Pretty sure the official explanation is "Girls on average have better Potential". So it isn't that Girls only can make Contracts, just that the Incubators don't really go out of their way looking for "diamonds" among the on-average lesser categories.
Besides, most transgender Meguca would likely blow their Wish on becoming truly a girl/woman, as "Magical Wish that can do anything" is more convenient than surgery.
[X] Yes, you do have more questions
-[X] "Why me specifically? You mentioned that you choose girls with high potential, am I really that special?"
-[X] "Actually, are there any other Magical Girls in the city? I don't know if the two of us alone are enough to protect a whole city, especially if you can't beat Witches by yourself."
-[X] "Could I make a wish to get rid of all the Witches? Is something as major as that even possible to wish for?"
-[X] "How does your wish granting power work? Do you have rules or restrictions, like no bringing back the dead or taking over the world?"
-[X] "What are Witches anyway? Do you know where they come from?"
-[X] "What kind of powers would I have if I became a Magical Girl?"
-[X] "Other than Witches is there anything else we'll have to fight, like Dark Magical Girls, secret government conspiracies or aliens?"
Saturday, January 1st 2011
Kyubey peers at you while he awaits your answer. This is a whole lot to take in, like a whole lot. How else would one react to finding out how so many innocent people were sentenced to death while you and the rest of the world languished in ignorance. What if it happened to someone you cared about, one of your old friends, your sister, or your parents? Would you even know about it?
The self-proclaimed magical girl mascot goes back on all fours and hops back onto your bed, snuggling into the blankets with a look of contentment and closed eyes. It makes you want to pet him, it's so adorable... but onto that later. First you're going to try and piece things together for yourself before jumping head-first into becoming a magical girl. Not that you could live with yourself if you were responsible for anything bad happening to your loved ones by doing nothing.
"... Um, Kyubey?"
Kyubey opens his eyes to look at you once more, a faint sparkle shining within his red orbs.
Have you come to a decision, Ruri Hinako?
You feel bad for wasting so much of Kyubey's valuable time when he could be out there helping people... but you have to ask him some more questions, for your own peace of mind when coming to an eventual decision at least.
"N-not yet, sorry." Kyubey grows visibly more downcast at this. "Just... why me? You mentioned something about giving magic to girls with potential, am I really that special?"
Kyubey lightens up a bit
Ah, of course you are! Not every girl has as much Potential for Magic as you do, so I just know that you could become a great magical girl!
You're cheeks flush a bit at the praise. You're not used to being special, mostly just being "Itsumi's little sister", or "the daughter of the Ruris". Even with your old friends back in Nagaoka, you were only able to meet through your sister's influence. Being told that you're special, that you have something that others don't... it makes you feel needed. Mama, Papa, and Itsumi always had to do everything for you, after all...
"O-oh, thanks," you smoothly say as you try to recompose yourself. Kyubey uncurls himself and sits himself back down on his hind legs, tail swishing almost hypnotically behind him.
"Uh, actually, are there any other magical girls in the city? If I became a magical girl, I'm not sure if I could protect the whole city by myself... I still have to go to school and take care of myself, right?"
Kyubey take this time to scratch behind his ear with his leg in the most adorable manner- and you'll stop this train of thought, you can't let yourself get distracted from such an important decision.
There are other magical girls in Urahama City that I'm aware of, but nowhere near as many as I'd like. In fact, you'd be doing me a huge favor by becoming a magical girl, otherwise it may take quite some time for me to come across another girl of your Potential again before a Witch causes trouble!
Huh, you guess that would make sense that there'd be less magical girls here considering how new Urahama is as a city.
"Hey Kyubey, do you know if there are any magical girls that live nearby me? It would be really nice to have someone I could rely on if I become a magical girl! I mean, what if I need help to defeat a Witch?" Kyubey cocks his head to the side as if deep in thought.
Hm... there are a few relatively nearby, though I wouldn't want to intrude on their privacy by telling you their personal information. Tell you what, if you become a magical girl, I could try and introduce you to them if you'd like!
