Puella Magi Interficio Antitheus

[RexHeller]

What to do now? You try and think of where to go from here. You found Madoka and she's safe, so that's good but on the other hand you still have no idea where the Devil is or how to find her. You don't really have anything you can try except wander about and hope you find something. Investigating Witches might help or it could turn out to be entirely the wrong direction. You all most wish that the Devil would just show up and fight you so this could be over and done with.

Your eyes widen as realize something. Could it be actually possible for the Devil to find you? Not the one from this time period but the all-powerful one from the future. After all, you travel through time so why couldn't she? The thought worries you.

"So uh…" Sayaka says interrupting your thoughts. You look up and realize that both you and Mami have been silent for a while now, thinking. Looking around the table at the others gives you an idea though.

"Mami." You've been alone for most of your life. You've never worked with others; it just wasn't possible to trust people in the type of world you lived in. You didn't need them either as you quickly learned to take care of yourself. Completely self-reliant, that's you. But this world is different. There are different options you can try. Maybe you don't have to face this problem on your own. "I'd like your help in defeating the Devil."

Mami looks at you with a expression of surprise, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. "I…" She says. "I suppose if this Devil is as big a threat as you say then I would gladly help you fight her. It is my duty as a magical girl to protect the people of the world after all." She grows more confident as she speaks, her voice growing stronger and more determined as she recovers from her shock.

You hear Sayaka whisper something under her breath. You wonder what Mami having a lower temperature than usual has to do with anything.

"Thank you. At the moment I have little to go on in my search so if you come across anything unusual please inform me." You say. It feels inadequate though. There has to be something more you can say. You mind goes back to what you were thinking of before Sayaka said anything. "Also I should warn you. Since I traveled back in time it might be possible for the Devil to do the same."

"Whaaaat!" Sayaka yells. "But that would be totally unfair! Didn't you say that she could control the whole universe or something? How are you supposed to fight that?"

"I don't think the Devil would care about fighting fair Sayaka." Madoka gently tells her friend.

"Exactly." You confirm. "I can't fight her. No one can. That's exactly why I have to destroy the Devil before she becomes that powerful. However it's unlikely that the Devil would come here herself."

Sayaka and Madoka both breathe a sigh of relief. Mami however asks why that is.

"The Devil would never leave her fantasy world if she can help it. She's far too obsessed for that. However she might send her servants instead and they can be extremely dangerous." You explain.

Mami nods. "Right. You mentioned something about guardians and spies earlier."

"The guardians protect the Devil's world. Most of the time they just kill anyone who approaches but sometimes the Devil sends the to find and kill specific people that her spies have told her about. The guardians themselves are all unique similar. They're human shaped but it's very clear that they aren't human. They all have completely blue eyes and pure white skin but other than that they look different. They're extremely strong. Normal humans can't even dream of beating one. I don't even know if I could kill one now that I have magic. If you ever find one you shouldn't fight it alone." You tell Mami before addressing the other girls. "Madoka, Sayaka. If you run into one then you run, as fast as you can. Don't even think of doing anything else."

"R…Right!" Sayaka tries to put on a brave face. Madoka is more honest. She nods, letting you know you understood, but it's easy to see that she's scared. Good. Those dolls are terrifying.

"And the spies?" Mami asks. "What do they look like?"

"Like that." You say, pointing at Kyubey. Mami looks at him in shock. "The Devil can take over the minds of people and turn them into puppets. I thought she only did it to humans but apparently she did it to whatever Kyubey's race is as well. I only realized that she hadn't created them like she did the guardians when Kyubey started talking. The ones I've encountered didn't talk. They just watched people."

"She brainwashes people too?" Sayaka yells. "That's so… so…. Evil!"

Madoka's brow creases. "But why would she use Mr. Kyubey's people as spies though?"

"They're invisible to most people." You answer. "Some people can see them though. I'm one of them."

"That doesn't seem right." Kyubey speaks up. "While it's true that we can appear invisible to people, we can decide if we want people to see us. It makes no sense to let the people you're spying on see you."

You shrug. "I don't know about that. I just know that I've been able to see them my entire life."

"Is there anything else?" Mami asks.

"Not about the Devil." You respond. "I was wondering if you'd help me with my magic. I haven't tried to use it yet and Kyubey did say that it was similar to your magic."

Mami smiles at you. It's the first real smile she given you since you met. All the other times she been holding back, small smiles that hid what she was thinking, her suspicion. This smile is wide and genuine. Her eyes seem to sparkle and her whole face lifts up. She looks… happy. "I would love to help you with that Mister Tatsuya. I know just the place we can practice." She looks out the window at the sun going down and her smile shrinks. "We should probably hold off on you're training until tomorrow though. It's getting late." Senpai Mode Activated

"Ah!" Madoka shouts in surprise. "I didn't realize how late was. Sayaka, we forgot to phone our parents."

Sayaka groans. "Oh man. I'm going to get in so much trouble." She sighs and gets up. "We should head home. Thanks for everything Miss Mami."

Madoka also gets up and bows slightly to Mami. "Thank you for having us over Miss Tomoe."

"It was no problem. I would love to have you over again sometime." Mami says as she rises to her feet. "What about you Mister Tatsuya?"

"I'll be fine." You say after you get up from the table. "I just need to find someplace that people avoid where I sleep. You wouldn't happen to know of any abandoned buildings around here would you. "

You said the wrong thing. You don't know what it was but you said the wrong thing. Three girls freeze and as one they turn and look at you. After a few seconds of them just staring at you Madoka speaks. "Mister Tatsuya. You're not… homeless, are you?"
"…Yes?" Wrong answer.

"-you poor dear-" "- completely awful-" "-let us help.-" "-How can you-" "-Why didn't you say-" ""-I can't believe-" They all start talking at once. You can't separate their voices and their words just sort of flow over you in a jumble. You try and get them to calm down. "Um, look. It's okay, I just-"

"IT'S NOT OKAY!" They all yell at you. You promptly shut up.

Mami takes a deep breath and relaxes. "Mister Tatsuya, there's no reason for you to sleep out in the streets. You may stay here if you wish."

"Yeah! You can stay at my place too." Sayaka agrees. "I'd have to be an awful person to let one of my friends sleep outside when I have a spare bed they could have."

"I'm certain I can convince my parents to let you sleep at our house." Madoka chips in. "Just please don't go sleep in some broken factory or something."

Well then. Now what?

[] Take up one of the girls on their offer.
-[] Madoka
-[] Sayaka
-[] Mami
-[] None of them. You're sleeping outdoors and that's final.

---

Some parts of this sucked. I'm sorry for sucking.

Some parts of this were fun. I'm not sorry for being fun.

 

[RexHeller]

You review your options. Your first instinct is stay with Madoka. You want to watch over her and keep her safe so of course staying close to her is the best option. But there are problems with that. First is her, no, your parents. While Madoka did say that she'd be able to convince them to let you stay it seems to you that involving them would just make things complicated. Plus the last time you saw them they were mindless puppets of the Devil. You're not sure how you'd react if you saw them again. Another thing you're not sure how you'd react to is the younger version of you that's at Madoka's house. On top of all that it's possible that your presence there might actually attract the sort of trouble you want to protect Madoka from. All in all, despite how much you want to stay with her there are too many reasons why that's a bad idea.

You have no reason to stay with Sayaka. You don't really have a reason not to, it's just… Why?

Staying with Mami has its positives. You'd be able to get your magical training started quicker. You'd have back up if someone attacks you during the night. And maybe, just maybe, she'd give you more of that wonderful cake. The only downside is that you wouldn't be staying with Madoka.

