Confringentur 2; a Madoka Magica / Fate/Stay Night sequel

[NMS]

You did good work, SVS. It might not feel like it at times, but you did good work.

 

[SVS]

You did good work, SVS. It might not feel like it at times, but you did good work.

Click to shrink...

While your praise is appreciated, I'd still ask that you keep your praise in your back pocket until we're all the way done done, and that goes for @PlaguePaladin and @K4lepo as well. I don't imagine the last two story updates or the handful of omakes remaining will ruin anything, but you never know. If they're not your cup of tea they might end up souring the rest of the experience retroactively. But I hope not.

 

[SVS]

When your sight returns to you- Actually, has your sight returned to you? The blinding brilliance of your glorious arrow has faded, but when you open your eyes you are still greeted to a blank expanse of pure white. You're all alone here- No, you're not alone. You haven't been alone at all this entire time. You've got your father, and your sister, and all of your friends by your side.

Sidonia is the only one that's alone right now.

"Hey, sis, what is this place?"

You turn your head as Kirika's voice calls out to you. She's here too, even though you could have sworn she wasn't here a second ago. Apparently, not being alone was more literal than you thought. "I don't know," is the only answer you can give to your sister. "I remember using Quintett Fuoco on Sidonia, and then…" Anything that must have happened to you in the time between when your glorious arrow pierced Sidonia and brilliant whiteness overtook your sight, and when you opened your eyes again, has been wiped from your memory.

"I thought this felt familiar," Archer says, as he too appears at your side. "This is… Well, we're not quite dead yet, but we're not quite alive, either. Whether we're able to return to the world of the living or not will depend on what happens next."

You died? Oriko's protective charms were supposed to prevent your Soul Gem from being shattered. Was the explosion that rang out from your final shot so destructive that your Soul Gem was completely obliterated? Or was it something else? Are you even really dead? Archer said you weren't quite dead yet, so…

"Tsch-!" You turn your head as the sound of another voice enters your perception. But this time, unlike the voices of Archer or Kirika, it isn't one you had been hoping to ever hear again. "To think that you actually managed to defeat me," Sidonia says. Her garb as the servant Avenger has vanished, and she's returned to wearing the more modern clothes you've always seen her in. She brushes off the lapels of her black duster with a scowl, but makes no move to attack you. "Man, what a complete drag this has been. All those months of preparation wasted, thanks to the efforts of some snot-nosed brats and their servants."

"I gave you several chances," you say. You'd rather not be here right now, but as long as Sidonia is being civil and not attacking you – though for her, not attacking you is being civil – you won't, either. "You could have put aside your anger, and worked to create the world you envisioned without needing to kill anyone. We might have even been willing to work with you."

"You?" Sidonia scoffs. "Work with me? How could you even begin to imagine what I've been through? Look at this world you're living in-! The fact that you thought I could change this place for the better tells me that you've never had to suffer because of what you are a day in your life. How could you help me, when you don't even know what it's like?"

"That's not true at all, Sidonia." Another voice joins you now; it's Oriko. "My father killed himself after it was revealed he had been embezzling money from his government job. I suffered greatly at the hands of my peers because I was made to shoulder the blame in his absence. My own uncle was more concerned with his own image than with my wellbeing, and he treated me like less of a person afterwards because of the shame my father had brought to our family."

Kirika nods her head, and moves closer to Oriko. "I'm su~uper gay and have a weird sense of fashion," she says. "I get judged for that all the time from people at school, and even sometimes just from random people on the street. Hell, people even judge my mom and dad, and I hear them say stuff like 'They're not raising her right' 'cause I'm different."

"I lost both of my parents at a young age." Now Tomoe-san appears beside you. "I get by thanks to assistance from the government and an inheritance from my parents, but until I met Akemi-san and the others, anyone who knew my story usually looked down on me and thought it was a drain on the state's resources to keep supporting me."

"I lost my whole fucking family, 'cause my dad went crazy and killed my mom and my little sis." Kyouko. "Ya know how common it was fer people ta look down on me 'cause I was homeless? 'Cause they thought – and rightly so – that I was gunna steal from them ta make ends meet? Ya know how many time I've had ta tell some ugly old fuck ta piss off 'cause he'd ask me ta suck his dick fer a warm meal an' a place ta stay the night? You ain't gotta right ta complain about the kinda lives we've lived when you didn't have ta want fer nothing growing up yerself."

"It's tragic what happened to you, and to so many others like you back then, Sidonia, but don't that because we're still alive that we haven't suffered." Hitomi. "I know I've had a relatively good upbringing, but most of my friends are, well… Different, in some way, and because Japan takes the idea of 'the nail that sticks up gets hammered down' to the extreme, I constantly find myself worrying if society will ever punish them for being different."

"Not to mention, the world itself just isn't the same as it was back in your day." Oriko's eyes light up as she hears the voice of her cousin speaking, and you turn to see Nurse Ortensia making her own appearance in the white void. "You're free to blame the people responsible for your death back then, but don't go trying to punish the people who are alive today for what happened to you four-hundred years ago. The sins of the father and all that jazz, you know?"

As each of your teammates speak up, their servants appear behind them. First Lancer, then Berserker, Caster, Rider, Saber, and Assassin. The deep gash in her shoulder which cut down to her spiritual core is healed, and the blood staining her robes is now gone as well. She's still scowling, unfortunately, but you doubt that anything will ever wipe that expression from Assassin's face.

"Well, would you look at that?" Sidonia sneers. "The gang's all here." Sidonia stops herself, quickly adding "No, I appear to have spoken too soon. Where's the second half of your ridiculous little troupe? What, did they not make it over?"

"No, we're here." Kazumi shows herself, and Scáthach follows closely behind, her appearance causing the scowl on Assassin's face to lift slightly. "I… Don't exactly know where we are, though, but I know we're here."

Following shortly behind Kazumi and Scáthach are Kanna Niko, Nightingale, and Hijiri Kanna. Well, in the case of Hijiri Kanna, following might be a bit of an overstatement, because unlike Assassin, her mortal wounds have not been healed. She's still missing her right arm, and now that your view of her is unobstructed, you can see that her left leg is just barely hanging on by a thread of sinew and a sliver of bone. It almost reminds you of what you saw through Archer's eyes, the night he found Kanna Niko in that alley.

An arm for an arm, and a leg for a leg, then.

"I think more than anyone else here, I'm qualified to tell you that letting so much hatred consume you isn't a good thing," Hijiri Kanna says. With her one good arm, she gestures to herself, and says "Just look at me. I did this to myself, because I was so fuelled by my hatred for the person who made me that I did things I can never take back. I helped you turn two cities into graveyards, when maybe, if I'd been in better control of my emotions from the beginning, I could have done something to stop you, maybe told someone what you were planning and put a stop to you before you had a chance to escalate things to this point. But I didn't, because like you, I was too blinded by my anger to see the harm I was doing to other people. What happened is as much my fault as it is yours. I'm willing to take responsibility for my actions. Now, are you?"

Without waiting for Sidonia to give her response, Hijiri Kanna tilts her head up, looking her creator in the eye without a hint of malice, and Kanna Niko looks back at her. "Don't go stealing all the credit," she says to her creation. "I'm just as guilty for having made you in the first place. I was too fixated on what I'd already done, that I didn't realise how my attempts to make things 'correct' were just making things worse." As Kazumi takes Kanna Niko's hand into her own, Kanna Niko continues, saying "You've got the same problem. You were so fixated on what happened to you back then, that you never stopped to ask yourself whether or not your 'solution' would actually make things better, of it would just make things worse."

