Renascence: A Homura Quest

I've...not been very productive lately. Don't know if it's just because quarantine's been bad for my self-discipline, or if I've just been too invested in other things, but this has been a long time coming.

I am currently working on new systems to greatly increase the pace of the quest after this day ends, but I hope you all enjoy this, at least.

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[][Sayaka] Save Kirika.
[][Homura] Abuse Time Stop to do everything you can.
-[][Homura] Rain as much firepower as possible down on Gertrud, with maximum Power and Damage Enchantment.

(Sayaka POV)
Homura pauses for a split second, like I've seen her do so many times before in moments of crisis.

'We need to get the others and run. We can't fight that thing.' That's what I want to tell her. I can feel something pressing into me, pulling at me, trying to twist me. If my body weren't reinforced right now, I'm not sure I would still be alive. I already know her answer, though. I can see it in her eyes, in her posture. She's going to fight.

'You need to run, Sayaka. Make her see sense. Take Homura and flee. You can't save everyone.' Sensei's voice is cold and harsh, but I know he's trying to save me.

'I may not be able to save Matoko, but I can save more than just Homura. I can save Kirika, Oriko, and everyone this Witch will consume.'

'Can you save your mother from the grief of losing her only child?'

For a moment, I hesitate. Then I look at the couple fighting for their lives. I think of the people outside this place, enjoying a day at the gardens. Their families. Their friends. Everyone that Matoko is going to hurt if we don't stop her.

The image of Mom crying in our kitchen still hurts, but it's not as scary, weighed against everything else I can imagine.

'And you? This is your life. Your future. Everything. You're gambling everything on this fight. On trusting Homura's judgement.'

'This IS my life, Sensei. If I don't spend it saving others, then I'll spend it on regret.' His scoff is audible inside my mind, but I know he approves of my choice. Deep down, at least.

"Save Kirika. I'll deal with Gertrud." Homura's command is quick and cold, but I can see the fear in her faintly widened, dilated eyes, and I can see the faint shaking of her body. Blood drips from her mouth as she speaks; I'd never heard such a horrible scream until today.

I look her in the eye, and I can't keep the rising terror from my voice, "Don't die! Please!"

For a moment, I am stricken by the imagining of a world without Homura. It wasn't that long ago that was true, but now…

If she's not here, how can I be worth anything? How can I save her if she dies? How can I be her Hero, if I don't save her now?

Her lips quirk upwards, in what passes for a smile from her--I know, by now, how hard it is to get more than that--and she rests a hand on my shoulder. Around us, the world turns grey.

"I won't die here, Sayaka. I need you to live through this too." Her voice is warm--the same warmth I hear in it when we play games together, or when we're hanging out at home, or sharing ice cream, or doing homework with Madoka, or any of those other precious moments together. It's faint, but it's real. More real than the façade she was wearing when you first met her, or the politeness she shows with strangers, or when she's in the middle of combat.

'Are you willing to let her down, Sakaya Miki?'

'No.'

'Then you should make sure you get out of this alive.' His voice is light, almost teasing, but I understand. I can't afford to throw myself away to win this. I'll save everyone but Matoko--even myself.

'Good.'

Homura vanishes, and I feel myself suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled off my feet as she picks me up in her arms, her gaze firmly focused on Kirika as she begins leaping across the battlefield, narrowly avoiding touching the horde of familiars before setting me down next to Kirika, "I'll be back."

She vanishes again, and the world explodes with a deafening roar. I stagger back from the force, even as Kirika blinks in surprise. Around us, Familiars scatter into dust as Homura appears across the battlefield off to the left of the Witch, little more than a silhouette in the smoke, holding a gigantic gun almost casually in one hand.

From behind her, two more of those missiles from before rocket out of the cloud, parting the smoke around them as they fly for Gertrud, only to be intercepted by two of the pairs of shears emerging from the Witch's body on chains, exploding before they can reach Gertrud herself.

"At least she broke the shears." Kirika says from beside me, her voice a low growl, flourishing her claws, "But--"

The ratatat of machine gun fire erupts without warning from every direction, and I whip my head around before I can think, trying to find where it's coming from. The smoke's too dense, though--it's like it's just firing from nowhere at all. Gertrud raises her hands in response, and a dense hedge of rose bushes is born from the ground around her, the plants literally growing and blooming right in front of me, and somehow blocking the bullets like steel, instead of bushes. I get the feeling I'm going to get used to this kind of thing, though.