A wide smile breaks out on your face. "That'd be great, Kyubey!" Honestly, it's a relief to know that there are a couple of other magical girls nearby that are preventing Witches from hurting anyone, even if you don't end up becoming a magical girl in the end.
Though that gets you thinking back on the whole offer. Your wish...
"So what's stopping me from wishing all the Witches away, or something like that? That way there'd be no reason for anyone to get hurt!"
Ah yes, that's a common enough pitfall when it comes to Wishes. You see, the power of a magical girl's Wish is dependent on their Potential, so wishing for something like the removal of all Witches wouldn't work all that well. At best, some Witches within a certain area might be eliminated, however only a girl with unparalleled Potential throughout all of history could manage a Wish such as you're proposing.
Honestly, it'd be more efficient to Wish for something that you want personally, as from what I've observed magical girls that try and Wish for something grand without the Potential for it end up being relatively weak by magical girl standards.
Oh, that's too bad. It does make sense though, otherwise you're sure that someone else would've thought of it and used their Wish on that already. Speaking of...
"So I can't wish for anything too world changing... Are there any other rules or restrictions on wishes that I should know about? Can you bring back the dead, or wish to rule the world or crazy stuff like that?"
I'm afraid not, bringing back the dead is beyond the purview of a Wish. Your latter example is much the same as wishing for all the Witches to be dead, largely unattainable outside of a girl's Potential. Other than that though, you really can Wish for just about anything else! As long as it's not too world changing with your amount of Potential, of course!
Oh, so it's not as bad as you thought. Just don't spread your wish too thin, then! Then again, people probably don't pester Kyubey with so many questions before deciding like you have. You can be such a nuisance at times...
"... What about Witches? Do you know what they are, and where they come from?" You can't imagine that they're anything good, especially with the horrible things that they do... Didn't Kyubey mention that they eat people?!
Witches are born from the despair of humanity, and the forms they take are quite unnatural as well. Why, you could think of them as monstrous amalgamations of ideas taken form physically speaking, who hide behind their barriers that separates them from the world. It's why they need to create familiars in order to have them lure people into their Labyrinths.
Huh, you probably could have guessed that, though that's good to know. Makes sense that literal monsters would be born from something as horrible as all of humanity's despair, and also Magic apparently you think.
"I-is there anything else that I might have to fight? Like dark magical girls, secret government agencies, or aliens or something? Are there any magical girls that become evil?"
Hm, you shouldn't have to worry about any secret government organizations, as I make sure to conceal the existence of magical girls from such groups. It wouldn't do for them to weaponize magical girls in their wars and for their agendas, after all! Likewise, you shouldn't need to worry about any extraterrestrial life.
Kyubey shuffles himself a bit and stares directly at you quite seriously, if you're interpreting that correctly.
While there aren't such a thing as a "dark magical girls", magical girls are still human. They can turn to selfishness and to evil just as any other person can, sadly. Most of the time, this happens long after becoming a magical girl, but sometimes they can slip through the cracks if they're particularly warped, such as those you would label as sociopaths or psychopaths.
Kyubey hops off the bed and rubs himself against your leg as if to comfort you, much like a cat would.
But don't worry about that! The worst cases are very much few and far between, and most magical girls that fall along that path simply tend to care more about themselves than others, indulging in selfishness and shirking their duties rather than going out to do anything deliberately evil.
Oh... you guess not everything could be like your magical girl anime. It's still a huge let down though.
"What about me, then? I-I mean, if I become a magical girl. What would I be able to do?"
Kyubey finishes comforting you and sits down on the floor in front of you.
A magical girl's abilities can vary wildly from magical girl to magical girl, though they do share certain abilities. Some examples of this would be the enhancement of the magical girl's body so that they could face off against the threat of the Witches.
There's magical healing, though it can be very costly on your magic to use unless your wish is related to healing. Enchantment is another common ability, which allows a magical girl to imbue their power into something, though the resulting effects can vary from magical girl to magical girl outside of a few basic applications.
