Mami Souls: Prepare to Waifu (PMMM / Dark Souls)

[Laurelin]

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~ Mami Souls: Prepare to Waifu ~
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So, ehm, yeah, I believe I said I'd try to update at the end of the first week of january, yet at the time I'm posting this it's, ehm, kind of the third week already. Oops. As always, that wasn't my intention, things just didn't work out.

This was easily the most difficulty I had with a chapter so far and I apologise if it feels a bit disjointed at places, that'd be due to it being written in itty bitty pieces at a time. Often I only managed five hundred words every few days, at least until this week, when my muse came back and I wrote the entire last half of it over the course of three days.

Still, the end result is here at last. Thank you for your immense patience, my ever wonderful audience, and please enjoy.

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Spectres - Interlude: A Pink Perspective

Madoka wondered, not for the first time, how, in the span of less than two weeks, her life had been so thoroughly and completely turned on its head. It seemed almost surreal how a mere fourteen days ago, she was still just an ordinary girl whose biggest woes were her grades in school and the looming spectre of puberty. She had her hopes and dreams for the future, some admittedly more realistic than others, but overall there'd been absolutely no indication whatsoever that her life would be any different from that of the average girl her age.

Then she'd had that strange dream and ever since she had the feeling she was caught in some sort of feverish fantasy that became increasingly more bizarre and frightening with every passing day.

Meeting the girl she'd seen in her dream could perhaps have been written off as a strange coincidence and not have shaken her worldview too much, if it hadn't been for her learning soon after that magic and monsters were real. Before she'd even been able to fully adjust to or comprehend this revelation, her world was upended yet again when said world stripped her of any cautious if hopeful notion that being a Magical Girl was anything like how it was portrayed in media by killing Mami right before her eyes.

The sheer suddenness and horrific brutality with which it had happened had hit her hard, in a way she was still struggling to cope with. In barely a few seconds, something that had seemed so wonderful and amazing to her had been turned into something terrifying and awful, but even more harrowing than that, a kind girl had lost her life and she had lost someone who could have been a close friend.

Throughout the past week, it was this, more than anything, that had hurt her the most. The knowledge that she'd lost a friend before she even really had the chance to become one. She remembered how Mami had confided in her, shared the truth of her loneliness with her and how happy she was at the prospect of a friend. Madoka truly, genuinely had wanted to be that friend, to make Mami smile and bring a sparkle to those kind but sad eyes.

Instead of a friend, however, all she'd gotten were nightmares. Awful dreams in which she was forced to relive Mami's final moments again and again in all their horrific and terrifying detail, until she woke up with a start, drenched in cold sweat and barely able to stifle her screaming. That is, when she'd been able to sleep at all instead of lying awake crying, smothering her tears in her pillow because she couldn't afford to let her parents see them.

She'd wanted so badly to talk about it, to tell someone, anyone, what was hurting her so, but she couldn't, because the truth was too fantastical to believe. Even her family, as much as they loved her, would think she'd gone mad if she started telling them about magic and monsters and that she'd lost a friend to them. Everybody would, it was just the way things were; she couldn't even get mad about it.

So she'd kept quiet, locking the pain away inside her heart while putting on a brave face and a smile, pretending everything was alright. Sayaka had tried her hardest to be there for her and support her, for which she was immensely grateful, but Madoka knew that in her heart her best friend was still struggling hard to cope with Mami's death herself. During lunch break, they'd often just sat together in silence, neither of them knowing what to say or do to make the other feel better, while keeping their distance from the rest of their friends.

They'd lost something, the both of them. Not just a friend, but a piece of themselves. The world was a dark and hostile place, one callous and indifferent to the suffering of those who lived in it. Death could strike at any moment with laughable ease, with no regard for the hopes and regrets of those it so cruelly took away or the sorrow it inflicted on those who were left behind.

It was a harsh and sobering realisation, one made all the worse by the fact that it could not be unlearned, no matter how much they might wish to. They could never go back again to those days when they looked at the world with childlike wonder, when everything seemed so bright and the happy days felt like they could last forever. Those were now behind them, leaving only an uncertain future that now looked so much more bleak.

Then this morning, just as they'd been readying herself for another day of trying and failing to pay attention in classes, all those new certainties were put into question again, when without any hint or warning, Mami had suddenly reappeared before them, back from the dead.

Madoka hadn't known how to react at first, struggling to even comprehend what she was seeing. Her initial thoughts were that she had finally gone completely mad with grief, or that she was simply dreaming. A fairly understandable reaction, in her own opinion; she was fairly certain most people would have reacted similarly when meeting someone they'd quite firmly believed had died.

Even so, as she'd watched Mami break down in tears before her and the realisation slowly began to sink in that at the very least she wasn't dreaming, the first thing she'd felt was hope. Looking back on it now, Madoka realised she probably should have been more skeptical, that her first instinct should have been to suspect deception, like Sayaka had. The likelihood of a Witch or something equally malicious trying to ensnare them with Mami's visage was far greater than that of Mami actually being alive again, after all. That she still hadn't learned this lesson after deceptive appearances were what had gotten Mami killed in the first place no doubt said a lot of her own naivety.

Yet despite knowing all the risks, she'd still accepted the purported Mami's invitation and followed her back to her apartment. Perhaps it'd been because she was convinced no one could fake the anguish in Mami's tearfilled eyes, or maybe because in her heart, she hadn't been ready yet to accept that the world was truly as bleak as it seemed, but whatever it may have been, she'd felt compelled to give her alleged senpai a chance to prove that she really was who she claimed to be. Even if it was foolish, childish, naive and reckless in the extreme.

Admittedly, her fears and doubts had been assuaged somewhat when Sayaka and her hadn't been immediately ambushed after entering the apartment, then even more when Mami'd introduced them to Snuggly. It was hard to believe something so adorable could be in any way malicious, even if she had to give up her rabbit keychain to the little cutie to bribe her into revealing herself.

It was a keychain well spent and nobody would be able to convince her otherwise, ever.

After that, Mami had told them her story and, without meaning any offense towards her senpai, Madoka had to admit that 'story' really was the word. Misty meadows, ancient ruins, robed Firekeepers and more passed before her mind's eye as she'd listened with growing rapture and bewilderment. The whole tale'd sounded like it could've come straight from a fantasy novel or a video game, which she had to admit had made even her have her doubts as to its credibility for a while.

However, after Mami had presented them with her three pieces of evidence for her story, there'd been no doubt left in her mind. The Firekeeper garments and even Snuggly's presence and appearance could maybe have been faked somehow, but not the scar. Only Sayaka and herself - as well as Kyubey - had been there when Mami had died and as a result only they had witnessed the way through which Mami had lost her life. Even Homura couldn't know, as by the time she'd arrived the Witch had already devoured Mami's body.

All of which meant that there was no way the person before them could have known where Mami had been fatally injured, unless she truly was Mami herself.

Which she was.

Mami really had come back.

It didn't matter if the story behind her return was strange and outlandish, if she wasn't a Magical Girl anymore or that the entire harrowing ordeal had clearly inflicted her with emotional wounds that would require time to heal, because Mami was alive again.

If the earth-shattering revelations could have just ended there for today, Madoka would have been ecstatic, despite the morning's many emotional ups and downs. After a whole week of which the days had been darkened by grief and bereft of any joy or light, finally something wonderful had happened, reigniting her hope for a better tomorrow that dispersed the sorrow clouding her heart like sunlight after a storm. Even knowing that Mami was still hurt and grieving could not dishearten her. It only made her more determined to fulfil her promise of becoming Mami's friend, to ensure that her senpai would never have to feel alone again; an endeavour to which Sayaka had now pledged herself, too.

The sudden arrival of Homura and the subsequent confrontation between her and Mami had admittedly been somewhat unpleasant - not to mention scary - but in the end even that had led to a somewhat positive outcome, as the two Magical Girls had managed to somewhat come to an understanding and form a tentative truce. While there obviously still remained a certain level of tension between them, it was still a positive step in the right direction and for a while it truly seemed things were at last starting to look up.

Then, Kyubey had appeared.

With only a handful of words, the strange creature had managed to utterly obliterate what little, brittle confidence Sayaka and her had managed to help Mami regain, while completely upending everything they thought they knew about him - it? - and Magical Girls in the process. Not only did he confirm Homura's claim that he took Magical Girls their souls and turned them into rocks, but by doing so he had also inadvertently admitted to Mami that he'd kept this fact hidden from her throughout all the years they had known each other.

That would have been bad enough in and of itself, but then Kyubey had suddenly been attacked, not by Homura, but by Snuggly. Madoka was still struggling to reconcile the image of the same adorable child that could be bribed with stuffed animals into cuddling her with the vicious fury of feathers and claws that'd done her best to reduce Kyubey to an unpleasant memory and a bloody smear on Mami's floor.

The young crow had certainly succeeded in the latter - Madoka still felt nauseated when she cast a mere glance at the gorey, shapeless heap of flesh and fur staining the floor - though not so much in the former. As it turned out, being shredded to ribbons wasn't that big of a deal when one had spare bodies to use, another detail on what was quickly becoming an impressive list of things Kyubey had neglected to mention about himself or his contracts.

She didn't understand. Admittedly, she didn't understand how souls could be turned into jewels or how people could come back to life either, but who was she to question what magic could or could not achieve? It didn't really matter in the long run, just like it didn't matter how Kyubey could apparently switch to another body if his current one became too damaged.

No, what she wanted to know was why he had chosen to hide this from them.

Because that was really the issue here, one she didn't like the implications of. Knowing that he apparently couldn't be killed, at least not easily, it put some of her most crucial encounters with the little creature in a very different light; most glaringly the one where they had first met.

If he couldn't be hurt, why had he pretended to be when Homura was chasing him that night? Had he deliberately been trying to make Mami distrustful of Homura, or get them to fight? Why? What purpose could that possibly serve? Even disregarding that, Mami had known and depended on him for years, why had he kept that ability a secret and make her worry?

Not telling them at any point about the true nature of Soul Gems was just as bad, but at least when it came to that she could maybe think of a few reasons for keeping that a secret that didn't necessarily put him in a suspicious light. Pretending to be hurt, though, she couldn't think of any reason to justify that. That had been deceptive, there was simply no getting around that.

Which raised another question in her mind, one which she found the most unsettling of all. Kyubey had kept the the nature of Soul Gems from them. He'd pretended to be hurt when Homura had chased him, hiding the fact that he couldn't die.

Knowing all this, what else was he not telling them?

For some reason, she felt a shiver run down her spine, even though it wasn't cold.

Madoka looked across the table towards Mami, worried how the former Magical Girl was taking all of these discomforting revelations. She couldn't imagine what it had to be like to discover that someone you'd trusted and considered your only friend for many years had been hiding things from you the entire time. She tried to picture Sayaka doing something like that to her, but couldn't; the very idea just seemed absurd.

Though, wasn't that precisely the reason why a betrayal hurt so much, because it came from a place you never suspected it would? Kyubey had been for Mami what Sayaka was to her - albeit by Mami's own admission due to a lack of a more human alternative - her best friend. The idea that her faith in him might be misplaced, that he might have been not entirely honest and upfront with her must have seemed just as absurd to Mami as the idea of Sayaka doing the same was to her.

Yet, that was exactly what had happened. With what he'd revealed just now, Kyubey had basically admitted to Mami's face that he'd been deceiving her for all these years and proven that Homura, someone Mami had considered an enemy until today, had been right to distrust him.

If Madoka felt her world had been upended three times over, Mami's had to be smashed to pieces right now, right after the poor girl had just painstakingly managed to piece it somewhat together again, too.

Her heart ached at the unfairness of it all.

It ached even more when she noticed the impact the revelations had had on her new friend. Mami looked like she had shrunk fives sizes and aged twice that number in years. The former Magical Girl had her arms wrapped around her shivering self, while her face, or at least what little was visible of it due to the mask she was wearing, looked unhealthily pale. She didn't say a word, hadn't since Kyubey had first appeared in fact, but it was clear that she was in pain and suffering.

Madoka shifted nervously on the couch, concern winning it from the aching in her heart. She wanted to get up, go over to Mami and offer her what comfort she could, but was afraid that any movement she would make would draw the attention of Kyubey or Homura. She didn't like being afraid of her own classmate, but it was hard not to when said classmate was brandishing a gun, the same gun used to threaten Mami mere moments before.

Even if it wasn't being aimed at her, even if she'd seen far scarier things that actually had tried to kill her before, it was still a weapon and she felt unnerved by its presence. She doubted she would ever get used to it.

A particularly loud caw followed by a soft thud distracted her from both her worries and her fears, drawing her attention towards the bookshelf atop which Kyubey was still perched.

From the looks of it, Snuggly had made a particularly aggressive attempt to leap up so she could reach him, but had evidently failed and fallen on her feathered butt as a result. In normal circumstances it might have looked cute, maybe even a tad funny, but right now any such notions were dispersed by the absolutely murderous look on the little crow's childish face. Snuggly quickly scrambled back to her feet and, undeterred by her earlier failure, immediately resumed her assault on the traitorous shelf that had let itself be occupied by the enemy.

Said enemy didn't appear to be all that worried by the feathered piranha trying to nip at his little furry feet, looking down on the bird girl as if she was an interesting insect he'd found under a rock.