A loud, mechanical buzzing overwhelms the sounds of the guns, and I turn to see Homura engaging personally, raising the massive rotary gun and loosing a seemingly endless hail of bullets, each one blowing gaping holes in the thick hedge, where the rounds of the machine guns only pinged off.

Gertrud's unending scream is punctuated by brief moments of silence, and you know that she's taking fire. Is this--

"ABOVE YOU!!!"

Oriko's scream cuts through your thoughts, and you look up quickly, sword already prepared as a fresh horde of familiars drops down from a hole in the ceiling, all of them armored and armed with spears, save a half dozen which carry watering cans.

They're falling too fast. You can cut probably kill some, but you'll be slaughtered if you try to face them like this--even with Kirika generally being a blender next to you.

You take a deep breath and focus, pulling Prana from inside of you--your Od, or so Sensei called it originally, though he's stopped using the term lately--and pushing it outwards through your circuits, forcing it into the sword in your hands.

'I really hope I'm doing this right…'

A small mechanism in the middle of the blade whirs to life as the two fire strikers within begin to spin and clash. Sparks blossom into fire and I call out one of its names.

"Kusanagi no Tsurugi!(Burning of the Fields)"

I swing the blade upwards with all my strength, pouring my fading reservoir of Prana into it, and an ocean of fire sweeps out to slam into the familiars.

Only to be met by a matching torrent, as the watering-can-wielding familiars point them like rifles and spray a deluge of unnatural-looking blue "water" into the flames. For a moment, the fires endure, and burn away a number of the other familiars, but the Witch's countermeasure eventually prevails, leaving the rest to land upon us unharmed.

I swing for the nearest one, Kusanagi no Tsurugi no longer aflame, and cut through it, but two more get close unscathed and shove their spears into my shoulder and chest.

The world begins to darken around me, the world blackening around the edges of my vision, and have to catch myself to stay upright, my sword almost slipping from my grasp as my left arm falls limp. Blood's pouring down my body, but I barely feel the pain.

'Be thankful for the adrenaline. You'll be in for the worst pain of your life when it wears off. If you survive, that is. You should definitely reinforce your left lung some more. The right one's not going to be much use."

I feel Kirika's back press against my own and hear the sound of chains from her direction. For a moment, I think Gertrud has somehow gotten behind me, but moments later I see a massive chain of--

"A-are those your claws??" I ask aloud stumbling back against her as I watch uncertain, unsteady, and terrified.

"Claws? I don't have claws. Those are teeth! Vampire Fang will eat them all up! HAHAHAHAHA!" Her laugh is maniacal, and my instincts tell me to get away from her, but the massive chain of "teeth" shredding the familiars surrounding us.

I push back my fear, though, and incant instead, "Trace on."

Immediately, the world, my disorientation, and my injuries seem to become more vague, as my entire mind turns inwards, examining the internal structure of my body.

My legs are still badly fractured. My right lung has a gaping hole in it, and is rapidly filling with blood. My left shoulder is shattered. The muscles in every part of my body are badly strained and those in my right arm are about to tear. My brain isn't damaged, but I'm on the brink of passing out from blood loss. Two of my ribs are broken. Most of my body is going to be badly bruised after this. My heart is pushing its limits, even with reinforcement.

I'm very close to dead, right now. All I have is Reinforcement and Projection.

'Sensei?' I call out to my teacher. I can reinforce my lung, but it's the blood loss I'm most worried about. I don't know how to survive this. I hope he does.

I see him, standing on his hill of swords.



"You don't have a way of healing yourself yet. Not actually healing yourself, or anyone else. You're not ready for that yet; you would absolutely die."

Standing at the base of the hill, with only Kusanagi no Tsurugi and Ascalon at my sides, I look up at him and know he has an answer. I smile, sure that he can save me. He flinches.

"But you have another answer, right? I don't need to heal, I just need to survive until they can heal me! I need minutes, not hours!"

He looks at me for a moment, then slowly closes his eyes, grimacing.

"...You won't fully recover from this, Sayaka." His voice is harsh, and sadness underruns it. Overhead, however, the great gears of his world begin to turn.

A shiver runs down my spine, but I bite my lip and nod, "To be a Magus is to walk with Death. If I survive, then that's a victory."

He tells me what I have to do. I almost--almost--refuse. Then I do it, exactly as he tells me to.

"Trace. On."



