joy from it. I was about to quit altogether, until one day this very queerly-dressed little lady came strolling in for an audition." The chauffeur turned and stood loyally behind him for a few moments until the man signaled he could return to the car. "Funny thing was, we weren't even looking for new talent. But this girl had this way with persuasion that I swear could sell a free meat popsicle to the strictest vegan. You get what I mean?"

"I've got the picture of a frozen corn dog stuck in my head." Yachiyo digressed. "But I can imagine the rest. But what do you mean when you say 'queerly dressed'?"

"... Think I'm forgetting a detail I look for another photograph." Kuroe overheard Iroha say. "But most of our physical photos are from her as a baby. So I've been trying to learn how to use the photo software on our family's computer, so I can print all the images I took of you guys." Kuroe couldn't remember the last time she'd posed for a photo with her siblings. For no other reason than her gloomy, unshakeable belief that they were naturally photogenic and she just wasn't.

"Well I've seen would-be idols dress as schoolgirls, other wannabes try out in popular cosplay while the real desperate do it donning as much make-up as a human face can endure." The man recalled. "But she was the first and only person I've seen trying to sing and dance while zipped up in some sort of a shined-up, skin-tight-lookin' SCUBA suit." He itched the side of his forehead. "Eh, but that's not the important part." He presented her with the gift-wrapped special box.

"Uh, thanks?" The logical cogs and gears her head turned as she inspected the box.

"Here you go!" Tsuruno opened the game's money tray and handed Sana two hundred DecaBucks.

"Whaddaya doin'?" Felicia groused.

"I'm giving her two hundred for landing on a free space!" Tsuruno told her.

"But that's not in the rules!" Felicia argued.

"Is too." Tsuruno retorted. "It's done 'til all the Decagon Balls are handed out and the dueling starts."

"Is not!" Felicia steamed, flipping through the rulebook pages. "It's not in here, I'm tellin' ya'!" The two other players watched them bicker with growing concern and dismay. Their pedantic argument sucked all fun straight out of the den.

"I humored her for as long as my mood at the time would let me, thanked her for auditioning, and wished her luck, but," the man at the door struggled a bit to make logical sense of the rest of his encounter. "I found her later that night waiting up in my high rise, no clue how she got in there, same shiny suit and all." He paused. "You gotta understand, it's been decades, and back then I'd been drowning my pain and ennui away inside bottles of saké , so I'm a little hard-pressed to recall everything that went down between us two."

"So long as none of it involves any explicit escapades in the bedroom, I'm still listening." Yachiyo cracked.

"Heh!" He chuckled. "No. Nothing like that." He noticed the wood-engraved familial name plate hanging above Yachiyo's door frame. "Okamura. Any relation to that iconic idol Aki from back in the day?" He diverged with a personal inquiry, a bit to Yachiyo's ire.

"Excuse me," Kuroe didn't know why she was butting into their sibling-esque spat. "I can look over the rules while you keep playing. If it's not in there, she can just return the cash on another turn. No harm no foul."

Tsuruno and Felicia each gave her a surprised glance, as this was the first either had noticed or seen her. Then they exchanged glares with one another, followed by shrugs. "Fine!"

"She's my mother." Yachiyo reluctantly acknowledged.

"I knew it!" The man laughed and slapped his raised knee. "You're that pretty little lady she and her agent beau brought to our label's contract renegotiation on Millennium's Eve, aren't you?"

"Can't say I remember it." Yachiyo responded. "I was a little too little."

"Hey, it's only stuck with me because you snuck underneath the boardroom table and tied my shoelaces together without anybody noticing!" His chuckle amped to a nostalgic cackling. "You Lil' Shoelace Ninja!"

"Sorry." Yachiyo hid a blush behind a facepalm. "I once had a mischievous steak."

"Psht, don't worry about it."

"My parents are renting out Ui and mine's old bedroom," Iroha kept trying to engage Nemu. "But to be honest, I think if I'm ever going to have any hope of moving on, I have to move out and live someplace else. Somewhere far from Takarazaki City."

"I know of some rent-controlled apartment complexes in Daito Ward," The Coordinator offered. "There's little charm in the views and even less to the neighborhood, but I find that you can't start to appreciate the things you've still got in life until you willfully strip yourself down to the barest essentials."

"Anyway, where was I?" The man backtracked. "Oh, yeah, that girl that night. I don't even remember her name. Just that she gave me exactly the verbal kick to the groin I needed to clean up my act and see life's blue skies again." He reminisced. "More than that, I remember her admiring my personal instrument collection, and in the strangest stroke of sheer luck she picked up my fiancé's old acoustic guitar, which I hadn't touched since she passed, played a few strings, noticed it didn't reverberate quite right, then found a tape stashed inside the body." He sniffed, almost moved to tears by the bittersweet joy of the incident. "Dated hardly twenty-four hours before she-" He stumbled over his words, and cleared his throat. "Urhgh. It turned out to contain a special love song she recorded and mastered just for me!"