Of course all this is assuming that you can trust Sayaka, Mami and your parents not to stab you in the night. You're ninety percent sure that they wouldn't do that but you really don't want to take that risk. It might seem paranoid to them if they could see what you were thinking but paranoia is a hard habit to break. Which is why you wanted to sleep somewhere else in the first place. Maybe you should just do that anyway.

You look at the determined expressions on the girls' faces.

…. Yeah, that's not happening. Might as well take the best of what's available. "I'll stay with Mami." You notice a look of disappointment flash across Sayaka's face at your announcement. Odd. It lasts for less than a second before she adopts the same relieved smile that the other two girls sport.

"I'm glad you decided to stay. It's been far too long since I had a house guest." Mami says before turning to the other two girls. "I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier but I'd like to talk with the two of you again, tomorrow if possible. Our conversation about becoming Magical Girls got a bit derailed."

"Sure! We'll meet tomorrow for lunch!" Sayaka calls back over her shoulder. She's already rushing out the door. She grabs Madoka and pulls her along. "C'mon Madoka! We don't want to be late!"

"Whaaaaa! But Sayaka, we're all ready late!"

"Wait!" Mami yells after them but it's too late. She sighs and turns back to you. "I was going to ask if they wanted us to walk them home. Oh well." She smiles ruefully.

"We could still go after them."

"No. I think they'll be fine." Mami walks past you back into the depths of the house. "Please, take a seat while I get started on dinner."

You take one last look at the door before deciding that Mami's probably right. This world isn't as dangerous as yours after all. You close the door and retake your seat at the table. You hadn't finished your cake so you take another bite. It's still the best thing you've ever tasted. You begin to slowly eat the rest, enjoying every bite.

"Mister Tatsuya?" Mami's voice floats in from another room. You can hear water running and the shifting of pans. "If it's not too much to ask, I was wondering what your life was like before you…" She pauses. "Arrived in Mitakihara."

"Awful." You reply immediately.

"No, I meant…" Mami sighs. "Let's start with the basics. What did you eat?"

"What ever I could find. Usually it was plants of some sort but I was also pretty good at hunting so I'd be able to have meat sometimes, usually some small animal or other. Birds were harder because I needed a weapon to hit them with and I wanted to save my weapons for driving off other humans." You surprise yourself with how much you're opening up. She doesn't need to know this stuff it isn't relevant to anything. So why is she asking about it? Why are you answering?

"Did that happen often? People attacking you?" Mami asks. She sounds concerned and you don't know why. This all happened in the past, it's not like she's in danger now. No wait, it happened in the future. Or is it… Great, now you have a headache.

"No. Most of humanity was dead by that point so other people were rare. When I did run into others I was usually able to stay hidden anyway so fights were relatively rare."

"I see." Mami goes silent for a bit. You enjoy your cake. "What about fish? You didn't mention if you ate fish." She asks after a minute.

"What's a fish?"

"Right, definitely fish for dinner." You hear her mumble to herself before continuing to talk to you at a normal volume. "Fish are a type of animal that live underwater, in rivers and oceans."

"Most water sources are either toxic, more acid then water or on fire." You explain. Mami's silent for more than just a minute this time. Eventually she asks you how you find fresh water. The two of you continue like this, Mami asking about how you used to live and you answering and occasionally asking questions of your own.

As you talk you notice an unfamiliar feeling growing with in you. It takes you while to realize that you're enjoying this, just talking to another person. You actually stop talking for a bit out of shock, that's how foreign the idea of enjoying another person's company is to you. You recover from your shock and start talking again when Mami calls out to you in concern but your mind continues to boggle in the background at your new circumstances.

Later on there's a lull in the conversation and you decide to take your plate back to Mami. You finished you cake a bit earlier and you'd been trying to figure out what you're supposed to do with the plate. Taking it to Mami seems like a good idea. Besides, the smells coming from the room Mami's in are making your mouth water. Might as well see if you can eat yet. You stand up, grab the plate and walk into other room.

What greets you is an odd sight. Mami's got her Soul Gem in one hand and is holding other gem in the other. The other gem looks like a color inverted Soul Gem, with the actual jewel being a sickening black instead of a comforting yellow and the little bits of metal that cover it are silver instead of gold. It feels evil to you magic senses, like the labyrinth from before. Mami holds it close to her Soul Gem and some sort of black stuff flows out of from her Soul Gem and into the black jewel, leaving her Soul Gem shining brighter than before.

You step forward and Mami's head jerks up from the gems in her hands to look at you. "Oh, Mister Tatsuya, I didn't notice you. Did you need something?"

"What are you doing?" You ask.

"Right, I didn't explain Grief Seeds to you." Mami's Soul Gem disappears in a flash of gold, turning into a ring on her finger. She holds the black jewel up so you can get a better look at it. "This is a Grief Seed. Witches drop them when they're killed. Grief Seeds are vital to surviving as a Magical Girl. As a Magical Girl uses her magic her Soul Gem fills with something we call Grief. If her Soul Gem is completely filled then her magic stops working. Grief Seeds can be used remove Grief from Soul Gems, which is what makes them so important. However if a Grief Seed is filled with Grief then they can rehatch into a Witch. Luckily there's an easy way to dispose of used Grief Seeds before they get too full." She finishes her explanation by gesturing towards Kyubey. He pounces towards Mami and when he gets within arm's reach of her a slot opens up on his back. Mami drops the Grief Seed into the hole and then it closes again.

Mami turns from Kyubey back to you. "What was it that you wanted again?" You hand her your plate. "Oh, thank you. Diner should be just about done by the way. How about you sit down and I'll be right out with the food." You take her advice and return to your seat.

A few seconds later and Mami follows, her hands laden with plates stacked with food. She sets them down and goes back into the other room but quickly returns, this time with empty plates one of which she sets down in front of you along with a pair of sticks with intricate designs painted on them and a white implement the widens at one end and has a large depression in it, like it's a little bowl on the end of a stick. She places another plate down on the other side of the table along with her own implements and sits down. "Let's eat!" She says cheerfully.

You survey the food in front of you. There are two bowls of soup, one of which Mami takes so you take the other, two different bowls of vegetables, a large bowl of rice and a plate with slices of cooked meat which you assume is the "fish" Mami was talking about earlier. Mami begins to transfer food from the different dishes to her plate, using the two sticks to pick up pieces of meat and vegetables to her plate with ease and grace.

You try and replicate what she's doing with your own sticks but it turns out to be much harder than it looks. Mami quickly notices the troubles your having. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even think that you might have trouble with chopsticks. It seems obvious now. Would you like some help?"

You nod before you really thing about the question. Also you notice that your cheeks feel warmer than usual. Strange.

Mami rises from her seat and walks around the table. She sits down right next you and leans into your body. You immediately stiffen as your instincts start screaming "TOO CLOSE! KILL OR BE KILLED! KILL OR BE KILLED!". You suppress that instinct with all your might and try and relax. It doesn't really work but you do your best.

Mami takes your hand in hers. It's smaller than yours but that really isn't surprising. What is surprising is just how warm and soft it feels. Your cheeks heat up even more. You hope you aren't getting sick.

"You're holding them all wrong. Here, this goes there and…" Mami gently corrects you on how to hold your chopsticks. Next is actually picking something up with them. With Mami's guidance it doesn't take long until you can eat on your own. The rest of the meal passes in relative silence as the two of you focus on the delicious food Mami's prepared. Mami doesn't leave your side the entire meal.

