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.
Super fan Madoka crossover wars: Minako meets Ryouko from To The Stars and Sabrina from Adfligo Systema in Magia Record's Kamihama because I have ideas on retconning the hell out of that setting.
Super fan Madoka crossover wars: Minako meets Ryouko from To The Stars and Sabrina from Adfligo Systema in Magia Record's Kamihama because I have ideas on retconning the hell out of that setting.
I missed a lot of votes in the last few months due to bad timing on my part, but I at least wanna get this one. Making the pivotal point of the quest a full comic must have been a blast.
Moid, you've just released the perfect example of the DRAMATIC BUILD, and I really don't think many other authors could have done it anywhere near the same as you.
Mostly because they can't turn the last chapter into a comic book, just for the awesome factor. Well done, you hero.
It's been two months since Rin died, about a month since Mitakihara was made livable again, and a few weeks after the streets and schools were reopened. Some apartments are livable again, and with the help of the Mitakihara magi, reconstruction has been proceeding smoothly.
But Akane can't sleep. She's too busy sitting in a cot with a towel over her shoulders. She's just taken a shower, and her husband is laying in the bed with a hand draped over his eyes.
She shakes her head. Her apartment still has yet to be replaced, and as of right now, that applies to most of the Mitakihara population.
The veil was broken, and magi are openly helping Mitakihara rebuild. Sayaka and her wife have been working around the clock to get things back in order. Akane muses about the Mitakiharan government and the disruption Langstenacht caused. At the same time, she's pretty sure that they had saved all their information; last time Sayaka checked, they had moved to digital about a decade ago.
She taps the phone on a little makeshift desk and scrolls through it; her hands are comically large on top of a screen made for people half her size and a quarter as muscular. Her eyes drift across the room to her son, who's currently sleeping in his own little cot at the end of the room.
She isn't looking forward to the meeting, but it's a necessary part of the healing process.
[=]
In place of the former Walpurgisnacht memorial, there is a new sculpture of similar size and shape to the old grief seed. This one, however, is a mechanical thing, a myriad of gears and pulleys and machinery. It's an unfinished thing, with laid concrete walkways and squares of sod all placed in anticipation of a future park.
And in the daylight, under a stretched canopy held up by metal poles and solid wire, is a support group. A number of people sit in a shaded circle of cheap office chairs, a noticeable downgrade from the office. There is murmuring, the sound of people muttering to one another as machinery and magic scream from outside.
A whole skyscraper is rebuilt from rubble as a new one is built from scratch by hand. A group of inspectors goes to one building as another is grown from the ground. Reconstruction is happening handily, but Mitakihara has a long way to go before it is ready to reenter the world economy.
"Thanks for coming again," Akane says as she adjusts her glasses and makes sure her tie is tight. "I think this is the first time that everyone's been able to make it on time?" As soon as she asks, Akane presses her hand into the tent's side. The sides shimmer, then turn a deep grey, followed by a cool beige.
She walks towards the center of the room, right to the circle of chairs. Oriko and Kirika are sitting next to each other, sharing awkward glances laced with hurt and affection.
Next to them is Saskia, who has shrunk considerably from her earlier appearances; no longer is she so unnaturally lanky. She looks more like her natural self, a young girl that's shorter than Oriko despite being three years older, perhaps owing to malnutrition.
Beside her is Masaki, who rubs at her arms and stares off at the floor. She's still mourning, hurt that her lover's killer is currently helping the city rebuild while also knowing full well that Emiko was deliberately trying to die. She glances up at Akane before staring back down at her feet.
At the other end is Sora, who's recovered well for someone that Akane punched at high speed across the Mitakihara bay. She was found deep in Kasamino afterwards, embedded in a wall and clearly unconscious. Sayaka had to heal her to fix the brain damage, but afterwards she was more or less fine.
Iruka, meanwhile, looks the most well-adjusted out of all of them, but that's probably not because of Akane's work. Lord knows healing takes time, but she was the first of them to turn away from the Glow. It took losing a war so badly that it almost ended the world for everyone else to stop fighting against Mitakihara.