----

(Homura POV)

You hear Sayaka's scream from across the battlefield--it's tortured and agonized in a way even you've rarely heard, although it can't match the tortured yowling of Matoko, who floats in front of you, her rose bushes and flesh alike being shredded by the heavily enchanted minigun in your grip.

You stop time immediately, and the world goes grey, and you leap towards her--

Only to come to a sudden and violent halt as Gertrud springs into color.

'NO!'

'Your leg!'

You look down in horror as you see the tiny, wire-thin black chain your leg had collided with, now wrapped around your ankle.

Your terror mounts as you look around more closely, and see the network of thousands of fine chains spread across the arena.

Gertrud has figured you out, and developed a countermeasure.

You drop Time Stop immediately--Gertrud will be able to kill the others if she's in Time Stop with you--and jettison all of the knives from your shield, enchanting them with a thought and a single command: "Protect Sayaka."

They shoot out across the battlefield, and you turn your focus back to Gertrud just in time to block four pairs of shears on your shield, deflecting them upwards and signaling one of your fifteen deployed machine guns to burst them down.

It only buys you a brief moment before a swarm of her flying familiars are upon you, and you have to direct two other machine guns to target them, taking pressure of the Witch herself.

You fire two more rockets remotely as you whip out your progressive knife to cut the chain attached to you, only to be yanked into the air unceremoniously by that same chain--and to almost take a pair of shears to the chest.

You bring your shield up just in time to catch them, but a tremendous weight lies behind the blow, and shears throw you backwards, grinding against your shield as they push you through the air across the battlefield and slam you into the far wall of the Barrier, that fine network of black chains catching on as you are forced through them and entangling you, wrapping you up into a tight prison of black witch-steel that rapidly begins to compress around you even as half a dozen pairs of shears erupt from the Witch's flesh with a tearing sound, soaring across the battlefield with murderous intent.

You can see their intent in their angles and motions, as Mikoto guides them towards your Soul Gem, all too aware of what it will take to bring you down for good.



You flex your will, your soul, even as it screams in pain that resounds across the battlefield.

You won't die to this! Mikoto's despair can't match your desire to live! To save them!

"ALL OF YOU!!!"

The ticking of clocks fills your ears and you can hear the toll of a midnight that is not yet here. One tick, one day. Midnight arrives, Mitakihara is destroyed. It all begins again!

The time has not yet arrived! This moment is yours!

Purple light fills the air and a sphere of bronze clock-gears forms around you, each one graven with images of your memories. Of a great storm, of a pillar of light, of a single bloodstained bullet spiraling through the air.

"Last Tolling!" The words tear themselves from your mouth with tremendous weight.

Around you, a vortex of wind explodes outwards, tearing through the chains, shears, and walls alike, leaving a gaping crater where your world once was.

Your blood is boiling as you raise your hand, and the world seems to shudder around you, something about this place losing coherency.

"Mikoto! It's time for this nightmare of yours to end! A new beginning awaits, but I can't get there while you stand in my way!"

The Witch turns bodily to face you, and you almost think her eyes widen as they meet your own.

You leap, solid bronze clockwork mechanisms clicking into place around your legs as you take flight and descend upon her, your shield vanishing from existence as you summon a spear in its place.

Chain-anchored shears shoot out at you, but you remember your lessons with Kyouko--it doesn't matter if it's close, as long as it doesn't hit you! You push forward, twisting in midair to land on the chain supporting the shears…



Magic pours from your feet and into the chain as you enchant it, slamming your will against Gertrude's.

To Reach the End of this War. One. More. Step.
SAVE ME DAD!

Your will clashes with hers, her fear and desire meeting your determination and shattering; the chain flashes purple and turns to bronze beneath you as you will it to hold still and sprint along it, straight for Mikoto's screaming body. In front of you, you extend your spear point first.

A Grief Seed leaps into your hand, passing over your Soul Gem, devouring the dark corruption that fills it, and immediately you pour magic into the world.

You remember Mami, standing strong with her back between you and Gertrud. In her hands, she hefts a cannon, and she calls out a name, so desperately wanting to show you the image of a hero.

A shining purple gem appears beyond the point of your spear.

'TIRO!' "ATTIMO!"

A bright line shines, and you remember the feeling of victory. This battle has reached its end!

"FINALE!"

The gemstone shines with light and shoots forward towards Mikoto, spinning through the air as it glows brighter and brighter, burning a streak of purple into the air as it tears its way through hastily raised barriers of chain and hedge.

Light engulfs the battlefield, blinding everyone in it.

But the ending does not arrive. The screaming does not cease.