"There's no rule here that forbids awarding extra money to players who land on protected spaces," Kuroe told the game players. "It just doesn't tell you what those spare spaces are supposed to be used for. Which I think means they're just there for sanctuary."

"See?" Felicia smirked. "Toldya'!" She gestured towards ripping the fake cash straight from Sana's lap.

"But it also encourages more experienced players to keep things fair and not eliminate struggling opponents from the game until the dueling starts." Kuroe recited. "So there's that."

"It's everybody's first time playing, Felicia." Tsuruno reminded her. "You don't wanna cause her to hate your game and not wanna play it with you ever again, do you?"

"Guess not." Felicia relented. "Fine. Keep your extra DecaBucks."

"So are you gifting me your tape?" Yachiyo guessed.

"No," the man shrugged. "I actually don't know what's in it!"

"If Big Sis seeks change," Nemu kept to her haiku-styled prose with Mitama reading aloud. "My parents own a cabin." The thirteen year-old proposed. "Come heal with me there?"

"I'm thankful you've given me such options," Iroha expressed gratitude to them both. "But I'd like some time to think it over."

"I was so ecstatic to hear my Reika's voice singing again that I offered that girl a contract on the spot." He recalled. "But she turned me down. I was bewildered, needless to say!" He threw his hands up in resigned confusion. "The only thing SCUBA Girl wanted in return was this one, strange, solitary favor. That I deliver that box on this day to this address. So here I stand, two dozen years later."

"I see..." Yachiyo shook the box up to her ear then checked on her delivery. "And the pizzas?"

"Well I bailed on the music industry seven years ago." The man disclosed. "Thought I'd broaden my horizons, carve a niche in the restaurant world." He grinned, turned his body and shuffled off to his limo. "One Pizza Cat delivery, with the works added breadsticks. On the house, courtesy the CEO." He saluted and waved as he climbed inside his vehicle. "You take care now!"

"You too." Yachiyo muttered back, closing the door and unwrapping her boxed gift. "A ring?" Tucked underneath the golden ring's embedding was an additional note. Yachiyo tweezed it out between her fingers and read it in a whispered breath. "Sorry to leave you all so suddenly. Seemed like you weren't stuck in too much of a lurch. Hope this gift finds you well. It counters her perceptual obfuscation magic. Least I can do. Thanks. Sincerely," Yachiyo paused. The paper ran out of space on one side, so she flipped it over. "S.M." Doodled beside it was a 'C'-shaped crescent and a cutesy 'Shhhhh!' face.

"A thirteen!" Tsuruno cheered Sana's dice roll. "Woo- Hoo! You got the second Decagon Ball!" Yuma wanted to return the earlier high-five but had no idea where to place her palm.

"Sana," Yachiyo urgently intruded on their play session. "Will you please give me your hand for one second?"

"Oooooooo!" Before Yuma's big, bright eyes the light around her warped. Around the ring emerged a pale, solid fleshy finger, followed by the rest of her hand. The effect glistened up her arm to her violet school shirt sleeve, across her chest, then down the rest of her body, finally coalescing around her hair and face like an angel's visage in a sunbeam. "Pretty!"

"Sana!" Her visible-to-all revelation caught Iroha and everyone else's surprise.

"You- You can see me?" Sana stood to her feet and gasped. "Can you see me too?" She asked Yuma, who answered with a bobble-headed, open-mouthed nod. "And I-" Sana's head spun around and around looking for the nearest reflective surface. "I- I- I-" She dashed up to a mirror hanging on the wall. "I- I-" She teared up at the sight of her own reflection, the first time in what felt like ages she was seeing it, and the first time ever she wasn't ashamed of it.

"Blue Streak magical girl," Yachiyo muttered. "You're completely outta this world." She concluded, watching Yuma, Iroha, Tsuruno and even Felicia getting up and each offering the visible girl their own version of a warm, friendship-sealing embrace. An abnormal whim made Yachiyo turn on her mobile phone and open the photo taking app. When was the last time she ever used that feature? According to the file gallery, the last photos were dated to more than a year ago, on a quiet sunny day when she snapped in situ photos of Mel in a nap, Kanae practicing guitar, Momoko and Tsuruno playing 'Go Fish' and Mifuyu in the kitchen parsing over a book of baking tips. "Hey Mitama," she beckoned The Coordinator.

"What is it?"

"Snap some photos." She commanded like a patriarch. "I need to be a part of this moment before it ends."

"I can't in good conscience remain as but a mere witness to such schmaltziness," Mitama rejected the task thrust upon her. "Nope. For I must partake in your moment of zen too!" She sighted the girl by the television who otherwise seemed content to blend in with the wallpaper. "You!"

"Me?" Kuroe squeaked.

"There's a thousand Yen in it for you" She pulled Kuroe along by the hand, sat her down beside Nemu and plunked Yachiyo's phone in the young lady's hand. "Now Chop-chop!"

"Uhhhhhh…" Kuroe studied the smartphone. It was a bit different from the older model she owned. "Whoops!" At first she thought she had a basic understanding of the app's interface, but then a sound effect clicked and the screen displayed an image of herself and a curious looking Nemu hovering over her shoulder.