"Interesting," he remarked, in that strange sweet yet monotone mental voice of his. "Another anomaly, again found within the vicinity of the first one." His head turned towards the sole Magical Girl in the room. "Do you have an explanation for this, Akemi Homura?"

"None that I am willing to share," said girl answered coolly, while looking as if she was torn between going over and lending Snuggly a hand in tearing Kyubey down from his perch and staying close to Madoka.

"Unfortunate," Kyubey replied, not sounding regretful in the least. Again his beady, empty eyes sought out a new target. "What about you, Tomoe Mami?"

Madoka looked at Mami again, worried for how the other girl might react, then became even more worried when Mami didn't react at all, at least not with words. Instead, the former Magical Girl started to shiver more intensely, before making a strangled sound like a cross between a wail and a whimper and curling up into a ball, her head clutched between her hands.

Now very concerned for the older girl's health, Madoka was about to get up and rush to Mami's side, but was pushed back onto the couch when the bomb that had been quietly simmering next to her finally burst.

"Stop talking to her, you smarmy white bastard!" Sayaka shouted as she jumped to her feet, hands clenched tightly into fists and her entire body shaking with barely contained rage. "The only thing I want to hear coming from your mouth is an explanation for why you've been lying to Mami-san, to us, all this time!"

"I did not lie," Kyubey replied, seemingly completely unperturbed by Sayaka's fury exploding in his face. Behind him his tail slowly swished from side to side in lazy arcs.

"Like hell you didn't!" Sayaka roared, stomping her foot so hard it was a good thing that there was a carpet between it and the floor, lest the neighbours on the floor beneath complained about the noise. "You pretended to be hurt when we first met even though you just showed us you were never in any danger at all!"

"I did not lie," Kyubey repeated. "I did not tell you I was hurt; it was you who made that assumption and neglected to ask for confirmation."

"YOU LYING LITTLE-"

The rest of Sayaka's tirade was lost on Madoka, her attention instead drawn by movement in the corner of her eyes. She turned her head just in time to watch as Mami wordlessly collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

"Mami-san!" she cried, all but leaping from the couch and across the table in her haste to make it to her fallen friend.

Her panicked cry drew the attention of everyone else in the room; even Homura took her eyes off of Kyubey for a second to see what the commotion was about. There was a brief flicker of worry on her face, unseen by anyone, before it was quickly hidden beneath her grim scowl again. She turned back towards Kyubey and was nearly bowled over by a yellow blur with black feathers letting out distressed caws.

"Mami bird!" Snuggly yelled, practically throwing herself atop her beloved caretaker and almost pushing over Madoka in the process. The young crow's eyes were filled with worry, not a trace remaining of the raw, animalistic fury that they'd held mere seconds ago. She called out Mami's name while tugging at the fallen girl's robes in a panicked effort to get her to wake up.

Seeing the bird girl so distressed made Madoka's heart ache and she knelt down next to her and Mami to try and comfort her, but also to ask her to make some room so she could properly tend to their unconscious friend. She was the class' nurse representative, after all, so she knew the basics of what to do in a situation like this - at least, in theory.

Snuggly wouldn't have any of it, however, ignoring her attempts to talk to her and outright resisting when she gently tried to pry her off of Mami. The harsh cawing noises the young crow made also did not help in the least.

Off to the side, having watched all of this unfold, Sayaka had had enough. When she'd heard Madoka's cry and seen Mami collapse, of course her first instinct was to try and do something to help, but unlike her best friend she lacked even the basic knowledge of first aid. This left her feeling increasingly helpless, made all the worse by the fact that she'd just promised Mami that she'd be there to help her when she needed it from now on. Lacking the means to help the older girl and unable to cope with her own uselessness, Sayaka reacted to the situation in the only way she could think of.

Lash out at the perceived cause of it.

She whirled towards Kyubey, still sitting atop the bookshelf, every muscle in her body tense with barely contained rage. "YOU!" Sayaka snarled, her seething eyes glaring accusatory daggers at the red-eyed creature. "This is all your fault!"

Kyubey tilted his head. "Your accusation is baseless, Miki Sayaka. I have undertaken no action to cause Tomoe Mami physical distress of any kind."

"DON'T GIVE ME THAT!" Sayaka gesture wildly at the unconscious former Magical Girl on the floor. "You just admitted right to her face that you've been keeping her in the dark and hiding things from her for years! How the hell did you think she would react to that?!"

"I am not at fault for the emotional shortcomings of your species," he replied, as calmly and casually as one would be when stating that grass is green or that the sky is blue.

Looking like she was about to explode, Sayaka advanced towards the bookshelf, rage radiating from her like heat from a fire. "YOU LITTLE-"

"That's enough, Miki Sayaka," Homura interrupted, stepping in front of the bluenette to block her path. "Kyubey does not have emotions; it is futile to try and make it understand." Unfortunately, though her intervention was well-meant, it only served to draw Sayaka's ire away from Kyubey onto herself.

"Then you explain what the hell is going on, transfer student!" Sayaka seethed, as she rounded on the sole Magical Girl in the room. "You said he takes Magical Girls' souls and turns them into rocks, what the hell does that mean?! How did you even figure that out in the first place, or that he was lying to us?!"

"I must concur," Kyubey chimed in, his soulless eyes fixed on Homura. "Your answer would be of great interest to me, Akemi Homura. Please explain."

Homura ignored him, instead focussing her attention on her classmate. "There is no need for you to concern yourself with any of those questions, Miki Sayaka," she replied coolly. "All you need to know is this: Kyubey does not care about Magical Girls. He does not care about anyone. You are expendable. He will use you, then cast you aside and replace you when you've served your purpose. We, all of us, are nothing but tools to him."

She spared a moment to glance towards Madoka and the unconscious form of her former colleague. "You should heed Tomoe Mami's advice. Do not contract, under any circumstance. It would only lead you to ruin."

For a moment, Sayaka looked taken aback, but it didn't take long for her anger to return. "That doesn't explain anything!" she fumed. "You can't just drop all of this onto us and not expect us to ask about it! I want to know what else this lying rat has done that he hasn't told us about!"

"There is no need for you to know that," Homura replied, dismissively flipping her hand through her hair. "Ignorance is bliss, as they say. In this case, you should treasure that bliss, Miki Sayaka. Don't involve yourself any further than you already have." She casts another brief glance towards Madoka. "That goes for Kaname Madoka as well."

Sayaka clenched her hands into fists. "You mean like Kyubey thought we didn't need to know that he would turn our souls into rocks if we became Magical Girls?!"

Homura actually appeared caught off guard by the accusation, if the slight widening of her eyes and lack of an immediate response were any indication. Still on the back foot, she was unprepared when Kyubey chose that moment to step into the conversation again.

"Your behaviour is most perplexing, Akemi Homura," he remarked sweetly. "You insist that I am not to be trusted because I did not volunteer any information unless asked for it, yet are extremely disinclined to divulge any of your own secrets. I believe the correct term you humans use for this is 'hypocrisy', is it not?"

The Magical Girl narrowed her eyes and sent him a withering glare, her finger twitching on the trigger of her gun.

Unperturbed, Kyubey turned towards Sayaka. "Are you certain it is wise to place your trust in her, Miki Sayaka? I do not hide anything from my Magical Girls; any question you ask me, I answer truthfully. It is unfortunate that Akemi Homura is less forthcoming with her information." He tilted his head towards the Magical Girl in question. "I wonder why that is?"

"Tch." Homura sounded decidedly unimpressed, refusing to even dignify that with a response.

Sayaka, however, was decidedly less reserved in providing Kyubey with a reply. "I don't trust either of you! You're a proven liar and you-" she pointed accusingly at Homura "-have been acting suspicious from the moment we met! Even if you're right, you're still a creep, transfer student!"

If the Magical Girl was at all bothered by her classmate's words, she didn't show it. "Trust who you will, it is none of my concern," she replied dismissively. "Nether do I care if you believe me or not; my sole concern is to ensure that Kaname Madoka does not contract. You are free to ignore my warnings and foolishly rush off towards an untimely end if such is your choice, Miki Sayaka. As long as you do not endanger Kaname Madoka in the process with your idiocy, I will not stop you."

Sayaka reeled back as if struck, but her surprise didn't last long before her anger returned twofold. Gritting her teeth, she took a menacing step towards Homura, fists clenched at her side. If she had been in a clearer state of mind, perhaps she would have thought twice before rashly advancing on the armed Magical Girl with clear hostile intent, but right now that fact barely registered in her mind.

All she wanted was answers, an explanation that would make her world start making sense again and make her stop feeling so out of her depth and helpless. If the transfer student had what she wanted but wasn't going to give it to her and treat her as stupid, she'd make her explain! She wasn't stupid, damn it!

Homura, upon seeing the murderous look on Sayaka's face, immediately understood the bluenette's intent and and subtly shifted her stance so she'd be ready to intercept and counter any attempted attacked.

It looked like things were about to go very wrong indeed, until Madoka decided to step in.

"That's enough."

Even though she didn't raise her voice, the stern tone with which she spoke, one that made it clear she would brook no argument, somehow made her sound louder and more intimidating than if she had shouted at the top of her lungs.

This entire time, she'd been made to watch with growing distress how the argument between her best friend and her classmate had kept growing more and more heated, all whilst she'd been trying and failing to tend to Mami due to Snuggly's understandable but unhelpful interference. Between the shouting and cawing, the noise had been overwhelming, even frightening, with seemingly no end in sight.

When she'd noticed how her classmates had been about to come to blows, however, she knew she had to do something. With Mami out of the picture and both Sayaka and Homura seemingly disinclined to act responsibly, it seemed the role of being the responsible adult fell to her.

The fact she could genuinely think that with a straight face just served to underline how utterly insane this morning had become.

Now that she had both of their attention, as well as the attention of everyone else in the room, she knew there was no crawling back. So, after taking a deep breath, she proceeded to fix both of her fellow students with the sternest glare she could manage.

"Sayaka-chan, Homura-chan, please stop fighting," she said, the tone of her voice making it clear that this was not a request. "I understand that you find it difficult to get along, but now is nether the time nor place to be arguing, not while Mami-san needs help."

The two girls took their eyes off of her in order to glare at each other again, making Madoka fear that her words would yet fall on deaf ears, at least until Homura unceremoniously broke off the staring contest and took a step back. The Magical Girl gave her a quiet nod, showing her compliance, leaving Sayaka with little choice but to follow suit.

At least the bluenette had the decency to look shamefaced about her rash behaviour, now that she'd had the time to calm down.

Madoka inwardly let out a sigh of relief, glad that had gone over as smoothly as it had, before turning her eyes towards the top of the bookshelf and her next target. Two beady red eyes stared back at her, unblinking and soulless, as always giving not even a single hint as to what thoughts laid hidden behind them.

In light of what she now knew, it almost felt as if she was seeing them for the first time again and she wondered how she had managed not to find them unsettling, if not outright disturbing, before. There was really no emotion to be found there, not a single spark of life, almost as if she was staring into the glass eyes of a stuffed animal. Something meant to invoke endearment, but overshot its mark to the point it landed straight in the uncanny valley.

It was unnerving and more than a little frightening, if she had to be honest.

Still, she couldn't let that stop her. Every minute he continued to stay here meant more time for him to sow further discord and mistrust, which they could definitely do without right now. So, to that end, even though he unsettled her, Madoka took a deep breath before looking him straight in the eye.

"Kyubey, I want you to leave," she said, employing the same tone she'd used a few moments ago against her classmates, partially to once again make it clear she'd brook no argument and partially to mask how nervous she actually felt. "Given everything you've done, I'm fairly sure Mami-san would agree with me when I say that you are no longer welcome here."

If her demand at all upset or annoyed him, Kyubey certainly didn't show it, though to be honest Madoka would have been rather surprised if he had. The alien creature merely gave a slight tilt of his head, tail swishing hypnotically behind him as it always did.

"I see. That is unfortunate, as I would not have been opposed to a further exchange of information about the people you choose to surround yourself with, Kaname Madoka. Perhaps we could continue this conversation another time, at a different location?"

Madoka shook her head, careful to maintain eye contact. "I don't think so," she replied, voice firm and unyielding. "While I cannot speak for anyone else in this room, after today, I, personally, do not want to see or talk to you again, ever. I want nothing to do with you anymore and I doubt Sayaka-chan, Homura-chan or Mami-san feel any different about it."

Sayaka gave a derisive snort. "Damn right I don't," she muttered darkly, while giving the catlike creature a nasty glare.

Kyubey didn't appear to be bothered by the hostility, if he even picked up on it in the first place, as at no point did he break eye contact with Madoka. He gazed at the determined expression on her face, then made another inquisitive tilt of his head.

"Are you certain you do not wish to reconsider?"

Madoka scowled, her eyes ablaze with grim conviction. "Yes, I am," she said. "Very sure."

"I see," he replied, still without any hint of emotion despite having just been told in no uncertain terms to get lost. His tail swayed from left to right three more times, then came to a halt as he rose to his feet. "Your decision is most regrettable, Kaname Madoka. Know that you are still welcome to contact me again should you ever change your mind."

And with those words, he leaped to the ground with the grace of the cat he resembled and calmly padded out of the room.