After the two of you are done eating the fantastic meal and you've moved all the dirty plates to the room Mami made the meal in (which you learned is called a kitchen) Mami showed you where you'd be sleeping. "Here's the guest bedroom. I hope you find it to your liking." The room inside has a bed with red blankets, a couple of wooden structures, one with a pair of doors and the other with lots of drawers, and large windows with sheets of cloth in front of them that you presume you can pull shut to prevent people from seeing inside.

"It's good. Thank you."

Smiles her ever-present smile. "No, thank you. As I said, it's been far too long since I've had a houseguest. I had a lot of fun tonight. Have a good night."

"Good night." You repeat back at her. She walks away and you slide the door shut.

"Well, it looks like you had a fun first day back." You hear a voice say from behind you. It sounds exactly like Kyubey but the tone is completely different. Kyubey sounds innocent, excited and cheerful. This voice, while still high pitched and childlike, is filled with arrogance and amusement. You can practically hear them smirking at you.

You whirl around to face the intruder. Sitting there on the bed is something that looks like Kyubey but with a different color scheme. Its coat of fur is red instead of white, while the ring on it's back, the three dots on the things coming from it's ears, and it's eyes are all pure black. Its floating rings are still gold though.

"What are you? What are you doing here?" You demand. You shift your center of balance slightly, just enough that, if you need to, you can either dodge or attack it as necessary. The red Kyubey doesn't look dangerous but it managed to get into the room with out detection and you don't want to get taken off guard.

"What? You don't remember me? How rude?" It taunts. You can help but feel this is familiar, like you've seen this creature before. And then it hits you. "Ah, there we go. I'm the one that gave you your fancy smancy new powers. Although I don't think I ever properly introduced myself. You can call me Ryubey." It then throws its head back and starts to laugh before collapsing onto the bed and rolling around in joy. "Get it? Cause I'm a red Kyubey? A Ryubey, that's me!" It stops suddenly on its back and looks up at you, pouting. "Hey! How come you aren't laughing?"

"You said something funny?"

"No, look! See it's like this. I'm like Kyubey but I'm red. In English a ruby is called a <ruby>. So I'm Ryubey, see? It's a pun!" He looks at you expectantly. You stare back impassively. "You know what? Fuck it! You're no fun." Ryubey straightens up into a sitting position. "Anyway, that's who I am. As for what I'm doing here, well I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I have a lot of answers. So start asking!"

[]Write in.

---

Meet Ryubey. He's a little shit. Ask him as many questions as you want. I recommend you ask anything you can think of.

Also, as always tell me how I can improve my writing please. I do this so I can get better and I can't do that if you don't tell me why I suck.

 

[RexHeller]

You regard Ryubey with caution. You have your doubts about how trustworthy he is but that's par for the course with you. Still, this might be the perfect opportunity for to get some answers. Weren't you just complaining to yourself earlier that you have no idea what you're doing? Also long as you keep your guard up it should be fine to ask a few questions. You blurt out the first that comes to mind. "How come you're red?"

"Food coloring." Ryubey answers. "Seriously, of all the questions you could ask that's what you open with? But if you're really curious it's to show my individuality. It's like how humans wear different styles of clothing when you could all just wear numbered jumpsuits or something and be done with it. Red's my favourite color so I'm red!" Once past the jokes he speaks with a vehemence that's surprising to you. You don't see the big deal but apparently that he's his favorite color is very important to him.

While he was talking you came up with your next question. "Is Ryubey your name or your species? What about Kyubey?"

"Ryubey's my name, didn't I just say that?" Ryubey answers in a tone that makes it clear he thinks you're an idiot. "As for Kyubey, it's sort of both? It's complicated. Kyubey is short for <Incubator>, which means incubator in English. That's as close to a species name as you'll get and all the white Kyubey's are called Kyubey. Does that help?"

It really doesn't, instead it just raises more questions. You decide to move on. Hopefully if he explains more then it will start making sense. "Why did you give me these powers?"

Ryubey just stares at you. "I picked an idiot. This is the best I could do? This moron was the best option I had? Why didn't I give him an I.Q. test before I went and picked A FUCKING IDIOT!" He yells at himself before addressing you again. "I gave you that magic so that you could kill the Devil. Y'know that big, evil bitch with the phenomenal comic power? The one that ruined your life? That Devil? Ringing any bells?"

"Jackass."

"Hey, you ask a stupid question you get an angry Ryubey. Now are you going to stop wasting my time and ask something important?"

"Fine. Does Kyubey know you exist?"

"I don't see how that's relevant." He answers. You tilt you head to the side and look at him, remaining silent. "Alright! Fine! It's complicated okay! Technically he knows I exist but right now he doesn't know that I'm active."

"Did you travel back in time with me or did you come back separately?"

Ryubey shrugs. "Eh, it's more like you came back with me."

"Could someone else come back too? Like the Devil?"

"FINALLY!" Ryubey cheers. "The boy asks something important! Yes!" He jumps about in joy for a bit before settling again. "Right, quick answer is yes. Long answer is longer. Not only did we come back in time but we also have gone back through two universal resets. That means that the entire universe got changed not only in the present but also retroactively twice, once by the Devil and once by something else that I don't know."

"What does retroactively mean?"

Ryubey glares at you. "Don't interrupt me when I'm on a roll! Uhg. Retroactively means that the entirety of history was overwritten. Now time travel is possible with magic, if extremely difficult, but there's no way to go back to a previous universe, not even with a wish. At least not normally but luckily, I cheat." He preens, sounding very impressed with himself.

"Get to the point." You demand.

"Right, sorry. So, practical answer. The Devil has her memories of what happened in this universe. If you change things too much before killing her, her memories will change and she'll realize something's up. If that happens she'll probably send her servants back to check out what's up and deal with you. I doubt there's anything that'd make her come back in time to deal with you herself. She's too obsessed with your sister to leave her for even a second."

You nod. Hopefully you can find the Devil quickly before you she realizes what's happening. Dealing with her servants constantly attacking would make a hard job close to impossible. Time for the next question. "What about my magic? What abilities do I have?"

"Ummmmmm." Ryubey hums to himself and looks at the ceiling. You guess he's thinking of what to say. "How much did Kyubey explain about the magic system to you?"

"Not much. 'Make contract, get magic' was about it." You answer.

"Right well, skipping over the details for now, I've basically rigged the deck in your favor. Not only should you be more powerful then every Magical Girl ever but you also don't have any of the downsides. If you want more details than that feel free to ask but it's sort of complicated. Oh! And you're sort of permanently transformed."

Well you'd wondered about that last bit. Now you know. "Any suggestion on how to train my magic?"

"Fuck if I know. The way I work magic and the way you work magic are probably completely different."

Well that was informative. Next question. "Do I need Grief Seeds? If not, why do Magical Girls need them?"

"Nah, you don't need Grief Seeds. No Soul Gem. Magical Girls need them to not turn into Witches."

You're shocked by his nonchalance. "What."

"Yeah, if a Magical Girl's Soul Gem gets completely filled with Grief it shatters and gives birth to a Witch. It's one of the many things that Kyubey doesn't actually tell the girls he contracts with. "

"What."

"Yep! There's lots the little shit doesn't tell them. Like the fact that their Soul Gems are their actual souls. He rips 'em right out of their chests. You'd be surprised how many girls think it's just a metaphor. And the kicker is that he doesn't technically lie. He's actually can't tell a untrue fact, it's literally impossible for him."

"What." You say a third time. Ryubey starts to talk again but you hold up your hand to stop him. What you've just be told, it's disturbing. You need time to process this but right now isn't the time. You still don't trust Ryubey, hell it might even be lying about everything, so until he leaves you're just going to put the Witch thing aside for now and thing about it later. For now, you'll keep asking questions. "How long do I have to kill the Devil? How long before she becomes all power full? How much do you remember about this time?"