"That's the selfie mode," Nemu piped up for the very first time. "Big Sis is clueless about tech stuff too. You have to swipe that little icon in the corner and-"

"I got it. Thanks." Kuroe had it straightened out. She first snapped a photo of Mitama trying to wrangle the girls into more photogenic positions. "Say cheese!"

"Cheeeeese," Yachiyo flashed the first natural smile she held for a photograph in years. "Cheeeeeese," she hugged Felicia and Sana a little closer together for the follow up. In her Villa a bright-eyed and beautiful little adoptee put on a happy face, a wounded but hopeful young ally shed tears of joy, an apprentice with great potential in her arm grinned, another wayward peer on one side shed her sadness, an impish but reliable confidante behind pinched Yachiyo's shoulder and simpered, while the closest thing Yachiyo had to a best friend reached for the comfort of her hand. 'Mifuyu,' Yachiyo thought. 'I don't know if there lies a heaven in the worlds and realms beyond us but if you are in some place where my prayers can reach… Thank you for this gift.' "Cheeeeeeese!"

"You're welcome, Yachie!" Replied an echo heard by no one else.

"Missus Kaname?" Miss Yamano looked up from doing all the final formal paperwork on her desk in her office. "What's this?" Junko had handed her a hastily typed up sheet.

"This is far from my first song and dance routine." Junko said. "I know what the standard operating procedures call for whenever a SNAFU like that occurs." She unloaded her gun, slid over her extra phone and relinquished her security cards and IDs. "The one most blamable gets strung up and sacrificed. But it greases the bureaucratic wheels a bit better whenever they voluntarily take the fall." She bowed out of respect and graciousness. "I hereby resign." Junko had mixed feelings over this inevitability. On one hand, it was a relief to no longer have to carry a gun and bear the weight of humanity on her conscience. On the other, she knew she would never come close to holding a position with this level of thrill or significance again.

"Oh," Miss Yamano scanned through what was presumably Junko's resignation letter. "In that case, while I admire your sense of responsibility," she checked for Junko's signature at the bottom. "Resignation not accepted." And promptly stamped a big, red refusal stamp atop the sheet.

"What?" Junko was so blindsided by her refusal that she had to sit down. "Might I ask why?" Did this mean the organization played a harder brand of hardball punishment?

"How do you think I got to sit at this desk?" Miss Yamano queried. "Do I look like any sort of veteran of a military intelligence group? Do you think there's a college out there that offers accredited courses in interspecies diplomacy or contact with spirits or how to properly interrogate dangerous, prepubescent magicians? Do I look like I know the damn difference between a Beretta and a Sig Sauer without looking at the logo on the grip?" She stood up, went over to a picture on the wall, opened it and revealed a combination safe underneath.

"Uhm," Junko tilted her head forward. "I guess... Not?" She uttered, knowing she was being drilled rhetorically.

The lock clicked and the safe opened, revealing a mini fridge with ice and liquids inside. "Believe it or not, I was in real estate. Spent the better part of my twenties toiling away as the lowly assistant to this pigheaded mogul and his firm, until one day I finally got the chance to step up and sell a deceased couple's early century fixer-upper out in the Mitakihara sticks. Their kids didn't want it, so it fell upon me to spruce the place up and paint it in as bright a light as I could for the trade listings." She busted out a pair of glasses under her sink and split the ice between them.

Junko sucked in a nervous breath. "Okay. What's that got to do-"

"I'll get there." Miss Yamano poured. "So I drive out. Find it's a glorified junk yard, hidden behind tall grass and trees grown amok. That's when I heard a sound coming from inside. Too big and loud to be a critter, I thought for sure it was some drugged out squatter trying to hide from me." She took a sip and poured herself a little extra. "That's where I made one huge mistake, which opened my eyes and changed my whole life and worldview."

"Alright." An interested Junko took the glass. From the smell she could tell it was high-grade alcohol. "Tell me what happened."

"I saw a naked man." Yamano replied, taking a second gulp. "Okay, naked save for a potato sack and loin cloth, so I pegged him for some dirty, destitute creep wearing this absolutely hideous, big ass rubber mask which I assumed he put on to scare off any curious kiddos." She rolled her chair around and took her seat. "Well this then-twenty-eight year old, former decathlete was feeling pretty headstrong and protective of her first big sale. So rather than fall back and phone the cops I picked a rusty ol' toaster up off the floor and tried to chase him out." She took a big swig of her drink, sloshing it around her cheeks a little before swallowing. "Stupid effin' fool, I was."

"Huh." Junko tasted her drink. "Same stuff I keep around the home." She recoiled a little at a scary random thought. "Was this in my file?"

"You have good tastes." Yamano raised her glass with the compliment. "But rather than bolting like the homeless drunk I thought them to be, the thing instead charged at me like some kind of tweaked out zombie." She recounted, her face turning red as she tilted back in her chair, both proud of and embarrassed by the memory of what she did. "So I bopped it, good and hard upside the head. Lucky me they don't make toasters like they used to."