"What even was your plan, exactly?" asks Maki Kaoru, as she and Misaki Umika appear next, with Boudica – now possessed once again of both her arms – appearing behind Maki Kaoru. "Say you'd won. We weren't able to stop you, and you put your plan in motion. Did you think people were just going to take it lying down? Or let's say someone else managed to stop you halfway through- What then? If anybody'd survived, don't you think they'd just take their anger out on people like you?"

"Don't be stupid," Sidonia says. "You know what my plan was. Do you really think I'd be so foolish as to leave any one of those worthless insects alive to take their anger out on us? Why do you think I was doing this in the first place?"

Misaki Umika grunts, but like Hijiri Kanna, her broken jaw has not been healed, so it's up to Maki Kaoru to translate for her. But before she can do that- "I'll tell you what would happen." Tohsaka-san. She, Matou Sakura, and Aunt Illya appear next, with Tohsaka-san taking up space at the head of the trio. "People would be pissed. If you thought the witch-hunts back when you were alive were something, just wait until people realised that there was a witch who tried to genocide them. You'd have muggles killing us left and right in fear that, if they didn't, one of us might get to them first! It'd be open season on our kind and no government on earth would be able to stop it."

Tohsaka-san plants her hands on her hips and gives a performative huff, adding "To say nothing of how the Mage's Association and the Church would react. There's no way your plans wouldn't have exposed the world of magecraft to the muggles, so you'd have every Enforcer on the planet coming after you. You'd-"

"I could have stopped them," Sidonia says, cutting Tohsaka-san off. "You really think a handful of modern mages could stop me? My magic is so much older than theirs, and I had the Great Seed to back me up."

"And yet you still lost to a bunch of teenagers and their punch ghosts," Tohsaka-san says. "If a bunch of teenagers could stop you, you wouldn't have lasted a minute if thirty or so Enforcers all decided to jump you at once."

"Some of them, I'm sure, might have even been willing to work with you under better circumstances," Matou Sakura says. "I know first-hand how cruel the world can be. But it doesn't have to be that way. Sister knows several influential and powerful mages who would have been overjoyed to work with you in creating a world where our kind don't need to fear being persecuted by the wider world, or even by the more callous members of our own kind. My grandfather might have even been one of them." When Sidonia sends a curious eye towards Matou Sakura, she adds "My grandfather is, as you correctly guessed, Zolgen Makiri. When I asked him about you, he had nothing but praise to give for the potential he saw in you. I'm sure he could have been persuaded to work with you if your ends hadn't been so disastrous."

"But you made the mistake of threatening my family," Aunt Illya says, to which Heracles, appearing behind her as Medusa appears behind Matou Sakura, gives a voiceless grunt of approval. "Somehow, you managed to get all three representatives of some of the most powerful mage families in the world firmly aligned against you. That takes some serious screwing up. Our families haven't worked together in over two-hundred years, but you managed to get us all involved in stopping you, because you threatened my Big Brother's family, and we all came running to support him."

"Hell, you managed to get a lot of people working together who might not have otherwise." It's Asami Saki and Wakaba Mirai's turn to appear next, with Ramesses appearing behind his master. As they do, Kyouko and Wakaba Mirai turn to each other and reach out their hands, pounding their fists together with animated glee written on their faces. "We were all set to try and kill Akemi's girls for what we thought they were doing. But once we figured out that they weren't the ones responsible, we wised up pretty quick."

Wakaba Mirai quickly withdraws her hand from Kyouko's, and tries to look like she isn't the guilty party in all of this. "I mean, sure, it came with more than a few bumps in the road to get here," she says sheepishly. "But, even though I was probably the most against it at first, now that we're done, I'm really glad we were all able to come together like this. 'Cause while I might have had a bad attitude, yours was even worse, and if I needed to be stopped from behind a dumbass, then that should say something about how much you needed to be stopped."

"Your bad attitude? What about mine?"

You hear the Pleiades Saints gasp as another voice makes itself known. It's familiar to you as well, and you turn your head, not entirely believing it when you see Usagi Satomi standing there, with Atalanta beside her. "My attitude problems were so bad, I ended up stabbing the red one when all she wanted me to do was come quietly and not give her and her friends any trouble," she says. "Hell, my bad attitude ended up a lot worse for me than it did for you, Mirai."

Atalanta gives a curt but not impolite grunt, accompanied by a nod of her head. "I definitely could have handled myself better as well," she says. Pointing to Sidonia, she adds "Like that one, I was so overcome by my anger at the situation I found myself in that I become unreasonable; and, like that one, if she's here now, that means she also must have died because of it."

Sidonia grits her teeth at Usagi Satomi and Atalanta. "You two are supposed to be dead," she snarls. "The rest of these idiots I at least understand, but you were dead. You weren't even there fighting against me. So what the hell are you doing here now?"

"Are you really so blind that you do not know your place?" Another familiar voice, one which makes Lancer tense up as she hears it. "We are servants," says Sigurd, torn between looking imposing as he looms behind his former master, and looking incredibly uncomfortable as Gudrun fawns over him, herself looking for all the world the way Kirika looks when she fawns over Oriko. You can almost feel the sweltering heat of Lancer's death glare as she stares at Gudrun. "Is it really so strange to you that we would be here even in death?"

"Saber…?" Asami Saki sounds incredulous when she sees her servant appearing. "So… Are you, you know, Good, now? Or should we be worried that you and Gudrun are going to try to kill us again?"

"Good and bad are irrelevant now," Sigurd says. "I failed you in my task as your servant, and more than that, I failed myself. I betrayed you and allowed myself to become corrupted by a monster, solely due to my desire to fight Brynhildr." Sigurd gives a polite bow, not just to Asami Saki, but to Lancer as well. "My actions were unbecoming of me."

"But it's okay!" Gudrun declares, sounding completely different to the voice you heard her growling in previously. "Because of all this, I got to be reunited with my beloved Sigurd again!" Sigurd's face becomes like stone, and Lancer's death glare only intensifies as Gudrun cuddles up to Sigurd; again, not unlike Kirika cuddling up to Oriko. You feel your hand clenching tightly against your face, and out of the corner of your eye, you see Oriko and Asami Saki doing the same. Of all the people who would actually be okay with how things turned out…

"Enough!" Sidonia's bellowing roar almost takes you back to the real world, as if you could feel the heat of her flames against your face once more. "This is ridiculous! I refuse to believe I lost to a bunch of idiots like all of you! This is a farce! This is-"

"This is the reason you lost," you say. "Sure, we may all be idiots, but you lost because all of us idiots were able to come together to defeat you." You feel your father's hand against one shoulder, and your sister's hand against the other. You know you have both of them, and as you look out and see everyone else here with you, you know you have them as well. "We had each other. We had something bigger than ourselves we were fighting to protect. But all you had was yourself."

It's almost enough to make you pity Sidonia.

"Of course I only had myself!" Sidonia screams. "Who the hell else would I have had? I've never had anybody else! I've been alone this entire time! So don't you lecture me about-!"

Sidonia is stopped by a resounding slap across the back of her head, which silences her and sends her head reeling towards the source. "Who was that? Who dares to-!"

As soon as Sidonia turns her head, she is greeted to another slap, open-palm, across her face. It's a woman you've never seen before, with Eastern European features, pale blue eyes, and curly, dark auburn hair. Even with her head turned, you can see Sidonia's eyes going wide as she stares at the woman, and she utters a single word, "Mother…?"

That woman is Sidonia's mother?

"Sidonia von Borchk," Sidonia's mother speaks her daughter's name with purpose, stressing each word as though it were its own sentence. "Do you have any idea what you've done? I know for a fact that I raised you to be better than this," Sidonia's mother says. "Or was I mistaken in giving you twenty years of my life, if this was how you were planning to repay me?"

