To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
Well, that's a sign that I need to ask this. What is the important number we roll? I thought we rolled a 5 since that was the bold number. I always thought it was the bold number.
Well, that's a sign that I need to ask this. What is the important number we roll? I thought we rolled a 5 since that was the bold number. I always thought it was the bold number.
Well, that's a sign that I need to ask this. What is the important number we roll? I thought we rolled a 5 since that was the bold number. I always thought it was the bold number.
Well, that's a sign that I need to ask this. What is the important number we roll? I thought we rolled a 5 since that was the bold number. I always thought it was the bold number.
The witch rears up on instinct, then charges forwards. All of its heads clatter together as it rushes you down, as the body threatens to swallow you up, as the feet indent the felt ground and bend and break and charge. You raise your bat over your head...
And drop it.
It hits the ground with a thump. Your girlfriend notices among her own melee and she screams, but you're busy. You have something to try.
What is a witch but a magical girl?
And what is a magical girl but a scared child, backed into a corner at the bottom of a well with a poison rope and barbed wire around their ankles. The witch bears down, squealing at you.
But you...you're not about to fight it. You're not here to fight it.
This is what Oriko must have been talking about.
The three eyes on your chest open wide. Your soul gem gleams a loud, searing pink. Your feet are firmly planted and your teeth are clenched and you are as ready as you'll ever be.
A freight train of force slams into you. Your bones ache on impact. Your hands sting. Your teeth chatter as the witch flickers in front of you.
It's flickering really badly. The image is borderline indecipherable as faces and teeth pass through your head and scream and gnash and cry and howl. The witch glitches in and out of existence, tearing itself away from you. You can hear it more clearly now. See it more clearly now.
It's in pain. It's in so, so much pain.
You raise your hands. "I'm not here to hurt you," you say. "I'm not going to hurt you anymore."
The witch screeches.
Mami fires her gun into a crowd of familiars. Takane tries to break free, only to be accosted by her own swarm of limbs and plastic doll parts.
And then there's you, trying to play diplomacy with a witch. With something that lost its humanity far too soon...
Or...did it really?
"You're still there," you say. "You're still somewhere." You raise your hands again. "And I know you're afraid. I know you're hurting. I know you don't want this pain. This form. This place."
The witch's scream comes out broken, staggered and stuttering, and it tries to grab you with all of its myriad hands. You dance around, carefully dodging the attacks as best you can. Your boots slide across ceramic, tap against porcelain, grind against fabric, and finally you reach the first face.
The witch's face splits open in an attempt to bite you to pieces, but you grip its forehead before it can even get to you.
Your hands fall through porcelain. Your body follows suit. The last thing you hear as you fall is your girlfriend crying out, your uniform falling away. You tumble through the void in a t-shirt, a hoodie, a pair of shorts, and a pair of sneakers. The air around you grows warm, and you smell wet grass as it parts around you.
Your magic slows you as you hit the ground, your fingers splayed out and your hands wide open. A figure sits among a grassy field beneath a pitch-black sky, something like a chalk drawing of a human being on a dark canvas. Her motions are jittery and inconsistent, moving like a child's drawing as she turns her head. There is no face, just a blank cross where there should be emotion.
But she's looking at you. You can tell that much, at least. She tilts her head as though she wasn't expecting to see you, and the body lilts to the side and sliiiides.
It reminds you of that tiny witch in Mami's soul. It makes you wonder what your own witch looks like.
That morbid curiosity will have to wait. You raise a hand to the child. She inches away from your hand. Your mind looks through her, and you can see what she feels. See what made her fall to despair.
Ah...that would do it, wouldn't it?
"You wished for your parents to stay together, didn't you?"
The girl curls up. She says nothing as she tries to inch away from you, but this time it's less spirited. She looks up at you, then away.
"Except you didn't understand what it meant. Because they weren't good together. But you wanted them to stay. You wanted familiarity..."
She curls up. You raise your hand again.
"And as things escalated, you kept trying to pull it back together. Bring the pieces back in their right place. Except...of course, you couldn't. And the harder you tried, the worse it got."
The girl shakes her head. She doesn't look at you.
"You're too hard on yourself."
Now she looks at you.
"You're young. We're both young. And I think we got a little bit...caught up. Tried too hard to grow up too fast." You raise your hand. "If you want to be alone, I'll leave. But I don't think you really want that, do you?"
She shakes her head again. There's a pregnant pause in the air as she looks between you and your hand.
Then she finally wraps its fingers around yours. They're soft; if it weren't for the image, you would swear that you were holding a human being's hand. You pull her in close, wrap your arms around her, and give her the tightest hug you can give.
She begins to glow a bright purple. Your arms wrap around tighter and tighter as she begins to glow a bright pink.