"Are- Are you tellin' me-" Junko swallowed hard. "You got here by committing a murder?"

"Naw, the blow barely fazed 'em." Yamano replied. "So I popped it in the head again, and a third time, then followed through with a kick between the legs." She mixed her drink by twitching her hand around and stirring the ice with the cap of a pen. "It took a second too long before I realized the genitalia were wrong and right before my other fight-or-flight instincts could trigger," she took a sip and let out a verbal groan. "I saw sparks shoot out from a pair of electrified darts being fired into its back. And that's what did the deed." Junko watched the woman mix around her drink and wondered if that hand twitch was entirely voluntary.

"Soooo," Junko leaned in. "What was he?" She took an intrigued sip. "Er, I mean, the 'It'?"

"An alien. Probably." She revealed, pausing long enough for Junko to gasp, then be alarmed for her family's safety. "Oh, don't worry. They're not invaders. We figure they're barely much brighter than feral felids. Have a basic social order, yes, but they're otherwise opportunistic predators who only put on clothes because they're as hairless as mole rats and every bit as vulnerable to the elements as we are." She reached underneath the green dust mat atop her desk, pulled out a laminated polaroid and tossed on Junko's lap.

"Ewwwwwwww!" Junko reacted to what was depicted in the picture. "Gross!" She wanted to look away or toss it back but the sight of an extraterrestrial getting its brains scooped out in an autopsy was just too captivating to be entirely revolting. An oversized head, with fang-like teeth, tiny but beady and intimidating eyes, lacking any obvious nasal passages, and possessing basic, flat bumps for ears. Its appearance sat perfectly in the uncanny valley of having sympathy for its demise and wanting to see it chopped to a hundred meaty bits.

"Yeah." Yamano agreed. "So this weird westerner in an old military trenchcoat comes out of the blue and tells me in pretty decent Japanese that it's something called a Weevil. That's when I finally screamed." She chuckled and sipped. "In hindsight, I think I was scared less by the thought that I narrowly averted being mauled by an alien carnivore and more by the notion that these things fall to Earth often enough that they've been given a name!"

"So then what happened?" Junko managed to distract herself from the photograph just long enough to take a swig. "Were you conscripted or something?"

"No. He gave me a clear choice. Either I could forget everything I just saw, return to my mundane life and read later how my first real estate deal just got totally torched in an accidental fire, orrrrrrrr…" She took the picture back as she glugged. "I dunno. Guess he was impressed with the way I stood my ground against certain death, or mistook idiocy for bravery, 'cuz he offered me the chance to actually do something with my life which would leave real, lasting consequences. Because," she smirked, her jaded eyes rolling and bouncing around the room. "His words, I quote, 'the twenty-first century is when everything changes. And we've gotta be ready'." She finished the rest of her drink, although Junko was only half way through hers. "I've been at this humble chapter working my way up since September 1999."

"But I'm not some ladder climber here," Junko pointed out. "You were about to hand me your keys when I flat-out dropped 'em."

"Bah, all you did was prove the memo I filed to home base last year, when I told 'em we needed to mandate all senior staff receive psychic training and counter-mind control techniques as part of their clearance process." Yamano gestured a dismissive, nonchalant wave. "Unfortunately, we have but a few certified mentalists in our consultancy contracts and The Amazing Randolf is booked up. But this incident should bump you more than a few slots on their wait list."

"You really think you can sweep this incident under the rug after that much damage and so many injuries?" Junko voiced her skepticism. "No disciplinary action? Just pass it off as some line item in the next budget?" She sipped.

"You really think I'll allow my last official act as director of this facility to be the hiring of a replacement who washes out and quits days later?" Yamano snorted. "Pffffffffft. No. Bad as you think your resignation may make you look, it would be an even bigger stain on my legacy!" She massaged her temples in an attempt to fend off a buzz and quick inebriation. "Then I'd need to delay my transfer for months, maybe another year, and go scouting for potential hires because no one else has the high-level sponsors you've got."

"Oh," Junko nodded. "So your magnanimousness is less about saving my sorry hide and more about covering your own?" Blunt and hardassed as it was, Junko at least appreciated it being truthful.

"You catch on quck." Yamano gave her a laudatory golf clap. "Submit to a blood test with Doctor Taylor. I'll have him spike it with a load of white cells. If there isn't a pathogen we can muddy the waters just as well by making it look like your body fought one off. And that'll be enough to craft a classic 'involuntary foreign influence' defense that'll satisfy any shit-stirrers up the command chain." Her head cocked to one side and her mouth contorted to a more waggish grin. "Though if you want an added layer of cover, I could also submit some rough cut footage of you dancing the Cha-Cha."

"Do what you gotta do, I suppose," Junko took a red-faced sip. "But I can't believe there are multiple people out there who think I've got the proverbial moxie to do your job." She set her glass down and took out an emergency shrink-wrapped mini-pack of peanuts in her purse. "I could really use a pep talk from them right about now." Eating a snack was her method of deferring the effects of alcohol. "Could I by any chance meet them?"