Even then, Madoka waited until the sound of his footsteps in the hall had died away before she finally allowed herself to breathe again. More than anything, what she wanted right now was to let herself drop on her back, close her eyes and get some rest, but she knew she couldn't allow herself to give in to that strong desire. Not when there were still other, more immediate things she had to take care of.

Like finally tending to Mami.

Still, as she glanced towards the door to the hall Kyubey had exited through, she couldn't help but worry that he had given in to her demands a bit too easily. She didn't see a way for her words to be easily - and especially willfully - misinterpreted, but that didn't mean such a way didn't exist. Kyubey was clever, after all, and she'd underestimated him before.

Fortunately, there was a readily available solution to this problem.

"Homura-chan?"

The Magical Girl glanced her way and gave an inquisitive tilt of her head.

"Ah, c-could you please go see if he's really left? K-Kyubey, I mean," Madoka asked, ducking her head and stammering slightly underneath Homura's cold eyes. It had been easy before when she'd been trying to stop the arguing, but now, with things calmed down, it was a lot harder to ignore just how intimidating her classmate could be.

Homura, for her part, seemed somewhat surprised by the request, going by the way her eyebrows raised ever so slightly. She recovered quickly from her surprise, however, and even seemingly gave Madoka a brief look of approval before her stoic mask slipped back into place and she nodded her consent.

"I'll be right back," she promised, after which she turned around with an elegant flip of her hair and marched out of the room, her feet barely making any noise despite her firm and purposeful strides.

Madoka watched her go, glad and more than a little relieved that her request had been agreed to so easily. She'd been admittedly a bit worried that she might have upset or even insulted her quiet classmate with her outburst from before, since a strong Magical Girl like Homura probably didn't appreciate being told what to do by a weakling like herself. By the looks of it she needn't have worried about that, at least not for now.

So, with her heart put at ease, she set about her next task, which just so happened to be another one for which she could use a helping hand. She knelt down at the side of Mami's unconscious body, which she'd already turned on its back before, then looked up at her best friend.

"Sayaka-chan?" she began, drawing the bluenette's attention onto herself. "Help me carry Mami-san onto the couch, please?"

Sayaka's expression was still as dark and tense as a stormcloud, but she gave a short grunt of consent regardless and came over to help as requested. Her silence was telling, an indicator of her foul mood that Madoka didn't fail to pick up on. Sayaka was her best friend, after all, and in this case it wasn't even difficult to figure out what was eating away at her, but much as Madoka would like to help her, it'd have to wait until they'd tended to Mami.

There was only one last thing for her to take care of before they could finally do just that and so she placed her hand on the little crow that had been clinging to Mami all this time.

"Snuggly-chan?" she said softly, gently shaking the small girl so as to not startle her. "Will you let go of Mami-san for a bit so we can help her?"

The crow child looked up from where she had her face buried in Mami's chest, revealing her tear-stained cheeks and eyes reddened from crying. "Help Mami bird?" she echoed, peering at Madoka with a heart wrenching expression that was torn between hope and despair.

"That's right," Madoka nodded, speaking with the same warmth and care she used at home to calm down Tatsuya whenever he was crying or upset. She lovingly patted Snuggly on the head for extra effect. "We want to move Mami-san to the couch, as she'll be able to rest better there. Is that okay?"

Snuggly pushed herself up to her knees, wiping away at her eyes with one of her wings. Once they are clear, she glanced towards the couch for a spell, then back to Madoka, before slowly nodding. "Can help also?" she asked, her gaze pleading.

"Of course you can," Madoka smiled back. She gestured towards the bird girl's nest in the corner of the room. "We'll need some pillows to put under Mami-san's head and feet. Will you bring us some while we move her?"

Snuggly didn't even hesitate and nodded her consent. "Will bring!" she chirped, seemingly bolstered by the perceived chance to help her beloved caretaker. With a determined scowl on her adorable, round face, she got to her feet and ran off, but not before giving one last anxious glance at Madoka. "Mado bird help Mami bird, yes?"

"We will," Madoka promised, hand on her heart.

That seemed to satisfy the bird girl, who hurried off to her nest to fetch the requested items, leaving Madoka and Sayaka free to tend to their own task. Together, the two girls lifted Mami from the floor and carefully maneuvered around the coffee table, before gently lowering her down again on the couch. The whole thing was over in barely half a minute, but Madoka still let out a quiet sigh of relief, glad there hadn't been any sudden complications.

Only a few seconds later, Snuggly returned as well, several pillows clutched tightly to her chest. Madoka put one underneath Mami's head and two under Mami's feet, knowing that it was important for a person's legs to be above their heart level after fainting. Lastly, she carefully removed the silver mask from Mami's head, wanting to make sure the unconscious girl was as comfortable as possible.

After gingerly putting the headband on the table, Madoka sat down on a pillow on the floor, with Sayaka following her example. Snuggly sat down besides the couch, resting her head on her crossed arms, with her face right next to Mami's. For a while, the three girls quietly gazed at the unconscious figure now resting on the couch, each lost in their own thoughts.

Eventually, Snuggly turned her head to cast a worried glance towards Madoka. "Mado bird, will Mami bird be okay?" she asked, a slight tremor in her voice. It was clear that, even though she tried her best to hide it, the young girl was scared.

The sight and sound of it made Madoka's heart ache and she scooted a bit closer so she could put her hand on Snuggly's shoulder. "Mami-san will be fine," she assured the child. "She just needs to rest for a while."

The bird child let out a sad chirp. "Did Hollow hurt Mami bird?"

The question confused Madoka for a moment, until she remembered that that was the word Snuggly had used to refer to Kyubey. "He hurt her feelings," she explained. "He made Mami-san believe he was her friend for a long time, but he really wasn't. He only pretended to be."

Snuggly's feathers bristled and she made a harsh, angry caw. "That bad!"

"Yes, it is," Madoka agreed. "It really is. He hurt Mami-san very badly."

The young crow gave another unhappy chirp and turned back around. She took Mami's hand between her wings and pressed it against her cheek, only for her face to drop when this failed to get her any response. She slowly put the hand back down again, then rested her head on Mami's arm while her big eyes filled up with tears.

Madoka felt her heart ache again and she quickly put her arm around the crying girl's shoulders to console her.

At that moment, Homura reentered the room. She paused when she saw Snuggly being hugged by her classmate, but chose not to comment on it and instead moved on to rejoin her classmates at the coffee table.

Sayaka, who'd been sitting with her arms crossed staring silently at the floor until now, looked up at the Magical Girl's approach. "Is he gone?" she demanded brusquely.

Homura nodded. "He is, or he will be, once he's found a spatula to scrape himself off of the pavement with," she replied with the barest hint of a wry smile on her lips, in a shockingly rare display of dark humor.

"Heh, serves him right, the lying rat…" Sayaka commented, the corners of her mouth quirking upwards briefly, after which she bowed her head again and went back to glowering at the floor.

Ignoring her, Homura glanced at the couch and the person on top of it, then at the pinkette sitting right next to it. Their eyes met and she gave an inquisitive tilt of her head. "Tomoe Mami?"

"Ah, ehm, she still hasn't woken up," Madoka replied. "B-but it looks like she's just resting now, so I think we simply need to give her some time to recover on her own."

The Magical Girl took another glance at her former colleague, her face unreadable. "I see."

An uneasy silence fell between the three girls, which stretched on until Sayaka let out a deep and weary sigh. She leaned back on her hands and tossed her head in her neck, her face holding a tired and troubled expression as she stared pensively at the ceiling.

"What a mess," she groused. "I thought things would finally start getting better now that we've got Mami-san back. Guess we really can't have nice things."

"I wouldn't go that far, b-but it all does seem so needlessly cruel, especially for poor Mami-san," Madoka agreed, with a sorrowful glance at the unconscious blonde on the couch and the bird child clinging to her.

"That damn Kyubey," Sayaka cursed, spitting out the creature's name as if it tasted foul on her tongue. "Bad enough he tried to trick us, but to admit to Mami-san's face that he's been lying to her all this time, too! How could he do that to her?! They've been together for years! She trusted him, damn it!"

"None of that ever mattered to him," Homura replied. "Kyubey never saw Tomoe Mami as anything other than a tool. No doubt he found her a more convenient one to use exactly because of her complete trust in him, but in the end he was no more attached to her than any of us would be to a pen. Something that's useful and nice to have, but easily replaced. That is how he sees everyone, especially Magical Girls and those with the potential to become one."

Sayaka let out a scoff and sat back up. "Yeah, yeah, heard you the first time you said it, transfer student." She crossed her arms and fixed the Magical Girl with an impatient and expectant glower. "I still want to hear how you know all of that in the first place. Feel like sharing yet?"

Homura responded with a dismissive flip of her hair. "I already told you, Miki Sayaka, the less you-"

"We're not deaf, transfer student, we heard you when you said that the first time, too," Sayaka interrupted her. "The less we know the better, as we shouldn't get ourselves involved any further for the sake of our own safety. That's what you were gonna say, right? Except it's kind of already too late for that, isn't it?! We're already involved! Have been from the moment we got attacked by that Witch and Mami-san saved us!"

The Magical Girl opened her mouth to deliver a cold rebuttal, but was prevented from doing so when Madoka spoke up first.

"I-I'm sorry, Homura-chan, b-but I have to agree with Sayaka-chan on this. I think we're past the point where secrets would keep us safe." She nervously wrung her hands when she felt the weight of her classmate's cool gaze fall upon her. "I-I mean, I agree it'd be better if we could just not get involved with this anymore, since it's scary and dangerous, but is it even possible for us to do that? Kyubey seemed really interested in us, c-can we really be sure he'll leave us alone from now on just because I asked him to?"

Sayaka nodded in agreement. "Exactly! He seemed really set on getting us to contract, especially Madoka. Now that we're onto him, he can't sweet talk us into it anymore, but he's already shown that he'll use tricks or lies to get what he wants, so what's stopping him from doing it again?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at Homura. "Wouldn't knowing more actually help us in this case, so we're prepared in case he tries anything? Heck, if you'd told us everything you knew from the start, maybe we wouldn't even be in this situation!"

Homura gave her a flat stare. "Suppose I had, would you have believed the 'transfer student' over him, Miki Sayaka?"

Sayaka scowled and opened her mouth to give an angry retort, but Madoka quickly stepped in to smother another heated argument before it could even begin.

"I don't know about that," she admitted quietly, before raising her head and looking the Magical Girl straight in the eye, "but we believe you now. So, please, won't you help us understand, Homura-chan?"

Homura didn't immediately respond, her face bearing a contemplative expression as she stared into Madoka's pleading eyes. For a moment she actually looked somewhat annoyed, as if frustrated that she couldn't find an immediate rebuttal to the argument she'd been presented with. This indecisiveness lingered on for a while, an unseen battle waging within her mind as she carefully weighed her options, until at last she gave in.

With a weary sigh and an expression that left no doubt as to how much this went against her own better judgement, Homura sat down at the table.

"Very well," she said, her face once more expressionless. "Ask your questions."

Madoka and Sayaka shared a triumphant look, before looking back at their fellow student.

It was Sayaka who spoke first.

"Soul Gems," she began brusquely. "Is it true, what you said? He really rips out our soul and turns it into a rock?" When Homura nodded affirmatively, she swore under her breath, her hands tightening around her crossed arms until her nails were digging into her skin.

"I don't understand, why would he do that?" Madoka asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Kyubey mentioned something about 'increasing combat effectiveness of Magical Girls', but what does that mean?"

"It means Magical Girls don't have to fear injury while fighting a Witch," Homura replied. She held out her hand and summoned her Soul Gem in its jeweled form into it. "As I said before, we are nothing but soulless husks to be puppetted by our Gem. As long as her Soul Gem itself remains undamaged, a Magical Girl can recover from any injury to her body, no matter how severe, even ones that would be fatal to a normal person."

Madoka's frown deepened. "But Mami-san still d-died when her… when the Witch…" She made a weak gesture with her hand, unable to finish what she was saying, the memory still too fresh and nightmarish in her mind.

"Tomoe Mami wore her Soul Gem as a hair accessory while transformed," Homura explained. "She died because it shattered when the Witch struck her head. Had she worn it anywhere else on her body, she would have survived, even with such a grievous injury."

The idea that Mami could have lived and still be conscious and aware while having her head ripped off was somehow more horrifying to Madoka even more than what had actually happened. She was glad Mami hadn't been awake to hear it, the former Magical Girl would most likely not have taken it well, to say the least.

A glance to her side revealed Sayaka looking similarly horrified.

"When you make a contract, you stop being human," Homura added coldly, upon seeing the expression on the faces of her two classmates. "I've accepted this as my fate, but I will not allow you to become like me." She left it unsaid whether or not the 'you' referred to Sayaka and Madoka both or only to the latter.

Her words seemed to hit Sayaka especially hard. "And that damn rat wasn't going to tell us any of this, even if we had decided to contract?"

"Not unless asked directly. He won't deny if you do, but he won't bring it up himself," came the reply. "He benefits from keeping us in the dark, as people would be less inclined to contract if they knew the truth."

Sayaka cursed again and angrily punched the carpeted floor in powerless frustration.

Madoka bowed her head, her face a mask of sorrow and pain. After a while, she looked back up, casting a brief and worried glance at the unconscious form on the couch before turning to Homura. "Mami-san never knew, or even suspected, any of this?"