"Slow down there cowboy! One question at a time!" Ryubey say, laughing. "To answer your last question first, nothing. I wasn't active during this time so I have no personal memories of what's going on here. As for how long you have, I'd say you have about a month before the first cosmic reset. After that, you might be able to kill the Devil or you might not, I have no idea. I have no information about that universe. The second reset is when the Devil takes over so you need to kill her by then at the very latest but you really should find and murder her as quickly as possible."

A month, huh? You'd like to say that's plenty of time but you have no idea how hard it'll be to find her. Speaking of which, maybe Ryubey has a clue. "Any idea how I can find the Devil?"

Ryubey's eyes light up with joy and his smarmy smirk grows into a huge grin. "I though you'd never ask. You might want to sit down for this, it's a long story and I'm quite proud of it so you're getting the whole thing. No short version for you."

"I'll stand."

"Suit yourself." He shrugs and dives right into his story. "First off, remember how I said I wasn't going to go into detail on how magic works? Forget that, you need to know this to understand how genius I am. The two important things about magic are how much karmic potential you have and that hope and despair have to equal out to zero. Let's start with karmic potential."

"Karmic potential is how much you'll change the world over the course of your life if magic doesn't get involved. For example, someone who's going to grow up to rule a nation is going to have a ton of potential while someone who's going to grow up to be a homeless ne'er-do-well won't have much at all. Karmic potential determines how much magical power there is available to you. When a Magical Girl makes a wish it's vital that she doesn't wish over her karmic potential otherwise bad things happen as the universe slams them for being greedy."

"Now about hope and despair balancing out. When a Magical Girl makes a wish that generates a certain amount of hope that depends on their karmic potential as well as exactly what the wish is. After the wish is made the universe is going to keep making them suffer until they've endured an amount of despair equal to the hope generated by the wish. To summarize, the higher your karmic potential the more magic you can use and the more power you get from magic the more you suffer."

"I don't see what this has to do with finding the Devil." You say, interrupting the impromptu lecture on magical physics.

"Bear with me here, this is important. Let's switch gears for a bit. Now you already know that the Devil sort of broke physics in the future. Well she also broke magic or at least she loosened the rules a little. After that, all it took was a little creativity and cleverness on my part and I's able to pretty much do what I wanted as long as I was smart. As it turns out, breaking the system is pretty easy if you know what your doing. However just because I was free to fuck around with magic as much as I wanted, that didn't mean I could take on the Devil. She was still in control and I was only able to do what I wanted because she couldn't be bothered to swat me like a bug. If I wanted her dead I'd need someone to do the dirty work. Which brings us to you."

"To be entirely frank, your karmic potential sucked. I don't know about before the cosmic resets but in the world you grew up in you were never going to be anyone important. If you made a wish the traditional way you likely would have been one of the weakest Magical Girls ever and not just because you're a boy. However, you were still the best candidate in every other respect so I had to do what I do best: cheat."

You roll your eyes. "Still not seeing what this has to do with finding the Devil."

"INTERUPT ME AGAIN KIDDO! SEE WHAT HAPPENS!" Ryubey yells at you forcefully. He coughs a small cough and goes right back to lecturing as if that didn't just happen. "As I was saying, your potential sucked. So I stole someone else's. Bettcha can't guess who. C'mon guess!"

"I don't know, the Devil?" You respond sarcastically.

"EXACTLY RIGHT! THE DEVIL!" Ryubey yells again, this time in joy instead of anger. "I managed to steal the karmic potential of the girl who could control the entire universe, the single most important person ever! And I used to make you the single most badass magical motherfucker in the world! But wait, there's more! Not only did I steal her potential, but all that suffering you would have gone through to pay for all that magic power? I made sure that the Devil would suffer instead. Of course I had to do it retroactively so that she wouldn't notice and smite the two of us."

"And that's how you're going to find the Devil. By this point in time most, if not all of the despair she's been suffering through should be done. So all you need to do is find the Magical Girl that's suffered the most and kill her by the end of the month. Simple right?" Ryubey finishes, looking extremely proud of himself.

[] Ask Ryubey more questions. (Write in)
[] Tell Ryubey to leave and get some sleep.

---

Yeah, that probably raises more even more questions, don't it.

 

[RexHeller]

"Wait." You say, confusion edging into your voice. "How am I supposed to figure out which girl has suffered the most?"

"Ask them. Get their life stories." Ryubey replies like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Duh."

"Not what I meant." You resist the urge to shoot him. He may be annoying but he's still the best source of information you have. Also, you don't have your gun anymore. Maybe you should fix that. "What I was trying to ask is how am I supposed to figure out if one girl has suffered more than another. How can I tell if a girl who's starving is worse off than a girl that's got her arm cut off or something?"

"I dunno." Ryubey says happily. You're not sure why he's happy about the fact that he doesn't actually know how to find the Devil. Maybe he just enjoys making your life harder. "Seriously, you bring up a fair point. Despair is subjective and there's no easy way to measure that. It's not like I can just hand you a suffering detector that goes ding where there's sads. But I can almost guarantee you that the pain that this girl has gone though will be past the point of tragedy and will be entering the realm of ridiculousness. Basically, you'll know it when you see it."

That wasn't as helpful as you might have liked. Switching gears for a moment you ask something that you just came up with. "How did you manage to get us back through two universal resets? Didn't you say that was impossible?"

"Oh yeah. I did say that, didn't I." Ryubey's back to sounding smug. "Well without going into the technical details of the magical equations used, it was because I had memories of this universe. Admittedly those memories are from millions of years ago but after I got us to this universe it was a simple thing to find the right time, even if I don't have any personal memories of this universe. The Devil can travel back to this universe as well because she also has memories of this universe. Even if there was another being in that universe that was powerful enough to travel back here they wouldn't be able to because they wouldn't even know this universe ever existed."

Interesting. Not really important to your goal but still interesting. Another question comes to you. "How did you steal the Devil's potential? Wasn't she using it?"

Ryubey shrugs again. "I'll admit, it was a little like stealing someone's pants while they were wearing them but that just goes to show just how obsessed with your sister she is."

There's something that's been bothering you for a while now so that becomes your next question. "What do you mean when you 'weren't active'?"

Ryubey breathes out a long sigh. "Okay then, time for a history lesson. Oh and like the explanation of how you can find the Devil this is going to take a bit so I'll say it again, you might what to sit down."

You continue to stand, waiting for him to start his explanation.

Ryubey grins at you. "You know you don't have to act so tough you know. You should relax a little." You stay where you are. Ryubey shrugs. "Whatever. Before I can answer your question you need to know about the Incubators and what they are. The Incubators are a race of aliens that differ from humans in two important aspects. The first is that, be default, they're emotionless. Possessing any kind of emotions at all is considered a form of insanity among them. The second is that they're telepathic, able to speak directly mind-to-mind. It's how I'm talking to you right now.

"Thanks to these two things the way the Incubators work as a race is much different than humanity. The Incubators work as a hive mind where each Incubator is simply another cog in the machine of their society, completely lacking any sort of individuality. This has some advantages such as being able to calculate enormous amounts of data by working together and being able to share information instantly to any Incubator that needs it. That also makes them easily replaceable. If the Incubator working with Mami were to die a new one could take it's place without her noticing. They also make decisions by consensus.

"However, there are also disadvantages. The big one is that they aren't very creative. Even if one of the Incubators came up with a revolutionary new idea, which is unlikely, the fact that they work by consensus means that the rest of the Incubators would shoot that idea down. Under normal circumstances that's not a problem they have tons of options available to them already but the Incubators were smart enough to realize that if they ever came across a problem they had no idea what to do with then the creativity they lacked would be exactly what they needed. Which is were I come in.