Ahead of you, you see the body of a young girl, covered in bloody holes torn by her own chains, handless, and with a gaping, bloody hole in her torso.

That body is standing up. Her wings stand unbroken upon her back as she focuses her faceless gaze upon you. Around her, roses suddenly bloom upon vines--

'MOVE!'

You throw yourself to the side as Oriko's message reaches you, and only barely in time--white lasers erupt from within the blooming roses around Gertrud, but also from behind you, piercing through the space you occupied before the ones you could see even fired.

'Jump.'

You leap in an instant as a the rays sweep across the ground.

'Shield on your left.'

You obey immediately, pouring magic into you shield to form a barrier, which is immediately bombarded by a dozen lasers. Looking around as quickly as you can, you see that you are completely surrounded by roses--and that they're all glowing with light, preparing to fire.

You don't hesitate to direct your enchanted weapons to begin shooting down the blossoms, even as you see Oriko's own lasers shooting across the battlefield to pick off a few specific ones.

For the moment, there are no chains on you. You can see that there are hundreds of thin lines across the battlefield, but in this moment you are untouched.

Thus, you bring time to a halt once again.

----

(Oriko POV)

I watch in horror as the horde of familiars descends upon Sayaka and my Kirika. I warned them the moment I could, but none of us had a response, and there is nothing I can do as Sayaka lets out an agonized scream, blood spraying from the new, gaping wounds created by the familiars' shears.

Nothing except for one thing.

'Kirika. I need you to save her.'

If Sayaka Miki dies, then this loop will end prematurely. Before entering this place, I looked forward, and I found very few futures that did not include Sayaka Miki--those where she is dead are cut off, with only the rarest exceptions…and those timelines were generally strange and horrible.

Foresight has many uses, but it can be torture, too. It tells you things about yourself you never wanted to know, that people are not meant to know. Like how you handle losing the person you love most, and what you become because of it.

Across the battlefield, amidst the familiars, a pillar of dark energy erupts, as Kirika's Wish activates, and she becomes who I need her to be, instead of who she is supposed to be. I have no way of knowing who she will become, or what abilities she will have.

She may very well die to save Sayaka Miki, now.

I turn my attention from them to Homura, having little choice, and foresee a laser erupting from her chest, followed by five converging on her Soul Gem.

'MOVE!' I command, certain that Homura will obey. She trusts me, as insane as that seems, and worse yet, I know I won't betray her. No one else can save Kirika if she dies, and…

And she's the one who might save me, if I lose Kirika.

Homura dodges aside easily enough, but I quickly snap out a warning as I foresee lasers sweeping across the ground unnoticed, severing her legs before another snipes her Soul Gem.

A dozen strike her from the side, burning gaping holes throughout her body.

'Shield on your left.'

She blocks the barrage in a flash of purple light and begins gunning down roses, but I can already see that several will fire too fast and leave her crippled. I shoot them down with a thought--

----

(Kirika POV)

'Kirika. I need you to save her.'

Oriko needs me to save the Miki girl.

The thought is nonsensical, of course. I don't save people, I murder them. That's the kind of girl I am. Even this silly cooperation is only for Oriko's sake.

But Oriko needs me to save the Miki girl. If I can't do that, if I'm not who Oriko needs, then I Wish I was a different me.

I feel my body changing, my arms shortening, taking on more normal proportions. It disgusts me for a moment, but the feeling fades as the murderous haze dissipates.

I look down at the girl in front of me. Blood is pouring from her wounds--she'll die within the minute, if someone doesn't help her.

My hands are thin, frail, and clawless as I reach down to touch her, black energy pouring from them and across her wounds.

Around us, familiars lunge, and lean forward, shielding Sayaka with my body--I won't be any use in fighting them off, and I can't just let her die.

Under my hands, her wounds are beginning to close--but far too slowly. Blood's still pouring out, and her life will slip away at this rate.

I feel another spear slide into my back, and see a pair of shears closing around my wrist--if I lose my hands, I won't be able to save Sayaka! I try to pull away, but--

A knife flies in from the side of my vision and slams blade-first into the familiar, driving it away from us. Around us, the sounds of clashing steel erupt.

"Thank goodness for you, Homura." I mutter as I return to my healing, focusing everything on the precious girl in front of me. Even with all of my best efforts, the healing is still too slow, though…I haven't practiced, haven't mastered this yet…I need to practice, for next time. So I won't let Oriko down again.

Because this wonderful child is going to die.