The Magical Girl shook her head. "She was lonely and the Inc- Kyubey was her only companion, she had no reason to distrust him and every reason not to," she replied, also glancing at the girl in question. "It also served him better to keep her in the dark, as she helped persuade many girls to form a contract, like she tried with you."

Madoka clenched her hand to her chest. "That's so cruel…"

"It is how he operates. Everything he does and says, even his appearance, are meant to instill trust and endearment in those he approaches, so they will be less likely to question him and find out things he'd rather they didn't." Homura tilted her head and looked at her classmates questioningly. "I imagine he did not tell you what happens when a Soul Gem becomes tainted, either?"

"Mami-san said Magical Girls lose their magic if that happens," Sayaka replied, before her expression became a suspicious frown. "What, did he lie to her about that, too?"

"No, which is what makes him so dangerous. Kyubey does not lie directly, every word he says is true, but he refrains from telling everything," came the Magical Girl's explanation. "What Kyubey told Tomoe Mami is true, a Magical Girl whose Soul Gem becomes fully tainted will lose her magic. What he did not tell her is that the reason this happens is because the Magical Girl dies."

Hearing this, Madoka let out a gasp and clasped her hands before her mouth in shock, while Sayaka reared back as if struck.

"W-what?!" the bluenette sputtered.

Homura merely shrugged. "It's our soul, Miki Sayaka, what did you think would happen if you let such a thing become tainted?"

Sayaka had no response to that.

Madoka slowly lowered her hands from in front of her face, revealing an expression of horrified worry. "T-that won't happen to you, right, Homura-chan? As long as you keep it clean with these Grief Seeds, you'll be fine, right?" There was a light hint of panic in her voice as she eyed the jewel in her fellow student's hand.

Homura glanced down at her Soul Gem as well, or more specifically, at the speck of darkness swirling within it. For a very brief moment, her cold mask slipped and she looked utterly tired, frail and scared, causing Madoka's heart to ache. Then the expression vanished as the mask slipped back into place and Homura clenched her Soul Gem tightly in her hand.

"That is correct," she confirmed, "but in practice it is not as easy as you make it sound, Kaname Madoka."

"I-I know that," Madoka replied quietly, bowing her head and looking down at her hands, now folded nervously in her lap. "I, I've seen how dangerous and scary it is to fight Witches and-"

"It's not that. Or rather, that's not all there is to it," Homura interrupted, making Madoka flinch and look up at her in confusion. With a sigh, she dismissed her Soul Gem, returning it to its rhombic form on the back of her left hand, while with her right she fished a Grief Seed out of her pocket.

"It's true that all Magical Girls need to fight Witches in order to get these," she explained, lifting the inconspicuous dark jewel a little bit higher for them to see. "However, that is not the only danger. There are only so many Witches out there, meaning the number of Grief Seeds is finite. This in turn causes some Magical Girls, especially those who know what Soul Gems really are, to resort to other measures to acquire Grief Seeds if there are no Witches to fight."

Madoka's eyes widened in shock as the implications of Homura's words hit her. "Y-you mean, Magical Girls fight each other for Grief Seeds?"

"Fight, and kill," Homura corrected, her face impassive and her voice so cold it chilled Madoka down to the bone. "Every dead Magical Girl is one less to compete with over a finite resource, especially when Witches are scarce."

Sayaka had become distressingly pale. "T-that can't be true," she objected, her eyes wide and her voice aghast. "M-Mami-san-"

"Tomoe Mami is an exception, an increasingly rare one at that," Homura interrupted her mercilessly. "Kyubey does not care what the girls that form a contract with him are like, as long as they fight Witches. There are selfish Magical Girls out there. Magical Girls who will abuse their power for their own gain and benefit, who do not care about hurting others or betraying their friends if it means they get one more Grief Seed they don't have to share."

Her gaze drifted towards the resting figure of her former colleague on the couch, her eyes holding a peculiar mix of respect and frustration in them. "The fact that Tomoe Mami managed to live according to this ideal image of Magical Girls as defenders of the innocent is solely a testament to her skill," she continued. "Most Magical Girls aren't as fortunate or as disciplined. Even then, she was no stranger to having to defend her territory from poachers or those looking to take it for their own."

Despite the graveness of what she'd just been told, Madoka still managed to find something that made her a little bit happy. "I think that's the first time I've heard you complimenting Mami-san, Homura-chan," she remarked, with a small smile.

"I disagree with Tomoe Mami on how she views the existence of a Magical Girl," Homura said, perhaps a tad too defensively. "I do, however, respect her skill. Her reputation is well deserved, for all that I think she clings to a naive and foolish ideal."

It wasn't exactly a declaration of everlasting friendship, but it made Madoka happy nonetheless, giving her hope for a day where perhaps all of her friends could get along. "I think it'd make Mami-san very happy if she could hear you say that yourself," she suggested, trying not to come across as too pushy.

Sadly, the Magical Girl didn't seem as enthused by the idea as she was, muttering something incomprehensible and looking off to the side, deliberately avoiding her eyes. Madoka thought it was kind of cute.

"Why didn't Mami-san tell us?"

All eyes turned towards Sayaka, who was sitting with her shoulders hunched and her head bowed. She looked utterly crestfallen; her face was ashen and her eyes appeared hollow, staring unseeing at the carpet. It was the look of someone who'd just had all of her dreams smashed to pieces, everything she believed in torn down and ruthlessly exposed as nothing but lies and figments of imagination.

The only other time Madoka could recall Sayaka looking so defeated was one week ago, the day when Mami had died. She felt terrible for not realising sooner how awful it must've been for her best friend to hear all of the things they'd just been told.

Even Homura looked at the bluenette with what might have been a glimmer of pity. "Most likely, because she feared your reaction would have been exactly what it is now, Miki Sayaka," she said. "Tomoe Mami had been craving companions for a long time. I suspect she feared you would have been dissuaded from contracting had she told you what life as a Magical Girl is truly like, and then she would have been alone again."

Sayaka's shoulders shook. "So she lied."

Homura could only shrug. "If that's how you wish to see it. For what it's worth, I doubt she chose to hide it out of malice, merely out of desperation."

Madoka nodded in agreement and leaned in closer to her friend until they were shoulder to shoulder. "Homura-chan's right, Sayaka-chan," she said, taking her friend's hand into her own. "Mami-san was really lonely, she just wanted to be friends." She gave Sayaka's hand a soft squeeze.

Sayaka let out a deep sigh, before allowing herself to lean back against her friend as well. "Yeah, I know, I know…" she muttered. "I still wish she'd told us, but I get why she didn't. Part of me still feels like it's all some kind of sick joke or something, or a really bad dream that I just can't wake up from, you know what I mean?"

Madoka nodded again. That really was an apt summary of the whole situation, she had to admit. A tangled mess, a sick joke, wherein someone had taken this image of something good, positive and inspirational and had twisted and mangled it until it had become something grotesque and repulsive that barely even resembled what it had once been. Only there was no question as to who had done it, and nobody was laughing.

"Still, at least we learned the truth before it was too late, right?" she said, trying to see the positive side of things for Sayaka's sake, as well as her own. "If it hadn't been for Snuggly-chan and Homura-chan, we might never have known that Kyubey was hiding something. That would have been worse, no?"

"I guess," Sayaka replied, releasing another sigh and letting her head fall back until she was looking up to the ceiling. She stared at it for a couple of seconds, then suddenly frowned and turned back to Madoka in confusion. "Though, actually, why did Snuggly go ballistic like that on the rat's sorry, lying face in the first place?"

Madoka opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again when she realised she had no idea. She glanced at the little crow in question, who had been quietly keeping to Mami's side this entire time. The child didn't even seem to realise they were talking about her.

"I certainly have no qualms with the girl's choice of target, but I do share Miki Sayaka's wonder as to how she determined Kyubey was a threat," even Homura admitted, looking almost surprised at the words coming out of her own mouth.

Seeing how they were all curious, Madoka figured the easiest way to get an answer was to just ask the bird girl herself. With this in mind, she shuffled a bit closer to the young crow and carefully placed a hand on her shoulder, drawing Snuggly's attention onto herself.

"Snuggly-chan?" she began, keeping her voice soft and warm. "Would it be okay if we asked you a question? There's something we'd like to know."

The child raised her head from where it'd been resting on Mami's arm, then tilted it curiously. "Mado bird want give ask?"

After mentally translating the words into proper Japanese, Madoka nodded and gave her a kind smile. "That's right. We were wondering what made you so upset about Kyubey that you, ehm, attacked him the way you did."

Snuggly blinked and tilted her head the other way. "Who be?"

"The Hollow," Homura clarified, inserting herself in the conversation. "That's what you called him, which is something else I'd like to have explained."

The little crow let out a small squeak and quickly hid herself behind Madoka, using the latter's back as a shield to protect her from the Magical Girl's cold eyes. Homura raised an eyebrow, looking decidedly unimpressed and even vaguely annoyed, especially when Snuggly's reaction caused Sayaka to snicker at her expense.

Trying hard not to smile (too much) herself, Madoka twisted herself around as much as she could to look at the small child clinging to her back. "It's alright, Snuggly-chan!" she assured the crow. "You don't have to be afraid of Homura-chan, she's a friend!"

The Magical Girl looked like she considered that to be a bit of massive exaggeration, but kept her reservations to herself.

Snuggly cautiously peeked from behind her living shield, then glanced up into Madoka's smiling face. "Mado bird sure? Sad girl look scary."

Nobody noticed how Homura tensed upon hearing her new nickname.

Madoka looked into Snuggly's blue eyes and gave the little girl an encouraging smile. "I'm very sure," she replied patiently. "There's nothing to be afraid of." Even as she said that, however, she had to admit to herself that she could understand where Snuggly was coming from. Homura was very intimidating even when she wasn't trying to scare you, after all.

When she saw that the young crow still didn't look very convinced, Madoka was momentarily unsure of how to proceed. She wasn't Snuggly's caretaker or guardian, just the person the child seemed to defer to while Mami was absent, so she didn't have any real authority over her. She also didn't want to ruin what trust she had built with the bird girl by trying to force her to do something she didn't want to.

If Mami was awake, she'd no doubt be able to coax Snuggly out of hiding; she'd done it before, after all. Unfortunately, the former Magical Girl still showed no signs of waking up, leaving Madoka with no choice but to come up with a solution herself.

As she wracked her brain trying to think of something that would help to break the ice, she suddenly remembered something.

"I know!" Excitedly, she turned towards her unsuspecting, quiet classmate. "Homura-chan, do you have any softs or warms?!"

Homura blinked in bewilderment, Madoka's question having caught her so completely off guard that the only response she could think of was an impressively flat "What?".

Across the table, Sayaka snorted.

Realising what she'd said, Madoka felt her cheeks redden as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Ah, ehm, I meant, do you have anything with you that's soft or warm, like a plush toy, a pillow or a blanket?" she clarified, while trying to pay no attention to the snickering of her best friend.

"I… might?" Homura replied slowly, still looking lost as to where this was going.

Madoka clasped her hands together in delight. "Then, all you need to do is give one of those to her! Mami-san told us that's the best way to earn her trust and she was right! Snuggly-chan was frightened of us too at first, but we managed to get her to open up after we gave her a little present that suited her tastes!"

The Magical Girl's response was to raise one of her eyebrows, showing that she had some fairly big concerns about the bird girl's method of measuring trustworthiness. To her credit, however, she chose not to voice any of them and to simply roll with what she clearly considered to be utter absurdity.

Wordlessly, she reached into her pocket and retrieved a small stuffed animal from it, a cartoon duckling roughly the size of her hand. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it flying towards Madoka, who let out a panicky squeak and almost dropped it.

After giving Homura a grateful smile, Madoka once more turned to face the child clinging to her back, now with duckling in hand. Snuggly, who'd perked up and paid close attention to what was being said as soon as she heard the words 'soft and warm', looked at the plush toy with barely restrained eagerness, her blue eyes glittering like stars.

"Snuggly-chan? I've got a gift here from Homura-chan for you!" Madoka said.

The crow child managed to tear her eyes away from the stuffed animal in Madoka's hand for a moment in order to give Homura a curious glance. "Is true?" she asked. "Sad girl want to give me soft and warm?"

Homura met her gaze and responded with a curt, affirmative nod.

Snuggly's face lit up brighter than a thousand suns and she squealed in excitement before snatching her new prize out of Madoka's hands faster than the eye could follow. The three students watched with varying degrees of bemusement as she held up Homura's gift like a trophy with her wings, making happy chirps the entire time. While she did this, however, she accidentally applied a bit too much pressure, giving the toy a good squeeze.

The little duckling squeaked.

Instantly, Snuggly's entire demeanour changed. Her happy noises died down and she became very still. Slowly, she brought the toy closer to her face, undoubtedly to get a better look at it, then carefully, so very, very carefully, gave it another squeeze.

The duckling squeaked again.

Snuggly's jaw dropped and her already big eyes grew even wider. She gaped at the stuffed animal in her clutches like a fish out of water, disbelief written clearly across her face as she struggled to comprehend the miracle she had just witnessed. With trembling arms, she squeezed the toy for a third time, as if she wanted to make sure that she hadn't been hearing things.