"No, mother, I-!" Sidonia's voice dies in her throat. You almost feel the same shock that Sidonia must be feeling, seeing her mother after four-hundred years. "What was I supposed to do?" Sidonia snaps, yelling at her mother. "In just fifty years, over a hundred-thousand people like me were executed for no other reason than the fact that they were witches! Even children! I was only trying to create a world where others like me wouldn't have to be persecuted at the hands of monsters like that!"

"So you thought stooping to their level and committing murder on an even larger scale would put you in the right?" Sidonia's mother asks. "Evidently, the education I gave you was all for naught if that's how you see the world. Even now, you're going to refuse to let go of your hatred? After it's done nothing but cost you a second chance at life which most people never get, you're still going to hold onto your hatred?"

"People aren't perfect. They're flawed. They make mistakes. Sometimes, they do things that hurt us, far, far more than they know. But hating them only hurts yourself. It does nothing but fester, and it ends up causing you more pain than whatever that person did to wrong you in the first place. It's only when we learn to forgive people for their mistakes, that the wounds caused by our hatred can be healed."

"What do you know?" Sidonia snaps. "Ulrich spent decades making my life miserable, not yours. You weren't the one who was falsely accused of murder and executed for being a witch. You weren't-"

"You think I've never been wronged before?" Sidonia's mother cuts her daughter off. "Otto… Your father spent most of our marriage sleeping with other women. Time and time again, I'd catch him having affairs, even after he'd promised me that he'd never do it again. The only reason I'm even sure that Ulrich and Clara are my children is because I gave birth to them myself." Sidonia's mother takes in several deep breaths, and she calms herself. "Do you know what finally convinced me to forgive your father, though? When he brought you home to me and begged me not to take my anger at him out on you."

The words steal the breath from Sidonia's lungs, and she's stunned, speechless. "I knew I had to learn to forgive your father after that, Sidonia. If not for his sake, then for mine, and for yours. Otto might have been a womaniser and a louse, but you were just a baby. You weren't at fault for your father's actions."

You and Kirika look to each other, and you can feel the eyes of your teammates roving to their nearest partner. This is a moment you're pretty sure you shouldn't actually be privy to. But now that it's happening, you're finding it hard to look away.

"I know you were too young to remember him, but your father loved you with all of his heart," Sidonia's mother says to her daughter. "So did I. You might not have come from me, but from the moment I met you I've loved you as though you were one of my own." Sidonia's mother softens her voice, and she leans over, wraps her arms around her daughter. "Goodness… You're all grown up, and yet you haven't aged a day, have you? You still look the same as the last time I saw you."

That does it. The dam breaks. Sidonia falls to her knees, still clutching her mother, and sobs. "I'm sorry!" she screams. "You'd been gone so long, and Ulrich… When Clara died he-!" It's a strange sensation, seeing a woman you've only ever known as a monstrous, imposing threat, suddenly reduced to a broken child by the warmth of her mother. "I didn't know what else to do! I was all alone, and angry, and it just hurt so much inside that I-!"

"Shh~" Sidonia's mother coos. Sidonia's hat is knocked aside by her mother's fingers as they stroke through her hair. "I know, Sidonia. It must have been so difficult for you. I can't imagine what that must have been like, dying like that with so much anger weighing you down." Sidonia says nothing, continuing to cry in her mother's arms. "But you know, Sidonia, no matter what you think, you were never alone. Clara and I, your father, even Ulrich, as much trouble as he caused you…" Sidonia's mother leans her arms back, putting some distance between herself and her daughter in order to place a finger against Sidonia's chest. "We were all right here, all along."

As Sidonia's mother speaks, three more figures appear behind her: a young woman, just slightly older in appearance than Sidonia, who looks almost identical to her mother; an older man, with a stern face, well-groomed moustache, and piercing emerald eyes identical to the ones that have haunted your city for the past month; and a young man, maybe just slightly older than Archer in appearance, who looks identical to his father save for his eyes, which are the same bright blue of his mother and sister.

Sidonia shies away from her mother, from the spectral images of the remaining members of her family, as though she's ashamed – and rightfully so – of being seen by them for the things she's done. "I've done… Such horrible things, mother. I was given a second chance at life, and I wasted it because I was too angry at the world to let go, and just enjoy what I'd been given."

"I know," Sidonia's mother says. "You've made more than your fair share of mistakes, young lady, and don't think for a moment that I'm going to let you get away with it." Sidonia's mother looks out at all of you, and tries her best to smile in spite of the situation. "I apologise for all the trouble my daughter has caused you. For as presumptuous of me as this is to say, I have to thank you for taking care of her. If it weren't for you, she might have ended up doing something I know she would have regretted."

"She didn't seem to regret it when she was threatening my mom," Kirika says.

"Or our cities." You appreciate the von Borchk matriarch's words, but you aren't about to forgive her daughter just yet. "Thousands of people between our two cities are either sick, dying, or dead because of her. I understand she's your daughter, ma'am, but you must understand our own position on all of this."

"I do," Sidonia's mother says. "At least, I'd like to. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around everything that my daughter has done to cause you all harm." Sidonia's mother places a hand on the back of her daughter's head, and as she bows, she forces Sidonia into replicating the action. "I believe it is custom for Orientals to bow when they are apologising, yes?" she asks you. "I know it won't make up for the damage she's caused you, but on behalf of my foolish daughter I'd like to offer you all my sincere apologies." Her eyes narrow as they turn towards her daughter, and she says in a much colder tone, "I can assure you, she won't do it again."

You're about to speak, but Sidonia's mother speaks first. "You don't have to accept my apology. I'll understand if you can't find it in yourself to forgive my unruly daughter. But please, don't hold it against her. If not for her sake, then for your own." Sidonia's mother gives you another bow, and this time, Sidonia even finds it in herself to bow without her mother forcing her hand. Seeing that, Sidonia's mother smiles, and says one final thing to you. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we should be going. It's been over four-hundred years since all of us were together."

Sidonia, her mother, and the spectral images of her father and siblings vanish, and once again your vision goes white.​

 

[SVS]

Clocking in at 4,600 words, this is now the longest of any update I've written for both this and the original, and counting the Halloween omake is the second-longest anything I've written for either, defeating 29-37 by 500 words for both counts. And honestly, it needed to be that long, because there's a lot that's happening in this one. I'll completely understand if you don't agree with the direction that this update goes in, but if you read it and find yourself not agreeing with it, then you're kind of missing the entire point of the update. So I do hope you like it.

 

[PlaguePaladin]

I know this kind of ruins the moment, but Sidonia sort of had a 'negative Congratulations' moment here, and that makes me chuckle. On the other hand, good chapter.

 

[SVS]

I know this kind of ruins the moment, but Sidonia sort of had a 'negative Congratulations' moment here, and that makes me chuckle. On the other hand, good chapter.

Click to shrink...

That was not at all what I was going for. It was actually supposed to be a reference to how the fight against Shaman King's main antagonist ended. But I mean, technically Evangelion did it first, so...? But no, it was a Shaman King reference, not an Evangelion one.

EDIT: After thinking about it, I realised that I lied to you guys. Kind of. @PlaguePaladin, @NMS, @K4lepo, I know I said that we'd reached the end of votable material, but there is one thing I need to get you guys' consensus on. And that's whether or not we'll accept Sidonia's mother apologising to us on behalf of her daughter. Or heck, even if we'll go as far as to actually forgive Sidonia for everything she's done. It's not super-major, but it will be important for me to know going into tomorrow's update and the omakes I have planned for after so that I'm not presuming anything about our response.