And of course, a magical girl would receive a weapon unique only to them! There are many more abilities that a magical girl could achieve, however those are the most obvious ones.
You glance at your alarm clock and see that it's 11 PM. Ugh, you really should get to sleep, shouldn't you?
It's getting late, isn't it?
Oh, he must've seen you looking at the time. You yawn. Kyubey must be getting tired too.
So, have you decided on whether or not you want to become a magical girl? I'm going to have to go soon to address some other matters, so what do you think?
[ ] Do you have any more questions?
[ ] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
-[ ] What is your Wish? (Write-in)
[ ] Don't become a magical girl for now, you're sure Kyubey will understand
[ ] Write-in
So yeah, you asked Kyubey some questions, and you got some Kyubey answers.
You're a little bit on a time-table, unless you want to delay things by not becoming a magical girl for now (or ever). Though accidents tend to happen around potential contractees, I'm sure everything will end up just fine~.
[X] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
-[X] Wish to be able to cure the despair that creates Witches, you'll strike at the root of the problem!
Well, he said it works best if its contained, and we could wish for an area to be Witch-free, so wishing to be able to personally fix it makes sense right?
To be able to cure it, not to impose it on everyone.
To be specific, the intention there is to cure JUST the despair that creates Witches, which with metaknowledge we know to be soul gem contamination more than anything else. It'd have to address that first.
Aaaaah! The possibilities are endless! We honestly might be better off overall if we take Kyubey's advice. Make a wish for something we personally want rather than something huge. I still really want to make a wish that summons a fictional character like Nanoha or Arturia to be our teammate and friend though, especially after our protagonist has noted that she likes anime. But I worry about spreading our potential too thin.
Hinako could wish for whatever she wants, barring bringing the dead back to life. She could definitely "create" life though - even life with its own Potential/abilities as demonstrated all throughout Kazumi Magica. But would it be a good idea for Hinako and her personal abilities (since she'd be offloading a good chunk of her Potential to another source), and would she have enough Potential to actually empower a created person? 🤔
Looking at this I think that at least in this quest, it might not be a good idea to make a wish like that. I mean, maybe you're yanking our chain and she has more than enough potential for that. Or at least enough to create a person who could then make their own wish. But that'd be a big risk, wouldn't it?
To be specific, the intention there is to cure JUST the despair that creates Witches, which with metaknowledge we know to be soul gem contamination more than anything else.
I know what you're aiming at. But Kyuubey usually have a...dubious relationship to intentions. See what happened to Nagisa. We'll probably ended up with a powerset to brainwash people or something and then before you know it, become some tragic villain that has to be taken down
I know what you're aiming at. But Kyuubey usually have a...dubious relationship to intentions. See what happened to Nagisa. We'll probably ended up with a powerset to brainwash people or something and then before you know it, become some tragic villain that has to be taken down
Uh, he doesn't fuck with the wishes, I'm not sure he could actually DO anything to the wishes, they're granted by the magical girl's own power. He can and does mislead a potential to wish for what they think they want while high on emotions and biased by misleading information.
The more specific the thing the wish is addressing the more likely it is that it manifests the way you want.
E: To sum it up, he doesn't need to fuck with monkey's paw wishes, he just needs to rely on Tween girls not being the best at forethought and knowing what they actually want.
Looking at this I think that at least in this quest, it might not be a good idea to make a wish like that. I mean, maybe you're yanking our chain and she has more than enough potential for that. Or at least enough to create a person who could then make their own wish. But that'd be a big risk, wouldn't it?
As mentioned in Chapter 1's AN, Hinako has decidedly Above Average Potential.
And yeah, if Hinako decides to create a facsimile of a fictional character, and if their "powers" exceeds her Potential then they'll likely have to make a Wish on the Incubator themselves in order to obtain power (much like how Niko's clone in Kazumi Magica could become a magical girl as well after being Wished into existence, however we all saw how that ended up so be careful when creating life willy-nilly). Can't say that it's the most efficient use of a Wish for Hinako power-wise, but you could certainly do it. And it just might help solve one of Hinako's issues, or it might not.