Her lips move, and I lean in close, to hear her last words.

"Trace. On."

Her body goes rigid, and I lean back in surprise, only to see sheets and lines of metal erupt from broken flesh, layering and intertwining, blocking the flow of blood from her wounds, even as the sharpened steel tears new holes in her flesh.

It's not healing. Not in any sense of the word. But it's buying her time.

I don't slow my own work, the new, smaller wounds healing as fast as they are created, while the sheets of metal--no, the blades--contain the worst of the blood loss.

Her eyes are open, blue irises staring past me into the unseen distance, and I…I would swear they seem to lose some of their color right in front of me. I try to heal them, scared, but my magic doesn't find any damage it can fix.

I return my focus to her side. No matter what's happening, I have to keep her alive--that's just who I am. Someone who saves those in need.

I find myself smiling, as I realize I'm not going to fail, now. Sayaka smiles back.

---

Homura POV

The world is a comforting grey around you, and everything is still. The ticking of clocks sounds in your ears, though you stand beyond reach of time.

You rest your hand on your shield, and allow yourself a small smile and a moment of peace. This is your home, like nowhere else can be, and you are safe.

You miss the time when you could spend days here, instead of just sparing a few moments when necessary.

Sayaka is wounded. You cannot reach her, but Kirika is attempting to help her, from what you can see. You need to save her. The familiars are swarming, and your knives are the only thing buying them time.

Oriko is a safe distance away, but you can see a massive, serpentine construct of black steel chains rising up from behind her--you fear she has not seen it, with her focus invested in protecting you.

Mitoko is directly in front of you, badly wounded but still ready to battle. Your strongest attack has failed to slay her, and your arsenal is beginning to run low.

You do not have much time, but you have more than enough time.

You glance down at the pale, nearly empty gem on your left hand. You may have cleansed yourself, but you have exhausted everything you are in order to make it this far. Within, you can see it clearly now--the locked and nascent form of a Grief Seed, not yet broken free into the world.

"I can't do this. I'll die if I try. So…I'm going to entrust this to you, Kyouko."

'I won't let you down, Homura.

Choir song fills your mind, and a crimson light engulfs you. You can envision the dial on your untransformed Soul Gem turning, even as a familiar red gemstone leaps from your hand to your chest, and the world shifts as Homura recedes into the back of your mind. The unnerving grey world fades away in moments, and the violence of the battlefield fills your bones.

You charge--you will save no one by sitting still--and do what you do best: Be everywhere you need to be.

"Rosso Phantasma: Soldatessa Materiale!"

Eight more of you charge out across the battlefield. Two head for Oriko, two for Sayaka, and the other three fall in beside you as you close with Gertrud. You Soul still hurts from where she…did whatever she did…but you ignore it in favor of descending on her with your spear, weaving around and through her chains and lasers, blocking and deflecting what you can't dodge until you're directly on top of her.

She seems confused, faceless gaze jerking around the room as if looking for Homura, and she fails to predict you like she did your friend.

"You didn't have time to study how I fight, did ya?! Too bad!" You taunt, as you land easily upon a chain aimed to pierce you before leaping again, a faint red halo surrounding you as you aim for her head, "Gloria Rosso!"

She scrambles to dodge, of course, but misses your clones lunging in from the sides to pin her wings to the ground with their spears, giving you a clean shot as you thrust your spear forward towards the butterfly that has replaced her face, a ray of piercing red magic preceding your weapon my mere inches, "LANCIA ROSSO!"

Your thrust pierces her head cleanly, and the scream cuts off in an instant, although the pain in your soul remains.

"Requiescat in pace, Mitoko." You whisper, pressing your hands together as you compose a quick prayer for the dead.

'Thank you, Kyouko. I can take it from here.'

You nod, smirking a bit was you watch the barrier begin to collapse around you, the familiars flickering out of existence. The sound of mocking laughter hits your ears, followed by a loud squelching noise.

You close your eyes, and the sounds of clocks fills your mind as a purple light engulfs you, your Soul Gem gleaming on your right hand as your black hair falls loose around your shoulders.

You stare down at Mitoko's ruined corpse, the flesh torn and pierced by the chains and wings she had wielded, her now-visible face the only part of her untouched as it stares sightlessly up into the sky.

You kneel down, and quietly store it in your shield. You will figure out what to do with it later, but leaving it here, like this, isn't the right move.

Beside it, you find a pitch black grief seed, which you reluctantly collect.

Straightening, you turn to look at the others.