 

[PlaguePaladin]

EDIT: After thinking about it, I realised that I lied to you guys. Kind of. @PlaguePaladin, @NMS, @K4lepo, I know I said that we'd reached the end of votable material, but there is one thing I need to get you guys' consensus on. And that's whether or not we'll accept Sidonia's mother apologising to us on behalf of her daughter. Or heck, even if we'll go as far as to actually forgive Sidonia for everything she's done. It's not super-major, but it will be important for me to know going into tomorrow's update and the omakes I have planned for after so that I'm not presuming anything about our response.

Click to shrink...

I'd go as far as to forgive her somewhat, or rather, more understand her than forgive her. There is a difference between feeling for someone and accepting what they've done. On one hand, not only was Sidonia and her kind persecuted into oblivion while she was screwed out of her inheritance and framed for a bunch of crap, but she was summoned as an Avenger, a class that is literally forced to always, in every single moment of their life, remember every slight or wrong done to them. But she also just took it too far. There's no way she couldn't have known that Chernobog wouldn't just take things too far and make every living mage's life a living hell. She also didn't even seem to be very good at getting what she wanted, thrashing around rather than looking to achieve her goals.

So forgive her in the oxford definition of no longer feeling angry at someone? Sure. Accepting what she's done? No. Or perhaps I'm overthinking this.

 

[SVS]

So forgive her in the oxford definition of no longer feeling angry at someone? Sure. Accepting what she's done? No. Or perhaps I'm overthinking this.

Click to shrink...

No, I don't think you're overthinking this. I think you're thinking about it exactly as much as you should be. I imagine Homura would have some pretty complex feelings about everything that's happened.

 

[K4lepo]

So forgive her in the oxford definition of no longer feeling angry at someone? Sure. Accepting what she's done? No.

Click to shrink...

Ditto with the added caveat that dwelling on it for too long wouldn't be good for mental health. I guess that's less of forgiving and more of continuing on with your life. Don't want to fall into the trap of becoming worse than the thing you hate. Don't be a Sidonia.

 

[SVS]

Ditto with the added caveat that dwelling on it for too long wouldn't be good for mental health. I guess that's less of forgiving and more of continuing on with your life. Don't want to fall into the trap of becoming worse than the thing you hate. Don't be a Sidonia.

Click to shrink...

You know, the funny thing about this is Sidonia herself. Had we been willing to take a more reconciliatory approach to her from the start, similar to what Plague is saying should be our approach to Sidonia going forward,

I'd go as far as to forgive her somewhat, or rather, more understand her than forgive her. There is a difference between feeling for someone and accepting what they've done.

Click to shrink...

And we'd been a bit more understanding to everything she'd been through and decided to try to save her from herself, I might have even been willing to let her survive today's update and stick around so she could attempt to make amends for the things she'd done. I don't know how well that would have gone, and I don't really know what she could have done afterwards to make amends for trying to commit global genocide, but still. The thought was there.

I'm still happy with how things turned out, especially since letting Sidonia stick around after this would have defeated the whole purpose of us defeating her, but at the same time it would have fit the theme of trying to fix broken people and help them to be better than they were before.

 

[Dmol8]

I'm not sure I can help here because well I'm a misanthrope, I hate us all already to the point I suspect I might be eligible for the Avenger class, so I would just completely forgive Sidonia and never forget what she tried to do and then move on to fixing what can be fixed, healing what can be healed and then tending to recovery and living after that.

 

[NMS]

If Madoka can forgive Homura for shooting her friends in the head, then I guess Homura can at least try to forgive Sidonia for the damage she's caused.

 

[SVS]

If Madoka can forgive Homura for shooting her friends in the head, then I guess Homura can at least try to forgive Sidonia for the damage she's caused.

Click to shrink...

We did that? I don't remember Homura ever shooting any of Madoka's friends in the head in this timeline. Sure, we've told Madoka about the whole timeline thing, and she knows we've been deeply traumatised by it and had to do a lot of things the current we are uncomfortable with, but I doubt we told her all the gory details of who we've killed and how many times. Aside from what we've told her, the only things Madoka knows about the previous timelines is whatever she's seen of her other selves' memories in her dreams, but that's entirely from her own perspective.

Plus, that's not fair. You are literally saying "Well, if the nicest person to ever exist can forgive someone, then maybe we can too".

 

[Dmol8]

We did that? I don't remember Homura ever shooting any of Madoka's friends in the head in this timeline. Sure, we've told Madoka about the whole timeline thing, and she knows we've been deeply traumatised by it and had to do a lot of things the current we are uncomfortable with, but I doubt we told her all the gory details of who we've killed and how many times. Aside from what we've told her, the only things Madoka knows about the previous timelines is whatever she's seen of her other selves' memories in her dreams, but that's entirely from her own perspective.

Plus, that's not fair. You are literally saying "Well, if the nicest person to ever exist can forgive someone, then maybe we can too".

Click to shrink...

Well actually since Madoka is Homura's girlfriend and Homura has been trying to be better Homura should want to forgive Sidonia because at this point she should be introspective enough to know that under different circumstances she could have been a Sidonia.

 

[ramm26438]

Well actually since Madoka is Homura's girlfriend and Homura has been trying to be better Homura should want to forgive Sidonia because at this point she should be introspective enough to know that under different circumstances she could have been a Sidonia.

Click to shrink...

If you want Homura to forgive her because of similar circumstances that somewhat ok. Also being better doesn't mean she has to forgive someone.

But Sidonia definitely shouldn't be forgiven because just Homura is getting back with Modoka.

 

[Dmol8]

If you want Homura to forgive her because of similar circumstances that somewhat ok. Also being better doesn't mean she has to forgive someone.

But Sidonia definitely shouldn't be forgiven because just Homura is getting back with Modoka.

Click to shrink...

I was talking about Homura being self-aware enough at this point to be able to guess she is capable of something like what she did in Rebellion under the wrong circumstances and realizing that Sidonia was in her own version of the wrong circumstances.

 

[SVS]

The next time you open your eyes, you find yourself back in the real world. The combined Noble Phantasm of Archer, Caster, and Ramesses has collapsed, and you find yourself, Tomoe-san, and Wakaba Mirai lying face-up on the broken ground. Your body feels heavy, and it's a chore to even lift yourself up enough to take a look at the damage all around you. It's brutal; the fight against Sidonia devastated a sizeable chunk of this part of the city, and only a few scattered houses along the northwest bank on this side of the river – and the school, somehow but miraculously – are left intact. Tomoe-san's apartment building is half of its former height, with the roof and upper floors all caved in, and structural damage to the interior, combined with the weight of the rubble on top of the damaged support structures, has left the remaining floors sagging.

The replica of a centuries-old brick church which stood over Sidonia's workshop and Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed is now gone, and presumably, with its master gone so is the workshop and everything else Sidonia built underground.

"Are we alive this time?" you hear Wakaba Mirai groan, as she too sits up with great difficulty. Well, at least the rest of your allies are alive, even if Sidonia isn't. "Please tell me we're alive this time."

"I believe we are in fact alive this time, Wakaba-san," Tomoe-san says. "Now, it's up to us to rebuild."

You aren't even sure where to start. There's so much rubble all around you, and you aren't even sure which parts once went to which buildings. You see Kyouko approaching Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai, and she squats down in the middle between the two of them. Her hands drape over each of their shoulders, and she says "You two did real good today," before gesturing to you with her head and adding "Hey Spooky, you wanna get in this? It ain't much, but I got room in my cold, dead heart fer one more hug."

"I'll pass," you say. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer, but if that's really the last hug you have on offer I'd hate to steal it from Sayaka."