"Sorry." Yamano shrugged. "But their identities are classified at a level beyond even my clearance." She rubbed her drooping eyelids, then switched to treating her other temple. "Through all my backchannel connections the best hint I could get was a scientific consultant who goes by the initials 'D.T.'."

"'D.T.'?" Junko repeated. "Doctor Taylor?"

"Nope, although he's going to be sticking around if you need his scientific services." Yamano shared. "Said something about wanting to better study a fascinating atmospheric anomaly hanging in the skies above our heads." She slouched and reached out her hand, wanting Junko to share her snack.

"Good." Junko tapped out a few nuts for her to devour. "I'd love to keep around all the friendly faces you can spare."

"I get that right now you're feeling constantly on your back foot." Yamano empathized. "That your instinct after this will be to keep your head down, your mouth shut, not rock the boat, let the soldiers make the security decisions and leave the scientists to their pet projects." Yamano chewed on her snack helpings. "But I'll tell you here that's a one way ticket to being labeled a pushover and having your potentially invaluable input be ignored," she advised.

"With respect Miss Yamano," Junko counter-argued. "Your mouth wasn't what took away your last job nor sparked an incident that wound up getting your own gun pointed at your noggin." She reached for her alcohol glass and wet her whistle.

"Eh, gotta live and learn." Yamano excused. "In the heat of that dilemma, what the soldiers saw was an ongoing security risk that needed to be kept suppressed and contained at whatever cost, the guys in the lab coats saw a pair of puzzle pieces that needed to be studied and fit together no matter any other considerations needed making, while I," Miss Yamano sighed, shook her head and slapped her palm to her cheek. "Am embarrassed to admit, thought of it as nothing but huge piles of paperwork to be filed and a bunch of uncomfortable phone calls to be made." She picked herself out of her slouch and leaned towards Junko. "But you saw something none of us did. You saw a scared child who needed to hear a calming voice in that room."

"What else can I say? I listened to my heart." Junko shrugged her shoulders before finishing the last of her drink. "I'm a mom."

"And that Missus Kaname, is why your perspective matters," Yamano stood up and offered Junko a hand up to her feet. "It let you follow a trail no one else would have considered, and in doing so, while your misadventure left our people leaving the woods empty handed in the short run, you also reminded us of an elementary, essential lesson in hunting."

"Yeah?" Junko took her hand and pulled herself off her seat. "And what's that?"

"You gotta let the little catches go free sometimes." Miss Yamano rifled through her papers, opened a black folder, took out another photo and showed it to Junko. It was a snapshot taken from one of the security cameras, moments before it was destroyed. In it were three figures whose visages were zoomed and enhanced as much as the camera's resolution would allow. The trio were walking shoulder-to-shoulder, on the left a short but fearsome looking wolf, in the middle a taller but equally determined fox, and on the right, much to Junko's consternation, a diminutive doggie. Who in that captured moment looked clearly every bit as hapless and in over her head as Junko felt. "So as to draw out the bigger prey."

"Ohhhboy."

Sayaka Miki was not in a happy mood. She and her flowing cape rushed through the TARDIS door in such a blue-blazing blast the draft she caused made a furniture-rattling sonic boom.

"What was the point ferrying that oversleeping college student to her morning exams?" Kyubey asked from atop his perch on a custom-made grandfather clock left behind by the vessel's previous pilot. "What does delivering her to class in her pajamas accomplish?"

"Saved her from switching majors and becoming another corporate ad exec." Sayaka explained, punching in keys, flipping toggle switches and inputting her next temporal destination coordinates. "She makes her exams, she'll earn her doctorate, goes on to play a key role in the field of organ duplication, shares the Nobel Prize, becomes a leading bioethicist, and her papers put a nice, long-lasting pin in the idea of dumping the brain inside a biomechanical shell." Lying on the floor in her status screen's reflection was her friend, dragged inside and left to rest.

"You may postpone the development of Cybermen on Earth for some time but you cannot stop them from becoming an unstoppable force in the greater whole of intergalactic affairs." Kyubey noted. "Their evolution across humanoid, proto and quasi-humanoid races is recurrent to the point of unavoidability." His input seemingly got drowned out by the whirring, wheezing and humming of the TARDIS engines.

"I'll be back." Sayaka whipped around and blasted out the door within seconds of arriving at her next destination. Kyubey was left there in the ever-familiar position of having nothing to do but ruminate on the spot. Although this time he had that motionless thing on the floor to marvel over. The Cyberman, from what he could tell, was alive, just inactive and waiting to be switched on. How it escaped the fate of its cyber converted comrades he chalked up to its unique power source, which even beneath that thick layering of metallic armor tingled his rabbit-like sensory appendages in the same manner as a legitimate Soul Gem.