Now, Akane absolutely make it a point to look after the rest of the Glow, but these are the ones that she knows need special attention. These were the core, the most dangerous of the Glow.
Save for a few...missing exceptions.
"So how has your past week been?" Akane asks. "There's no rush to answer. Take as much time as you need."
The silence is long and honestly painful. Nobody answers for what feels like a solid five minutes, but the (false) clock on the wall has only been ticking for fifteen seconds.
Oriko opens her mouth, but Sora is the first to speak.
"I...well, I went snowboarding about twenty kilometers north at the peak of the Kasamino mountain range." She brushes her hair. "It was nice. Pleasant, but," she exhales, "it still hurts, you know."
"The punch or Rin?" Kirika blurts out. Sora chuckles at that and Akane suppresses the urge to wince.
"Yes."
Akane frowns. "I'm sorry about that, for what it's worth. I have my own-"
"No, no it's fine." Sora raises her hands. "It was wartime and...trust me, I understand. I understand what the Seven-" she catches herself, "-Six were like."
"Wartime or no, pain is pain." Akane takes a breath. "Shit, if there were any other magi therapists around I would have selected them, but they're kind of lacking." She glances to Saskia.
Saskia shakes her head. "I-I'm sorry, Akane."
"There is nothing to apologize for." Akane raises a hand. "We're here to talk to one another. Discuss ourselves, our lives, and meet with one another. There's no need to discuss everything, just what you are comfortable with."
"It's just..." Sora clears her throat. "It's just, I knew what I was doing was wrong in some way but I was just..."
Akane grimaces. It's not normal Glow fog, she knows that much; at a certain age, the effects become different. Nobody under the Glow was just under Rin's powers.
Instead they were just under her influence. Horrible, mundane influence.
"She had you."
"She offered redemption, you know?" Sora swallows. "If there's one thing she was good at it, was that. It was knowing exactly what you wanted. And she preyed on that."
"Like a leech."
Akane glances out the corner of her eye to see Oriko leaning forward in her chair, teeth bared, fingernails digging into her knees.
"Her power was taking the powers of witches. It's like a perfect descriptor of the kind of person she was," Oriko spits. "She was a leech."
Beside her, Saskia is trying not to meet Oriko's gaze. Akane keeps her eye on the both of them before turning back to Sora. "So she preyed on what you did as part of the Seven."
"I ended it before it got real bad in my timeline, but it's..." Sora smiles but her voice is breaking. "They were still my friends, you know?"
Akane nods. "Are you sure you're comfor-"
"I better be, because it took me a fucking month to be able to say that."
Akane winces, and Sora immediately recoils.
"I'm sorry."
"No, no. I pushed too hard. Just remember that I have private sessions after this."
"Right, I...right."
That's really not the way that Akane wanted that conversation to go, but it's kind of the way it will have to. She notes that she needs to wait a little bit before broaching certain topics as she clears her throat. "Saskia?"
The girl perks up as soon as her name is called. She looks around, then at Akane, before brushing her hair out of her face. She's still taking care of herself, it seems, and honestly Akane's happy for that. "Yes, Dr. Nakazawa?"
"How are things going on your end?"
"I-I'm going to school again," she murmurs, "but it's a little hard to. I missed a...I missed a lot."
"Are you still meeting with-"
"I am," she says. "It's...I'm still seeing my therapist, yes. I'm doing okay."
She's lying, and there's no way that Saskia is delusional enough to think that Akane bought it. Akane shakes her head. "Just remember, we can meet up after this meeting."
"I...yes, Dr. Nakazawa."
The last time that Saskia had an episode, she managed to impale her left forearm with bone. It didn't take much for Sayaka to undo the damage and calm her down, but it was tense. Akane's just thankful it was her and not a baseline human.
She turns to Masaki, who doesn't speak so much as she just waves her hand. She just looks drained, her soul gem gleaming purple as grief fails to accumulate. If it weren't for Minako, she would have easily witched out by this point.