"I was a normal Incubator before I was chosen to become the Incubator's emergency failsafe. I was infected with emotions, granting me individuality and creativity, before getting sealed in a pocket universe so that I couldn't damage the hive mind. That was millions of years ago. I would only be activated, that is to say set free from the pocket universe, if the there was a threat to the entire Incubator race. When the Devil brainwashed all the Incubators that counted as a that threat and I was automatically released."

To be honest most of Ryubey's story passed right over your head but you think you got the gist of it. Ryubey's an Incubator with emotions that was made to protect other Incubators. Seems simple enough. You move back to more relevant topics with your next question. "Do you know what my abilities are, exactly?"

"No." Ryubey's answer is immediate and abrupt. "I already told you, your magic is yours. I can't tell you what you can do with it. You need to figure it out yourself."

"Fine." You pause a moment before coming up with your next question. "So, if I don't need Grief Seeds does that mean my magic is unlimited."

Ryubey thinks for a moment before answering. "That depends on what you mean by unlimited. If you're wondering if you'll ever run out of magic the answer is no. Well, technically you could but the amount of magic you have is so big you might as well have an unlimited amount. Also, magic regenerates overtime so unless you blow all your magic at the same time you'll never be without and even if you do you just need to wait a while for your pool to refill a little before using it again.

"However you do have some limits on your magic. When I was setting up your magical systems I rigged up a series of checks and balances to control the regulation of your magic, similar to how a human body can technically left a couple of tons for a few seconds but is prevented from doing so under normal circumstances to keep it from hurting itself. I did that so that you wouldn't accidentally blow up half the town. Basically you'll always have the amount of magic you need available to you."

That's exactly not what you wanted to hear. If Ryubey's right then you'll never have any problems with magic but you don't like the idea of him putting limits on what you can do. Still, there isn't a point in getting angry about it. Besides you still have more questions. "Do you know why the Devil is obsessed with my sister?"

"Nope!" Ryubey says cheerfully.

Yeah, you weren't really expecting him to know that. "What are you going to do after I kill the Devil?"

"I dunno." Ryubey says with a smile. "Haven't really thought about it. I'm still just enjoying the fact that after millions of years I'm free once again."

You suppose that's fair. You don't know what you're going to do after you kill the Devil either. A thought occurs to you. "Do you have some way of confirming if I've found the right person before I kill them? Because if I'm wrong and kill the wrong person that'll probably alter the Devil's memories right?"

Ryubey nods. "You're right, there is a risk that you'll get it wrong. Unfortunately it's a risk you'll have to take because as I said before I don't have a despair detector or something like that."

That isn't very comforting. Guess you should keep from killing anyone until you're absolutely sure you've got the right one. "Any other advice on how to avoid notice?"

"Sure. As I said if you kill the wrong person then the Devil will likely respond. You should be able to get away with small changes to her memories but someone being dead when they're supposed to be alive is the sort of thing she'll have to notice." Ryubey responds. "Other than that, I'm not sure how useful this will be but you should be able to suppress you're magical signature so that you can't be detected by magical senses. It might be difficult though."

See, now that's some useful info. If you had known that you could hid your magical signature you'd have been able to go with Madoka without worrying that you might attract magic sensing beings to her. On that note… "Wait, if the Devil is obsessed with my Sister that must mean that it's someone she already knows, right?"

Ryubey shakes his head "Not necessarily. Hell, the Devil might not even be a Magical Girl yet. It could be that she becomes a Magical Girl and meets you sister sometime in the next month."

Damn, you were hopping that you'd be able to cut down the amount of suspects to those that already know Madoka before you got here. Oh well, Next question. "So what exactly do the Incubators do? Do you share the same goal as them?

"Seriously, what is with these questions?" Ryubey shouts. "They're all over the place! Why didn't you ask about the Incubators after I told you about the Incubators? Are incapable of maintaining a single train of thought or something?"

Ryubey stops yelling for a moment and you speak again. "So are you going to answer my question?"

"Grrrrrrraaaaaah" Ryubey growls in frustration. "The Incubators are trying to stop entropy. That means they need a source of free energy. By making contracts with girls they can convert their emotional energy into the energy they need to stop entropy. The get the biggest boosts of energy when a girl first becomes a Magical Girl and when a Magical Girl becomes a witch. And no, I don't share the goals of the Incubators. They locked me in a pocket universe for millions of years. Do you know how boring that it? They can all go rot in hell for all I care. Does that answer your question?"

"No." You have no idea what entropy is or why anyone would want to stop it.

"Too bad, I don't care. You've pissed me off so you only get one more question. Make it a good one."

You only had one question left so that works out fine. "What happens to me after I kill the Devil? Will I get sent back to the future?"

"Not unless you want to." Ryubey answers. "When I took you traveling through time I didn't just push you back through time, I removed you from it. Time no longer works the same for you. It's how I managed to have there be two yous existing at the same time and still avoid a paradox. So you don't have to worry about getting instantly sent back to the future or fading from existence. Although I suppose if you manage to save the universe from death by yandere I'll owe you one so if you wanted to time travel or something I suppose I could swing that for you.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go troll Kyubey as a way to relax. If you need me or have more questions you can call me mentally later. See ya." Ryubey then turns around and hops out the window. You're not sure how he phased through the glass but you guess it's magic.

You wish he'd stuck around for one last question. You'd have asked him what a yandere is.

No matter. It's getting late and you know how important it is you get a good night's sleep. You lay down on the bed and are shocked by how soft it is. You spend several minutes trying to get used to it but eventually you get used to it enough to be comfortable. You relax and settle down to sleep

-

You can't sleep. You've been lying on the bed for a very long time. It's now the middle of the night and nothing you do gets you any closer to actually sleeping. You tried every position on the bed you can think of and even tried the floor. It doesn't matter. You just aren't tired.

It isn't like you're overflowing with energy or something. It's just that you're awake and unlikely to get tired anytime soon. You guess it's another benefit of magic. Still, despite how convenient it is to not need to sleep, not to mention how good it is not to have to worry about getting ambushed while sleeping, you still need something to do. You're not going to waste the night just sitting around. You'd go insane from the boredom.

Pick one!
[] Try to practice sensing magic.
[] Try to practice suppressing your magic.
[] Sneak out the window into the city.
-[] Find someplace to actually practice your magic
-[] Hunt a Witch
-[] Check on Madoka
-[] Just explore the city
-[] Find the Magical Girl you sense.

---

I'm not satisfied with the explanation of Ryubey's backstory and my version of the Incubators. It get's the point across but it feels like it could be better.

The Incubators do not intentionally lie.

 

[RexHeller]

As you're debating your options something catches your attention. On the edges of your magical senses you feel something new, unlike either Mami or a Witch. It's a lot closer to Mami than a Witch though. It doesn't have that monstrous feel all the Witches you can sense have to it. Instead it feels cool and soft but if put under pressure it has the potential to turn cold and unforgiving. Deadly even. It reminds you of… something. You try and recall the where you've felt this before or at least something similar. It's tough but you drag the memories to the surface of your mind.

It was back when you were a child. You woke up one day and there was all this white stuff outside covering everything! The ground, the trees, the house, everything! At first you were scared when you looked out the window and you didn't know what to do but then Madoka came into your room, laughing and smiling. She bundled you up in a big, puffy coat, warm gloves and a hat that covered your ears. She took you outside and taught you how to play with the white stuff. You threw balls of the stuff at each other and you built a man out of the stuff and a whole bunch of other things. You played with Madoka all day! The white stuff was super cold and made you shiver but that was alright because when you went back inside it was super warm and Daddy made you hot chocolate.