"Nah, Blueberry won't mind," Kyouko says. "'Cause when I see her, I'm gunna give her something wa~ay better'n a hug." So, in lieu of you, Kyouko gestures over to Hitomi, and calls out "Hey Seaweed, ya handled yerself pretty good out there today. Fer a newbie, I mean. You wanna hug?"

"I suppose a hug would not be unappreciated," Hitomi says. "Certainly it would help to calm my nerves after… That."

Kyouko barely has to wait for further invitation before she throws herself at Hitomi, wrapping both arms around the green-haired girl in a hug that's more intense than either of the ones she gave to Tomoe-san and Wakaba Mirai. "Fuckin' A, Seaweed, I'm glad yer okay. If anything'd happened to ya, I… It'd been my fault fer not doing a better job'a protecting ya."

"I'm fine, Sakura-san," Hitomi says. "A little shaken up after… All of that, but fortunately, I'm unharmed."

You barely have a moment to appreciate the scene in front of you before Kirika comes in and wraps her arms around you as well. "We did it, sis," she says. "Well, you did it, I mean. There's no way we could have won if you hadn't been there to hold hands with all our mana at the end there."

"Then isn't it fairer to say that we all did it?" you ask. "After all, I couldn't have done that without all of you there to hold hands with."

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Akemi-san." You feel Kirika's arms leave your side as Oriko's voice enters your ears. When you turn to greet Oriko, Kirika has already wrapped her arms around her. "This was a victory for all of us. For our ability to come together to defeat a common enemy." Oriko pauses, and lets out a slight chuckle as she adds "I really do hate if I sound a bit on-the-nose by saying so, but it's true. Just like when we fought Walpurgisnacht, there's no way any one of us could have defeated Sidonia by herself."

You would have agreed with Oriko no matter what, but as you look out and see the two halves of your team – two halves which, until recently, had been at each other's throats – coming together in the aftermath of your victory together, you find yourself amazed that such a victory even occurred in the first place. You see Kyouko hanging out and chatting with Wakaba Mirai, as Tomoe-san and Asami Saki look on, occasionally saying a few words to each other as well. Their conversation is indistinct to you, but seeing those two able to sit down and talk amicably about anything would have been unthinkable even just a few days ago. If you had to guess, you'd even say it looks like they're on the road to becoming friends.

You see Kazumi and Kanna Niko over by Nightingale and Hijiri Kanna: another success story. She might be down two limbs and confined to a seated position, a piece of rubble acting as both her backrest and the mount for an IV drip of blood that Nightingale has her hooked to, but Hijiri Kanna actually looks better than she did when she was living with Tomoe-san. The fact that she's speaking with her creator and there's not a trace of anger or resentment in her face says it all. You even see Kazumi lean in to hug her, though you can't hear their conversation to know the reason why.

"Speaking of Walpurgisnacht…" You wonder what's going to happen to the massive Grief Seed that's buried dozens of meters underground, now that Sidonia isn't there to keep it. Even with Sidonia gone, it's still there, slowly seeping Grief into the soil and water tables. You can't just leave it there, but, "What about the Grief Seed? We can't leave it there, but it's not like we have the ability to move it, either, so…?"

"If you can manage to excavate the Leviathan Seed for me, I would be entirely willing to dispose of it for you." You turn your head when you hear that voice, but then remember that it's all in your head. You don't need to be facing Juubey in order to speak with it. "You and your allies did an admirable job in dealing with this… Event," Juubey says. "The Collective has means of disposing of Leviathan Seeds such as this one, but this one being underground, combined with my predecessor's focus being elsewhere, has prevented us from dealing with this properly."

"Thank you," you say to Juubey. Even that is a marvel to you. Before this, the thought that you would ever willingly thank the Incubator for anything would have sounded foreign to you, but now you're saying it with a genuine sense of gratitude. "I don't know how we're going to excavate it, but I'll figure something out if I can."

"Maybe Shizuki and I could figure something out?" The offer comes from Kanna Niko, who has left her previous conversation with her homunculus to address your concerns. "Between our combined transmutation magic, I'm sure the both of us could figure something out that would have it properly excavated. Maybe we could even do some work on restoring the city, if Juubey wasn't already planning on doing damage control?"

"Lancer and I could help out as well," Kazumi offers. "If I knew what and where to blow up, I could help make the digging go smoother, and then Lancer could help by either hypnotising people to not think we were being suspicious, or to power the rest of us up while we're working so we don't get tired." Next to her master, Scáthach nods her head, and Kazumi asks "Did you want to go say hi to your sister?"

Scáthach nods her head, and Kazumi sends her off, before allowing Kanna Niko to nudge Juubey into answering her earlier question. "The amount of damage that needs to be covered up is substantial. Without significant assistance, I do not think it would be possible," Juubey says. "If there are any among your combined rosters who can undo some of this damage, it would be more feasible for me to lend my assistance in covering everything up."

"Then I suppose we don't have much of a choice," Hitomi says. "Niko-san, I suppose we'll be working together for the foreseeable future."

"Sakura, Illya, and I can probably help as well," Tohsaka-san says. "Not so much with the repairs – I mean, sure, we can do that too – but more with covering this all up. Two entire cities don't just get blown up like this without anybody noticing." Tohsaka-san turns to you in particular, and says "Akemi, you and your girls will need someone on your side playing damage control. Not just with covering this up, but with smoothing things over with the Association. There's no way they're just going to let this slide. Not this time."

"Sister and I will do what we can to smooth things over," Matou Sakura says. "I don't have anywhere as much pull as she does, but the Matou name does still command a level of respect among the older families. I'll see if Grandfather has any connections I can use to help smooth things over."

Aunt Illya nods her head; "And don't think I'll just leave you all out to dry either," she says. "I'm not about to let the Association mess with my adorable little nieces." Aunt Illya gives you and Kirika as big of a smile as she can manage. "Sure, maybe that sounds selfish of me, but I really don't care. The Association can stuff it, and if they think they get to mess with my Big Brother's family, then they can just deal with Berserker. He'll set them straight."

You find yourself wondering, amidst all of this, what your own home is going to look like. One of Sidonia's massive serpents – a nigh-unkillable behemoth only put down for good by Nurse Ortensia – was held off near your apartment building by Berserker, Boudica, and Medusa. But the damage done to the area must be a sight to behold. You wonder how long it'll be before your family is able to move back into the building.

If at all. It might be time to consider moving to another place, one that'll have enough room for all four of you if Kirika ends up having to move back in permanently.

"Homura, Kirika, if you're both ready, we should be heading out soon." Archer's voice draws you out of your musing, and reminds you that this isn't your final appointment of the day. "I promised Minako that we'd meet her at her parents' place as soon as we were done here."

Kirika is the first to jump at the invitation. "All right," she says, before turning to Oriko and asking "You were gonna come with us, right Oriko? Come on, I know grandma and grandpa would love meeting you!"

Oriko looks to Archer, who gives her a silent nod of his head. "Sure, you can come with us if you want to," he says to Oriko, before adding for your mind only, "We'll talk about how grounded Kirika is once Minako knows we're all safe." "But Kirika-" Archer stops Kirika just short of dragging Oriko along with her. "When we're at your grandparents' place, I don't want to see any funny business from you and Oriko, got it? Nothing your mother and I wouldn't approve of."

"I understand, daddy," Kirika says with a roll of her eyes. "I'll behave; promise." Archer gives Kirika a looks, but says nothing, and Kirika turns to you to say "Come on, let's get going."