Another turn and she's facing Iruka.
"I'm working on reconstruction on the north side of town," she says. "No witches means there's not a whole lot I can do, but I still got superstrength and agility. It's helping a lot."
"But how are you doing?" Akane asks.
"I'm...still processing. Kind of...weird, y'know? Like, I survived for a decade 'cause I thought I was gonna witch at any moment. But then just...it's not happening anymore." She purses her lips. "I used to control my own witch, but now that voice is gone and my head's clearer than it's ever been and it's like...it's like a weight's off my shoulders." She smiles. "Oh, and...I think this shouldn't have to be said, but fuck Rin."
There's a murmur of agreement from around Akane, save for Masaki and Saskia.
Finally, Akane faces Oriko and Kirika. Oriko clears her throat.
"The future is still blurry for me. I suppose I've resented my wish for so long that it hasn't quite cleared. But I am...getting better?"
"We went on a date," Kirika says. "It was nice."
"It was." Oriko smiles. "It was very nice. But it's...it is strange."
"I still think of her. Of my first," Kirika murmurs. "I...I am sad that she's gone. She's..."
"I'm not her. And you aren't like Kirika." Oriko shakes her head. "I'm...you are Kirika, but you're not her."
Akane still doesn't believe it's a good idea for the two of them to date, especially not when the wounds are so fresh and the pain so raw. It's too recent, too soon. But she can't control what her clients do; that's not up to her. Unless it's clear and immediate danger, she doesn't interfere.
After all, Minako simply made magi unable to witch; they didn't make them invincible.
Akane claps her hands. "If anyone else has more to say, we're still open. We also have resources available, as well as other functioning hotlines. The Mitakihara mental health services hotline is now back online, including LGBTQ+ services, PTSD, anxiety, and depression. I believe that Sayaka's also got the Mental Health municipal department working again, so that's good news."
She looks around at the group again. Nobody seems to be saying much; there's not a whole lot left to do.
"Again, if you have more that you want to discuss-"
Masaki raises her hand. "I'd like to speak to you afterwards, Dr. Nakazawa."
"Right, right." Akane nods. "I'll make sure that we have time to do so. It'll be in my office."
Masaki stands up and bows. "Thank you, ma'am."
[=]
Between the discussions and the (mercifully) mundane dialogues about daily life in a post-witch world, it takes an hour for the meeting to end. Akane takes a look outside the window as another skyscraper is erected. It's a massive, plain building that starts as a featureless block before it's slowly shaved down by the hands of a single construction magi.
Her door slides open and a shadow creeps into the room from outside.
"Thanks for joining me, Mikan."
"You can still call me Masaki," the shadow whispers, materializing into a full body.
"Do you want to sit or..."
"I'd rather stand."
"Right." Akane turns around. "You're still not happy with the-"
"No. No, I'm not."
"Is it about Emiko?"
"It is." Masaki grimaces. "It will always be about her."
Akane opens her mouth to speak, but she's cut off.
"Yes, I realize it was wartime. And no, this isn't to justify any of Emiko's actions; there is no justifying that. She made her choice, and it led to her demise. A demise she had sought out."
Akane frowns and simply sits in her chair. It creaks, but even with her frame it's large enough to hold her body. "We both know how easy it is to kill people as magi."
"We know too well. I do not know of any magi that doesn't have a body behind them. I have many. Every magi in that room has laid someone to rest."
"Every magi period has laid someone to rest." Akane closes her eyes. "But even knowing that doesn't make you feel better, does it?"
Masaki's quiet. She closes her eyes. "I still miss her."
"How long were you together?"
"A year." She smiles. "We met in the Glow. Our relationship was laced with that ideology. I loved her, but we also knew what our relationship could come to."
"Do you think...?"
"I know that she wanted to die. She was looking forward to it. She wouldn't tell me, but I could tell that she wanted to be a martyr." Masaki's mouth twitches. "It's...funny. I had time to process it. Time to preemptively grieve. Time to let myself know how she could meet her end. And yet..."