Part of the difficulty with PMMM quests is that at the start its a little hard to figure out what could motivate them to make a good wish for, since they're pretty blank slatety at this juncture.
[X] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
-[x] "Honestly, there are a lot of things I could wish for. To have the power to protect the people I care about, to help people in need, to finally do something meaningful. I only have so much potential like you said, so I shouldn't waste it. But wishes like those... I can do all of those things myself once I'm actually a Magical Girl can't I? In that case, wouldn't it be better to just make myself as strong as I can be to achieve those goals with my own hands? Kyubey, I want to use all of my potential as best as I can. So my only wish... is to be a Magical Girl!"
As mentioned in Chapter 1's AN, Hinako has decidedly Above Average Potential.
And yeah, if Hinako decides to create a facsimile of a fictional character, and if their "powers" exceeds her Potential then they'll likely have to make a Wish on the Incubator themselves in order to obtain power (much like how Niko's clone in Kazumi Magica could become a magical girl as well after being Wished into existence, however we all saw how that ended up so be careful when creating life willy-nilly). Can't say that it's the most efficient use of a Wish for Hinako power-wise, but you could certainly do it. And it just might help solve one of Hinako's issues, or it might not.
Thank you for elaborating further! I've decided that as much as I like the idea, i'll wait for other people's opinions on it before committing.
I was thinking that some in-character wishes might be things like "I wish I could keep the people I care about safe/from dying." Or "Isn't just being a Magical Girl enough? In that case my wish is to become a Magical Girl!" But those are fairly generic and part of the fun of these Quests is coming up with really creative and unique wishes.
Thinking a bit more though, the second one is actually a pretty good wish isn't it? Since it would most likely put all of our potential towards being a Magical Girl. We'd definitely get some unique abilities based on our conceptions of Magical Girls too! It'd be just like Prisma Illya, "Magical Girls can fly can't they?" There'd be cantrips, lasers, maybe a little purification and just overall better stats. Like, we could rival someone with higher potential who made a more wasteful wish. Oh man, I'm actually getting pretty hyped for this!
You know what, yeah! That's what I'm gonna go for unless someone can really surprise me with something awesome.
Edit: I moved the vote itself to the top of my post just in case it might be missed by people who don't want to read almost five hundred words of my thought processes.
I keep thinking about fun conversations like: "Kyubey, now that i'm a Magical Girl what can I do?" "You would know better than I would. After all, aren't you the one who wished to become one?" "Hey you're right! Then, since I'm a Magical Girl I can fly right?" "Why don't we find out?" "Alright! Let's try this then... Huh!? I-it's actually working! I'm really flyi-aaaaaaaaah!" *crashing sounds* "Oh my, perhaps next time it would be wise to do that outside? I'm not sure your poor closet will ever recover."
[X] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
-[x] Wish for your Friends and Family to be protected from Witches and their familiars.
This is a good wish I think. You can't be everywhere at once and this way you won't have to worry about them dying to further the plan of witches. So no worries about them.
Not that you could live with yourself if you were responsible for anything bad happening to your loved ones by doing nothing Mama, Papa, and Itsumi always had to do everything for you, after all... You can be such a nuisance at times...
So we suffer of low self-esteem and we think highly of our family. Maybe we should try to find something that won't make us too dependant from someone else, or that would allow us to make a good use of everything we learn by what we find our betters. hmmm...
[X] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
-[X] I wish I could replicate everything, magical or not, I'll learn about, so that I could use them together to make something greater.
This would probably grant us some degree of power copying and can escalate to something on a larger scale later on.
I think it would be in character because we would valorize what our family has teached for us, and even the magical girls that to this moment have managed to protect the civilians from the dangers of witches, by using all of their best together. Or, at least, this is the idea.
Edit: it will be useful also outside of tha magical world.