"Dearest, wait up," Oriko says. "Let me at least say goodbye to Caren-san first." It takes a great deal of effort for Oriko to pry her wrist out of Kirika's iron grip, but she does, and goes to her cousin. "Caren-san, thank you so much for everything you've done this past month," Oriko says to Nurse Ortensia. "For agreeing to fight on our side when it looked like there would be our War between our two sides, and agreeing to contribute yourself and Assassin in the fight against Sidonia." Oriko gives her cousin a hug, and to your surprise she even does the same for Assassin, hugging her despite the obvious look of protest on Assassin's face. "Thank you both so much. We couldn't have done it without your help."

"It was nothing," Nurse Ortensia says. "Really. I was just fulfilling my duties as a member of the Church, overseeing your girls' little Grail War, and dealing with a rogue witch. I would have done it for anyone, family or not."

"Still, it means a lot to me, knowing that you were there." Finally, Oriko gets the message, and she removes herself from Assassin's waist. She bows, and says to them "Again, thank you so much for your help, Caren-san; and Assassin, I hope everything goes well for you and your sister in the future." Oriko gives her cousin and Assassin a wave goodbye, and goes to join you, Archer, and Kirika. All appears well as the four of you head off together, until a thought strikes Oriko, and she turns to you, asking "Akemi-san, whatever happened to those little familiars of yours that looked like us?"

Oh. You'd almost forgotten about them.

"I… Don't actually know," you say. "I sent them out and told them to go reinforce our other positions, and then they just… Disappeared on me, and I don't know where they went off to."

"That's a shame," Oriko says. "The one that looks like Kirika is really such a cutie." You can almost see steam coming out of the real Kirika's ears as Oriko praises her creepy miniature doppelganger. "I'd love to have been able to see her again before we left."

"I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances to see them again," you say. If they're so unruly that they'll even come out when you haven't made an effort to call for them, you have a feeling that you'll definitely be seeing more of them in the future. "But, don't get too attached. I don't want them thinking they can disobey orders and still get rewarded for it."

Oriko almost looks defeated, until an alarming "What the heck…?" from Maki Kaoru draws your and Oriko's attentions, and she calls out to you, "Hey, Akemi, is that what I think it is?"

You look, and "It is… Somehow." You see your five familiars, made in the image of you and your closest friends and allies, marching a captured and very beaten up Hans Christian Andersen towards you. He looks… Different, from what you had been expecting. He's a child – a literal child – with shaggy blue hair, and dishevelled clothes that are also coloured in blue. You had heard from Archer that he was small, but the picture you're seeing now is a far cry from the image your mind's eye painted for you. Your five familiars come to a stop, presenting you with Misaki Umika's former Caster servant as though they were soldiers delivering a POW to their commanding officer, and you say "Well. I can't say I was expecting this," to the tune of their gleeful, childlike snickering.

"Caster?" The blue-haired Caster shies away from Kazumi's gaze. "Umika, Niko, look! It's Caster!"

The blue-haired Caster snorts through his nostrils as Maki kaoru directs his former master's attention over to him, and says in a voice you were not expecting a child to possess "I suppose you'll be getting rid of me, then." It's a deep, arrogant drawl, and its sound almost reminds you of the sound of Ramesses' voice. "Not much else to be done with me after all of this. Between Kazusa Michiru rejecting my Noble Phantasm, to my assisting that awful woman, I don't suppose there'd be any love lost by my absence. All my faults considered, I daresay there's hardly a reason for my continued existence."

Your eyes turn to Kazumi. You know in most situations, she'd be a more lenient master than you, but after today you just don't have the heart to take any amount of anger out on anyone. This little blue creature has barely done anything to harm you, outside of some nebulously-defined assistance given to Sidonia that might not have constituted anything more than giving her the proper summoning circle with which she summoned Gudrun. But for that? You just don't have it in you to be angry. "I'll leave it to Kazumi to decide what happens to you," you say to the blue-haired Caster. "I've had enough killing for one day."

You'll leave Hans Christian Andersen to his fate, whatever that may be, and you say to Archer and Kirika "Come on, let's go let mom know we're okay." You're just about to leave, when you remember to bring someone else along with you. Five someone elses, as a matter of fact. "You five come along as well," you say to your quintet of familiars. They look to each other, and it almost looks as though they're unsure whether or not they actually want to follow you. You sigh, and roll your eyes as you say "We can discuss your reward for capturing Hans later." True, they disobeyed your orders when they took off rather than going to help reinforce Tomoe-san and Kirika's positions, but they did succeed in capturing a vital member of Sidonia's team, and possibly prevented him from assisting her in God-knows-what manner.

So maybe they can still get the juice and hugs you promised them.

As if sensing your resignation, your gaggle of familiars follow behind you, giggling to themselves the entire way; "And make sure you disappear before we get to the train station," you say to them. "I don't want to risk anyone seeing you."

Fortunately, nobody sees them, and the commute up to Kirika's grandparents' place in Shirome goes off without incident. The train ride northwest takes about the same length of time as if you were going to visit Oriko, and is spent mostly in silence. Not for a lack of trying on anyone's part: Kirika especially tries to get the four of you talking. But you just don't have the energy, and you don't even know what you have to say. Your mind is still spinning in the aftermath of everything that's taken place this morning.

Had this fight been as simple as the one you fought against Walpurgisnacht a year and a half ago, you wouldn't have so many disparate thoughts about what happened. But because of what happened in the space between words, you find you've developed a more complex and complicated picture of Sidonia than what you initially thought. If that experience on the boundary of life and death hadn't happened, you probably would have been content to remain angry at her for everything she had done. She destroyed two entire cities, left thousands sick and dying, and tried to wipe out the vast majority of human life on the planet. It would have been easy to continue to hate her.

But is there even really a point in hating her now?

She's gone, presumably – hopefully – forever, and perhaps she's even found herself in a better place this time around than the first time she died. The fact that it might still be possible for someone else to summon her as an Avenger somewhere down the line gives you pause for concern, but maybe what she experienced in that place will have changed her for the better the next time she's summoned. You aren't in any great hurry to find out, but you find that you can't really bring yourself to hate her anymore. Yes, her actions caused you and so many others a great deal of harm, and whether you ever see Sidonia von Borchk again or not you have no plans to forget the things she's done to cause you harm, but what would be the point of hating her now?

What's the point of hating someone who isn't even alive to harm you anymore?

"Hey, sis, I asked you a question." You can afford to cut your musing short in order to pay attention to what Kirika is saying. "I asked if you've told Pinkie yet that we won."

"No, not yet," you say. It's not that you forgot. You don't know if your mind would have been in the right place to speak to Madoka. You still aren't sure if you're ready, or if your thoughts are still so distracted that it's better for you to wait until you've had time to clear your head a bit better. "But I should probably get on that, thank you for reminding me."

Maybe talking to Madoka is exactly what you need to do for your mind to be at peace.

You look up to your father, and he gives you a silent nod of his head. You aren't grounded, not yet. So, with his silent permission, you take out your phone, and you dial Madoka's number.

Your heart's beat slows to a crawl, only pumping on each of the three rings it takes for Madoka to pick up, and it's not until you hear her voice as it calls your name that your heartbeat returns to normal "Homura-chan? Is it… Is it over?"

"Yeah," you say to Madoka. Your mind isn't yet made calm, but hearing Madoka's voice has at least put it at peace. "It's over, Madoka. We won."

"I'm glad to hear that, Homura-chan. Are you…" Madoka's voice trails off for a moment, and it takes her a few seconds before she finds it again. "Did you want to get back together yet, or are you still grounded?"

"Archer allowed me to call you to let you know we'd won, but I imagine my punishment will be starting as soon as I hang up the phone." As much as you'd like to stay like this forever, to take advantage of your father's generosity and never let this conversation come to an end, you can't. Even though he's giving you some leeway by letting you call Madoka, you can still feel your father's gaze bearing down on you. "But, once I'm no longer grounded, I'd really like to take you out somewhere nice. I'm not sure where, just yet, but I'll have plenty of time to figure that out."