She bares teeth and gums. Her brow crinkles and her nose bends and she hisses a low, deep tone that feels like it could tear the world asunder. Akane can hear her teeth grinding against one another and she waits for Masaki to say exactly what she expects.
"I want to fucking kill her."
Akane nods. No judgement. No response. She doesn't say anything as the woman in front of her breaks.
"She took her away from me! She took my stupid, impulsive Emiko away from me. Ripped her from my arms, tore her from my life, and the worst part is that I cannot blame her for what she did to me."
She buries her face in her hands.
"She...my Emiko, my beautiful Emiko almost killed her child." The tears start to flow. Her hair crowns her face as Masaki fails to keep them back. "She came so close to it. And Rin wanted it to happen like that! She sought it out!"
Akane closes her eyes. "There's no shame in those feelings."
"Yes there is! My woman almost killed someone's child. How wretched am I to be angry at a mother protecting her child?!"
"You're grieving," Akane says. "You're grieving, you're hurt. Your pain is valid. Your fear is valid. And there is no shame in it."
Masaki's hands tremble. "I-Is it?!"
"Yes." Akane stands up, close, careful. "Because you can rationalize. You can explain to yourself. You can change how you perceive a situation. But feelings are the hardest thing you can possibly change. The best you can do is what you are already doing. You're understanding yourself." Akane walks around her desk. "Do you need a drink?"
"I don't n-need alcohol."
"I'm talking about water."
"Oh." An awkward pause. "We...don't need to drink."
"No, but it helps. Trust me." Akane smiles as she pulls a water bottle out of her desk. "I still drink during workouts."
Masaki glances between Akane's face and the water bottle, then reaches forwards and simply grabs it. "I'm...I do apologize. I should be better about-"
"No. Don't. This isn't an interview. You're allowed to be vulnerable." Akane raises her binder. "Do you think we should schedule another meeting?"
Masaki swallows. Akane can tell she's considering saying 'no'. But then she looks at her water bottle, and then at her hands. "I...I would like that, yes."
"Let's go for next Tuesday, then."
"I...I believe that would be for the best."
[=]
It's later that same evening when Akane gets a phone call. She's sitting at the edge of a building, close to where her old apartment was; not quite the same, not quite right, but close enough that she doesn't care. She slides her hand to her pocket and pulls out her phone.
"Akane Nakazawa speaking," Akane says, keeping her tone professional. But she knows exactly who's calling.
"Hey, Akane," Sayaka replies. "Mind telling me why I got a call from Masaki?"
"What did she say?"
"She apologized. What was that about?"
"I can't say. Patient confidentiality."
"Ah. Right. Almost forgot." Another pause. "How are things in Tokyo?"
"Hectic. We're still messing with funding for reconstruction. It's a good thing we have magi over in Mitakihara doing reconstruction but...fuck, I wasn't expecting this to be the pain in the ass it wound up being." Another pause on the line. "How's the support group?"
"How do you think?" Akane laughs. "They have a long way to go."
"Yeah. They do." Akane swears that can see her smile on the other end. "It's a good thing that you're gonna be helping them get there."
Akane chuckles. "Yeah. Yeah I guess it is."
[=]
- Saskia still sees Akane regularly. She's working on a degree as a botanist.
-Masaki never really truly healed from Emiko's death, but she did start dating again. Her newest girlfriend is Yasuko, a transwoman from Hokkaido, and she works as a bartender.
- Oriko and Kirika have a different relationship than before: a romantic friendship. They are still working through their issues with a councilor.
-Sora is a vagrant, taking the same route that Homura did to heal. She is currently in the country of California, south of Great North American Sea.
-Iruka is now a teacher in the New Mitakihara learning center. She teaches the burgeoning fields of Metaphysics and magi studies.
[=]
[] Tatsuya and Toji
[] Madoka and Homura
[] Mami
[] Got an idea or something not covered by the other options? Suggest it and write it in!