But that wasn't even the best part of the day! Inside the house was a tree with all sorts of shiny things hanging from it that made it looks super pretty. But what made it really special was under the tree were a whole bunch of presents, all wrapped in different colored paper and bows. You spent the rest of the day opening presents with your family. Mommy had gotten you a new coloring book and Daddy got you crayons to go with it. Madoka got you a new sweater that was kind of itchy (Yuck!) and a new toy dinosaur (Awesome!). But the best gift you got that day was…

"Hello Takkun! Are you having lots of fun today? Here, look at what I got you."

She had gotten you a teddy bear bigger than you were. That teddy bear had been soft and big and fluffy and big and fuzzy and big and it was immediately your new favorite! She had smiled at you and laughed with your family as you ran around the room in excitement. She had such a pretty smile. She had held you in her lap while Madoka was busy helping Daddy. She had held you close and kept you warm and made everything better. She had loved you. Just like Madoka…

You jolt yourself out of your memories with a physical jerk. What are you doing? You don't have time to get stuck in old memories! If your hunch is right then the new, cold feeling is Magical Girl. You need to check this out right away. You pull open the window of the bedroom and drop down to the street. You start running towards the cold feeling, ignoring the liquid flowing down your cheeks.

You don't get past more than two buildings when the cool feeling suddenly disappears. You skid to a halt. What happened? Did she die? Did she sense I was coming and suppress her magic? Damn it! Before your mind rushes ahead too much you reign it back in. You need to stop and think about this, keep a clear head. You take a deep breath and close your eyes. You focus your magic senses in the direction ahead of you, focusing on the area the Magical Girl was before she disappeared.

There we go. You allow yourself a small sense of satisfaction. There's a Barrier pretty much right on top of where you lost track of the Magical Girl. She have entered it and started hunting the Witch inside. You start up in direction you were heading again, this time at a leisurely pace rather than a mad dash. You can take your time. It's possible she'll die in that Barrier and you won't have to deal with her and if she doesn't it'll still probably take her a while to kill the Witch. Either way, it'll be better to save your energy, even if Ryubey said you have a practically infinite amount.

As you walk down the city streets your struck by just how peaceful it is. It's the middle of the night and everybody's at home sleeping so far as you can tell. Once in a while you see the lights on in a window telling you that someone's still awake but that's it. Without the crowds of people to scare you off you enjoy walking in the streets, even as the buildings around you become more and more run-down.

A bit a later and you've found you destination: a decaying building several stories high. The Barrier is inside on the top floor. You could just take the stairs but you want to test out how high you can jump. You take a running start and leap off the ground, pushing mostly upwards but also forwards as well. You cross your arms in front of your face to protect it even though it probably isn't necessary and smash trough a glass window, entering the building.

As you do so the Barrier catches your eye and you turn your head to look at it. Time seems to slow down as the Barrier dissolves and disappears, leaving a Magical Girl standing there. Your eyes meet and you can she her eyes widen with shock and then fear.

Then the moment passes. You land, rolling forward to bleed off momentum as the glass shards flying inwards from your entrance falls to the ground and shatter again, almost musically. You rise up and face the Magical Girl, examining her. She's dressed in a big, white, frilly dress and a hat that reminds you of a bucket. A big, white, frilly bucket. Her greyish hair is pulled into a ponytail on one side of her head. Floating around her are several steel balls with vines engraved on them. She's mastered her expression, hardening her green eyes so that they no longer show shock, but suspicion. However, she can't keep the slight waver of fear out of her voice when she talks. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

[] Write in.

---

Ta-da! Your first real social challenge and it's against Oriko. You're on your own for this on. Have fun!

 

[RexHeller]

Talking to people, trying to get them to trust you, it's not something you ever had reason to try before coming back to the past but it's been working so far so you decide to try it with the white girl as well. Step one is to appear non-threatening as possible. She's done a good job of covering it up but there's no mistaking that first flash of fear. Unfortunately you don't actually know how to appear non-threatening. You suppose keeping your hands where she can see them is a good start.

You slowly raise your hands to the sides, keeping your hands open to show that you don't have any weapons. "I'm Tatsuya. I'm not going to hurt you. I just sensed your magic and I was curious."

The girl in white doesn't say anything so you continue. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I'm new around here. Could you tell me about yourself?"

The girl in white keeps silent. You guess she's thinking about your question. You give her time and eventually she speaks again. "I am willing to answer you questions but only if you answer mine first. Is that acceptable?"

How much do you want to tell the Girl in White?
[] Full disclosure. (Answer every question truthfully)
[] Bits and pieces.(Answer only certain questions)
-[] What do you want to keep hidden and what do you want to do if she asks a question you don't want to answer?
[] Plead the fifth. (Answer no questions)
-[] What are you going to do instead of answer?

---

Short update is short.

 

[RexHeller]

Information for Information. Seems like a good deal. You nod at the girl in white. "Sure."

"Excellent." She seems to relax just a bit so you lower your hands to your sides. "I am Oriko Mikuni. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." You have no idea what acquaintance means.

"Tatsuya. Just Tatsuya."

Oriko raises an eyebrow at that. "Alright Mr. 'Just-Tatsuya'. Let's start with the basics shall we." Other than the slight sarcasm when she called you "Just-Tatsuya" she maintains a polite, pleasant tone of voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm hunting the Devil."

"The Devil?" Oriko asks, sounding skeptical.

"It's what I call her. I don't know her actual name. She's a Magical Girl who is obsessed with my sister. I plan on hunting her down and killing her to protect my sister."

"This Devil… is she dangerous?"

"Yes." All Magical Girls are dangerous. "She's going to grow more powerful. I need to kill her before this happens."

Oriko takes a moment to think about your answer before asking her next question. "And how do you intend to find her, if you don't know who she is?"

"I'll know her when I find her."

Oriko doesn't seem to quite accept that answer but she doesn't press you on it. Instead, she switches topics. "How did you get your magic? I know Kyubey only makes contracts with girls so who gave you yours?"

You pause for a second to think of an answer. Explaining Ryubey requires knowing what the incubators are and you don't know how much she knows. You could just make something up but you're not sure you can come up with something convincing on the fly. So instead you do what you did earlier and just provide some of the story.

"Ryubey. He's a rogue incubator. He doesn't obey their rules. I don't really know why he gave me these powers."

Oriko stops for a while, likely trying to figure out if what you said could be true. You don't know if she believes you but she does keep asking you questions so that good, you guess. "And what exactly are your powers?"

You frown. You don't want to reveal what you can do to a potential enemy. You suppose you can say something without really saying anything. "I don't know all of them. I'm still starting out."

Oriko actually smiles at that. She seems satisfied with your answer, oddly enough, just not in the way you thought she would be. She's not happy that you're weak, she's happy because of something else? Whatever, she's just weird. Anyway, you don't have the time to puzzle out the behavior of odd girls, she's asking another question. "I have one final question. Do you intend harm to anyone other then the Devil?"

"I intend harm to anyone who threatens my sister." For some reason, you think of Mami as well as Madoka when answering the question. "Same with anyone who wants to hurt my friends."

Oriko nods and smiles gently at you. "Very well then. Mr. Tatsuya, I've asked all the questions I have. You may ask me what you wish."

[] Questions? (Write in)

---

That was surprisingly easy. Thoughts?

 

[RexHeller]

Right, time to get some answers. "Most of my questions are the same as yours. What do you plan to do?"

"Hm? That's a rather vague question. For example, tonight I plan on going home and getting some sleep as soon as this conversation is done."

Quit giggling and answer the question.