"I'd like that, Homura-chan. I'll be looking forward to getting to see you again."

"So will I, Madoka," you say. "But until then, I guess we'll have to settle for seeing each other in school." Madoka's voice trails off with a content-sounding "Mhm," and you say to her "Take care, Madoka. I'll see you at school." Whenever school is set to start up again.

"See you at school, Homura-chan."

You hang up, and with a sigh you hand your phone over to Archer. You don't even both trying to prolong this by returning your phone to your pocket. "It's just until the holidays," Archer says. "I know it'll feel like forever, but if you're on your best behaviour, you'll only be grounded for two months."

But you still know how long two months can feel.

The train comes to a stop at the Shirome station, and the four of you disembark. You look around the station as you get off: it's empty. The four of you are the only people coming from Mitakihara. It's amazing the trains were even running today at all, you think. The Japanese public transit system is a damn miracle.

You've only visited Kirika's grandparents in their home a handful of times. Most of the time, they've come to visit you at your apartment, though even then they've only visited a handful of times more than you've visited them. They're nice people, but for how infrequently you've met them they almost feel like strangers to you, even if they're technically your grandparents now. Their house is in a nice location, and it's a nice house, all things considered. Nowhere near as fancy as the mansion where Oriko lives, but it's a decent, comfortable house all the same.

As you approach the front door, you can hear voices inside having a rather animated conversation, though you only manage to catch the tail end of it.

"Really, Minako, that Archer boy left you to visit us all by yourself, and didn't even let you bring your daughters with you? What the heck must be going through his mind? Are you sure everything's all right between the two of you? You know, one of my employees has a son about your age. If things aren't working out, I'm sure he-"

"It's not like that, father. Everything is fine between us. Archer loves the girls, and I'm not about to disrupt things for them just because you think there's trouble in paradise. Kirika's already had to lose one father, I'm not going to make her lose another."

"Well, then why isn't he here with you? Why'd you feel like you had to come running to us and not bring the girls?"

"I told you, dad, it just worked out that way. Archer had some business he needed to take care of. He said he'd be bringing the girls along with him as soon as he was done."

Now seems like as good a time as any to interrupt, before your mother's parents get any more bad ideas about Archer. Fortunately, Archer is one step ahead of you. Before you can make a move to, he knocks on the front door, and you hear your mother's voice saying "See? That's problem them right now." You hear shuffling as the sound of footsteps approach, and the door opens- "Goodness, what took you all so long?"

Your mother's voice carries an undercurrent of worry behind it, and as quickly as you hear it, your mother crouches down, wrapping her arms around you and Kirika as tightly as she can manage. "I've been waiting forever to see you girls again." But under her breath, she whispers "Is it over?" just softly enough that her parents can't hear her.

"Yeah," you whisper back. "It's over."

"We missed you, mommy," Kirika says, nuzzling up close to Minako's face, trying to hog all of your mother's attention away from you. "How are grandma and grandpa doing?"

"Why don't you ask them yourself?" Minako says, releasing you and Kirika as she moves to embrace Archer next. She kisses him, with maybe a bit more passion than is necessary, but after what you heard you're sure your mother is just putting on a show for them. "Hey there, handsome," she says to Archer. "Did my girls behave themselves while I was gone?"

"About as well as could be expected of them," Archer replies.

As soon as her point has been made, Minako releases Archer, and she gestures for the three of you to join her. "Well, don't just stand there, come on in," she says. Catching sight of your fourth guest, she even adds "Oh, and you brought Oriko, too," before turning to her parents. "Mother, father, Kirika brought a guest. Is that okay?"

Kirika's grandparents exchange glances, and once they've reached a consensus, her grandfather says "If it's someone special to Kirika, then I don't see why not," before asking, to no one in particular "Who is it, by the way?"

Oriko bows for Kirika's grandparents, and introduces herself. "My name is Mikuni Oriko," she says. "I'm Kirika's girlfriend. I'm grateful for the chance to finally meet the both of you."

"Ah, so this is Oriko," you hear Kirika's grandmother saying. "Well, come in dearie, don't be a stranger. It's so good to finally meet you."

For as much of a stranger as Kirika's grandparents feel to you, those words are as much an invitation for you to enter as they are for Oriko. Kirika is already inside, and you can hear her chatting up her grandfather while you and Oriko take your shoes off at the door. You feel your mother smiling on you as you enter, and as you and Oriko pass by her on your way inside, she says "I'm sure you girls did a great job out there."

Archer nods his head. "They did good out there today," he says to Minako, as she smiles at his words.

"I'm glad to hear that." You walk beside your mother, with Archer following closely behind, as the three of you approach the living room table, where Oriko, Kirika, and her grandparents are already waiting. Addressing you and Archer as much as she is Oriko and Kirika, Minako says "Now, I'll bet you're all hungry after the morning you've had." Breakfast was only an hour or two ago, and yet when your mother speaks, you suddenly realise just how hungry you are. "Lunch won't be for another couple of hours, but mom made cookies when I told her you'd be coming over later."

Kirika perks up at the mention of cookies, her eyes sparkling like it's her birthday, Halloween, and Christmas all rolled into one; and that's enough for Minako. "Just don't eat so many that your appetite is ruined for lunch," she says to Kirika.

While Kirika skips off into the kitchen to grab her promised cookies, you take a seat on the couch, tentatively sitting down beside the woman who is technically your grandmother. "Goodness, Homura, it's been months since the last time we got to see you," she says. "Tell me all about what you've been up to since the last time we got to see you. Are you doing well in school? Looking forward to entering high school next year? How's that Kaname girl treating you? You two planning on going to the same high school together, like Kirika did with Oriko?"

Oriko offers a sheepish smile for Kirika's grandmother. You can tell she's trying not to be an imposition, but all hope of that is dashed when Kirika's grandmother gestures to her, and says "Come sit down, dearie, don't think you're a stranger here or anything. Kirika's told us all about you."

"Well, if you insist," Oriko says, opting not to take a seat on the couch, but in the chair across the table from you and Kirika's grandmother. She smiles for Oriko, and her smile only brightens when she sees Kirika returning from the kitchen with the tray of cookies in her hand. Oriko reaches for one, offering up a curt "Thank you, dearest," for Kirika as she set the plate down on the table.

"Now then, Homura, you were saying?" Kirika's grandmother says.

"Well…"

This may not be your home. It's the house of two people who, for as infrequently as you see them, might as well be strangers to you, were it not for them being the parents of your adoptive mother. But this doesn't have to be your home for it to still be home. Home isn't where your house is. Home isn't located in the building where you and your family live. Home is where your family is, regardless of where you are. Right now, this may not be your home, but because it's where your family is, it's still home to you.

You draw in a deep breath as you continue regaling your grandmother with stories of what you and Kirika have been up to lately, and a smile creeps its way up the corners of your mouth. "Well, I'm home," you say to yourself.
​

Day 30 Complete​

 

[SVS]

And that's day 30, capping itself off with the single longest anything I've ever written for both the original and the sequel, somehow the final update managed to dethrone the Halloween omake, which was supposed to be an entire afternoon unto itself. Maybe it would have been smarter to split this up into two updates, but as long as I posted them in the same day it's not like there would have been much of a point. I suppose I could have posted the second half tomorrow, but I've got an omake planned, and I didn't want either the second half or the omake to overshadow the other. So, we get this massive goodbye update instead.