"For what it's worth, you and Touka Satomi did share one additional commonality." Kyubey addressed the seemingly sleeping soul aloud. "As I recall you were both scouted for magical potential but summarily rejected for the same reason. Unacceptable risks." He climbed off his nesting spot first by leaping onto the work desk stationed next to it, then down to a stool and to the floor. "The Incubators calculated that you both possessed the reasoning and deductive capacity to intuit the true nature of the witch system and would most likely take measures to try and upend it with a contract." He parked his butt at a spot beside it, next to the bunched up hand attached to the arm on which its head was peacefully resting like a pillow. "But we did not rule out the possibility of mitigating those chances through the strategic manipulation of your friends, although that too carries substantial risks unto themselves."

"That's not funny!" Sayaka suddenly stormed back inside, her boot nearly kicking Kyubey aside like a soccer ball. "You hear me?" She shouted, pounding the console. "That is. Not. Funny! Youuuuu!" Her second pound landed hard enough to send sparks flying out the bottom. "C'mooon! Not fair. I always go wherever you need me. Now let me do what I wanna do, damnit!"

-| CODE 8008-1355 |-

-| PARADOX PROTECTION PROTOCOLS ENGAGED |-

-| REQUESTED ACTION NOT POSSIBLE |-

"Gaaaaaaaaah!"

"Problem?" Kyubey cautiously pressed.

"Got steered to rescuing the wrong Tamaki." Sayaka scowled, unveiling a fresh Grief Seed before chucking it onto her unmade bed sheets. "Right time, wrong island!" She knew full well that trying to undo fate in this way would be futile, yet she couldn't leave the effort untried.

"I still puzzle over why you merely bluffed the Cybermen with the idea of making Iroha Tamaki a magical girl." Kyubey said. His past experiences taught him that polite conversation was the best way to cool this young Time Lady's temperamental and impulsive streak.

"When you've got a trump card like that you don't play it until you're got no other options." Sayaka told him. "Besides, I wasn't about to entrust humanity's survival to anybody's wish, not when it was all my mess and my job to mop it up."

"If I were to assign blame to anyone it would be Miss Jones, for overstating the nanogenes' ability to evade detection from contemporary medical technology." Kyubey posited. Those experiences also taught him to soothe the girl by absolving her of some guilt whenever possible, not for any altruistic or empathetic reason, but because he did not want to be trapped aboard in the event one of her many mood swings compelled her to set course for the center of a quantum singularity. "Still, you could've used Iroha Tamaki's magical potential as a means of restoring Hitomi Shizuki's humanity."

"I already know what happens when you tie Hitomii's life to a magical girl's fate," Sayaka rebutted. "The first time it almost ended in blood and tears spilled aboard a train. No thanks."

"So what do you intend to do with your Cyberman friend?" Kyubey watched her fan away the smoke from the sparking controls with her hand. With a hard grunt and a sigh she flashed out of her magical girl form into her rubber-suited attire.

"She stayed a step ahead of Touka by taking herself offline a split-second before the termination code executed. Super frikkin' smart of her for reals." Sayaka scanned the mechanized young lady with her modified multitool. "That code is sitting unrun inside her BIOS's stored memory buffer." A smartphone-sized holographic screen was projected from its glowing tip. "If I delete it, there's theoretically nothing to stop her from reactivating herself," she hesitated. "Buuut-"

"But what?"

"I'd prefer if she woke up first thing tomorrow morning in her warm bedroom, completely human again." Sayaka first rolled her friend onto her back, then turned a dial and pressed a little black button on her device. "All memory of being this way just the worst nightmare any girl's ever had." Her chest armor promptly retracted, revealing her internal power source which captivated not just Sayaka but Kyubey as well. "And besides, a Cyberman's first and foremost instinct is to make more Cybermen. I hate that I don't know if I could trust her to stay Hitomi for certain." Sayaka got on one knee and hid her watery eyes behind her rubber glove.

"The active to depleted ectomatter conversion ratio is the lowest I have ever sensed." Kyubey assessed. "Who knew such stability could be achieved by simply converting your fragile biological forms into something that could be more easily repaired and maintained?"

"Tch! Kind of defeats the whole point of making us fight and despair for the sake of countering entropy, doesn't it?" Sayaka got up and returned the artificial gem to its casing before putting her helpful device in its holster.

"True." The Incubator agreed. "But I can still appreciate masterful feats of engineering whenever I see them." His flexible head rolled and scanned about the room. "Case in point, were I imprisoned aboard any place besides this vaunted chariot of the Time Lords, I imagine I would have self-terminated long ago."

"Speaking of Incubators and self-defeating acts," Kyubey's Time Lady captor ascended a pair of steps and punched in a set of keys on her control console. "There's still a few things about this whole chain of events that are buggin' me all to hell." She pulled and released a pinball plunger on the underside. "Namely, when the heck did Nemu have her wish granted? And where could another Kyubey have come into the picture?"

"I can only dare to speculate, at least for now." Kyubey indulged her curiosity. "One answer is potentially personal towards you, another would be strategic, while there's another idea I could only conceive of as an individualized member of my kind." He came up to the first step then leapt onto the hand-railing surrounding the central platform.

"Lemme guess as to that third one," Sayaka started. "You think there's possibly another rogue member of your race who remains on Earth who may still be granting contracts behind everybody else's backs?" She turned a valve wheel with a handle attached as she spoke.