Another squeak rang through the air.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

There was no stopping it anymore. Snuggly squeezed her new toy like a bird girl possessed, every little noise she got out of it making her more and more excited until she was practically vibrating on the floor. Madoka was actually starting to get a bit worried and was about to try and get the little girl to calm down a little, but her efforts were thwarted before they even began when she suddenly had a squeaking duckling toy shoved in her face.

"MADO BIRD! LOOK! LOOK! SOFT AND WARM IS SQUEAKY SOFT AND WARM! IS LIKE LITTLE BIRD, BUT SOFT AND WARM!"

Madoka could only smile awkwardly as she tried to get the plushy bird out of her face. "That's, ah, that's very nice, Snuggly-chan," she stammered, carefully putting her hands on the little crow's wings and gently pushing them down so she could see again. "But, ehm, aren't we forgetting something?"

Snuggly blinked and tilted her head curiously. "Forget?" she echoed, clearly not following.

"We wanted to ask you something, remember?" Madoka kindly reminded her. "About why you attacked Kyubey, the 'Hollow'? You were going to tell us, but then we got a bit distracted when you got scared of Homura-chan."

Recognition dawned in the child's wide eyes. "Oh, yes, yes, that! I remember that!"

"Will you tell us now?" Madoka asked again, still smiling. "You're not scared anymore, are you?"

Snuggly shook her head. "No, no, I not scared. I see now, sad girl looks scary but is nice, give soft and warm, yes! Soft and warm that is squeaky!" She giggled happily and gave Homura positively radiant smile and grateful look. "I not know there was thing like squeaky softs and warms! Sad girl very kind, very nice for showing me! I thank sad girl!"

Homura appeared rather nonplussed to the bird girl's sudden complete reversal in attitude towards her. "You're… welcome, I suppose?" she replied, as confused about what exactly was so great about a squeaky toy as her classmates were.

Her words went unheard, however, as Snuggly suddenly gasped and jumped to her feet. "Shiny!" she exclaimed in panic. "I forgot to give sad girl her shiny!" Before anyone could stop her, she ran to her nest, squeaky duckling clutched firmly to her chest, leaving behind one bewildered Magical Girl and two school girls amused at said Magical Girl's expense.

Madoka, seeing how lost Homura looked, took pity on her fellow student and decided to explain. "She means something to give you in return for the toy. According to Mami-san, that's just how Snuggly-chan does things." She fished the ring she'd received from the bird girl out of her pocket and showed it to Homura. "She gave me this ring in exchange for my keychain! Sayaka-chan got one as well for her handkerchief."

Homura's eyes slowly narrowed as she stared at the ring in Madoka's hand. She seemed strangely suspicious of it, though Madoka couldn't fathom why. It wasn't like there was anything special about the trinket, or that it was made out of valuable materials. It was just a simple - though still nice looking - steel ring.

Before she could question Homura about her reaction, however, Snuggly returned from her nest. Between her teeth she held something that shimmered when hit by the light, which she proudly dropped at the Magical Girl's feet.

"For sad girl!" she said happily. "Sad girl give soft and warm that is also squeaky, I give sad girl nice shiny, yes!"

While a perfectly applicable term, 'nice' was perhaps a bit of an understatement for the ring that now lay at Homura's feet. It appeared to be made of silver and was inlaid with a large and beautiful gemstone, dark blue in colour and shaped like a tear. It definitely looked like the most valuable item Snuggly had handed out so far, at least as far as monetary worth went.

Sayaka couldn't suppress a jealous groan and even Madoka had to admit she felt a twinge of envy at the sight of the crow's gift.

Homura, however, didn't seem as enthused. She was staring at the piece of jewelry with the same narrowed eyes she'd used to observe Madoka's ring and she didn't even immediately move to pick it up from the floor. When she finally did, she immediately put it away in her pocket.

This time, Madoka couldn't quite restrain herself. "Is something wrong, Homura-chan?"

The Magical Girl shook her head. "It is nothing," she replied, her voice holding that same cold edge to it she always used to make it clear she wanted a subject to be dropped and would tolerate no further questions. She turned to Snuggly and gave the bird girl a polite nod. "Thank you."

Madoka took solace in the fact that Snuggly didn't appear to be at all bothered by the rather cool reception to her gift. She even beamed when the Magical Girl thanked her for it, so Madoka decided to let it go for now. She didn't want to risk angering Homura by pushing for answers when she had already been so unusually open towards them today.

"If that was all, perhaps you could answer our question now?" she heard Homura ask, which brought her attention back to the present.

Snuggly, who had sat back down next to Madoka, nodded. "Yes, yes, sad girl, blue girl and Mado bird can give ask!" she promised, before blinking and tapping her chin in confusion. "Want know what, again?"

"Kyubey, or as you called him, 'Hollow'," the Magical Girl reminded her. "What made you attack him?"

"Because Hollow was Hollow, hurt Mami bird!" Snuggly replied, scowling angrily as she recalled the small, furry creature she had stomped into mush. "Hollow not two legs Hollow, was small, mama bird not say I need hide from small Hollow, so I help Mami bird, make small Hollow go away and stop hurting Mami bird!"

"You keep using that word, but what does it mean?" Homura wondered. "What exactly is a 'Hollow'?"

"Hollow is bad!"

Homura's left eye twitched. "Obviously," she agreed flatly. "But what makes a 'Hollow' bad?"

Raising the wing she wasn't using to hold her squeaky duckling, Snuggly opened her mouth with a growl, only to blink and close it again when she realised she didn't actually have an immediate answer. "I not sure," she admitted, using her free wing to rub at her temple. "Mama bird always tell Hollow bad, tell me to hide if see one. If one came close to old nest, mama bird pick up and drop it off rock."

Sayaka crossed her arms and looked curiously at the crow child. "Still, there must've been a reason you thought the little rat was a 'Hollow', right? What was it about him that set you off?"

The scowl on Snuggly's face returned and she nodded. "Small Hollow had eyes like two legs Hollow did, is why I know it was a Hollow!" she replied. "Eyes were empty, had no feels, no, no, had no warm! Like Hollow at old nest, before mama bird drop them off rock!"

"Well, if having dead eyes is what makes a 'Hollow', I can see why you thought the rat was one," Sayaka muttered, a shiver running down her spine. "Always thought that stare of his was kind of creepy, even before today."

Madoka quietly agreed. Though she still didn't really have an idea of what a 'Hollow' was supposed to be, she remembered well Kyubey's eyes and how unsettling she'd found it to stare him down when she'd told him to leave earlier this morning. If the things Snuggly spoke off had the same kind of eyes, she could well understand why the girl's mother hadn't wanted them anywhere near her nest.

"You referred to me as 'Hollow girl' before as well," Homura remarked, glancing at Snuggly from underneath inquisitively raised eyebrows.

The young crow bowed her head. "I'm really sorry," she chirped quietly, sounding deeply ashamed. "When I first see sad girl, I thought had eyes like Hollow. Looked all empty, no feels, no warms. Sad girl also come into Mami bird cave without giving ask to Mami bird, making Mami bird upset, so I think was like at old nest, when Hollow came too close, and call sad girl Hollow girl."

She hugged the squeaky duckling Homura had given her tightly to her chest. "But I know now, sad girl not Hollow girl. Hollow not give soft and warm, not like sad girl. I also see, sad girl eyes not empty, do have feels, but is all sad." Her big eyes gave the Magical Girl a sorrowful and apologetic look. "Sad girl not be angry? I'm very sorry, will not call sad girl Hollow girl anymore."

Homura turned her face away, her expression as unmoved and impassive as always. "It's fine."

Nobody saw the way she was clenching her fists underneath the table.

Sayaka leaned back on her hands. "If we're talking about things you won't do again, maybe also give a word of warning before you go ballistic again next time, Snuggly?" she suggested, a somewhat wry grin on her lips. "I mean, I'm not complaining that you stomped on the little liar's face, but you did kinda scare the life out of me when you did."

The little crow blushed and sheepishly bowed her head. "I'm sorry, not mean to give blue girl scare, no, no," she apologised. "I not really think when see Hollow. I see Mami bird hurt, wanted to stop, so I kick Hollow, make go away. Will say next time I do, yes?"

"No worries, it's all good," Sayaka assured her, the grin on her face having morphed into a genuine, encouraging smile. "It was kinda gross, I admit, but actually sort of satisfying too, once it turned out he couldn't die anyway. Maybe I'll give you a hand next time!"

"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka exclaimed in shock, gaping at her best friend.

"What? You saw how little it actually bothered him," the bluenette replied defensively. "And it's not like he doesn't deserve to be punished for lying to Mami-san and to us about what it's really like to be a Magical Girl!"

Madoka shook her head. In truth, she understood perfectly well why her dear friend would think like that. Sayaka had always been very straightforward and did not take well to be lying to or tricked. That in itself would have been enough to put Kyubey firmly on the bluenette's bad side, but using the prospect of becoming a magical hero, something she and many others had all dreamt of at least once as a child, only made matters worse.

It was one thing to be lied to, but quite another to have your dreams shattered after they were used against you first. There was no way such deliberate perversion of innocence could ever be justified.

Madoka understood that, even agreed with it, but that still didn't make her comfortable with the thought of her best friend resorting to violence, even if it was aimed at Kyubey, and she told her as much.

"I don't want you or Snuggly-chan here to get hurt," she concluded. "I don't like what Kyubey did at all, either, but I agree with Homura-chan that it's probably better to just stay away from him. It also feels wrong to interact with him just to try and hurt him, Sayaka-chan. We should try and be better than that."

Sayaka tipped her head back and let out a long suffering groan. "I guess," she admitted reluctantly. For a moment the room fell quiet, then she sighed and sat back up. "So, what do we do now?" She cast a questioning glance towards Homura, who remained silent, and her best friend, who looked uncertain.

"I… I don't think there's much we can do," Madoka said hesitatingly. Her eyes drifted to her empty teacup in front of her on the table, then to the teapot, still half full. No doubt the remaining tea inside had gone cold by now, rendering it undrinkable.

The silence stretched on, at least until Snuggly gave her duckling toy another squeeze. Upon noticing she'd drawn all three students' attention with that little squeak, she treated them all to a serious and determined nod of her head.

"Will wait for Mami bird to wake up! Show new soft and warm I get from sad girl!"

Having announced her intentions, Snuggly quickly proceeded to carry them out, returning to her previous spot besides the couch, where she dutifully sat down to begin her vigil, still clutching the gift she'd received from Homura in her wings.

The others watched her for a moment, then Sayaka shrugged. "Eh, might as well," she said. "Some quiet actually sounds really nice right now, to be honest. I'm not sure I could take any more world upending revelations on top of everything else I learned today."

"Maybe we could clean up a little, so Mami-san doesn't have to when she wakes up?" Madoka suggested, gesturing at the table and the dirtied cups and cutlery scattered across it.

Sayaka seemed enthused at the idea and smiled at her. "I'll lend you a hand with that," she replied, before turning to Homura with a much sourer, but at least not outright hostile, look on her face. "What about you, transfer student?"

The Magical Girl idly flipped a hand through her raven hair. "I'm sure even you don't need my help to clean four teacups and a teapot, Miki Sayaka," she said, her voice and expression both as dry as a summer's day. "I shall take care of the body Kyubey left behind. I doubt Tomoe Mami would appreciate waking up to find it still staining her floor."

Madoka's face turned green as she was reminded of that particular little issue. She wasn't quite sure if she had to be impressed or saddened by the fact that Homura didn't seem bothered in the slightest by the idea of having to come anywhere near the mangled heap of flesh that had once been Kyubey, but she was glad that the Magical Girl had offered to do so nonetheless, since it meant she didn't have to do it herself.

She gave her classmate a weak, but genuinely grateful smile. "T-thank you, Homura-chan."

"It's my pleasure," Homura replied, sounding just a little too happy.

Madoka tried not to look too much into that.

Now that they had all decided what to do, the three girls got to work. Sayaka disappeared into the kitchen to find the things they'd need to do the dishes and fill the sink with water, while Homura took out an honest to goodness mop from somewhere as she walked over to the window where Kyubey's body lay.

At the same time, Madoka gathered the teacups, spoons and saucers scattered around the table and loaded them onto the tray. Once she'd gotten them all, she lifted the tray into her arms and slowly began shuffling towards the kitchen, not wanting to risk falling and breaking Mami's precious tea set.

That'd be the perfect finish to this demented morning.

Still, it wasn't all bad. She'd learned a lot of truly awful and terrible things, yes, but she'd also gotten to know a few that were good and uplifting. More importantly, she'd made a new friend while getting back another one she thought she'd lost forever. The circumstances behind that were admittedly a bit above her head, but she didn't mind that so much; she was just happy to have Mami back.

Her heart did ache a bit as she thought of the now former Magical Girl and the pain she had to be feeling. If there was anything that really made her angry, out of everything she'd learned, it was knowing that all the years he had spent together with Mami meant nothing to Kyubey, that he had only pretended to be her friend because it was convenient for him, only to discard her so carelessly when that was no longer the case.

Kyubey had said and done a lot of things that were questionable at best, but it was that one in particular that she considered to be truly despicable. To toy with someone's heart like that wasn't just wrong, it was downright evil. Even if she hadn't been told about everything else he had hidden from her, Madoka would still not have wanted anything to do with him ever again after that.