I was thinking about the wish I voted for and I had more ideas on the kind of abilities we could get from our beliefs about Magical Girls.
Magical Girls don't kill their opponents usually and collateral damage isn't often a concern, so we might find ourselves able to "hold back" the level of damage we cause with our attacks. Being able to neutralize enemy Magical Girls without seriously wounding them would definitely be good for our mental health.
Magical Girls and mascots tend to be friends. What if Kyubey gets (an admittedly minor) attachment to us beyond what's rational? Favour of the incubator could really help us later~
Magical Girls are beloved symbols of hopes and dreams. A little extra charisma could go a long way. Especially when dealing with scary Magical Girl politics and rougher personalities similar to Kyouko.
The only "downside" that comes to mind is a lengthier and flashier transformation sequence. But presentation is important! You'll never shine if you don't glow.
Magical Girls don't kill their opponents usually and collateral damage isn't often a concern, so we might find ourselves able to "hold back" the level of damage we cause with our attacks. Being able to neutralize enemy Magical Girls without seriously wounding them would definitely be good for our mental health.
Magical Girls and mascots tend to be friends. What if Kyubey gets (an admittedly minor) attachment to us beyond what's rational? Favour of the incubator could really help us later~
I meant in shows directed at younger audiences you know? But you'd probably know better than me. I've only recently got into Magical Girl stuff beyond Madoka.
And while it is a very magic focused wish, I don't get the impression that we are struggling a lot on the mundane side of things. We recently got out of the hospital and we have a few self-esteem issues, but we don't seem to be significantly upset or bothered by how things are overall. We're at a new beginning in our life and the opportunity to become a Magical Girl is simply the icing on the cake! There are a remarkable amount of mundane things that can be solved and/or aided with magic too if that's a major concern.
Edit: I'm reminded that we still don't know why we were in the hospital do we? I'll go reread everything again to see if I missed it, but this'll be the fourth time I've done so and i'd be surprised if I really did miss something.
Edit: I'm reminded that we still don't know why we were in the hospital do we? I'll go reread everything again to see if I missed it, but this'll be the fourth time I've done so and i'd be surprised if I really did miss something.
Huh, you probably could have guessed that, though that's good to know. Makes sense that literal monsters would be born from something as horrible as all of humanity's despair, and also Magic apparently you think.
How reasonable do you think it would be to ask about spawn camping witches? Like where are witches physically created? Can we defeat them right as they are being made?
Hm... there are a few relatively nearby, though I wouldn't want to intrude on their privacy by telling your their personal information. Tell you what, if you become a magical girl, I could try and introduce you to them if you'd like!
"I have an idea! How about you ask them if they want to meet me then we can arrange something if they want to?"
As for the time limit, Kyubey doesn't usually start out with anything irreparable right? We'll probably be attacked by a witch or familiar and be narrowly saved by something completely unrelated by pure luck. While that would make Hinako hurry up as long as Kyubey doesn't just kill family members immediately it might be okay to wait a bit.
As for a wish, I'm a fan of wishing for power, but I'd like to direct it more. Maybe with something like "I wish to be really good at magic!" or just "I wish to be powerful!" though both of those are stolen directly from other quests.
How reasonable do you think it would be to ask about spawn camping witches? Like where are witches physically created? Can we defeat them right as they are being made?
To save you the time, the conversation would go as so-
Hinako: Where are Witches physically created?
Kyubey: Anywhere and everywhere there are people! It's very difficult to determine where exactly a Witch could be created, and they happen to move around a lot.
Basically a non-answer that isn't helpful at all.
As for the time limit, Kyubey doesn't usually start out with anything irreparable right? We'll probably be attacked by a witch or familiar and be narrowly saved by something completely unrelated by pure luck. While that would make Hinako hurry up as long as Kyubey doesn't just kill family members immediately it might be okay to wait a bit.
Because the discussion has stopped, I think it would be better to discuss on what we want our protagonist to do after making the wish, or deciding to not do this today.
It may help to decide what to vote for.