"Correct." Kyubey trotted along the rail right behind her movements. "Although that would be inefficient. And I cannot imagine an Incubator being so enterprising without the express consent of its functioning peers." He was trying to deduce Sayaka's next destination based on her frenetic actions. "The second reason would be to grant that one wish specifically, knowing it would result in the creation of Cybermen."

"And whenever the bigwigs at the Shadow Proclamation are tipped off to the evolutionary tampering of a Level Five world, they'll come and investigate." Sayaka intuited. "Only to find it populated with seven billion Cybermen gearing up for war." She tapped a command on her rotating display screen before sending it spinning around to the opposite side. "That's the point when they invoke Article Five, Subsection Nineteen of their standard military protocols. And blow up the planet out of preemptive self-defense. Which more than covers up all evidence of misdeeds on behalf of your sponsors. Whomever they are."

"Correct again." Kyubey concurred. "And the personal answer would be-"

"Would beeeee…" Sayaka interrupted, trailing her voice as she piloted. "They're testing the limits of what I can do. And if I could handle a Cyberman attack in the cradle, then at some point soon they're gonna attempt something even more bold and sinister." The wheezing, whirring and whizzing of her ride started again, the lights above them flickered and danced in a dramatic pattern, signaling it was en route and closing in on its next destination.

"Are you going to confront them before they act again?" Kyubey inquired.

"Nope. Not time yet." Sayaka clapped and rubbed her squeaky gloves together as if the concern were something that could be scrubbed away underneath a kitchen faucet. "First thing's first, I have a friend in need. And I'm going to begin by seeking a special consultation."

"Oh?" Kyubey tilted his head. "Did you happen to have met an expert in Cyber de-conversion?" He finally saw that the set coordinates were to one of Jupiter's moons, to her favorite parking spot. Her special thinking retreat. Obvious, in hindsight.

"No, but they were an expert on robotics in a previous life." Sayaka detailed. "And before that, an expert in genetics. And before that, an expert in metaphysics. And before that, an expert in biochemistry. And before that-"

"Oh, no." Kyubey grumbled. "Not-"

"Dorkus!" Sayaka finished with an impish smirk. "We're going to be pestering Dorkus for a favor!"

Kyubey simply shook his head. "I hope you're fully prepared for whatever such a venture entails."

Ryo Midori and The Prophet Oriko's hand-picked Torchbearer sat there in the quiet park at the brink of dawn. After catching her boss expressing her exhaustion via a long, worn out yawn, Ryo escorted the young lady to the seesaw, plopped her on one seat and took the opposite one. That way, she figured, if either of them threatened to fall asleep, they could be shaken out of it.

"So whatever gave you the idea to plant your boyfriend inside another person?" It was clear one of them was having more trouble staying aroused than the other. "Did the Prophet ever say or write anything about this?" Ryo was trying to keep the girl in the waking world through engaging conversation. "Was it the whole reason you wanted Rena on our squad?" Her lack of consistent attention was getting quite frustrating. "Hey!" But it was at the same time understandable. "Look alive, okay?" Magical transference, Ryo presumed from observation, was a very taxing talent to perform.

"He'll be here!" The sound of and sensation of her but dinging the dirt was enough to jolt her awake. "He'll be here soon!" She in return gave Ryo a reassuring smile and a spirited hop upwards.

"At this place? You sure?" Ryo looked over at the nondescript tree decorated by a half dozen flower bouquets placed at the base of its trunk. "I dunno. If I was ever made aware of a universe in which I perished, I think I wouldn't wanna go within ten square kilometers of the spot where it happened." What first began as a memorial to him, the Torchbearer turned into a site where the other members of their clandestine group would signal a desire to speak to her with some flowers. "But that's just me." She jolted her awake again with another upwards kick.

"You can go home if you want to rest." Her leader offered with a wry smile. "I don't mind if it's just me and him until the sun comes up next hour." Then she yawned again. "In fact, I think I might prefer it if I was a sleeping beauty on that bench over there, when he comes and kisses me awake." Her unembarrassed blushing face fell hard towards her gripping hands. "It'd be like having a dream come truuuueeeee…" The rest hunched over in a total collapse.

"Tch! Alright!" Ryo gave in and got off the seesaw. "But don't ya' go cryin' and blamin' me when it's some seven year old pokin' at ya' in the cheek with a twig!" She took the passed out girl in her arms and made the turn for the nearest bench. On cue a silhouetted figure made their presence known by stepping out of the shadows and into the heavenly white glow of an evening street light.

"Shhhhhh!" He tiptoed ever closer. "Hand her over." Ryo did as asked, but by all appearances it was clear he'd been through just as much of an overnight wringer as she had, one even more mentally taxing.

Ryo still wanted to help without becoming a third wheel. "If ya' wanna I can-"

"Nnnnnnnawwww." He slurred. He was certain he was down to his final moments in this body and he didn't want to waste a single remaining second accepting anyone's aid. With all his reserve strength he carried her not to the bench but instead to a spot under the very tree where he shed his mortal coil not long ago.