She didn't want to have anything to do with anyone who considered it okay to do what Kyubey had done to Mami, period.

While it would undoubtedly take a long time before the wound Kyubey had inflicted upon her today would heal, Madoka sadly had to admit that it was probably for the best it had happened. Not because she wished to see the former Magical Girl hurting or in pain, but because Mami didn't deserve to have to live even a minute longer under the false belief that Kyubey cared for her.

Mami deserved better than that. She deserved to not be lonely, to be happy and to have friends that were truthful and who genuinely cared for her and who would be there for her and support her while she recovered from all of these injustices that had been done to her.

As she looked around the apartment and watched how Homura mopped up the bloody chunks of Kyubey and Snuggly diligently kept vigil besides the couch, while listening to the splashing noises made by Sayaka that drifted in from the kitchen, Madoka mused that perhaps finding such people to surround Mami with wasn't going to be as hard as it might have seemed.

---
​

AN: Oh sweet Madokami in heaven above, it's finally done. This chapter, this monster, just flat out refused, refused I tell you, to be finished. Every time I thought "now Imma cross the finish line", this blasted thing picked up the finish line and put it down again several more kilometres further ahead. It was never, ever, my intention for it to grow to the size it did. Just a small interlude, I figured, five thousand words at best, not nearly three times that amount!

I really hope you enjoyed it. As always, please let me know if you feel at any point that the characters were off. I tried my hardest to get them all in-character, but this was the first time I had to write Madoka, Sayaka, Homura and Kyubey this extensively and all from a different perspective than Mami's at that. Definitely hope it'll be some time before I have to do that again.

Finally, yes, Homura with her mop was a PMAS reference. It was too perfect an opportunity for me not to do it.

---​

Spoiler: Character sheet: Tomoe Mami

Character sheet
Tomoe Mami

Notable details:
- Burn scars on the palms of both hands from when she accepted a piece of the Flame. Currently serving as vital mental support to remind her she is not entirely alone.
- Visible and ugly scar circling the entirety of her neck she received from dying. A cause of severe trauma for Mami, the mere sight of it is painful and unsettling for her.

Inventory:
- Firekeeper Set
- Dragon Torso Stone

Spoiler: Character sheet: Kaname Madoka

Character sheet
Kaname Madoka

Inventory:
- Ring of Steel Protection

Spoiler: Character sheet: Miki Sayaka

Character sheet
Miki Sayaka

Inventory:
- Hawk Ring

Spoiler: Character sheet: Akemi Homura

Character sheet
Akemi Homura

Inventory:
- Blue Tearstone Ring

 

[Laurelin]

---
~ Liar, liar, set the Incubator on fire! : Results ~
---​

As you all probably figured thanks to the fact that we just had an interlude, the vote to let Mami faint got the most support. Let me also thank everyone who wrote down the extensive character insights that helped me to get Sayaka, Madoka and Homura as in-character as I could over the course of this update.

Final Vote tally:

[X][Mami] Let yourself faint.
[X][Madoka] Love and care for the hurting.
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - Horrifying, but not an immediate problem. Resolves herself to ask Homura in more detail once out of Mami's hearing, and thus not rubbing salt in wounds.
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - Terrible, but not an immediate problem. Mom complains about people like that sometimes, maybe she could be consulted when she comes home? What do you do when people make deals while hiding important information?
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - This is the immediate problem. Make sure Sayaka is not making a fuss right next to the patient. Make sure she's settled down and comfortable, make sure she doesn't hurt herself, make sure Snuggly isn't getting into trouble. Maybe wrap her up in blankets with Snuggly to do both? You're going to need to wrap up Snuggly's claws a bit. Those are surprisingly sharp.
[X][Sayaka] Courage to face horror
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain!
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - That smarmy white bastard, you're going to help Snuggly stomp him whenever you can.
-[X] The transfer student telling the truth. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain everything!
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - Overlooked in Sayaka's outrage
[X][Homura] Hope for the future
-[X][Homura] Sayaka and Madoka hearing and believing the truth, since Kyubey confirmed it. - That probably would rule out impulsive wishes, which leaves Kyubey luring them in a contract-or-someone-dies scenario of some kind, or Sayaka deciding to be self sacrificing for some stupid reason. You should scare Sayaka straight with more of the truth, and keep a closer eye on Madoka. Nothing happened today, but you need a better reason to stay around her more frequently so she can't wander off for hours without your knowing.
-[X] Snuggly stomping Kyubey into paste. - Madoka likes the kid, the kid likes Madoka and you approve of the bird-girl's choice of targets. But Snuggly is also more dangerous than she looks considering how easily she shredded the Incubator's body. Perhaps you should gift her something to keep her on your side, there might be a soft toy in your shield somewhere that you thought Madoka would like once but never got around to giving it to her.
-[X] Kyubey inadvertently confirming some of Tomoe Mami's story, since he apparently doesn't know how she came back to life and what kind of creature this 'Snuggly' is. - You'll need to talk to Mami in more detail on this once she recovers a bit. If Kyubey doesn't know anything about her return then maybe theres something you can use to change how this loop ends.
-[X] Tomoe Mami, not so surprisingly, not taking any of this well. - Keep an eye on her. Mami is no longer a magical girl, but you remember her wiping out the whole team in an effort at mercy killing once, save for Madoka's intervention. She might not be as strong or fast anymore, but you know better than anyone else how much skill can matter.
No. of votes: 9
veekie, Dirtnap, Icipall, Thotful Salad, Aigloss, Billthesomething, Dromeosaur, Frostbyte, Nawaf

[X][Mami] Attempt to hold out, find something to hang on to. Anything at all.
-[X] Such as Snuggly. And her newfound friends.
[X][Homura] Damn QB, why does he always have to ruin everything?
-[X] Insist QB leaves. Don't answer any questions he has. He's not welcome.
-[X] Treat Snuggly more friendly than before. She understands. By the way, why did she call both Homura herself and QB hollow?
-[X] Remain cold and impassionate.
-[X] Use this opportunity to set Madoka (and Sayaka too, why not) against QB. Note how he doesn't care about the girls he contracts, e.g. manipulates them into action by pretending to be in danger when he isn't.
-[X] Once the situation calms down a bit, try to figure out if there's some way to exploit these new magics
-[X] Wonder why this happened now if it never happened before. Gotta be careful with questions though, can't reveal the time loops...
[X][Madoka] Pretty much show's reaction. 'That's horrible, why would he not reveal something like that?!'
-[X] Focus on comforting Mami
[X][Sayaka] In the show Sayaka seems to be more concerned about the lichbomb than anyone else, so it's extra horrible. 'He turns girls into zombies without telling them about it!'
-[X] Focus on yelling at QB
-[X] Wait... what did Mami say about incapacitation/warning? And previously Homura's main fault was hurting QB when it turns out he can't die. 'Perhaps she's not as bad...'
No. of votes: 2
tapkomet, tygerbright

[X][Mami] Let yourself faint.
-[X] As you do so, wish you were back at the Shrine with the Firekeeper. You really need a friendly face/shoulder to cry on right now.
[X][Madoka] Love and care for the hurting.
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - Horrifying, but not an immediate problem. Resolves herself to ask Homura in more detail once out of Mami's hearing, and thus not rubbing salt in wounds.
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - Terrible, but not an immediate problem. Mom complains about people like that sometimes, maybe she could be consulted when she comes home? What do you do when people make deals while hiding important information?
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - This is the immediate problem. Make sure Sayaka is not making a fuss right next to the patient. Make sure she's settled down and comfortable, make sure she doesn't hurt herself, make sure Snuggly isn't getting into trouble. Maybe wrap her up in blankets with Snuggly to do both? You're going to need to wrap up Snuggly's claws a bit. Those are surprisingly sharp.
[X][Sayaka] Courage to face horror
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain!
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - That smarmy white bastard, you're going to help Snuggly stomp him whenever you can.
-[X] The transfer student telling the truth. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain everything!
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - Overlooked in Sayaka's outrage
[X][Homura] Hope for the future
-[X][Homura] Sayaka and Madoka hearing and believing the truth, since Kyubey confirmed it. - That probably would rule out impulsive wishes, which leaves Kyubey luring them in a contract-or-someone-dies scenario of some kind, or Sayaka deciding to be self sacrificing for some stupid reason. You should scare Sayaka straight with more of the truth, and keep a closer eye on Madoka. Nothing happened today, but you need a better reason to stay around her more frequently so she can't wander off for hours without your knowing.
-[X] Snuggly stomping Kyubey into paste. - Madoka likes the kid, the kid likes Madoka and you approve of the bird-girl's choice of targets. But Snuggly is also more dangerous than she looks considering how easily she shredded the Incubator's body. Perhaps you should gift her something to keep her on your side, there might be a soft toy in your shield somewhere that you thought Madoka would like once but never got around to giving it to her.
-[X] Kyubey inadvertently confirming some of Tomoe Mami's story, since he apparently doesn't know how she came back to life and what kind of creature this 'Snuggly' is. - You'll need to talk to Mami in more detail on this once she recovers a bit. If Kyubey doesn't know anything about her return then maybe theres something you can use to change how this loop ends.
-[X] Tomoe Mami, not so surprisingly, not taking any of this well. - Keep an eye on her. Mami is no longer a magical girl, but you remember her wiping out the whole team in an effort at mercy killing once, save for Madoka's intervention. She might not be as strong or fast anymore, but you know better than anyone else how much skill can matter.
No. of votes: 2
PA2, Drebom

[X][Mami] Attempt to hold out, find something to hang on to. Anything at all.
-[X] Such as Snuggly. And her newfound friends.
[X][Madoka] Love and care for the hurting.
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - Horrifying, but not an immediate problem. Resolves herself to ask Homura in more detail once out of Mami's hearing, and thus not rubbing salt in wounds.
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - Terrible, but not an immediate problem. Mom complains about people like that sometimes, maybe she could be consulted when she comes home? What do you do when people make deals while hiding important information?
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - This is the immediate problem. Make sure Sayaka is not making a fuss right next to the patient. Make sure she's settled down and comfortable, make sure she doesn't hurt herself, make sure Snuggly isn't getting into trouble. Maybe wrap her up in blankets with Snuggly to do both? You're going to need to wrap up Snuggly's claws a bit. Those are surprisingly sharp.
[X][Sayaka] Courage to face horror
-[X] The nature of Soul Gems. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain!
-[X] Kyubey's deceit. - That smarmy white bastard, you're going to help Snuggly stomp him whenever you can.
-[X] The transfer student telling the truth. - What the hell?! Transfer student! Explain everything!
-[X] Mami clearly not reacting well to all this new information. - Overlooked in Sayaka's outrage
[X][Homura] Hope for the future
-[X][Homura] Sayaka and Madoka hearing and believing the truth, since Kyubey confirmed it. - That probably would rule out impulsive wishes, which leaves Kyubey luring them in a contract-or-someone-dies scenario of some kind, or Sayaka deciding to be self sacrificing for some stupid reason. You should scare Sayaka straight with more of the truth, and keep a closer eye on Madoka. Nothing happened today, but you need a better reason to stay around her more frequently so she can't wander off for hours without your knowing.
-[X] Snuggly stomping Kyubey into paste. - Madoka likes the kid, the kid likes Madoka and you approve of the bird-girl's choice of targets. But Snuggly is also more dangerous than she looks considering how easily she shredded the Incubator's body. Perhaps you should gift her something to keep her on your side, there might be a soft toy in your shield somewhere that you thought Madoka would like once but never got around to giving it to her.
-[X] Kyubey inadvertently confirming some of Tomoe Mami's story, since he apparently doesn't know how she came back to life and what kind of creature this 'Snuggly' is. - You'll need to talk to Mami in more detail on this once she recovers a bit. If Kyubey doesn't know anything about her return then maybe theres something you can use to change how this loop ends.
-[X] Tomoe Mami, not so surprisingly, not taking any of this well. - Keep an eye on her. Mami is no longer a magical girl, but you remember her wiping out the whole team in an effort at mercy killing once, save for Madoka's intervention. She might not be as strong or fast anymore, but you know better than anyone else how much skill can matter.
No. of votes: 1
Lazy Minx

[X] Let yourself faint.
-[X] As you do so, wish you were back at the Shrine with the Firekeeper. You really need a friendly face/shoulder to cry on right now. (shamelessly copied)
No. of votes: 1
Neutre

[X] Attempt to hold out, find something to hang on to. Anything at all.
No. of votes: 1
Anann

---
~ Homura's Ring ~
---​

The ring Homura received from Snuggly is the Blue Tearstone Ring. Under normal circumstances, this ring will shield the wearer from harm if the wearer is near death (from injury, not from old age or illness), by providing temporary invulnerability. This effect only works to a certain extend, holding up only to a certain level of damage. If that threshold gets breached, the effect will cease and the wearer will become vulnerable again.

However, this is all under normal circumstances, by which I mean, if the wearer is human. Things get a bit more complicated when you throw Magical Girls into the mix, because, as Homura explained this chapter, physical injuries don't really matter to them. There isn't really a physical state in which they are 'near death' enough to trigger the ring's effect, since only damage to the Soul Gem really matters.