There's a lot going on with this one, and there damn well better be, considering I spent half of today working on this one. We're saying our goodbyes to all the people who have helped us along the way, saying hello to grandma and grandpa, and we even found out what happened to Hans and our Grief Quintet, too.

I'm not sure whether it's a better idea to ask it now, or to ask it tomorrow. It's fairly late where I am, and by the time you read this it'll probably be fairly late for you as well if you're; but tomorrow (or today, depending on what time zone you're in) is Christmas, and while I do have an omake planned to grab your attention, I don't expect to have more of your attention than whatever other holiday activities you have planned. So I guess the best solution would be to ask this of you both tonight and today.

@PlaguePaladin, @NMS, @K4lepo, you three have managed what feels like the unthinkable, and stuck with me on this journey from 1-1 of the sequel until now. Since there's nothing else I can realistically give you as a reward, I'm proposing that I write each of you an omake of your choice. It can be anything you want to see from me. Any character(s) from the sequel, any situation you'd like to see them in. Within reason, of course. I don't plan on writing another 5k+ omake just as a reward. But as long as it's within reason, you can request any omake of me, and I'll write it. Christmas and New Years' themes are off the table, however, as is January 7th (I have my own plans for an omake to celebrate the 12th anniversary of Madoka Magica episode 1) but aside from that, it's all you.

 

[NMS]

Merry Christmas, SVS. Your work is a wonderful present.

 

[SVS]

Merry Christmas, SVS. Your work is a wonderful present.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. That sentiment is why I'm offering you, Plague, and K4lepo personalised omakes as Christmas presents. Because it's the only thing I can give you to reward you all for sticking with me this whole time. But the actual Christmas update comes tomorrow. Obviously. It's not Christmas yet.

 

[NMS]

Well, if I have to pick something. My mind immediately went to some sort of follow up to that bit where we threaten to make Mami go ice skating with Gil if she couldn't find a date by the time winter came around.

But thinking about it more, I think I'd prefer a what-if scenario, if that's alright. A glimpse at what it would have been like if Atalanta contracted with Madoka after she ditched the Saints.

 

[PlaguePaladin]

Merry Christmas, SVS. Your work is a wonderful present.

Click to shrink...

Verily. You preach true, honest words. Merry Christmas, guys. Couldn't have done it without you. Wait, that's probably a line reserved for SVS. Ah, whatever...

It can be anything you want to see from me. Any character(s) from the sequel, any situation you'd like to see them in.

Click to shrink...

Uh... I'm stuck between a Disco Elysium-style conversation between Homura and someone else (unlikely, you probably don't know much about DE and there aren't a lot of complex social situations in this quest plus it doesn't really fit thematically, and I'm pretty sure working on a DE style quest is influencing my decision-making).

Or I can be sane and non-demanding and ask for what I suggested last Christmas, that is, Minako and Archer having a very awkward meet-up with present-day Shirou. The latter, probably. The former would probably get bloated and would be pretty hard to pull off, while the latter is actually relevant to the story in a way and would be both easy and fun.

 

[Dmol8]

Day 30 Complete

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Why does this link to a model railroads video?

And that's day 30, capping itself off with the single longest anything I've ever written for both the original and the sequel, somehow the final update managed to dethrone the Halloween omake, which was supposed to be an entire afternoon unto itself. Maybe it would have been smarter to split this up into two updates, but as long as I posted them in the same day it's not like there would have been much of a point. I suppose I could have posted the second half tomorrow, but I've got an omake planned, and I didn't want either the second half or the omake to overshadow the other. So, we get this massive goodbye update instead.

There's a lot going on with this one, and there damn well better be, considering I spent half of today working on this one. We're saying our goodbyes to all the people who have helped us along the way, saying hello to grandma and grandpa, and we even found out what happened to Hans and our Grief Quintet, too.

I'm not sure whether it's a better idea to ask it now, or to ask it tomorrow. It's fairly late where I am, and by the time you read this it'll probably be fairly late for you as well if you're; but tomorrow (or today, depending on what time zone you're in) is Christmas, and while I do have an omake planned to grab your attention, I don't expect to have more of your attention than whatever other holiday activities you have planned. So I guess the best solution would be to ask this of you both tonight and today.

@PlaguePaladin, @NMS, @K4lepo, you three have managed what feels like the unthinkable, and stuck with me on this journey from 1-1 of the sequel until now. Since there's nothing else I can realistically give you as a reward, I'm proposing that I write each of you an omake of your choice. It can be anything you want to see from me. Any character(s) from the sequel, any situation you'd like to see them in. Within reason, of course. I don't plan on writing another 5k+ omake just as a reward. But as long as it's within reason, you can request any omake of me, and I'll write it. Christmas and New Years' themes are off the table, however, as is January 7th (I have my own plans for an omake to celebrate the 12th anniversary of Madoka Magica episode 1) but aside from that, it's all you.

Click to shrink...

Wait so I accidentally get a belated Christmas present too?

Cause I live in Serbia where Christmas is on the 7th of January 2023 this time.

Thank you. That sentiment is why I'm offering you, Plague, and K4lepo personalised omakes as Christmas presents. Because it's the only thing I can give you to reward you all for sticking with me this whole time. But the actual Christmas update comes tomorrow. Obviously. It's not Christmas yet.

Click to shrink...

Well I am replying to you from the 25th of December 2022 right now...I think I'm still sleepy you guys. I'm going back to bed.

 

[SVS]

But thinking about it more, I think I'd prefer a what-if scenario, if that's alright. A glimpse at what it would have been like if Atalanta contracted with Madoka after she ditched the Saints.

Click to shrink...

I'll be honest, that's a little bit off the beaten path of what I was expecting someone to pick. And it's a tough one, because Atalanta died on Day 15, but there would still have been half of a sequel left to go at that point. A lot could happen in 15 days, and without additional consideration from you I don't know how I'd make that work. Is there a certain point at which you'd like me to focus on? A certain day? Certain interactions between them and possibly anybody else?

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm nixxing this right after I said I'd do anything. But you came right out of the gate with a puzzle, and I'm not quite sure how I'd tackle it since there's so much that could have possibly changed because of it.

Uh... I'm stuck between a Disco Elysium-style conversation between Homura and someone else (unlikely, you probably don't know much about DE and there aren't a lot of complex social situations in this quest plus it doesn't really fit thematically, and I'm pretty sure working on a DE style quest is influencing my decision-making).

Click to shrink...

I... Don't know what Disco Elysium is, and I don't know what a "Disco Elysium-style" conversation is supposed to be like. For some reason, I'm imagining something that's very Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but I have no idea why, since I've never read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and don't know what that looks like either. Mind elaborating more?

Why does this link to a model railroads video?

Click to shrink...

Short answer? No fucking clue. I'll go fix that now, thank you for point it out to me.

Wait so I accidentally get a belated Christmas present too?

Cause I live in Serbia where Christmas is on the 7th of January 2023 this time.

Click to shrink...

Huh. Well, I guess you get a Christmas present also, in that case.

 

[NMS]

I'll be honest, that's a little bit off the beaten path of what I was expecting someone to pick. And it's a tough one, because Atalanta died on Day 15, but there would still have been half of a sequel left to go at that point. A lot could happen in 15 days, and without additional consideration from you I don't know how I'd make that work. Is there a certain point at which you'd like me to focus on? A certain day? Certain interactions between them and possibly anybody else?

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm nixxing this right after I said I'd do anything. But you came right out of the gate with a puzzle, and I'm not quite sure how I'd tackle it since there's so much that could have possibly changed because of it.

Click to shrink...

Hmm... let's go with their first actual meeting? And maybe a bit of the Saint's reaction to us saying we couldn't send her back to them during negotiations because Atalanta already found a new master?