Sayaka is pale and limp, bleeding out on the ground. You can see something silvery shining where she is wounded. Kneeling over her is Kirika, looking frail and vulnerable, healing her as quickly as she can. Oriko is running towards them, eyes sharp with determination.

You stop time without hesitation, run over to Oriko, and grab her hand, bringing her into Time Stop.

She stops instantly, clearly having been ready for you to grab her, and immediately gets to business, meeting your gaze steadily as she explains, "Sayaka was stabbed chest by several familiars, and is currently bleeding out. I have instructed Kirika to heal her to the best of her ability, but I do not know if she will be sufficient."

"We'll hurry, then." You rush over to the others, dragging Oriko behind you, and kneel down next to Sayaka to get a look at her wounds--which appear to have been stitched up with steel blades.

"Is this Kirika's healing, Oriko?"

Your companion examines them closely, then shakes her head, "I doubt it. Kirika never uses normal looking metal in her magic. It must be something from Sayaka herself, or perhaps from the Famili--" She cuts off, closes her eyes for a moment, then reopens them, "They're Sayaka's. She'll live as long as we all cooperate in healing her."

You nod, worry skittering across your mind, "Get ready."

She positions her hands over Sayaka, preparing to heal her. You do the same, then release Time Stop and immediately begin pouring magic into your crude healing.

Next to you, a pale light spreads from Oriko's touch, while black energy pours off of Kirika. Sayaka's wounds begin closing rapidly under your combined ministrations, and soon--

"Sayaka!" Madoka's voice calls out from some distance away, and you hear her footsteps growing close.

Not looking away from Sayaka, "She was badly wounded. She should be alright as long as we keep working."

You see Madoka kneel down next to you, her hands shaking slightly as she drops the umbrella you handed her before and gently reaches out to touch Sayaka's arm--as she does, you see a bloody cut across her forearm. It takes all of your self-discipline to not immediately drop what you're doing to heal her.

"There was a familiar?" You ask, keeping your voice as calm as you can.

She takes a moment to respond, seeming to not register your words at first, then jerks slightly as she glances over at her arm, "Oh! Yeah, a couple of them escaped. I didn't end up needing the gun, but they got a hit in. We should probably heal this, once Sayaka's back on her feet--Mom would ask questions."

You nod, irritated as always by her disregard for herself, "The moment Sayaka's stable. You need your blood."

"Mm."(For now.) From anyone else, you'd call that noncommittal, but you know that Madoka's just found herself another reason to Wish.

Sighing slightly, you don't bother fighting her on it. You'd prefer if one good slash to the forearm wasn't endangering her life, too.

For now, the four of you keep Vigil over Sayaka until, eventually, her wounds finish closing. In spite of the magical healing, there is still a faint scar left behind--swathe of slightly darkened, slightly flesh that

Leaning back slightly, you begin healing Madoka while you wait for Sayaka to wake. She doesn't protest, simply smiling as you set to work, although she does keep a worried eye on Sayaka's unconscious form.

After a few minutes of waiting, Kirika and Oriko staying close to keep watch, Sayaka finally awakens, groaning as she does so, "Ugh…" She looks over, smiling slightly at both you and Madoka, "I knew you'd save me. Did we get her?"

You nod, frowning as you do so, "Yes. Mitoko will not be hurting anyone else."

Sayaka sighs, "Sorry, Homura. I'd hoped we could save her, but…at least we managed to save everyone else, right?"

You nod again, but find yourself holding Mitoko's Grief Seed, starting down at it in your palm.

This is your friend, even if you don't remember much about her. She's still in there.

You'll need to go back again, if you want to save her.

You shake your head slightly, and stow the seed. You feel Madoka's hand on your shoulder, and reach up idly to touch it, taking some brief comfort in her presence.

"So, what is our next step? How will you handle her body, and her father?" Oriko asks.

You groan at the thought. How do you tell a man his daughter is dead, without showing him the utterly ruined corpse that was left behind after the battle?


[ ] Lie. You spent all of this time searching, but found no sign of her. He'll be living with false hope until the end of the loop, but maybe that's a mercy.
[ ] Show him the body and tell him you found her like this. It might break him, but you don't need to reveal magic. It will also be incredibly strange and suspicious.
[ ] Tell him about Magical Girls, and tell him she died fighting a Witch. Show him what it takes to "prove" your story.
[ ] Tell him the entire truth. He will break, and might try to murder you and the people you care about.
[ ] Write-In