As such, this ring works a bit differently for Magical Girls, its effect triggering only when their Soul Gem gets damaged to a point where any further damage would break it. More importantly, however, it will also stave off the process of Witching out for a limited time. Should the Soul Gem become filled with Grief, the ring will buy some extra valuable time during which the Magical Girl might still cleanse it and prevent herself from becoming a Witch.

Admittedly, I haven't entirely decided upon how much time 'some time' actually is. I don't want the ring to be either underpowered or overpowered. Does an hour of extra time seem reasonable? Please let me know in the comments.

---
~ About the size problem of Dark Souls characters ~
---​

While not relevant to this update in particular, there was an issue in the comments a few pages ago that actually made me take a step back and think about an important aspect of this quest, namely its Dark Souls waifus.

Everyone knows that I will be introducing Priscilla at some point, since such was decided upon by vote. I've also made it no secret that I will not be conveniently changing Priscilla's size when she arrives in the modern world, since my opinion was that that would be a cop out. Being a giant is part of what Priscilla is, not something to be handwaved, and part of the challenge that comes with choosing Priscilla as our waifu.

However, when I got asked if I had a plan to deal with the problem Priscilla's size would pose, I said that no, I didn't, because I wanted to leave it up to the questers to come up with a solution. I now admit that that may have been something of a mistake.

I still intend to give you, the audience, a chance to come up with a creative way to handle Priscilla's size when housing her. However, in case it should happen that nobody can come up with something that seems feasible or that no compromise can be reached, I want to hereby inform you that I did come up with a plan B of my own to fall back on.

It took some hours lying awake in my bed staring at the ceiling, but in the end I came up with a way that will allow Priscilla, or any other waifu with size or hand issues, to live in a normal-sized, modern house without any problems, without seeming out of place within the context of either PMMM or DS lore.

It's not exactly an easy way and Mami will have to work hard for it, but it's there and it exists, in case everything else we attempt fails. Whether or not you want to make use of this method or come up with a plan yourself is something to be decided when it actually comes up in the story, so for now, there's no need to concern yourselves with it.

I just wanted to let you know that I did think about it and that I did come up with a safety net to fall back on in case it becomes needed.

---
~ We're off to see the Firekeeper ~
---​

As people were discussing what to have Mami do (faint or stay awake) during the last voting round, someone asked me if we would see the Firekeeper again, to which I said, yes, the Firekeeper would definitely show up again and in fact, Mami could visit her at the shrine at any time in her sleep. This was something I had sort of mentioned all the way back in Rekindling 2, but hadn't explicitly stated as such.

Since this was pretty important information, some people wished to incorporate this in the vote and have Mami visit the shrine while unconscious so she could have a good cry on the Firekeeper's shoulder, but given how the last vote had already been largely decided upon by that point, I offered instead to turn that decision into the next vote.

(Good thing I did, too, otherwise this update would be even longer than it already is, but I digress.)

So, that's exactly what we're gonna do! Or, well, you guys are going to do. Do you want Mami to make a visit the shrine and the Firekeeper or not?

[ Vote: Mami ]

[ ] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
- [ ] What does she talk to the Firekeeper about?
- [ ] Since she's here anyway, are there any questions you'd like Mami to ask of the Firekeeper? (max 2)

[ ] Mami does not visit the Firekeeper.
- [ ] What does Mami do upon awakening? Fill in.

No character insights needed this time, as I'm fairly certain we'll be focussing entirely on Mami in the next update. I look forward to seeing what the winning vote will be this time!

 

[Xaldreca]

Nice to see you finally got this done dude. I know you've been struggling with it for a while.

 

[aledeth]

I see Homura is still holding the truth about Witches close to her chest.

Nice update.

 

[tapkomet]

Soft and warm, Laurelin! This story's updates are always the highlight of my... uuh, month, apparently

Didn't seem particularly disjointed to me. Seems perfectly fine.

I especially enjoyed Homura's reactions to the... absurdity. It's always nice to see some humanity shining through in our favorite non-Hollow girl.

She casts another brief glance towards Madoka.

Click to shrink...

Sudden switch to present tense?

On Blue Tearstone Ring: there's a few matters here:

First, does it block the damage on the soul gem if it's rather swift, like a witch chomping on it or a gunshot? If it prevents instakills, it's certainly quite powerful, otherwise not so much as soul gems aren't all that tough (see: Mami instakilling Kyoko followed by Madoka instakilling Mami in episode 10)

Second, if it's because of grief, does the magical girl keep any ability to use magic? There's also the sanity to consider, as grief spiraling girls often won't think to take any seeds. Of course, that's what teammates are for.

Third, there's the bodily damage to consider. Mami would have still been completely incapacitated by Charlotte even if she had this ring. But Mami's body we see after fighting Walpurgis in ep. 10 was basically intact, so presumably she would have been fine to keep going.

Fourth, one hour is very generous actually. I can't imagine a fight that goes on for an hour and doesn't end up with the girl carrying the ring either winning or getting her body completely destroyed. Or somebody intervening.

Fifth, how do the characters find out answers to all the questions I raised? Surely they won't shoot their soul gems for it. And if they can't identify the exact effect, then it can't be planned around.

Hmm, I don't think Mami ever learned there's any magic whatsoever in the items, so can't ask about that. Similarly, we had the idea to ask about doing something with the grief seeds, but we don't really know anything about them IC, so don't have a good reason to ask.

[X] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
-[X] Talk about QB and his deception. Any advice, is it anything like she's heard of?
-[X] Talk about taking care of Snuggly. Any advice?
--[X] Will there be other decidedly unhuman sparks? Because those are a challenge to take care of. Maybe prioritize normal humans for now? Also, any ideas how to make them stand out less, or better yet shapeshift them somehow?
-[X] Ask Firekeeper about...
--[X] Why is it that Mami got this new chance, and not some other magical girl? Or have there been others? For that matter, why not normal humans? What's the criteria here?

Is this reasonable or do I have too many questions here? The questions above seem appropriate to the talk topics, which would be the most immediate things on Mami's mind, but it's your call, Laurelin.

 

[Dhiker]

This was Glorious.
QB's quest has gone from normal to insane difficulty.
Homura is now down from impossible to merely hard mode.
This was a good chapter, thanks for the hard work you put into it. Also, I have no complaint about the size because that just made me more excited to read it.

 

[Icipall]

You know what's bad about large updates? It takes long to read through, so when you quote parts of it to comment, by the time you get to the end and commenting, you have to rack your brain to remember what you were going to say for the first quotes.

It seemed almost surreal how a mere fourteen days ago, she was still just an ordinary girl whose biggest woes were her grades in school and the looming spectre of puberty.

Click to shrink...

Unnecessary comma.

Instead of a friend, however, all she'd gotten were nightmares. Awful dreams in which she was forced to relive Mami's final moments again and again in all their horrific and terrifying detail, until she woke up with a start, drenched in cold sweat and barely able to stifle her screaming. That is, when she'd been able to sleep at all instead of lying awake crying, smothering her tears in her pillow because she couldn't afford to let her parents see them.

She'd wanted so badly to talk about it, to tell someone, anyone, what was hurting her so, but she couldn't, because the truth was too fantastical to believe. Even her family, as much as they loved her, would think she'd gone mad if she started telling them about magic and monsters and that she'd lost a friend to them. Everybody would, it was just the way things were; she couldn't even get mad about it.

Click to shrink...

Poor Madoka.

It was a keychain well spent and nobody would be able to convince her otherwise, ever.

Click to shrink...

<insert "convince me otherwise"-meme here>

If he couldn't be hurt, why had he pretended to be when Homura was chasing him that night? Had he deliberately been trying to make Mami distrustful of Homura, or get them to fight? Why? What purpose could that possibly serve? Even disregarding that, Mami had known and depended on him for years, why had he kept that ability a secret and make her worry?

Click to shrink...

The same reason it looks like a cute stuffed animal. To dupe innocent little girls and haeve them follow it to strange, dark labyrinths.

Said enemy didn't appear to be all that worried by the feathered piranha trying to nip at his little furry feet, looking down on the bird girl as if she was an interesting insect he'd found under a rock.

Click to shrink...

*passes by and pushes Kyubey to Snuggly's crushing embrace*
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"I am not at fault for the emotional shortcomings of your species," he replied, as calmly and casually as one would be when stating that grass is green or that the sky is blue.

Click to shrink...

Better having emotional shortcomings than having no emotions at all.

"Your behaviour is most perplexing, Akemi Homura," he remarked sweetly. "You insist that I am not to be trusted because I did not volunteer any information unless asked for it, yet are extremely disinclined to divulge any of your own secrets. I believe the correct term you humans use for this is 'hypocrisy', is it not?"

The Magical Girl narrowed her eyes and sent him a withering glare, her finger twitching on the trigger of her gun.

Unperturbed, Kyubey turned towards Sayaka. "Are you certain it is wise to place your trust in her, Miki Sayaka? I do not hide anything from my Magical Girls; any question you ask me, I answer truthfully. It is unfortunate that Akemi Homura is less forthcoming with her information." He tilted his head towards the Magical Girl in question. "I wonder why that is?"

Click to shrink...

Kyubey, just shut up.

Madoka watched her go, glad and more than a little relieved that her request had been agreed to so easily. She'd been admittedly a bit worried that she might have upset or even insulted her quiet classmate with her outburst from before, since a strong Magical Girl like Homura probably didn't appreciate being told what to do by a weakling like herself. By the looks of it she needn't have worried about that, at least not for now.

Click to shrink...

*snort* Madoka, she'd start wearing maid costume, become your personal servant in your house and refer to you as "Madoka-sama" if you asked.

Homura nodded. "He is, or he will be, once he's found a spatula to scrape himself off of the pavement with," she replied with the barest hint of a wry smile on her lips, in a shockingly rare display of dark humor.

Click to shrink...

Heh.

"I don't know about that," she admitted quietly, before raising her head and looking the Magical Girl straight in the eye, "but we believe you now. So, please, won't you help us understand, Homura-chan?"

Click to shrink...

Madoka used Puppy Dog Eyes.

Homura didn't immediately respond, her face bearing a contemplative expression as she stared into Madoka's pleading eyes. For a moment she actually looked somewhat annoyed, as if frustrated that she couldn't find an immediate rebuttal to the argument she'd been presented with. This indecisiveness lingered on for a while, an unseen battle waging within her mind as she carefully weighed her options, until at last she gave in.

With a weary sigh and an expression that left no doubt as to how much this went against her own better judgement, Homura sat down at the table.

"Very well," she said, her face once more expressionless. "Ask your questions."

Click to shrink...

It's super effective!

Snuggly cautiously peeked from behind her living shield, then glanced up into Madoka's smiling face. "Mado bird sure? Sad girl look scary."

Nobody noticed how Homura tensed upon hearing her new nickname.

Click to shrink...

Oooh, hit the nail straight on the head, Snuggly.

The Magical Girl's response was to raise one of her eyebrows, showing that she had some fairly big concerns about the bird girl's method of measuring trustworthiness. To her credit, however, she chose not to voice any of them and to simply roll with what she clearly considered to be utter absurdity.

Click to shrink...

That's because you have thrown aside the Way of Soft and Warm.

Snuggly's face lit up brighter than a thousand suns and she squealed in excitement before snatching her new prize out of Madoka's hands faster than the eye could follow. The three students watched with varying degrees of bemusement as she held up Homura's gift like a trophy with her wings, making happy chirps the entire time. While she did this, however, she accidentally applied a bit too much pressure, giving the toy a good squeeze.

The little duckling squeaked.

Click to shrink...

Oh no...

Instantly, Snuggly's entire demeanour changed. Her happy noises died down and she became very still. Slowly, she brought the toy closer to her face, undoubtedly to get a better look at it, then carefully, so very, very carefully, gave it another squeeze.

The duckling squeaked again.

Snuggly's jaw dropped and her already big eyes grew even wider. She gaped at the stuffed animal in her clutches like a fish out of water, disbelief written clearly across her face as she struggled to comprehend the miracle she had just witnessed. With trembling arms, she squeezed the toy for a third time, as if she wanted to make sure that she hadn't been hearing things.

Another squeak rang through the air.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

There was no stopping it anymore. Snuggly squeezed her new toy like a bird girl possessed, every little noise she got out of it making her more and more excited until she was practically vibrating on the floor. Madoka was actually starting to get a bit worried and was about to try and get the little girl to calm down a little, but her efforts were thwarted before they even began when she suddenly had a squeaking duckling toy shoved in her face.

"MADO BIRD! LOOK! LOOK! SOFT AND WARM IS SQUEAKY SOFT AND WARM! IS LIKE LITTLE BIRD, BUT SOFT AND WARM!"

Click to shrink...

Homura, you have created a monster. Cute monster, but monster nonetheless.

Homura's eyes slowly narrowed as she stared at the ring in Madoka's hand. She seemed strangely suspicious of it, though Madoka couldn't fathom why. It wasn't like there was anything special about the trinket, or that it was made out of valuable materials. It was just a simple - though still nice looking - steel ring.

Click to shrink...

Say that again after blocking your first bullet/blade with your forearm, Madoka.

While a perfectly applicable term, 'nice' was perhaps a bit of an understatement for the ring that now lay at Homura's feet. It appeared to be made of silver and was inlaid with a large and beautiful gemstone, dark blue in colour and shaped like a tear. It definitely looked like the most valuable item Snuggly had handed out so far, at least as far as monetary worth went.