"I know what you meant though. You want to know my goals in general, right? Well, put simply, I want to protect this city from outside Magical Girls who would affect the scenario that's about to play out."

She doesn't seem to be lying. I guess that means Madoka is safe from her. Should still be careful. "What are you doing here?"

"Just a little Witch hunting. I just finished and I was going to head home when you showed up."

Seems to match I saw, not that I saw much. "How did you get your magic?" I can probably guess but there's no such thing as being to careful.

"The usual way. Kyubey showed up on my doorstep, I made my wish and he made me a magical girl."

Thought so. "And what was your wish?"

"You know, that's rather personal. It's rather rude to just ask a girl that."

I don't care.

"I'll tell you because it's not that embarrassing but if you try asking another Magical Girl that you probably won't like the result. You should probably try and learn some tact."

What's tact?

"Anyway, I wished to know my purpose."

What a waste. You could have wished for something useful. "How long have you been a Magical Girl?"

"Oh, just for a few days."

Inexperienced. Could I take her? Her weapons are balls. I can dodge them if they're not too fast. Do they just float into people? I need more information. "What are your powers?"

"I sorry but I won't answer that. A woman needs to have at least some secrets."

Damn it, that wasn't the deal! You were going to answer my questions! I answered yours. Sort of. Damn. Don't like it but I have to deal with it. No point in getting angry. Just ask the next question. "What other Magical Girls are there in this city?"

"There are two other Magical Girls in Mitakihara, Mami Tomoe and Homura Akemi, as well as one in Kazamino across the river called Kyoko Sakura. However, I ask that you avoid them and don't interact with them under any circumstances."

Too late.

"As I said, my plan is to prevent anyone from interfering with the scenario unfolding in this city and I'd rather not have to fight you. You're from out of the city, correct?"

"Yes."

"I can guarantee that none of the three girls I mentioned will be leaving the city for the next month-"

What's a month?

"-So you don't have to worry about them hurting your sister during that time. After that you can investigate them if you wish. Just please stay away from them for now."

"Fine." Doesn't matter what you say, you can't tell me what to do. And how exactly can you make that guarantee? Suspicious. Moving on for now. "I'm new at this. Is there anything I should be careful about?"

"Hm, well I suppose I can give you some advice, even though I'm rather new myself. First, you should always keep you Soul Gem clean. Having too much Grief in it can begin to affect you negatively. The fuller it get's with Grief the worse it gets. Second, never underestimate Witches. Even if they seem weak they may be stronger then they appear or have some trick up their sleeve. Third, Magical Girls are usually more dangerous then Witches. Never let your guard down around them. I hope that helps."

Keep the Soul Gem I don't have clean and don't trust anyone, which I was doing anyway. Yeah, real helpful. Still, she hasn't been unhelpful. Maybe she can help me? Just need to make sure she understands. "You won't hurt my sister." It's not a question.

"No."

"Good." Mami has been working out so far. I suppose another ally would make things easier. But she still seems a little suspicions. Maybe I can should ask more questions?

[] Ask Oriko is ally with you.
[] Don't ask Oriko to ally with you.

[] More questions? (Write in)

---

Spoiler: Vote in Abeyance

[x] Will you be my ally?
[x] How can I contact you?

Right, felt you should be allowed to make a choice here. I'm almost certain you'll say yes but seeing as how some new information popped up I thought you'd appreciate a chance to change plans if you wanted to. Also, you can ask more questions.

What did you think of how I styled this update? Did just the questions and Tatsuya's thoughts work? Yes? No?

Also, did I keep Oriko in character? This version is more in line with Symmetry Diamond rather than Oriko Magica just so you know.

EDIT: I've changed it so that you haven't asked Oriko to ally with you yet, just so that it flows better.

 

[RexHeller]

You stop and think for a moment. Were you really about ask someone you've barely known for five minutes for help? Were you really going to trust someone you just met? This world must be getting to you; you're letting your guard down too much. You're not even sure why you trusted Mami. Sure, she's working out so far but it could go wrong so fast even with how nice she's been so far.

And this Oriko is even more suspicious. She hasn't told you much of anything. The only thing of use was that there are two more Magical Girls around but not only do you have no idea where to find them or what they look like but she also told you to stay away from them. And then there's this scenario she's talking about. You doubt that's going to end well.

But maybe the fault lies with you and not asking the right questions? After all, you're not exactly used to talking to people. She answered all your questions except what powers she has and you suppose that might just be her being cautious. Maybe she wants to help you? Maybe she wants you help and thinks answering your questions will get you help her? Gah, why do people have to be so confusing? You think yourself. Still if you want to learn about them, and you'll have to if you want to survive, there's only one way to learn more.

Might as well start with the most pressing issue. "So what's the "scenario" you keep talking about?"

Oriko giggles slightly. "Oh, sorry." She smiles at you apologetically. At least you think it's apologetic. "I suppose it sounds a little sinister when I call it that. It's just what I call the events that are going to happen over the next month. If no one interferes with those three girls I mentioned earlier then by the end of the month everything should be better for everyone."

A month. Why does that sound so familiar? Wait, didn't Ryubey say you had a month until the first time the universe resets? That couldn't be what Oriko is a talking about, is it? The problem is that you don't know why the reset happens or what happens after it. If Oriko knows something… You really wish you knew how long a month was. "What happens at the end of the month?"

Oriko makes that look again, the one that you think means she sorry. "I can't tell you that. If I did you'd think I was crazy. I know that isn't the best answer but you'll just have to trust me when I say it will make everything better."
Right, trust. You don't think that's going to happen. "I'm done."

"You don't have any more questions?" Oriko asks and you nod. "Well, Mister Tatsuya, I was hoping you'd like to be allies. If you help me keep outside Magical Girls from attacking Mitakihara I'll help you find the girl you want." You're instinct is to say no immediately but Oriko keeps talking. "I can see that you're not the type to trust others easily. How about you take a day to think it over. We can meet tomorrow and talk some more."

You stay silent for a minute but eventually you give your answer. "Fine."

Oriko smiles, genuinely happy. "Excellent. There's a park a few blocks that way." She points over you shoulder. "We can meet there at 5 o'clock. Does that sound good?" You nod. You're not sure what a park is but if you have a general area you should be able to sense her. More problematic is that you don't know when 5 o'clock is.

"Well, if our business is concluded then I bid you adieu. Have a good night Mister Tatsuya." Oriko bows slightly towards you. Then she turns and jumps from the building, roof hopping away in the opposite direction of Mami's home. You stay in the building long enough that she's completely out of your range before you head back yourself. As you run home you think about what you're going to do when you get there.
[] Tell Mami about something you've learned?
-[] What? Write it.
[] Ask Mami questions.
-[] What? Write in.
[] Something else? Write in.

---

Blah.

 

[akrasiel23]

So, with authorization from Rex, here is another snippet with our time traveler meeting up with our beloved Sabrina.
Props to Godwinson for Perditur. Hope we can see more of it.

Also, thanks for Rex's tips, hope everyone enjoys.
_____

To say Tatsuya was able to percieve things differently from what he used to would be an understatement of his newfound abilities. Beyond his now heightened senses or his enhanced strength and stamina, he also gained the ability to sense the type of magic that a magical girl radiated.

A golden sensation had lead him to find and eventually meet up with Mami, in turn meeting with his sister and her friend Sayaka; it was a cold sensation he had felt that allowed him to find another magical girl who called herself Oriko who gave him insight of what may happen at the end of the month and a supposed scenario that may come to pass if nothing was touched.

And because of this, he was immediately on guard when he felt this new presence, not far from him and coincidentially heading to the same direction he was going; if there was a word that could describe this new feeling it would be…odd.