Man, I love these sort of PMMM quests. Very much hyped for this.
See, my immediate inclination is to not wish right now until we find out more about the new city and the people we'll be meeting but the invisitext pointed out above makes me think that might not be such a good idea for Hinako mentally speaking.
So there were a few hooks in these initial posts that make me think of a few different, fairly obvious wishes (wish for own health, wish to heal others in the hospital like we were, wish to see our friends in Nagaoka whenever we want, wish for new friends in our new home) but here's two that stood out to me.
[ ] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
[ ] Wish to be seen as your own person, standing on your own merits, free from any preconceptions because of your family or your time spent in hospital.
[ ] Make a Wish and become a magical girl
[ ] Wish to connect to people. Your parents, your sister, old friends from Nagaoka, new friends in Urahama you haven't even met yet, your fellow magical girls here and elsewhere who fight witches. You want to forge and preserve bonds to keep important people in your life.
I'm still undecided if I want to vote for either of mine or something else, just leaving them here for reference.
Because the discussion has stopped, I think it would be better to discuss on what we want our protagonist to do after making the wish, or deciding to not do this today.
It may help to decide what to vote for.
The traditional thing if we make a wish is to figure out what we can do afterwards. I'm more concerned about whether we'll tell our family or not. From what we've seen Hinako doesn't have any problems with her parents and she loves her sister, so I say we should. We could also tell our friends and maybe even get them involved. Hopefully not too quickly though. A newbie Magical Girl team of good friends sounds nice, but it's a recipe for tragedy and disaster. Still, maybe ask Kyubey if our friends have potential anyway?
Edit: That last part probably isn't relevant actually since they're not nearby. My daft head remembered that the sister was away, but not that the friends were still in a different city.
... I don't think it is a good idea to push our future friends to make their wishes. It would be a problem for when we discover the truth.
Let them make their choice.
Because the discussion has stopped, I think it would be better to discuss on what we want our protagonist to do after making the wish, or deciding to not do this today.
It may help to decide what to vote for.
In light of this, perhaps I should explain a bit more about Urahama City.
Urahama City is located in the Niigata Prefecture of Japan, just west of Nagaoka City (which is the second largest city in the prefecture just after the capital city of Niigata). Urahama is around 700 square kilometers in size and houses around 200,000 people if not more as it's constantly growing. It's style could safely be said to be the science-flavored version of Mitakihara, with the aesthetics to go along with it (it ain't no Academy City, but they got fancy new smart roads and everything so that's neat). Due to it's less artsy focus, don't expect any glass classrooms anytime soon by the way.
Urahama also places a value on the environment, so it also has city policies in place that support the growth of plants and trees all about the city - not in any significant number as to obscure everything or being overgrown, but common enough that there are plenty of rooftops (particularly taller buildings) that house a tree or two as well as some number of bushes/flowers/a garden.
As a relatively newly developed city, Urahama is housed to plenty of enterprising businesses both small and large, so one will never find themselves without some form of eatery or place of entertainment of a good number of cultures; this includes state of the art hospitals like the one Hinako was transferred to after her parents moved to Urahama from Nagaoka. With the policies in place, they also try to encourage environmental saving methods while penalizing businesses that would produce harmful waste to the environment; as a result, their industrial district is unsurprisingly lacking, so you probably can't commandeer an abandoned warehouse for power testing as people are wont to do in powered settings.
Urahama has great STEM colleges and preparatory schools, though Hinako will be going to Urahama Middle School instead, transferring in as a 3rd year after winter break.
Right now Hinako is living in a decently sized home - pretty minimalistic/modernistic looking but in an aesthetic way - but nothing to write to home about. It's still a pretty good home, all things considered. Where her home is located is a relatively nice residential district in the north-east section of the city kind of nearing the middle.
(Will add more or reorganize things as it becomes relevant)
I don't think we should without being there with them to prove what we are.
... I don't think it is a good idea to push our future friends to make their wishes. It would be a problem for when we discover the truth.
Let them make their choice.