Click to shrink...

Blue Tearstone Ring. Intersting.

"No worries, it's all good," Sayaka assured her, the grin on her face having morphed into a genuine, encouraging smile. "It was kinda gross, I admit, but actually sort of satisfying too, once it turned out he couldn't die anyway. Maybe I'll give you a hand next time!"

"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka exclaimed in shock, gaping at her best friend.

Click to shrink...

Snuggly is bad influence on Sayaka.

The Magical Girl idly flipped a hand through her raven hair. "I'm sure even you don't need my help to clean four teacups and a teapot, Miki Sayaka," she said, her voice and expression both as dry as a summer's day. "I shall take care of the body Kyubey left behind. I doubt Tomoe Mami would appreciate waking up to find it still staining her floor."

Click to shrink...

In other words, taking out the trash.

AN: Oh sweet Madokami in heaven above, it's finally done. This chapter, this monster, just flat out refused, refused I tell you, to be finished. Every time I thought "now Imma cross the finish line", this blasted thing picked up the finish line and put it down again several more kilometres further ahead.

Click to shrink...

So the chapter was Road Runner while you were Wile E. Coyote.

As such, this ring works a bit differently for Magical Girls, its effect triggering only when their Soul Gem gets damaged to a point where any further damage would break it. More importantly, however, it will also stave off the process of Witching out for a limited time. Should the Soul Gem become filled with Grief, the ring will buy some extra valuable time during which the Magical Girl might still cleanse it and prevent herself from becoming a Witch.

Admittedly, I haven't entirely decided upon how much time 'some time' actually is. I don't want the ring to be either underpowered or overpowered. Does an hour of extra time seem reasonable? Please let me know in the comments.

Click to shrink...

That's... Super good, Homura got lucky.

I think hour is good.

I still intend to give you, the audience, a chance to come up with a creative way to handle Priscilla's size when housing her. However, in case it should happen that nobody can come up with something that seems feasible or that no compromise can be reached, I want to hereby inform you that I did come up with a plan B of my own to fall back on.

It took some hours lying awake in my bed staring at the ceiling,

Click to shrink...

Break the ceiling, got it.

Hmm, I don't think Mami ever learned there's any magic whatsoever in the items, so can't ask about that. Similarly, we had the idea to ask about doing something with the grief seeds, but we don't really know anything about them IC, so don't have a good reason to ask.

Click to shrink...

IIRC, she did realize that there was something magical about the Dragon Torso Stone.

 

[Takareer]

Despite all the sad things in this chapter, reading it makes me so happy! Definitely looking forward to the next one.

When Snuggly finds Priscilla, Snuggly's going to really go ballistic at the opportunity to play with a person who's so soft and warm.

 

[tapkomet]

Oh yeah

Your thoughts come to a grinding halt and your eyes snap open when you feel something within the stone react to your prodding.

Sitting up straighter, your mind now wide awake and sharp, you stare at the stone in your hand with suspicion. It was brief, but you definitely felt something just now. You cast a brief glance towards Snuggly, but she is still playing with her Hello Kitty toy and doesn't seem to have noticed anything. Returning your attention to the dragon stone, you decide to try and replicate what you just did, in order to assure yourself that you weren't just imagining things the first time around.

Once more you close your eyes, then reach out with your mind to the stone, like you called out to the magic of your soul gem so many countless times until your death. Now that you're prepared and actively looking out for it, you're not caught off guard when the same feeling from before returns.

It's faint, so faint you're not surprised you didn't notice it until you actively went searching for it, but you definitely, unmistakably, feel the magic contained within.

You open your eyes again and let out a breath you didn't realise you were holding.

Magic.

You can feel magic in the stone.

Click to shrink...

Okay how about this then

[X] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
-[X] Talk about QB and his deception. Any advice, is it anything like she's heard of?
-[X] Talk about what happened to Snuggly, and about taking care of her. Any advice?
--[X] Will there be other decidedly unhuman sparks? Because those are a challenge to take care of. Maybe prioritize normal humans for now? Also, any ideas how to make them stand out less, or better yet shapeshift them somehow?
-[X] Ask the Firekeeper...
--[X] Why is it that Mami got this new chance, and not some other magical girl? Or have there been others? For that matter, why not normal humans? What's the criteria here?
--[X] About the stone. Could there be magic in it? What about other items Snuggly gives out? Is it dangerous, and how does one use it?

 

[Icipall]

[X] tapkomet

 

[Billthesomething]

[X] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
-[X] Talk about QB and his deception. Any advice, is it anything like she's heard of?
-[X] Talk about what happened to Snuggly, and about taking care of her. Any advice?
--[X] Will there be other decidedly unhuman sparks? Because those are a challenge to take care of. Maybe prioritize normal humans for now? Also, any ideas how to make them stand out less, or better yet shapeshift them somehow?
-[X] Ask the Firekeeper...
--[X] Why is it that Mami got this new chance, and not some other magical girl? Or have there been others? For that matter, why not normal humans? What's the criteria here?
--[X] About the stone. Could there be magic in it? What about other items Snuggly gives out? Is it dangerous, and how does one use it?

 

[Anann]

[X] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
-[X] Talk about QB and his deception. Any advice, is it anything like she's heard of?
-[X] Talk about what happened to Snuggly, and about taking care of her. Any advice?
--[X] Will there be other decidedly unhuman sparks? Because those are a challenge to take care of. Maybe prioritize normal humans for now? Also, any ideas how to make them stand out less, or better yet shapeshift them somehow?
-[X] Ask the Firekeeper...
--[X] Why is it that Mami got this new chance, and not some other magical girl? Or have there been others? For that matter, why not normal humans? What's the criteria here?
--[X] About the stone. Could there be magic in it? What about other items Snuggly gives out? Is it dangerous, and how does one use it?

Holy carp, that update was fifteen thousand words! That's longer than some entire quests get! Even if the pacing has changed, Laurelin's sure coming through with the sheer volume of content.

Now, as for the vote, personally I'd prefer to wake up and continue speaking with friends (and Homura) but there are a few good queries mentioned here that I suppose we can address now, since we have the opportunity. I'm particularly hopeful about the last one - without her meguca powers, Mami is worryingly at risk from Witches or whatever other threats may appear, and frankly I don't trust Homu to expend much effort defending her. I wonder if coobs has (or had) informed Kyouko about Mami's demise? It'd be reassuring for the city to have a second defender, even if she's even less ideal than Akemi.

 

[tapkomet]

[X] Mami visits the Firekeeper while unconscious to have a shoulder to cry on.
-[X] Talk about QB and his deception. Any advice, is it anything like she's heard of?
-[X] Talk about what happened to Snuggly, and about taking care of her. Any advice?
--[X] Will there be other decidedly unhuman sparks? Because those are a challenge to take care of. Maybe prioritize normal humans for now? Also, any ideas how to make them stand out less, or better yet shapeshift them somehow?
-[X] Ask the Firekeeper...
--[X] Why is it that Mami got this new chance, and not some other magical girl? Or have there been others? For that matter, why not normal humans? What's the criteria here?
--[X] About the stone. Could there be magic in it? What about other items Snuggly gives out? Is it dangerous, and how does one use it?

Holy carp, that update was fifteen thousand words! That's longer than some entire quests get! Even if the pacing has changed, Laurelin's sure coming through with the sheer volume of content.

Now, as for the vote, personally I'd prefer to wake up and continue speaking with friends (and Homura) but there are a few good queries mentioned here that I suppose we can address now, since we have the opportunity. I'm particularly hopeful about the last one - without her meguca powers, Mami is worryingly at risk from Witches or whatever other threats may appear, and frankly I don't trust Homu to expend much effort defending her. I wonder if coobs has (or had) informed Kyouko about Mami's demise? It'd be reassuring for the city to have a second defender, even if she's even less ideal than Akemi.

Click to shrink...

Seems like now would be a good opportunity to talk to the Firekeeper and get comforted. And discuss some pressing matters.

As far as danger of witches, Mami shouldn't be any more at risk than any random person in Mitakihara. Less, if you account for her experience with the situations (she'd have some idea how to evade familairs and how to find the exit of a labyrinth, and her status as a Firekeeper hopefully makes her resistant/immune to witches' despair aura), and none at all considering she respawns (though she doesn't know that IC). It would be nice to have the ability to actually fight them, of course. I wonder if we'll have to use mundane weapons for it. Is it possible in DS to rely on magic completely, rather than as supplemental to weapons?

As for Kyoko, no clue if QB has told her already, but I'm sure we'll be able to reconcile, especially if she shows up taking care of Yuma.

 

[Anann]

As far as danger of witches, Mami shouldn't be any more at risk than any random person in Mitakihara.

Click to shrink...

I can't remember if it's canon or not, but aren't Witches and Familiars attracted to magic or magical potential? Of course, even if that's the case, it could be specific to the Incubator-system magic, and not DS magic.

 

[tapkomet]

I can't remember if it's canon or not, but aren't Witches and Familiars attracted to magic or magical potential? Of course, even if that's the case, it could be specific to the Incubator-system magic, and not DS magic.

Click to shrink...

I don't believe that's canon, and I've not heard this idea in fanon either. It doesn't quite make logical sense: witches and familiars prey on normal people, particularly normal people in a poor state of mind. Magical girls are useless as prey, radiating hope as they do, not to mention they actively hunt witches.

That said, Madoka does run into quite a few witches: first Gertrud in the mall, then Charlotte at the hospital and Kirsten/Elly at the abandoned factory. However, Charlotte wasn't there because of Madoka or anyone else, she was there because that's where Nagisa fell into despair. And Madoka went to Kirsten herself. So really it's just Gertrud that might have been attracted to her, or to Homura, but it's just as likely QB attracted Gertrud somehow.

A pervasive idea is that many of the witches were attracted to Mitakihara by Walpurgis's imminent arrival. Not sure if that one's canon.

Should also note that Homura, for all her obsession with protecting Madoka, never mentions anything about it, and she'd know.

 

[Aigloss]

[X] tapkomet

 

[PA2]

[X] tapkomet

Welcome back, @Laurelin! Awesome update!

 

[Icipall]

Is it possible in DS to rely on magic completely, rather than as supplemental to weapons?

Click to shrink...

Depends whether or not we're talking about lore or gameplay wise. In case of former, yes, there are multiple characters in DS that do fine and survive with just their knowledge of magic. In the case of latter, not quite, eventually you're going to run out of spells/mana, unless you spam loads of magic restorative items. But it is very possible to have a playstyle/build where magic is your primary and where your weapons are supplementary.

A pervasive idea is that many of the witches were attracted to Mitakihara by Walpurgis's imminent arrival. Not sure if that one's canon.

Click to shrink...

To my knowledge that is not canon.

 

[Drebom]

[X] tapkomet

 

[wingstrike96]

Then she'd had that strange dream and ever since she had the feeling she was caught in some sort of feverish fantasy that became increasingly more bizarre and frightening with every passing day.

Click to shrink...

Madoka's Bizarre Adventure.


[X] tapkomet

 

[obssesednuker]

When we say Priscilla is a giant, precisely how tall are we talking here?

[X] tapkomet

To my knowledge that is not canon.

Click to shrink...

I think it's a piece of fanon that has never been confirmed or denied.

 

[tapkomet]

When we say Priscilla is a giant, precisely how tall are we talking here?

Click to shrink...

And keep in mind that's a European guy standing next to her, not a Japanese schoolgirl

Estimation: about 4 meters, and assuming human proportions, 700-800 kg in weight

 

[obssesednuker]

And keep in mind that's a European guy standing next to her, not a Japanese schoolgirl

Estimation: about 4 meters, and assuming human proportions, 700-800 kg in weight

Click to shrink...

Hmm... assuming that dudes about six feet/1.8ish meters, she's probably more like 4.5 meters. Mami is almost three times smaller then she is. Her and the other 'gucas will probably come off as downright adorable to Priscilla.

I also just realized that between Priscilla, Sabrina, and those doujins which put Mami with the office lady from episode 2, apparently fanon's unconsciously come to the consensus that Mami's type is toll.

 

[Thotful Salad]

Hmm... assuming that dudes about six feet/1.8ish meters, she's probably more like 4.5 meters. Mami is almost three times smaller then she is. Her and the other 'gucas will probably come off as downright adorable to Priscilla.

I also just realized that between Priscilla, Sabrina, and those doujins which put Mami with the office lady from episode 2, apparently fanon's unconsciously come to the consensus that Mami's type is toll.

Click to shrink...

How... Convenient for the future... Hehehehehe.

 

[tapkomet]

Hmm... assuming that dudes about six feet/1.8ish meters, she's probably more like 4.5 meters. Mami is almost three times smaller then she is. Her and the other 'gucas will probably come off as downright adorable to Priscilla.

I also just realized that between Priscilla, Sabrina, and those doujins which put Mami with the office lady from episode 2, apparently fanon's unconsciously come to the consensus that Mami's type is toll.

Click to shrink...

The figures I saw reasoned that Middle Ages people were pretty short compared to modern, so the guy is likely more like 1.6 meters. It's unclear though. So yeah, somewhere between 4 and 4.5, and consequently 700 - 1100 kilos of weight.