And then the witch bursts. The grief seed, the creature, all of it shatters. The witch flickers and glitches and slides apart, pieces grinding away into pixels and broken shapes. The doll vanishes into nothing, the barrier sliding apart as the familiars cease existing. And at the center of it, in the middle of the vanishing witch, is you.
You, as your and Mami's and Takane's soul gems bear a permanent glow. You three as your soul gems alight and all darkness inside swirls and vanishes. A shockwave erupts across, wiping over the ground and sparkling into dust.
Your soul gem shimmers, brighter than it's ever been. It was a little dull before you cleaned it; a bad night of death and carnage had done a number on it...
But the grief fails to manifest. Your soul gem shines so brightly that it's almost blinding, then slowly dulls back into a shimmering purple.
And even then, there's not a single droplet of grief within. If it ever does appear, it quickly vanishes.
You, Takane, and Mami all stare at your gems. And it's then that you all realize...
Your witches have been pacified.
And all you can say about it is a bewildered, wide-eyed "Oh."
[=]
Your name is Mami Tomoe. And your soul gem will never darken again. A second ago you were fighting a witch's familiars, and currently you are standing amid a sparkling purple field. You pull your gem off of your hat to look, and surely enough, you can see that your gem hasn't even darkened a little. Not an iota of blackness anywhere in your gem.
It's a solid yellow glow, bright as day. You swear that your own armor seems to be glowing, too. Finally you turn to Minako as they stare at their hands, as all three eyes on their chest finally begin to close.
They look to you, then at Takane. You follow their eyes to their girlfriend, who is every bit as bewildered as the two of you.
"...Did...did we...?"
"Your power can permanently clean grief," you mutter. "Is that the field? Was...can we not witch anymore?"
Minako keeps staring at their hands. "I...think that's what happened, yeah. I think...I think we just..." They begin to breathe. "Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me, no wonder Rin wanted-" They stand up. "O-kAY! WELL I wasn't expecting that!" They laugh into the night sky, and it's distressingly loud, all things considered. "H-hOkAy GOOD TO KNOW! I can permakill witches! That's neat! NEAT."
"Are you okay Mina-"
"No, no it's fine. I'm perfectly alright, haha what the fuck." They bite their lip. "What the fuck what the fuck-"
"Isn't this a good thing?" Yyu ask. "Mina...you can undo the suffering of-"
"YES YEP YES I CAN." Minako breathes in through their nose. "Oh good fuck this is a lot okay I am...WOW." They look between the two of you, then just breathe in. "Can...can I get a minute?" They take a step backwards before casually making a leap off towards the ruined train warehouse.
The water sparkles a subtle purple, a shade that slowly fades away as the initial explosion begins to dissipate. You turn to Takane, and check to see if your gem has lost that glow. Shockingly, it has not. As far as you both are aware, this is permanent. There is no undoing this.
"Should we go after them?" you begin to ask, partially to change the subject, but as soon as you move your head, Takane's already after Minako.
[] Go after Minako. Figure out what's wrong.
-[] Message Kyouko and Sayaka mentally. Let them know what's up.
-[] Keep quiet; you'd rather everyone find out about Mina's potential together.
[X] Go after Minako. Figure out what's wrong.
-[X] Message Kyouko and Sayaka mentally. Let them know what's up.
This is something Red and Blue Mom need to know. Now. We've just learned that Minako is the biggest thing to hit Japanese megucas since Walpurgisnacht. And now I'm wondering if it'll work on Walpy.
I can imagine Kyouko, proudly brushing off a tear while proclaiming "just like her mama", right before Sayaka smacks her and wonder how good Mina would be at diplomacy if it wasn't for having to live with Kyouko.
So Mina is like, the end of an universe long era. Potentially. Depending how this affects KB's energy checks, it might have words to say about it.
[X] Go after Minako. Figure out what's wrong.
-[X] Message Kyouko and Sayaka mentally. Let them know what's up.
This is something Red and Blue Mom need to know. Now. We've just learned that Minako is the biggest thing to hit Japanese megucas since Walpurgisnacht. And now I'm wondering if it'll work on Walpy.
Mina is one person. How many magi are there in the world? How could they possibly save all of them? ...and I suspect that's a big part of why they're kind of freaking out right now. (Imagine you were the only person in the world who could cure cancer, but you could only do it a few people at a time, in person.)
[x] Go after Minako. Figure out what's wrong.
-[x] Message Kyouko and Sayaka mentally. Let them know what's up.
Holy Shit! This changes everything. Minako can save magi from corruption. Holy Shit. I wonder what their life will look like after the whole affair with Rin is over. I don't know if they would stay put when they can save magi from a terrible end. They might even end up as some kind of messianic figure in the global Magi community. Kyubey is going to try so hard to get them killed in the future.
[x] Go after Minako. Figure out what's wrong.
-[x] Message Kyouko and Sayaka mentally. Let them know what's up.