It was warm and radiant as he could tell, but there was also a strange jumble inside of that warmth that weirded him out. Still, what should he do once he reaches this new magical girl? Fight her? Talk to her? It would be easier if he could tell if it was an enemy or-.

"Hello!"

All thoughts went to a halt once he heard the voice of the owner of this weird aura. He turned around to face the newcomer, fists clenched as he took a good look at the girl in front of her.

The Puella's short white hair, akin to Sayaka's own was amongst her most notable features, alongside her icy blue eyes and her white tone of skin, both not common for the people from here, her blue coat and grey and black garments confirmed she was indeed a magical girl.

"…hello." The word was barely a whisper, just a phrase seemingly out of obligation rather than from genuine care.

"My name is Sabrina." She was smiling, giving him a cheerful while raising her arm with an open hand, something he had learned that was a sign of trust.

He looked at her with narrowed eyes and descended them towards the outstretched palm, he did it twice before he walked towards where she was, some five meters from where he stood and gave his hand with…caution.

"Tatsuya, just Tatsuya." He tried to sound as neutral as he could while examining the reactions the girl could make.

The white haired girl didn't dissapoint as he saw her eyes bulge at the name he gave. "Wait…you can't be…are you Takkun?"

'How does she knows?' Why did she knew? Nobody should know about that nickname save for her parents and her sister, or perhaps. 'Maybe she was sent by the Devil.'

Jumping two steps behind, he took a battle stance and stood with his look focused on any small move the girl could make.

"No wait!" She quickly raises both hands in the air and tried to reason with him "I don't want to fight!"

Tatsuya merely scowled in silence and stood fixed on his feet.

"Are you Takkun?"

Sabrina began to close the distance step by step, trying to sound as unthreatening as she could.

"…I don't remember!" Technically, it was not a lie, afterall, there were holes in his memories that made it hard to remember his last name at times.

He guessed he had said something important as the girl stopped in her tracks, her expression turning from shock to worry, and then to thoughtfulness.

"Oh dear, so you are amnesiac?" She raised a hand to her chin while the other supported her arm, why was she doing this? He had no idea. "Well that explains his more aggresive behaviour and -"

…He couldn't keep his stance as he saw her beginning to muse to herself aloud things and concepts that he didn't understood.

'Who the hell she is talking to?'

Tatsuya stared with apprehension as the girl began to walk in circles as she spoke whatever things she was thinking before turning to look at him, this time with a determinated expression.

"…so?"

"Let me try something."

'Wait, what is she doing?' He raised his guard again as he saw her raising her palms, open in his direction.

"Ok, this will only hurt for a moment."

"No! Don't-"

What followed was not a magic blast but a brief flash of white that dazed him for a short moment before he felt something within, whatever the girl in blue had done had made everything become clear to him, suddenly, he could remember everything, his broken memories were whole once more, he could finally remember.

The years spent in the desert, the faces of the few humans he had managed to met, the colour of the ground he had grown accustomed to sleep on.

"Yes! It worked!" The joyful voice of the girl went through deaf ears as he continued to recall those years he had spent before he was cast out.

All of those times he had spent with his family; the laughter he had shared with his father, his mother, his sister…her friends…he remembered…

"Homura…Akemi." The girl stopped cheering as soon as she heard that name being said with so much hostility.

He gritted his teeth as he finally recalled with pristine clarity the name and face of the betrayer who turned her back on the world.

"Oh no." The girl's expression quickly turned to worry at the change of mood from the boy. "That was not how it should work."

The one who left all of mankind to die for her obsession.

"Ok Takkun, calm down." A hint of worry could be heard on her voice "Listen to me, calm down."

The one who allowed the universe to its ruin and destruction.

"I'll kill her!"

"Stop!"

The one who left him to rot and die.

"I'LL KILL HER! I'LL KILL HER-!"

"NO!"

Another flash of light filled his eyes, as blinding and painful as the last. He blinked repeatedly as he regained his sense of sight. Eyes narrowed at the girl with white hair, still holding her right palm open at him.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS-?!"

Again, a surge of light entered his eyes. Pain registering as Sabrina stood fixed to where she was.

"WHAT ARE YOU-?!"

*Flash*

"THE HELL ARE YOU-?!"

*Flash*

"STOP THAT!"

*Flash*

"STOP WITH THAT-!"

*Flash*

"ENOUGH!"

*Flash*

"DAMN-!"

*Flash*

"STOP!"

*Flash*

"PLEASE, JUST STOP!"

Finally, after what seemed to be endless torture, the girl relented and he saw no more light shining from her palms.

He didn't noticed it before, but he found himself panting lightly and on his knees, face staring at the cold concrete of the streets' floor. It all seemed secondary to the pain he was feeling in his head, a pounding sensation that seemed not to end.

"Here, let me help." The girl of the silver gem offered the boy her hand so that he could rise on his feet again. Tatsuya took the hand in half conciousness.

'Wait, what happened to me?' He felt strange, no, that was not the word, this wasn't something he had never felt, he recalled feeling this a long time ago.

'I'm…calm?'

"By the look on your face, I can say it worked."

"What did you did?"

"I purified your mind."

"What?"

"Yes! At first I got rid of the clog that was in your memories then I finally cleansed all that trauma you had on your head."

She made gestures as she explained him of her deeds.

"Isn't it cool?"

Cool or not, whatever that meant, it still hurt a lot.

"Did you had to use your magic so much?"

"Well, I percieved a lot of damage so I had to take care of that.…And a couple of extra more just to make sure I hadn't messed up."

Takkun was beginning to doubt if the girl in front of him was completely sane.
"Alright...so, thanks, I guess."

"You are Takkun, aren't you?" Her expression reflectes once more a tint of worry. "That Takkun."

"…" What to answer? What could he answer? There really was no more of the pain he could feel when he remembered his life but could he really trust her? Could this be a ruse, but then why give him back his memories if not to hinder him?

"…is that important?"

"Yes, you see, I'm, or was, wait, will be? Argh this is confusing."

'Look who is talking.' He spoke to the pondering girl before she locked herself in thought "You are?"

"Oh right, the point is I was a friend of your sister and her friends."

"I don't remember you-" Tatsuya was sure he would recognise someone as quirky as her if he did.

"-In another timeline."

"…" A brief silence surrounded both before Tatsuya sighed 'Why does thing just seem to only get wierder?'

"…ok, you were a friend of hers." Maybe he should just roll with this "Do you know what is going to happen?"

"Yeah! But we need to meet with Mami before anything can be done, come!"

"What? Eh-wait!"

The other girl took his hand and jumped towards the rooftop, action he began to follow regardless of his desire to do so.

All the way, Sabrina spoke to him in a fast but understandable tone.

"Once we meet up with her, we can start making plans to meet up with Oriko and Kyouko before anything happens-"

"Hey!"

"-then maybe I can get Kyousuke's hand fixed before Sayaka thinks of making a wish-"

"Oy!"

"-then we have to be ready for Homura, she is a tough nut to crack but I'm sure she will cooperate with us in time-"

"Sabrina!"

"-And we have to pay a visit to Warehouse-kun to figure out what we can do with-"

"Hey!"

"…oh sorry, I tend to get sidetracked. Mami's first."

'Oh, Sabrina.'

Whether he liked or not, his life was about to become stranger than he ever thought.

___

Well, this turned out to be longer than I had originally expected, but still it was fun to write. It also gave me an idea for another possible omake: Madoka Onee-chan knows best, or why having a Seraphim of a sister is not so cut and dry.

Edit: I'm fixing some grammar mistakes, those really can kill the flow.