"Ohmygoshthisisreallyhappening!" Ryo said in a singular, excited breath. "How romantic!" All she could think to do as the sole witness to this touching moment was take out her camera and snap a picture. But he also had other plans for her. A simple message to relay.

"When she wakes up, tell her I'm gonna take her to see the stars one day." He looked at Ryo and picked a point of light shining down from the twilight above. "Starting with that one!"

"I'm pretty sure that's just Jupiter." Ryo squinted at the sight of what he'd pointed at. "Oh, crud!" It took an extra second to remember where her actual focus was supposed to be. "Gimme a sec! Gimme a sec! C'mon Gimmeasec!" She'd warmed up her camera, input all the correct settings, set the timer on the flash and got ready to shoot.

But he cared not one bit about making this a moment to share on social media or a scene to capture, print, frame and hang on the wall. He was merely here to experience the one seminal moment he robbed himself of, on the day he succumbed to his own deep-seated woes and despaired. "Mmmmmmmmm-" He puckered his lips and leaned ever closer. "Mmmmmmmmmmm-" He squeezed his nostrils shut, made lip contact and squeezed out his last breath of energy from his lips and into hers. "Mmmmmuaaaaaah!" The bright flash of Ryo's camera illuminated the pair as the kisser and kissee at long last consummated their unique, transcendental connection.

"Okay, wow!" Ryo gasped. "Girl, oh boy!" What an odd privilege to not only be present for true love's first kiss, but also the awkward aftermath of an unlikely lip lock between a couple of girls. But which momentous event did her trusty camera capture? She was too enamored with what lay before her to check for now.

"Hey, LuLa!" Their leader seemed to be entirely rejuvenated by the kiss. "You awake there, LuLa?" Rena Minami collapsed in her lap, on the other hand, appeared for all intents and purposes like she had nothing left in the tank. "Yoo-Hoo! You're going to miss an absolutely fantastic sunrise!"

"Nnnnngh… Five more minutes, Kaede." The sleeping Rena mumbled. "Geez!" By initial appearances, she appeared to make it through the whole ordeal no worse for the wear.

"Was it as good for you as I'm sure it was for him?" Ryo stashed her prized possession inside her bookbag, stepped over and prepared to take Rena into her arms.

"It was better!" She chirped like a little songbird. Ryo could practically taste the sugary sweetness of her leader's vibes.

"Oh, hey!" Ryo had Rena scooped up in her arms. "He also told me to tell you he plans to take you to see the stars one day." She had to wince a little for the girl was a fair bit heavier than she looked. "Didn't say how or when, but he had a certain look of determination that sure had me believin'." She added that detail as a little touching piece of fluff.

"D'awwwwwwwww!" They began their walks home together with the resting Rena in tow.

"So I've been thinkin' a little bit of what we ought to be callin' ourselves," Ryo broached. "How 'bout 'The Orikites'?"

"If we were like an outdoor camping, kite-flying hobbyist's club, I like it a bit." She rejected the proposal with a touch of polite sincerity. "I was thinking of something more imposing sounding… Came to me while I was dreaming. How about 'The Wings of Magius' with you and this cutie and me cutie just being called 'The Magius'?" But she noticed Ryo reflexively cringe at the title. "What? What's wrong with it?"

"Ugh, it just sounds kinda pretentious," Ryo remarked. It also sparked a weird strain of déjà vu in her brain, but she had no clue of where it came from. "How 'bout 'The Mikunise'?"

"It's better, but not great. How 'bout 'The Mikunites'?" Her boss twiddled her index finger tips together as she walked a few steps ahead. "No... That could be our pop idol group." That roused a little laughter out of Ryo.

"Okaaaaaayyyyyy…" Ryo thought and thought at their arrival at a crosswalk and a red light. "How 'bout 'The Disciples of the Dearly Departed to a separate but equal Dimension Magical Girl Prophet Oriko'?" She spitballed, not seriously expecting it to be given further consideration. "Maybe our equivalent of nuns or popes can wear that big white hat she had on?"

"Oooooooh! Bingo! I like it! That's it!" Their Torchbearer clapped and put her hands to the sky in reverential celebration.

"Wh- What?" Ryo's head shook in a double take.

"Not the whole thing just… 'The Disciples!" She clarified. "Simple and respectful sounding, yet not too self-important sounding nor scary for outsiders and those who haven't yet opened their minds to her teachings."

"Hmmmmmmm…" Ryo mused about it for a minute. "Yeah! I like it too." The light turned green and they started off again. "Oh, but I wasn't being serious about the funny hats, though."

"I know." She elbowed Ryo and winked. "But you never know how these kinds of things evolve over the years." She looked up lovingly into the very heavens her beau promised to take her to see. "Who knows? In a thousand years you and I may just get to see how our pupils dress and behave."

"Here's to 'The Disciples'!" Ryo hushedly cheered. "May our movement reach up to the stars and endure a thousand years and beyond."

"Yaaaaay! To 'The Disciples'!"