You look down at yourself. Your wounds are gone (again), and you've grown taller (again), with even more black and white branches sticking out of you than before, so you assume it did. That's a relief — if you hadn't pretty much keeled backwards upon falling out of the air and accidentally let Tome's cover take part of the explosion, you're pretty sure you'd be dead right now. Not to mention that while you personally think conjuring an illusion of the barrier fading away to make it look like you died was clever, you doubt that kind of gambit would have worked on the girl a second time.
That being said… where's Sayaka?
Huh, so Ashy survived. I assumed the attack on Homura was a Witchstincts reaction, given that if Ashy, who is made out of paper-like material, survived then Sayaka should have too.
I don't think Sayaka would be calm enough to go along with Ashys ambush idea, after Homura tried to kill her.
Good question. You couldn't see it on your own, but your rotating galaxy lines appear to have reshaped themselves into a rough approximation of an actual head, making you look a lot more humanoid than you did before. The branches sprouting from your lower half are also longer than you realized, making that part of you look kind of like one of the trees from Saar's barrier, and… it might just be your imagination, but you think Novella also looks a bit larger, oddly enough?
Subsuming other magical girls only let Ashy grow a bit. Homura, on the other hand, seemed to change her much more and also changed Novella. Maybe Ashy doesn't subsume their magical power/potential but their history?
Would explain why there is such a difference between the reaction to most magical girls/Witches and Homura.
You stare uncomprehendingly for several moments, your mind desperately grasping for an explanation. Did- did Homura somehow teleport you? Teleport you all the way back here?! The amount of magic that would take is- no, if it was her wish magic then you suppose it might not take her much at all, and based on how much power you felt from her she could probably have done it anyways. Still, instantly sending a witch, barrier and all, to an entirely different city, that's absurd; you don't understand why she wouldn't have simply…
Confirmation that Wish magic is cheaper for the magical girl that made the Wish than other kinds of magic. That makes Ashy even more overpowered, given that she can subsume magical girls to get cheap Wish magic.
Well, she has to get along with the subsumed magical girl to use the Wish magic, but that's necessary anyway, with how they are stuck with each other.
"Heh, just right out in the open?" Harpoon Girl says to herself, twirling the weapon in her hand as she looks up at you. "Pathetic. Make this easier for me why don't ya."
And Hirako is back. I wonder how different this version is to the first Subsumption story version.
"And I made this witch." Hirako finishes as her weapon makes a full loop around and soars back towards her, allowing her to snatch it back out of the air. "She's mine. Now get out of here, or the next one's going through your head."
Could we get a partial entry in Novella from subsuming her weapon?
Anyway, note to self; teach Sayaka how to make shields. Dodging is good but shields slow down projectiles and give more time to dodge even if they break. It's also not like Sayaka has to worry about the costs of her magic.
With picture perfect timing, she slaps the pair of projectiles from the air with one wide swing, sending them spinning away to explode on nothing.
Another thing to train; how to make sword projectiles that explode on touch.
"You think something like THAT will hide you from ME?" she cackles. "Like I said, pathetic. Now, let's see what else you're hiding."
Her eyes flash a brilliant green for a scant moment. Through Sayaka, you see her mouth begin to quirk into another cruel grin… and then, just as quickly, it drops away.
"Wait, what the hell?! You're not- how the fu-"
If Hirako is anything like her last story version, then this was some kind of "importance" based perception magic. Probably tipped her off about the connection between Sayaka and Ashy.
The "You're not" was probably about Sayaka not being a magical girl.
Huh. So she actually left.
...you almost feel cheated.
She's going to come back. If she has an idea about Sayaka's nature, probably with reinforcement.
...
If she can find people willing to work with her.
This is going to end with Hirako attacking with two or three other magical girls, while Ashy is introducing Tira to Witch!Mami, with Sayaka holding Charlotte in the background.
<I don't HAVE one yet, Sayaka!> you shoot back. <First let me get the barrier into the sky before some other magical girl comes along looking for a fight, and THEN I'll work on figuring out what to do now, alright?!>
I guess we are going to avoid Homura and instead explore some of the other cities. Homura is probably going to loop a few times more, trying to learn more about Ashy or just to calm down.
If she can feel parts of her missing, she's probably going to try to do something about it while keeping Madoka safe. That would push the final time-loop back a bit.
…ick, that divider still has your blood on it. Evidently no one besides Hirako has been by to notice that yet. Why did she even come back here? It's not like the outside of the city is exactly prime hunting grounds; the witch you originally found here was a fluke. Did she just want to remind herself of her kill? Did she think that, as a witch, you'd eventually return to the scene of your death for some reason? You certainly weren't planning on it if so.
Given magical girl fights, that must be a lot of blood. I wonder how long it's going to take Ashy to catch on about the time-traveling.
The blood being there after something like two days is a hint, but it's probably going to take Sayaka calling home or Hitomi until she understands.
[-] Bring Tira back out of Novella. No matter what you're doing next, you might as well get her settled in now so you're not trying to catch her up even further later.
We probably should give Tira more time to recover, she wasn't in the best condition going into Novella. Ashy could use some time to relax too.
[-] Go inspect the rest of your barrier. You just lost a lot of familiars, and you should probably at least check that nothing is still on fire.
Probably what we should do next. I'm curious if the other Witches are still around, and if we can find Shemesh.
[-] Head towards where Mami's labyrinth formed. You're not looking forward to dealing with that issue, but you'll have to do it eventually…
That should probably wait until we have Tira around.
-A_d Ag_i_: ________________________________________________
This is actually enough to guess "And Again"; another hint about the time traveling.
[X] Go inspect the rest of your barrier. You just lost a
lot of familiars, and you should probably at least check that nothing is still on fire.
